Netflix's The Whisper Man introduced a last-minute twist involving Michael Keaton's Frank Carter and his son, Owen Teague's Frank Carter. The latest serial killer thriller, produced by Avengers: Doomsday directors the Russo Brothers, was released on Netflix on August 28 and follows the story of a young boy named Jake Kennedy who was abducted by the titular serial killer, prompting his father, Tom (Adam Scott), to enlist his estranged father and former detective, Pete (Robert De Niro), to find the missing kid.
They worked together with Detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan) to connect the dots, leading them to confront the original killer, Frank Carter, who is serving a life sentence for his past crimes.
Why The Whisper Man Wanted To Kill His Son In Netflix Movie
Netflix's The Whisper Man introduced Michael Keaton's Frank Carter, a serial killer whose modus operandi is to murder young, vulnerable boys after luring them from their homes in a whispery voice. After killing five boys, Pete was able to stop him and send him to jail.
20 years later, a timely visit to Frank Carter's cell made Pete realize that the modern-day Whisper Man who took his grandson, Jake, was Frank's own son, Frank Jr. Pete made the realization after Frank pointed out that his son writes true crime novels so that he can be like his own father. Staging his crimes like his father's was Frank Jr.'s way of impressing his own father and winning his approval.
Following a bloody confrontation that claimed Pete's life, Frank Carter Jr.'s evil schemes were eventually thwarted. The Whisper Man's last-minute twist involved Frank entering his son's prison cell to strangle him to death, cementing how ruthless he truly is. However, there is a sinister reason as to why Frank did what he did to his son: Frank viewed his son as the embodiment of his own weakness that allowed him to be abused.
The Whisper Man established that Frank targeted young boys because he was abused by his own father as a child. As it turned out, Francis Jr. was never a side character in Frank's twisted psyche; he was the original intended target. The five boys whom Frank Carter killed before being sent to jail were more of an appetizer for him, and his son was the main course (a more twisted version than what Hayden did to his presumed son in I Will Find You).
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, The Whisper Man director James Ashcroft pulled back the curtain on why Frank killed his son in the film, noting that Keaton's Frank is "somebody who cannot live with that level of vulnerability," so he decided to eliminate the source once and for all:
"I think that the more influential aspect about the character is that in his son, he sees his own weakness. He sees the last time in his life that he was vulnerable as a child who was being abused and suffered trauma himself, which I think is a very real thing for someone to experience. But in Carter’s case, he’s somebody who cannot live with that level of vulnerability. And so he’s wanted to extinguish that for his whole life."
While good did triumph in the end, Ashcroft added that there is no pure celebration at the end of The Whisper Man due to what Carter did to his son:
"It’s not a downer ending in any way. Good does triumph, but we can’t celebrate that when Carter finally gets his hands on his son. And we should feel conflicted about that, because these are all broken men."
In a separate interview with Time Magazine, Ashcroft acknowledged the fact that Francis Jr. is the final victim of the original Whisper Man, citing that it's okay for viewers to feel conflicted about it because it's not really a "fist bump moment of good guys vanquished by bad guys" kind of ending:
"Francis Jr. is the final victim of the original 'Whisper Man. It’s not a fist bump moment of good guys vanquished by bad guys. That happens to some extent, but it's also a tragic story. I love the idea of people walking away from a film in a gray space rather than the black and white one…That's what makes you have a conversation after a film. That's when a film exists long after the credits roll.”
Ashcroft also told TUDUM that Frank's pursuit of approval from his father by mimicking what he did as the Whisper Man served as "the beginning of the end for him:"
"I think Francis somehow knows that by trying to get this approval and acknowledgment and connection with his father, that pursuing that and committing to that is the beginning of the end for him."
Part of Frank's modus operandi includes covering his victims' faces with a shirt. Following the revelation that he wants his own son dead, this move makes sense because it allows him to pretend that he is killing Francis Jr. Frank never did it when Francis was a child because it was too close to home, and it would have accelerated his arrest.
Why Francis' Final Act of Killing His Son Sets Him Free In His Own Twisted Way
The Whisper Man revealed that Frank only wanted Pete as his visitor while serving his life sentence. In a way, this is not a mockery of what Pete did to him. Frank knew that Pete was the only one who understood him and the only person capable of bringing his original target (his son) to him.
Although it cost Pete his life, he was able to deliver Frank Jr. to his father, and this kick-started Frank's desire again to finish what he started. In his mind, it finally sets him free after years of longing because killing his son is the only one that counts (the other five boys were simply stand-ins).
As long as Francis Jr. was alive, Frank knew that a sliver of weakness was still alive inside him. His demands to see his family were not framed as a reunion for him; it was unfinished work that needed to be done to set him free from his madness.
Frank's final words to his son, saying, "skin to skin, as they said in the hospital, to bond you to me," were more than a death cry. It served as a cue to end his lifelong performance, marking the true end of the workaround. The original line's meaning centered around bonding with an infant one intends to keep, but Frank changed that by keeping his son close enough to deliver the final blow.
Frank embraced his "freedom" with his own twisted sense of completion. If anything, after killing his son, one would argue that he is ready to face death, a fate that has long evaded him.
