'Dominique' Movie Ending Explained And Recap: Did Dominique End The Cartel's Terror?

Michael S. Ojeda’s filmography boasts three major features, including the recently released action flick Dominique, and all three of them deal with an exceptionally strong female lead going down a violent path to seek revenge against the men who have wronged them. Unlike Ojeda’s last two entries, namely Avenged and The Russian Bride, which had certain intrigue and complexity in their narratives, Dominique is a simplistic, no-nonsense, fast-paced action spectacle that doesn’t allow viewers a chance to settle down. Actor Oksana Orlan, who played the lead role in Ojeda’s previous feature, returns as the titular mercenary/assassin, whose bloody quest for vengeance against corrupt police forces and cartels in a small South American town makes for an entertaining watch. 

Spoilers Ahead

Dominique’s Past

An aircraft is seen shot down in some corner of La Guajira desert, Colombia, and a bunch of cartel members—who brought the plane down using their arsenal—soon reach the location to search for anything of value from the wreckage. An injured Dominique, the pilot and the only crew of the craft, regains consciousness and kills all the present cartel members with brutal, swift precision. The only possession Dominique has is a large wooden crate, which she buries at the outskirts of a nearby town, San Lucas. She destroys the cartel jeep she used to travel to the town and decides to lay low for a while. Through flashbacks of her memories of the past and her conversations with others, we get to know a little about her murky past. Dominique, who seemingly served in the Ukrainian Air Force, at some point got herself caught in the clutches of the Russian mafia, and her comrade, Tolik, arranged for the means to get her out of that mess. Tolik and Dominique had planned to move to the idyllic hamlet of Parque Tayrona to turn a new page in their lives; however, Tolik was killed in an ambush by the Russian mafia while leaving with Dominique. An enraged Dominique killed the gangsters, along with her tormentor, to escape whom she had made plans with Tolik. It is also revealed that Dominique was trained in the art of combat by her unknown guardian, and the phoenix tattoo on her back conveys that she made a name for herself using her deadly skills. After Tolik’s death, Dominique left her country and decided to move to Parque Tayrona, where her aircraft was shot down by the cartel. 

At a bar in San Lucas, Dominique gets acquainted with a local cop, Julio, who warns her to stay vigilant, given the present degenerated state of the town. Julio remembers that, in the past, the town was a great place to be, until the cartel took control over it and ruined everything. However, a jaded Dominique isn’t interested in knowing the history of the town, which she is going to leave soon enough. She quickly hits it off with Julio, and the duo spends a night together. The next day, as Julio leaves for his office at the local police station, Dominique gets acquainted with Julio’s extended family—his pregnant, widowed sister Paulina, her children—Abril, Lucas, and a mute Juana, and the wheelchair-bound father of Paulina and Julio. Dominique had sustained a nasty gunshot wound in her head in the past, which causes her to lose consciousness when dehydrated for a long time, prompting Paulina to call Dr. Raul Medina, their family friend/Paulina’s lover with whose child she is pregnant at the moment. As Dominique gets better, Paulina takes her to a local mechanic to fix her up with a ride, but it will take a day’s time, so Dominique has to stick around for a while longer. Dominique learns the true extent of the police’s corruption from Paulina, as she reveals that her straight-arrow cop brother, Julio, had lost his wife and son at the hands of his police comrades—all of whom are working as enforcers of the local De La Cruz cartel leader, Gabriela. 

Why was Julio Killed?

On the other hand, at the police station, Julio finds out that police chief Santiago’s brother-in-law, Hector, was one of the cartel members who were butchered by the person whose aircraft crash landed nearby. In suspicion of outsider interference, Santiago captures two American tourists and, with the help of his subordinates, viciously tortures them to death, and the entire ordeal gets secretly recorded by Julio. Later that night, Dominique finds herself at ease with Julio’s family as they celebrate Abril’s birthday, and Julio meets with an official from internal affairs to expose the entire police unit of the town. Julio wants a way out for his family in exchange for arrangements to settle in the States, far away from the dreadful mess of his hometown; however, the official turns out to be in cahoots with the police and cartel as well, as he betrays Julio, who gets captured by Santiago’s men. The evidence at Julio’s disposal is seized and destroyed, but Santiago is aware that there might be more copies of the recorded footage—and he threatens Julio with the lives of his family members, till he ends up confessing that the only copies made of the footage are on his laptop at home. 

