Cat Person (2023)-- What happened and how it ended
Plot: After meeting Robert and then texting him, Margot realizes that she really isn’t into him after she starts dating him.
Let’s cut to the chase.
Cat Person is surprisingly insightful, scary, and well-written. It gives a glimpse into the dating world and the compromises we make that rather than satisfying us, leads us to more problems than we can handle.
Yes, compromises should me made sometimes; after all we can’t always get what we want. But how do we distinguish between making a compromise that suits both parties and making a sacrifice that leaves you severely disappointed and dissatisfied?
Looking for love in this world can be tough and it may seem that everyone has an agenda. Everyone is looking for that special one but most are looking for those who check all the boxes that they think would make a suitable partner.
A stable job, good looks, ideal height and weight, all make a significant impact on how we choose our partners nowadays.
Respect, trust, love, admiration, common goals, have all taken a backseat for now.
CAT PERSON shows just how quickly the current generation wants to find true love and settle down. They want a partner at any cost, even if it means that they must make several adjustments along the way. And when things don’t go as planned, things eventually take a sinister turn.
Cat Person has horror elements along with dark comedy and thriller elements too and as ridiculous as the climax is, it fits the characters. This is just exactly what these two misguided and impulsive people would do.
CAT PERSON Plot
The movie begins with Margot at the theatre where she works at the snacks counter. Robert walks in and orders Red Vines and a large popcorn. Margot thinks it’s a good idea to remind him that he is buying the least popular snack and tries to engage him in conversation but Robert is more interested in taking his snacks and watching the movie.
We then get a quote from Margaret Atwood: Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them.
This basically sets off the premise of the movie and explains the behavior pattern of our protagonists.
Margot is best friends with Taylor who is in charge of a subreddit called Vagenda. She promotes feminism and is later shown to be angsty over a user turning out to be a guy than a woman.
Margot doesn’t take her friend seriously but does confide in her about everything. One night while returning to her dorms, she spots a dog lurking by. She thinks it’s a good idea to bring it inside but is caught by a girl who explains that as per rules she isn’t allowed pets. Margot reluctantly takes the dog out.
That night Margot dreams that the dog is violent and has killed the girl who had barred her from keeping a dog.
The next night, Robert returns and Margot doesn’t make a remark about the Red Vines though he does commend her for not insulting him this time.
Clearly, Robert is nervous and wondering if Margot is laughing at him which is why he didn’t ask her out before. But since she doesn’t laugh at him this time, he finally asks her for her number.
Margot on the other hand is in her dreamland because of which she has imagined Robert to by this mysterious, enigmatic man rather than this nervous guy who just wanted to ask her out but lacked the confidence.
Robert and Margot begin texting and they text a little too much every day. One evening, as she is working late in the lab, she texts Robert about being hungry and he gets her chips, slushees, and red vines. He wanders about the lab and goes into the red room which accidentally gets locked. Margot freaks out and imagines Robert attacking her.
Robert understands her discomfort and finally manages to break open the door but ends up killing the ants in the colony that was placed near the door. The professor comes in and scolds them both, and Margot is slightly surprised that Robert is knowledgeable about ants and ant bites.
On her father’s birthday, she is coerced into performing a sultry song after which she catches the eye of her ex who claims that after he spent time with her, he thought he might prefer his own gender but then recently found out he was asexual.
Margot takes this remark personally and believes that she isn’t pretty enough which is why her ex would rather not be with someone at all. That night, she sends a racy photo to Robert and then gets disturbed when he doesn’t reply back. He even makes excuses about being busy and she imagines what he must be busy with at work.
Margot also realizes then that she has absolutely no idea what Robert does.
So far, it seems Margot has a relationship with Robert more in her mind than in reality.
Eventually, Robert texts her back right after Taylor tells her to let him go. Robert wants to take her out on a movie that stars Harrison Ford. Margot isn’t too thrilled to see a Star Wars movie but after he implies that she rather watch a boring documentary, she fakes interest in the movie.
During the movie, Robert notices that she is not into it and is disappointed. He later explains that he finds the relationship between Han and Leia very romantic and wanted to share it with her.
Margot is touched and tries to put in a little more effort into their date. Later, Robert takes her to a bar where she has to give her ID. She is obviously not let in and Robert is stunned that she is only twenty-years old but he is in his early thirties.
While comforting her, the two kiss and Margot doesn’t like it. She imagines talking to a couple therapist and bragging about being a better kisser than Robert.
In real life, the two end up at his house and she begins to look for the cats he had told her he had.
