The Amazon Movie ‘Playdate’ Has a Weird Fucking Ending

If I told you that a Kevin James/Alan Ritchson buddy comedy ended with our leads purposefully killing dozens of children in a fiery explosion, you’d probably look at me sideways. If I told you they were the heroes, and this was supposed to be a “cool and funny’ moment, you’d think I’ve lost my god damned mind. But the movie Playdate is real, it’s been out for two months, and you can watch the scene unfold with your own eyes if you want to.

Not sure why you’d want to, but you’re an adult. You can make your own choices.

I’m going to spoil the movie here, so if for some reason you cared about the plot of this thing, you might want to stop reading here. The basic setup of the movie is that Kevin James plays a stepdad whose socially awkward kid befriends the apparent child of Alan Ritchson’s character at the park. Ritchson invites James and his son over to their house (which they’ve recently moved into), and chaos ensues because people are coming to kill Ritchson.

CJ, the character we’ve been told is Ritchson’s son is in fact not his son, but actually a genetically modified clone of Ritchson created to be a super soldier that Ritchson freed from a lab. Occasionally fun (and occasionally dumb) comedic action scenes follow. And frankly, I found myself mildly enjoying the film. It wasn’t deep, and Ritchson is funny (and James manages to not get in his way). I wouldn’t describe it as a good movie, but I was enjoying myself.

And then the last scene happened, and I just went “What the fuck?”

You see, at one point it’s revealed that CJ isn’t the only clone. There are, in fact, a couple dozen, but Ritchson and James just weren’t aware of the rest. Apparently all the clones (including CJ) have had their empathy and emotions removed from them, but the film establishes that CJ genuinely cares for Ritchson.

And then they blow up all the other clones.

In a massive fireball as our heroes walk away.

And I’m like… did no one think about this? The only difference between CJ and the rest of the clones is the short amount of time CJ spent with Ritchson’s character. That means every single one of those kids could be easily rehabilitated just by someone giving a shit about them. But, like, why think about that when you can murder them. It’s clear that literally no one making this movie thought for more than two seconds about the scene, but what a weird message to end your action buddy comedy on. It’s just… it’s just weird.

What a weird way to end that fucking movie.

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