Netflix’s French action-thriller, Restless (aka Sans répit), narrates the unfortunate and thrilling tale of a corrupt cop who accidentally runs over a man and goes to extreme lengths to cover it up, only to be blackmailed by an eye witness.
Summary
Restless opens with Lieutenant Thomas (Franck Gastambide) driving hastily to the police station as his department is due for an inquiry by internal affairs over bribery. He also needs to be at the hospital owing to his mother passing away, but prioritises to hide his stash of bribe money back in his locker at the station.
As he speaks to his colleague and then his sister on the phone, he serves to avoid hitting a dog standing in the middle of the road but in doing so, hits something else.
He is shocked to find out that he has run over a person and killed him. Already under the radar because of his corrupt ways,, Thomas puts the corps in the trunk of his car and covers its face with his jacket. He decides to get rid of the body somehow but is forced to stop at a National Guard Checkpost.
He immediately remembers that his badge is in his jacket and he cannot prove his identity as a cop without opening his trunk. Thomas tries to argue with the guards and as one of them tries to unlock the trunk, the duo get into a scuffle with Thomas being tear gassed.
Luck does favour him when his stoppers are able to confirm his identity and let him go. At the same time, he gets a text from his best friend and colleague, Marc (Michaël Abiteboul), who tells him not to come since the authorities are already at the precinct.
Fortunately for Thomas, Marc and another colleague, Naomi (Tracy Gotoas), break into his locker and flush down his money stack before anyone can investigate.
Thomas decides to go to the hospital and pay his mother a final visit before they close the coffin. Once there, he notices a crawling army toy that his daughter has and once he’s inside the room where mother rests, he gets an idea to hide the body.
After the coffin is nailed in, Thomas heads into the funeral home car park, covers the man he’s murdered, in a bodybag and wraps it with rope. He then ties one end of the rope to his daughter’s toy and tosses both of those into a vent that leads to the coffin room.
Later, before the mortuary closes down, he buys a bunch of helium balloons and pretends to want to spend more time with his mom. When he’s alone, Thomas uses the toy to bring one end of the rope towards him from the vent, covers the cameras with the opens the coffin and puts the random dead body alongside his mother’s, apologising to her in the process.
Unfortunately, in all the haste he makes a rookie mistake and forgets to check the body for any belongings on him. He realises this when a phone starts ringing within the coffin after he’s closed it again. fortunately, it stops before anyone else can figure it out and the coffin is buries with two bodies. He also deliberately crashes into a police car to make sure people think that’s how he damaged his own.
Back at work, the team gets a tip about a disappeared felon named, Barcelo (Nabil Missoumi) who turns out to be the man Thomas ran over. Worried, he heads to his last known location with his team and sees the same dog he almost killed last night.
He follows the canine to the spot of the accident and runs into a beat cop who informs him that they received an anonymous call about an accident. Thomas’ nightmares gets worse when he notices a CCTV camera right above him. Fortunately, the footage isn’t clear enough and Marc cannot identify the number plate.
It is then that Thomas starts receiving phone calls from a mysterious man, who threatens him and reveals his knowledge about the accident. After a near fatal run-in with the same person in a car in the precinct parking garage, Thomas is told that Barcelo’s phone was last known to be in the same graveyard where his mom was buried.
As things slowly start falling into place for the police, they start falling apart for Thomas who is at odds with himself about his next move.
If you still have doubts about the ending, here’s a full breakdown.
Restless ending explained in detail:
Grave encounters
Thomas receives an unpleasant visit from a very angry police officer who starts physically assaulting him for not answering his phone. As Marc and Naomi put an end to the scuffle, it is revealed that the man is Commissioner Marelli (Simon Abkarian) — a senior officer in the narcotics division.
Thomas speaks to Marelli privately and the latter demands Barcelo’s body back, confirming that he is the mysterious man who has been calling him. Having no choice, Thomas returns to the graveyard at night and digs up the body, bringing it back to the area where.
As he connects to his phone, it rings but the person on the other side recognises that the voice is not Barcelo’s and hangs up. Thomas asks Naomi to track the number and it pings to Michael Bourgi (Perez Michael), a hacker friend of the dead felon.
Thomas finds the hacker and tortures him for information. He reveals that Marelli was using his post to take seized drugs, dilute them in alcohol, sell it to clubs and get people addicted.
Barcelo was his partner before he got greedy, traded the narcotics with the Albanians and loaded the money in a vault. Marelli was after a key that Barcelo swallowed and had him murdered before Thomas accidentally crashed into him and stole the body.
This information is confirmed when Thomas notices two bullet holes is Barcelo’s back as he is about carve into him for they key.
Friendly fatality
Before Thomas can get the key, Marc arrives and arrests his old friend. Having no other option, he confesses everything to Marc who then decides to protect him.
As the two discuss things, Marelli calls Thomas, asking him to step out so they can discuss terms. Unfortunately, when Thomas gets out and walks away, a shipping container drops on Marc’s car, instantly crushing him to death.
Distraught, Thomas decides that he’s going to turn himself in but Marelli discloses that he is currently at Thomas’ house, talking to his sister and daughter, which convinces him to cooperate.
However, unable to forgive Marelli for what he’s done, Thomas gets Bluetooth C4 explosives from the Police Station and stuffs Barcelo’s body with them and hands it over to his corrupt senior on an abandoned road.
Marelli strips Thomas of his gun, takes the body and asks him to walk away. As the Lieutenant does what he’s told, Marelli calls out his name and shoots him when he turns around.
Trickery
Thomas isn’t hurt as he replaced the bullets in his gun with blanks, knowing Marelli was going to try and murder him. The C4 is activated but Marelli drives towards Thomas’ car and hands his gun back to him, making it look like he shot himself.
He finally drives away and the car explodes. Thomas puts live rounds in his pistol but Marelli survives and the two battle it out. The gun goes off and both the Police officers fall into a reservoir close by.
The scene then switches to Thomas in an ambulance, vouching to his daughter that he will be back home in a jiffy. Back at the precinct, the chief tells the team that they’re going to have to bury these course of events so that they don’t ruin their reputation further.
Having had enough trouble for a lifetime, Thomas hands in his resignation and Naomi is promoted to Lieutenant. Fortunately, Naomi hands Thomas the safe’s key found in Marc’s car to keep his deceased colleagues record clean.
She also mentions that Thomas should donate his resignation pay to Marc’s widowed wife, which he agrees to. The film ends with a now retired Thomas opening Barcelo’s vault and witnessing heaps of cash in it.
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