They start to make out and Margot finds herself not enjoying at all. She imagines seeing herself outside of the situation she is in. Her other self demands that she puts an end to it but Margo either doesn’t want to hurt Robert’s feelings or is afraid of what he might do to her, which is why she thinks it is safer to just go along with it.
She then fakes being pleasured and is relieved that it is all over. After talking to Taylor, her friend advises that she breaks up with Robert, but Margot is hesitant.
Taylor takes her phone and texts Robert that she doesn’t want to see her anymore.
Robert initially sends a polite message that he understands but after some time he sends her continuous messages, demanding an explanation of why they are broken up.
Margot is stunned when he calls her an expletive but is glad she is no longer seeing him anymore.
At a party, she spots Robert sitting at a table near the window and uses her friends’ help to escape from there. Robert however did notice her and even sends her a text which she avoids replying to.
Then one night, she sees Robert outside the theatre and calls the police. The policewoman explains that Robert hasn’t broken any laws yet because he hasn’t threatened her or hurt her.
Taylor and Margot decide that they don’t want to wait for something to happen and look for a way to protect themselves.
The two go to a store and end up buying a tracking device and pepper spray after realizing a gun or knife would be a little too much.
CAT PERSON Ending Explained
Margot and Taylor are in their room, contemplating how to put a tracking device on Robert’s car when two guys enter unannounced. Taylor berates them for not respecting a girl’s privacy. Margot gives Taylor an earful about being too biased and apologizes to the two guys who just wanted to invite the girls to a party.
Taylor and Margot get into an argument and Margot tells her friend that she is simply using her friends as a sounding board and that she doesn’t care about her opinions. Taylor reminds Margot that she isn’t good at relationships.
Margot decides that very night to go off on her own to make sure Robert doesn’t stalk her. Taylor realizes a little late that her friend has gone off in the middle of the night and takes the help of her online nemesis to track her down.
Meanwhile, Margot stealthily enters Robert’s garage and tries to place the tracker but sees a dog inside, the very same one she had found outside her dorms.
Robert enters too and is shocked to find her. He sees her as a trespasser and seems genuinely frightened. Margot ends up removing her pepper spray for defense but accidentally sprays it in her eyes. She also falls backwards and knocks herself out.
When she awakens, Robert has placed a towel for her head injury and is roaming about nervously, demanding to know what she was doing here and why she was tracking him.
Both Margot and Robert seem genuinely scared of each other. Margot is afraid of what Robert will do to her since he refuses to let her go. Robert is afraid Margot will go to the police and they will believe her over him because he’s a man.
She accuses him of stalking her before they started dating because she recognized the dog. Robert explains he is sick of people lying online and wanted to meet a girl in real life. This was his weird way of asking her out. Maybe he thought they would meet when she returned the dog to him and when that ploy did not work, he approached her at her work place.
Margot begs him for some water for her burning eyes and he explains she needs saline instead. When she asks if he has been maced before which is why he knows how to treat the eyes, he gets disgusted by the implication and reveals that he is a nurse but she wouldn’t know because she never bothered to ask.
He still decides to help her but tells her to stay put. Margot obviously doesn’t and is thinking of ways to get past the guard dog when Robert sees her. The two end up in a scuffle and are really at each other’s throats.
Margot opens a door to escape and sees cats running in inside, implying that Robert never lied about who he was.
Robert lunges at her and they both end up falling down the stairs to the basement and knocking over a heater. The place begins to go up in flames and Robert frantically tries to open the windows.
He finally opens the covering for the drains and asks her to come with him. Margot refuses to trust him. He closes the lid and hides. As the fire increases in intensity, Margot, now desperate, pleads to be let in. Robert opens the cover and helps her in.
Taylor arrives and is devastated when she sees the fire. By morning, the firefighters have extinguished the flames but have found no bodies. Taylor is comforted by her driver when a firefighter claims to have found something.
Turns out Robert and Margot are found unconscious but still with a pulse.
Margot awakens in a hospital and is told that she is lucky to be alive and that her mother had to be sedated because she was frantic.
Time passes and Margot and Taylor ride their bikes to the plot where Robert’s house was. Apparently, he had left town and his work place. But Margot suspects she was being told this because Robert didn’t want her to know of his whereabouts.
Later, at the theatre, another man approaches her and Margot considers accepting a date.
The movie ends.
If there is anything you can learn from this movie is, be careful who you are dating and texting, and find a better way to deal with breakups instead of ghosting people.
And also, have good friends who will search for you in the middle of the night as you go into your stalker’s house to place a tracker.
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