‘Violent Night’ Ending Explained: Why Is Santa Trapped in a House Full of Thieves?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for Violent Night, a new Christmas movie produced by 87North Productions. This is the same team behind the John Wick series, and recently they have been trying to expand their portfolio with films like Nobody, Bullet Train, and the upcoming The Fall Guy. The production company has really put a lot of effort into creating films that push the boundaries when it comes to action and creating a place where the stunt teams can show all their prowess.

To achieve this goal, they have been producing a lot of high-concept movies. Meaning that the idea itself is appealing enough to get people to watch the movie. Even if the production doesn’t really have the money to compete with movies like Black Panther or Avatar when it comes to the delivery of visual effects or production design. Violent Night does exactly that by mixing the classic Christmas movie, Die Hard, with Home Alone. The result is a movie that is quite funny and has the potential to go even further in a sequel.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Violent Night. Read at your own risk.

Why Is Santa Trapped In A House Full Of Thieves?

The film begins at a bar with Santa drinking his demons to death. This is a rough and mean-looking Santa, and he seems very depressed. He talks to the other people in the bar, including a fake Santa. They don’t really know they are talking to the real Santa, but they can all agree that Christmas has changed. People are not interested in the Christmas spirit anymore. They only care about money and nothing else. We see a montage of Santa visiting the different houses and only giving people money or video games as gifts.

At this point, we are introduced to Jason Lightstone and his family, his wife Linda, with whom he is in the process of separating, and their daughter Trudy. Unlike the two bitter adults, Trudy is a true believer in Christmas, and she can’t wait for Santa to deliver her the present she wants. The family arrives at Jason’s family estate, where his mother, Gertrude, rules with an iron fist. There he meets with his sister Alva, her boyfriend Morgan, and Alva’s son, Bert. This family has completely forgotten the concept of what a family is. They only care about money.

Their Christmas celebration is interrupted by Mr. Scrooge, a thief who has been researching the family for quite a while. He knows that Gertrude has a total of 300 million dollars in cash in the basement, and he is ready to take everything away. It is at this moment that Santa arrives at the estate and gets himself involved with the robbers when he is discovered by one of Mr. Scrooge’s goons. Santa ends up killing him by throwing him out of a window. Santa plans to leave, but his reindeer leave him stranded, and when he sees Trudy, who still believes in him, he knows he needs to help her.

Scrooge and his goons, Gingerbread and Candy Cane, soon realize that there is someone dressed as Santa going around the house killing their goons, and they send themselves to hunt him. He asks who this man dressed like Santa is and when Trudy tells them he is the real Santa they all believe him crazy. She escapes Scrooge’s hands and hides in the attic as Santa, who is bleeding from killing another goon, also hides. The two of them communicate through a walkie-talkie, and thanks to Trudy, Santa gets ready to fight, but he is captured by Scrooge and his goons.

Does Santa Manage To Save The Day?

Scrooge interrogates Santa. He doesn’t believe Santa is the real Santa, but Santa surprises him and his goons by knowing their names and the things they did when they were kids. Scrooge finds things very strange, but he still doesn’t believe it; he thinks Christmas is the reason he became the way he is. He was never able to enjoy the holidays because he was poor and the rest of his neighbors were rich. That is the reason he became a thief and started to plan a heist such as this one. Santa manages to escape using his magic, but Scrooge still doesn’t believe he is facing the real Santa.

Santa tells Trudy his backstory, and we see how Santa was known in the past as Nicodemus. We see him as a barbarian warrior holding his favorite hammer, named, Skullcrusher. Santa believes that being Santa and being forced to spread happiness and gifts to the kids every single year is a punishment for all the bad things he did when he was his previous self. Trudy tells him that this is his chance to be better and fight for those like her who still believe in Santa.

A group of security soldiers arrives, but they are revealed to be on Mr. Scrooge’s side. They manage to open the vault, but they discover that it is empty. It seems like Jason stole the money before all this happened, and he was planning to leave his mother’s company and leave with Linda and Trudy to another country. His mother congratulates him for his ambition, but he reveals the money’s location after they threaten him with killing Linda. Outside, Santa grabs a sledgehammer and remembers his time as a warrior, killing pretty much the entire security team.

Santa manages to save Trudy and her family and goes after Scrooge, who is trying to escape. Santa catches up with Scrooge, but he is too wounded, and Scrooge takes the upper hand. However, Santa uses his magic and takes Scrooge through the chimney, where he destroys his body in a gruesome fashion. Santa gets shot by the security team leader and falls dead to the ground. Gertrude kills the security leader, and they all stand around Santa’s corpse. However, Trudy’s belief pushes the others to do the same, and Santa revives. He thanks the Lightstones for reviving him, and he says goodbye as he rides his reindeer into the night.