“Overdose” is a gripping crime thriller that smoothly manages to hold our attention. Despite having lots of connections and intertwined plot points, it does not confuse us as to what’s going on and who’s who. And the way the creators are able to carry forward the narrative that is broad at the beginning but narrows down to a crisp ending is commendable. The ending is predictable, yes, but it is how the film moves forward that gives it an edge. We’ll talk about it in detail. But before that, here is the summary.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Overdose’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
Catalonia, Spain
Reynal is released from the Alcaraz de San Juan prison in Cuidad Real. He is received by Eduardo Gracia and driven back to Catalonia to his boss, drug lord Alfonso Castroviejo’s house. There is going to be a delivery in two days, and preparations have already begun. He will be joining Lemas, former rally drivers Willy de Berg and Saïd Masriche, and his girlfriend, Leila. Reynal enters his room and closes the door behind him. He then goes to the bathroom, puts his hand under the sink, and brings out a small plastic packet, inside of which there is a GPS tracker and a SIM card.
Sometime later, Eduardo, Reynal, Willy, and Saïd receive drugs at Savinosa Beach, Tarragona, Southern Catalonia, which they bring back to Castroviejo’s place. They will be delivering it to the buyer, Nino Braghanti, in Carcassonne. From there, half of the drugs will go to Paris and another half to Toulouse. Reynal texted the location to someone using the SIM, which was hidden under the sink. He also puts the GPS tracker under one of the cars.
Paris, France
13-year-old Jerome Bannel and 15-year-old Ali Ben Hamid have been fighting for their lives at the Necker Hospital for ten days. Jerome’s parents have been contacted. Ali’s father has also been missing for a month, while his mother is also nowhere to be found. Richard Cross of the Paris Criminal Brigade is told by the doctor that there are two suspects who attacked the boys.
Toulouse, France
Captain Sara Bellaïche and her deputy, Bob Fontana, of the Toulouse Drug Squad, have been tracking a drug racket for a long time. But a thread that would have led them to the sellers and buyers is cut when one of Sara’s informers, Tony, who was traveling with cocaine for a drug deal, is shot by the police. The deal was with Nino Braghanti. He is the guy they really want. Meanwhile, there is no news from her other informant, who has been away for three months now.
Sara walks into Narcotics and Vice Squad Chief Commissioner Daniel Prat’s office at the Toulouse Police HQ. She has received information from her informant, Reynal, that there is going to be a delivery at Carcassonne the next day. They chalk out a plan to ambush them with help from Perpignan Police Chief Charles Molins and his team.
Paris, France
Richard is given the information that Ali’s mother was last seen a few days ago, leaving for the hospital at noon to see her son. Also, a couple, a North American man and a woman in a veil, were seen arriving in a van, entering the hospital, and leaving in a hurry 30 minutes later. Their faces couldn’t be identified. The same couple met Tarik Badoumi, a cousin of Ali’s mother, three days ago and told him that they were from the same village as the Ben Hamids. Later, the lady’s body is recovered from the river. She has similar wounds to those of her son Ali. So, it seems that the people who attacked the boys are the ones who killed her too. Their only lead is the couple in the black van. The two DNAs recovered from the hospital room where the boys were are also missing from the police records. But the cameras by the river did catch the black van and the couple as they threw a body into the river. It is the same couple from the hospital. Richard’s team is able to isolate a cellphone number that was working at the three locations where the couple had been, i.e., at the hospital, at Tarik Badoumi’s home, and by the river. Calls were made from that number to Catalonia, Spain, in the last two days.
Richard and his men find the black van burned to a crisp in Sevran, Paris. Richard orders his squad to sweep the buildings for witnesses. From atop one of the buildings, local drug dealer Chris Rehlinger notices this and dials a number.
On The Way To Carcassonne
On the way to the delivery point in Carcassonne, Eduardo receives a call from his contact in Paris, Chris Rehlinger, who tells him that the police have come to his location. But Eduardo disconnects the call with a grimace. Meanwhile, Leila, who was with Saïd in his car, dies due to a drug overdose. After he pulls over, a Civil Guard car arrives to check on him. He gets into a gunfight with them when Eduardo arrives. All three cops are shot to death by Eduardo and Saïd. Eduardo tells Saïd to leave Leila’s body at the spot. He then orders his convoy to change the route to the delivery point. Sara and his team, who have been following Eduardo’s convoy on a map (thanks to Reynal’s GPS) and waiting to bust them mid-way, are notified of the shootout, and they arrive at the crime scene. The description of the two guys from an eyewitness matches that of Eduardo and Saïd. The police find no ID on the dead girl and wait for the DNA test results. On the other hand, since Eduardo’s convoy has taken an inland route (she has been tracking the GPS, after all), Sara decides that they will bust Eduardo and the others in Carcassonne itself.
