This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film Gunpowder Milkshake, so it will contain major spoilers.
Ready Steady Cut Film Critic, M.N. Miller, called Gunpowder Milkshake, “Slick, bold, and ultra-cool.“
Netflix’s Gunpowder Milkshake– the set-up
Samantha (Karen Gillan) was a moody teenager when her mother, Scarlet (played by Game of Thrones‘ Lena Headley), walked out on her, leaving her to finish that vanilla, whip cream topped milkshake on her own. She worked for The Firm, a powerful crime syndicate led by her boss Nathan (Paul Giamatti). She was a professional assassin and went on the run from the Russian.
Despite the abandonment at their favorite diner, Sam follows in her mother’s footsteps. Under the tutelage of The Firm, she is their top assassin. That is until her last two jobs have not gone as planned. These aren’t men who are exactly understanding. Even if the reason is that she chooses to save an eight-year-old girl named Emily (Chloe Coleman) instead of delivering the money she was supposed to collect.
Now, Sam must rely on her mother’s former colleagues (played by Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino) to outwit her former employer. Oh, and the head of The Firm’s rival crime leader, the ruthless Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson). Yeah, she’s having just a really bad day.
Gunpowder Milkshake – the ending explained
With all the mobsters closing in on Sam (Karen Gillan) and her friends, little eight-year-old Emily refused to leave her side. To get her to leave, Sam tells her what she doesn’t want to, but will to save her life— she is the one who killed her father. She is carried to safety by Scarlet to keep her safe, with hurt and hate in her eyes.
While the film is Karen’s, Carla Gugino’s Madeleine steals every scene she’s in. The film and television star’s character is dressed smart-casual, prim and proper, but that’s until she lets her hair down and pulls out what looks like an M85 standard heavy tank machine gun from out of a Scooby-doo van. She protects Emily (Chloe Coleman) from a thug and nephew of the head thug named Virgil (Chernobyl‘s Adam Nagaitis).
She takes out all of Virgil’s henchmen but can’t fend off all of them like a bullet he manages to shoot off in the left side of her chest. As both of their weapons are empty, Maddy pulls out her favorite ax, Virg puts on his trusty brass knuckles, and by the time the entire “gunshake” crew comes back to the van, Madeleine is sitting slumped, bleeding out from the gunshot wound to her chest. She tells them they took Emily and she couldn’t save her. She then dies. The empathetic glue of the group that held them together is no more.
Scarlett, Sam’s mother, can’t think of a plan to get Emily back. So, Sam makes a deal with the mobster who has been hunting her, Jim McAlister (Ralph Ineson). She will exchange herself for Emily. He agrees to meet at the diner, where no one is allowed to bring in weapons. No worries, though. McAlister is a man of his word. There’s just one catch: He will let Emily walk away, but only after he makes her watch Emily be tortured to death. He’s a feminist, after all.
That’s when her mom shows up, shotgun in hand, who has been pretending to be one of the delightful diner waitresses. Oh, and Florence (Michelle Yeoh) is weaponized, while Anna May (Angela Bassett) is operating the counter, armed with two handguns wrapped by her ten fingers. All four take out almost 20 armed men, including McAlister and Virgil, while everyone walks away scratched except Florence. She will have to walk around with a stylish eye patch for the foreseeable future.
What happens next?
All four women, and Emily, drive off into the sunset. They have reunited as a family again, and Emily has four strong women to look up to. Lastly, Emily tries to sell The Firm’s leader, Nathan (Paul Giamatti), some girl scout cookies, but he sniffs out the con immediately. Until he sees the sniper laser on his chest, he is handed a phone from Emily and Sam on the other end of the line. She tells him to leave them alone, or she will hunt them all down. Nathan tells her he can’t promise that, but Sam leaves him with this. Going on the run will only make things worse.
She makes this threat because she wants to lead a normal life for her, the mother she wants to reunite with, and Emily, the apprentice she wants to see not live the childhood that she had.
What did you think of the ending of the Netflix film Gunpowder Milkshake? Comment below.
