Ready or Not is one of the best horror films of 2019. It proves that no matter how bad your in-laws are, at least they aren’t trying to kill you. Samara Weaving gives a career making performance as Grace in Ready or Not. It is a performance that makes Final Girl legends.
Ready or Not follows Grace on her wedding night as she is unexpectedly forced to play a deadly game of Hide-And-Seek against her new in-laws. She hides, and they have until dawn to kill her or something very bad will happen to the family. Grace uses wit and determination to survive. The horror comedy offers gore galore and a grand fitting finale.
The final moments of Ready or Not marks the film’s place in iconic horror movie land. The film is so memorable because of the big explosive conclusion.
Ready or Not spoilers ahead: Turn back now if you haven’t seen the ending yet.
How Ready Or Not Ended
After Grace spends most of the night evading her new in-laws, they finally manage to catch her and get her held down on a table, ready to be sacrificed. And then her new husband's brother Daniel (Adam Brody) poisons his family to help Grace escape. As he tells her that he plans to free Alex (Mark O’Brien), so they can leave together, Daniel’s wife Charity (Elyse Levesque) appears pointing a gun at Grace.
Daniel steps in between them, so Charity shoots him--giving Daniel a fatal wound. Grace manages to disarm Charity and knock her out. Meanwhile, Alex breaks free and heads to find Grace. Grace gets trapped in a room with Alex’s mother Becky (Andie MacDowell).
The two women fight but Grace gets the upper hand. She then bashes Becky’s face in, and Alex sees it. He tries to reach out to Grace, but she recoils away. In that moment, he realizes that there is no turning back for them. Their marriage is over.
He then grabs her and calls for his family to start up the ritual. The family holds Grace down and Alex is about to put a dagger through her heart, but she moves away at the last second. Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni) then shows that the sun has risen. They have not fulfilled their duties to Mr. Le Bail. They wait for a moment, unsure of what's about to happen to them. All they knew was that, if the Hide and Seek card gets drawn, the newly added member to the family must be killed before the sun rises or something bad will happen to the whole family. After a few minutes of nothing happening, they believe that maybe it was just a hoax.
Then Aunt Helene explodes as she tries to kill Grace. One by one they all start to explode as Grace watches and laughs. Alex is the last one. He tries to beg Grace to take him back, and says that he was spared because he’s not like them, and she’s the reason that he gets another chance. Grace then tells him that she wants a divorce and takes off the ring. The moment she throws it at him, Alex explodes.
Grace leaves as the house burns down. Then sits on the mansion porch, in a bloody dress, smoking a cigarette, and an authority figure (police officer, EMT, or firefighter) asks her what happened here? She responds “in-laws."
How Ready Or Not ALMOST Ended
Ready or Not’s perfect ending almost didn’t happen. Cinemablend spoke to the film’s directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett about the original plans for the Ready or Not finale. It ended a lot darker and less fun. Originally, Alex was supposed to succeed in putting the dagger through Grace’s heart and the Le Domas family would be spared and free to continue their legacy.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin had this to say about the original ending:
The first version that we read actually ended with Grace getting killed, and it was a much darker ending, and it was something that we kind of knew we had to change cause I don't think it was the version that we wanted to tell. But once we all kind of collectively agreed like, 'Let's try to have our cake and eat it too and play out the version where Grace survives, it's not real, these fucking clowns completely fucked up, and then we kill them.
The film directors also told DigitalSpy that after the Le Domas family killed Grace there was supposed to be a scene where they join a bunch of other rich families who also owe their riches to Mr. Le Bail.
What Happens Next For Grace?
Before we get into possible futures for Grace, let’s examine why Mr. Le Bail spared her life. Technically Grace became part of the Le Domas family the minute she married Alex, but she was the only one in the house to not explode. I have two theories on why Grace didn’t die with the rest of them.
The first is that Grace never officially joined the family. Legally, she married Alex, but Ready or Not specifically states that Grace wouldn’t become part of the family until they play the game. Also, at the beginning of the movie, many of the Le Domas family members state that Grace doesn’t belong. She’s not one of them. I don't think this has anything to do with class, because both Charity and Becky implied that they didn’t come from wealthy families either. It more has to do with Grace’s character.
I think the reason Mr. Le Bail chose Hide-And-Seek for Grace is because she didn’t belong. The other new members got easy games. The only other one to draw Hide-And-Seek was Charlies (Andrew Anthony), Helene’s dead husband, and for all we know, he could have been a saint.
My second theory is that Grace didn’t die because she won the game. During the scene where Tony (Henry Czerny) explains to Grace their family’s history with Mr. Le Bail, he says that his great grandfather inherited Le Bail’s good fortune when he solved the box and won the game.
I think that once Grace won the game, she was a recipient of Mr. Le Bail’s fortune and curse. It would explain the nod we see him give her when he briefly appears in his chair. I also believe that’s why Alex didn’t explode until she took the ring off. When you marry someone, you become your own new family unit. Alex existed in that moment as part of the Le Domas family, and also as part of his family with Grace. Once she removed the ring, she broke their bond, and he was no longer part of her family. He was a full original Le Domas, and therefore eligible to die.
So... does Grace inherit the Le Domas fortune? Well, she was legally married to Alex when she died, and the only surviving member of that division. Grace could make up any story and the police have no evidence against her claims. This might spare her from any suspicion in their murder. Grace seemed most excited about having a family, not the fortune with it Maybe she wouldn't want anything to do with the money. Of course, she use it for charities or to start a business, but it seems unlikely she'd become a spoiled rich heiress.
Will Ready Or Not 2 happen?
There are no confirmed plans for Ready or Not sequels, but the directors told Bloody Disgusting some of the potential ideas for a sequel. They joked about a Fitch (Kristian Brunn) and Emilie (Melanie Scrofano) prequel, and I would love to watch any Le Domas family prequel. Ready or Not had a lot of little moments of details about their pasts that could lead to really interesting prequels. For example, Charity and Daniel’s whole dynamic could work as a horror movie.
Charity talked about a past so terrible that she would rather die than go back to it. Daniel and her had such a volatile dynamic, but Charity seemed genuinely hurt by Daniel’s lack of caring about her dying--which seems to imply they did love each other at some point. So what happened? Also everything in me wanted Alex to not be terrible, so I wouldn’t mind seeing a prequel about him and Grace. Aunt Helene talked about him possibly being the chosen one. I would like to learn more about that--maybe see him fighting the call of darkness in a prequel.
Follow-up story sequels could also work. The Le Domas family mentioned other families, including other members of their own, who suffered because they didn’t play by the rules. We could see more families burdened by Le Bail’s curse, and how that manifests for them. Le Domas had to play games because that’s how they made their fortune, but how would it work for a family who became rich from horse racing? Or tech?
Also now that Grace survived, and is possibly rich, what might happen in a sequel for her? Is she now on a quest to infiltrate other rich families and beat them? What happens if Grace marries again? Does Mr. Le Bail now demand payment from her? We have a lot of lingering questions pertaining to Grace that could be potential compelling horror sequels.
Ready or Not has created such a rich story, that there are so many possibilities for potential future stories of this horror gem. If you want to relive the Le Domas family slaughter again, Ready or Not will be available on HBO Now and HBO Go on May 23.
