The Strays ending explained

The film is the feature directorial debut of actor and playwright Nathaniel Martello-White, and stars Ashley Madekwe as a woman who is forced to confront her past following the arrival of two strangers in her suburban town.

Throughout the film's runtime, we cycle through a number of perspective changes, seeing things from the point of view of different characters leading up to an incredibly tense final scene.

If you're still struggling to make sense of those final moments, read on to have The Strays ending explained.

After a brief scene towards the start of the film that shows Cheryl (Ashley Madekwe) living a rather miserable existence in London, we jump forward a number of years to find that she is now living an upper-middle-class life in the suburbs, going by the name Neve.

She is happily married with two children and works as the deputy head of the local private school – but goes to great lengths to conceal her background and her Blackness.

One day, Neve's blissful life is interrupted when she is spooked by the arrival of a young Black man and woman in town, and over the next few days, she becomes increasingly concerned about them – especially the way they have attached themselves to her children Sebastian and Mary.

Eventually, Neve confronts the pair after a charity gala at her home and when she demands to know what they want they address her as 'Mother'.

The Strays. Netflix

We then flashback to five days earlier and follow events from the perspectives of these two characters, whose real names we learn are Carl and Dione. It is made clear that Cheryl is their mother and abandoned them to start a new life when they were young.

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Carl and Dione – going by the names Marvin and Abigail – ingratiate themselves into the lives of Sebastian and Mary and become upset at how privileged a life their half-siblings have been given compared to them, eventually leading to the aforementioned confrontation at the gala.

Later, after explaining to her family that she left Carl and Dione's father around 16 years ago, Neve drives to meet her two older children in private and reveals she walked out because their father was dangerous.

Carl and Dione are not particularly satisfied with this answer, and in an attempt to mollify the situation Neve offers them an envelope with £20,000 inside, which she says will help them back on their feet if they leave.

She then heads home, but a couple of nights later Carl and Dione break in, waking everyone up, locking them inside, and turning on all the taps to start a flood.

The situation becomes extremely tense as Carl and Dione insist they all play a board game and order a Chinese takeaway. Meanwhile, when they reveal that Neve had offered to pay them off, her husband Ian is furious – even demanding a divorce.

As things get increasingly desperate – with Carl producing a machete and threatening Ian – the doorbell rings with their takeaway order, and seeing an opportunity to escape, Neve sneaks out the door and runs away once again, abandoning all four of her children and bringing the story full circle.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, stars Ashley Madekwe and Jorden Myrie (who plays Carl) explained how director Nathaniel Martello-White had shot the final confrontational scene like a play – in one take and with dress rehearsals beforehand.

"It was a very long scene – it's almost 20 minutes that scene," Madekwe explained. "Every take was in one long continuous take no matter what we were doing – if you were looking for my POV, or Jorden's POV, the whole take – and the camera would move, he was roaming, so you never really knew where he was going to be. So you have to be prepared.

"And we rehearsed it like a play, we had two days of rehearsals, not just the actors but all of the crew, so all of the components were there for our rehearsal. And it was so helpful because it meant that when it came to those shooting days, it was almost a fine-oiled machine."

Myrie added: "The type of scene that we were shooting as well is everything coming to the crescendo of the film. So you're feeling that intensity. But also, from a technical aspect, the difference is that not only are you actually basically performing a mini-play, but you then are really aware of the fact that there's a camera, sound, and all that in there, too."

The Strays is available to watch on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

If you’re looking for more to watch, visit our Film hub or check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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