Let’s dismantle Postcard murders‘ ends for those who just watched the movie.
The film follows Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Jacob Kanon and Famke Janssen’s Valerie Kanon, a divorced couple who are struck by tragedy when their daughter and her husband are brutally murdered while on their honeymoon in London. It quickly becomes clear that the murder is the work of a vicious serial killer whose deed is nowhere close.
The film is based on the 2010 novel of the same name by James Patterson and Liza Marklund.
The end of postcard murders explained
Most Postcard murders, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s retired cop tries to find the person responsible for his daughter’s death. Turns out it’s not just one person, but two.
Sylvia and Mac, the two tourists who were first set up as innocents (and possible victims) in the story, are actually a murderous duo. Not only that, but their real names are Simon and Marina Haysmith.
The two are in an incest-free relationship and feel like social outcasts. Their brutal crimes are, so to speak, a cry for attention and a plea for understanding.
The siblings came from a rough upbringing with an abusive father with unorthodox teachings – who is currently in prison for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from his clients.
He also schooled his children heavily in art history, which they use in their open acts of rebellion. Each pair of victims he kills and mutilates is posed to match a famous piece of art displayed in the city where the murder takes place.
Jacob Kanon works with journalist Jessie Lombardi to publish a feature on the killers, telling them that they have been seen and their motives are understood. This is also meant to draw the killer duo out, which it does – but has the unintended side effect of them choosing Lombardi as their final victim.
Simon and Marina kidnap Lombardi, but before they can kill and pose him, Jacob catches up. In the ensuing fight, Simon is shot while Jacob helps Lombardi.
Simon and Marina get rid of Jacob, but he trusts that the two have nowhere to run. It looks like Simon won’t get very far because he dies in Marina’s arms.
Are Simon and Marina really dead?
At the end of the day, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Jacob Kanon finds peace—or at least as much as he can after their daughter is brutally murdered, mutilated, and posed. He also finds out that the siblings had no blood vessels of any kind with each other; both were adopted.
Regardless of the ending Postcard murders to solve the case, neither killer is ever caught, not even their bodies.
While it’s probably safe to assume that Ruairi O’Connor’s Simon Haysmith died of his injuries, Naomi Battrick’s Marina Haysmith is still out there. This is confirmed when, in the final scene of the film, Denis O’Hare’s Simon Haysmith (the father of the killer duo) receives a call from Marina herself.
It seems like the writers wanted to set the stage for some kind of sequel, but at the moment it doesn’t look like that will happen. The audience must leave what happens next to their imaginations.
Whatever happens, it probably won’t go well for the currently incarcerated Simon Haysmith.
After writing, Postcard murders now streaming on Netflix.