Headscratchers / The Menu

• Margot is revealed to be a high-priced escort midway through the film, but some of her behavior prior to the twist doesn't make as much sense as it would if she were actually Tyler's date:
  • She's really put off by the fact that Tyler originally made dinner plans with another woman with a name that's not her own. That would certainly make sense if she's realizing that she's a "back-up" date, but Margot is an escort who is already using an alias. Her first instinct might have been that Tyler gave a different alias for her when making the reservation. She could have just said, "Yep, that's me!" Even if she did conclude that she's a back-up, wouldn't that be a pretty standard reason to hire an escort? "His date fell though, so he hired me, so he wouldn't have to go alone."
    • Honestly, this is a bit of a stretch at least. I think they simply wanted to foreshadow Margot being an escort and Tyler being willing to let her die.
    • I don’t remember her being put off by the fact that Tyler originally made plans with another woman. In fact, I remember her barely reacting to it, which I found strange and later took as an early sign she was an escort. The only ones who seemed to care were the staff (who realized this would affect their plans), and Tyler, who was embarrassed.
  • She's really annoyed by Tyler's insistence that she not smoke, and fights him on it. It makes sense for a date to resist his demand, especially if she's a regular smoker, but an escort must be asked all the time not to smoke while she's with a client.
    • Maybe part of her contract is that she’s a smoker, and don’t fight her on it.
  • She doesn't make any effort to pretend to enjoy herself or like the food. She even apologizes for not being as into it as Tyler is. It would make sense for a date to be honest about her interests, but Margot is getting paid to be an enthusiastic companion. She'll do weird daughter role play with another client, but can't pretend to enjoy a meal?
    • I think these two are slightly backwards. She did the weird daughter role play, but was extremely disturbed by it. It was her breaking point. So, by the time she gets on the island, she's in a terrible mental state. Then she sees the client who asked her to do an extremely creepy thing, eating with his wife at the next table. For a lot of people, smoking is a kind of stress relief, so I think she kept smoking because she simply couldn't stop, to cope with the stress of being trapped on an island with two clients (one of them very creepy).
    • It's likely, based on his characterization, that Tyler's only request was that Margot go to dinner with him. He knew they were going to die, he just wanted to be there. He knew he didn't even have to actually pay her afterwards because they were going to die. He had no reason to ask her to play a certain kind of type, because he doesn't care about her, he only cares about Julian. Likewise, he probably didn't ask her to go as his date, he just is paying her to go, no other stipulations. If we take this into account, most of Margot's actions beforehand make sense. Of course she's smoking, he told her he was just wanted her to go to dinner. Of course she's surprised by the other girl's name on the guest list, why wouldn't he tell her that she needed to go by that name, or why wouldn't he mention that she's the replacement date? Of course she is confused and angry about having to attend the pretentious restaurant, she thought she was going to be paid to eat dinner, and nothing has been that appealing and also the chef is subtly insulting everyone. She's pissed that Tyler wasn't now forthcoming, because to an outsider, it's bizarre.
    • Even so, Margot's reactions clash with the reveal. Obviously, being an escort doesn't mean she has to put up with everything (and she very justifiably reacts once Tyler crosses the line for good), but within those limits being agreeable is part of the job. Most men don't pay an escort to be challenged, particularly not men like Tyler, who should be an easy read. Things like her refusing to eat food when her client is a foodie who brought her to an expensive restaurant clash with the idea that she is a professional.
• Chef Slowik claims to have grown up in both Waterloo, Iowa, and Bratislava, Slovakia. Which is true?
  • Going by Margot's scoff? Waterloo, Iowa considering that Margot lied about being from Grand Island, Nebraska and he may have been trolling her as a bit of payback. There are two other pieces of evidence that support him actually growing up in Iowa.
    • First, the story about his parents and "taco Tuesday". Slovakia was part of the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s, so it's unlikely his family would have a "Taco Tuesday" given that knowledge of Western culture would be limited.
    • Second, the dated photograph in his private office shows him in his late teens as a line worker at an American hamburger place—Hamburger Howie's—in 1987 wearing an apron that says "Kiss the cook" in English.
