The Ending Of Shotgun Wedding Explained
One of the newest films to hit Amazon Prime Video recently is the latest film from "Pitch Perfect" director Jason Moore, the action-comedy "Shotgun Wedding." The film sees soon-to-be newlyweds Tom (Josh Duhamel) and Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) setting up their dysfunctional destination wedding on a private island in the Philippines. With their families causing some strife and tainting the mood of their special wedding weekend, Tom and Darcy are definitely feeling the stress, and it's impacting their relationship. Just as they're on the verge of calling it quits, a strange group of pirates come and take the wedding guests hostage. Now, Darcy and Tom have to find a way to save their guests and their relationship.
Lopez and Duhamel fit the bill for a chaotic comedic duo in a fight for their lives and deliver some funny interactions with each other. Their dynamic can be a treat, and it's pretty fun to watch them constantly on the run from dangerous gunmen. From dealing with a live grenade in Darcy's hand to a scary zipline escape, watching these two try to survive is both hilarious and action-packed. There are also some surprising twists and turns that come from some shocking betrayals. So, let's delve into the biggest reveals and the final moments of "Shotgun Wedding."
The pirates' plan
Just as the wedding is about to get underway, a group of pirates completely crashes it and comes in guns blazing. They encircle the entire wedding party and use their guns to lead the group toward a pool. It's basically like watching a farmer lead a flock of sheep to their pen, and everyone is understandably consumed by fear. Once they reach the pool, they force everyone to go into the water so that their phones stop working and comically use the wedding name cards to identify them.
Although they're missing the bride and groom, the pirates don't waste much time telling the group what they want, and it's not too surprising to hear that it's money. The pirate leader picks out Darcy's wealthy father Robert (Cheech Marin) in order to extort millions of dollars out of him. It's pretty funny how Tom's mom Carol (Jennifer Coolidge) constantly calls out Robert when the pirates call for him, and Robert's decision not to give them the money until he knows that Darcy is safe is what keeps the pirates from outright winning. In some ways, the pirates find themselves to be more hostages once they see how strange this group really is.
Tom knows something
After Darcy and Tom are able to elude the pirates by hiding in Margy's (Selena Tan), the hotel manager, bunker under her office, they start to talk about how wild their situation is. They're both in disbelief that their wedding turned into a hostage situation with these pirates arriving and that they're spending their coveted day hiding in a small bunker. However, Margy isn't as surprised that pirates have invaded her resort — she is instead just surprised by their behavior.
As Margy says, they usually just steal some stuff from the rooms and are gone not too long after. She even recalls them coming just last summer, which tips off Darcy that Tom might've known about this island's issue with pirates. Oddly enough, when he's confronted about it, Tom says that he indeed did know about it, but thought it wouldn't be a problem. Foolishly, Tom simply thought it wasn't going to happen to them and it ultimately costs him. However, there's more to these pirates that make Tom's belief that things could've been fine kind of valid.
Tom's detective work
After two pirates start to zero in on their hiding place, Tom decides to give himself up. He feels bad that he set up their wedding at a place that's had pirates invade in the past, but Tom has a bigger plan in his head that he wants to act on. When he's reunited with the rest of the group, he refuses to give up where Darcy is hiding and eventually takes her ex-boyfriend Sean (Lenny Kravitz) hostage. Initially, you're kind of left wondering what Tom is up to since Sean is a hostage just like him, but Tom has actually got some clues that say he's not.
Tom has really had his detective hat on the whole time and noticed some things that seem out of place. First is that Margy said the pirates would normally just take stuff and leave rather than take everyone hostage and demand millions, which Tom believes means that these pirates were hired guns sent to target them. It would explain why they knew about Robert's money and created this whole plan. The key piece of information that made everything click for Tom, though, is a wedding invitation he pulled from a pirate that had Sean's name on it — meaning that he staged this hostage situation. Even though he denies it, it eventually becomes clear that Sean's intentions were never good and it makes sense why he wasn't shot by the lead pirate while playing the resident "hero" of the hostage situation earlier.
Why Robert, why?
