‘Hypnotic’ Ending, Explained: What Had Happened To Minnie? Is Dellrayne Dead?

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Hypnotic is a mystery thriller film that seems set on throwing every known tactic at its viewers to potentially bend their minds and get praised for stupendous thrills and twists. However, what the film ends up being is a mashup of superficial ideas that do not create any effect or thrill and rather go to a point in which viewers might be scared that the scene they are watching will quickly be debunked as fake in the very next scene. The plot follows hardened police officer Danny Rourke, who has still not been able to move on from his daughter Minnie’s kidnapping and disappearance when he suddenly seems to receive a new lead. Hypnotic also then brings in its real plot—of mind-controlling hypnosis, which is visually represented by shaky and loopy backgrounds and a powerful weapon named Domino.

Spoilers Alert


‘Hypnotic’ Plot Summary: What Happens In The Film?

The film begins with Danny Rourke snapping back to reality after he has zoned out of the situation he is in. Like countless times before, Danny is at his therapist’s office as part of a mandatory examination to ascertain whether he can return to police duty. The therapist asks him to talk about the most traumatic day in his life and the reason why he is sitting in this office, and Danny follows. One afternoon a few years ago, Danny was spending happy times with his young daughter Minnie at a local park when his attention moved from her for a brief few seconds. Within this time, Minnie was taken from the place, never to be seen again. A young boy of eighteen named Lyle Terry seemed suspicious to Danny, and he got him arrested too, but Lyle only kept claiming that he was not guilty because of mental incapacity and also claimed that he remembered nothing about Minnie. Even though years had passed since this incident, with no trace of Minnie found yet, Danny Rourke had been unable to move ahead in life, and now he is finally cleared for duty by the therapist.

Meeting up with his partner Nicks, Danny drives towards a local bank after an anonymous tip has been received by the police about a supposed robbery to take place. Nicks reveals some further mystery associated with this call, as two other branches of the same bank had been robbed earlier, but only a certain safety deposit box had been stolen. As the two police detectives arrive at the bank and monitor the scene with their surveillance team, a rather peculiar matter comes to their attention. A man starts to take control of various people only through his words in order to create disruption, break into the bank, and also ensure his safety. As Danny runs into the bank to apprehend him, he reaches the locker room and finds the deposit box that the man is supposed to rob. However, what Danny finds in this box surprises him greatly. Inside this box he finds a photograph of Minnie, along with an instruction to find someone named Lev Dellrayne scribbled on it. As Danny keeps the photograph to himself, the bank robber soon starts to follow and attack the police detective, as it is revealed that he is Lev Dellrayne.


Who Is Diana Cruz? Why Does She Help Danny?

After the bank heist, Danny and Nicks immediately tracked down the anonymous caller who had given a tip to the police, and they reached the store of a psychic named Diana Cruz. Knowing that Dellrayne is possibly the kidnapper of Minnie, Danny no longer pays heed to police proceedings and soon goes over to Diana’s address. Talking to the woman, the detective learns that she got to know about the bank heist from a client of hers and had thought of informing the police. However, before more can be discussed, Dellrayne also reaches the spot and tries to get Diana killed through one of her clients. It is now revealed that Lev Dellrayne is a master psychic who can easily control the minds of people and make them do things for him. This is how he got the bank robberies done, as he took control of security forces, bank employees, and even a passerby to steal the box. But the photograph of Minnie, which was supposed to be inside but was now with Danny, was of primary importance to Dellrayne, and it is for this that he now comes after Danny Rourke.

Over time, the real professions of Lev Dellrayne and Diana Cruz are revealed by the woman herself as she tells Danny about a top-secret government department. Named the Division, this secretive program was started by the US government for people who had some small levels of psychic abilities, and its purpose was to further train such people to develop the ability to control the minds of others. As is quite evident, the government wanted to use these mind-controlling people to solve matters of conflict and politics, and Diana was a part of this group. Incidentally, Dellrayne was also one such member of the group who had received his training at the Division, but the man was by far the most powerful psychic in the group. Engrossed by the idea of mind control beyond any limits, Dellrayne outgrew his powers to be more than his trainers and then tried to take over the Division. Many of the other agents, including Diana, fought against his endeavor, and although Dellrayne was arrested by the Division, it did not last for long. Diana knew that Dellrayne would escape prison soon, and for this reason, she had left the Division and cut all ties with the group. She had started living a new life as a psychic running a store, but now her past had totally caught up with him.

As Danny initially refuses to believe in any of these supernatural psychic abilities, Diana shows him her powers by taking control of Nicks. The detective is then also mind-controlled by Dellrayne, who reaches the police station as well, and Nicks finally has to be shot dead by Diana. She then takes Danny to an old colleague of hers from Division, who now lives in Mexico, and it is he who reveals that Dellrayne was now searching for something called Project Domino, a powerful weapon that the Division had built that could be used to control the minds of anybody in any situation, including the most powerful hypnotics. Knowing that it could be used against him, Dellrayne stole the Domino and hid it somewhere before wiping his own mind clean so that nobody could trace the Domino and find it. But Dellrayne himself needed to find out where he had hidden the weapon, and for this, he had created some triggers, or clues, for his mind to follow and find the Domino. Diana and her colleague now suspect that the bank deposit boxes, and the photograph of Minnie are all visual cues that Dellrayne needs in order to remember the secret location.

