‘No More Bets’ Movie Ending Explained And Recap: Do Pan And Anna Escape?

I’m not quite sure what to make of No More Bets, the latest Chinese blockbuster that has just dropped on Netflix. On one hand, the movie has a positive message. Well, more of a good warning than a message—don’t fall prey to online scams. But the depiction of it on screen is unintentionally hilarious and can’t be taken seriously, at least as cinema. Of course, it’s evident that the Chinese government made their influence felt, given how the film is so desperate to make the police the ultimate savior in the end. And it’s never great when politicians start dictating cinema in this manner. No More Bets is no exception. It did make a lot of money in the box office, which is understandable, as quite often this kind of ‘message-oriented movies’ trick people into believing they are actually good. Anyway, since you’re here, I take it you have watched the film on Netflix and are confused about certain things in it. I also found myself lost at certain moments while watching, but then I realized the technical mumbo-jumbo hardly matters here. So we’re not really going to get into that side of things. Instead, let us just simplify the plot and what happens at the end of No More Bets.

Spoilers Ahead


What Happens in the Movie? 

Computer programmer Pan Sheng gets frustrated at not receiving a deserving promotion as director at the company he works for. That leads to him dramatically exiting the company by throwing away his ID card and spoiling the presentation of the one who got the job. Pan has nothing to worry about though, as he already has a lucrative job offer from this Singaporean gaming company, Firefly. Soon, he’s in a plane with a bunch of other new recruits, all heading towards their dream job at Firefly. A Firefly representative, Kai, is also with them inside the plane and seems nice and friendly (obviously he isn’t). Pan tries to play it cool by showing off his computer programmer skill and revealing detail about Kai and everyone else, which is clearly a move to establish his superiority over everyone else. Unfortunately for him, the dream scenario soon turns into an unimaginable nightmare when the flight takes a layover at Cambodia and he and the others get kidnapped by locals while exploring the land. Turns out, Firefly is not what it claims to be. It’s a huge scamming organization that’s running its operations from a shady building in the middle of nowhere. This guy, Lu, aka the main villain of this story, runs the show, with Kai being his right-hand man. They kidnap people, take their passports and belongings away, and make them work. If they don’t comply, they’re beaten black and blue as punishment. The organization also uses many young, attractive women as honeypots who sit at these online casino tables with the goal of duping stupid men and looting their money. 


Who is Anna, and what’s her story? 

Pen meets Anna when he tries to slip a note outside from the toilet and accidentally ends up breaking a commode. Anna sees the note and laments the guy for pulling off such a stupid move. That’s followed by an extended flashback, where we get to see her story, and it’s pretty much the same as Pen. She was a model who lost her job after her photo was found on a questionable website. Her company had to protect their image and had to let Anna go. Naturally, she had no other option but to accept a lucrative job proposal that conveniently came along around the same time. The whole thing was obviously being orchestrated by Kai, and Anna soon found herself under the control of Lu, doing what she was told, i.e., selling herself at the casino table. 

It’s a mere coincidence that Anna had a stomach problem the same time Pan was trying to do his thing inside the toilet. Upon learning her story, Pan proposes to help her reach the goal of $500 million that she needs in order to get out. With Kai banging the door, Pan also had no other choice but to eat the note after failing to flush it down. 


What is Tian’s connection to the story? 

The only reason the character of Tian exists is because No More Bets needs to show the audience what happens when you click on fishy links online. Dude could have lived a basic life with a loving family and genuinely caring girlfriend around. But he wanted more and fell right into Firefly’s trap. Obviously Anna was running the show from the other side. Like what happens with most scamming victims, Tian’s journey starts with some win that only led to him betting more and more, and effectively losing everything. Loan sharks showing up at his apartment and threatening his family was an inevitable thing, but they really didn’t need to kill the family’s cat to make a point (I really hate it when films rely on needless animal cruelty to tell a story, by the way). Anyway, Tian’s debt kept piling up, and in the end, he had no choice but to kill himself by jumping off the balcony. His girlfriend, Song, tried to help him before by going to this policewoman, Zhao, who’s supposed to be an anti-fraud expert. 


Do Pan and Anna escape?

No More Bets would have been completely pointless had it shown not Pan and Anna getting out in the end. So the final third of the film goes exactly like you would expect. Pan and Anna have managed to establish themselves as valuable assets. That’s short-lived as Pan tries to pull off a stunt by writing another ‘help’ note on a dollar bill. He does come clean about it to Lu, but Anna also does the same, which doesn’t actually help either of the two. Pan gets his leg broken and is put in a cage, while Anna ends up stuffed inside a bag and dumped into the water. However, Kai is generous enough to rescue her and let her go. Dude clearly has a crush on her, as we’ve seen him helping her before as well. But of course, that’s all the goodness the writers have put in this guy. Anna manages to return to China, and the police were literally waiting for her to arrive. With her help, Zhao and co. can now finally do what they were always supposed to—kill the evil for good. After a lot of chaos and confusion, that finally happens. Lu gets caught, Kai dies in crossfire, and Pan gets saved. Sadly, he’s never going to be able to walk right, but at least he’ll live. The movie ends with Pan and Anna sharing their experience, while a guy in the audience creepily looks at Anna with a betting chip in hand. Clearly, the makers don’t want the train to stop here and want to do a sequel. The end credits show some real-life victims of Cambodian scamming, and I couldn’t help but think this could have worked better had it been a documentary instead of a badly made movie. 


Rohitavra Majumdar
Rohitavra Majumdar
Rohitavra likes to talk about movies, music, photography, food, and football. He has a government job to get by, but all those other things are what keep him going.


 

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