‘Adulterers,’ a 2016 drama-thriller film directed by H.M. Coakley, centres on a man’s uncontrolled frenzy following his wife’s adulterous liaison with another guy. Ashley and Samuel Dueprey have been wed for one year. On the other hand, Sam finds Ashley having sex with another man on their bed when he gets home on their anniversary. Sam keeps Ashley and her hidden boyfriend, Damien Dexter Jackson, imprisoned at gunpoint after discovering his wife’s infidelity. As Sam works through his feelings, he starts to pose a threat to everyone in the space.
The movie offers a compelling story that concludes with an unusual climax that might have bewildered some viewers. If so, this article will tell you everything you need to know about “Adulterers'” conclusion. Spoilers follow!
Adulterers Plot Synopsis
Sam Dueprey drives to work in New Orleans’ oppressive heat on the anniversary of his wedding after his supervisor gives him a double shift. Sam tells his coworker Lola during his morning shift how much he loves his wife, Ashley, and feels fortunate to have met her. In order to surprise his wife with flowers and dark chocolate during his lunch break, he chooses to take the drive home. When he gets home, though, he hears noises coming from the bedroom and tremblingly goes to the door.
Sam sees his wife having an extramarital affair inside. He is horrified by the sight, and a terrible wrath overtakes him. Sam enters Sam’s bedroom after obtaining two pistols from the basement, while Ashley and her lover disperse. The two try to calm him down, but Sam shoots them both right away, killing them both at once.
Sam, however, realises he had simply dreamed the killings after taking a brief break on the couch in the living room. Now that Sam has changed his perspective, he just holds Ashley and the other man at gunpoint. Sam barricades up the room with the dresser and begins questioning the two as Ashley tries to make amends for the affair.
Sam discovers the other man, Damien, met Ashley online using an alias and has been seeing her for six weeks during the tense and hazardous conversation that follows. Sam also makes personal inquiries about their sexual lives and coerces Ashley into having sex with Damien in an effort to humiliate her. Sam soon finds out that Damien is a long-time serial cheater who has a wife and children and is financially secure.
At the hardware store, Jimmy, Sam’s supervisor, asks Lola about him as she becomes worried about his movements. Sam forces Damien to confess about his affair to his wife, Jasmine, over the phone once he is back at the house. Jasmine has already pardoned Damien for acting in this way, but this time the news breaks her heart. Jasmine decides to talk to Sam privately after being given the option of choosing whether or not Sam kills Damien, and the two come up with a plan.
Jasmine comes at the residence shortly after that. Sam and Jasmine engage in sexual activity in front of their husbands as payback. Jasmine then departs, telling her that Damien is already deceased. Ashley, who is ironically upset with Sam for cheating on her, tries to persuade Sam to stop holding people hostage by saying they can resolve their issues together. Sam offers Ashley the chance to save herself by killing Damien as a result. Sam, happy with Ashley’s desire to do so, intervenes before she can fire the gun at Damien, despite Ashley pointing it in his direction.
In the end, Sam shoots his revolver down to its last bullet before playing Russian roulette and aiming it towards Damien. After reconciling with Sam, Ashley kills Damien and savours the dark chocolate she was given. To bury Damien, the couple digs a grave in their backyard, but shortly Ashley vanishes. Sam blinks back into his living room in shock and with an unsettling realisation.
Adulterers Ending: Did Sam Imagine The Whole Thing?
Sam shoots both Ashley and Damien without giving them a chance to ask for forgiveness after he learns of his wife’s affair at the beginning of the movie. Sam, however, appears to come to terms with the fact that his split-second choice to kill Ashley and her partner was merely a fantasy in his head after carrying out the murders. Then, in the present, he confronts them with a new strategy.
As the narrative comes to a close, Sam and the viewer realise that only the first action—killing Ashley and her lover—was genuinely real; all subsequent events were the product of Sam’s imagination. Sam seems to like his wife, but when he learns that she is betraying him by having an affair with another man, it truly throws him for a loop. Sam instantly resorts to violence and kills Ashley alongside the other man because he is filled with rage.
Sam is unable to find any closure because Ashley was killed before she had an opportunity to explain herself. As a result, his mind creates a different story in which Sam would have inquiries that could have assisted him in the future. As a result, in his head, Ashley is borrowing money from Damien and intends to use it to purchase Sam a new guitar. Sam is intended to feel better by providing him something to hang onto as an explanation for Ashley’s affair.
Sam envisions Ashley’s lover Damien as a wealthy man who is incredibly disloyal to his own wife. Sam also imagines Damien as someone who had to hire a sex worker at the age of 18 to help him lose his virginity because he was an outcast in high school. Sam justifies his murder by thinking that he is morally and socially superior than Damien as a result of all these facts.
But when that doesn’t work out, Sam pushes harder and creates more backstory for Ashley and Damien. When Ashley was a teenager, her father’s boss frequently raped her, and her father knew about it but chose to overlook it for his own gain. Ashley shares this secret, tragic past with him in his mind. Since Ashley never informed him about it when she was alive, these things are made up and most likely never occurred.
Instead, Sam uses it as a shattered crutch to hang onto, and he can only convince himself that his wife is equally broken as he is before he can forgive her. Nevertheless, the delusion comes to an end, and Sam understands that his reality is different. Sam made up everything that transpired after he killed Ashley and Damien as a what-if scenario for a horrific circumstance.
Are Ashley And Damien Dead?
Sam shoots Ashley and Damien after finding them having sex in his home, resulting in their deaths. Ashley and Damien aren’t alive for any of the plot because the most of the movie takes place after that incident. In reality, every aspect of Damien’s life—including his union with Jasmine, his work as a jet fighter, and even his name—is pure fiction.
Sam imagines Damien as a man who possesses everything Sam lacks given Ashley’s interest in Damien. Damien has a lot of money because Sam works in customer service and just makes minimum wage. Sam wanted to be a fighter pilot when he was young, so Damien used to be one. Similar to how Damien gets along well with his mother, Sam’s mother left his father when he was a little boy for another guy.
To help Sam see why Ashley cheated on him, everything about Damien is a fake. Instead, Sam makes up Damien’s military tactical codename, “Flash Jackson,” based on some random aspect from his day and doesn’t even know Damien’s real name. Since he passes away early in the first act of the movie, the Damien the audience is familiar with doesn’t truly exist.
In a similar vein, the instant Sam discovers Ashley cheating on him, she too is dead. Sam tries desperately to find a method to keep her alive, but it’s too late. Due to this, Ashley demonstrates her love and devotion to him in his dream world by demonstrating that she would kill Jackson in his place. Sam discovers a justification for pardoning Ashley and moving on as a result. Sam, however, effectively denies Ashley the opportunity to demonstrate any of those points by delivering Ashley’s death without a second chance.
