Rest in Peace provides plenty of suspense but leads to a predictable and slightly boring ending. While that tension and the compelling acting will keep audiences intrigued, the pace can feel disjointed, and plot points rushed, all leading to a rather unfulfilling end.
Sergio becomes a desperate man after racking up an uncontrollable amount of debt. When the opportunity arises for him to free himself from this, he takes it. For years he lives in a foreign land under a false identity, until an unexpected event causes him to think about his family and he returns home. In a twist of fate, he can now protect his family, but the price is his disappearance, forever.
As Sergio navigates a world of deceit and danger, the fine line between right and wrong becomes blurred, forcing viewers to question his actions and motives. He takes advantage of an awful bombing; he can disappear and is presumed dead, leaving his family to collect his life insurance.
While Sergio is in Uruguay trying to survive and have a life, his family is slowly getting embroiled with someone dangerous. Brenner was the man Sergio owed money to, and he begins a friendship with Sergio’s wife and children.
Fifteen years after leaving, Sergio goes onto Facebook to stalk his family and is emotional about seeing them grown up. This causes him to return home, and this is where the film takes a weird turn.
A Dark Turn
Half an hour before the end Sergio returns and stalks his children, creepily approaching but walking by them. While we’ve previously felt sorry for our caring father figure, he’s now becoming a strange stalker.
We see Sergio buy a gun and a suit like some sort of hitman. As he heads out, we cut to his daughter Florantina’s wedding, where we see him sitting creepily in the back.
Sergio watches as the man who was the reason for his leaving is walking his daughter down the aisle. Sergio leaves and slowly descends into rage and madness, pointing the gun at his own head.
He then heads back to the wedding, gun in hand, and skulks around the place undetected. Brenner checks his phone, looking suspicious, and aims for the bathroom where Sergio is hiding. Sergio points the gun at him but is interrupted by his son Mati.
How Does Rest in Peace end?
Sergio puts on a mask and begins dancing around with everyone at the wedding. His ex-wife and his son notice and go after him. He trips and his gun falls out of his pocket.
In the parking lot, Sergio stands with his ex-wife between him and Brenner, who also has a gun. Brenner shoots Sergio down.
Sergio lies dying, thinking back to dancing with his daughter when she was a child, and the film then ends.
It’s a sad ending for Sergio as he returns to see his family happy in the arms of a man he hates. He deals with this by wanting to kill himself, and then kill Brenner.
There’s no clear conflict or resolution, and the ending is rushed compared to the rest of the film. We watch and learn about his debts, his family, and his time in Uruguay, for him to then quickly be killed at the end. It’s sloppy and unfulfilling.
What happens to Sergio?
Sergio lived a life of torture, from financial burdens to fretting about missing his family, to then dying in the arms of his ex-wife, now married to his enemy.
Sergio goes back to his family after fifteen years of pretending to be dead, not to have any real interaction or be reunited properly, but to stalk them. He is then shot and killed, which felt unnecessary and rushed.
Why was Sergio in so much debt?
Sergio has a factory business with multiple workers that is failing. He owed money to friends, family, the banks, loan sharks, and his daughter’s school. Anything and anyone, he seemed to owe money to.
His workers quit after waiting for things to get better, implying they have not been paid in some months. What I do appreciate is how the film handled the debt. It’s not through gambling, drugs, or anything excessive, but simply a business failing, and the pressure to keep that going.
From this debt collecting comes the film’s most compelling part: the threat of the Brenner. Brenner’s character is strong, dominating and not to be trusted. So when his friendship with Sergio’s wife grows, audiences have every right to be suspicious.
When Sergio is killed at the end, it’s no surprise it’s by Brenner.
What did you think of the ending of Rest In Peace (2024)? Comment below.
You can check out our thoughts on the film in more depth in our Rest in Peace Review.