• So before Jeremy shoots himself, plastic curtains are drawn to catch the blood splatter and keep it from entering the kitchen. While sanitary standards in the preparation of food are all well and good, why didn’t they take any precaution against the chance that the bullet would, as they expected, exit Jeremy and, as they don’t seem to expect, continue on as bullets do? Yes, it’s obvious that the staff don’t care about their lives, a man just shot himself to that point, but think about how the cooking process would be inconvenienced if someone caught that round and the kitchen was one short, if that wounded cook created a whole mess in the kitchen, or if that created a whole second body they hadn’t preemptively prepared to remove.
  • Until this was brought up, it likely didn't occur to anyone else to consider it. Three possibilities: they had some kind of contingency in place, the bullet itself was designed to break apart or get caught by some kind of material placed downrange, or it's a genuine movie goof. It's absolutely true that you should never be anywhere downrange of a bullet's path, and that the path of that bullet could easily have hit someone else.
  • Most likely, it was a hollow point round, which is designed to break up when it strikes something to prevent over penetration. If it was also subsonic, that'd reduce the chance of hitting someone else even more. Furthermore, the angle looks to be such that he couldn't hit someone else even if the bullet went through his skull and kept going. Just by the blood splatter, it looks like the round would've gone into the lights or the ceiling by the time it reached the kitchen.
  • the bullet could've ricocheted all over and hurt or killed someone, and it would still contribute to the experience/dish. After all, it would've been Jeremys mess.
• What would Chef Slowik had done if Tyler made a simple meal instead of his bullshit? Something like a grilled cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, or even a cheeseburger? Clearly he intended for him to die with them, but his specific ire is towards Tyler being a pretentious foodie. So what if he whipped out a decent, but otherwise “low-brow” course?
  • That's like asking "what if Tyler could transform into a kaiju, break out of the restaurant, and fly away?" He'd be an entirely different character from the character in the film. The character in the movie is obsessive over pretentious food, and never would have even considered making something simple - remember the beginning conversation about oysters.
  • It's possible that Tyler might have redeemed himself, in part, in Slowik's eyes. However, while he might not have driven him to suicide right then, Slowik might have simply punished him some other way. In the original script, Tyler was brought into the kitchen to "learn" and washed dishes. In other words, it still would not have saved him.
  • If it were anyone other than Tyler, cooking a decent but simple meal and being humble by explaining that they're not on the same level as the staff and explaining why it would've impressed him. Whether that would save that person from Slowik's wrath is another question. If that someone was another unexpected guest like Margot? Who knows? If it were one of the original guests? Probably not.
  • Slowik didn't plan the Tyler thing in advance, it was just made up on the spot as an extra bit of humiliation for him because he brought an innocent person to die without her knowledge. If Tyler had made a simple meal, he would either still make his point about Tyler not being a great cook, just a normal guy who watches too many TV shows, or he would allow Tyler to resume being a guest (or become regular kitchen staff) until everyone died in the dessert stage.
• Does Brown not have scholarships or tuition assistance? The Movie Star's assistant is condemned to death for not having student loans. We're meant to assume that her family was wealthy enough to pay for an Ivy League education (or perhaps she's become wealthy enough in the meantime to pay off her loans), but couldn't she have simply received financial aid of some sort? It's entirely possible to pay for college with merit-based or need-based scholarships, or some combination of the two. Lack of student loans seems like very poor justification if it's just meant to be about class.
  • From her own expression when asked about student loans, the impression is that he already knew that her family paid the tab. The staff did their research on their diners and if they were able to find legally actionable evidence of the Tech Bros' crimes, then finding out if Felicity had gone to Brown on a scholarship would be as simple as a keyword search.
• Why did they refuse to serve bread?
  • To insult them. It's all in Chef Slowick's little speech about bread; that it was food for the commoner and not the elite.
  • And it simply wasn't part of the menu. What's the point of a course defined by the lack of bread, if you then serve bread with it?
• Some fans have theorized that Slowik deliberately cooked a cheeseburger with over-aged meat that would cause Margot's death. Could he have?
  • On the one hand, it's doubtful considering that a) it would go against him being a chef, b) he was never planning to poison anyone, c) the meat was properly cooked and appeared to be ordinary ground beef, d) Margot wasn't supposed to be there in the first place and e) once the restaurant went up in flames, the authorities would've come, found Margot and taken her to a hospital for a routine exam.
  • Additionally, over-aged meat is not guaranteed (or even likely) to be fatal for a healthy individual. It wouldn't be pleasant to eat, would likely give you a nasty case of food poisoning, and there would be some risk - you don't want to eat rotten meat if you can avoid it - but humans are fairly durable.
