Denis Villeneuve recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1998 · Film

August 32nd on Earth recap

August 32nd on Earth (1998) follows Simone Prevost, a Montreal model who survives a car crash unhurt and decides to have a baby with her best friend. Denis Villeneuve wrote and directed this French-language drama, his first feature, which screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Pascale Bussieres plays Simone, who reconsiders her whole life after the accident: she quits her job, drops a planned trip to Italy and goes looking for Philippe (Alexis Martin), the friend she wants as the father. Philippe is wary of the idea but agrees, on one condition: the child must be conceived in a desert. The two fly to Salt Lake City and drive out onto the Utah salt flats, where the trip turns strange and puts Philippe in danger. Alexis Martin won the Jutra Award for Best Actor, and Canada submitted the film for the foreign-language Oscar. As Villeneuve's first feature, it comes before Maelstrom.

How August 32nd on Earth ends

August 32nd on Earth ends with Philippe badly beaten, and the film leaves it unresolved whether he survives. The journey that begins with Simone surviving one accident closes on violence done to him, and the question of whether the two will have their child is never settled. Villeneuve followed it two years later with Maelstrom, which also opens its story with a car accident.

No. 02 · 2000 · Film

Maelström recap

Maelstrom (2000) follows Bibiane Champagne, a 25-year-old Montreal boutique owner who kills a man in a hit-and-run and then falls in love with his son. Denis Villeneuve wrote and directed it, and the story is narrated by a large talking fish as a fishmonger chops it up. Marie-Josee Croze plays Bibiane, who has just had an abortion, is losing control of the clothing stores she runs with her brother Philippe, and drinks and uses drugs, leaning on her friend Claire. Driving home one night, she hits Annstein Karson, a Norwegian fishmonger, and drives off; he staggers home and dies at his kitchen table. Bibiane reads about the death, thinks about confessing, and instead drives her car into the river to destroy the evidence, surviving. His son Evian (Jean-Nicolas Verreault), a diver, comes home to find his father cremated against his wishes. Bibiane meets him by chance and, posing as a neighbor, helps him sort through his father's things. It is Villeneuve's second feature, after August 32nd on Earth, and the last before a nine-year gap that ended with Polytechnique.

How Maelström ends

Maelstrom ends with Bibiane and Evian together on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, scattering his father's ashes. Evian has skipped a flight to stay with her, and the plane crashes with no survivors. Bibiane then tells him she killed his father. A stranger in a bar, the same man who advised her on the subway, tells him to marry her and never tell anyone. The fish narrator is about to reveal the meaning of life when the fishmonger kills him mid-sentence.

No. 03 · 2009 · Film

Polytechnique recap

Polytechnique (2009) follows two students at the Montreal engineering school on December 6, 1989, the day a gunman murders fourteen women there. Denis Villeneuve directs and co-wrote it with Jacques Davidts, shooting in black and white partly so the blood would not dominate the screen. Karine Vanasse plays Valerie, a student hoping to become an engineer, and Sebastien Huberdeau plays Jean-Francois, a classmate. Maxim Gaudette plays the killer, who is never named. The film opens with the killer preparing his rifle and writing a letter blaming feminists for his life. At the school, he walks into a classroom, fires into the ceiling, orders the men to leave and the women to stay, and opens fire on the women. Jean-Francois goes out as told but turns back to try to help, moving through corridors and the cafeteria as the gunman hunts women. Valerie and her friend Stephanie play dead. The film won nine Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. It is Villeneuve's third feature, made between Maelstrom and Incendies.

How Polytechnique ends

Polytechnique ends with the gunman killing a woman in another classroom and then himself. Stephanie dies of her wounds. Some time later Jean-Francois, unable to live with having left the room when ordered, kills himself with carbon monoxide. Valerie, now an engineer wearing the iron ring, learns she is pregnant and imagines what she will tell her child: if a boy, to be loving, and if a girl, that the world belongs to her.

Post-credits scenes

No. Polytechnique has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 2010 · Film

Incendies recap

Incendies (2010) follows twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan, whose mother's will sends them to the Middle East to find a father and a brother. Denis Villeneuve directs and co-wrote it with Valerie Beaugrand-Champagne from Wajdi Mouawad's play. Lubna Azabal plays their mother Nawal Marwan, Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin plays Jeanne, Maxim Gaudette plays Simon, and Remy Girard plays the notary Jean Lebel. The twins believed their father dead and never knew of a brother; Nawal asks for no headstone until both letters are delivered. Jeanne goes alone at first; the film moves between her search and Nawal's youth in an unnamed country modeled on Lebanon. As a young Christian woman, Nawal had a child with a refugee, whom her family killed; her baby was taken to an orphanage with a tattoo on his heel. During the civil war she searches for him, assassinates a militia leader and spends years in the Kfar Ryat prison, where she is raped by the torturer Abou Tarek. It is Villeneuve's fourth feature, between Polytechnique and Prisoners, and was nominated for the foreign-language Oscar.

