SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Girl On The Train. If you have not yet seen the film, and don't want to learn details about the ending, we recommend clicking away to another one of our wonderful articles.
In Tate Taylor's The Girl On The Train, Luke Evans' character, Scott, spends a whole lot of time looking seriously guilty. More than just "the husband did it" often being a very accurate conclusion to draw, the guy is also very clearly an emotionally abusive jerk who seems like the number one candidate to kill his wife and hide the body. In fact, Scott often looks so much like a murderer in the movie that even Luke Evans was shocked to find out the true identity of the killer when he finished reading the script for the first time.
Earlier this month, prior to The Girl On The Train's theatrical release, I had the pleasure of hopping on the phone with Luke Evans to talk about his latest movie, and part of that conversation was dedicated to spoiler talk about the ending of the film and the identity of the killer. Curious about his perspective on the matter, I asked about Evans' first reaction the first time he got to the end of the script -- and he explained that he really didn't see the big reveal at the end coming. Said Evans,
Oh, I was just shocked. I wasn't expecting that at all. I really wasn't expecting it. And even when I did know the end of the film, when I actually saw it for the first time, I winced. I was like, 'Oh, shit. Oh my God.' It's a shocker. It's weird that even knowing the story, it's still very engaging and draws you in.
Following up, I asked Luke Evans who it was that he at first thought was the real killer of Haley Bennett's Megan in The Girl On The Train. He explained that he definitely felt Scott was high on the suspect list, but also thought that perhaps another key character was responsible for the death:
Yup, I did for a moment [think that it was Scott]. I did. I also thought it was [Emily Blunt's] Rachel for quite a period as well.
It turns out that the real killer is Rachel's ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), who has been gaslighting Rachel for years, and making her think that her alcoholism has caused much greater problems than it has. It's an ending that shocked readers when they were going through Paula Hawkins' novel for the first time, and apparently Luke Evans can be counted amongst those who never saw it coming.
Were you like Luke Evans and found yourself shocked by The Girl On The Train's ending? Hit the comments below with your thoughts.
