In Players, Mack, an expert at coming up with hookup plays, must devise the perfect strategy to turn a fling into a relationship. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Mackenzie Cannon, better known as Mack, is a sports writer working for a newspaper in New York. Mack’s best friends, Sam and Adam, also work at the same place.
Mack is adept at creating plays that help her, Adam, Sam, and Sam’s younger brother, Ryan, also known as Little, hook up with the partners of their choice.
One day, a renowned war reporter, Nick Russel, comes to their workplace to meet their boss, and Mack finds herself attracted to him.
Mack goes home with Nick that night, and seeing his apartment makes her realize that Nick is a mature man, unlike the guys she usually sleeps with.
Mack does not want Nick to be just another fling. She likes him and wishes to date him, and for that, she employs the help of her crew.
To transform her fling into a romance, Mack and her friends stalk Nick to uncover every detail about his life.
They have never used a play to win someone over romantically, so Mack devises a new one that involves her making Nick believe that they have similar interests.
Mack keeps running into Nick deliberately. She not only makes it look like a coincidence but also manages to get Nick’s attention every single time.
Mack even gets one of her coworkers, Ashley, involved in the play. Soon, Ashley also joins Mack’s crew and starts dating Little.
While Mack likes Nick, no one gets along with her as much as Adam. She shares her good and bad memories with him, her interests, her ideas, and her happiness.
It is while talking to him that she gets an idea for a feature. Recently, there have been layoffs, so Mack must write something that will secure her job.
Mack decides to interview baseball fans and combine their most memorable moments with the story of her family.
Additionally, Mack and her friends successfully ruin Nick’s date with another woman. Mack then gets to take the woman’s place. She finally starts dating Nick.
Adam also starts dating a girl named Claire and even introduces his friends to her, which means that he is serious about the relationship.
Contrary to what Mack made Nick believe, she does not have much in common with him. Since Nick has no interest in sports, Mack does not share her feature idea with him.
When Mack and Nick go on a double date with Adam and Claire, it becomes evident that Adam knows and gets along with Mack much better than Nick.
The topic of Mack’s feature also comes up, and Nick asks Mack to let him read it. That night, Mack sends it to both Adam and Nick.
While Adam reads it immediately and expresses his approval, Nick takes two weeks to read it.
Considering Nick’s status as a respected author, Mack waits for his feedback before showing it to her boss.
Nick does not like the article, and that becomes obvious to Mack when Nick rewrites it for her, which upsets Mack.
Furthermore, Mack and her friends attend one of Nick’s events. Nick, busy entertaining his distinguished guests, does not spend time with Mack.
Mack’s boss is also present there, and Adam takes the opportunity to tell her about Mack’s article. However, after Nick’s feedback, Mack does not feel confident about her piece.
Ending explained:
Rewriting Mack
After telling Adam about Nick’s feedback, Mack shows him the rewritten piece. Adam points out that the article does not sound like her anymore.
Nick took out everything that mattered to Mack. Adam believes that, like the article, Nick is also rewriting Mack.
Nick does not know the real Mack, and he is not a good boyfriend. Similarly, when Adam asks Mack what she likes about Nick, she has no answer.
Adam tries to make Mack see that she was so preoccupied with getting Nick to date her that she never considered whether she should date him.
Mack is reluctant to listen to Adam, which results in an argument. Angry and disappointed, Adam stops talking to Mack.
Mack breaks up with Nick
The same night, Nick gives Mack a drawer to keep her things at his place, the one thing that Mack wanted since the day she decided to date Nick.
However, Mack doesn’t feel as happy as she thought she would. She then confronts Nick about rewriting her piece.
It turns out that Nick rewrote it because Mack’s boss had told him that Mack’s job was on the line. Nick had known about it for weeks, but he kept it from Mack.
He admits to Mack that he did not like anything about her piece, and that is the moment when Mack realizes that their relationship is not right; Mack’s approach was all wrong.
The piece that Mack wrote reflected who she is, and Nick did not like any of it, so Mack breaks up with him.
The no-play play
When Mack’s boss asks for her feature, Mack sends her the original article that she wrote. She also tries to apologize to Adam, but he is still angry with her.
Mack’s boss likes the piece so much that she asks her to cover a Sox-Yanks game for the Voice section. Mack will now be covering the big games regularly.
While celebrating, Mack and her friends find out that Adam and Claire broke up because it was clear to Claire that Adam was in love with Mack.
Mack also finds out that her friends have known about Adam’s feelings for over a decade. Mack was the only one who did not know.
That night, Mack thinks about her and Adam’s relationship and realizes that she reciprocates his feelings.
The day Mack is supposed to cover the Sox-Yanks game, she buys tickets for her friends, who trick Adam into coming with them.
They take Adam to the park near the stadium, where Mack’s parents met. Mack is waiting for Adam there and chooses not to use a play to get Adam.
Instead, she opts for the “no-play” play, which involves keeping it real. She is in love with Adam because when she is with him, she feels safe to be herself.
Despite it being an important day in her career, she knows that her favorite moment of the day is going to be confessing to him.
Adam and Mack then kiss. As Mack rushes to cover the game, her friends and Adam celebrate the start of their relationship.