How Incendies ends

Incendies ends with the twins learning that their brother and their father are the same man. Nawal's lost son Nihad became a child soldier, then a torturer, and as Abou Tarek he raped her in prison, fathering Jeanne and Simon. Years later, in Canada, Nawal saw his heel tattoo at a swimming pool, recognized him, and fell ill. The twins deliver both letters to him; one condemns the torturer, and the other tells her son he is loved. Nawal gets her headstone, and Nihad visits it.

Post-credits scenes

No. Incendies has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 05 · 2013 · Film

Prisoners recap

Prisoners (2013) follows Keller Dover, a Pennsylvania father who kidnaps and tortures the man he believes took his daughter after the police let him go. Denis Villeneuve directs from Aaron Guzikowski's script. Hugh Jackman plays Keller, and Jake Gyllenhaal plays Detective Loki, who has solved every case he has worked. On Thanksgiving, young Anna Dover and her friend Joy Birch vanish after playing near a parked RV. Its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), a young man with the mind of a child, is arrested and released for lack of evidence. When Alex whispers that the girls did not cry until he left them, Keller takes him to an empty building and beats him, helped reluctantly by Joy's father Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), whose wife Nancy (Viola Davis) learns of it. Maria Bello plays Keller's wife Grace, and Melissa Leo plays Alex's aunt Holly. Loki follows a trail of mazes and a suspect, Bob Taylor, who kills himself in custody. It is Villeneuve's first English-language film and his fifth feature, after Incendies; Enemy was shot first but released later.

How Prisoners ends

Prisoners ends with Keller trapped in a pit beneath Holly Jones's yard. Joy, escaped, tells Keller he was there, and he realizes the house he visited is the answer. Holly confesses that she and her late husband kidnapped children to wage a war on God, and that Alex was their first victim. She holds Keller at gunpoint and puts him in the pit. Loki finds her injecting Anna, kills her in a shootout and races Anna to hospital. Later, at Holly's house, Loki hears the faint sound of Anna's whistle from the ground.

Post-credits scenes

No. Prisoners has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 06 · 2013 · Film

Enemy recap

Enemy (2013) follows Adam Bell, a Toronto history lecturer who spots his exact double as an extra in a rented film and becomes obsessed with meeting him. Denis Villeneuve directs from Javier Gullon's loose adaptation of Jose Saramago's novel The Double. Jake Gyllenhaal plays both Adam and the actor, Anthony Claire, a more aggressive man who lives in Mississauga with his pregnant wife Helen (Sarah Gadon). Melanie Laurent plays Adam's girlfriend Mary, and Isabella Rossellini plays his mother. The film opens in a secret sex club where a woman is about to crush a tarantula under her heel. Adam tracks down Anthony's agency, calls his home and reaches Helen, who goes to see Adam for herself. The two men meet in a hotel room and find they share even the same scar. Spiders keep appearing, including one the size of a skyscraper over the city. Anthony decides Adam has slept with Helen and demands to spend a night with Mary in return. It premiered at Toronto in 2013 and opened in 2014; it follows Prisoners here.

How Enemy ends

Enemy ends with Adam taking over Anthony's life. Anthony takes Mary to a hotel, but she notices the mark of a wedding ring, panics and makes him drive her home, and both die in a crash. Adam spends the night with Helen, who seems to know who he is and asks him to stay. The next morning he opens the envelope from the agency and finds a key to the sex club. He calls to Helen, walks into the bedroom and finds a giant tarantula cowering against the wall.

Post-credits scenes

No. Enemy has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 07 · 2015 · Film

Sicario recap

FBI agent Kate Macer leads a raid on a house in Arizona that turns out to hold dozens of bodies hidden in the walls, and two officers die in a booby trap. She is recruited by Matt Graver, a Department of Defense adviser, onto a task force against the Sonora cartel. With his mysterious partner Alejandro, they cross into Juarez to extract a cartel figure, Guillermo, and kill gunmen at the border crossing. Kate learns the operation is meant to push the cartel boss Manuel Diaz into contact with his superior, Fausto Alarcon. She is nearly strangled by a corrupt police officer set up through a bar date, and finds Matt is using her because the CIA needs an FBI agent present to work at home. The team raids a smuggling tunnel, where Alejandro grabs a Mexican cop, Silvio, and goes into Mexico. It begins Taylor Sheridan's Frontier Trilogy, three films he wrote about violence and lawlessness on the American frontier today.

