The Knife Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: What Happens To Chris?

It’s 2026, decades since slavery was abolished, but sadly, racism and discrimination are far from being resolved in this so-called modern world. If Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” showed us racism in the early 1930s and how members of the Klan wanted to destroy people of color trying to start a business of their own, Nnamdi Asomugha’s “The Knife” shows us a young Black couple in America trying to live a normal life, only to get devastated when they’re up against the system and people who are very obviously racist under their civilized masks. The film pretty much revolves around the interrogation the family goes through, which includes kids, and how they’re constantly forced to plead guilty to a crime that never happened. What’s ironic is that even though the Black family is surrounded by White cops, a White forensic team, and a White detective leading it all, the only Asian cop in the group feels equally powerless as the family who are being harassed. It speaks volumes that even in this day and age where being discriminatory and racist can get you cancelled, law enforcement doesn’t necessarily fall under that bracket, and people will still function under their prejudices as long as that serves them. 

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the film?

“The Knife” begins with a monologue by Chris, a young man who works in construction to provide for his family. Chris mentions that his grandmother once said each of our actions has consequences, and once we make the choice to do something, we must follow through and face the consequences for that. Now this comes back at the very end, so try to remember this very simple thing we all should be repeating to ourselves at least once every day anyway. Chris and his wife, Alex, have three kids: Kendra, Ryley, and Ashley, who is an infant. Chris and Alex are clearly into each other, and their marriage seems to be going really well even after three kids, which is rare for even child-free couples. But one dreadful night changes it all when Chris hears something in the house, and when he goes to check, he finds a white woman has broken into the house. 

Why does Alex plant a knife on the intruder?

Chris confronts the intruder and asks her to identify herself or if she needs help. But no matter how many times Chris asks, the woman refuses to speak a word. The silence finally breaks when the woman lunges at Chris, implying she’s attacking Chris, and the next shot shows us that the woman is knocked out on the ground. When Alex and the kids come downstairs, they find Chris looking visibly panicked, and he doesn’t seem to recall anything that happened between them. One might be confused here as to why Chris would be unable to remember something that happened minutes ago. Before Chris went to sleep earlier, he had a beer and a couple of pills from a bottle that’s not labelled. So this little cocktail obviously has its effect on the man, who now can’t seem to figure out this very stressful situation on his own.  Alex checks if the woman is still breathing, and Chris decides to call the police. The couple is obviously panicking for the right reasons, as they know very well that if their stories don’t match, it’s going to end badly for them. They tell the kids to tell the truth, and one of the kids even Googles to confirm that one is completely safe if they defend themselves against an intruder by attacking them. But just before the cops arrive, the paranoia creeps over the family, and Alex gives in to the fear. One of their knives is on the floor, right beside the intruder’s body, and Alex takes the knife and plants it in the woman’s hand. Chris gets worked up seeing his wife do such a stupid thing, but he finds himself helpless and unable to change anything as cops walk through the door. 

How does Detective Carlsen trick the family? 

Officer Padilla radios his unit that the “victim” is out cold on the floor, and the family is unarmed, implying from the very first moment that the woman posed no threat to a family with children. Then comes Detective Carlsen, an old woman who doesn’t look like she’s playing around with this. She tries to sound reasonable to the family as if she doesn’t want them to get into trouble, but her words and tone clearly suggest that they should fear the consequences if they say anything wrong. The interrogation starts with Alex, who tells Carlsen that when she came downstairs, the woman was already on the floor and that her husband defended himself against the intruder. When asked about the knife, Alex claims the knife doesn’t belong to them, which is her second mistake in the whole thing. Chris also sticks to the same story, but when Carlsen demands more details of the confrontation, Chris fails to do so. Carlsen realizes that the couple are hiding something, so she figures it’s best if she targets their kids. Carlsen goes to interrogate Ryley, but before she enters the room, Carlsen lies in the recording, claiming that Ryley’s mother is present while she’s interrogating the kid. Ryley tells Carlsen that her dad was smelling like beer, and her mother prohibits Chris from drinking since he’s not himself when he drinks. She also mentions that Chris told Alex that he panicked when he saw the intruder. Just when Carlsen begins to think she’s getting a solid motive to pin Chris down, Ryley asks her if she can see her mother, compromising the recording and this whole conversation. Carlsen sets her eyes on Kendra next, and Alex asks Kendra to not say anything without her being right beside her, but Carlsen tries to get her officers to keep Alex away. Alex is literally holding a crying baby in her arms and asking to be with her daughter during an interrogation, but Carlsen thinks it’s best if she’s escorted back to the bedroom. Kendra gets an asthma attack, and Carlsen behaves as unprofessionally as one can, still trying to ask her questions. Chris hears this whole fiasco and tries to get inside the house, but the cops point their guns at him to make sure he doesn’t barge in. For a family that just survived an intruder, it’s heartbreaking to see the police treat them like they’re the criminals. Chris is on his knees, his hands up in surrender, as he tells the cops that his daughter needs her inhaler, and when he goes to get it, he tries to retrieve his pills, which went down the sink. Carlsen notices the little incident, and despite Chris asking her to stop this harassment, she won’t budge. She proceeds to interrogate Kendra, but when she won’t reveal anything new but exactly what the rest of the family said, Carlsen starts to interpret what really happened herself. To be fair, she does guess everything right. An intruder breaks into Chris’ house, and he panics seeing somebody that can threaten his family. When he knocks her out and calls the cops, the family realizes that it’d look a little less bad if the intruder held a knife. Carlsen also figures out that it was Alex who planted the knife, but Kendra shouts that it wasn’t her, only confirming Carlsen’s suspicion. 

Why does the police arrest Chris? 

After Carlsen is done interrogating everybody, it looks like Chris and his family are safe. She tells them that the intruder, Mary, is alive and out of danger. Mary lives in the same neighborhood, and Carlsen figures that she’s an addict who broke into their house trying to look for anything of use. But Carlsen knows that Chris took Xanax and OxyContin at the same time, and while they’re perfectly fine medications on their own, when they’re taken together along with alcohol, the user can get uncontrollably high. But even though the intruder is alive, Carlsen pins Chris and his wife for lying about the knife, and she arrests Chris for tampering with the crime scene. While a person of a different race could’ve shot the very same intruder multiple times and it’d be completely fine, Chris is cursed with the color of his skin, as he’s snatched from his family and life by bigots. As Chris is being taken to the station, we overhear the cops communicating via radio about the case. The story the cops weave is that Chris is in possession of controlled substances and he was selling, and when Mary, “the victim,” broke into the house, Chris knocked her out and messed around with the crime scene, which isn’t technically a crime scene either. One of the cops even asks their colleague to check if Chris has any priors, and that tells you everything you need to know. Chris never stood a chance against a system where people of his race seldom get justice, and even though Alex could’ve made some better choices, you can’t blame a woman for being anxious about the cops for very valid reasons. 

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