Deep Water ending explained: Does Ben Affleck film end in same way as the book?

Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) and his wife Melinda (Ana de Armas) do not have a conventional marriage.

Despite their good looks, large home, charming daughter and great wealth, Melinda is consistently pursuing adulterous affairs and Vic appears to resentfully turn the other cheek - but masks a nasty violent streak.

As the danger builds throughout the film, a dark climax approaches the pair, but how does their marriage end up?

And is the film in line with Patricia Highsmith's novel?

**Spoiler warning for Deep Water**

Deep Water ending explained

Much of Deep Water's runtime follows a repeating pattern – Melinda (Ana de Armas) finds a new young man with whom to begin an affair, and does so gleefully in front of her husband Vic (Ben Affleck) before each of them soon meets a sticky end. This pattern begins with Martin McRae, who does not appear in the film but whom we are told had recently been reported missing.

In an early scene, Vic tells Melinda's latest boyfriend that he was responsible for Martin's disappearance, claiming he murdered him. It's not clear at this point if Vic is telling the truth or just messing with his love rival, but it certainly spooks the young man, who soon makes his excuses and leaves town.

Not much time passes, however, before Melinda has her eyes on another suitor – this time pianist Charlie De Lisle (played by Euphoria's Jacob Elordi). While at a private pool party one night, Charlie is found dead in the water, and suspicion falls firmly on Vic, who was the last person to have been in the pool with him. Two people in particular publicly accuse Vic – Melinda and Don Wilson (Tracy Letts), a novelist who recently moved into the area and has not taken much of a shine to Vic.

Anyway, Vic is able to shrug off any police interest relatively easily, and soon Melinda has turned her attention to another love interest – this time a former boyfriend named Tony. One day Vic picks up Tony in his truck and tells him he's taking him to a building site that might interest him, but it very soon becomes apparent that he has rather less benevolent intentions. He takes him to the spot – where he and Melinda apparently used to spend much time – and beats him to death with a rock, before leaving his body in a nearby gorge.

Soon afterwards, Melinda happens to suggest that the family take a trip to the gorge for a day out – neither Melinda nor their daughter Trixie sees the body, but Vic is clearly a little scared of being caught. This fear becomes reality not long after when Melinda finds Tony's wallet in Vic's private lab – and it appears that he'd been found out.

Meanwhile, Vic has gone back to the gorge in an attempt to better hide the body but is soon intercepted by Don – who clearly realises that something fishy is going on. Don drives off to tell the police, yelling "Come get me now you piece of s**t" as Vic frantically aims to keep up on his bike – but he is unsuccessful in his mission when Vic falls in front of his car and forces him to veer off-road, with Don falling to his death.

Vic heads home, where he finds Melinda waiting for him. There she teasingly tells him that she "saw Tony" before we find out that rather than going to the police with Tony's wallet, she has burnt all the ID cards and disposed of the evidence.

In other words, the two of them are essentially in it together now – and this dark game of cat and mouse is what is keeping the spark in their marriage alive.

Deep Water end credits scene explained

The mid-credits scene of Deep Water features Vic and Melinda's daughter Trixie Van Allen (Grace Jenkins) sat in the backseat of the couple's car.

She is seen singing along to “You make me feel like dancing” by Leo Sayer as she doodles in her colouring book.

The cute scene is an amusing and light-hearted ending but also has an undercurrent of darkness given that Trixie is being brought up in a toxic household with a serial killer and his narcissistic wife.

Is the ending of Deep Water the same as the book?

Well, short answer: no.

In the novel Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith, Don Wilson deduces that Vic has been murdering Melinda's lovers and gets in contact with her himself.

As Melinda discovers that her husband is a killer, she confirms to Vic that she has spoken to Wilson and he realises what has happened.

Vic then strangles his wife to death, meaning Melinda dies, unlike the film.

Wilson and the police soon arrive at the Van Allen home, meaning Vic's arrest is imminent.

The final lines of the novel depict Vic seeing them approach: "He smiled at Wilson's grim, resentful, the-world-owes-me-a-living face, which was the reflection of the small, dull mind behind it, and Vic cursed it and all it stood for.

"Silently, and with a smile, and with all that was left of him, he cursed it."

Much bleaker!

Deep Water is released on Prime Video in the UK on Friday 18th March 2022. Check out more of our Movies coverage, read our guide to the best movies on Netflix or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

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