India's Merry Christmas hit Netflix stateside and has fans scratching their heads with its shocking ending.
The Indian blockbuster came to cinemas in its home country in January 2024 before coming to the streamer internationally.
This Hitchcockian drama blends romance, mystery, and murder as a chance meeting between a man and woman becomes much more devious.
Merry Christmas Plot Explained
Merry Christmas features plenty of twists and turns leading up to its jaw-dropping ending. Katrina Kaif's Maria welcomes Vijay Sethupathi's Albert into her life following serendipitously crossing paths to kick off the film.
Albert is an ex-convict having spent the last seven years in prison, admitting to the murder of his wife.
After meeting Maria, Albert is introduced to a major issue in the young woman's life: She is married to a man named Jerome who she claims is abusive toward her.
This all comes to a head when one night, after spending some time together, Albert and Maria return to her apartment to find Jerome dead.
Throughout the rest of the movie, the pair grapple with the death of her husband, with Albert suspicious of the circumstances of Jerome's supposed suicide.
These suspicions play out on screen with Albert discovering Maria has constructed a replica apartment identical to the one her dead husband was found in.
Albert sees this move as a bit of a head-scratcher. However, he discovers it was to provide Maria with an alibi as she takes her new friend up to her seemingly untouched apartment several times before eventually coming home to Jerome dead on the floor.
This gets the idea into Albert's head (as well as the head of the audience) that perhaps Jerome's death was not a suicide, setting up that something else may be afoot.
Breaking Down the Merry Christmas Movie Ending
In the final act of Merry Christmas, it is finally revealed who killed Maria's husband Jerome.
His death was, in fact, not a suicide, but a murder.
Maria breaks down in front of her new friend (and potential romantic partner) Albert, admitting it was her who was responsible for Jerome's death after Albert realizes that there was a second apartment.
Her idea was to give herself an alibi for the time of her husband's death while planting the wallet of her unassuming neighbor Ronnie (who has been taken into police custody) on the couch to make it seem as though he may have been the one behind the killing.
The pair then hatch a plan to clear her name and ensure they can ride off into the sunset as innocent.
The idea is to destroy the replica apartment, hide Ronnie's wallet in the building's 'Lost & Found' box, and disappear.
However, things go wrong when Ronnie, who is being questioned by the police, mentions Albert's name.
Albert is then brought into police custody for questioning, with the local authorities knowing Vijay Sethupathi's character from his time in Nashik jail following the murder of his wife.
In a conversation with the police, Ronnie mentions that his wallet also disappeared around the same time as Jerome's murder, positing a thief may have broken into the building, taken his wallet, and killed Maria's husband in the process.
This gives the officers the idea that if they find Ronnie's wallet, they may also find Jerome's killer.
Forced to show the police that he was the one with Ronnie's wallet all along (as he could not get to the 'Lost & Found' box in time to leave it), Albert closes the film by making a dramatic decision.
Knowing Maria was the one who killed Jerome, Albert professes his love to his new friend, exchanging a ring with her and surrendering to the authorities. In one fell swoop, Albert takes the blame for Jerome's death, letting the woman he loves get off scot-free and heading back to prison, where he left moments before the movie began.
Merry Christmas is now streaming on Netflix.
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