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Is Netflix’s Don’t Move Based On A True Story?

3 weeks ago

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Everyone’s talking about this harrowing new Netflix movie, which details a universal nightmare: you’re in a scary situation, and you can’t move. Your legs, arms, and entire body are completely paralysed as a monster approaches you. Here’s how that unfolds in Don’t Move.

Spoilers ahead…

What Happens In Netflix’s Don’t Move?

Don’t Move centres on Iris (Kelsey Asbille), a suicidal mother grieving the loss of her young son Mateo who died during a family hiking trip. Visiting the site of his death, she is overwhelmed by the loss of Mateo and considers jumping off a cliff. But then a man called Richard (Finn Witrock) appears and, after talking with him for a few minutes, Iris changes her mind and walks away. As Iris and Richard approach their parked cars, his motive comes to light: he attacks Iris with a stun device, zip ties her wrists and ankles, places her in the back of his car and drives away.

When Iris wakes up, Richard tells her they’re going to spend ‘all weekend’ at a remote cabin. She carefully uses her pocket knife to untie her wrists and attacks Richard, causing him to crash his car. The two continue to fight, before Richard reveals he has injected Iris with a paralysing agent, and her body will shut down over the next 20 minutes.

‘[Don’t Move] is a story of a woman who finds herself in a situation where she’s struggling, she’s at a low point,’ co-director Brian Netto tells Netflix’s Tudum. ‘All of a sudden, she finds herself dosed with a paralytic, and her body is going to slowly but surely shut down. Now she’s in a fight for her life.’

Iris sprints into the woods – and this is what we see in the trailer above – as she desperately tries to escape Richard’s grasp. He follows her, and the drama unfolds in real time as Richard traces her path. ‘You feel like you are literally along for this ride moment by moment,’ Wittrock told Netflix. ‘That’s something I hadn’t really seen before in a movie, especially something like this with this sort of level of darkness.’

With very little range of motion, Iris faces obstacles at every turn. ‘We charged the writers with painting themselves into a corner,’ co-director Adam Schindler says. ‘Every sequence we were like, “OK, how do we make it tougher on her? How do you paint yourself into a corner? And then how do you get yourself out of that?”.’

Iris eventually makes it onto the property of an elderly man named Bill (Moray Treadwell), who finds her when he is mowing the lawn. Iris can’t speak, so Bill asks her to blink in answer to his questions: once for yes, twice for no. He gets her into the house and is about to call the police when Richard shows up at the door. He introduces himself as Andrew and claims to be looking for his wife. Bill is suspicious. He doesn’t mention Iris, who he has hidden behind the couch, and calls 911. Angered, Richard attacks and kills him and sets the house on fire. Richard leaves, unknowingly leaving Iris to the flames. But, regaining some mobility in her hands, Iris reaches for the blind cord and pulls on it, alerting Richard to her presence. He saves her from the fire and carries her to Bill’s truck, which he drives away in as the authorities race to Bill’s house.

The duo are then on the road. Eventually, Richard needs to stop to refuel the truck. In his absence, Iris attempts to open the door and escape, but she’s not strong enough. Richard then drives them back to his wrecked car from earlier to collect his belongings, when a police officer (Daniel Francis) drives up, asking what is going on. Richard says his wife (meaning Iris) wrecked his car drunk driving, but the officer isn’t convinced. He tries to talk to Iris, who can’t yet form words. Angered once more, Richard kills him.

Alone once more, Richard drives himself and Iris to a boat jetty, where he intends to deliver her fate.

Don’t Move Ending Explained

At the boat jetty, Richard puts Iris in a boat and starts rowing, intending to dump her immobile body in the water. Secretly and gradually getting back some muscle strength, Iris is able to seize a knife, suddenly stabbing Richard in the neck and pushing him overboard. When he tries to climb back up into the boat, Iris grabs his gun and shoots him, and he falls into the water. But the bullet also shot a hole into the hull, and the boat starts to sink. Iris struggles to keep afloat, but manages to surface and swim back to the jetty. On dry land, she finds Richard on the bank, slowly dying. She stands over him as he dies, thanking him: during her struggle to escape from him, she has rediscovered the will to keep living.

Is Don’t Move Based On A True Story?

Don’t Move might seem realistic, but luckily it’s not based on a true story – unlike another of Netflix’s recent movies, Woman of the Hour. Instead, Don’t Move is the unnerving brainchild of co-directors Brian Netto and Adam Schindler and a team of writers. Famed director Sam Raimi helped produce the film, describing the script as ‘a nonstop page-turner’. ‘It’s a moving experience, especially for a suspense film,’ he says.