Aahana Swrup
As the title promises, ‘I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me,’ a Spanish Netflix thriller film, builds a bizarre adventure that revolves around a young student’s run-in with a deadly interconnected criminal web. Juan Pablo Villalobos plans on moving to Barcelona with his girlfriend, Valentina, for his doctorate thesis. However, a wrench is thrown in his plans when a mysterious criminal gang, headed by the elusive Lawyer, co-opts Juan’s move, compelling him to do their very illegal bidding.
Delving into Juan’s forced involvement with The Lawyer and his intimidating associates, the film depicts the crazed descent of the young man’s life. Although steeped in crime, Juan’s life remains focused on his minimal knowledge and involvement with bigger operations. Thus, the narrative, laced with dry, satirical humor, remains focused on Juan’s life, urging the viewers to wonder where this deadly entanglement will take the young man. SPOILERS AHEAD!
I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me Plot Synopsis
For all his life, Juan has known his cousin, Lorenzo, to be a troublemaker who comes up with unstable schemes and tries to rope the former into them. Therefore, Juan is not thrilled when he gets a call from the other man a few days before his departure to Barcelona, where he plans to pursue his academic career. Nevertheless, Lorenzo insists on meeting with the other man and hastily tells him about a “project.” The next day, Juan finds himself accosted by an armed stranger who drives him to a second location, where Juan witnesses Lorenzo, gagged and tied to a chair, get shot.
Afterward, the mystery men get Juan in contact with their boss, dubbed “The Lawyer,” who threatens to hurt Juan’s girlfriend and family until the man does what is asked of him. At first, Juan, scared for his life, tries to keep Vale safe by brutally breaking up with her. However, The Lawyer insists they need Vale for the plan and forces Juan to get back together with the woman and move to an upscale neighborhood in Barcelona.
Similarly, once Juan starts his lectures at Pompeu University, The Lawyer makes him swap out his tutor to Professor Ripoll, who teaches Gender Studies. The latter wants Juan to make contact with Laia Carbonell, a student intern in the class, and sleep with her. Although approaching the other woman proves more difficult than imagined, Juan manages to make a connection with her only to find out she’s a lesbian. Turns out, The Lawyer knew it all along, hence why he insisted on Vale accompanying Juan.
As a result, Juan takes Vale to Laia’s house party, which the three of them leave together. Later, Vale, who’s been in the dark about her boyfriend’s eccentric behavior, finally breaks up with him and leaves their joint apartment. Yet, she refuses to leave Barcelona, lamenting Juan’s awful behavior. Meanwhile, Juan continues chronicling the wild turn his life has taken in an attempt to turn the story into a novel.
The Lawyer remains unpleased by Juan’s break up with Vale, believing a sexual connection with Laia was necessary for their plan’s commencement. Nonetheless, he employs a different route and uses Juan to set up a meeting between himself and Laia’s father, Ori Carbonell, the most powerful politician in Barcelona. Pretending to be Juan’s Godfather, who studied under Ori’s guidance, The Lawyer makes it into the latter’s house for a covert meeting that Juan isn’t privy to.
In another covert assembly, The Lawyer hands the young man a gun and asks him to kill a Detective who has gotten too close to their dealings. Unbeknownst to Juan, the Detective is actually Laia’s relative. Nevertheless, the man kills the detective after his family is threatened again. Despite Juan’s proven commitment, The Lawyer realizes Vale poses a risk to their operation after she continues to hold a grudge against Juan, leading to occasional trouble.
Furthermore, even though Vale decides to give up on Barcelona and return to Mexico, she happens to stumble upon Juan’s computer right when he receives a pre-dated email from Lorenzo. Juan’s cousin recorded the video to give him instructions in the event he dies since Lorenzo believed that if Juan had to deal with The Lawyer alone, it would put the former’s life in jeopardy.
I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me Ending: Is Juan Dead?
Juan knows his life is ruined even before he pulls the trigger as he trains it over the nameless Carbonell detective’s head. Ever since his move to Barcelona, The Lawyer and his men have taken over his life, compelling him to do whatever they please. Worse yet, they seem to have bought off the authorities, from local police to higher-ups. Thus, Juan is truly left alone with no escape. In such a situation, the best that the man can do is try and keep his loved ones out of the loop to ensure he doesn’t drag them down with him like Lorenzo did.
Yet, Valentina ends up becoming collateral damage anyway. Since Juan had dragged Vale along to a new city only to abandon and mistreat her, she started hating him. Therefore, influenced by the pain and confusion of their crashing and burning relationship, Vale tries to intimidate Juan by sending one of her new friends, Jimi, after the other man in the aftermath. Although the interaction is miniscule, Juan reports it to the police, putting Jimi in trouble and possibly incriminating Vale as well.