• Where did the coast guard boat that Erin/Margot escaped on at the end come from, given that the “coast guard” that arrived earlier was a fake?
  • It's likely one of their own boats dressed up to look like (at a distance) a Coast Guard boat. It's possible that there was a second motorboat in reserve in case someone stole this one or the other and tried to escape, since Margot ran out of gas after a few minutes.
    • Or simply tried to swim to safety, the waters seemed pretty calm so not unthinkable someone would try to get to one of the other close by Island—though swimming may have been fatal. Anyone who tried that would've been in open water, at night, and end up getting swept out further or under from ocean currents, or lost orientation and not make it. The water would have been cold too and likely would've given anyone hypothermia.
    • And either spot the fake Coast Guard boat or get spotted, picked up and brought back.
• Early in the film, Tyler breaks the rules by taking pictures of some of the courses he’s served. Later, however, it is revealed that he knew the guests at Hawthorn (including himself, presumably) would die that evening. If he knew this, what was the point of taking the pictures? It’s not like he’d be able to see them again.
  • It's a compulsion. He literally can't help himself but take pictures of his food.
• Call me stupid, but if Ted is Lilian's editor wouldn't that make him her boss? If so, why does he bend over backwards to please an employee? I know she's a very hard to please food critic, but I can't think of any boss who'd be desperate to please the employee to the point of Opinion Flip Flop he does.
  • It's very likely that Lilian is the main draw of the magazine. She is the reason why people read it. Any rival publication would be only too happy to have her, and her fans would follow. So she has the upper hand in their relationship. Plus, Ted seems weak willed and a bit of a doormat by very nature.
• Considering the fact that Margot's cheeseburger gambit worked, why didn't it occur to any of the other guests to at least try it? Sure, Slowik probably would have shot them down as selfish opportunists, or obliged them then killed them anyway, but it's still clearly a viable Hail Mary, if anything.
  • In the end, they accepted their fate and thought they belonged. That's why they say "thank you" and "we love you, chef" to Julian.
• During the island tour, at the smokehouse, Elsa says that they use meat "from dairy cows only". So where did the chicken thighs come from?
  • The chicken thighs came from the chickens, which have their own coop (this is where Ted hides during 'Folly of Man"). The restaurant also has lamb (Tyler's Bullshit) and halibut (referenced as a previous dish), so they clearly have more than merely beef "from dairy cows only". Presumably, that meant that the smokehouse was only used for that one type of meat.
  • No, the chicken thighs were also smoked, and it would be very weird for the movie to set up that only meat from dairy cows is smoked when a later course shows that's not the case.
  • They ment they only serve beef from dairy cows, not all the other kinds of beef. Chicken and fish are not beef, so they were not included in the speech.
• About the sommerlier being so cheerful compared to the other staff, are sommerliers typically chatty and personable? Or was this guy more likely broken by what he knew was coming?
• If the same menu is served to everyone, and the price is fixed ahead of time, and there aren't any tips, then why do guests need to pay at the end of the meal? Restaurants do that because price varies per guest, which isn't true here, so wouldn't it make a lot more sense to sell reservations instead?
  • Tradition. Or simply part of the "ritual" of dining there. Even the matter of settling the bill had a theatrical flair to it.
• So, the barrel thing was pretty obviously a secret test of character. Why did the sou-chef not see it? I mean, she would have known whether the course required a barrel or not, and understood there was more to it. And why would she be so upset about the thought of "getting replaced", if they were going to die shortly? It seems like they just needed an additional fight and death for tension, but it just doesn't work organically into the story
• Julian meticolously planned the course, intending to kill the guests. Fine. We can accept that he was able to lure in the clients he wants, after all he is a huge personality. Capturing his boss to kill him also work: the boss likely wasn't expecing Slowik and the whole staff to turn on him. The fact that the kitchen as a whole is a suicidal personality cult is more stretched, but chefs are charismatic figures in real life, we can accept it. But how on Earth was he able to get the kind of dirt she had on her customers? He could use cameras to get pictures of Tyler, Lillian's causing restaurants to close is public information, but evidence of fraud, or infidelity? Nowhere is suggested that anyone in there has the kind of expertise or reach that would go behind such an investigation, how did a mad cult of cooks also become a proficient spy network?
  • There's no reason why Slowik or his culinary team would have to be proficient spies. Slowik is obviously rich and well connected. He could have easily hired a top notch private investigative agency to do the sleuthing for him.