As Kid is forced to make some drastic decisions in order to maintain his innocence throughout the series, a major twist comes when the supposed dead woman Daphne (played by Ash Santos) turns out to be alive—and her real name Simone.
It's revealed that Simone is in an on-again-off-again romance with Kid's older brother Carlton (played by Wesley Snipes), and the pair had been scamming the comedian all along in the hopes of extorting money from him.
They did this by bargaining with a gangster named Ari (played by Billy Zane), who demands $6 million from Kid in exchange for him covering up Simone's fake death (which Kid originally believed to be real).
But things don't go to plan. Kid ends up strangling Ari to death. Carlton is then forced to help his younger sibling get rid of the body—no tricks here.
After they dispose of the body in a dumpster (did they really think that was going to work?), it's quickly found by police who launch an investigation. To add, an obsessed fan of the comedians' named Gene (played by Theo Rossi) had spotted and video taped the guys when they were at the dumpster.
Kid goes into damage control and invites Gene into his inner circle to keep him quiet. Starstruck, he seems happy to do so—but Carlton isn't convinced and orders Ari's two brothers to frame Gene by giving him a watch that once belonged to the dead man.
Meanwhile, Kid discovers texts from Simone on Carlton's phone revealing his brother's original con-job against him. Deeply disturbed, Kid tells Carlton he's cut off for good.
That's when things really take a turn. As Kid goes to walk way from his brother, they run into Ari's two brothers who had realised they've been played by the very men who killed their sibling.
They try to attack both Kid and Carlton, and in the ensuing struggle, Kid pulls out a gun and shoots both of them dead.
For good (and very dramatic) measure, Kid also shoots his brother Carlton dead. Kid then arranges the bloody scene to look as though Ari's brothers had killed Carlton.
What happens to Kid at the end of True Story?
It appears Kid got away with the murders—Ari's death is pinned on Carlton and the comedian feigns ignorance to his brother's misdealings. Instead, he insists that he wants to move forward in his life and career as his best self.
Chillingly, the final moment of the series sees Kid delivering a television interview where he talks about the extreme lengths people go to in order to protect themselves.
Is True Story based on a real-life true story?
Given the title of the show, many have wondered if the shocking narrative links up to real-life events. But the short answer is no.
While Kevin Hart's comedian background certainly informed his character to an extent, you can rest assured he's no real-life murderer.
The show's creator Eric Newman confirmed to the New York Times that Kid was inspired by Hart, but he placed the fictional comedian in a circumstance beyond anything the real life actor has experienced.
"I might perhaps be driven to do something horrible if my children were in jeopardy," he told the publication.
"In the case of a celebrity, a famous person, if you take their career away, that is a fate worse than death."
You can watch True Story on Netflix here.
In case you missed it during Thanksgiving week, Kevin Hart’s new thriller True Story dropped on Netflix. It’s a serious departure from the actor’s comedic origins and Jumanji fame. After his first jump into drama with Netflix’s Fatherhood, Hart is clearly making an attempt to become a serious actor, and not just a guy who makes a lot of jokes and looks small next to The Rock. And with True Story, Hart’s foray into more dedicated acting roles appears to be working out.
Alongside the talented Wesley Snipes, Hart stars in True Story as Kid, a famous comedian who isn’t Kevin Hart, but who has a brother...just like the real famous comedian Kevin Hart does. Kid’s brother Carlton is constantly down on his luck and needs his brother to help him get out of a jam. That is, until Kid is the one who’s messed up and needs Carlton's help to dispose of a body.
True Story is a limited series about if Kid can successfully get away with murder, all while sustaining his comedy and acting career, and throwing everyone, even the people closest to him, off the scent. Along the way, there are twists and turns, including one involving Carlton himself.
At first, it may not seem obvious, but for most of the short, seven episode series, there’s something amiss about Carlton’s money problems, and how we never actually see the body of the woman Kid allegedly killed. The clues are there, and in the final episode, the series’ secrets unravel and the truth is revealed. In case you needed clarification on what exactly went down, here’s the true story about True Story.
What Happened at the End of True Story?
For starters, the woman Kid thought died in his bed (of an Oxycontin overdose), Daphne, isn’t actually dead. Really, her name is Simone, and she’s teamed up with her boyfriend Carlton (yes, Kid’s own brother), to scam Kid out of millions and millions of dollars.
They joined up with Ari, the gangster who initially helps “dispose” of Simone and promise him a cut of the $6 million they believe they can nab. Of course, things go wrong when Kid actually kills Ari when he tries to blackmail Kid. Carlton helps him get rid of Ari’s body, and the two pin the murder on Kid’s number one fan, Gene. Unfortunately for Kid and Carlton, Ari’s brothers realize Gene isn’t the murderer and seek revenge. Poor Gene.
