The Menu (2022 film)

The Menu is a 2022 horror-comedy film starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and John Leguizamo. It premiered in theaters before streaming on Disney+ and HBOMax.

Chef Julian Slowik runs an exclusive island restaurant called Harcourt, with couples meals priced at 1250 per person. He also curates his guests, because they contribute to the theme of the evening meal. Part of the fun is that the dinner guests need to guess the meals.

Foodie and chef fanboy Tyler brings his girlfriend Margot to one of these dates. She's not at interested in the food, or in haute cuisine. Margot also attracts the attention of the staff, as she's not on the guest list. Tyler explains that his previous girlfriend and planned date for the evening broke up with him, and that Margot is his rebound. Margot is uncomfortable on learning she was a last-minute replacement, as Chef Slowik keeps giving her piercing looks and asks her who she is.

It seems to just be a quirky restaurant, as the chefs bring out appetizers and courses inspired by the island's local fare, food gardens, and terrain. Then Julian reveals this meal will be his last one: at the end of the night, everyone will die after dessert. That includes him, the chefs, and the dining patrons. The guests realize he's not joking, and have to figure out how to survive the evening.


 * Ain't Too Proud to Beg
 * When the tech bros realize that Julian means to
 * Richard and Anne each beg Julian to let each other go, with Anne saying that Richard needs a hospital for and Richard saying don't hurt his wife.
 * George, after learning that Julian wants to kill him for starring in a bad movie, begs for him to spare Felicity, saying that she doesn't deserve death.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Despite Margot's best efforts,
 * Casual Danger Dialog: Before the men's course starts, Ted tries reassuring Lillian things will be okay. She whispers, "No, we're going to die" and he agrees matter-of-factly.
 * Crazy Prepared: Julian accounted for the guests not panicking on learning they were in danger. He makes sure that the glass windows are bulletproof and shatterproof, so that breaking them is not an option to escape. The chefs hunt down the men in number during the hunting course, taking down one techbro that successfully found a rowboat and was going to make it off the island. {{spoiler|And he contrived a fake Coast Guard boat, with a disguised chef on it, in the case that anyone found his radio and tried to make a Distress Call and try to get help]].
 * Even Evil Has Standards: A recurring theme is that various "bad" characters have moments of standards or compassion:
 * Everyone in the room, sans Tyler, freaks out when {{spoiler|chef Jeremy shoots himself shortly before his dish "The Mess" is presented. Lillian tries to say it's just theater, but she's clearly in denial. Richard immediately says that he's not comfortable with this course and asks to leave with his wife Anne.}}
 * The techbros all protest on learning that {{spoiler|Julian means to slowly execute their boss Doug Verrick in front of them. One even tries to mount a rescue, only for the chefs to trip him.}}
 * Julian goes off-script when he figures out that {{spoiler|Margot is an escort, not the guest he intended to kill with Tyler. What's more, Tyler knew all along that the meal would end in everyone dead, and he hired Margot because Harcourt only serves two-people guests. Julian can't believe that someone would be that callous, exposing Tyler in front of Margot and making him cook a dish.}}
 * Everyone Has Standards:
 * On realizing that Julian means to kill everyone, George begs him to let his assistant Felicity go. He points out that by logic she's a worker like Margot, and she doesn't deserve to die. Julian deems she does after learning she has a wealthy family and didn't need student loans to attend Brown University.
 * Margot and Julian don't seem to see eye-to-eye, but she gets angry on his behalf when Julian serves him tacos printed with him photographing the meals. When given the opportunity, Margot tries to save everyone. While she manages to {{spoiler|save herself at the end of the movie, she hesitates for a second before Anne gestures at her to go before Julian possibly changes his mind and decides to kill her anyway.}}
