Lionsgate has just released a new murder mystery film, Invitation to a Murder, starring Mischa Barton (The O.C.). Set in the 1930s, the film follows Miranda Green, a florist, amateur detective, and fan of Agatha Christie’s novels, who finds herself summoned to a mysterious mansion along with five other strangers, by a man called “Lewis Findley”.
Unusual things start happening in the mansion, and one of the summoned, lawyer Lawrence Kane is murdered. Miranda steps up to figure out what’s going on and solve the case. In her suspect list are her fellow guests: Donald Walker, an American journalist; Philip Armstrong, a doctor; Carmen Blanco, a waitress from Seville; and Lu Wang, a woman from China who doesn’t talk much. She doesn’t rule out the household staff Gordon and Katherine as well.
So what happened at the end of the movie? Was amateur detective Miranda Green able to solve the mystery? This article explains the ending of Invitation to a Murder.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Invitation to a Murder. Read at your own risk!
The Ending of Invitation to a Murder Explained: Who Was Lewis Findley?
Emphasis on “was” because the billionaire who summoned them all ended up dead. It turns out, the man who summoned all of them was their father, who posed as the butler “Sean”. This is revealed by Lawrence Kane, who ends up being alive after he was supposedly murdered.
The lawyer explains that many months ago, he was approached by Findley with a strange proposition and scheme.
Kane describes Findley as someone who valued his privacy above nearly all else. He never took a family, but he did seek intimate companionship in his day. He was a “lothario”, or someone who behaved irresponsibly in his sexual relationships with women. This behavior resulted in having many children with different women.
These children could serve as his heirs when the time came. However, he was unwilling to give all his fortune to a complete stranger, or an “undeserving lout”.
As he was a person who was invested as to what would happen to his holdings and his business, he made it very clear to Kane that only one heir could inherit his fortune.
Thus, he deemed five children as the fittest to inherit his immense fortune. This explains why five invitations were sent to Miranda, Donald, Philip, Carmen, and Lu by Kane.
Furthermore, Findley wanted to see the true nature of his five children, thus, he provoked them through murder and mysterious circumstances in the mansion.
He also hired a pair of actors, the household Katherine and Gordon, to play alongside himself. He and Kane even rehearsed multiple scenarios as to how Kane was to be murdered.
All the happenings in the mansion were meant to test them and invoke tension and unease so that Findley could see the five’s true nature. He insisted that all he needed was a short weekend to choose an heir.
But Findley ending up dead wasn’t part of the plan because he intended to reveal his selection on the next day.
The Ending of Invitation to a Murder Explained: Who is the Killer?
The next day, Detective Harold Church arrives, with Miranda explaining that there’s a murderer in their midst. Miranda then opens Findley’s secret room.
It turns out, Findley was watching them all this time, and he even has photos of his children. There were also surveillance cameras in every room. Findley had connections with both the American and British military, which explains why he had access to high technology.
He was a traveler and recorded all his adventures, even his dalliances such as Liu Chan (Lu’s mother) and Esme Blanco (Carmen’s mother). Miranda reveals that there was one name that appeared again and again: Shelby.
Shelby was a maid who worked on the estate and left a big impact on Findley. It is revealed that Shelby had a child named Donald. Donald then explains his mother’s story and how Findley promised that he would marry her, but that it never happened.
When his mother got pregnant, Findley fired her and Shelby got nothing because payouts raise questions. She had nowhere to go and her own family wouldn’t let her in because she was unmarried and carrying a bastard son.
She refused to find any permanent work because she was sure that Findley would come, but he didn’t. She then got sick and wrote Findley a letter begging for help. But she didn’t get a word.
Shelby made sure that Donald knew the truth about Findley before she died. And so Donald vowed that he would come after Findley and everyone like him for the rest of his life.
Miranda reveals that Findley watched Donald’s every move as he had all Donald’s articles in his journal. Donald was everything he wanted in an heir because he was just like Findley.
But Donald disagrees, saying that Findley just left all of them to struggle and survive, while he watched them from his gilded towers. Donald goes on to say that Findley could have eased their suffering, but he chose not to, and he just let them “twist in the wind.”
And because of this, Donald chose to do “what was necessary” by killing Findley. He explains that he saved them from cursed money because four would face degradation by Findley, while one would be locked in a cage and turned into a cheap facsimile of him.
While the law provides that the share will be divided equally, Kane explains that the Will was very specific that should an heir not be chosen, all assets would be returned to Findley Industries and a successor appointed by the board.
Donald then calls this move “games on top of games”.
The Ending of Invitation to a Murder: What Happened to Findley’s Children?
After starting a romantic relationship (which ended up being incestuous after all), Carmen and Philip decide to be in each other’s lives even if they can’t be together. On the other hand, Donald would spend his life in jail for the murder of his father Findley.
He tells Miranda that she would never be a detective because she’s too kind. But Miranda says that her compassion is the reason why she caught Donald and why she will catch more like him.
Invitation to a Murder is now available on DVD, Digital and On Demand via Lionsgate.
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