The Turning Point (2022) is an Italian crime drama film where a slacker who does his best to avoid confrontation strikes up an odd friendship with a dangerous thug who makes a sudden appearance in his life. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The Turning Point – originally, ‘La Svolta’ – starts off with two garbage collectors in an unknown Italian city, in a well-off neighbourhood.
Ludovico, an artist in the making, lives alone in his apartment, while being financially dependent on his father. Lacking faith in himself and his unfinished comics, he also suffers from depression.
His father is constantly bickering with him to pursue academics yet Ludovico fails to admit to his father his lack of interest in it. His father gives him long lectures hoping for him to change, while he listens to him without uttering a word.
While his father is scolding him about his life choices, Ludovico looks out the window to find the girl he is infatuated with, in a fight with her lover.
His father asks him if he wants to show him anything. Ludovico hides his comic strips and replies that he will show them the next time he is over.
While bidding his father farewell, he locks eyes with Rebecca, his crush, in the corridor and they exchange greetings.
On the other side of town, in a shady bar named Flamingo, Mario carries a bag full of cash clearly from an illegitimate source.
Before the bag could reach its owner, Jack, the thief, steals it and is on his way to evade the bad guys, just when his bike skids on wet road and he has to get rid of the bike instead.
As Jack hides behind a dumpster, Ludovico comes out of the building to take out trash and is held at gunpoint by Jack demanding to be taken to his apartment.
Ludovico does as he is told and that’s where they go from strangers to friends not in much time as Jack teaches Ludovico how to live again.
If you still have doubts about the ending, here’s a full breakdown.
The Turning Point (2022) ending explained in detail:
On the run
Ludovico, scared for his life, takes Jack inside his apartment and obeys him. As Jack threatens Ludovico and gets inside his apartment, taking him hostage, he notices there is something wrong with him.
Ludovico has a panic attack right in front of Jack and has difficulty breathing. Jack observes it and asks for a solution, to which Ludovico responds by pointing toward his prescribed medication.
Jack hands him his medication while consuming some for himself. He then starts strategizing his escape and makes a deal with Ludo that he would receive some money if he cooperates.
Ludovico agrees as he has no other plans to escape his current situation. As things get intense, Jack locks him in a room at night as he cannot trust him.
In the morning, Jack freshens up and finds a picture of Rebecca in Ludovico’s bathroom and goes on to explore his apartment further.
It is discovered that Ludovico has depression, which Jack does not take seriously and mocks his attachment with his red beanie.
Stockholm syndrome
Though Jack’s sudden appearance in Ludovico’s life is a hindrance at first, he ends up giving Ludo a spark of life and acts as a turning point.
Jack coerces Ludovico to steal food from his neighbour’s apartment, to which Ludo falters to act owing to his fear and anxiety.
Later, Jack accompanies him to steal food and they do it successfully, despite his neighbour being present in the house. They end up catching a glimpse of the neighbour’s wife on the phone with her lover.
Once they come back home, Jack points out that Ludo did a great job and even Ludo gets a dopamine rush from the experience. Here onwards their bond only gets stronger.
Jack then repairs a set of neon lights that Ludovico could not bother to notice. He then helps him fix a shelf that he had been avoiding.
Jack also encourages Ludovico to drop out of his economics course and carry on his comic work full-time and offers to finance him for a year.
Their bonding exercises don’t end here as Jack further helps him get the girl. Jack encourages Ludo to go out and talk to Rebecca and invite her over and as he succeeds, Jack gets with Rebecca’s friend.
Later, Jack beats up Rebecca’s ex-boyfriend when he comes looking for her and threatens him with his gun. This action is indeed what gives away Jack’s location to Caino’s gang, but he does not seem to think or care much about it.
The final turning point and the bag
Caino’s gang figures out his location and plans on another visit to the building to be sure of the exact location. Caino’s hitman is sent in the guise of a worker from the gas department.
Once Jack gets the hint, he prepares to leave. Ludovico gets extremely sorrowful at the thought of parting with him.
Jack later decides to stay back for dinner for Ludo as they had made plans with Rebecca and her roommate.
In an ultimate proof of the turning point in Ludovico’s life, he decides to get rid of the red beanie that he always wore to hide his receding hairline and now feels more comfortable accepting his own image and how he is.
Jack and Ludovico’s ends near them as Caino makes it his personal mission to encounter them and kill them himself. He is interrupted by Spartaco, a man he had fired earlier, who threatens to shoot him in the face. Before Spartaco could make a move, they are interrupted by the hitman, Buzzetti, who had been waiting downstairs for his boss to return.
Buzzetti kills both Spartaco and Caino in order to acquire the bag of money. Before he could shoot his witnesses, Jack and Ludovico, Ludo shoots Buzzetti. It is unclear as to how many shots were fired and who all got shot, but Buzzetti was put down.
Jack mourns losing Ludovico as he is in a lot of pain, and flees the scene, promising his return. On his way, he realises he had been shot too and falls inside the cluster of dumpsters.
The same two garbage collectors from the first scene are back to collect garbage while they are bickering about corruption in Italy. Ironically, when they notice Jack in pain and the bag full of money, they ignore him and make a run with the bag, leaving behind the sketches by Ludo, which were useless to them.
As Jack starts to lose consciousness, his eyes fall on the first page of Ludovico’s comic which displays – “To my big brother Jack, who gave me my life back”.
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