‘Fair Play’ Ending Explained: What That Dramatic Final Scene Means

Fair Play, which began streaming on Netflix last week, is the ultimate toxic relationship movie. Written and directed by Chloe Domont in her feature directorial debut, Fair Play takes all the tropes you know and love from Wall Street films, and gives them a fresh new perspective. How? By telling the story through the eyes of a woman.

The Fair Play protagonist, Emily, faces plenty of sexism-fueled doubt and setbacks at her overwhelmingly male financial firm. But, in the end, no man treats her with more disrespect than the man she is supposed to trust above all: her future husband.

Despite being billed as an “erotic thriller,” Fair Play is far more quietly disturbing than it is sexy. Domont masterfully builds the tension between Emily and her fiancé, until both parties finally snap. If you found yourself confused, or if you simply want some analysis of that dramatic final scene, read on for Decider’s breakdown of the Fair Play plot summary and the Fair Play ending explained. Spoilers ahead.

Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault.

Fair Play plot summary:

Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich star as a recently engaged couple, Emily and Luke, who work for the same cutthroat financial firm. It’s technically against company policy to date your coworkers, so because both Emily and Luke are low-level analysts, they keep their relationship secret. Then Emily gets a surprise promotion—a promotion that was rumored to be for Luke, no less—and suddenly she’s not so low-level anymore.

Luke was all for being a feminist ally when he was the one on top, but now his so-called support is being challenged.  Everyone, including Luke, assumes the CEO Campbell (played by a magnetic and sinister Eddie Marsan) either slept with Emily or wants to sleep with her. Luke, under the guise of concern, asks Emily multiple times if the boss “tried anything” with her. (He didn’t, for the record. He was genuinely impressed by her career and work performance.) Emily promises Luke that she will use her new position to put in a good word for Luke to also get promoted.

Luke and Emily’s relationship begins to unravel. Emily is clearly trying to fix it, but Luke turns down her offers for sex and fancy dinners. He urges her not to pick up work calls after hours. And he quietly seethes from his open office desk, as he watches Emily chum it up with Campbell behind her glass office doors. Everything comes to a head when Emily pulls off a big deal for the company and wants Luke to celebrate with her. When he refuses, she goes out with the other guys from the firm to a strip club. The guys tell Emily that Luke will never get promoted at the company because Campbell doesn’t like him. He’s keeping him down until he quits.

Emilly comes home late, drunk, and belligerent. Luke calls her a hooker, and the next day demands that Emily follow through on her promise to pitch him to the boss. Emily admits to Luke that she already tried to sell Campbell on Luke, but that he wouldn’t budge. Luke refuses to accept this truth. He barges into Campbell’s office, gets down on his knees, and begs for a chance to prove himself. Unsurprisingly, this mortifying display of weakness does not get him that promotion. Luke and Emily have a huge blowout fight, and, at the same time, Emily’s mom informs her that she’s throwing them a surprise engagement party tomorrow. Uh-oh!

Luke disappears, and Emily covers for him at work. Over voicemail, she apologizes, and begs him to show up for the engagement party, and that they will sort everything else out later. While she is giving an important presentation at work, Luke barges in drunk and screams obscenities at Campbell. He also outs Emily for breaking company policy by sleeping with him, before he is escorted out by security.

Fair Play ending explained:

After effectively destroying Emily’s career, Luke shows up at the engagement party as though nothing is wrong. They fight in front of all their friends and family and then take it to the bathroom. Having sex in bathrooms has been something of a thing for them—it’s where they got engaged, and how they celebrated when Luke believed he was the one getting the promotion. So maybe it’s not surprising that they decide to have one last passionate, hate-fueled round of intercourse. But this time, it’s different.

At first, Emily pushes Luke away when he kisses her. Then, she kisses him back and seems to be into it. But then something changes. Luke gets way too rough, taking Emily from behind. She tells him that it hurts, and asks him, multiple times, to stop. But he doesn’t stop. Instead, he doubles down until he finishes. In other words, he rapes her.

In the next scene, Emily meets with Campbell and falsely claims that Luke has been stalking her for months and that she rejected him multiple times, in order to comply with company policy, and also because she never liked him. Emily says Luke was delusional and made up stories about the two of them being engaged. Campbell doesn’t buy it, but he also doesn’t seem to care—he tells Emily to let HR handle the story and promises Emily that no firm will hire Luke now. He also advises Emily that “blame and accountability” are “irrelevant.” She should move on.

Emily comes home to find Luke in their apartment. He begins to calmly talk about the logistics of the break-up as if he didn’t rape Emily the last time they saw each other. Then Luke drops the bomb that his brother has hooked him up with an investor to start his own firm. After everything he did, he’s still found a way to fail up.

Emily demands an apology from Luke for raping her. He denies that it was rape at first, and insists they “both got carried away.” It’s the final straw for Emily. She picks up a steak knife and advances on Luke. At knifepoint, she instructs Luke to apologize and cry. “If I can’t make you cry, I’m going to make you bleed,” she tells him, before slashing him on the shoulder.

Fearing for his life, Luke does as he’s told. Then he really does start crying and apologizes sincerely for raping her. Satisfied that Luke finally admitted to his crime, Emily tells him to leave. She drops the knife, and with that, the movie ends.

Fair Play ending explained with analysis:

Fair Play is a movie about power. The rape scene in Fair Play demonstrates that, in the end, what Luke really wanted from his relationship with Emily was to control and dominate her completely. That’s why he couldn’t handle the power imbalance when she was promoted. He felt it was “natural” that he, the man, should ultimately have all the power in the relationship.

Emily, whether consciously or not, accepted this power imbalance at the beginning of the film. She accepted that she would have to wait her turn for the promotion. She may have told herself the relationship was equal, but it never was. By the end of the film, she realizes and acknowledges this. But even after Luke rapes her, Luke refuses to admit to the kind of person that he is… until Emily holds him at knifepoint. Maybe you think that the final scene goes too far, or maybe you think it doesn’t go far enough. But clearly, the primal threat of survival was the only way for Luke to show his true colors.

Despite the advice from her boss, accountability from Luke was what Emily needed. Perhaps Campbell couldn’t understand that, being a man. Men have gotten away with so much bad behavior, and then gaslit everyone around them—often even themselves—into believing they are good people. For Emily to get Luke to admit he is a piece of shit, even in the privacy of their own home, is a victory. Luke may land on his feet, career-wise, but at least Emily will always know that Luke knows he’s a rapist. It’s not quite revenge, but at least it’s some catharsis.