There was always something suspicious about Sean from the second he showed up at the wedding in a helicopter. The idea of him coming to his ex's wedding, regardless of how good of a relationship he has with Darcy's dad, is just plain awkward; and even worse, he came without RSVPing, which makes him the worst kind of wedding guest. The cherry on top of Sean being no good is that he's the one behind the pirates taking everyone hostage and had planned everything from the start. His whole hero act was just a ruse, and now he's ready to take the money and run.
But, why does he want to steal Robert's money? Well, apparently Robert refused to give Sean some kind of money for an investment so he planned to take it a different way. He hired all the mercenaries to stage a hostage situation where Robert would pay them in order to let everyone go. Then, Sean would get his money once he returned home and no one would suspect him since he was one of the hostages. However, Tom has figured him out, causing him to reveal his betrayal. Sean never gives your traditional evil villain speech — conversely, he often insists he's a "good guy" — but the film gives enough pieces to easily figure out his plan.
Margy's marriage lesson
With Tom sacrificing himself to keep Darcy and Margy hidden, Darcy is in distress. She feels terrible that Tom has been taken hostage and that his life is in jeopardy. Plus, it probably doesn't help that Margy and her husband are reading the movie quotes that Tom stuffed into the pineapple decorations, which Darcy now admits is kind of sweet. However, she still struggles with the issues they've been having over the last couple of days and wonders if their relationship can really work.
However, Margy tells Darcy that relationships aren't magic and they don't always work perfectly. She talks about how she and her husband have made mistakes and had their issues, but when they break something, they make an effort to fix it. When they took the vow together, it meant something for their relationship and instilled a bond that's can't be broken for them. It's a nice and simple moment for Margy that shows that relationships can be special even when things aren't going to plan and that they take their own kind of work to be maintained. It's what ultimately inspires Darcy to go and save Tom and reignites the spark in their relationship.
A second betrayal
Before Sean runs off, he takes Robert's girlfriend Harriet (D'Arcy Carden) with him. At first, it just seems like a move to simply get under Robert's skin, but there's actually an interesting secret behind it. It turns out that Harriet's relationship with Robert has been a part of Sean's plan all along since they're actually together. In some footage that Tom's dad Larry (Steve Coulter) caught on his camera, Sean and Harriet can be seen kissing away from everyone. So they've secretly been a couple the whole time and Harriet's relationship with Robert has been nothing but a con.
Sean's betrayal was already something that rocked the group pretty hard, but Harriet also being behind this whole situation adds another layer to this ordeal. Harriet is also shown to be way crueler than Sean as she's seen kicking the lead henchman out of the helicopter to his death after subduing him. Her calm aura and harmonious personality are clearly all for show, and Harriet's evil side makes her a dangerous half of this criminal couple.
Relationship mended
After finding the strength to go after Tom and a very workable shotgun, Darcy pops up right in the nick of time to save everyone. She's got the two gunmen guarding everyone totally pinned in a vulnerable position and uses the time to speak her mind. Darcy mends her broken relationship with Tom by apologizing to him for not telling him that she was scared to get married. Tom can have a self-sabotaging mentality that has often made him give up at the first sign of trouble and Darcy was afraid of putting him in a spiral if she told him that she felt fearful. Now though, she knows that they can make it through troubled times and doubts by sticking together.
Darcy also takes the time to get her parents to apologize to Tom for not accepting them and judging him at every turn for the wedding he planned. She also says that her and Tom's parents need to get closer but that it's hard to live up to their perfect marriage, which leads them to talk about their wild sex life. Just as Darcy says at the moment, they've made some incredible breakthroughs, but the clarity causes Darcy to become distracted and scolded by the pirate that she somewhat accidentally burned with some hairspray and a cigarette.
Turning the tables on the pirates
With Darcy now captured like the rest of the group, it seems like they've lost and are totally helpless in this situation. However, Tom and Darcy come up with one more plan to turn the tables on these two pirates holding them captive. They decide to try to hold their wedding right in the pool and it leads to quite a funny and strange display. Everyone starts singing Edwin McCain's "I'll Be" as Darcy is walked "down the aisle" and one of the pirates is positioned to officiate their impromptu wedding. It's bizarre, to say the least.
