"Let's not jump to conclusions, Constable."
— Inspector Stoppard
See How They Run is a comedic murder mystery released in 2022.
Set in 1953 London, the film chronicles a (heavily fictionalized) version of the 100th performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. American director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) plans to direct a film version of the play but he is murdered before he can do so. What's more, seemingly everyone involved in the productions — including pompous screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo), manipulative theater producer Petula Spencer (Ruth Wilson), affable film producer John Woolf (Reece Shearsmith) and leading couple Richard Attenborough (Harris Dickinson) and Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda) — had it out for Leo. It is now up to Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and his partner Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) to catch the killer before anyone else turns up dead.
In case you were wondering, the film does not give away the famous twist ending of The Mousetrap.
See How They Run contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: The character of Miss Casewell in The Mousetrap is not included in any scenes depicting the play or its cast.
- Artistic License – History:
- The film makes use of the fact that The Mousetrap was inspired by a real life case but takes several liberties with the truth in order to tell the story. The O'Neill family's name is changed to Corrigan to match the characters in the play and there is no evidence that the surviving brother ever plotted revenge on Agatha Christie or anyone involved with the play.
- At the end, Stoppard is awarded the King's Police and Fire Services Medal; however, the award was no longer given to living recipients after 1950, and in 1952 would have been the Queen's Police and Fire Services Medal to reflect the recent ascension of the late Queen; given that Köpernick is narrating, however, it could easily be a mistake on his part.
- The Alcoholic: Inspector Stoppard regularly shows up late and drunk.
- Asshole Victim: Leo Köpernick is a sleazy womanizer who sexually harasses Sheila Sim (one of the stars of The Mousetrap), so no one feels sorry for him when he is murdered. When he appears in a dream Stoppard has, he isn't surprised to learn that nobody misses him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Agatha Christie is depicted as a bit of an odd recluse who requires her husband to act as a Cloudcuckoolander's Minder. She tries to put an end to the killer with a poisoned cup of tea (accidentally killing her butler) and would have beheaded him with a shovel if Max didn't stop her.
- Bludgeoned to Death: The killer initially tries to strangle Leo to death with a wire. When Leo manages to break free and try to escape, the killer makes do by smashing his head in with a sewing machine.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The film ends with Stoppard addressing the audience as "co-conspirators" and requesting they not spoil the ending. This echoes the warning given to audience members of The Mousetrap at the conclusion of each performance, which appears at the start of the film.
- British Stuffiness: Lampshaded by the American Leo, who comments in his narration that Londoners are somehow even more uptight than they were when the Luftwaffe was hanging over their heads.
- The Butler Did It: The usher at the theater did it, not any of the high-profile suspects. Lampshaded by Stalker, who realizes Dennis was Beneath Suspicion due to his position.
- Casting Gag: The last time Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody were in a movie together, Brody's character was a jerkass orchestrating murders, not the victim.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The coat-check and the young O'Neill brothers, who are one and the same, and the murderer.
- Clueless Deputy: Stalker, to begin with at least. By the end she's aced her sergeant's exam.
- Cool Old Lady: What is Christie's first reaction when she realizes her husband and her play's cast is being held hostage? Go into her poison cabinet and grab some arsenic to put in the killer's tea. And in the climactic shootout scene, she finishes the killer off with a Tap To The Head.
- Dead Guy on Display: The killer puts Leo's body on a couch onstage.
- Dead Star Walking: Despite being played by Adrien Brody, Leo Köpernick is murdered very early on (though he is featured in several flashbacks).
- Defective Detective: Stoppard would be an upstanding officer, if he wasn't slipping out to the pub, or turning up late and hungover.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: No one suspected Dennis, a seemingly harmless usher, of being the killer.
- Embarrassing Slide: While showing off his storyboards to Mervyn, Köpernick accidentally shows off a drawing of a woman in a dress sitting on a bed.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Leo catches Woolf with his mistress at the nightclub, and then makes a blackmail threat. He then eats the olive in Woolf's cocktail.
- Executive Meddling: In-universe, Köpernick comes up with an action-packed shootout ending for The Mousetrap, believing it needs more drama. Similarly, Mervyn, the screenwriter, only wants to use the script as a springboard for a larger story of his own devising.
- Fangirl: Stalker squees over actor Dickie Attenborough, which doesn't help when they have to ask him some questions.
- Foreshadowing: Köpernick creates some storyboard art of how he envisions the climax of his version of The Mousetrap. The climax of this film plays out in the exact same way. Two characters lampshade it, expressing gratitude that Mervyn, the screenwriter who disapproved of Köpernick's ending, was not there to see it happen.
- Historical Domain Character: The film features several real life figures, such as actors Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim, film producer John Woolf and eventually Agatha Christie herself.
- Innocently Insensitive: Dickie Attenborough takes note of Stoppard's war wound and breezily asks if he can incorporate it into his performance, saying that a physical defect will give his character new depth.
- It Will Never Catch On: Petula blows past the clause in the contract about how a movie can't be made until after the theatrical production of The Mousetrap closes, saying that the play is a whodunit and that once people know whodunit, "Audiences are bound to drop off." The Mousetrap famously never did close, except for when all theatrical productions were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A lot of this, as the film affectionately parodies murder mystery conventions and Agatha Christie tropes while also following them.
- In the opening, Leo in his narration grouses about how whodunits have to have an "interminable prologue" where all the characters are introduced, before the most unsympathetic one is murdered, while of course that is exactly what is happening onscreen as all the characters are being introduced before Leo himself is killed.
- Mervyn sarcastically notes how flashbacks in murder mysteries are a cliche, before the film immediately cuts to a flashback. He then snarks "What's next, a caption that says 'Three Weeks Later'?", before just such a caption cuts to the next part of the flashback.
