Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Menu.
The best part of the thriller that is The Menu, starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy, comes in its final course. As such, it is worth breaking down what exactly plays out when we arrive there and what it all means. There is quite a long journey to get there, full of many courses that telegraph where this is all going, but it is still at its best when we get to see it all come together. If it wasn’t already clear, this piece is going to dive headfirst into all the spoilers of this ending. In the event you haven’t yet seen the film, best bookmark this page and come back after you’ve tasted it for yourself. If you have seen it, then let's dig in.
A Meal to Die For
First premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film centers on Margot (Taylor-Joy) who is being taken by her both abundantly annoying and absurdly wealthy boyfriend Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) to a remote island restaurant that is considered to be one of the best in the world. It is also incredibly expensive and not something that ordinary people would be able to afford once, let alone multiple times like some of the diners. This ensemble group of diners includes a washed-up movie star, a group of finance bros, an older couple, and a food critic, all of whom don’t speak to each other on the journey over. They are all there out of excitement to eat a meal prepared by Chef Slowik (Fiennes) who has a reputation for creating unique culinary creations that can’t be found anywhere else. Working with an almost military-like team of cooks, Slowik welcomes them all with an increasingly sinister tone that strikes Margot as odd though goes largely overlooked by the other initially oblivious guests. Little do they know it is they who will soon be on the menu that has been prepared especially for them.
As it turns out, Slowik intends to kill both himself and everyone else at the dinner. He has grown disillusioned with his work and intends to go out with a bang. Margot is one of the first to piece this together and we realize she is not actually Tyler’s girlfriend at all. We learn that he hired her to come with him when his prior partner bailed and, making matters worse, he actually knew that they would all be dying here. All the ways he overlooked the growing dread and the obsession he had with Slowik get brought into focus as we discover he idolizes the man to the point that he is willing to die for him. In fact, he is the first to go when he is humiliated for his inability to cook himself and subsequently hangs himself out of shame. Margot, who we discover is actually working class, is not content to die here with the rest of these stuck-up people and tries to formulate an escape plan. She had been pulled aside earlier by Slowik who tried to tell her that she had to pick what side she was on, but she still finds herself trapped in the restaurant from hell with the clock slowly ticking down to her death.
He's Not Just A Chef, He's A Storyteller
However, having been more resourceful out of necessity than any of the other wealthy guests have ever had to be, she soon realizes what it is that can offer the key to her escape. After doing some searching around Slowik’s home, Margot discovers that he wasn’t always the head of this fancy restaurant. Instead, he first made meals of burgers and fries. It was something that he seemed to be infinitely happier in doing. Armed with this information, she asks him to make her such a burger. While he seems to be initially taken aback by this, he then does so personally and with an almost reverential passion as this is the last meal he will ever make with his own hands. Margot, taking the meal to go, subsequently leaves the island on a boat. While this is happening, Slowik sets in motion the final stages of his murder meal by dressing up all the guests in a meticulous and macabre sequence as if they are marshmallows. This is the final course and this dessert will finally bring death to all who still remain in the restaurant as he intends to roast them into human s’mores. With all the guests and his fellow cooks gathered there, he does just that with a cold yet comedic finality. The subsequent explosion consumes all of them in a fiery blaze that Margot is able to watch from afar while she safely consumes the last meal that the now dead Slowik ever made.
It is a fitting finale that offers a bit more to reflect on in how she was able to make her way out of meeting a similar fate. Though he was intent on killing her along with everyone else, the order Margot gave was a way of expressing an understanding of Slowik and what had been troubling him all this time. He had become disillusioned with his work and alienated from his own labor. In a capitalist society, work is extracted from the workers until they no longer even understand why they are doing it. Margot was one of the few people who was able to uniquely understand this and give him one last chance to cook for himself. It wasn’t a meal of fancy foams, but a simple one that was the most important to him because of how he loved making it. All the recognition and praise he had gained from wealthy guests who were just desperately seeking status as opposed to a solid meal had soured him on the entire system of dining that he had become a participant in. The night was about destroying all that, including himself in the process, so that he would no longer have to take part in it. That Margot was able to give him one final chance at creation before his ultimate destruction was what ensures the movie ends on a high note. In the final moments, just as she bites down into the burger while alone on a boat, we are left with something both a bit more personal and political to chew on.
The Menu is in theaters now.