Ad Vitam isn’t a very good movie, and its ending helps to illuminate precisely why that is. After a stellar start and then an incredibly tedious second act, it’s up to the climactic scenes to reveal exactly what’s going on, not to mention how it all shakes out, and when you get there the first thing you realize is that it was barely worth the effort.
This isn’t obvious from the beginning, either. The setup of the movie is fine and is handled well. We have a seemingly normal guy, Franck, and his seemingly normal, pregnant wife, Leo, who find themselves under attack by armed men in search of some mysterious hidden object. We don’t know what it is. We don’t know why Franck and Leo have it. We don’t know who’s looking for it. These are all the ingredients for a pretty serviceable action movie.
But Ad Vitam is not a serviceable action movie, which becomes clear during the drudgery of its extended flashback sequences which are supposed to add clarity and stakes to the present-day drama but fail on both counts. They also take forever, so we don’t actually learn what’s going on until pretty close to the end.
Let’s talk about it.
What Item Does Franck Have?
It’s obvious from early on that Leo’s abductors are looking for an object in Franck’s possession, but we don’t learn what it is until later. The answer is rather banal – he has a police badge with DNA evidence on it linking the shooting at the hotel (depicted in the flashbacks) to the DGSI (French General Directorate for Internal Security).
Franck and his team had responded to reports of gunfire at the hotel entirely by chance. Despite being ordered not to go inside, Franck tried to gather more information in the lobby and his team was shot at by two armed men, resulting in Nico’s death. Franck was subsequently fired for his rash judgment, even though he didn’t venture further into the hotel than the lobby.
Sensing a cover-up, when Franck discovered his father’s police badge stained with the blood of the assailant he killed, he had the DNA analyzed. It belonged to a former special forces operative named Salim Lakdaoui, who was known to do work for the DGSI and other intelligence organizations. The badge was proof that the French state was involved in the hotel shooting, and thus the death of his friend and the destruction of his career. Despite knowing that any effort to blow the whistle would endanger himself and Leo (not to mention their unborn child), Franck nonetheless met with a journalist, which proved his undoing.
What Really Happened in the Hotel?
Guillaume Canet in Ad Vitam | Image via Netflix
The journalist Franck meets with is an undercover spook who reports his intention to break the story to the higher-ups of the French government. And it’s paramount that the French keep the whole thing quiet because of what was really going on in the hotel.
As it happens the hotel was hosting a CIA agent and his bodyguard, who were in France to broker an arms deal with Australia. During their stay, French intelligence thought it prudent to break into their room and steal some documents, but they were discovered in the act, resulting in a gunfight. This is what was overheard by the concierge who then called Franck.
Needless to say, if it’s made public that the French government clandestinely robbed and then killed an American intelligence agent, there’d be geopolitical hell to pay. This is why Vanaken’s team of hired guns was employed to retrieve the badge and eliminate Franck and Leo.
Saving the Day
Since Franck doesn’t have access to the badge because the key he hid in the bathroom sink is missing, he and Ben have no choice but to try and dupe Vanaken in order to rescue Leo. They head out to the arranged meeting spot with a fake badge, and when Vanaken tries to turn the tables, Ben is able to put down several of his men. However, Leo goes into labor, complicating the ensuing chase.
After a breathless chase, a shootout, and a couple of fistfights, Franck manages to get Leo to the hospital. She’s barely alive after being shot earlier, and Ben is also in a bad way. The GIGN are lined up outside trying to talk Franck down, but they allow him to enter the hospital with his wife so that she can get the help she needs. After that, Franck is arrested.
The ending of Ad Vitam finds Franck in prison, but not for long. It’s revealed that during the apartment fight, Leo had retrieved the key from the bathroom and kept it hidden. With it she retrieved the real badge and used it to prove Franck’s innocence, not to mention expose a wider cover-up at the heart of the French government. Franck is subsequently released, and he and Leo begin to raise their child together.
Will there be consequences to shining a light on government corruption? You’d have to ask whichever executive at Netflix is responsible for greenlighting a sequel.
