Halle Berry’s The Call (2013) Ending Explained-

Beware of incestuous lunatics and 911 operators in The Call, an engrossing cat and mouth film that will hold your attention throughout.

The Call, which is currently in Netflix’s Top 10 movies in the US, is a movie from 2013 starring Halle Berry and directed by Brad Anderson. This psychological thriller that should not be confused with the Korean mindbender of the same name is seeing a resurgence thanks to bored streamers and the power of Netflix. This high-octane nail-biter is perfect for a weekend watch with plenty of twists, including the very dark, wild ending. Here is everything you need to know about The Call.

Halle Berry’s Jordan Turner is a 911 operator in Los Angeles. She is a longtimer who has seen and heard it all. She now works as a trainee for new recruits after a call went badly six months ago. Jordan trains the new operators to stay detached and unemotional, which she struggles with in the aftermath of the tragic call. Six months ago, a fifteen-year-old girl named Leah Templeton went missing and later is found dead after Jordan took her 911 call. Jordan is haunted by the girl she couldn’t help. She blames herself for giving the girl’s position away, and worse when she pleads with the killer to not hurt Leah. Instead, he chillingly told her it was already done.

Flash forward, and Jordan is now a trainer, unable to continue taking calls. When another girl Casey Welson(Abigail Breslin), is taken from a mall, and a rookie dispatcher is unable to handle her panicked call Jordan steps in. Unfortunately, Casey’s phone is disposable and impossible to GPS track. They have very limited information to go on. They know the kidnapper’s name is Michael(Michael Eklund), and they have a limited description of his looks and the car. Jordan advises Casey to knock out the tail light and stick her arm through the hole to hopefully attract attention. Her plan is successful, but before the police can catch up, Michael evades detection.

Next, Jordan has Casey pour paint out of the hole causing another man(Michael Imperioli) to chase him down, but Michael knocks him out and shoves him into the trunk with Casey. Michael later stabs him to death with a screwdriver. At a gas station, Casey crawls through the space between the trunk and the backseat and gets the station attendant’s attention. The attendant tries to rescue her but gets burned alive when he tries to intervene. Meanwhile, Jordan’s boyfriend Paul(Morris Chestnut) uses a fingerprint to identify Michael. When he and the other officers go to his house, they find his wife and kids and a glut of pictures of a blond girl who looks like Leah and Casey.

When Michael finally gets to his destination, he discovers that Casey has been on the phone with Jordan this whole time. She tells him they know who he is, and he won’t get away with it. He responds with, “It’s already done.” This is the exact phrase that the man who kidnapped Leah said to her six months ago. She now knows this is the same man who brutally killed Leah Templeton and mocked her on the call.

The ending of The Call

Paul questions Michael’s wife, leading them to his childhood house and a small cottage on the same parcel of land. When they investigate, they only find the remnants of the burned-down house and a cottage filled with childhood pictures and mementos. Paul informs her they didn’t find Casey yet, and she begins to replay the 911 call over and over, hoping to find a clue. Then, she hears what sounds like a flag pole in the wind. She returns to the cottage to take matters into her own hands. Inside the cottage, she finds pictures of his sister, young and healthy, sick and balding, and in some disturbing circumstances. Michael’s sister used to have beautiful long hair, just like the girls he has been taking. He had a romantic relationship with his sister, and after she died from cancer, he snapped.

Hearing the same flagpole noise she heard on the 911 tapes, Jordan discovers an underground bunker and accidentally drops her cell phone into it. She climbs down the ladder and hears Michael torturing Casey. She walks through the bunker and sees several busts of his sister’s head, which he had been placing scalps of the kidnapped girls on. He was hoping to help his sister live again through their scalps. Each time he takes a new girl, he is trying to perfect her hair.

After the scalps begin to decompose, he replaces them with a new one. He had kept a shrine of her room in the bunker, which he used as a kill room and as a place to play out his sick obsessions. I am curious if he was a psychopath from the beginning and if he burned down his house after his sister died. Arson is often a precursor to murder.

He nearly catches Jordan in the bedroom, but she manages to stay hidden. She followed him silently to his workroom where he was preparing to scalp Casey. Jordan attacks him before he can hurt her too badly, and a violent scuffle ensues. Working together, Casey and Jordan manage to get away from Michael and climb out of the bunker. He follows them, and Casey stabs him in the back. They kick him back into the bunker, and instead of calling 911, they chain up Michael.

Jordan and Casey then taunt him that he should have taken her advice. Realizing she was the 911 operator from Leah’s abduction, he laughs at them and asks when the police are coming. The women tell him that Casey was found in the woods, and there was no sign of Michael. The implication is the women left Michael in the bunker to rot for his crimes. Some people are just too evil to let live.

The Call is currently available to stream on Netflix right now.