‘Deep Water’ Ending Explained: Ben Affleck’s Thriller Is a Twisted Love Story

Warning: This article contains major Deep Water spoilers. As in, pretty much every Deep Water spoiler imaginable. Read it at your own risk.

It’s been a long journey for Deep Water, the erotic thriller starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. Directed by Adrian Lyne, who is best known for his provocative ’80s thriller Fatal Attraction, this latest sexy drama first went into development in 2013, filmed in 2019, and was initially scheduled for release in 2020. After being delayed quite a few times—so many times that Affleck and de Armas got together and broke up IRL—Deep Water has now finally been released, streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and on Amazon Prime internationally.

With the promise of both “erotic” and Ana de Armas, Deep Water is sure to be a popular watch on Hulu. But viewers may be surprised to find slightly less sex and intrigue than they were expecting. Instead, a character study of two psychologically disturbed people unfolds.

But that’s not to say there isn’t any action. The last act of Deep Water comes with dark twists and turns that you may or may not see coming—and that you may or may not fully understand. Fear not, because Decider is here to help. Read on for the Deep Water plot summary and the Deep Water ending, explained.

WHAT IS THE BEN AFFLECK MOVIE DEEP WATER ABOUT? DEEP WATER PLOT SUMMARY:

Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) retired young and rich after his work in the morally dubious drone industry. He’s in love with his young, beautiful wife Melinda (Ana de Armas), she loves him back, and they have a young child together named Trixie. But Melinda doesn’t seem interested in motherhood—she is interested in sleeping with a lot of other men.

Vic is well aware of Melinda’s sidepieces, whom she calls her “friends,” because she makes only the faintest of attempts to hide her infidelity. At first, it seems Vic has an oddly calm attitude about his wife cheating on him, but we soon learn that it does bother him—he just has a funny way of showing it.

As it happens, one of her “friends” went missing recently. At a party, Melinda introduces Vic to a new friend, Joel, whom she shamelessly flirts with all night. When Joel thanks Vic for letting him “see” his wife, Vic calmly informs Joel that he killed the last man Melinda saw, Martin. Vic tells Joel that he killed Martin with a hammer. Though Vic later claims—when Melinda finds out and gets upset—that it was a bad joke, it doesn’t sound like Vic is joking. Joel doesn’t think so, either—he is scared off and stops seeing Melinda.

But that doesn’t stop Melinda from seeing guys. Her next hot, young pursuit is a pianist named Charlie (played by The Kissing Booth‘s Jacob Elordi). Vic is angry when he uncovers the affair, and he starts to get cozy with the wife (Kristen Connolly) of an older writer Don Wilson (Tracy Letts), who was rude to him at a party. Eventually, Martin’s body is discovered: he was killed via gunshot, not by hammer, and a different suspect is arrested. It seems that Vic really did not kill him—but, as Don points out, Vic did seem to take pleasure in claiming credit for killing him. Which is not a great look.

At yet another party (all these people do is party!), Melinda is flirting with her new lover Charlie. Folks are hanging out in the pool when it begins to rain. Everyone heads inside—everyone, that is, except for Vic and Charlie. We don’t see what happens, but we do see Vic looking menacingly in Charlie’s direction. Later, after Vic comes inside, the party-goers discover Charlie’s dead body in the pool. Don and Vic try to revive him and drop Charlie on his head while pulling him out of the pool. But, as they tell the police later, Charlie is already dead.

Melinda is certain that Vic killed Charlie. She tells the police as much, but Vic manages to convince them that she is unstable, and also, there is not enough evidence against him. However, Don believes Melinda’s theory, and the two of them begin meeting behind Vic’s back. Together, they hire a private investigator to trail Vic—but Vic realizes what they have done, and angrily barges in Don while he’s eating dinner with his family, and demands he put a stop to it.

Meanwhile, Melinda has yet another friend over for dinner: Tony (played by Finn Wittrock), her ex-boyfriend. Tony wants to eat some of Vic’s pet snails for dinner, but Vic explains, in the movie’s best line, that “the snails are not for eating,” because they are poisonous without the proper prep work. You might expect someone to get poisoned, in that case, but this turns out to be a red herring. Vic convinces Tony to come for a drive with him by telling him there’s a building site that Melinda wants to show him. Instead, Vic recklessly drives Tony into a remote part of the woods with no cell service and kills Tony by pushing him down a cliff. He throws Tony’s body into the river.

WHAT ARE THE DEEP WATER SPOILERS? DEEP WATER ENDING EXPLAINED:

Spoiler alert: Vic kills Tony, and he almost definitely killed Charlie, too. After killing Tony, Vic and Melinda have something of a “honeymoon” period in their marriage. They have a lovely family picnic right near the very spot where Vic disposed of Tony’s body. When Vic sees that the body is partially visible in the river, he later returns on his bike to the spot, alone, to better hide it.

While Vic is poking at the body with a stick—presumably hoping to dislodge it so it will float further down river—he’s interrupted by Don. It’s unclear whether Don knew Vic was there because of the P.I., or if he just happened to be in the area. Either way, Don is immediately suspicious, steps down to get a closer look, and sees the body in the water. Don realizes Vic must have killed someone and flees in his car. Vic immediately pursues Don on his bike, using a shortcut to cut him off. Don, who was trying to text his wife that he was right, is startled when Vic pulls out ahead of him. He swerves his car wildly and drives straight off a cliff, hitting the rocks on the way down into the river. He is, presumably, dead.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Melinda finds Tony’s wallet inside one of the snail containers. She realizes that the reason she hasn’t been able to get in touch with Tony is that Vic killed him. Melinda packs a bag, seemingly prepared to leave Vic, but her daughter throws the bag into the pool and informs Melinda they are not leaving.

Vic bikes home, and Melinda greets him sitting on the steps, as if everything is normal—the same way she greeted him in the very first scene of the film. Then she tells him, “I saw Tony,” and walks upstairs. We then see Melinda burning Tony’s driver’s license. Obviously, given that Tony is dead, it’s impossible that Melinda saw him, as Vic well knows. But by telling him that she saw him, and by burning his license, we understand that Melinda has decided to stand by Vic and help him cover up his crime. He accepts that she is an adulterer, and she accepts that he is a murderer. Marriage is all about compromise!

IS THERE A DEEP WATER POST CREDITS SCENE?

Sort of. A mid-credits scene features Trixie the daughter in the back seat of a car, singing along to Leo Sayer’s 1976 hit, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.” It’s very cute footage, but it’s tonal whiplash considering what we just watched. Also, it doesn’t have anything to do with the plot of the film. It’s more like a blooper scene than an after-credits scene—don’t read into it.

Watch Deep Water on Hulu