I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me follows Juan Pablo, a literature student who travels from Mexico to Barcelona for his PhD but gets caught up in a criminal conspiracy and writes a novel about it. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot Summary
A homeless man wanders around some dumpsters when he comes across a manuscript by Juan Pablo Villalobos. Juan Pablo begins his story with an anecdote about his cousin Lorenzo, who had a penchant for ridiculous money-making projects.
Years later, Juan Pablo got a scholarship to a university in Barcelona to pursue his PhD in literature. He celebrates the good news with his girlfriend Valentina and then prepares to shift from Mexico.
Before he leaves, Juan Pablo gets a call from Lorenzo about his latest project and is visited by a gun-wielding thug who takes him to where Lorenzo is being held.
Lorenzo is tied up and gagged while a group of men surrounding him explains that Lorenzo lost them a ton of money and Juan Pablo is there to fix the situation.
They kill Lorenzo right in front of Pablo, and a man referred to as “The Lawyer” gives Juan Pablo some instructions over the phone. He tells Juan Pablo to go to Barcelona with Valentina and wait for further instructions.
Juan Pablo and Valentina argue and break up but The Lawyer insists that they go to Barcelona together or more people will get hurt. The couple move together even though things aren’t good between them.
Once he gets there, Juan Pablo is instructed to change his major to Gender Studies and seek out a girl named Laia Carbonell. He is expected to get close to her, and The Lawyer tells Juan Pablo to use Valentina since Laia is a lesbian.
Juan Pablo begins documenting all of the things that he’s going through, while he and Valentina begin drifting apart. She roams the streets of Barcelona and befriends a homeless man named Jimi.
After a house party they attend together, Laia goes back with Valentina and Juan Pablo and sleeps with Valentina. Valentina leaves soon after and The Lawyer reproaches Juan Pablo for breaking up with her.
He also points out someone sent by Laia’s family to investigate Juan Pablo. The Lawyer has a thug named Chino constantly keeping an eye on him and acting escorting him whenever he is summoned.
The Lawyer uses Juan Pablo’s friendship with Laia to get to her father, Oriol Carbonell, a prominent Catalan politician. He discusses important business with Oriol while Juan Pablo waits outside.
Even though they are separated, Valentina can’t help but keep tabs on Juan Pablo despite advice from Jimi and her sister to let him go. Jimi offers to give Juan Pablo a scare and Valentina gives him the address.
When The Lawyer finds out about it, he has Chino accompany Juan Pablo to the police so that he can point out who threatened him. The police find Jimi with Valentina and hand him a court summons.
They take Valentina back to her place to check out her documents and one of the cops named Laia hands her number to Valentina in case of emergencies.
Juan Pablo is summoned to a warehouse where The Lawyer has his right hand, Chucky, to bring out the man sent by Laia’s family. They hand Juan Pablo a gun and force him to kill the investigator.
I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me ending explained in detail:
Who was the detective?
After Juan Pablo is forced to kill the detective, The Lawyer orders his men to get rid of the detective’s dog as well. Ahmed, the man who works for the people who hired The Lawyer, decides to keep the dog instead.
While he’s at a party, Juan Pablo suddenly has a thought and asks Ahmed and Chino to bring the dog to a vet in case it was microchipped. Using the ID of the chip, they learn that the detective is Laia’s uncle.
Juan Pablo shares this information with The Lawyer to get closer to him and learn more about their project but The Lawyer calls him stupid for assuming that they don’t know what they’re doing.
How does Valentina find out what is happening?
Laia wonders why Juan Pablo would call the police about Jimi and she visits his apartment to check on him. He isn’t there but his landlord asks Valentina to stick around and take care of his daughter.
While she’s there, she opens his laptop and finds a video-recorded message by Lorenzo which was scheduled to be sent later. He explains his situation with The Lawyer and Valentina shares it with Juan Pablo.
Lorenzo tells Juan Pablo that if he wants to get out of it, he must convince Chucky to turn on his boss. Juan Pablo goes to The Lawyer to share information about Chucky’s betrayal but Lorenzo’s information is false and The Lawyer has Chucky kill Juan Pablo.
While she’s going through his laptop, Valentina finds the novel he’s working on. She reads the whole thing and changes a few details before printing it out to share with Laia the inspector.
What happens to Valentina and the novel?
Valentina is out with the landlord’s daughter when Laia visits her. Laia tells her that the novel contains incredible accusations that could cause a huge uproar if it is all true.
She says she will look into it and Valentina leaves with the girl. Laia reads a passage that reveals that her superior is part of the conspiracy as well, but when she goes after Valentina to ask a few questions, there is no sign of her or the girl.
Months later, Juan Pablo’s landlord and his wife are pleading with the public to provide any information on their missing daughter, while Juan Pablo’s mother is in Barcelona looking for her son.
She meets with Laia Carbonell and her lawyer, and anyone else who might have been in contact with him. Laia the inspector approaches Juan Pablo’s mother with his manuscript and says that she was kicked off the force for investigating it.
His mother says that she doesn’t want to get involved in conspiracy theories and brushes Laia away. With no other avenues left, Laia drops the manuscript in the dumpster along with the truth of a huge conspiracy.
Also Read: Butterfly: All-Time High character explained