What do you think is most satisfying revenge for your spouse who cheated and broke your heart? Hello, and welcome back to the story. Today we will be making a recap on a 2016 movie titled Nocturnal Animals.
The story begins at an opening party of an art gallery. After the party, the curator named Susan sits alone looking sad. She later goes home to her multi-million mansion.
Susan finds it hard to sleep so she watches TV until morning. That morning, her butler tells her that she has a package from the mailbox. The package contains a novel written by her ex-husband Edward.
It comes with a note saying Edward was inspired to write the novel after Susan left him and he wants her to be the first one to read it before he publish it in the spring. He added that he is currently in L. A.
and would like to see her again after so long. Susan sees the title of the novel is Nocturnal Animals. Susan’s husband, Hutton, later arrives, and she asks him why did he not come by the gallery last night.
Hutton apologizes and says that he would be late for his dinner meeting if he stopped by. Susan says that 15 minutes of his time would have been just enough for her. She then asks why he did not come to bed last night and his excuse is that he does not want to wake her up, but Susan says she was not asleep the whole night.
She then invites him to go to the beach with her alone for the weekend, but Hutton says he needs to go back to the office and then fly back to New York. Susan is puzzled because he just came from there. Hutton says that he has to get the deal done, that’s why he needs to go back.
We then find out that Hutton is having a hard time with his business and the couple are going broke. That night, the two attend a party at their friends’ house. Susan’s friend asks her if she is fine because she seems to be so stressed and not sleeping.
Susan says despite having wealth and everything in her life, she still could not find herself to be happy. She asks Alessia how did she do it, being happy with her married life and she answers that since her husband is gay, they are best friends and love each other completely, and she can be certain that she is the only woman in his life. Susan says she never had that with Hutton.
Hutton interrupts their conversation because he has to leave for New York. Susan wishes him good luck on his deal because she knows he needs it so much. Susan takes sleeping pills and starts reading the novel Edward gave her, which has her name on the dedication page.
The novel begins with a family driving through the interstate road and on their way to Texas. Tony, the head of the family, drives beside his wife Laura. Their daughter, named India, complains because the cell service just went out and Tony says that what he likes about West Texas, no phones, and no people.
A while later, two slow moving cars are blocking the road. Tony honks his horn and one of the cars moves over and lets him pass. But a while later, the cars speed up and starts to harass them until one hit them from behind.
They force Tony off the road and block him. A man named Ray comes over and asks Tony why did he hit their car. Tony asks Ray that they just go to the police to settle it but one of the men says that Tony can’t because he got a flat tire.
He does not believe them, and Ray tells him he should drive and see if they are lying. Tony tries to drive away but he can’t because his tire is flat. Ray offers to fix the tires for them to show they are good men.
Tony has no choice but to get out and open the trunk so he can get the spare tire. Ray then tells him to get his wife and daughter out because they need to lift the car with a jack. Though scared, the ladies had no choice but to get out.
Ray starts to harass India and Tony tries to stop him, but Ray punches him. Tony stops confronting Ray. They finish fixing the tires and the women hurriedly gets inside their car and call Tony.
But Ray and the other man quickly gets inside and drive off. Tony freezes as he watches his wife and daughter being taken away and before he can react, they are gone. Susan quickly closes the book and breathes heavily as she cannot get hold of the suspense of the story.
She calls her husband who is in a hotel with a lady grabbing his arm. Susan asks why he did not call after he reached New York and he says he does not want to wake her up. Hutton tells the elevator operator to floor 31 and Susan wonders because it is not their usual floor, and Hutton answers that their regular room was not available.
When they reach the floor, the operator says, “31 mad am”. Susan freezes and realizes her husband is with another woman. She tells him to take care and hangs up.
Back to the novel, Tony is left with one of the men named Lou who tells him to drive. Tony is worried sick and tries to look in the roadside for his wife and daughter. He sees his car parked beside a trailer, but no one is around, and Lou tells him to keep driving and stop worrying because Ray will do nothing to his wife and kid.
He brings Tony to a dark and deserted place then pulls him out of the car and leaves him. Tony walks alone on the roadside ‘till morning until he sees a house and asks if he could use a phone. A police lieutenant named Bobby asks him what happened, and they start to trace back where Tony was brought that night.
Bobby is confused why Tony let the men drive off his wife and daughter even if they haven’t got any guns. They reach the barbed wire fence, so they get out and walk. In the middle of nowhere, Tony freezes as he looks at his wife and daughter lying naked and lifeless on a red sofa.
Susan grasps and cries at what she has read. She stops reading and has a flashback of when she bumps into her ex-husband Edward in New York. He looks like Tony, the main character in his novel, but without the beard.
Edward and Susan are both from Texas. He is in New York for a scholarship interview at Columbia University while Susan is taking grad school also in the same school. The two went to dinner where Edward confesses that she was his first crush.
When Edward tells Susan that she has same eyes as her mother, she got mad saying she doesn’t want to be like her mom. Edward asks her why she gave up becoming an artist and she says she is too cynical. He then tells her that she underestimates herself too much.
Susan smiles and asks him if he could come home with her, and confesses he was her first crush too. Edward smiles. Back to the novel, police officer Bobby tells Tony that they figured out the cause of death of his family.
His wife had a fractured skull while his daughter suffocated and had a broken arm. Both of them were sexually violated. Bobby also added that on the trailer where Tony found his car parked that night, they found fingerprints of his wife and daughter, and they are now tracing the trailer’s owner.
Susan has a flashback again to when she is having dinner with her mother. Her mother is mad because Susan will leave New York and go back to Texas to be with Edward and marry him. Her mother does not like Edward because for her, he is weak and is beneath their level.
