THE KINDS OF KINDNESS POST-CREDIT SCENE, EXPLAINED: WHO IS R.M.F?

Did you make a run for it as soon as the credits rolled on Kinds of Kindness? We wouldn’t blame you. Sure, Yorgos Lanthimos is at his freaky, gory best with this trilogy of absurdist stories, but at 165 minutes it's a real test for the bladder.

But you missed out. Because if you hold out for a couple of minutes, you'll be treated to one last post-credits scene. It may not seem very pertinent at first, but the sequence actually answers a key question everyone is asking about the film.

With spoilers obviously ahead, we break down the food-focused final moment, and what it means for the rest of the movie:

What is the post-credit scene in Kinds of Kindness?

It’s pretty simple really. On the face of it, it’s just a guy enjoying a sandwich, sitting outside a fast food restaurant, who spills ketchup on his shirt.

Is that it?

Nope! Look closely at who’s eating the burger and you’ll recognise the bearded guy with his initials on his shirt, from all three other stories of the film. He’s played by Yorgos Stefanakos, a friend of Lanthimos’s who also starred in Poor Things.

In the first story, The Death of R.M.F., he plays the guy who is struck in the car crashes, the one who – according to Raymond in his conversation with Robert – wants to die. Robert eventually mows over him repeatedly with his truck to get back into Raymond’s good books. In R.M.F. Is Flying, the man turns up in a helicopter bringing the missing marine biologist, Liz (Emma Stone), back to her husband, Daniel. In R.M.F. Eats A Sandwich, he plays a dead man who is miraculously brought back to life by Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), and seemingly the first thing he does is go to real-life New Orleans diner, Baby’s Snack Box, and eat a sandwich.

While watching the film, the audience are wondering who R.M.F. is – and perhaps at first think it’s Raymond (Willem Dafoe) or Robert (Jesse Plemons) from the first chapter. But it's clear as the film goes on that it is actually Stefanakos' perma-mute character.

How do you know?

Lanthimos usually leaving his surrealist films open to interpretation, but he recently delved into character's importance in an interview with Variety: “It felt like a subtle way to connect the three stories other than the fact that the same actors play a different character in each story. We didn’t want to have a main character reappearing, but a character that had a short time in the film. But at the same time, his presence was pivotal.”

However, he wouldn’t reveal any more about what R.M.F. represented: “You can apply any kind of explanation that you want or your own thoughts.” A Really Mysterious Fable, indeed.

2024-06-28T08:06:07Z dg43tfdfdgfd