The psychological drama The Nest may have come out in 2020, but many viewers are watching the movie for the first time in 2024 now that The Nest is streaming on Netflix. And hoo boy, are those viewers in for a tense watch.
Written and directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Iron Claw), The Nest stars Jude Law and Carrie Coon as a 1980s husband and wife whose lives quickly unravel, thanks to a series of bad business decisions on the part of the husband. This is a movie that will make modern women grateful that it’s at least slightly more socially acceptable to not depend on a man for financial stability.
Despite the film’s title, The Nest is anything but cozy. This is a dreary, tension-filled movie rife with symbolism and metaphors. If you got lost along the way, don’t worry—Decider is here to help. Read on for a complete analysis of The Nest plot summary and The Nest ending explained, including what happened to the horse in The Nest.
The Nest plot summary:
British Rory (Jude Law) and American Allison O’Hara (Carrie Coon) are living a comfortable, upper-middle-class life in New York with their pre-teen son Ben (Charlie Shotwell) and Allison’s teenage daughter Sam (Oona Roche) in the 1980s. They seem happy and settled. Allison makes a living by teaching horse riding lessons and renting out her barn.
But one day, Rory announces to his wife that they need to move to London. He insists he’s been offered a business opportunity that he can’t refuse, working for his old boss, Arthur Davis (Michael Culkin), at a stock trading company. Allison doesn’t want to move, but Rory doesn’t give her a choice. He believes the Reagan-era trend of de-regulation is coming to England, and that he has an opportunity to be filthy rich. He buys a giant old mansion in the country side and moves his family into a home that is far too large for them.
Allison’s beloved horse, Richmond, is distressed as he is packed up to be shipped—mirroring Allison’s own repressed distress over her life being upended. It’s best if you know right now that the horse is a metaphor for Allison—for her freedom, comfort, and sense of belonging. (Horse lovers may want to skip this film!)
Rory is warmly welcomed back to his home country by his old boss and former friends. Allison attends a posh work party with her husbands, where she learns that he lied to her: He called his boss and asked for a job in England, not the other way around. Later, Allison is having trouble with Richmond, who is still very distressed. The poor horse also has nowhere warm to hang out, because construction on the new barn that contractors have been building on the property is stalled. Allison calls the workers to find out why, and learns that the checks written by Rory have been bouncing. She checks their bank account, and realizes they are basically broke. When she confronts Rory, he swears that a “big check” in “ten days or less.” He believe he has sold his boss on the idea of selling the company, and he will get a big paycheck from the deal.
Weeks pass, and the big check doesn’t come. One morning, Rory asks Allison to borrow money to hold him over. She initially refuses, but eventually does give him some cash—but she makes him step out of the room before she gets it, so that he can’t see where she keeps her emergency funds stored. That day, while riding on Richmond, Allison’s horse collapses and has a seizure. Rory doesn’t pick up when she calls, so she runs down the road to ask a farmer for help. The farmer apparently determines that the horse will die, and shoots Richmond to put him out of his misery. The farmer helps Allison bury her horse on the property. Again, think metaphorically: Allison is attempting to bury and repress her misery.
Meanwhile, Rory’s boss tells him that he won’t be selling the company after all. Rory’s deal is dead, and he won’t be getting that extra money. He steals his coworker’s idea and pitches it as his own. Desperate, Rory goes to visit his mother out in the country. It’s revealed he comes from a working-class background, and that he hasn’t spoken to his mother in over a decade. She doesn’t even know that he’s married, or that she has a grandson. Rory tries to convince his mother to come move into the giant mansion with them, but she declines.
Back at home, Allison locks all the doors the house, only to have one seemingly re-open on its own. Spooky. When Rory finally comes home, he and Allison have a huge blowout fight. Rory offers no sympathy for the loss of Richmond—only anger that he was sold a “faulty” horse. He blames Allison for not consulting a vet before burying the horse, saying he could have sued. Allison fires back that something probably happened to the horse during the move, or that the “poisonous house” is to blame. She lays into Rory that the house and the move have been horrible for the family, that Rory is overspending, and he’s delusional about how much money they have. He screams back that he had a “shitty childhood” and deserves the upper-class life he’s pretending to have.
Allison takes a job as a farmhand, working for that helpful farmer, to pick up extra cash. Rory invites Allison to a work dinner, where he will pitch people on some vague business-related deal. At dinner, Allison crassly reveals she works as a farmhand “shoveling shit,” and mocks Rory for claiming he’s been to the theater in front of the work colleagues. Then she leaves him at the restaurant, takes the car, and drives herself to a bar. After a night of dancing and drinking, she tries to drive home, but realizes she is too drunk to be driving. She pulls over. When she wakes up, she see Richmond in front of the car. She blinks, and he’s gone, indicating she was just imagining the horse.
Rory tries to get his coworker to come out and drink with him, but the coworker declines. He reveals that the work deal will be done without Rory, because the business people weren’t impressed by Rory’s bullshit. Rory takes a cab home and confesses to the driver that he “pretends to be rich” for a living. He reveals that once upon a time, he had a million dollars in the bank, back in New York. But he got greedy, tried to live above his means, and now he’s broke. He also reveals his father hit him as a child. The driver responds that all he can do is be a better father to his children than his father was to him, and that if he finds work and takes care of his family, he will be alright. But Rory doesn’t want to hear it. The driver, realizing that Rory won’t be able to pay the far, kicks him out of the car.
Back at the mansion, Sam has trashed the place by throwing a huge party. Ben has spent the night scared and hiding, because he came across the body of the horse on the grounds, which had somehow come unburied.
What happened to the horse in The Nest?
We don’t get a definitive reason for why the horse died, but we know he was in distress since the move. Allison tells her son that she believes the horse was sick and she didn’t notice. Again, think of the horse as a metaphor for Allison herself—she was ignoring her own needs and her own freedom in favor as Rory. As a result, some part of herself died. She was sick, and she didn’t notice until it was too late—until her comfortable life had been ruined. You could also see the horse as a metaphor for their marriage. There was always something wrong beneath the surface, but it took moving to bring the problems to the surface. Eventually, it died. But even then, those problems couldn’t stay buried.
The Nest horse scene explained:
When Allison gets home, Ben shows her the body of Richmond. The horse’s body has become partially unburied, presumably because the hole wasn’t deep enough. Allison tried to repress all this misery and suffering, but it came bubbling back up. She can’t ignore it. Distraught, Allison breaks down crying over the horse. She tries to dig Richmond out of the ground with her bare hands. She is desperate to get back to the time in her life before Richmond—and everything he represents—died. But unfortunately, there is no going back. Allison and her family can only move forward.
The Nest ending explained:
In the final scene of The Nest, Rory returns home and finds his family eating breakfast in the dining room. He attempts to act like nothing is wrong, and pitches the idea of moving into the city, where he swears there will be opportunity to make money by starting his own company. Allison wearily tells her husband to “stop.” Rory begins to cry, and apologizes. (Presumably for ruining his family’s life with his delusions!) Sam then gets up and gives her step-father a hug. She pulls a chair up to the table, and offers him breakfast. And with that, the movie ends.
Writer/director Sean Durkin doesn’t spell out what is next for the family. But I like to think that Rory will take that cab driver’s advice and focus on taking care of his children. And hopefully Allison dumps his ass, moves back to America, gets a new horse, and actually takes care of it—and herself—this time.
