The German film Exterritorial has quickly risen in popularity on Netflix, surpassing Tom Hardy’s movie Havoc to become the top trending title after just five days of streaming. This suggests audiences find it compelling.

Helmed by Christian Zübert, who both wrote and directed the film, this action-packed thriller features Jeanne Goursaud. She plays a seasoned veteran and single mother forced to take action when her 6-year-old son vanishes within the U.S. Consulate located in Frankfurt, Germany. It appears the Americans are cast in a negative light in this European story.

The film draws considerable interest from Netflix viewers, bringing to mind the action-packed Taken series starring Liam Neeson. However, some viewers find the plot of Exterritorial more perplexing than the straightforward narrative of Taken. If you’re confused, don’t worry—Decider provides a detailed summary of the Exterritorial plot and explains the ending, including the reasons behind the kidnapping of Sara’s son.

What does “exterritorial” mean?

“Exterritorial” is the German spelling of the word “extraterritorial.” “Extraterritorial” is a word that describes a place that exists outside the rules, or the jurisdiction, of a certain country or authority. It’s a phrase often used in describing where laws or policies of a certain country apply.

Exterritorial movie plot summary:

Sara Wulf is a former Special Forces German soldier who served in Afghanistan suffering from PTSD, after her platoon was ambushed in an attack that killed everyone but her. In the first scene of the movie, Sara is at the park with her son Josh, and experiences a flashback to the war, causing her to attack a random passerby. Several years later, Sara and her son Josh have an appointment at the US Consulate General in Frankfurt. Sara has a new job in the U.S. and needs to obtain a work visa, so that she and Josh can move. Josh’s father, who was killed in combat, was American. Meanwhile, a journalist is investigating the ambush that killed Sara’s fellow soldiers in Afghanistan. The journalist asks for Sara’s help to identify people in a video.

Sara and Josh wait in the consulate for hours. When Josh gets antsy, a front desk worker suggests Sara bring Josh to the playroom. Sara leaves Josh in the playroom to listen for her number. When it’s called, she goes to get Josh and finds him missing.

Unable to find Josh anywhere, Sara meets with a consulate security officer named Sergeant Donovan (played by Kayode Akinyemi) and the head of the regional security officer name Eric Kynch (Dougray Scott). At first, the officers help Sara look for her son. But soon, they treat her with suspicion. According to the records and the front desk workers, the officers say, Sara came to the Consulate by herself. She was not accompanied by her 6-year-old son.

Sara tries calling her mother for help, but her mother believes Sara is having a psychotic episode and asks if Sara is taking her pills. She tries calling the German police, but they tell her that they have no jurisdiction at the consulate, because it is an “exterritorial area.” Sara believes she is being lied to and that someone at the consulate kidnapped her son. She breaks out of the room where she is being held to look for him.

During her search, Sara comes across a young Russian woman, Irina (Lera Abova). Irina claims she has been held prisoner in the consulate for months, and that she will help Sara find her son if Sara helps Irina escape. After a red herring subplot involving a drug deal that is ultimately not relevant to the plot, Sara discovers that she was lured to the consulate by Sergeant Donovan and Kynch. It turns out that Kynch is also a veteran. He is featured in that video that the journalist sent to Sara. After a phone call with the journalist, Sara realizes that Kynch betrayed his country and gave intel to the enemy. This is why Sara’s platoon was ambushed. As the only survivor of the ambush, Sara is the only one still alive who could rat out Kynch.

Sara realizes that Kynch plans to kill her so that she doesn’t expose him, but she still doesn’t know why he took her son and then tried to convince her that she was crazy. After a fight in which Kynch makes it clear he will not tell Sara where her son is, Sara kidnaps Kynch’s daughter, Aileen, from the consulate daycare. Sara takes Aileen into a safe room and turns off the oxygen. She says that unless Kynch confesses and tells her where her son is, she will allow the oxygen to run out and kill Aileen.

Exterritorial movie ending explained:

Even with his daughter’s life on the line, Kynch refuses to confess. Sara can’t bring herself to kill a little girl, so she lets Aileen go. She requests to talk to Kynch alone in the safe house. Kynch explains the whole plan. Basically, he had two people he wanted to kill: Sara, and the Russian woman whose real name is Kira Wolkow. Kynch planned on Sara breaking out to look for her son. But he did not plan on Sara coming into contact with the Russian woman, nor did he plan for Sara to save Kira from the men sent to kidnap her.

Sara correctly concludes that Kynch wanted Sara on the loose in the consulate, so that he could blame her—a mentally unstable, distraught mother—for Kira’s disappearance. (How in the world could he have pinned that on her? The movie does not explain. I guess we’re just supposed to go with it.) That way, Kynch could get rid of Kira, and have an excuse to kill Sara, too. Two birds, one stone.

Kynch goes onto to explain more of his motivation: He felt abandoned by the military, they tossed him aside after he was injured, blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that, even though Kynch shoots her, Sara finds the strength to keep going, for her son. She manages to open the saferoom door and play a recording of Kynch’s confession. How did she record it? With the convenient toy recording device that she borrowed from Kynch’s daughter.

Kynch gets arrested, and the authorities rescue Sara’s son. Eight weeks later, Sara and her son are finally able to move to the U.S. (So… that job in the U.S. was real? It’s not clear.) In the last scene of the movie, Sara hears a helicopter. For a moment, we think she is hallucinating or having a flashback to the war. But no, she’s fine. No more PTSD! No more people assuming she is hallucinating an entire child because of PTSD, because that’s totally something PTSD can do! With that, the movie ends.

Does it make sense? Not really! But hey, the action scenes are fun.