The next day, Julio’s family wakes up to a horrendous revelation as a group of cops bring his severed head to them as a means of sending a message. Dominique decides to confront the police, and using a distraction made by Julio’s father to her advantage, she lays waste to all the crooked cops by gunning them down—all except one, who informs Santiago about the situation. 

Was Dominique Able to End the Cartel’s Terror?

However, Dominique decides to leave and suggests Julio’s family take shelter according to their convenience. She feels that by saving the family, her debts have been repaid, and she no longer needs to stay to see how much the situation worsens for them. Knowing that the only way for her family to have a minimum chance of survival is to stick with Dominique, Abril desperately pleads for her help, and as she fails to appeal to Dominique’s senses, Abril questions her integrity and mocks her purposeless existence. This seems to have pushed the right buttons, as Dominique decides to stay and help the family get out of this mess. 

Santiago decides to meet with Dominique alone and gives her a chance to walk away from all this by handing him over the laptop, and Dominique rejects his proposition with her usual reckless demeanor. Anticipating the arrival of Santiago’s lackeys, Dominique prepares an elaborate light trap to disorient them in time, and Abril is given the responsibility of handling it while Dominique takes a defensive position. Knowing that there won’t be any possible way to leave the town through roadways, Dominique contacts Dr. Medina to arrange a safe exit through an ambulance at a rendezvous point. 

At night, Santiago’s enforcers surround Julio’s house, and Dominique’s trap works perfectly, making it easier for her to kill numerous of the invading cops. Amidst this cataclysmic situation, Paulina gives birth to her child, and sustaining a fatal injury, her father passes away moments after taking a look at his grandchild’s face. Abril’s boyfriend, who stood guard for the family as well, passed away during the vicious conflict. As Dominique manages to kill all of the attackers, she forces one of the survivors to relay the message to Santiago that Julio’s family has perished in the conflict as well. Dominique leads the surviving family to the rendezvous point, and on their way, she shares a moment with Paulina by revealing the real reason she was visiting Colombia. Paulina mentions that if Dominique eventually reaches Tayrona, she should pay a visit to Paulina’s uncle, Pepe, a gangster turned priest working at the church of Santa Lucia, and inform him how she helped his family survive the present crisis. Possibly from the shock of the events that transpired through the night, Juana is able to speak again.

Initially, it seems everything is going in the right direction, as Medina arrives safely at the rendezvous point with an ambulance and Dominique prepares to take her leave. However, Santiago had informed Gabriela, the cartel chief, about Dominique’s exploits, and she agreed to lend her men to scour the area for the family. Cartel members end up finding them and shooting Medina to death, prompting another prolonged gunfight with Dominique as Abril tries her best to escape by driving the ambulance away. Dominique kills all of the cartel crew, and Abril nearly drives her family to a safer location when a cartel-armored vehicle blocks their way and kills every single member of the family. An enraged, devastated Dominique kills the arriving cartel members and prepares to avenge Julio’s family. 

Dominique takes the laptop to a secure connection and manages to expose Santiago and the entire police force of San Lucas to the media, and a terrified Santiago seeks shelter at Gabriela’s mansion. However, Dominique digs up her wooden crate, which is revealed to contain a huge amount of cash, a number of passports, guns, and ammunition—and using the latter, she eliminates the cartel presence from the town by killing every single member inside Gabriela’s mansion—sparing the life of Santiago’s wife, who breaks down in agony. Dominique has avenged the death of Julio’s family and has ensured that their demise doesn’t go in vain at the same time.

Sometime later, Dominique visits Tayrona and goes to Santa Lucia Church to meet Pepe. As she hands him over Paulina’s bracelet, Pepe is shocked to realize that she shares a connection with his family, and the movie comes to an end. Will Dominique find peace at long last and start a new life, or like a moth to a flame, she will find herself inevitably entangled in violence again and again? Guess we will know the answer if the makers decide to continue her journey further. 

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