While the woman manages to escape from the bind, the situation confirms Vale’s volatility to The Lawyer. As such, he decides to take her off the game board. For the same reason, Juan realizes he must take bold moves to ensure his former girlfriend’s safety. Fortunately, Lorenzo’s pre-recorded message arrives in the nick of time, informing Juan about a mutiny brewing inside The Lawyer’s inner circle.
While Lorenzo wants Juan to become a part of the uprising and escape from under The Lawyer’s thumb, Juan makes up a different plan. Upon confronting The Lawyer again, Juan tries to strike a deal with him by telling him that Chucky, his right-hand man, is planning to overthrow his rule. In return, Juan wants them to call off the hit on Vale and allow her to leave the city without any trouble.
However, Lorenzo’s intel turns out to be faulty. Chucky was never disloyal to The Lawyer, and he proves the same by emerging from the shadows at The Lawyer’s command. Armed with a gun, Chucky, also known as Vincente, shoots Juan, killing him in an instant. The Lawyer had already gotten what he wanted from Juan, who helped him contact Ori. Consequently, now that Juan was proving to be more trouble than he was worth, the crime head decides to wrap up the loose end by ending Juan’s life.
What Happens to Valentina?
Since Juan dies after a failed attempt to save Valentina’s life, her life continues to be in danger. Ever since her move to Barcelona, Vale has taken one hit after the other. However, it isn’t until she is finally prepared to leave the city behind that she discovers the reason behind the same. Even though Vale wasn’t directly involved with The Lawyer, her association with Juan put an everlasting target on her back.
After Vale decides to return home, she drops by Juan’s house one last time. However, after failing to find him a home, the woman gets roped in to babysit Ale, Juan’s roommate’s daughter. During this time, the kid tries to use Juan’s laptop, resulting in Vale discovering Lorenzo’s email. After learning there was something sinister behind Juan’s cousin’s death, Vale realizes more is at play than she realizes.
Vale’s doubts are enforced when she contacts Juan, who frantically tells her to stay inside the house to remain safe. However, hours passed without any further communication with Juan. Since Vale is oblivious to her ex’s death, she stays over at his apartment to wait for his return. Eventually, she looks through his laptop and finds the novel he has been working on. Upon reading through the pages, Vale realizes Juan has written down the gritty details of several illegal instances.
As a result, Valentina approaches a police officer, Laia, to report Juan’s disappearance and share her belief in an underground criminal gang’s involvement. Although the officer is reluctant to believe her, she agrees to read the manuscript since its’ legibility could potentially unveil a crime web of great magnitude. Thus, Vale leaves a copy of the novel with Laia before leaving with Ale, whom she is babysitting again.
Shortly after, Laia realizes the novel holds many truths after a few minutes of skimming the material. As such, she follows after Vale, only to watch her disappear behind a moving truck, leaving only one mysterious man behind. Even though Laia doesn’t know it, the man works for The Lawyer. Therefore, in the end, The Lawyer gets to Valentina as well. While the exact details of Vale’s predicament are unknown, she and Ale— caught as collateral damage— continue to remain missing after years and are likely dead.
What Happens To Juan’s Novel?
Throughout the film, Juan dedicatedly works on his novel. The same is true because he partly feels immensely out of control in his own life and finds an outlet in laying everything out in the open in his document. In that regard, Juan writes his novel for an audience of one, his own conscience. Still, another part of Juan knows his current situation sounds like a crime fiction novel. Thus, he wants to keep a record of the same.
Nevertheless, Juan’s recount of the events renders him incriminated to several crimes that could tarnish his reputation and life. Yet, since the man doesn’t think anyone will ever read it, he forgoes all concerns of the same. As a result, Vale ends up editing his manuscript to change the events and save the man from admitting to outright crimes. The woman’s quick thinking comes in handy since Laia, the police officer, ends up taking the entire ordeal seriously after watching Vale disappear in front of her eyes.
Consequently, Laia tries to bring attention to Juan’s manuscript and shine a light on The Lawyer and his illegal web. Nonetheless, the man uses his multiple connections with law enforcement to get Laia fired, silencing her desperate attempts to arrest him. In the end, the officer tries to approach Juan’s mother, who stays in Barcelona looking for her son, who has been dubbed missing, alongside Vale and Ale.
Although Laia puts everything out in the open for Juan’s mother, the latter refuses to believe her. Ultimately, Juan’s adventures had been so outlandish that his foretelling that no one will believe him comes true. Therefore, even Laia gives up on the matter, chucking the manuscript into the garbage. Eventually, the garbage truck picks it up, and the novel lands on some stranger’s hands. Alas, a gust of wind blows it away, condemning it to oblivion.
Read More: I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me: Is It Based on a True Story or a Book?
