Netflix’s ‘Animals’ Movie Ending Explained: Who Is the Kidnapper in the New Ben Affleck Movie?

The new Ben Affleck movie on Netflix, Animals—which began streaming today—will have subscribers on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

Directed by Affleck himself, who also co-wrote the script with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, Animals stars Affleck as a wealthy lawyer running an independently financed campaign to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. But just because he’s not affiliated with a political party doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own problems. When a bad actor kidnaps his son, his true nature shows its face.

The all-star Animals movie cast also includes Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz with Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Steven Yeun. (Originally, Affleck had wanted his buddy Matt Damon and his ex-wife Jennifer Garner to star in the film, but it didn’t work out.)

This is a high-stakes and fast-paced thriller, so if you’re not paying attention while you watch, you might miss some key details and find yourself confused. Don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of the Animals move ending explained, including who is the kidnapper in the Animals movie.

Animals movie plot summary:

Mark Kimball (Ben Affleck) is a wealthy lawyer from Los Angeles who has poured all of his personal savings into a mayoral campaign, running as an independent for the mayor of Los Angeles. As a lawyer, Mark filed a lawsuit against companies for polluting drinking water, which apparently angered some small business owners, who were financially ruined after the lawsuit. While we don’t see his face, we can assume one of those angered small business owners is a man named James Bureaux. We see Bureaux’s desk, littered with past due bills and a filing for divorce, where he is apparently obsessively researching Mark Kimball.

Meanwhile, Mark’s wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington) has an awkward conversation with their housekeeper, Cecilia (Adriana Paz). Cecilia wants Mark and Abigail to hire her boyfriend, Ramon (Luis Gerardo Méndez). Unfortunately, Abigail explains, they can’t do that, because Ramon is undocumented, and Mark needs to strictly follow the laws during this run for mayor.

Unfortunately for Mark, the campaign is not going well. He’s behind in the polls. But his campaign manager, Sam (Steven Yeun), thinks he can still win, if he can just win over the Latino vote. He arranges for him to attend and speak at an important Latino event that he thinks can turn the tide. Mark sure hopes this works, because he’s literally spent all of his money and is now in the process of liquidating his house. And no, his wife doesn’t know about that. But Mark doesn’t know that his wife his cheating on him with a UCLA professor (Ray Fisher), so it’s kind of even.

Mark and Abigail’s grade-school son, Denny, has recently befriend a boy named Hector, the son of Ramon, aka Cecilia’s undocumented boyfriend. Mark and Abigail don’t love this, but they reluctantly let Cecilia take Denny and Hector trick-or-treating, in their matching, terrifying costumes (which are not, as far as this reporter can tell, based on a real characters, but certainly evoke a feeling of video games like FNaF).

Later that night, Mark gets a call from someone using a voice distortion claiming to have kidnapped his son. The caller sends over a picture of his son in his Halloween costume, so it seems pretty real. The caller warns Mark not to call the police and not to leave his house—the caller is watching. The kidnapper demands $7 million, in cash, that night.

At this point, Mark is forced to admit to his wife that they don’t have that money because he spent it all on the campaign. The only way to get that money would be to sell their house. Mark’s campaign manager, Sam—who was there when Mark got the call—offers to call a powerful, mysterious woman who can get them the $7 million ransom in cash ASAP. The catch? Mark will not only have to pay her back for the $7 million, he also will have to pay her an added $1.8 million fee for her troubles. Not seeing any other options, Mark and Abigail tell Sam to make the call.

The mysterious woman turns out to be Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson, looking very sleek and sexy). But soon after Dayle records Mark and Abigail agreeing to pay her full fee, Denny comes wandering into the house. He’s safe! He’s not kidnapped! It was all just a terrible prank! Everyone lets out a huge sigh of relief.

But hold on just a second, says Dayle. Mark still owes his fee, even if he doesn’t need to borrow the money. Before Mark can argue, Cecilia the housekeeper and her boyfriend Ramon burst into the house. Cecilia was attacked by an unknown assailant. Mark gets more pictures on his phone from the kidnapper, and he realizes what happened: The kidnapper accidentally took Hector, not Denny. Oops!

