The Ending Of Murder Mystery 2 Explained
Contains spoilers for "Murder Mystery 2"
What happens when a couple of private detectives are given a last-minute invitation to their wealthy friend's wedding on a private island? "Murder Mystery 2" takes audiences back into the world of the Spitzes, a couple that always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time. Audrey (Jennifer Aniston) and Nick (Adam Sandler) first worked together to solve the murder of a billionaire on a private yacht. Now, they are back to figure out who is kidnapping their friend Vikram "The Maharajah" Govindan (Adeel Akhtar) the night before his wedding.
What follows is a journey through Paris as the married couple tries to understand who has Vik before it's too late. This includes being captured by a team working with Vik's kidnappers, crashing a van into a historic cafe, and even fighting the bad guy at the top of the Eiffel Tower. With red herrings, several different motives, and enough information to fill Nick's new vintage Nike shoes, he and Audrey have their work cut out for them.
Ready to solve a kidnapping? Pack your bags as we take you on a trip across the globe and share everything there is to know about the ending of "Murder Mystery 2." If you want to figure out who the kidnapper is on your own, click away now. Otherwise, get comfortable as we walk you through who the kidnapper is and what their motives are.
Who kidnapped Vik aka The Maharajah?
Just like in "Murder Mystery," there are two guilty individuals as the movie comes to a close. The first is Vikram's sister Saira (Kuhoo Verma). She is responsible for leading the elephant into the party with a fake Vik on top and for arranging for someone to kill her brother not once, but twice. Both were done with the intent to take over the family company.
It isn't surprising that Saira is upset she isn't the owner of the company. She is the one who put in the work and learned the business while her brother was off jet skiing. He is the first-born son, which labels him the automatic successor in many eyes. It's a reminder that in many cultures, birth order and sex are everything. It dictates who inherits what, even if someone else may be better suited to fill a role.
The second person is well-known detective Miller (Mark Strong). He helps Saira carry out the plan during the wedding and then appears the next morning to help solve the case. However, that's what makes him guilty: The more someone tries to help the investigation, the more they have something to hide. In these types of stories, the person you are looking for is almost always hiding in plain sight.
Nick and Audrey prove they are successful detectives
When audiences met Audrey and Nick in "Murder Mystery," they were solving the murder of Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp). After their success in identifying the two killers in the last movie, they created their own business to serve the public as private detectives. However, they've botched several cases and Nick still isn't a licensed detective, so the company is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Though Vikram's kidnapping seems like a convenient ploy to prove themselves, they are nonetheless able to figure out the two individuals behind his disappearance. With this new high-profile case under their belt, they can prove to anyone who doubts them that they know what they're doing. They had some missteps with other cases, including thinking someone's husband was cheating on them, but when their friend's life is on the line, they come out victorious. It's an example of someone finally finding their stride in their profession and making the most of their skill set.
It's also a great reminder to not let anyone tell you what your abilities are. We are our own biggest cheerleaders. If we believe that we can do something, the only person stopping us is ourselves. The couple is confident in their abilities to solve the case, and that faith pays off for them. If they had listened to the others, Vikram might still be missing.
Vik found someone who loves him for who he is
In the first movie, Vik has trouble finding love after an awkward sexual encounter with Grace Ballard (Gemma Arterton). It looks like the Maharajah likes to have more than just a physical connection with someone, which is perfectly fine, and he finds that with Claudette (Mélanie Laurent).
If there is anything to take away from "Murder Mystery 2," it's that there is someone out there for everyone and that marriage isn't always about the assets involved. Though many of Vikram's friends think his bride is responsible for his disappearance due to her anger over the prenuptial agreement she had to sign, Audrey and Nick prove she had nothing to do with it. The agreement is described as "brutal," likely meaning that in the event of a divorce, she would not be entitled to any of Vik's wealth. Claudette is marrying him because she loves him, not because she hopes to get a nice payout.
Vikram had an arranged marriage, only to dissolve that so he could marry Claudette, throwing any of what his parents were hoping to achieve with the union out the window. He didn't have a great relationship with them, as he admits, and now he will never have a good relationship with his sister. But it's nice that, despite what happens, Vik and Claudette have each other in the end.
Family doesn't always have your best interests at heart
When Nick and Audrey reunite with Vik at his wedding, he mentions that someone tried to kill him in Mumbai. That, combined with his kidnapping, show that someone is out to get him, but no one could have predicted that it was his sister Saira. Jealous over his ownership of the company, Saira tries to acquire what she thinks is rightfully hers by any means necessary.
Even though they are related to you by blood, family may not always have your best interests in mind. Saira is willing to kill her brother so she can lead the company. She doesn't question her methods or the choice she makes. As difficult as it may be to know that your family is potentially capable of sacrificing you for their own needs, sometimes it's nice to know where you stand with the people you care about.
It's also a reminder that family is deeper than blood. Vik's friends are the ones who solve the mystery, because they care enough to save him. While his bride-to-be and security detail do their best, they don't have the means needed to help Vik. He creates a found family that does everything in its power to find him — which is more than he can say for his actual family.
The significant other isn't always the guilty party
After the Maharajah's kidnapping, everyone is quick to point fingers at Claudette. She is the new bride, set to gain access to quite a bit of money after marrying Vik. However, she isn't the only potential spouse of Vik's people place the blame on. The woman the Maharajah was arranged to marry before ending the engagement was Countess Sekou (Jodie Turner-Smith).
