A 2021 crime thriller has become popular on Netflix UK three years after its release: My Son is a French-made Scottish-set movie that recently got added to Netflix and is currently one of its most-watched movies.
The movie stars James McAvoy (My Son cast in full) as a father who works abroad a lot, and so barely sees his son and ex-wife. However when the son disappears when camping, McAvoy's Edmond rushes home to try and find out what happened.
Reportedly, McAvoy wasn't given a script in the movie, and was simply told about his character's motivations and backstory. So in each scene, he's improvising, as though living through his own murder mystery party.
The movie ends in quite a surprising way though, so you might be ending "what happened at the end of The Son? Don't worry, we'll help you figure it out.
What happened to Ethan?
As we learn in the latter half of the film, Edmond's son Ethan was kidnapped by a child kidnapping network.
The kidnappers scouted out Ethan at his school and used a middle man to capture him from his camping trip. Then, they held him at a lodge before preparing to transport him somewhere else. Who knows where!
Was Ethan rescued?
After turning investigator, Edmond managed to track down the lodge in which Ethan was being held.
After knocking out one of the kidnappers and tricking another into shooting a third, Edmond found Ethan and rescued him, driving away into the night.
Why was Edmond under arrest at the end?
In our final scene, we find out that Edmond has been placed under arrest by the Scottish police, and is awaiting trial. But what's this for? Well, we're never actually told, hence the possible confusion.
One option is that he was arrested for his actions earlier in the film: he abducts and tortures one of the kidnappers with a blowtorch, breaks onto private property, knocks out another man, breaks a car and more. While these are all morally justified in his quest to rescue his son, it's still a legal matter that needs to be processed. He's clearly not being treated like a dangerous lunatic either, given that he's allowed to play with his son.
The other option, which I wouldn't have considered mentioning except that Wikipedia confidently states it as fact, is that Edmond is being arrested for the "illegal activities of his company". Huh? Well, that's actually part of a side plot from the first half of the movie.
What was Edmond's company up to?
In the first half of the movie, we learn a bit about Edmond's current job. He travels the world working for an oil company, though his exact role isn't clear. We do know, though, that he's been dating someone at the company for several years.
Edmond is reticent to hand over his phone as part of the investigation, though eventually he does. Plus, as part of the police investigation into the kidnapping, they also raid Edmond's offices and take all the computers, something which panics this partner. However we don't hear much more about it.
Maybe Edmond was up to some dodgy deeds as part of his job, which would explain how he's able to break into a lodge full of kidnappers and still rescue his son, but it's not made very clear.