However, it works for Darcy and Tom to get a moment to rush the two pirates and snag one of their grenades. With the grenade being strong enough to take all of them out, the two pirates have vastly different reactions to Darcy's threats. One decides to simply give up and be tied up while the other makes a run for it and then fires back at them from a distance. This leads to Carol grabbing the other pirate's gun and providing some cover fire. It all ends with Tom showing his baseball skills by hitting the grenade with a torch like a baseball toward the armed pirate and blowing him up in a glorious spectacle of blood and fireworks.
Breaking down the big fight
Now that Darcy and Tom are free, and the wedding party is safe, they make a run to go get help by heading toward the docks. On the way, they beat up another guard and eventually get to the "Just Married" boat that Tom was working on at the beginning of the film. After they have another meaningful heart-to-heart, Sean rudely interrupts their heartfelt moment with gunshots and it kicks off a fun finale action sequence full of funny and explosive moments. It starts with Tom hilariously being terrible at shooting and leads into an expansive boat chase that sees Harriet follow them on a helicopter.
Neither of them is buying Sean's claims of still being a good guy and Tom and Sean going toe to toe on a moving boat deliver some good thrills. Darcy is forced to dodge some bullets fired by Harriet with some evasive boat driving and it certainly makes Tom and Sean's fight much more chaotic. Sean and Tom eventually get thrown into the air when Darcy releases the parasail at the back of the boat. Remembering that he has Darcy's wad of fake hair in his pocket, Tom decides to recall his ziplining experience and makes a grand escape before sending Sean and Harriet toward a quick death.
An explosive end
Now that both of them are away from Sean and Harriet, Darcy and Tom decide to put an end to their chase with a surprisingly gruesome death sequence. As they seemed pinned down with limited options, Darcy pulls out the knife gifted to her by Tom's mother and the two decide to cut the rope tethering Sean to the boat. It's kind of funny since it looks like they're cutting a wedding cake, but the rope eventually breaks and both Sean and Harriet know that things are about to get worse for them.
Sean sees himself drifting closer to the helicopter blades and before anyone can anything to change it, they both receive horrifying deaths. Sean's parasail gets caught in the helicopter blades and it spins him around until he's seen being chopped into bits of flesh and blood. His scream beforehand makes it way worse, too, and Harriet doesn't fare any better. With the blades being stalled by the parasail, the helicopter crashes into the ocean and bursts into flames. It's an explosive and surprisingly brutal end to the two surprise antagonists of "Shotgun Wedding."
Marriage saved
Tom and Darcy are obviously left exhausted by their long fight against Sean and Harriet, which ends in a big ball of flames, but eventually, they make it back to the island to catch their breath. There, Darcy proclaims that she wants to marry Tom and even proposes to him in a heartfelt manner. With everything they've been through throughout the day and the meaningful clarity they've gained in their relationship, they're truly ready to be in each other's lives for better or worse.
The film ends with a scene of Tom and Darcy getting married on the beach just as the police arrive and it feels like a calming moment these two deserve. It also ends with a hilarious moment of Tom's groomsman Ricky (Desmin Borges) shooting off one last firework and scaring everyone. Tom and Darcy are finally able to get the "happily ever after" moment they've earned and ultimately get one last laugh in before the credits start rolling.
Could there be a sequel?
At the moment, there's been no announcement or hint that there's a sequel for "Shotgun Wedding" in development and the film doesn't hint at any potential sequel, either. In the end-credits sequence, there's just a montage of everyone dancing at the reception party, and there aren't many avenues for the story to go. With Ricky and Darcy's sister Jamie (Callie Hernandez) having a one-night stand that could develop into something more, a sequel story could possibly follow Tom and Darcy attending their wedding and having something go massively wrong. Or, maybe, Tom and Darcy's honeymoon can be interrupted by some other chaotic event that puts them in the middle of another action-packed adventure.
Truthfully, though, there are many other factors involved, like viewer reception and Amazon's own willingness to do more within this world, that'll determine if "Shotgun Wedding" could get a sequel. Critical reception has been pretty mixed so far, but if enough Prime Video subscribers tune into "Shotgun Wedding" and like what they saw, then maybe there could be another film made in the future.