What happened to Hank at the end of Caught Stealing? Explained

Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing has made its debut in theatres today, and the film is gaining applause for its twists and turns that unfold towards the end, along with explosive shoot-outs and bloodshed. Starring Austin Butler, the film is an adaptation of the first book from Charlie Huston’s crime thriller novel series, titled Caught Stealing.

The plot follows Henry Thompson ‘Hank’ (Austin), who unwillingly gets caught up between the Russian mafia and a few other deadly criminal gangs from the underworld. His neighbour, Russ, asked him to look after his cat (Bud) as he was going out of the country to take care of his ailing father. 

Later, Hank finds out that he was associated with these gangs and was working as a drug-smuggler with them. But things got messed up when they were not able to find him and targeted Hank instead. What began as just taking care of Russ’s cat turned into taking care of his mess.

Caught Stealing is about Hank, a man who has spent most of his life running away from his problems, and when new dangers enter his life, he again tries to run away. His actions in saving himself led to the death of his girlfriend and Russ, but this time, he did not have the option of running away. For him, confronting his problems was the only way to escape the criminals’ dangers.

Hank’s story ends in a way that feels complete but also leaves room for a sequel, and here’s what happens to him at the end of Caught Stealing.

What happened to Hank towards the end of Caught Stealing? 

The film started with him dealing with his own past trauma. He met with an accident in his teenage years, and in the accident, he lost his best friend, Dale. Even his dream of becoming a baseball star was shattered because of the knee injury. 

By relying on alcohol to cope with his grief, his life took a sudden positive turn. Hank’s life changed when Yvonne, his lady love, entered, and everything was going well until Russ’s mess of problems entered the picture.

Despite his desperate attempts to escape the chaos, tragedy strikes when his beloved Yvonne is brutally shot in the head by one of the ruthless criminal gangs.

At first, Hank thinks Colorado and his men killed her because he had called them and heard them threaten her.

But Detective Roman says it was probably the Drucker brothers, whom Hank had previously run from. As the story continues, Yvonne’s death becomes less central, since other characters like Amtrak, Colorado, Paul, Pavel, Russ (who was accidentally killed by Hank in his self-defence), and Roman start dying.

In a final twist, the Drucker brothers work with Hank to kill Roman to get control over their criminal activities. At first, it seems like they will go their separate ways, even planning to give Hank some money. But they are shown to have Yvonne’s gun lighter, proving they killed her.

The Druckers confessed that they killed Yvonne because Hank had escaped from them before, and they wanted to warn him that what could happen if he crossed them again. This leads to Hank taking revenge by crashing the car on purpose, killing both Drucker brothers. 

Towards the end of the movie, Hank turned into a completely different guy. Despite all the violence and betrayals, he managed to survive. He takes $4 million and escapes to Tulum with his cat, Bud. 

He sends some money to his mother and starts a new life. His small actions, like drinking club soda instead of alcohol and turning off a baseball game, showed that he wants to live differently and make better choices from now on.

The film ended on a peaceful note, where Hank is living his life away from the chaos. But there are chances of a sequel, as Charlie Huston has two follow-up books on which the movie was based. Six Bad Things and Dangerous Man are the other two novels in his crime book series; however, no official announcement has been made for the sequel.