MovieChat Forums > Arbitrage (2012) Discussion > Can anyone explain the ending?

Can anyone explain the ending?


Can anyone explain the ending to me please? I didnt get what happened and felt like it ended in the middle..

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Basically, Robert wins, but loses all his relationships. He is able to save the company by strong arming that man at dinner, and selling his company for 525 million dollars. With that new amount of money, he makes everything look okay since he was in the hole for 412 million.

His mistress is dead though, and by the film's end his daughter finds out about his shady dealings, his wife leaves him and takes the charity foundation away from him, and the son of his friend is leaving too.

They are able to save Grant (Robert's friend's son) because they were able to prove that the police doctored the photo of Grant on the highway. Grant never took that highway, but the police have a photo of him there.

Robert had the notarist come up through that highway and get a receipt, and by court order get a photo of the notarist's vehicle. When they compared the two photos, the real one was high def, and the fake one had a pixelated (blurry) license plate.

Grant's lawyer was able to get him off completely.

In the car, we see the man that Robert sold the company to. His friend tells him that when Robert sold him the company, they had no 412 million dollars. The man shrugs it off since it doesn't matter now that the deal is done. To the public, they will not know any of this, and on the surface they just bought a successful company and their shares will go up.

I hope that clears everything up.

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Yes, that explanation is good except that we don't know for sure whether Ellen backed off.

I think being a gambler Robert gambled that if he didn't sign she would not go to the police. But he knows also a divorce is coming.
I say he goes to the dinner without signing. During divorce negotiations is where Ellen will get some of what she wants.

In Robert's mind, he saved the company, the employees will never know what he did to screw things up or what he had to do to save the deal.
To him MONEY is power and that is what really matters to Miller.

As for his wife and daughter---had he REALLY cared about his wife, he would not have had all the affairs!! and ultimately the last affair caused him to do things he may have thought were beneath him...to save himself and the good name of this family.

I agree he lost his family, but saved his and their reputation. He won the battle but lost the war.
The ending makes me angry because that seems to be a trend now to pull away instead of closing it.
The writer essentially just stopped thinking. he could not decide how to end it, so he just quit.

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No, I think the movie definitely leads in the direction that he signed the papers. He knows that he could be back to being a multi-millionaire within a year easily. As said, he lost his family for good. And, he lost Grant too, probably the one person in the world other than his daughter whom he could believe in and trust.

You see Susan Sarandon just trying to suck it up as she watches her soon-to-be-ex husband receiving all the adulation. She thought she had done this "great" job cutting him down to his knees, but he's up there being celebrated.

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actually the 412 million dollars isnt missing its still there in cash for the company to use, it was just a black hole on the accounts.

The only thing that wasnt obvious to me is what was the status with his wife after she tried to get all his money, because she didnt grass him up, yet was there listening to his speech. Did she stay with him in the end?

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Its left up to interpretation. She's most likely going to get a divorce, now that she knows about the affairs and everything, and this time she's got Robert's balls ina vice grip because she has the police as an angle to get a lot.

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She always knew about the affairs. She was just upset that he hurt their daughter's feelings. But he'll sign the papers to avoid prison OR he'll lawyer up AFTER she lies to the police and force her to give the money back in the divorce (if the wife even goes through with filing). You can't make someone sign under any binding contract under duress.

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