- Meaningful Name: Stalker assiduously takes in every detail of the Leo Köpernick case and refuses to let anything get past her. Stoppard, meanwhile, is doing the actual work to stop the killer from continuing with the murder spree.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Stoppard is assumed to be the killer by Stalker. Much to general embarrassment when he's confronted with his "ex" wife - who he's never seen before.
- Motor Mouth: Stalker admits she probably talks too much, though this is probably down to nerves.
- Murder by Mistake: Agatha Christie accidentally poisons her butler when he drinks the tea she made for Dennis.
- Naïve Newcomer: Stalker is very unfamiliar with day-to-day policing and takes witnesses' statements at their literal word, to Stoppard's frustration.Shiela Sim: It was me, Inspector. You need look no further.
Stalker: I arrest you for the murder of Leo Köpernick!
Stoppard: No, no, no! No...Not yet... - Old Cop, Young Cop: Stoppard (grizzled veteran inspector) and Stalker (naive young constable) are paired to investigate the murder, much to the former's irritation and the latter's nervousness.
- Posthumous Narration: Leo Köpernick narrates the film, even after he is killed off.
- Present-Day Past: Even though the Rillington Place murders fit the description, the term 'serial killer' was not in widespread use until the 1980s at least.
- Race Lift: Max Mallowan
, Agatha Christie's second husband, is depicted as Black in the film. - Real Fake Door: Köpernick, fleeing from a killer backstage at the theatre, sees an exit sign above a door...only for it to be a prop door in front of a brick wall.
- Shout-Out:
- Inspector Stoppard is named after Tom Stoppard who wrote The Real Inspector Hound, a parody of The Mousetrap. Describing Leo's behavior to Stoppard, Dickie and Sheila say "He was a real hound, inspector."
- Inspector Stoppard tells Constable Stalker "the play's the thing" before they watch The Mousetrap. He is quoting Hamlet and referring to the play within a play that will "catch the conscience of a king". Hamlet describes that play as "The Mousetrap".
- Stalker asks where in France the concierge at the Savoy is from, only to be informed he is Belgian - a common mistake made by those meeting Hercule Poirot.
- Mervyn Cocker-Norris, the screenwriter adapting The Mousetrap, lives in Florin Court, a building known to fans of Poirot as Whitehaven Mansions, Poirot's residence.
- Fellowes, Christie and Mallowan's butler, is named after Julian Fellowes, the screenwriter of the Christie-esque Gosford Park. His appearance is also heavily inspired by Hercule Poirot.
- Priestley, an unseen colleague of Stoppard, is presumably named for J.B. Priestley, the writer of the other most famous British Murder Mystery play, An Inspector Calls.
- The reason why Stoppard and Stalker are basically the only police assigned to the murder of Köpernick is the rest of the squad is apparently busy investigating the murders at 10 Rillington Place.note
- A sign saying Norman Gale: Dentist can be seen while Constable Stalker is looking for Inspector Stoppard after she spots Woolf.
- Shovel Strike: How Stalker stops Stoppard, following a lengthy chase through the theater. With a snow shovel, no less! She turns out to be wrong about him being the culprit, however.
- Significant Name Overlap: Not only do Leo and Stoppard both have exes named Joyce, both Joyces are also "plain" brunettes with prominent glasses. Having only a name and a photograph to go off of, Stalker assumes the Joyces are the same woman and Stoppard murdered Leo in a crime of passion. She is abashed when they turn out to be different people.
- Summation Gathering: Discussed, as characters talk about how the summation gathering (a trope invented by Agatha Christie, as it happens) is a cliché. Then of course in the film the characters are invited to just such a gathering, although the trope is subverted when the murderer reveals themselves rather than being revealed by the detective.
- Suspect Existence Failure: Stalker thinks Mervyn Cocker-Norris is the prime suspect in Leo's murder, only for the latter to turn up dead.
- Suspect Is Hatless: Dennis the usher gives Stoppard a frustratingly vague description of a man he saw lurking backstage at the time of the murder—he was wearing pants, and he had a hat. It turns out Dennis is the murderer and was intentionally being unhelpful.
- Taking the Bullet: Invoked — as part of his Actionized Adaptation of The Mousetrap, Köpernick pitches a revised climax where the detective manages to shoot the killer twice, only for his gun to jam at the wrong moment. The downed killer shoots at the detective, only for the latter's partner to dramatically leap in and get shot while pushing him away. Mervyn thinks it's dumb. Naturally, a very similar situation happens when Stoppard faces down Dennis. Stalker leaps to save Stoppard and thinks she doesn't feel anything because she got shot in the attempt...only to realize that Stoppard got nicked instead.
- This Is Going to Be Huge: The plot revolves around a potential film adaptation of The Mousetrap, with those involved in the production looking forward to a financial windfall.
- Truth in Television:
- The film mentions a clause in Christie's contract that no film version of The Mousetrap can be made until six months after it concludes its theatrical run. This is true, which is why no adaptation has been made in the 70 years the play has been running. Indeed, this film may be as close we ever get.
- Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim really were in the original production of The Mousetrap, with Attenborough starring as Trotter.
- Twofer Token Minority: Stalker is both female and Irish. There is a trace of Politically Correct History here too: an Irish female cop would not have been impossible in 1953 London but it would still probably have been rare enough to draw comment from other characters meeting her.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Leo Köpernick's opening narration assumes that he is in a story about the drama of adapting a boring British "whodunit" into an exciting Hollywood movie. He does not realize until it is too late that he is actually in a British "whodunit" story and his actions have put him firmly into the role of the murder victim.
- Young Future Famous People: To some extent with Richard Attenborough, most familiar to later generations as the kindly old John Hammond in Jurassic Park, here is a dashing young actor.
