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Death on the Nile ending explained - what happens at the end of Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot thriller?

Death on the Nile's ending comes after a lot of twist and turns, with fans left guessing about the murder mystery until the very last second

What happens at the end of Death on the Nile? Not to spoil the movie for you or anything, but during the Agatha Christie thriller, someone is indeed bumped off while a group is sailing on a post-wedding cruise in the River Nile in Egypt.

As a detective story, there is unsurprisingly a mystery at the centre of the drama movie that is unravelled as the plot progresses, which all leads up to a finale where the killer is uncovered and all the strange happenings that occur throughout the movie are explained. All the small pieces of the puzzle fit together, and if you’re clever enough, you might have been able to solve the mystery by yourself in advance.

If you’ve already read Death on the Nile, or previously seen an adaptation of the Agatha Christie detective novel, the ending won’t come as a shock to you because it stays, for the most part, pretty faithful to the plot of the original novel. Otherwise, if you think you’re cleverer than Hercule Poirot, read on and see if your theories match up to how events actually unfold, and find out whether we can expect a Death on the Nile 2.

WHO IS THE KILLER?

As the question of who killed newlywed socialite Linnet Doyle continues to loom over the wedding parties’ heads, the body count goes up as a result.

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Not only do we see poor Louise Bourget — the ever-loyal-but-slightly-shifty chambermaid of Linnet — killed after seeing too much, but also Bouc is bumped off right under Poirot’s nose in the midst of his interrogation, with a bullet poking through the chambers.

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Eventually, we discover that for these three deaths there is not one person responsible — but two. As part of an elaborate money-making scheme with first love and former fiance Jacqueline de Bellefort, Simon Doyle stages an injury by the supposed scorned woman before slinking off with her gun and ending the life of his wife himself. He then proceeds to actually shoot himself with the leg and dumping the gun in the ocean to cover his tracks. Only, Bourget saw the whole thing and Doyle tries to buy her silence before changing his mind and silencing her for good with a scalpel to the throat.

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Then, while sitting in the interrogation room with Bouc, Doyle lets out a subtle signal to his partner in crime that their secret might be under threat, which leads to De Bellefort sniping Poirot’s friend with a pistol. But that isn’t the final body count. Once their dastardly deeds are uncovered, De Bellefort proceeds to shoot both Simon and herself in front of everyone, leaving the total body count of the deadly boat trip at five.

WILL THERE BE A THIRD POIROT MOVIE?

If Branagh returns to direct and act in another Poirot sequel, we might see a marked change in the detective compared to the last two movies. After his dear friend Bouc (Thomas Bateman) is murdered by de Bellefort after being implicated in her and Doyle’s sordid scheme, Poirot is visibly shaken and aggrieved, clearly mourning the loss of his close friend.

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He seems determined to retire for good this time (no, really), as the closing shots of Death on the Nile reveal that he has finally shed his iconic moustache: suggesting that he is finally ready to move on from his past love and is no longer afraid of showing the scars he obtained in war. But is his passion for mystery as easy to shed as his moustache? We’re personally doubtful.

Notably, at the end of Death on the Nile,. he also rocks up at the same club where Salome Otterbourne — who he previously shared some flirtation with — is singing. He definitely has some unfinished business with the character, who is played by Sophie Okonedo, so there’s for sure scope for a continuing story that takes into account the effects Death on the Nile had on Poirot as a character.

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If Branagh wanted to make another Poirot mystery, he’d certainly not be short of material. Chronologically, the next Agatha Christie novel, which has been adapted for the big screen before, is Evil Under the Sun, which sees Poirot investigate the circumstances around a hiker who is found dead on the New York Moors. Alternatively, he could skip on and adapt other popular Poirot mysteries like Lord Edgeware Dies, Three Act Tragedy or Appointment with Death. If he’s not fussed about timelines, he could also look at adapting The ABC Murders which, as well as featuring Poirot, also introduces other popular Christie characters like Chief Inspector Japp and Arthur Hastings.

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As of now, no third Poirot movie has been announced. While Death on the Nile’s success may be sullied by its various delays, Branagh did say before that he was interested in making his own Poirot cinematic universe. In a 2017 interview with Associated Press, he said, “I think there are possibilities, aren’t there? With 66 books and short stories and plays, she – and she often brings people together in her own books actually, so innately – she enjoyed that.” He added, “You feel as though there is a world – just like with Dickens, there’s a complete world that she’s created – certain kinds of characters who live in her world – that I think has real possibilities.”

Death on the Nile is available to watch in theatres from February 11, 2022.