Inheritance, also known as Spadek, is a new Polish comedy-drama film on Netflix that intends to charm with its comedic dialogues, quirky characters, and unusual premise of a treasure hunt conducted to find the family inheritance. When an eccentric inventor and TV game show host passes away, he leaves behind his estranged family members a rich fortune and, more importantly, a bizarre treasure hunt that needs to be beaten in order to reach the inheritance. Overall, Inheritance, or Spadek, is quite a fun and entertaining film appropriate for a light-hearted watch.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the Netflix film about?
The story in Inheritance is narrated by a man named Dawid, who is on the way to his estranged uncle’s house after receiving the sad news of his death. Dawid is not alone on this trip, though, as he is accompanied by his wife Zosia and their two children—elder daughter Jozefina and son Henryk. Although the three members, especially the children, had never known their granduncle, the reason for their presence on this journey is because of the very man’s insistence. Dawid’s uncle, an eccentric inventor named Wladyslaw Fortuna, was once the host of Poland’s first TV game show, and he is also believed to have invented the PESEL number, which is the country’s national identification number. Therefore, it is quite natural that Wladyslaw was extremely rich, and since he has no direct heir, the distribution of his wealth and property is something quite exciting for the family. Dawid is indeed going for this very purpose, to attend the reading of his uncle’s will, and he has also brought his family along simply because Wladyslaw had left clear instructions to do so.
When Dawid stops at a gas station near his uncle’s house, he realizes that his cousins, Karol and Natalia, have also been invited to the reading of the will, and they have also been instructed to bring along their respective families. Therefore, Karol is accompanied by his fiancé, who is also bizarrely named Karol, and Natalia is here with her significantly younger boyfriend, Gustaw. The cousins have never met or stayed in touch with each other in the last thirty years, and so the visit to their uncle’s house is indeed like a family get-together. However, none of them are actually interested in this gathering, as their only aim is to take hold of the property share that has been left behind for them. Thus, it is an extreme shock to each of them when Wladyslaw walks out onto the scene, all alive and well, at the time of the will reading. The man, who is also a regular prankster, had actually faked his death to make his estranged family members come together, since greed for money was the only thing that could reunite them.
Wladyslaw clarifies that he intends to leave all his money to charity, but his nephews and nieces would be given shares of his extremely valuable inventions and patents. However, in order to get hold of these designs, they must first play a game of puzzles the next day. While the family members are confused by this odd situation, they are further shocked the next morning when Wladyslaw is found dead on the kitchen floor. A knife piercing his chest suggests that the man has been killed by someone. As the police are informed and an investigation is started, the Fortuna family members also prepare to play the puzzle game in order to finally get hold of the inheritance they had come to collect.
What does the police investigation reveal?
Terrified by the possibility that a murderer is still present inside the house, the family members inform the police about Wladyslaw’s suspicious death. Within a few hours, two men named Bednarski and Gudejko arrive at the house and are welcomed in by the trusted butler, who had been Wladyslaw’s only company for all these years. Dawid assumes the men to be from the police department, since nobody else is supposed to come to the house. Wladyslaw was very careful about living a secretive life away from people and crowds, meaning that he did not have any friends or acquaintances either. Bednarski and Gudejko take a look at the body and confirm that the elderly man had indeed been murdered, and the fact that there were no extra footprints on the snow meant that the murderer was still inside the house. This obviously suggests that someone from inside the extended Fortuna family committed the crime, and it makes the entire house a crime scene.
Bednarski and Gudejko start to interrogate each of the members one after another in order to find out what exactly they had been up to the previous night. Through this interrogation, many secrets that each of the individuals had are revealed, making them all appear as suspects. Dawid is a teacher by profession, and so he naturally does not earn enough to afford a comfortable lifestyle with two children. He had to take on some heavy loans in the recent past but has been unable to pay the mortgage fees, leading to frequent phone calls from the bank. Despite this extreme pressure, Dawid had not told anything to Zosia, probably because he did not want her to worry, but in the process, he had kept a great secret from his wife. This situation also meant that Dawid was in dire need of money at the moment, and getting the inheritance money would help him a lot. On the other hand, Zosia had also kept a big secret from her husband: that she had gone out on a date with her boss, which technically counts as cheating. Although Zosia and Dawid’s have decided to end their marriage as they have lost all romantic spark, she had not told him about this date, but Uncle Wladyslaw had found out about it. Thus, Zosia can also be seen as a suspect in his murder.
The nephew, Karol Fortuna, works in the marketing department of a small company, and he cannot be called rich either. His boyfriend, also named Karol, happens to be an Uber driver who believes himself to have the potential to be a psychotherapist, meaning that he does not earn much money either. The couple also seemingly has plans to buy a baby, since legally adopting one would not be possible for them because of their low income. In fact, Dawid overhears a conversation of Karol talking to someone over the phone, discussing what seemed to be the age and price of babies in Southeast Asia. Karol and his boyfriend also have plans to leave the country and settle abroad, which again puts them in demand for a lot of money. The niece, Natalia, is the only one at the place who does not seemingly have any financial shortage, as she is a successful crime novelist with enough money to last her lifetime. However, it is revealed that Natalia had recently made some risky investments, which led to her losing a lot of money, and her inability to write anything new in some time also made her worry about finances.
