The Oak Room Ending Explained: Know All About the Movie!

By Aarush Sharma On Sep 2, 2022

Cody Calahan helms the upcoming 2020 thriller The Oak Room. The film’s screenplay was written by Peter Genoway. A drama by the same name, written by Peter Genoway, served as inspiration for this novel. RJ Mitte, Ari Millen, Martin Roach, Nicholas Campbell, David Ferry, and Peter Outerbridge all make appearances.

The Oak Room premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in August 2020. The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Critics have appreciated the story and the atmosphere the picture creates.

A fierce snowstorm is the setting for the movie. A lost soul eventually finds his way back to the small Canadian hamlet of his birth. He enters the local blue-collar tavern during the snowstorm.

The plot thickens as he begins regaling the jaded barkeep, to whom he is indebted, with tall tales. The film’s tone shifts to one of the mistaken identities and gory violence as the vagrant continue to recount his tales.

RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) stars as the vagrant Steve in the film. Grizzled bartender Paul is played by Peter Outerbridge. Ari Millen takes the character of the hitman Michael. Gordon, the late Steve’s father, is portrayed by Nicholas Campbell. Richard, played by Martin Roach, is portrayed here.

Kenny is portrayed by David Ferry. Thomas Coward, portrayed by Amos Crawley. Michael, played by Avery Esteves, is a young actor, and Gordon, played by Coal Campbell. Last but not least, Adam Seybold portrays the younger version of Paul. The film immediately has a lot of strange curiosity.

The narrative develops like a Russian doll, with each layer revealing another story. The film leaves things open at the end, yet it seems to hint at the only possible resolution. Want to know what happens at the end of The Oak Room and what it all means?

An Overview of The Story of “the Oak Room”

In the first scene of “The Oak Room,” a half-full beer bottle sits on a bar counter while two shadowy individuals battle in the background, with one being clearly stronger than the other.

The scene shifts to an earlier time period, where we see Steve chatting with Paul, the bartender, at the same establishment.

The two men are familiar with each other, and it is quickly revealed that Paul was close with Steve’s late father and is upset with Steve because he did not attend the funeral.

Paul immediately contacts the shadowy and threatening Stelli, to whom Steve owes money, and begs him to meet Steve at the pub. At this point in the film, we begin to observe a mysterious character, later revealed to be Stelli, driving through the snowstorm on his way to the pub.

After much persuasion, Steve succeeds in getting Paul to listen to a narrative set in a tavern not too dissimilar to The Oak Room right before it closes for the night as a storm rages outside.

Richard dressed impeccably for the cold, enters the bar and asks the grumpy Michael to pour him a drink.

Steve’s account continues to detail the tense dialogue between them as Michael tells Richard an unusual anecdote, which leads to an argument between the two men. Upon hearing Steve’s story’s conclusion, Paul scolds him for being boring and then proceeds to tell Steve a tale of how he once found a human finger inside a fish.

Despite Paul’s assurances that the narrative is not real, it has an impact on Steve. Then he shares a story his dad, Gordon, told his uncle, Paul.

The story unfolds in flashback, much like the others, and shows Steve’s depressed father drinking and complaining about his squandered life while saying he’s in hell. Following this, Steve persists in telling Paul the beginning of his narrative since, as he sees it, it only enhances what he has already told Paul.

The Oak Room Ending: Does Michael Kill Paul?

With that, Steve begins his second anecdote, which takes place right before Richard enters the pub. Moments before Richard entered The Oak Room, Michael admitted to killing and beheading the original bartender and hiding the head in a duffel bag.

Shortly after he and Richard begin arguing verbally, he kills Richard. Steve explains that Thomas Coward, the local drunk, was hiding in the corner in a drunken stupor and saw both killings happen when Paul questions how he knows this narrative given both witnesses were killed.

Now Steve’s tone has shifted as he flirtatiously muses aloud about the possibility that the killer got lost in the snowstorm that day and ended up in the wrong town, killing the wrong bartender. Paul becomes aware of the situation at once and quickly inquires as to what Steve means.

Before killing the bartender at The Oak Room, Michael reportedly told Steve, “Jimmy Thomson sends his compliments.” Paul goes into stunned silence as he and the audience realize that Michael was supposed to kill him.

In the course of the film, an unknown man is seen driving toward a bar; it is only when he checks his watch that he is revealed to be Michael. As the movie finishes, we see Michael’s spotlight shine through the bar’s windows, lighting up Paul’s face, frozen in horror.

As the titles play over soothing jazz, the screen fades to dark, leaving the remainder to the viewer’s imagination. But we can predict the future with some certainty.

In the first scene of the film, two individuals are seen fighting in the background while Steve drinks from a beer bottle. As a result, we can predict that the bar will become violent shortly after the film ends.

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From what we can tell, Steve is not a part of this (since Steve is wearing a white sweater and the brawling figures are both dressed in black).

Since we witness one of the figures in the opening scene gaining the upper hand and killing the other, it’s safe to assume that Michael enters the pub and attacks Paul, with the latter ultimately dying at Michael’s hands.