Eduardo and his men make a halt at an innocent family’s house in Santa Cecilia, Girona, for the night. Eduardo kills the man and orders Reynal to take the kid and his mother to the basement and shoot them as well. No witnesses should be left.
Richard’s team finds a match in the female DNA found in the kids’ room at Necker Hospital. It is of Leila Hamoudni, whose body was recently found after a shootout in Spain. Her accomplices, two in number, took off after leaving her at the spot that also has three dead cops. No other information can be accessed as the Civil Guard is on high alert. Richard decides to visit Spain.
Sara Bellaïche receives Richard Cross at the Rivesaltes Airport in Perpignan, Spain. On the way to the police station, Richard gets a call from his team in Paris and finds out that Leila is from the same village as the Ben Hamids. Chris Rehlinger has been identified as Saïd’s cousin. So it seems that one-half of the drugs will be going to Chris in Paris while the other will go to Toulouse.
Day Of The Delivery
Sara receives a call from Reylan, who tells her that the delivery will take place at the Carcassonne Citadel at 8 am.
Sara, Bob, and their team are all set to ambush Eduardo Gracia and his men, as well as Nino Braghanti and his men. The two gangs arrive at the spot, Eduardo shakes Nino’s hand, and the drugs are transferred from Eduardo’s car to one of Nino’s. Then, as they are about to leave, Sara gives the order. Eduardo, Nino, and most of their men are arrested, save for Saïd, Lemas, Reynal (whom Sara probably let go so that she can trace Saïd), and Saïd’s teammates Hossam and Marley. Saïd and his friends leave in a car while Lemas and Reynal leave on bikes.
The criminals caught are brought back to the Perpignan police station. Richard gets a call from his friend Franck in Paris, who tells him that there is no information on Leila. Saïd seems to be the second killer, who accompanied Leila to the hospital as well as killed Ali’s mother and dumped her in the river. Sara’s team is going to bust Alfonso Castroviejo in Catalonia the next day. And there is a high chance that the DNA samples they are looking for, which will solve everything, are at his place.
The guys that escaped halted at La Lergue Valley. Saïd gets a call from Chris, who wants to know about the delivery. Saïd tells him about the bust. Chris realizes that Saïd has a mole in his team. Saïd kills Lemas out of doubt and leaves Reynal alive.
A plan is chalked out to hunt down Saïd and those with him. Sara has not been contacted by Reynal since he told her the location of the delivery. Meanwhile, Eduardo Gracia, Nino Braghanti, and the others arrested will be transferred to Toulouse, where they will be questioned by the magistrate. For the time being, Chief Daniel Prat orders their interrogation.
Neither Eduardo nor Nino give up any intel regarding their drug operation. But Willy de Berg gives Richard a name, Waheed Nawabi. De Berg believes that it was Waheed who was with Leila at the hospital. This would nullify Richard’s doubt about Saïd being the second killer. Sara receives intel that Saïd’s car and two bikes have been found burned out by a lake, along with a dead body inside the car. It cannot be deduced yet if the body is Reynal’s.
The Bust At Catalonia And Eduardo’s Escape
Alfonso Castroviejo’s property is breached, and he is killed while trying to escape. Meanwhile, while transferring Eduardo Gracia, Nino Braghanti, and the others from Perpignan to Toulouse, Eduardo escapes following a gunfight inside the car after the convoy halts midway due to a traffic jam caused by accident ahead. Leila Hamoudni is shot dead, along with a couple of officers. Bob receives a bullet and is under observation. No DNA recovered from Castroviejo’s house matches the samples provided by Richard. But the burned body found inside Saïd’s car is not that of Reynal but of a guy named Lemas.
Saïd, his two friends, and Reynal are on their way to Paris, according to the info received by Richard. The men were caught on a traffic camera. But the delivery point is unknown. Whatever it is, the mission will certainly end in Paris. So Chief Prat tells Richard and Sara to go to Paris. Chief Charles Molins and Prat will stay back and deal with de Berg and Braghanti. Richard and Sara are about to leave the station when two witnesses are brought in. They are the woman and her kid whom Eduardo had told Reylan to kill during their halt in Santa Cecilia, Girona. Sara orders to keep them away from sight because she knows, from de Berg, who was present at the spot, that Eduardo told Reylan to kill them. If the press finds out about them, it will only be a matter of time before Eduardo finds out about them too. This will compromise Reylan’s life.
The Revelation
Eduardo watches on TV as Braghanti’s lawyer speaks to the media. Behind him, the body of the owner of the house lies motionless, with bullet wounds in his chest. The channel also shows the surviving members of the Camaro family, i.e., the mother and child from Santa Cecilia, Girona [Sara’s fear comes true]. Eduardo realizes that Reylan let them live. This means that he is the mole. He leaves the location in a car, supposedly that of the dead man, enraged.
