Kindness Endings Explained: What is RMF?

Nobody makes movies quite like Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, and his 2024 dark comedy anthology film Kinds of Kindness is something of a Twilight Zone for perverts and sick people (in the most complimentary way). Emma Stone leads a talented cast who each appear in a triptych of fairy tales, playing different roles in each story, and the slightly nihilistic fable is “Lanthimos” film that Lanthimos has ever made.

Some fans were disappointed in Kinds of Kindness after the Academy Award-winning psychosexual delights of Stone and Lanthimos' previous collaboration, Poor Things, which featured a script by The Great's Tony McNamara, Kinds of Kindness is nonetheless a fascinating effort. Lanthimos wrote Kinds of Kindness with his frequent collaborator Efthimis Philipps, who also wrote the director's films The Alps, Tooth of the Dog, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and it's a return to many of his unusual trademarks. The characters sometimes speak as if they are detached from reality, delivering strange lines of dialogue with almost monotone clarity, and the humor is absolutely dark. It's a strange thing, and it means that sometimes it's easy to get lost and end up wondering what it all really means.

Each of the “Kinds of Kindness” stories has a title: “RMF's Death,” “RMF's Flying,” and “RMF's Eating a Sandwich,” so that's probably the best place to start when figuring out “Kinds of Kindness.” is to find out who or what “RMF” is.

More literally, “RMF” is the initials of the man (played by Yorgos Stefanakos) who serves as the narrative line in each story. (He also has his initials embroidered on his shirt, though Margaret Qualia's Vivian mistakes the “R” for a “B”.) In the first story, he is hired by a controlling, twisted businessman, Raymond (Willem Dafoe), to be killed. otherwise he hires with the same initials. He is eventually killed by Raymond's pesky ex-employee Robert (Jess Plemons) and reappears in the third story, “RMF Eats a Sandwich,” as a corpse brought back to life by Ruth (Qualley), a veterinarian with magical powers. In the second story, he's a helicopter pilot who rescues two explorers stranded on an island, including Lisa (Stone), whose husband Daniel (Plemmons) believes he came back somehow changed.

Lanthimos said Diversity that there is no real meaning behind the character or his initials, explaining that they “didn't want the main character to come back, but a character that had a short time in the film”. And while “his presence was crucial,” his real name means nothing. Lanthimos left it up to the audience, saying, “You can use any kind of explanation you want or your own thoughts.”

Fans have tried to come up with their own explanations and discussion about Lanthimos subreddit came up with some pretty decent ones, including “Random MotherF******”, “Random Male Figure”, “Redemption, Manipulation, Faith” and more. There are many words that could apply to each of the stories and just as many interpretations, and this ambiguity is part of the film's genius. Like many of Lanthimos' films, “Kinds of Kindness” does not try to give the audience any answers: it just wants them to ask questions.

In addition to RMF, throughout “Types of Kindness” is the main theme that ties the stories together. Each installment follows a character who will stop at nothing to get what they want. They all yearn for connection, though that connection has to be with someone in particular: in the first story, Robert just wants the approval of his extremely controlling boss, Raymond; in the second, Daniel simply wants his wife Lisa and rejects any substitute; and in the third, Emily wants to find her cult lover and be loved by her cult leaders Omi (Dafoe) and Aka (Hong Chau). Each of these characters is also separated from the object of their love/desire, as Raymond abandons Robert because he initially refused to kill RMF, Lisa disappears at sea, and Emily is expelled from the cult after being raped. her estranged husband and returns to the cult “tainted”.

Each does whatever it takes to get what they want, and their varying levels of success aren't presented as good or bad, leaving it up to the audience to decide whether it was all worth it. It is interesting to note that in all three stories the characters somehow avoid having children, as Robert gives his wife an abortion at Raymond's behest, Daniel rejects Lisa's double even though she is fertile (and Lisa presumably isn't), and Emily leaves him. daughter with her husband, despite clearly loving him and leaving little gifts. Family and children are easily at odds with all the sacrifices people make for work, romantic relationships, and faith, and these characters show that they are willing to sacrifice all of that. Sacrifice is a theme Lanthimos likes to play with (See also: “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”), and “Kinds of Kindness” takes it to its most absurd lengths.

