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The Ending Of Wayward Explained – Looper

It’s a familiar story — a young, free-spirited woman on the road, driving alone cross-country toward a music festival, picks up a charismatic stranger she meets in a bar and offers to give him a ride to their mutual destination. Whether she ever makes it to the event, we never find out, because she is caught up in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse along the way. Yet, not all is as it seems in the 2022 feature film, “Wayward.” While the familiar pieces are all in place, this is a story that lives and breathes through its many twists as our hero, Dawn (Iyana Halley), attempts to navigate a story that we only come to truly understand in the film’s final moments.

In the proud tradition of low-budget thrillers, “Wayward” is short but not-so-sweet, managing to tell a pretty gruesome story while still clocking in at less than 80 minutes of screen time. This is a tale that might sound familiar at the outset but ultimately leads into some pretty unexpected territory, and as it’s widely available online at the moment, there’s no time like the present to check out this low-maintenance watch that zips by quickly and packs a fair number of scares along the way.

Taking cues from well-known horror staples like “The Hitchhiker” and “Saw,” “Wayward” remains something uniquely its own and does it in record time. As for all those secrets and reveals packed into the plot, it couldn’t hurt to have a guide along the way … so let’s get into it.

Where you’ve seen the cast and crew before

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Ohio-born director, Kurt Yochum, has worked in the film industry for years with jobs varying from lighting expert to producer. Prior directing work includes commercials as well as a short psychological thriller titled “Anna,” which follows a woman as she encounters a maniacal doppelganger and then finds her boyfriend tied up and held captive in their home. She is then forced to decide what to do with him as her doppelganger urges her toward a more violent option, leading to bloody revenge. While this doesn’t necessarily set the stage for “Wayward,” it definitely preambles some of Dawn’s characterization, as she reveals her own killer instincts at the conclusion of the film.

Iyana Halley plays our protagonist, Dawn, but this is not her first foray into the realm of thriller, having starred in 2022’s “Beast” as Mare — the daughter of Idris Elba’s character, Nate — as they and Mare’s sister are stalked by a man-eating lion on a game reserve. Halley also appeared in the “True to the Game” film series, as well as popping up in a small but recurring role as Barbara’s daughter Taylor, in ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”

Barton Fitzpatrick, or Micah, is best known for his appearances as Reg on Lena Waithe’s “The Chi,” and is also a singer and musician. Meanwhile, Darius McCrary, or Anthony, is a former child star that has been acting for years, perhaps best known for his role as Eddie in “Family Matters,” co-starring in the UPN series, “Freedom,” or his role as Malcolm in “The Young and the Restless.” Some surprise appearances as a voice actor include voicing Jazz in 2007’s “Transformers” as well as Tarix in “Bionicle: The Legend Reborn.”

What you need to know

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The movie opens like something out of the “Saw” franchise, setting high stakes for the movie to follow. A man calmly sits in his car only to suffer a sudden attack. Disoriented and bloodied, he’s dragged out by a mysterious figure and wakes up bound in a mysterious, dimly lit location. Pleading for his life and insisting that he’s done nothing wrong, he’s tortured with a saw as his unseen attacker cuts off his arms and kills him.

This leads right into our introduction to our protagonist, Dawn, who is in a bright orange classic VW van, listening to her favorite true crime podcast. Dawn opts to stop for food and drinks at a bar along her route to a music festival. There she meets Micah, a moody man that takes a shine to her as they banter and become fast friends. She offers to give him a ride to see his family in Portland despite a few minor misgivings along the way as Micah’s story of a broken down car and incongruent statements about his family don’t fully seem to add up.

As they hit the road, they are chased by a man they believe to be a prolific serial killer nicknamed the “Mechanic Maniac” by the press due to an interest in preying on people traveling alone, perhaps while experiencing car trouble or otherwise attacked in or around their cars. Dawn and Micah are forced to work together to escape the killer while his identity remains a mystery, but Micah behaves less than heroically and he and the pragmatic Dawn begin to clash.

