In the thriller Stowaway, Ruby Rose stars as Bella Denton, a young woman who inherits a boat from her father. As Bella has a fear of water, she isn’t overly thrilled about her inheritance. But when she discovers the boat is actually a luxury yacht complete with a jacuzzi, she is far more enthused about the sailing vessel that her father has left her. Not long after boarding the boat for a bit of rumpy-pumpy with the handsome Michael (Patrick Schwarzenegger), her good times are interrupted by a group of criminals who put her life in danger. Does Bella get off the boat alive? Or does she end up sleeping with the fishes? Let’s take a closer look at the movie.
Why does Bella have a fear of water?
During the movie’s opening, we see a flashback scene of Bella as a young girl with her father. Their beach excursion takes a near-tragic twist when Bella almost drowns in the ocean, so this is the reason why Bella is afraid of the water. Assumedly, her near-death experience also gave her the perfect excuse for getting out of bath time but this is only speculation.
How did Bella’s father pass away?
According to Ed Meeser (Frank Grillo), the man who informs Bella of her father’s passing, he drowned. Ed is only half telling the truth, however. It would appear that Arthur Denton, Bella’s father, died at the hands of others but we don’t find out who until later in the film.
Who joins Bella on the yacht?
After meeting up with Ed, her father’s supposed best friend and business partner, he introduces her to Captain Lawson (Luis Da Silva Jr.), the man who will pilot the yacht if she ever decides to take it out on the water. Before she can stay on the boat, she needs to sign the paperwork. This is due to happen the next day but former party girl Bella sneaks onto the vessel the night before with Michael, a young man she picks up at a bar. They enjoy their night together and later fall asleep, little knowing that Captain Lawson and two mercenaries (Jim and Sunshine) have snuck onto the yacht in the meantime after taking out the harbour security guard. Jim and Sunshine want to crack open the safe that is located within the yacht. They think the safe contains 80 million dollars so are understandably keen to retrieve the money as quickly as possible. While they get to work opening the safe, Lawson takes the yacht onto the water so the theft won’t be detected.
Do the men find Bella and Michael?
Upon realising the boat has been invaded, Michael urges Bella to jump into the water to escape. She refuses due to her fear of water so Michael decides to swim to shore and get help. Thankfully, the boat has barely moved at this point so Michael doesn’t have to swim for miles but before he makes it back on dry land, Jim and Sunshine open fire on the guy and presumably kill him. Bella is now stuck on the yacht and the men realise she is hiding somewhere on board. They search both the bottom and upper deck and for some reason open a fridge to see if she is in there, but fail to find her. Jim and Sunshine return to the safe while Bella figures out her next move. She tries to use her phone to call for help but surprise surprise, it is out of battery power. When she does find a way to charge it, Bella is unable to get a connection so she then heads to the engine room to use the radio to call for help.
Does help arrive?
Bella manages to speak to the coast guard but before she has time to finish her conversation, she is interrupted by Sunshine (we don’t know why he is called this as his disposition is far from sunny). She escapes up a ladder before he can find her and then runs into Captain Lawson. As he’s not really a bad man, he gives her the location of an inflatable boat and later tells Sunshine that he didn’t see the ‘stowaway.’ As the men continue their search for her, Bella is able to find a hiding space that has an automatic closing hatch. While she is in here, the coast guard arrives to search the boat. Bella wants to reach out to them for help but is now trapped in her hidey hole. By the time she gets out, the coast guard has left to carry out another job elsewhere and Bella is once again left alone on the yacht with the men who want to kill her.
Does Bella escape the yacht?
Thanks to Captain Lawson, Bella is given the opportunity to escape. She asks him why he would help her. Lawson tells Bella that he is helping her because of her father. Apparently, her dad did a lot to help him and his family, so he feels it is his duty to help Bella. He sets up a raft so the two of them can escape but before they get off the yacht, Bella gets into a fight with Sunshine. “I’m not gonna hurt you,” he tells her before immediately going back on his word but Bella is a worthy match. “Where did you learn to fight like that?” he asks her to which Bella replies “Cell Block H.” We are assuming this is in reference to the prison where she was incarcerated for motor vehicle theft when she was younger, and not the popular Australian TV show Prisoner Cell Block H which was hardly likely to be her preferred show of choice when she was a teen! Sunshine gets the better of Bella but before he can kill her, Lawson arrives and shoots him dead. Bella and Lawson then escape on the raft and narrowly escape being shot by Jim, who has been alerted to their getaway after hearing Lawson kill Sunshine. While on the raft, Bella learns more about her father from Lawson. She discovers that he was the head of a group of mercenaries who killed a warlord. They then stole the warlord’s money but her father gave the cash away to people who needed saving. Jim and Sunshine were given orders from a mysterious third person to retrieve the rest of the money from the yacht. Lawson agreed to help because he needed the money for his family. Unfortunately, the crooks, after opening the safe, only found one-half of a locket – Bella wore the other half – and no money.
So, Bella makes it back to dry land, right?
Yes, but not before discovering the identity of the man who ordered Jim and Sunshine to get the money. When on the raft, she sees another boat in the distance and realises it is Ed. She thinks he is her ticket back to dry land but it turns out that he is the man who ordered the break-in on the yacht. Ed kills Lawson, knocks Bella out and then takes her back to the yacht. When Bella regains consciousness, Ed tells Bella that her father “stole” his money! The mercenary then tells her that he killed her father as revenge for taking the cash. He wants to know where the money is and Bella tells him to look at the numbers on the last page of a notebook she found earlier. The last number is zero and she tells Ed that this means her father has given all the money away. Jim is annoyed at Ed for the botched mission so Ed kills him. Bella runs and Ed gives chase. He finds her on the deck about to jump into the water. He doesn’t think she will jump as he knows she is scared of water but she jumps anyway. Ed is understandably annoyed and is even more upset when he realises Bella has wired up the C4 that he was going to use to blow up the yacht. As Bella plunges into the ocean depths, the yacht explodes, killing Ed. In the water, Bella has a flashback to her childhood when her father saved her from drowning. Before she almost drowns for a second time, the coast guard arrives. Luckily for Bella, Michael had survived the shooting and while in hospital, alerted the coast guard to her predicament. Bella is saved and makes it back to dry land but her story isn’t over yet.
What happens to Bella?
Bella gets 10.2 million of insurance money after her yacht is destroyed. She gives most of this away to Lawson’s family who are glad to receive it and the note that she gives them saying “I am alive thanks to your husband.” She didn’t give all the money away – “I’m not an idiot” we hear her say during the film’s closing moments as she drives off into the distance with Michael, presumably to have further adventures with the man she appears to be falling in love with. But where will her adventures take her? Presumably a location far away from the ocean we imagine! Read More: Stowaway Movie Review
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