Category: Summary

Hello and welcome to another episode of MovieOutline Summary. Today we’re talking about the 2017 horror film Get Out, so let’s get started!

Chris Washington agrees to meet the family of his girlfriend Rose Armitage at the family’s countryside estate. Rose’s parents, neurosurgeon Dean and hypnotherapist Missy, greet Chris very warmly. However, things begin to take a sinister turn as the evening unfolds.

During dinner, Rose’s brother Jeremy makes unsettling comments about African Americans. Meanwhile, Chris notices that the housekeeper Georgina and the groundskeeper Walter are oddly compliant. Unable to sleep, Chris goes outside to smoke and witnesses some bizarre behavior: the groundskeeper Walter is seen startlingly running from the woods while Georgina stares cross-eyed at her reflection in the mirror.

Missy soon catches Chris returning and talks him into a hypnotherapy session to cure his smoking addiction. In a trance, Chris recounts the death of his mother that was involved in a hit and run when he was a child. He sinks into a void that Missy calls the sunken place. When Chris awakens, he believes it was just a nightmare until he realizes that his cigarettes now revolt him.

Walter apologizes for having disturbed him and confirms that Chris was in Missy’s office at the Armitage’s annual get-together, where several wealthy white people have taken an interest in him, admiring his physique. Jim Hudson takes particular interest, while Chris also meets a fellow African-American named Logan King, who starts acting strangely. Worried, Chris calls his friend TSA officer Rod Williams about the hypnosis and the bizarre behavior. He takes a photo of Logan to send to Rod, but the camera flash makes Logan hysterical, and he begs Chris to get out. The others then restrain Logan, claiming that he was having a seizure.

Away from the house, Chris persuades Rose to leave with him, while Dean holds an auction with a picture of Chris on display. At the auction, Jim Hudson wins, and Rod recognizes Logan as a missing person, suspecting a conspiracy. Rod tries to get the police involved, but he is mocked while packing to leave. Chris then finds photos of Rose and her prior relationships with other African Americans, including Walter and Georgina.

Suddenly, Rose blocks his exit. Missy hypnotizes Chris again and he awakens strapped to a chair. A video featuring Rose’s grandfather explains that the family transplants the brains of white people into African American bodies — and that the consciousness of the host remains in the sunken place, watching but powerless. Hudson informs Chris that he wants his body.

Chris quickly plugs his ears with cotton stuffing from the chair, blocking the hypnotic commands. When Jeremy comes to collect him for surgery, Chris bludgeons him, and shortly after, Dean knocks down a candle that sets the house on fire while he stabs Missy. Jeremy intercepts him at the door, but Chris brutally kills him. He takes the car and drives away, but in his escape, he accidentally hits Georgina. Remembering his mother’s own death, he carries Georgina into the car, but she is possessed by Rose’s grandmother and attacks him, which crashes the car and kills her.

In a final turn of events, Rose and Walter — who is actually possessed by Rose’s grandfather — catch up with him. Chris awakens the real Walter with a phone flash, who then takes Rose’s rifle, shoots her, and then kills himself. Chris begins to strangle Rose, but cannot bring himself to finish her off. At that moment, the police appear, only to be revealed as his friend Rod in a TSA car. In the end, they both drive away together.

That concludes our breakdown of Get Out. If you have another film you’d like to see spoiled, please let us know in the comments below.

A Lonely Place: A Summary and Analysis

“I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me. Like it? Love it.”

A few years ago, I discovered this film on Netflix and longed for a copy of my own. Initially, the DVD was priced around $50–$80 on Amazon, as it was the DVD equivalent of an out-of-print treasure.

Then, about a year ago, the Criterion Collection released it for $30 (not even on Blu-ray), and I bought it with gratitude. This is how good this movie is—my favorite noir film of all time.

Below is a condensed review that captures my love and knowledge of this remarkable film.

Overview and Adaptation

“In a Lonely Place” is a 1950 film based on a 1947 novel of the same name and is directed by Nicholas Ray. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, the movie takes significant liberties with its source material. While the book focuses on a serial killer/rapist named Dixon Steele, the film transforms him into a down-on-his-luck script writer with severe anger issues, who is tasked by his agent to turn a book into a script.