Why Dawn picks Micah up

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At the bar, one of the first things Micah does is “accidentally” spill a drink on Dawn’s phone when she tries to take a selfie of them together, rendering it inoperable for the rest of their journey. Likewise, he doesn’t have a phone himself, which leads to some pretty immediate suspicion about what exactly his whole deal is. Dawn doesn’t actually explain why she picks up Micah, seemingly just desiring a bit of company and finding him charming enough. 

Still, even in the early hours of their road trip, things are a bit spooky. When they stop to sleep for the night, Dawn is disturbed by mysterious noises, only for a previously unnoticed Ford Bronco to flash its headlights on before speeding away into the night. When Dawn clicks on her favorite true crime podcast, which admittedly starts off describing visceral scenes of death and destruction, the conversation immediately upsets Micah. Despite his clear discomfort, Dawn pushes him, asking what he thinks of the “Mechanic Maniac” that has been wandering the lonesome highways, taking victims with no clear pattern of behavior. Micah dismisses the killer as a weirdo who probably lives with his mom still, and seems relieved when the conversation changes.

Yet, that’s only the beginning of their problems as the Ford Bronco returns, attempting to run them off the road and cornering them at a gas station. While Dawn tries to convince Micah to call the police to alert them to this dangerous driver, Micah seems reluctant to reach out to alert anyone to his whereabouts, popping a few more holes into his story as it becomes clear he’d rather risk death than be found.

The reveal

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While “Wayward” does a pretty solid job of explaining its plot twists out loud, it’s understandable if you need a card to keep track of everything because there is kind of a lot going on, and it all happens in a pretty short window of time. As the apparent “Mechanic Maniac” aka Anthony chases Dawn and Micah through the woods with a gun, he insists that he has no interest in hurting Dawn, and only wants to get to Micah, who he believes killed his son, Jamie. Jamie is the man we saw brutally killed in the opening sequence, casting a new light on Anthony as a grieving father trying to bring a killer to justice. He is trapped in a surprisingly well-placed net, and Dawn shoots him dead when he appears to be reaching for his gun despite his precarious position.

This leads to Micah revealing himself as the real “Mechanic Maniac,” teasing Dawn for not having guessed this before despite to her interest in true crime. However, Micah declares himself the victor far too soon, and we quickly discover that their sudden breakdown on the side of the road was actually orchestrated by Dawn, who led him to a property where she could easily trap him. We learn that Micah’s apparent first victim was Dawn’s best friend who had simply vanished one night never to be seen again, and this has all been an elaborate plan to lure Micah into a creepy barn where she plans to remove his arms and kill him, much as he had done to others.

Dawn’s state of mind

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Perhaps the most interesting characterization of “Wayward” is that of Dawn, who we first meet as a drifting loner with little in the way of backstory and evolves into a borderline supervillain in her own right by the end of the film. What we know of her ambitions in life are mostly revealed through her small talk with Micah, who she has evident chemistry with despite her hatred of him, which is a nice character beat that implies the ability to compartmentalize and that there is much still unrevealed about her when the movie ends.

Her respect for Micah’s ability to hide in plain sight is clear throughout the film, particularly in the scene where he doesn’t know she knows who he is. During this chat, she flatteringly refers to him as a genius while intentionally doubling down on the conversation about the Mechanic’s crimes despite his discomfort and fidgeting. All this is interesting in relation to Micah, but more interesting when you guess that she might as well be disclosing her feelings about her own expert deception.

After he reveals who he is, Dawn gets away from him and runs giggling through the forest until they reach a barn, at which point she traps him with fire and dares him to follow her inside. This leads to a shocking ending in which she brutally kills the man that took her friend without much in the way of emotion along the way. When we say goodbye to her, she’s sitting in a diner, asked by the waitress if she needs anything else, to which she replies, “No, I got everything I wanted.” While this might read to the waitress as a polite goodbye, we know that this eludes to Dawn’s drawn-out pursuit of Micah over several months.

