How well do we really know someone? We spend our whole lives to know someone, but people change, situations change, and we have to roll with it; that’s exactly what the movie Strangers explores. Tony Dean Smith’s thriller is about Laura, a woman who is stuck in an abusive relationship with Tony (not the director) until her life takes a turn when she falls for a guy named Sky—who just so happens to be a hitman. Yes, I know; it sounds like she has jumped from the frying pan into the fire, from an abusive partner to a “killer.” But Sky’s different, as he’s not just some random criminal; he’s more like a vigilante who delivers justice to those the system has failed. Laura even starts to work for Sky later and becomes a part of Sky’s world. But in the end, she’s ordered to take out one of her closest friends, Richard. Are they as close as they believe they are? And what happened to each of them at the end of Strangers movie? Let’s find that out.
Spoilers Ahead
What happened to Tony?
Laura and Tony seemed like the perfect love story at first. Laura was already pregnant when they got married, and they were so in love that Laura didn’t even think twice when he proposed. But then, tragedy struck as Laura miscarried, and while she managed to move past that grief, Tony never could. Tony’s sorrow turned into anger, distrust, and eventually abuse, and just like that, little by little, Tony became violent and started to lash out at Laura for the smallest things. He’d beat her, torture her, and after every outburst, he’d come to crawl back to apologize and promise to get help to be a better husband as she was still the love of his life, and he wanted to get better for her.
Laura, just like anyone stuck in that cycle of abuse, grew numb; she fell into depression and even turned to drugs to cope. Though she tried to get better through AA meetings, the constant fear to be trapped with Tony never left her. She even thought to kill Tony in multiple ways, but she never could. Now, you would wonder why they didn’t get a divorce? Well, every time Laura tried to leave, Tony would threaten to kill both her and himself, and thus fear kept her locked in place. Then Laura met Sky one day at the AA. Sky was everything Tony used to be in the past— handsome and funny. It didn’t take long for her to fall for him, and Sky didn’t miss a chance to flirt back. Sky made her feel alive again. But Sky wasn’t just any guy—he was a hitman, and he knew how to take care of people like Tony.
At first, Laura was unsure. Could she really kill her husband? But after another violent episode, where Tony’s jealousy and control pushed him to beat her again, she made up her mind. She asked Sky to help. Strangely, after she agreed to the job, Sky suggested Tony get a marriage counselor to call him from an unknown number so that neither Tony nor Laura could track him down. It seemed odd, but it pushed Tony as he saw it as some sort of threat, like Laura had found a protector, and he lost control over her, so he attacked her worse than ever. That was the final straw. Sky gave Laura instructions—make it look like a suicide. So, Laura did; she put digoxin, a deadly substance, on Tony’s toothbrush. Then she followed Sky’s plan to make sure to be seen around town and to collect receipts to have an alibi that she did not kill her husband, and Tony died on his own.
When Laura returned home, Tony was barely alive, and then, with a belt, she tied Tony’s neck to the bedpost to make it look like he took his own life. And just like that, Sky helped Laura escape her hellish marriage and set her free from the nightmare Tony had kept her trapped in.
What happened to Richard?
Laura had been through a lot because, in everyone’s eyes, she might’ve seemed like a victim who tried to survive, but deep down, she knew she had crossed a line. That’s why when Sky tried to convince her to become his partner-in-crime like the “Robin” to his “Batman,” Laura did not want to kill people at first. But after she heard Sky’s pitch about how they helped victims to take out the criminals, she convinced herself it was okay. She wasn’t a killer; she was about to help people like herself. So, for a while, she became the bait when Laura would lure the bad guys in to seduce them, and Sky would swoop in to finish the job. But naturally, the job drained her, and she realized that no matter how much she loved Sky, this life wasn’t for her. She wanted out.
Surprisingly, Sky agreed, but only after one last hit—a man named Richard, involved in some of the worst crimes imaginable: murders, child exploitation, you name it. Laura was on board with the plan until she saw Richard’s file and realized it was her Richard—her best friend from AA. They had gotten so close, and she had had no clue about his dark past. Richard had always been a little mysterious, though, as if he was always surrounded by bodyguards, but Laura never imagined he was involved in anything so terrible. Laura couldn’t believe it. How could the man she trusted and cared for be a monster? But Laura also couldn’t accept that Sky would kill him. So, Laura decided to double-cross Sky. Laura met with Richard and warned him that someone wanted to kill him. Then Richard came up with the truth of how, back in the 70s, Richard used to be an accountant, and he used to pay bad people to cover up his sins. Richard wasn’t a killer, though, but karma had caught up with him—his wife left him, and his daughter tragically took her own life. Richard had tried to leave that life behind, but it never truly let go of him. That’s why people like Sky were after him. Laura realized that Richard didn’t deserve to die, and Sky lied to her, so she told Richard to run and get as far away as he could.
At the same time, Laura started to doubt Sky. Maybe he wasn’t the justice-seeking hitman he claimed to be; maybe he just worked for the same kind of people Richard once hired and still does, and Sky is not some savior but a criminal himself. Then, Laura realized that she had become a part of Sky’s criminal life, but she had not even realized it. So, to kill Sky and save Richard, Laura slipped digoxin, the same poison she used on Tony, into Sky’s toothbrush, as she hoped to take him out before Sky could kill her friend. But Sky caught on and rushed to the gallery where Richard waited for Laura, as they planned to flee from there to say goodbye to their past life. But when Sky came to kill Richard, Laura tried to stop him, but in the struggle, the gun went off, and Richard was shot. He wasn’t dead, but in his final moments, Richard and Laura both figured out the whole scheme, how Sky had played Laura from the very start. He had targeted her at the AA to make her fall for him and tricked her to kill Tony, all to gain her trust and eventually lead him to Richard, the real target. The whole “last job” and the promise of a new life in the Maldives? All lies. Sky never planned on let either of them walk away. So, in the end, to save Laura, with his last bit of strength, he shot Sky from behind and killed him instantly. And just like that, both men fell dead before Laura.
In Strangers’ ending, two men Laura thought she knew ended up as strangers to her, why? Because Richard had bought her a ticket to escape and get out of this mess. But then, in Sky’s pocket, she found a ticket for the Maldives, just like he promised. He really had planned for them to run away together, after all. So, who should she have trusted? It’s hard to say; maybe Richard told the truth—he had a dark past but tried to make things right. And maybe Sky really did believe he did the right thing to try to kill Richard as he thought it was for justice. It’s possible both of them loved her in their own way and wanted to protect her, but like most of the men in Laura’s life, they were tangled up in their own chaos. Laura couldn’t help but wonder if she had a pattern. Did she always fall for the wrong guys? Men who couldn’t be trusted? But then again, she herself had double-crossed both of them to save herself, so she wasn’t innocent either. Everyone in this story seemed like strangers to each other, and they all tried to look out for themselves in the end. But both Richard and Sky wanted to take Laura with them to give her a fresh start. But now it was up to her to decide where she’d go from here. Maybe she would take that ticket to the Maldives, and we can hope she will try to make better choices with hope for a new start. Who knows? Maybe this experience will teach her not to trust anyone easily and to remain a stranger to people as the best option to get out of trouble.