The film wastes no time in reworking its plot. Dixon, after hastily inviting a hatcheck girl (whom we’ll call Missy McGuffin) back to his place for the plot details, finds himself as the last person to see her alive.

Consequently, he is at the top of the suspect list. In desperate need of an alibi, he turns to his neighbor, introducing us to Laurel Gray, as portrayed by Gloria Grahame.

Plot, Characters, and Audience Manipulation

Laurel Gray is the exact opposite of the McGuffin; she is not coy, cute, or corny—in fact, when Dixon sees her for the first time at the police station he thinks, “There she is. The one that’s different.” Naturally, Dix falls for her. With her corroboration of his innocence, the movie shifts from murder mystery to a burgeoning romance. With Laurel’s support, Dixon is inspired and happy, even as she epitomizes the 1950s archetype for the happy housewife—a part secretary, part mother, and part lover.

Humphrey Bogart displays a vulnerability and playfulness that is rarely seen again on film, evoking genuine intimacy that contrasts with the darkness inherent in its noir roots. However, the film doesn’t shy away from dire consequences. The ever-present police interference and a revelation by Captain Lochner about Dix’s sordid history of violence begin to cast doubt. Concurrently, an encounter with the world’s creepiest masseuse reminds us that even unassuming looks can hide a sociopath.

Domestic Tensions and Theories on Aggression

A pivotal scene at a beach party reveals Laurel’s secretive behavior when she is called in for questioning, and a misunderstood argument ensues between her and Dix. This confrontation, forced by the circumstances, has been interpreted in multiple ways.

One interpretation is that this scene exists solely to display what we already know about Dix—to progress the plot. Another, drawn from Freudian theory on aggression displacement, suggests that Dix’s anger, built-up from inner turmoil, finds a release in Laurel.

In his mind, his pent-up anger turns against her, a pattern reinforced when he later punches Mel, his agent. Dix’s act of sending a check for $300 (roughly $3000 in today’s economy) to cover damages is known to the audience but not to Laurel, deepening her doubts and her subsequent insomnia and reliance on pills.

This interplay of fear and desire, coupled with Nicholas Ray’s masterful storytelling, makes the characters both desperately afraid and hopelessly desperate. When Dix rings his hands to propose marriage, the previously open, playful body language has given way to distant, tense, and doubtful interactions.

For about 20 more minutes, we witness Laurel plotting her escape, Dix’s volatile reaction, and the unraveling of their relationship—all while Mel, the dependable agent who doubles as the film’s internal audience member, tries to mediate their troubled dynamic.

Military Past and the Consequences of Anger

Dix’s background as a soldier is never far from the surface—he was a soldier whose predisposition towards anger may have been compounded by war. The film carefully weaves in references to his violent past, from a beer parlor brawl on Santa Monica Blvd to a fractured producer’s jaw after a fist fight, deepening the audience’s understanding of his character. Despite these outbursts, Dix escapes serious consequences, largely because he never apologizes for his actions but merely circumvents repercussions with money and contrition.

The film reaches its emotional peak when Dix returns to find Laurel packing—her departure underscored by a phone call that is as symbolic as it is heartbreaking. Captain Lochner’s phone call confirms that Dix was right all along about the McGuffin’s boyfriend being the killer, and Laurel’s quiet resignation shatters any hope of reconciliation. As one character put it on screen, “Yesterday, this would have meant so much to us. Now it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.” This final moment—a beautiful shot of Dix walking out the door and through the archway—underscores the movie’s core theme: the loneliness that results when anger rules supreme.

Final Thoughts

The film is a rare combination of good writing, directing, and acting, all working in tandem to create a story where the impact comes from a raw and honest exploration of relationships. Much of this credit goes to Nicholas Ray, who not only reworked the script to suit Gloria Grahame’s unique speech patterns but also subverted audience expectations with an ending that refused to be neat or conventional. Instead of following a cliched path where Dix kills Laurel, the film leaves viewers with a devastating, self-inflicted loneliness born of relentless anger.

Before closing, a minor gripe: “She wears makeup to bed.” That’s it—that’s all the bad I’ve got. In the end, “In a Lonely Place” remains one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

It is a testament to the art of noir and the power of storytelling where even the brightest moments of intimacy can be overshadowed by the dark, unforgiving nature of human emotion.