Both women are accused of having motives to orchestrate the disappearance. Saira quickly accuses Claudette, while former soccer player Francisco (Enrique Arce) says she signed an intense prenuptial agreement, implying that she could be angry about having to sign one in the first place. Others note that the Countess may still be interested in the financial gain she's missing out on from not marrying Vik.
Despite the apparent motives they both have, neither is responsible for what happened. The Countess did try to steal the ransom money, but she didn't arrange Vik's kidnapping to do that. It's important to remember that, even though spouses are commonly the first people authorities look into when something happens, it doesn't mean they are responsible.
If Nick and Audrey hadn't been willing to pursue other suspects, they may have missed important clues that told them Saira and Miller were the ring leaders. They give both Claudette and the Countess the benefit of the doubt, which works out in everyone's favor.
There will always be a double (or even triple) cross
As Audrey and Nick remind us in both films, when two villains work together there is always a high probability that one will double-cross the other. And, like clockwork, it happens in "Murder Mystery 2," when the Countess betrays her assistant Imani (Zurin Villanueva) so she can take all the money. Only, Imani triple-crosses her, leaving them both dead in the end.
It's an important reminder that, even when it looks like the cards are in your favor, you should still keep your guard up. You may not anticipate it, but there is always a possibility that someone can deceive or take advantage of you. It can be hard to accept when it happens, but it will only make you stronger as a person to work through the situation.
But that doesn't mean that you can't cross them back — as we see with the Countess and Imani's endless intrigues.
Sometimes the good guys are out to get you
The second movie introduces audiences to Miller, a famous detective who wrote a book to help train other detectives. The book is so popular that Audrey has been using it to learn more about her new profession. It outlines everything you need to know to successfully solve a case, rescue a victim, and anything else you might need along the way.
Miller is supposed to be the "good guy." He shows up — appearing dramatically from out of the ocean — to help figure out who kidnapped Vik. Instead, he's the one trying to set Audrey and Nick up to take the fall and help Saira remove her brother from the picture. The entire situation helps the audiences remember that sometimes the person who should be on your side isn't, even when you think they are.
Whether it's a family member, an investigator, or some other self-proclaimed good person, there may be someone working against you. Audrey and Nick continue to move forward, not letting Miller and his antics stop them from discovering the truth.
Nobody is ever what they seem
Ultimately, "Murder Mystery 2" reminds us that no one is ever what they seem to be. Saira comes across as the concerned sister when she is actually the brain behind the entire kidnapping and attempted murder. Claudette comes off as a "gold-digger" to some, but she doesn't care about Vik's money. Miller appears to be a brilliant detective solving the case when he's working behind the scenes to hinder the investigation every step of the way.
With that, it means we shouldn't judge people from our initial interactions with them. First impressions aren't always what they seem. Those opinions could have led Audrey and Nick in the wrong direction, making the journey to find their friend longer and more difficult. Instead, they looked at the case objectively, using facts to understand who had a motive and who might have been involved with the Maharajah's disappearance. If they had let their impressions influence their actions, they may not have solved the case.
This also means you can't let other people influence your perceptions. Right after Vik's kidnapping, everyone is coming to the couple, trying to throw a member of the group under the bus. If Nick and Audrey had listened to what everyone else was saying, they may have formed opinions that guided their investigation in the wrong direction. Even when everyone else is screaming in your ear, it's important to come to a decision based on your own views, not those of someone else.
You can find love at the strangest times
Inspector Laurent Delacroix (Dany Boon), the French detective who tries to solve Quince's murder in the first movie, returns for the second installment. Once again, he is trying to solve the case and regularly accuses Audrey and Nick of the crimes in the process. However, in the final act, he finds love with Susan (Jillian Bell) in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Susan and the Inspector coming together is a fun reminder that love can creep up on you when you least expect it. Susan did go into the evening trying to find romance, as she was meeting an old lover at the Eiffel Tower as agreed upon a decade prior. But that's not why the detective is there. After he is injured in a fight at the famous Parisian landmark, she holds pressure on his wound, giving the two some time to get to know each other while Audrey and Nick are fighting with Miller.
In a difficult situation, the two of them come together. Delacroix credits the city of Paris for making that happen. Though nothing is set in stone, as they have to wait to go on a date until the Inspector is released from the hospital, it could be the start of something new for them both.
What case will Nick and Audrey solve next?
As "Murder Mystery 2" ends, Nick and Audrey are given quite the gift from Vik: a large sum of money, a bag made of dinosaur leather, and the use of his helicopter. As they take to the sky, it turns out the pilot is not who he seems, forcibly taking the bag of money before jumping out of the helicopter. This leaves the couple in quite a predicament, because as far as the audience is aware, neither of them knows how to fly.
Where could the series go with a third installment, assuming they survive that helicopter ride? With the return of many characters from the first movie, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps Nick and Audrey are called in to figure out who stole Colonel Ulenga's new robotic arm. If they want to stick with the wedding theme, maybe something happens at Inspector Delacroix and Susan's wedding. They could even help Francisco prove that someone isn't his child, despite the number of kids he claims to have in the world.
Of course, we can hope that Audrey and Nick's business is doing better than it is in the second movie. With another high-profile case solved, hopefully they are on a winning streak when we meet them again. And, even if they aren't, we know they will solve whatever case we witness, no matter the stakes.