During the interrogation, each of the family members expresses their suspicions about each other, never even realizing that the authority that they are trusting is fake as well. Bednarski and Gudejko turn out to be crooks and not policemen, as they had been sent by some company that wanted to buy Wladyslaw’s inventions. The men had come to convince Wladyslaw and had no idea that he had died, but upon realizing the situation, they changed their plan. The police, on the other hand, could not reach the house in time because of the heavy snow storm raging outside. However, the interrogation reveals how old Wladyslaw knew so much about each of his family members, despite not meeting them for so long. But the man had actually fished out all these secrets very directly from them a few months earlier, when he pretended to ask them these questions as part of a survey and even paid them for participating. Wladyslaw had already figured out that his family members could only be motivated by money, and he had been preparing for this situation for a very long time.
What purpose does the puzzle game serve?
While the fake interrogation is still ongoing, the Fortuna family members start to solve the puzzle that their uncle had left behind, and it first leads to a big underground vault that is decorated in the same manner as Wladyslaw’s TV game show. The pattern of this game is also similar, as one or two participants have to get inside a sound-proof glass chamber and answer questions to progress. However, the questions are actually personal details about the cousins and their families instead of any quiz trivia, and all the participants are actually playing as one team against Wladyslaw’s preset questions. Therefore, the purpose of this stage is clearly to ensure that the family members know the basic details about each other, including their likes and preferences. However, they actually know very little of each other, highlighting how there is no bond among them whatsoever, despite their blood ties.
The next stage of the game is even more serious, as the members have to walk through a labyrinthine area within a fixed time limit. What makes it all the more difficult is the fact that each of their hands is tied to the other’s, and so they have to move together as a single unit, quite literally. The challenge in this game is to correctly figure out the family tree in a chronological manner and find themselves. It is only Dawid who is able to solve the puzzle correctly, and all the others finally reach the end with his help. However, when the mystery box is opened in the end, it is found to be empty instead of containing the designs of the inventions, and the whole game turns out to be fake. It was indeed Wladyslaw’s intention to bring all his family members together under the pretense of distributing the inheritance. He announces through video footage that he did not leave any physical evidence of his designs, and so there is no inheritance to be had.
However, the experience does help the family members get back in touch with each other, and they realize how having each other’s company is itself a prized possession. Incidentally, Dawid and Zosia’s relationship is also healed through this experience, as they express love and attraction for each other once again. Ultimately, the couple cancels their decision to separate, and the entire Fortuna family decides to stay in regular touch. Gustaw’s love for Natalia, which earlier seemed to be only for money, turns out to be genuine as well. The two Karols also stay back in Poland with their newly adopted dog, and it was information about this pet that Dawid had earlier overheard them talking about.
Who had killed Wladyslaw Fortuna, and why?
In Inheritance‘s ending, when a real police officer arrives at the house, the real mystery about Wladyslaw’s murder is revealed. During one episode of the TV game show that he used to host, a certain woman named Katarzyna was only one answer away from the grand prize. As Katarzyna struggled to guess the answer, Wladyslaw pointed towards his bow, the color of which matched the answer. His intention was to give a hint to the woman, but she misunderstood this completely and felt that he was pointing towards the ring on his finger. Katarzyna failed to answer the question correctly and lost all the money she had collected in the game so far. Such was the impact of this incident that she took her own life shortly afterwards, leaving behind her young grandson, Romeo. The child, who was present during the shooting of the episode, firmly believed that Wladyslaw Fortuna had cheated his grandmother and developed a strong sense of vengeance against him.
Even after growing up, Romeo continued to search for Wladyslaw, and when he found a woman related to his family, he did not miss the opportunity to get close to her. Romeo is indeed Gustaw, and he had initially befriended Natalia to get close to her uncle but had gradually fallen in love with her. On the night of their arrival at the house, Romeo confronted Wladyslaw, but the latter refused to apologize since Katarzyna had technically died because of a misunderstanding. Romeo angrily stabbed the man then, although he did not actually intend to kill him. He believed that Wladyslaw was wearing his newly invented stab-proof jacket, but this was not the case. In the end, Romeo, or Gustaw, is imprisoned for the crime, but Natalia marries him in jail and regularly visits him, marking a bittersweet ending to their story.
Did Dawid Get Wladyslaw’s Property?
Although none of the Fortuna family members get hold of their uncle’s inheritance, there is a slight twist at the very end of Inheritance. While returning home from the unique trip, young Henryk solves the special Rubik’s cube that his granduncle, Wladyslaw, had given him earlier. The man had mentioned that this was his own invention, and now, when Henryk solves it, the object opens up in the middle, revealing a hollow chamber inside. Much to the boy and his father’s surprise, there is a USB stick inside the cube, which most definitely contains the designs of the inventions made by Wladyslaw, suggesting that Dawid and his family get to keep the inheritance. However, it is also very possible that this was again a practical joke designed by Wladyslaw, and the USB stick might actually be empty. Moreover, it is also possible that this part, added by Dawid, did not actually happen, since he is not a reliable narrator. Earlier in the film, he exaggerated about Henryk’s ability to beat the goons, and it is not really confirmed how true everything in his story is. Therefore, it might very well be that Henryk finding the USB stick inside the cube is a false addition that Dawid makes, only to make the story a little more wholesome.
