“Red Eye” ending explained: Who wins Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams' face-off at 40,000 feet?

Key Points

Red Eye, Wes Craven's 2005 thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, is now streaming on Netflix.

EW's critic previously praised the film as a "quick-and-dirty suspense corker."

Brian Cox and Jayma Mays round out the cast.

Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams were both recent breakout stars when horror maestro Wes Craven cast the pair in Red Eye, a trim 2005 thriller that recently arrived at Netflix.

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The movie begins like a rom-com, with McAdams' high-strung Lisa and Murphy's charming Jackson meeting in line at the Dallas airport before sharing a drink and being seated side-by-side for their overnight flight to Miami. Once they're in the air, however, things get weird. And then they get scary.

"A good measure of the movie’s white-knuckle fun comes from Craven’s old-hand familiarity with the way thrillers tick, predicated on the smallest and most banal of missed connections, the kind that get an audience to go crazy," Entertainment Weekly's critic wrote in their review, calling Red Eye a "quick-and-dirty suspense corker."

Murphy, however, may disagree. "I don't think it's a good movie," the Oscar-winning actor told GQ last year. "It's a good B movie." C'mon, Murph, they can't all be Oppenheimer.

Ahead of the film's 20th anniversary next month — and with the streaming generation discovering it for the first time — let's unpack Red Eye's ending, from the identity of Murphy's peculiar Jackson to that explosive assassination attempt.

What is Red Eye about?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Rachel McAdams as Lisa and Cillian Murphy as Jackson in 'Red Eye'

Lisa is a self-described "people pleaser," the manager of a luxe Miami hotel where she's routinely bulldozed by high-end clientele. Jackson is a handsome stranger she meets at the airport while traveling back home from Dallas after her grandmother's funeral.

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At first, it seems as if fate has brought the two together, with the pair sharing a drink after meeting in line and then serendipitously ending up seated next to each other. But his charm curdles once he reveals a deep knowledge of her life. He needs her help, and if she doesn't give it to him, her oblivious father, Joe (Brian Cox), will be killed by a hit man waiting outside his home.

Jackson's plan involves Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, who recently made waves with aggressive rhetoric regarding the United States' war on terror. (Remember, Red Eye was filmed in the wake of 9/11 and amid the Iraq War.)

Keefe booked a stay at Lisa's hotel, and Jackson wants her to move him (and his family) to a different room so his employers can more easily assassinate him.

During the overnight flight, Lisa makes several efforts to alert the flight attendants and other passengers that she's in danger — including writing in soap on the bathroom mirror that Jackson has a bomb — but he remains a step ahead of her at every turn.

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Finally, Lisa relents and makes the call, ordering her employee, Cynthia (Jayma Mays), to change Keefe's room assignment, as mandated by Jackson.

Who is Jackson Rippner?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Cillian Murphy as Jackson in 'Red Eye'

Jackson Rippner — never "Jack," lest his name echo the 19th-century serial killer "Jack the Ripper" — denies being a spy, hit man, CIA agent, or member of the mafia.

While his occupation is never explicitly stated, he calls himself a "manager" and says he specializes in "government overthrows [and] flashy, high-profile assassinations."

If taken at his word, Jackson is a hired gun to help facilitate acts of terrorism. After all, he doesn't seem personally invested in Keefe's murder. "Somebody wants to send a big, brash message, that's their business," he tells Lisa.

Is Keefe assassinated?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Jack Scalia and Beth Toussaint Coleman in 'Red Eye'

No, Keefe and his family survive the assassination attempt — a missile fired from a nearby fishing boat. Luckily for him, Lisa manages to flee Jackson, call Cynthia, and alert Keefe's security detail (which is led, oddly enough, by Survivor alum Colby Donaldson in one of his few film performances).

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The missile, however, meets its target, igniting the upper floors of the hotel and throwing debris.

How does Lisa escape Jackson?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Rachel McAdams' Lisa looks for an escape in 'Red Eye'

As the plane touches down in Miami, Lisa tells Jackson about a scar he noticed on her chest. She got it, she explains, from a sexual assault that occurred two years previously.

"Ever since, I've been trying to convince myself of one thing over and over," she says.

"That it was beyond your control," Jackson replies.

"No, that it would never happen again."

With that, she wields a pen stolen from another passenger and jams it into his windpipe. In the ensuing chaos, she makes a break for the exit and sprints into the airport. She's chased first by security and then by Jackson, who wraps a scarf around his wound and wheezes onward.

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Lisa then manages to elude her pursuers by hopping on a shuttle and stealing a car.

Does Lisa save her dad?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Brian Cox as Joe in 'Red Eye'

She immediately drives to her father's home. There, she spots the hit man outside Joe's apartment and slams into him with the car, sending him flying through the front of the building and killing him.

Though still alive, Joe is soon knocked unconscious by a bloodthirsty Jackson, who's determined to kill Lisa. The pair fight throughout the apartment, and Jackson is finally bested by two gunshots from the hit man's silenced pistol — one fired by Lisa and one by Joe, who wakes up to find his daughter in danger.

How does Red Eye end?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Cillian Murphy's Jackson menaces Rachel McAdams' Lisa in 'Red Eye'

Red Eye ends with Lisa going to her hotel, where Keefe thanks her for saving his family's life.

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She's then approached by a pair of rude hotel guests we first glimpsed in the film's opening scene. After complaining about the explosion, they demand that Lisa fire Cynthia.

Related: The 25 best thriller movies on Netflix right now

Lisa, who was previously quick to acquiesce to customers like these, tells the couple to fill out a comment card and shove it up their ass, a sign that she's no longer a pushover.

Where can I watch Red Eye?

Gemma La Mana/Dreamworks

Rachel McAdams as Lisa in 'Red Eye'

Red Eye is currently available to stream on Netflix.

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