Reptile is a crime-thriller film that follows the murder of a real estate agent and the detective who takes up the investigation, but there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Plot summary
Will Grady and Summer Elswick are a couple. The former is an entrepreneur, while the latter works as a real estate agent.
Their relationship is clearly on stumbling blocks with Will feeling that she is distant. He is frustrated when she does not attend one of his conferences, where he gives an important speech.
One day, Summer gets a call from an anonymous individual, who later shows up to meet her at a house she was looking to sell in Whitcomb.
Summer asks Will to come to the house. When he does, he finds Summer dead, having been stabbed. The police begin investigating, with Tom Nichols, Wally, and Dan Cleary put on the case, under Captain Robert Allen, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis recently.
After assessing the scene of the crime, Tom questions Will. He reveals that he and Summer had been facing relationship issues recently.
Will hadn’t married Summer yet because she wasn’t even officially divorced from her ex-husband Sam Gifford. Will has no signs of struggle on his body, which rules him out as the suspect.
A conversation between Wally and Allen hints at Nichols’ ‘dark past’. New details on Summer come to light. She had not received a commission for six deals.
The forensic department reveals that there are no signs of forced sexual contact with Summer, but rape still cannot be ruled out as semen was found in her cavity. Blond hair strands that do not belong to her are also procured.
A car is found in the video footage that wasn’t seen by the neighbours. The model is the Buick LeSabre 1990.
Dan shows Tom footage of Sam Gifford stealing blond hair on a bus. Tom and Dan visit Sam to question him, but he refuses to talk without a lawyer.
Tom’s wife, Judy, tells her friends that Tom was being investigated in the past and he was pardoned for cooperating. Allen is her uncle, and he helped Tom get into the police force.
A mysterious stranger visits Will’s house, who has a past with him and his mother. Judy tells Tom that the car is not a Buick, but a Chrysler Imperial.
Will tells Tom about the stranger, whose name is revealed as Eli Phillips, stating that they wanted to buy his family farm in the past but they did not want to sell it. However, as they had no choice, they ended up selling it and the man’s father committed suicide. He blames Will and his company for it.
Summer’s friend claims Sam Gifford and Summer had still been sleeping with each other. Sam is a drug dealer.
Tom enters Sam’s house, who begins shooting at him. Tom kills him in retaliation. The cops find 13 kg of heroin in his house.
Tom’s gun is taken and he is suspended for killing Sam, but allowed to return to his role later. He is also recommended for the Medal of Valor for saving Dan’s life.
Tom notices the bite marks on Summer’s hands. He asks for them to be matched with Sam’s teeth, but the evidence turns out to be inconclusive.
Eli breaks into Will’s office and steals something important, but the latter does not tell the police that something was stolen.
Eli tries to enter Tom’s home to tell him something but he is confronted by Judy, who holds him at gunpoint till Tom arrives.
He is arrested, but tells Tom about a company called White Fish that ripped Summer off. He also says that a person named Rudy Rakoczy is connected to all this. He finds a drive that Eli left.
The is some crucial information on the drive. Records of civil forfeiture properties that were purchased by White Fish, which isn’t active anymore.
Eli is bailed out of jail. Tom tries contacting him but he is found by Will first, who threatens him to return the drive. A flashback shows that Summer was alive when Will entered the house.
Reptile ending explained in detail:
Who killed Summer Elswick?
Tom notices that Allen and Wally have begun acting differently with him. Allen confirms that he will be getting the medal.
Tom is shocked when he finds the Chrysler that they had been looking for all along in the basement of Allen’s house.
On the way back home, Judy asks him what’s going on. Tom tells her the entire truth. Will Grady and his company relied on Wally to plant drugs in properties.
They would then buy these at a discount. Summer was the broker. She did not receive a single penny out of her 70 grand commission. She was about to talk, that’s why she was killed.
Does Tom stop Wally?
When Summer asks him to tell Allen, he reveals that he is also involved. He is either helping them or aware of the plan.
Allen asks him to come over to his house to talk. He tells another colleague, Marty, about the whole incident and asks that he accompany him.
At the house, Allen warns Tom that he has given the drive to the cops who were also accomplices, meaning that Marty was all in on it.
Wally kills Allen. Tom kills Marty. The two face off against each other, but a moment of distraction helps Tom get the better of Wally. He shoots him in the leg, incapacitating him.
Is Will Grady arrested?
While playing golf, Will Grady is found by the FBI, who have come to arrest him. Despite all his efforts, he was finally exposed by Tom.
During an earlier conversation between Will and Allen, the latter said Tom is the most suitable for this investigation. He could have meant that it would be easier to derail him because of his past.
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