What does it mean?

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Though in retrospect we know that Dawn always knew Micah was the “Mechanic Maniac,” he’s still an interesting guy and a good conversationalist, giving him an element of a wolf in sheep’s clothing that harkens to some of the other charismatic killers of horror such as Billy Loomis of “Scream” or Patrick Bateman of “American Psycho.”

While Micah may not quite achieve those heights, it’s still a surprise to discover he’s not at all who he’s pretended to be after watching him run for his life for several scenes in a row. His switch from victim to killer would be the sole reveal in most other horror films, but “Wayward” goes one step further when we discover that Dawn is also hiding violent tendencies, instilling a twist within a twist that adds a bit of depth to Micah’s heel turn.

Still, as with many thrillers, some parts of the story just plain don’t add up, such as why Dawn watched Micah kill multiple people before intervening to take her revenge. Likewise, why Anthony takes the time to follow them to their camp spot only to speed off, then return later to try and run them off the road, doesn’t make a ton of sense. While these things can be generally ignored due to the suspension of disbelief often inherent in the horror and thriller genres, just know that there are some things that aren’t going to add up perfectly and it’s fine to acknowledge them and move along. Fortunately, the fast pace of the film makes it easy to stay in the moment.

How to watch

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“Wayward” is a pretty difficult movie to find much in the way of information about beyond its trailer on YouTube and some scant biographical details about its cast and crew, so it’s hard to say if this has received any public showings judging from a simple online search. However, now that it has been released via streaming services, there are a few options for watching.

For instance, B-movie champion, Tubi, has it available to watch for free with commercials, making it ideal for a late-night watch, or even better, one movie in a larger thriller or horror marathon. The film is also available through BET+ and the Roku Channel if you happen to have a subscription to either platform, both of which are great for streaming underappreciated thrillers, B-movies, sitcoms, and more. You can also choose to rent or buy “Wayward” for cheap through all the usual suspects, including Google Play, Vudu, Redbox, YouTube, and Apple TV, for anyone who has a feeling that they’ll be revisiting this one down the line and wants a digital copy for themselves.

Other than that, so far, “Wayward” is still fairly obscure, but it packs enough fun in that it might yet have some staying power on the streamers for genre fans looking for low-frills, high-payoff entertainment with an admittedly fun concept and some well-written dialogue. At present, the only reliable place to even find reviews for the film is via Letterboxd, though even there, the commentary is mostly restricted to discussing plot holes and budgetary constraints for now.

Will there be a sequel?

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As noted, Dawn is a pretty complicated character, and would certainly have benefitted from another five or ten minutes delving into her back story beyond the banter she has with Micah during their drive. While budgetary constraints may have prevented any kind of a more detailed flashback to explain some of the more tantalizing hints at her past, such as her father being a skilled trapper that trained her extensively in the “family business,” most of the more intriguing details around Dawn’s life remain completely unexplained and unexplored.

Likewise, while Micah is killed by the end of the film, there’s nothing preventing flashbacks exploring the events that led to Dawn’s friend’s murder. As much as the film benefits from its speedy delivery to keep some of the seams in the story hidden, the downside of that is that some potentially very interesting stuff was left on the cutting room floor. So, will there be more?

Whether all this groundwork will manifest as a sequel, it’s hard to say, but if this turned out to be a pilot for an ongoing series, the dialogue dropped plenty of hints that are there for the exploring. Taking a concept similar to “Dexter” but replacing the protagonist with a seemingly kind and friendly young woman whose charisma and intelligence shield her from persecution for her crimes is a solid setup, and Dawn’s nomadic nature could combine a “Poker Face” style anthology element to the story. While it’s hard to find much info on the film itself, let alone whether there are any plans for a continuation, The Adventures of Dawn the Charming Revenge Killer is at least fun to think about, even if it never comes to be.