Netflix just dropped It’s What’s Inside, a new sci-fi horror comedy film that initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Directed and written by Greg Jardin, produced by Raùl Domingo and executive produced by Colman Domingo, the film stars Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Gavin Leatherwood, Nina Bloomgarden, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Reina Hardesty, Devon Terrell, David Thompson and Madison Davenport.
The film centers on “friends gather for a pre-wedding party that descends into an existential nightmare when an estranged friend arrives with a mysterious game that awakens long-hidden secrets, desires, and grudges.” It has huge plot twists and everything you thought you knew about the film changes at the end.
Here’s an explainer of the movie:
The backstory of the group in ‘It’s What’s Inside’
At the beginning of the movie, we meet Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) and her boyfriend Cyrus (James Morosini), as Shelby is trying to seduce Cyrus, but it seems as if he is disinterested and would rather watch sex videos on his computer while she is trying to switch things up by wearing a blonde wig. Meanwhile, she is seemingly attempting to appear like other women who Cyrus may be attracted to, such as their college friend Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey) who is now a social media influencer with millions of followers.
They then head to a celebration with all of their friend group ahead of the wedding for one of their own, Reuben (Devon Terrell). Taking place at a big mansion owned by Reuben’s late mother, all of the other friends that join them include Nikki, Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), Brooke (Reina Hardesty) and Maya (Nina Bloomgarden).
They are all shocked when Reuben reveals that an old member of their group, Forbes (David Thompson) is likely to join them. There is an interesting background to Forbes’ involvement with the group. When they were all friends, he was expelled from college after an incident that happened with his mentally unwell sister, Beatrice (Madison Davenport).
Forbes, who now works in tech, brings with him a game in a suitcase that allows people to swap bodies with each other. All of the friends are wary to play it, especially Shelby (despite Cyrus really wanting to participate), but they all agree to do so after being initially shocked by the game when Forbes didn’t tell them exactly what was going on.
What happens in the game and who was lying?
Everyone has fun in the first round, and Shelby takes a liking to the game. However, there was some deception going on. In the first round, everyone believed that Cyrus was in Dennis’s body. But, in actuality, Cyrus was in Reuben’s body and Forbes is in Dennis’ body. Cyrus confronts Forbes about this, but Forbes encourages Cyrus to go along with it. While in Forbes’ body, Cyrus sees Maya, who is in Nikki’s body. Maya still believes Dennis is in Forbes’ body. Cyrus doesn’t say anything different and goes along with this, kissing Maya in Nikki’s body, though Nikki believes that this is Dennis. While doing so, Cyrus cuts himself on a piece of glass (this is important to remember for later).
After what happened, Cyrus doesn’t want to play anymore, but now Shelby is into the game, and begins to call him out for not wanting to participate, so he eventually agrees to proceed. The second round includes Shelby in Nikki’s body and she is definitely feeling herself, as well as the amount of followers and influence Nikki has. Cyrus, who is now actually in Forbes’ body, wants to end the game.
Which characters die and in which bodies?
The group comes together to end the game, but Reuben and Brooke (in the bodies of Dennis and Maya) are having sex on a wonky balcony and fall to their deaths. This means the actual Reuben and Brooke are dead, as are the bodies of Dennis and Maya. The remaining group members — Dennis, Maya, Nikki, Shelby, Cyrus and Forbes now have to decide what to do and how to switch back. Now that two of them are dead, that means two Dennis and Maya are going to have to end up in bodies that aren’t theirs.
Nikki urges the group to call the police but Forbes doesn’t want to do this as he will lose the suitcase. Dennis is also panicking as, with his body being dead, he doesn’t want to swap into Reuben’s body.
Truths come to light and realizations happen
Things spiral and a lot of college secrets come to light. Dennis and Cyrus get into it, and Dennis reveals that Cyrus settled for Shelby after Nikki turned him down. In turn, this seemingly confirms with Shelby that Cyrus actually wanted to be with Nikki. Upset with Cyrus after his pitch that he needed to stick in Reuben’s body, Dennis calls the police and says that Cyrus was the one who killed him and Maya. Amid all of this, Forbes tries to escape with the suitcase but is knocked unconscious by Nikki. Shelby, reeling from the revelation about Cyrus, now wants to stay in Nikki’s body.
Cyrus apologizes to Shelby, but then Maya realizes that it was Cyrus who kissed her and he was in Reuben’s body earlier, not Forbes. While this is going on, Forbes wakes up and Nikki asks him to switch them back. With Nikki asking Forbes to swap everyone back, Shelby threatens to send out a video of her as Nikki dissing her activist causes. The group begins to divide into two sub-groups– people who want to swap again to get in their original bodies or people who think they should remain as is.
Shelby proposes an idea to Cyrus that she stays in Nikki’s body, and then he can go in Reuben’s body and it would make sense that they would have gotten together. Then, Dennis, in Cyrus’ body, would take the fall for the deaths. Meanwhile, Nikki and Dennis come to an agreement that it is best for everyone to switch back to their original bodies and for him to be in Reuben’s. Nikki is allergic to peanut butter, so she puts peanut butter on Shelby to incapacitate her so they can swap bodies. While this is going on, Dennis realizes some money has been taken out of his trust fund and put into an offshore account, and believes that Cyrus is the culprit. As the police arrive, everyone seems to switch bodies for the last time.
The big Beatrice twist
We see Beatrice driving the next day to the wedding location. There, she finds Dennis in Forbes’ body– and gives him the shocking truth– she is Forbes. Yes, Forbes is in Beatrice’s body and the person that came to them the night before, the one that they all assumed was Forbes, is Beatrice, and she wanted to get revenge on the friend group. He tells her that she has been plotting revenge for what happened years ago, and she was put on suicide watch after having a mental breakdown following the events that happened back then. Dennis was sleeping with Beatrice (who was in high school then) while he was dating Nikki. They ended up sleeping together at the birthday party way back when, resulting in a fight between Dennis and Forbes. Beatrice told everyone that they were together, but Dennis denied this and told everyone she was crazy. After this, Beatrice had to go into a mental institution.
Assisting in her recovery, Forbes ended up showing her the device, and when they had switched bodies, she knocked him out and took it for herself and then went to the pre-wedding celebration.
Who is in each body at the end of the movie?
Dennis reveals which body each person ended up it:
| Shelby | Shelby |
| Cyrus | Cyrus |
| Dennis | Forbes |
| Maya | Brooke |
| Nikki | Reuben |
| Brooke | Maya |
| Reuben | Dennis |
| Forbes | Beatrice |
| Beatrice | Nikki |
Shelby and Cyrus are back in their own bodies, but Cyrus is in prison because of the murders and the money, and Shelby won’t help him get out. Maya remained in Brooke’s body, and believes this is her reincarnated Nikki ended up in Reuben’s body, and at the end, we see Beatrice leaving town in Nikki’s body, with the suitcase and the money.