Sara and Richard arrive in Paris. Richard’s friend Franck receives them. He shows them some pictures of Chris Rehlinger with someone who strongly resembles the second killer, along with Leila, whom they saw in the footage by the river and at the Necker hospital. There is a high chance that it is Waheed Nawabi. The pictures were clicked by their source in Sevran. They are driving a Mercedes E-class that has two speeding tickets against its number plate, each with a different address, while the name is the same, i.e., Chris Rehlinger. Traces of DNA were recovered at one of the addresses and are being analyzed. Waheed Nawabi was also identified by an intern at the hospital. He was present at the hospital when the two kids were killed. [So Leila and the other guy (we are yet to know if it was really Waheed) arrived at the hospital in the black van, killed the kids within 30 minutes, and then left the hospital.] As of the present, the only intel we have regarding Nawabi is that he and Leila belonged to the same village in Morocco. Their families share the cannabis market. But why would they kill the kids? Was it out of revenge or collateral damage? Only Nawabi can answer that.
‘Overdose’ Ending Explained: Is Eduardo Gracia Captured? Who Killed The Kids And Why?
Eduardo is received by a guy in Paris who intends to deliver the drugs as planned. Saïd, who is on his way with Reynal, Marley, and Hossam in a car to meet Eduardo, receives a text on his phone. When Reynal asks him about it, he replies by saying that it’s just Chris checking up on them. Meanwhile, Chris, too, is on his way to Eduardo’s location.
Richard, Sara, and the others receive intel from their source in Sevran that Chris Rehlinger left the area on a scooter with another guy. The source sent a picture of the number plate as well. They send the information to all the ground staff in Sevran. The scooter can lead them to the delivery point.
Chris receives Eduardo at the delivery point. Within some time, Saïd, Reylan, and the others arrive as well. Eduardo sees Reylan and orders his men to take Reylan to the basement. Eduardo then kills Saïd by plunging a knife into his neck, following his dead boss Alfonso Castroviejo’s orders. Alfonso Castroviejo had told him to kill Saïd as a punishment for his recklessness and the chaos he caused by killing the Civil Guard cops. But there is more to Eduardo’s motive since Saïd’s recklessness led to the death of their boss as well as the bust of their entire drug business.
While waiting for any update, Sara asks Richard if he would like to join her in her booked hotel room. They end up kissing and making love. While in bed, Richard receives a call and comes to learn that Chris’s scooter has been spotted in front of an abandoned building in Aubervilliers. Eduardo’s location is unknown.
Back at the abandoned building’s basement, Eduardo beats Reylan, who is left hanging by his arms, to a pulp. He chops off Reylan’s ears and tongue. He then walks upstairs to have a drink and notices officers about to enter the building. He yells at the others, and all the men pull out their guns. Richard, Sara, and their team breach the building and take down the men. Sara finds Reylan, who dies in front of her. Sara breaks down. Chris takes a hit to the shoulder. Eduardo is shot in the head by Franck, who doesn’t let Sara kill him as it can cost her her career. After all, she has been after Eduardo for a very long time, something that her seniors know and are counting on her to accomplish without any kind of compromise. Bringing Eduardo to court would certainly reveal many other drug rackets across France and Spain. So if it is discovered that Sara killed Eduardo, she would certainly be penalized. Waheed Nawabi (the guy who received Eduardo in Paris) is captured. During interrogation, Nawabi reveals that his family and Leila’s family owned the best weed in their region of Morocco. Both families decided to seal their union and expand their businesses through the marriage of Leila and Nawabi. He was already in France, recruiting guys to keep the network alive. That’s how he introduced his cousin Saïd to the business. Saïd, in turn, introduced Nawabi to Chris Rehlinger. One day, he received a call from his father, who told him that they had been betrayed by a guy named Tarik ben Hamid. Tarik was Ali ben Hamid’s father. Tarik was seen talking to a cop in front of the French embassy in Morocco. According to Nawabi’s father, the only punishment for betrayal is the death of the man and his family. So Nawabi attacked Tarik’s son and later killed him. He found Ali’s mother’s address in Ali’s medical file. As for Jerome Bannel, he was killed by Leila, who was high, out of panic. Nawabi admits that he killed Ali to honor his father and respect traditions.
Tarik ben Hamid’s beaten-up dead body was discovered by the Moroccan police in a sheepfold on Toubkal Mountain, Morocco. The so-called betrayer had gone to the French embassy to get information on his son. A witness passed by and mistook this for an act of treachery. So it was a mistake by someone who might not have been even remotely related to the Nawabi family that led to at least a part of the chaos that occurred. And it is amidst this chaos that Sara finds love in Richard, only to see him return to his wife and daughter. After all, we have to respect traditions, don’t we?
“Overdose” is a 2022 action thriller film directed by Olivier Marchal.
