Jonas Kvist Jensen’s The Girl in the Trunk seemed like a great thriller initially, but its end ruined it all. It’s so funny that none of it makes any sense. It completely took away any serious thriller vibe and made it more of an accidental comedy. Anyway, the film follows a girl named Amanda, who runs away from her own marriage ceremony. We didn’t know the reason at first. As Amanda tried to escape, she got kidnapped and trapped in a car trunk with no way out. So, the question here is: will Amanda be able to escape from the trunk? And who is her mysterious kidnapper? Let’s find out together.
Spoilers Ahead
What did the kidnapper do to Amanda?
When The Girl in the Trunk first started, we met Amanda in her white bridal dress, who was looking for a car at Sunset Rental Shop. Right away, you could tell she was a runaway bride. Amanda never wanted to get married. She had been brought up by her rich father alone after her mother had died. To show her gratitude, being the girl with a silver spoon in her mouth and a father who did everything for her, Amanda didn’t want to disappoint him. So, Amanda agreed to marry the man her father chose, John, just to make him happy. John came from a well-to-do family, but Amanda didn’t love him; she only decided to marry him out of duty, not love.
At the marriage ceremony, Amanda felt lost and decided to take a break. She slipped out of the venue as she didn’t want to marry someone she didn’t love. But the woman didn’t know what tragedy awaited her next. As Amanda was waiting for the car rental shop to open, a man attacked her from behind. He hit her, used chloroform to knock her out, and locked her in the trunk of his car. Poor Amanda didn’t realize what had happened until she woke up far away from Dallas—in Houston. When Amanda opened her eyes, she saw that her hands and mouth were taped. She had no idea how to escape, but she knew she had to try. Amanda was brave. She had fooled everyone at the wedding, and she felt she could fool her kidnapper too.
Thankfully, Amanda had her phone with her. Amanda tried to call 911, but little did she know that the 911 operator was actually the car’s driver. He had hacked her phone, and now she couldn’t get help from the police. Amanda felt like she was going to die in that car. So, she started hitting the trunk opener so much that it eventually broke. For a moment, Amanda thought she could roll out and run, but the driver already knew she was trying to escape. He’d stopped the car and asked a man by the road for help to tie down the trunk because it was broken. The man handed him a rope, but something felt off. He realized that something—or someone—was trapped inside. The kidnapper pretended it was roadkill, but the man heard crying and whimpering. He was about to break the trunk open and help Amanda, but it was too late. The kidnapper got back in the car, and before driving off, he reversed and ran the man over multiple times and ended up killing him. Then he drove away with Amanda—the very girl in the trunk.
What did the kidnapper want?
The kidnapper enjoyed the pain Amanda was going through. Why did he have this sadistic nature? Because he was alone, unloved, with no money, no family, and nobody to talk to. He used to work at the very rental place where Amanda wanted to rent a car, but he lost his job. He had been alone all his life, abandoned by his parents, and the pain never went away. The only way he could have fun was by playing with people’s emotions and making them nervous, where he held all the power. That made him feel superior and happy. When he saw Amanda in her wedding gown alone, he knew she was the perfect prey. To show his power, he threw a scorpion into the trunk so it could attack Amanda. He wanted to watch her suffer as revenge for betraying him, trying to escape, damaging his car, and calling him a predator. He thought he was justified in his actions. Amanda was tired and helpless. She asked him what he really wanted. He said Amanda should call her rich father and get him a hundred thousand dollars. Only then would he let her go. Amanda knew calling her father was her last resort. She had betrayed him, and he was a proud man. But how proud could he be when he knew his daughter’s life was at stake?
Amanda called her father. He was upset, angry, and heartbroken. Running away from her own wedding was the last thing he expected from his daughter. But Amanda calmed him down and explained that she had been kidnapped. Her father was worried and ready to send help once Amanda could give her location. He was willing to give the money for the sake of her safety. He promised to come and rescue her. In the meantime, at a road checkpoint, the kidnapper tried to flirt with the policewoman, hoping she wouldn’t open the trunk. It seemed suspicious, and the policewoman told the kidnapper to stop moving the car. When she went to check, she saw Amanda in the trunk, crying for help. But before the policewoman could do anything, the kidnapper shot her and drove away. Amanda felt she was going to die. She called John, her ex-fiancé, to apologize for all she had done and how she had hurt him. Before dying, it felt like the right thing to do.
Until now, the story was going well, but then the ending came, and you can decide for yourself if it made sense or not. Amanda’s father arrived in a helicopter to track their location with a suitcase full of money in hand. But before handing the money over, he decided to shoot the kidnapper and rescue Amanda. Just as he got out of the helicopter, he had a sudden change of heart and thought Amanda didn’t deserve to be saved because she ran away and disrespected him. Meanwhile, the kidnapper, who at first seemed dead, came back to life and started driving away with Amanda still in the trunk. And then we saw her father flying towards them in the chopper. But I don’t know what kind of stunt he was trying to pull because the helicopter tilted down and crashed! So, they went their own way.
The kidnapper, who still wanted to seek revenge, threw a rattlesnake into the trunk. But Amanda, being resourceful, used a stick to jam the car’s moving wheel, which caused the car to crash into a field. When Amanda opened her eyes, the trunk had finally opened. She tried to run, but the kidnapper, with his face half-blown off and looking like a zombie, stood there with a gun. And guess what? He could have killed Aamanda by shooting her. But what did he do? Instead of shooting Amanda, he aimed at the farm field cops.
In The Girl in the Trunk‘s ending, Amanda finally gathered her courage and told the kidnapper to get into the trunk instead of taking the gun from his hand. Surprisingly, he did! She locked him up in there with the rattlesnake to rot. And remember the policewoman who got shot earlier? Well, she wasn’t dead after all—she came to rescue Amanda with her father when the whole drama was over. Amanda was ready to take on life as a free woman now; she was no longer the girl in the trunk, trapped. Maybe running away was her way of finally facing her fears and finding the courage to be brave. From now on, maybe she will live life on her own terms, not trapping herself in others’ expectations anymore.