It is for this reason that Dellrayne is now supposedly looking for the photograph, and if he gets his hands on Domino, then it will be the end for Division. Diana continues to help Danny out for this reason, as she needs to protect her old team and herself, and soon she takes Danny to another colleague of hers named River.


What Was The Real Identity Of Danny’s Wife?

This colleague happens to be a master hacker, and with the help of River, Danny finds out that his wife, Vivian, is also a member of the Division. Danny had no idea about this throughout his entire life, as he was made to believe and remember that he and Vivian had fallen in love during their college days before then marrying and having a family together. He distinctly remembers how their marriage had completely fallen apart after Minnie had been kidnapped, and no trace of her could be found ever again. By now, it is clear to Danny that he has to be careful about believing anything around him, and Dellrayne once again tries to get into his head and make him kill Diana.

As Danny somehow controls himself and leaves the room, he tries to find out more about Vivian and himself on River’s computer, and it is now that the real truth is revealed. In reality, Danny Rourke himself was also a psychic of the Division, but his mind had been wiped, following which he remembered none of it. His wife Vivian was actually Diana Cruz herself, who was still a member of the Division, and she had been putting him in fake situations all this time, using her mind-control abilities. Lev Dellrayne, the foe Danny had been targeting for so long, was actually the Director of the Division, and he was also part of the plan to extract information from the man.


What Was The Domino?

When Danny and Diana had their daughter, Minnie, it was found that the young girl had exceptional psychic powers and could be used to control the minds of anybody in any situation, even the most powerful psychics. Minnie was indeed Domino, the treasured item that everyone at the Division was looking for. Because of her extraordinary powers, she was being thought of as a weapon that the government could use, and although Diana was willing to let her child be used for such research, Danny rejected the idea. He knew that the Division would get hold of Minnie soon, and for this reason, it was he who had taken Minnie away before erasing his own mind. This last step was to ensure that anyone reading or controlling his mind would not be able to find the girl, as he knew the Division would come looking for Domino.

At present, every experience that Danny has been going through and that we have watched so far in Hypnotic are all fake constructs that were planted inside the man’s head. He was made the stereotypical police detective whose daughter gets kidnapped, and then he finds a clue with her photograph. The idea was that seeing the photograph of Minnie and seeing the words “Find Lev Dellrayne,” which Danny himself had written before he wiped his mind, would make him remember where he had hidden his daughter. As Danny would not know that he was inside a simulation, he would surely try to go fetch Minnie, and in the process, the Division would get to know where their Domino was and take control of her.


‘Hypnotic’ Ending Explained: Why Did Danny Orchestrate Minnie’s Kidnapping?

Once all of this has been revealed to Danny Rourke, his mind is wiped clean once again, and it has already been twelve times that the simulation has been run on him without any success. However, what the Division does not know is that Danny had himself placed some clues or triggers that were gradually making him remember information from the previous simulation, and during the thirteenth run, he was able to escape the loop. Danny drives away from the headquarters of the Division after he realizes that the words “Find Lev Dellrayne” were actually an anagram for “Deer Valley Lane,” the place where he had hidden his daughter Minnie. The Division also finds this clue and follows Danny with their entire team of psychics and soldiers.

Eventually, it is revealed that Danny had kept Minnie with his adoptive parents, Carl and Thelma, for the last two years. While the location is easy to understand, as it is quite remote and far away from the locality, the duration of two years remains a mystery until another big revelation is made. In actuality, both Danny and Diana were against letting their daughter be taken away by the Division for research, but they were not powerful enough to fight the team. The couple knew that the only way to stop the Division from misusing their daughter’s powers would be to kill all the members of the program, but they needed Minnie’s exceptional powers to do this successfully. However, as the girl was very young at the time, she needed two more years to develop her powers, and for this reason, Danny faked her kidnapping and sheltered her at Carl and Thelma’s farmhouse. Both Danny and Diana then wiped their own minds, and while the husband got himself caught by the Division, the wife continued to be a member of the secretive program.

At present, Minnie uses her powers to bring Diana’s memories back while also getting all the Division soldiers to kill each other off. This whole scene at the farmhouse was actually a construct being controlled by Minnie, and they were actually at a remote place in the middle of a desert. Dellrayne, or the Director, now tries his best to stop the family from ending the Division and being happy by themselves, but his efforts fail as Minnie gets him to shoot himself dead. The Rourke family is indeed reunited and safe now, with their new lives free of any persuasions from the Division.


What Does The Mid-credits Scene Reveal About Dellrayne?

Although Hypnotic ends on this very note and scene, there is a far more sinister revelation in the mid-credits scene, which starts off with Danny, Diana, Minnie, and Thelma flying away in one of the helicopters. Carl says that he will join them after cleaning up the whole mess with dead bodies strewn all over, and he then approaches the dead body of Dellrayne. However, in a swift change, it is revealed that the body is actually that of Carl, while the man pretending to be Carl is actually Dellrayne. In reality, Dellrayne, or the Director, had used hypnosis to make everyone else see him as Carl, and he had thereby survived the whole ordeal and also now had information about Danny, Diana, and Minnie. Hypnotic now finally comes to an end, with a desperate twist perhaps to cover up for its twisted and unconvincing plot concepts.


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Sourya Sur Roy
Sourya Sur Roy
Sourya keeps an avid interest in all sorts of films, history, sports, videogames and everything related to New Media. Holding a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies, he is currently working as a teacher of Film Studies at a private school and also remotely as a Research Assistant and Translator on a postdoctoral project at UdK Berlin.

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