In the second story, Daniel longs for his wife Lisa to return after her research vessel is lost at sea, but the woman who eventually returns does not seem to be his wife. Her feet are a little bigger and none of her shoes fit, and she suddenly loves chocolate despite always hating it. Her sexual appetite has also increased to a point that worries Daniel, and this is considering the fact that the pair usually engage in group sex with their best friends. Everyone around him thinks he's caught up in some sort of delusional persecution and that Lisa is exactly who she says she is, even though the island's sole survivor is in a coma. She came back variousand Daniel begins to plead with her to give herself to him. First, he asks her to cut off the thumb and cook it, then the liver.

The liver removal kills the fake Lisa, and Daniel appears to be some kind of monster when the real Lisa shows up at the door and the two are reunited. It's kind of fun if you ignore the dead doppelganger in the background. After that, a short credits sequence between the stories shows Dogland, where Lisa's doppelgänger lived, where dogs and people switched places and people were fed chocolate. We'll never know exactly why RMF saved the seemingly slightly separated clones or even how the real Lisa got home because it's a fairy tale and those parts really don't matter! What matters is that Daniel knew who his wife really was and was willing to lose everything to find her and get rid of the cheater.

In the third story, cult members Emily (Stone) and Andrew (Plemmons) are looking for their cult's messiah – a woman who can bring the dead back to life. There are specific, odd criteria, and they travel the country looking for people who might fit the bill. They only drink water from the vessels they brought with them, and it is revealed that the water comes from the homes of their leaders, Omi and Aka, who purify it with their tears. All members of the cult have sex with each other and with Omi and Aku, but if they have sex with someone outside the cult, it can “contaminate” them. Unfortunately, Emily is discovered to be infected when her ex-husband drugs and rapes her, leading to her being ostracized from the cult. Even a near-fatal long sit in a sweat lodge doesn't “purify” him. She devotes everything to finding the messiah so that he can be brought back into the cult with dire results.

It's interesting because in the first two segments, the main character was ostracized by choice. Robert refused to kill RMF despite being happy with everything else he had done, while Daniel could have tried to accept that Lisa had changed or simply abandoned him instead of claiming his pound of flesh. Emily was only around her ex because she wanted to see her daughter, and for that she was punished not only by the attack itself, but by being sent away from the one thing she truly cared about. It's a heartbreaking commentary on sexual assault victims being blamed for their own victims, and it makes what happens next all the more tragic.

Emily kidnaps Ruth (Qualie), whose dog healed a deep gash in her leg like new, and takes her to the morgue to see if she's the chosen one. Ruth manages to revive RMF, who was dead after being run over by Robert in the first story. (How was he alive as a helicopter pilot in the second story? Maybe that's why Lisa was conflicted, or maybe they're not okay. Your guess is as good as ours.) Excited that she can now return to the cult. , Emily drives to an estate with a drugged-out Ruth in the passenger seat only to get into an accident and send Ruth, who was not wearing a seatbelt, flying through the windshield where she dies. It seems a bit nihilistic “it was all for nothing,” sick Lanthimos laughs, but it's also a lesson in recognizing our flaws before it's too late, as Emily in The Dukes of Hazzard drives like a stuntman (even in motel parking lots ).

Sometimes life is just a cruel joke, especially when you're in a Yorgos Lanthimos movie.

After Ruth is killed and the final credits roll, we get a colorful little mid-credits scene of RMF sitting outside a restaurant called “Baby's Snack Box.” He eats that sandwich from the title of the last chapter and gets ketchup on his shirt, prompting the waitress to bring him more tissues. Despite being in two horrible car accidents and then being run over by a murderous Robert, dead and revived, he's still just here among the rest of us slobs, eating sandwiches and drinking ketchup on his shirt. He, I think, relishes the trifles, embracing the mundaneness of it despite the ridiculous circumstances of his existence. It is based on absurdity, which is what Lanthimos' films are really about.