 * Genre Savvy: Being an actor, George is quick on the uptake when {{spoiler|Jeremy shoots himself on Julian's orders.}} He realizes they're in a horror movie, and whispers with the techbros that they need to bust out, maybe by using stunts he tried in previous roles. And to be fair, he puts in a good effort: banging a chair against the glass windows, as well as promising Felicity that he'll get help during the 45-second headstart that the men have to flee the island. On realizing the situation is futile, he tries to reason with Julian to spare Felicity, and writes a message for help {{spoiler|from what he thinks is the Coast Guard. As the dessert course is brought out with marshmallow vests, graham cracker powder and chocolate hats, George whispers to Felicity that he knew they were all going to die.}}
 * Jaded Washout:
 * George Diaz is a fairly wealthy actor, but his glory days are gone. He's in denial of it, until learning why he was invited to this exclusive dinner.
 * It's gradually revealed that Julian is this. He did used to love cooking, before the haute-cuisine world and an unexplained tragedy stripped his idealism. {{spoiler|Margot convinces him to spare her when she asks for a proper cheeseburger with fries, bringing back his happy memories of being a line cook, and she asks for it to go.}}.
 * Loony Fan: It's revealed that most of the guy chefs are this, given their fanatical devotion to Julian, and {{spoiler|Tyler takes it to the extreme as he came to Harcourt despite knowing that everyone at the dinner course would die. Julian calls him out for the last part, for getting Margot involved.}}
 * Morton's Fork: As Margot dryly tells Julian, whether or not she's on his side or the patrons' means that she dies anyway.
 * Parting Words Regret: Invoked by George and Felicity; when they start to realize that George can't save himself or her, they start confessing their awful deeds towards each other so they have no regrets when they die. George forgives Felicity for stealing from him, admitting that he probably deserved it, and she does it in turn on learning that he deliberately wrote her a bad reference so that she would never leave him. It probably helped that when George realized he couldn't reason with Julian about saving himself, he begged for Felicity's life.
 * Pet the Dog:
 * Julian implies that if the men make it off the island, he won't stop them. Ted is the last one caught, sensibly hiding in a chicken coup but he is given an amuse-bouche appetizer for his victory.
 * Lillian, known for her Caustic Critic reputation, praises Katherine's dish. While it's implied that she's trying to butter up Katherine to get her help, she doesn't seem to be lying while savoring the food.
 * The chefs make a nice birthday cake for Bryce, one of the tech bros. It's implied it was a joke courtesy of his coworkers as they said it seemed funny five hours ago to tell Julian it was his birthday, but Bryce blows out the candle and gets to eat it.
 * When Margot asks to {{spoiler|take her cheeseburger to go, Julian packs it up nicely and doesn't stop her from getting on the fake Coast Guard boat}}.
 * The Reveal:
 * Turns out that Julian was right that {{spoiler|Margot was lying about who she was; as the women drink during the men's chase, she tells the others that her name is Erin and she's an escort from Massachusetts. Tyler hired her for the evening, explaining it was just a fancy dinner.}}
 * {{spoiler|Tyler knew all along that the guests were going to die. Julian reveals this to Margot and Tyler before the next course starts. Understandably, Margot tackles Tyler for getting her involved way beyond her pay grade.}}
 * Skewed Priorities: Margot gets increasingly annoyed as Tyler spends the evening eating different courses rather than freaking out about the sudden violence or the fact that they're going to die. {{spoiler|On he knew how the evening would go, she tackles him screaming and the chefs have to pull her off Tyler.}}
 * Spanner in the Works: Tyler's ex, Ms. Westveil. She was supposed to be the one at the dinner, as Margot's placecard is addressed to her. But she broke up with Tyler before the movie started, which led to Margot taking her place. Julian lampshades this, saying that {{spoiler|he only meant to kill guilty people, not an escort that had no idea what she was entering.}}
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: Lillian, who is familiar with Julian's theatrics, assumes that {{spoiler|Jeremy shooting himself}} is the "entertainment" for the evening. Tyler's nonchalant reaction -- to keep eating his food-- makes it an understandable error. She's quick to grasp the danger of the situation when Julian spells out that it's not a show.

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