How Sicario ends

Alejandro kills the cartel boss Alarcon and his family, and forces Kate to sign off on the operation. Alejandro uses Silvio to reach Diaz, kills him, and finds Alarcon at dinner with his family. Alejandro, a former prosecutor whose wife and daughter Alarcon had murdered, shoots Alarcon's family and then Alarcon. He then finds Kate and makes her sign a statement that the operation was legal. As he leaves she aims her gun at him and cannot fire. In Mexico, Silvio's son's football game pauses for distant gunfire.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 08 · 2016 · Film

Arrival recap

Arrival (2016) follows Louise Banks, a linguist brought in by the army when twelve alien ships appear around the world, to learn their language. Denis Villeneuve directs from Eric Heisserer's adaptation of Ted Chiang's 1998 novella "Story of Your Life". Amy Adams plays Louise, Jeremy Renner plays the physicist Ian Donnelly, Forest Whitaker plays Colonel Weber, and Michael Stuhlbarg plays the CIA agent Halpern. The film opens with what seem to be memories of Louise's daughter Hannah dying young. At the Montana site, Louise and Ian enter the ship and meet two seven-limbed heptapods they nickname Abbott and Costello, who write in circular inky symbols. As Louise learns the language, she keeps seeing flashes of Hannah. When she asks why the aliens came, the answer can be read as "offer weapon". China and other countries break off contact and prepare to attack, and rogue soldiers plant a bomb on the Montana ship. Arrival is Villeneuve's eighth feature, between Sicario and Blade Runner 2049, and won the Oscar for sound editing.

How Arrival ends

Arrival ends with Louise understanding that the visions of Hannah are of the future: the heptapod language lets its speakers perceive time all at once, and that is the gift they came to give, because they will need humanity's help in 3,000 years. Using a future memory, she calls China's General Shang (Tzi Ma) and repeats his late wife's dying words, and he stands down. The ships leave. Louise accepts Ian's love knowing their daughter will die and that he will leave her.

Post-credits scenes

No. Arrival has no mid- or post-credits scene.

No. 09 · 2017 · Film

Blade Runner 2049 recap

In 2049, the Wallace Corporation makes obedient replicants, and K, a newer-model replicant, works as an LAPD blade runner retiring older Nexus models. After killing one, Sapper Morton, K finds a box buried under a tree containing the bones of a replicant woman who died in childbirth: Rachael, who escaped with Deckard. A replicant giving birth was believed impossible, and K's boss, Lieutenant Joshi, orders him to destroy all evidence so it doesn't lead to war. The industrialist Niander Wallace wants the child to unlock replicant reproduction and sends his replicant enforcer Luv after it. K's memory of a wooden horse turns out to be real, and he believes he may be the child. He tracks Deckard to a ruined Las Vegas. Luv kills Joshi, captures Deckard, and a replicant resistance tells K that the child was a girl.

How Blade Runner 2049 ends

K realises he is not the child and his memory belongs to someone else. He stops Luv taking Deckard off-world and drowns her, wounded himself. He takes Deckard to meet his daughter, Dr. Ana Stelline, a memory designer who made K's memory. As Deckard walks into her lab, K lies down on the steps outside in the snow, possibly dying.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 10 · 2021 · Film

Dune recap

In the year 10191, Emperor Shaddam IV orders House Atreides to take over Arrakis, the desert planet that is the only source of spice, from House Harkonnen. Duke Leto Atreides suspects a trap but goes, hoping to win over the Fremen, the planet's desert people. His son Paul has visions of the desert and a Fremen girl, and the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam tests him with a box of pain and a poisoned needle. His mother, Lady Jessica, is a Bene Gesserit who trained him in their ways, including the Voice. On Arrakis, Leto meets Fremen leader Stilgar and the planetologist Liet-Kynes. The Harkonnens and the emperor's Sardaukar soldiers attack, helped by the Atreides doctor Yueh, who has been forced to betray them. Duke Leto dies trying to kill Baron Harkonnen with a poison tooth. Duncan Idaho dies defending Paul and Jessica.

How Dune ends

Paul and Jessica escape into the deep desert and meet Stilgar's Fremen, including Chani, the girl from Paul's visions. A Fremen named Jamis challenges Paul to a knife duel, and Paul kills him, earning his place in the tribe. Paul and Jessica walk with the Fremen into the desert, and Paul sees a Fremen ride a sandworm. The story continues in Dune: Part Two.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 11 · 2024 · Film

Dune: Part Two recap

Paul and Jessica live among Stilgar's Fremen in the deep desert. Paul fights the Harkonnens alongside Chani and falls in love with her, while Stilgar believes Paul is the Lisan al Gaib, the messiah promised by the Bene Gesserit's planted prophecies. Jessica drinks the Water of Life to become the tribe's Reverend Mother, and through it, her unborn daughter Alia speaks to her. Paul rides a sandworm and takes the name Paul Muad'Dib Usul. Baron Harkonnen replaces his brutal nephew Rabban with his younger nephew Feyd-Rautha, a psychotic fighter the Bene Gesserit want to breed with Paul's line. Gurney Halleck returns, and Paul learns he himself is the Baron's grandson through his mother. After Feyd-Rautha destroys the Fremen's northern camp, Paul goes south and drinks the Water of Life, seeing a holy war that will burn the universe if he leads it.

How Dune: Part Two ends

Paul declares himself the messiah to the southern Fremen, then attacks the emperor at Arrakeen with sandworms and atomics. He kills the Baron and defeats Feyd-Rautha in a duel, and Shaddam surrenders. Paul demands to marry Princess Irulan to take the throne, and when the Great Houses refuse, he sends the Fremen to war across the stars. Chani refuses to bow and leaves on a sandworm.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.