Susan tries to defend Edward, and her mother says she will one day regret it, because Edward would not be able to give her the luxury of life. She then tells Susan that she may not realize it yet, but she and her mother are actually more alike. Susan denies this and says they are nothing alike, and her mother says, “just wait”.
Susan emails Edward saying she is deeply moved by his book, and she wants to meet him. Back to the novel, Tony receives an email from Bobby with a picture of their only lead named Turk, and Tony confirms that he is one of the suspects, but Bobby says nobody has seen Turk lately. Days and months have passed and there is still no progress with the investigation.
We can see that Tony has shaved off his beard. One day, Bobby meets Tony and tells him that three men tried to rob a supermarket. One was able to get away while the other one was caught, and the third one was shot down.
The dead one is Turk. Bobby asks Tony to come see if he can recognize the other one that has been caught. At the station, Tony immediately recognizes the man, and it is Lou, the one who left him in the desert.
Lou tries to deny that he knows Tony, but then Tony reminds him about what they did to him and his family that night. Bobby asks Lou about Ray and Turk, and he denies knowing them. Bobby takes Lou to detention and tells Tony that he’s going to charge Lou with murder using his testimony and the fingerprints they found in the car and the trailer.
Bobby believes that Ray is the third guy in the robbery who was able to get away and he promises Tony, he will find him. Susan is in her office when her staff tells her about her meeting, but she seems out of focus. The staff asks if Susan did not sleep again, and she says she never sleeps that’s why her ex-husband used to call her a Nocturnal Animal.
Susan finds it weird that her ex-husband sends her a violent and sad book which he also titled Nocturnal Animals. The assistant asks if she loved her ex-husband, and Susan says yes but she did not have faith in him and in his writing. She confesses that she did something horrible to her ex-husband and left him brutally for the handsome and attractive Hutton.
At the meeting, the board is discussing about firing a certain employee. Susan disapproves, saying they should support the employee since they were the ones who hired her. One of the board members reminds Susan that she was the one who wanted changes in the company and Susan answers that it is sometimes not good to change things as they were, which might reflect her regret at the change she made in her life.
Back to the novel, Bobby brings Tony to the house where Ray is hanging around. Bobby says Ray has no fingerprints in the crime scene and he has a clean record, but Tony says he is certain that Ray is the guy. The two approach him and invite him to the station.
While on their way, Bobby asks Ray if he recognizes the car they are riding and the man who’s driving, and Ray says he has no idea. Tony, who is crying, turns around and looks at him. He reminds Ray of what he and his friends did to his wife and daughter.
Ray says Tony must be crazy. Bobby cuffs Ray and they bring him to the trailer where Ray and his men assaulted Tony’s wife and daughter. Tony asks Ray to tell the exact story of what happened that night and he tries to deny it again.
Tony gets mad and punches Ray. Flashback to when Susan and Edward are still together. Susan reads a draft novel written by Edward and she tells him that it is not good enough.
She asks him to do something else other than writing. Edward got insulted and Susan says she just wants to be realistic, and she cannot see the future on what he is doing. Edward says Susan is starting to sound like her mother and the two started arguing.
Later at school, Susan meets Hutton, her future new husband. Back to the novel, Bobby calls Tony and tells him that Ray has been released because they have no hard evidence on him. The two meets at a diner and Bobby tells Tony that he has lung cancer and has one year to live.
He has already been asked to retire; however, Bobby is determined to help Tony see justice done and make the guys pay even if he goes against the law. This will be Bobby’s last case and he can’t just stand by and watch a murderer go free. Flashback to when Susan is about to dump Edward.
She tells him that their relationship is not working because they are too different. Edward tries to convince her not to break up with him, but Susan says she wants a better future for herself, and she is unhappy with him. In the novel, Bobby arrests Ray in the bar and brings him into his camp.
Ray tries to protest saying it is illegal because they have no evidence against him, but Bobby just ignores him. A while later, a police officer brings in Lou. Bobby gives Tony the gun because he is not feeling well and has to throw up.
The two run out to escape but Bobby is able to shoot down Lou. Ray, however, was able to run away. Flashback to when Susan is in a clinic with Hutton.
At the car, she says she regrets what she did and worries that Edward might find out. That’s when we discover that Susan just had an abortion with Edward’s baby. Hutton tries to console her and tells her that Edward will never find out.
A while later, they see Edward standing outside their car crying. We now realize that Edward’s meek nature caused him to lose his wife and baby which he used as inspiration for the main character in his novel Tony, whose meek nature also caused him to lose his wife and daughter. Back to the novel, as he see Lou dead, Tony screams, and now it’s coming to him, the regret that if he just fought harder for them, he should have not lost his wife and daughter.
Bobby consoles him and tells him that he is a good man. He asks him to get up because they have to chase Ray, and they split up. Tony drives into the trailer house where he sees Ray and he points the gun at him.
Ray mocks him because he thinks Tony is too weak to use the gun. He then confesses to assaulting Tony’s wife and daughter and says he had fun. When Ray tells him that he is too weak to do anything about it, Tony shoots him, but before he goes down, Ray is able to hit him with a crowbar.
When he wakes up, we see Tony was hit in the eye and he struggles to find his way out. He blindly kicks Ray who is lying on the floor, lifeless. Outside the house, Tony stumbles and accidentally falls on his own gun.
He is panting and struggles to breathe until he finally succumbs to his death. Susan is taking a bath and she suddenly thinks about Edward. While in bed, she receives an email from him asking when and where she wants to meet up.
The next day, Susan dresses up and takes off her ring, and then smiles, excited to see her ex-husband. She arrives at the restaurant and waits for him for hours, but Edward never shows up. Susan cries as she reflects on her terrible choices that lead her to a failing marriage and an unhappy life.
Did you like our movie recap? Please don't forget to like and subscribe to our channel.