At first, Mark and Abby want to call the police. But Sam convinces them that the optics would be very bad for Mark if it came out that he was going to pay the ransom for his own son, but would risk the life of an unrelated Latino boy by calling the police. Don’t forget, Mark really needs that Latino vote. Plus, he already paid Dayle for the ransom money. Oh, and he also doesn’t want Hector to die, of course.

But Dayle proposes another, “kinetic” option: She can send some assassins with Mark when he delivers the ransom, and they can take out the kidnappers. That way, Mark won’t be on the hook to pay back Dayle the $7 million—she’ll just take the ransom back. At first, Mark is convinced by his wife Abby not to pursue this deadly option. But then Mark gets a peek at Abby’s phone, and find out about her affair.

In the tough conversation between Mark and Abby about their marriage that follows, Mark decides to be totally honest and tell his wife what he really wants. He wants to have sex with his wife and he doesn’t want her to cheat on him. He wants to win the election and become mayor of LA. He wants to run for president, and win that, too. And he wants the guys who tried to kidnap their son to be dead.

In the morning, Mark leaves the house with a promise that he is going to get Mark’s son back. On the drive over with Dayle to the drop-off site, Dayle reveals she has a recording of Mark asking her to kill the kidnappers.

Mark walks out with the meet-up spot with the bag of cash, while speaking to the kidnapper on speaker phone. The kidnapper brags about how Mark will never, ever know his true identity. The kidnapper has one of his guys deliver Hector by pushing him down a steep hill in a wagon. Luckily, Mark manages to catch him in time. Knowing what is about to happen, Mark keeps Hector down on the ground, and advises him not to look. Sure enough, Dayle’s assassin takes out the kidnappers and his goons… but misses one.

When Dayle shows up to collect the money, she’s shot by last masked kidnapper. The kidnapper descends on Mark and Hector, getting ready to kill them… but then the kidnapper is shot in the head by a mysterious sniper. Who made that shot? It’s Ramon, aka Hector’s dad!

Ramon saved the day, obviously. But he’s worried about going to prison given that he’s undocumented, and he just killed a man with an unregistered gun. Plus, what’s going to happen with the $7 million cash?

Animals movie ending explained:

We jump ahead to a press conference, intercut with post-election interviews, where Mark offers “transparency” to the public. He and Ramon clearly agreed on a story after Ramon shot the kidnapper: Mark would take credit for the killing and the gun. Ramon testifies that Mark saved his life and his son life. The story goes that Mark gave Ramon the ransom money, and that Ramon was the one to meet the kidnapper for the hand-off. Then Mark says that he was the one who followed Ramon, and shot the kidnapper with his grandfather’s unregistered gun.

Mark pleads guilty to a negligent discharge of a firearm and a misdemeanor possession of a rifle without a serial number. But all he has to do is some community service and a year of probation. Mark is the hero of the story, and the champion of an undocumented immigrant. He gets the Latino support he needs to win the election and become the mayor of Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Ramon agrees to leave the country and return to Mexico with his son and with Cecilia. He is not given any jail time. Flashbacks reveal that Ramon and Mark hid the bodies of Dayle and the dead kidnappers. Ramon got to take the money, and that he used it to start up a successful ranch in Mexico. Finally, we see that Mark gets to have sex with his wife, and that’s his exploring a run for president, even though he denies it to the press. In other words, Mark got every single thing that he wanted, and he is lying to the public through his teeth. A politician’s dream!

Who is the kidnapper in Netflix’s Animals movie?

In a flashback at the end of the movie, Mark pulls the mask off of the main kidnapper’s dead body, and sees… an old white guy with a beard! Wait… uh… who is that?

If you were paying close attention to the beginning of the film, then perhaps you’d be able to put together that this man is James Bureaux, aka the divorced man we saw researching Mark at the beginning of the movie. Presumably, James is one of those small business owners that Mark put out of business when he sued those companies over clean water regulations.

But it is confusing, because the movie kept hinting that the kidnapping was done with the help of an insider. I admit, I was suspicious of Steven Yeun the whole time! But I guess it was all just some random guy, and Steven Yeun is innocent. Well, alright then!