This post includes a brief plot summary and an explanation about the ending of the 2014 film “The Loft”.
Directed by Erik Van Looy, the 2014 thriller stars Karl Urban as Vincent, Wentworth Miller as Luke, James Marsden as Chris, Eric Stonestreet as Marty and Matthias Schoenaerts as Philip. There are two versions of this film. Today’s post is solely based on the 2014 remake, not the original.
The Loft tells the story of five friends who decide to share a penthouse. They would use the place for their extra marital affairs. Everything appeared to be going well for the men until they discovered a dead woman in the bed of their penthouse. Soon after, suspicions arise among the friends, and they begin to turn against one another.
What Is Going On In “The Loft”? (Plot Explained)
Some time earlier, Vincent began an affair with a young woman named Sarah (the victim). In the beginning, it was all sweet for both. As time passed, Sarah’s feelings for Vincent grew deeper. But the latter wasn’t as serious about his mistress as she was about him. Heartbroken, Sarah decides to take her own life with sleeping pills.
Plot Twist no. 1: The four friends knew about Sarah’s death before Vincent arrived at the penthouse. Luke found the body and called Marty, Philip and Chris. Before calling the police, Luke shows the others what Vincent has been doing behind their back.
Basically, their so-called friend slept with or was sleeping with a few of the women in their lives: Philip’s little sister and Marty’s wife. Not only that, but Vincent also paid Ann to seduce Chris. Enraged, the four friends plot to expose Vincent. Their plan was to tie him to Sarah’s suicide. Once the police find out about the affair, Vincent’s reputation and married life would technically be over.
During interrogation, Chris learns that the police are no longer ruling Sarah’s death a suicide. They are charging Chris with the murder of Sarah. The revelation leaves Chris quite surprised because all of his friends were certain that Sarah committed suicide. Confused, Chris goes back to the penthouse to find Sarah’s suicide letter to prove Vincent’s innocence. There, he finds another familiar face.
Plot Twist no. 2: Sarah did not write the suicide letter because she did not kill herself. Luke was secretly in love with her. The night Sarah and Vincent broke up, Luke went to the penthouse to console her. After seeing that Sarah would never be able to reciprocate his feelings, Luke decides to murder her. In order to do that, he slips some sleeping pills into her drink. Then, Luke injects her body with a large amount of insulin. The overdose, in theory, should have killed Sarah, but it didn’t.
The Ending of “The Loft” Explained
The ending of “The Loft” reveals that Luke forged Sarah’s suicide letter. After confessing his crimes, Luke tries to kill Chris. However, the latter had called the police moments earlier. After hearing the sirens, Luke apologizes and jumps to his death.
Why did Luke forge the suicide letter?
Luke forged the suicide letter because he needed Sarah’s death to look like a suicide. As mentioned before, when Vincent left Sarah, she was still alive. In that particular scene, the young woman was visibly upset at Vincent. However, there were no signs indicating that she had intentions of taking her own life that night.
After realizing that Sarah was never going to be able to love him back, Luke decides to end her life. According to him, he wanted to spare her more heartbreak. Knowing Vincent better than anyone else, Luke knows that his friend would never take his relationship with Sarah seriously.
Who killed Sarah in “The Loft”?
Technically speaking, Luke started the murder of Sarah and Philip was the one who killed her. There is a difference between killing and murder. In Luke’s case, he committed attempted murder. There was premeditation in his actions. Luke planned to kill Sarah that night, as he brought the sleeping pills and the insulin shot.
Philip, on the other hand, had no intention of killing Sarah. First of all, he didn’t even know her. Second, Philip had no idea that she was alive when he slit her wrist. Luke misled everyone by saying that Sarah was dead. Without a reason to doubt Luke at the time, the friends had no choice but to believe him. Having said that, Philip was just trying to help his friends expose Vincent by making Sarah’s suicide more evident.
What happens to the friends after the investigation?
The police dropped the charges against Vincent. After the incident, the architect’s wife leaves him. From what it looks like, she took most of his assets. Ironically, the woman left Vincent “the penthouse”, which is now his current home.
Marty and his wife get back together. Philip is going on trial for killing Sarah. And Chris divorces his wife. One day, he stumbles upon Ann again. The woman tells him that she stopped seeing the councilman and also that she is no longer prostituting herself. Although it’s not certain, it seems that Chris and Ann are going to give each other another chance.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, “The Loft” is a very solid thriller. Although I knew the killer was going to be the person we least suspect in the story, I couldn’t figure it out right away. In retrospect, it makes sense that Luke is the killer. Out of all the five men, he was the only one who wasn’t having an affair. So what was Luke doing in the apartment? However, sometimes our primary instinct is kind of swept away because the film keeps introducing new elements to the story.
Although I enjoyed the film, I can also see why some other viewers might dislike it. You see, there is no one likeable in “The Loft”. Let’s start with Vincent, the womanizer. He is a disgusting person. His unfaithfulness is not his ugliest trait, his will to corrupt others is. What kind of person hires a prostitute to seduce a friend just to test his integrity?
Then, there is Marty. On the surface, he is the most verbally vulgar out of the five friends. But oddly enough, he is also the least messed up. Let’s see, out of the five, Marty didn’t kill anyone, nor did he backstab his friend for fun.
Now, there is someone in this story who is almost as disgusting as Vincent, and that would be Philip. He is Chris’s half brother and quite a troublemaker. What do I dislike about him? He likes to use his unfortunate childhood as a crutch for his terrible actions. Let’s not forget that Philip is a heavy drug user, a shameless womanizer, a misogynist and an occasional rapist. Despite his rough upbringing, people can still make choices, and Philip chose to be a mediocre human being.
Let’s move on to Chris. Out of the five friends, he is the “nice guy”. However, in my opinion, he is problematic too. First of all, he slept with some random woman while being married to his wife at the time. Not only that, but Chris keeps fantasizing about Ann when his wife is simply right next to him. Second, he did not call the police when his half-brother sexually assaulted a prostitute. Often, silence in these cases is also a form of complicity.
Last but not least, there is Luke. I must say, he is definitely the creepiest of them all. On the surface, Luke also looks like a goody two-shoes, just like Chris. However, his man harbours deep secrets inside him. For instance, the man was madly in love with Sarah.
Who would’ve thought that a quiet man like Luke would have such a profound obsession for someone he barely knows? That’s not even the creepy part. Oh no, what this man did to that poor girl after he got rejected is way worse.
No matter how Luke justifies what he did, it just seems that he couldn’t take no for an answer. Also, for someone who calls Vincent his best friend, Luke definitely had a lot of resentment towards him. Then, when things didn’t go his way at the very end, he decided to jump off the balcony.
As I said before, I enjoyed the film and the plot kept me entertained the entire time. However, I must say the following: the plot is believable because of the actors’ solid performances. I’m really not sure what would’ve happened if the chosen actors were average (at best), given that they were playing such dislikeable characters.