Directed by Nour Wazzi, the Netflix thriller Locked In has just been released, starring Finn Cole, Rose Williams, and Famke Janssen in the lead. The trailer set high expectations for the film, but unfortunately, it fails to be anything other than haphazard storytelling with some mediocre suspense. Locked In follows the conflicting relationship between Katherine and her adoptive daughter Lina, who later became her daughter-in-law. Lina, who felt stuck in her marriage, found solace in an extramarital affair, but the narrative took a dark turn when she came to know the real intentions of those around her. Let’s see how Lina navigates through such a treacherous situation and saves herself.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
Locked In opens with a severely injured Katherine opening her eyes in a hospital bed. The assigned nurse, Nicky, tried to communicate with her through the alphabet, asking her to blink at the letters to express what had happened to her, but Katherine was too weak to speak or blink at her. Nicky met with Lina and asked her to talk about Katherine and what their relationship was like.
Katherine was a famous TV star who was married to a very wealthy individual. As her husband fell ill and, before his death, left all his wealth to his son, Jamie, it created conflicts in their relationship. Jamie was a young guy with locked-in syndrome who felt the absence of his parents and yearned for his stepmother Katherine to give him the love and care he needed, but Katherine was too busy with her schedule. Meanwhile, Lina’s mother, who was Katherine’s best friend, lost her life, leading Katherine to become Lina’s legal guardian. Lina always felt the responsibility that she needed to serve the family and try as hard as she could to stop the family from breaking up. In childhood, she and Jamie were inseparable, but slowly their feelings for each other escalated into a romantic relationship, prompting Jamie to ask Lina to marry him.
The feelings between Jamie and Lina were not always mutual because, most of the time, Jamie used to blame Lina for her mother’s death. Lina used to tolerate it all and kept on tending to him. After their marriage, Katherine couldn’t even stand Lina anymore. She always brought up how one day she took Lina into her family when she was nothing, and now she had become the owner of their mansion, leaving nothing for Katherine. Katherine’s taunting always used to hurt Lina, but in her mind, she kept enduring this pain and trying not to pay attention to her vile words. In the meantime, we are also introduced to a character named Dr. Robert, who is the family consultant for Jamie. Robert had a fixation with Lina, who initially hesitated to open herself up in front of Robert, but gradually the two of them got closer and formed a romantic relationship with each other.
How Did Jamie Die?
Jamie had made Lina’s life a living hell. Whenever Lina used to take a stroll outside or go swimming, he kept calling her back to the mansion. Jamie intended to lock Lina up inside the mansion, just like he was locked up inside. He never considered Lina to be a different individual with her own dreams and desires; instead, he kept forcing her to tend to him all the time. Meanwhile, Lina and Robert started seeing each other regularly, so one day, when Lina asked him to leave all this and run away, Robert asked her to hold her patience. Robert was not actually in love with Lina, and all he wanted was her money. So he hatched a plan to get rid of Jamie so that he could enter the picture, get married to Lina, and grab the entire property. He was even prescribing Jamie some painkillers to give him a slow death, but one day he planned to finish Jamie in one go. One day, Robert brainwashed Jamie to take a boat ride on the river and travel to an island. Jamie was excited about the trip, even though Lina didn’t want him to go. Lina could sense the potential danger, but she still followed Robert’s commands. As Robert took the two of them on the boat trip, he intentionally overturned the boat. While Lina tried to save Jamie, Robert killed him under the water and pretended that Jamie had drowned because he didn’t know how to swim.
What Happened To Katherine?
After Jamie’s death, Robert asked Lina to sell the mansion to acquire a large sum of money and live their lives anew. But Lina didn’t feel like selling it, as she believed Katherine would be left all alone if the house was sold. As Robert tried to force Lina by nagging her to do it, Lina understood that Robert had always been after her money. As Lina tried to break up, Robert showed her the journal that she used to write regularly. In that journal, Lina penned down her fantasies of killing her husband when she was frustrated with his behavior. By showing her that journal, Robert tried to threaten her with revealing her secrets if she didn’t comply with his demands.
But Lina managed to elude his capture and rushed into the house. She packed her bags and was about to leave, but she was stunned to find that Katherine and Robert were making love, suggesting that Robert not only pretended to love Lina but also continued seeing Katherine at the same time. Seemingly he was hatching a scheme with Katherine to grab all the property by killing Lina. As Lina spotted them and tried to run away, Robert chased her. Robert frantically tried to capture her to put an end to her life, but Katherine never wanted to hurt Lina. Instead of hurting Lina, she shot at Robert’s car’s tire to stop him. She tried to persuade him not to harm Lina and leave her alone, but Robert, who had already made up his mind, ran his car over Katherine out of wrath. Still, Katherine survived as Lina later rushed her into the hospital, but when Lina realized that Katherine was trying to turn against her, she tried to join forces with Robert to finish her for good.
Did Lina Manage To Rescue Katherine?
As Katherine started recovering gradually, Nicky wanted her to communicate through the alphabet and managed to learn everything that had happened to Katherine the previous night. Lina thought Katherine was complaining about her, so together with Robert, she managed to take Katherine out of the hospital bed and run away right under Nicky’s nose. Robert was all set to kill Katherine by giving her a lethal drug, but in the meantime, Nicky texted Lina. Nicky, who had learned about the truth from Katherine, told Lina everything in a voice message, which changed Lina’s perspective about the whole scenario. She trusted Nicky’s words and forgave Katherine because, at the end of the day, it was Katherine who wanted to save her. She made a plan to rescue Katherine and asked Robert to hand her over the syringe, as she wanted to kill Katherine herself.
As Lina was ready to push the drug into Katherine’s veins, she changed her direction and injected the syringe into Robert instead of Katherine. However, as Robert wasn’t yet affected by the drug, he tried to kill Katherine anyway, but Lina grabbed a knife and pushed it right into his chest, finishing him off. In the concluding moments of the film, we see Nicky arrive at the mansion, as well as the police. The police were seen collecting Robert’s dead body while Nicky and Lina stood in front of their house along with Katherine in her wheelchair. As Lina asked Nicky if she had told the police anything, Nicky remained silent.
Locked In didn’t reveal what exactly the aftermath of this murderous event was, but probably Lina would be able to get away with it, saying that she had killed Robert in self-defense or she would just serve a prison sentence for the murder of Robert. The film ended awfully without giving a proper explanation. The execution of the entire plot was too haphazard, which was nothing but a disappointment in the name of a thriller.