Thinking they’ve escaped the blame, Kid and Carlton go out to celebrate. After Carlton passes out, Kid sees texts between him and Simone on his brother’s phone and realizes the truth. He confronts his brother and tells Carlton he’s officially cut off. And then Ari’s brothers catch up with them.
A fight ensues and Kid manages to grab a gun and shoot both brothers dead. Finally, Kid turns the gun on his brother and shoots him dead as well. Afterwards, he blames Ari’s death on Carlton, and Carlton’s death on Ari’s brothers. The whole affair, of course, gives his career even more of a boost.
True Story is out on Netflix now.
Milan Polk is an Editorial Assistant for Men's Health who specializes in entertainment and lifestyle reporting, and has worked for New York Magazine's Vulture and Chicago Tribune.
(Spoiler alert: Do not read this story if you have yet to watch Netflix’s “True Story” in its entirety.)
We hope readers are sitting down, but Netflix’s “True Story,” which is stylized with open- and closed quotation marks for its first and last letters, is actually jam-packed with lies.
Among the first fibs — or at least, the hugely consequential ones — is Carlton (Wesley Snipes) telling The Kid (Kevin Hart) that the woman he just had a one-night stand with is dead after overdosing on Vicodin. The Kid (yes, that’s what he’s actually referred to throughout the series) doesn’t question why his big brother is in his private bedroom in their shared presidential suite at the Philadelphia Four Seasons, nor does he make any attempt to verify the woman’s “dead”-ness before agreeing to pay a fixer to take care of the body.
Huge mistake, because the perpetually in debt Carlton’s shocking news was all a ruse to financially extort his comedy superstar — and currently hungover — brother. We emailed the following question to “True Story” creator Eric Newman.
TheWrap: I can understand Kid not checking Daphne/Simone’s pulse in a panic, but did any version of the script have Kid wondering why Carlton would have been in his bedroom checking her pulse? I can also see making a panicked decision there to not call the cops, but was the Vicodin HIS? Because I’m not sure where any sort of culpability would lie for Kid.
Newman: There is a likely apocryphal story in Hollywood about a star who refused to work on Saturdays. It was even in his contract. When a desperate producer went to his management team and begged them to make an exception on the film they were shooting, once they had secured the right quid pro quo, they said, “No problem. We’ll just tell him it’s Friday.”
We had originally written a version of the scene wherein Carlton gets Kid away from the body as quickly as possible to keep him from seeing the ruse. But Kevin felt that his character wouldn’t need the extra convincing. Stars who surround themselves with entourage are often protected from the truth, or better yet, distanced from it, and Kevin’s point is that when you are constantly fed information, you stop actively seeking it. We see Kid being “managed” all the time. The conversations with Kid’s team are about control, about getting him to do what they want him to do. In the perceived narrative (when we don’t know the twist) Kid is becoming his own man, standing up to his team, but also learning to trust his brother. Additionally, once Kid’s thoughts turn to his own predicament (immediately) we see him completely overtaken with his own preservation. And that makes him subject to a rationale that might not make sense to you and me. Yes, legally he could survive it, to your point on culpability, but he’s thinking about his career. A dead woman in the bed of a family-friendly film star is game over. It’s really the cover-up that gets him in trouble. Which is usually what happens. The thing that I’m surprised didn’t register for audiences is how little he cared for the dead woman. He asks if she had kids, but never mentions her again. We did have a beat where Carlton offers an explanation for why he checked on his brother and discovered the body which felt even more suspicious. We assumed that some people would see it coming, but for them the twist comes at the end of the episode in the scene with Ari.
From the show’s first big lie, to its final one. At the end of the series, Kid kills the Greek brothers Carlton was in debt to (after they killed super fan Gene in a case of mistaken avenging the murder of their third brother Ari), he also pops big bro. We’re not questioning that Cain and Abel move given the incredible fallout from Carlton’s lie, but Kid cops to having committed the first murder, choking out fixer Ari, to his bodyguard Herschel (William Catlett) and manager Todd (Paul Adelstein). He lied to them about killing Carlton, however.
The half-confession came just ahead of Kid telling Don Lemon in his big TV interview a totally different story that would fully exonerate him. (The Greeks had also killed Daphne/Simone by then, so there were really no more loose ends to tie up. You know, so long as no one was looking too hard.)
We went straight to Newman for that one too.
TheWrap: Why did you have Kid tell Hersch and his manager some of the potentially damaging truth, like killing Ari, but not all of it (like killing Carlton)? Surprised Kid wouldn’t have told them the same story he told Don Lemon.
Newman: Though we contemplated a couple different endings to our story, all of them had in common not only Kid feeling justified in doing what he had done, but also his willingness to commoditize it to help his career. It’s an incredibly cynical conclusion but it’s true to the character. He is a man after all who felt that he should get away with murder because his talent brings joy to people. This is his deeply narcissistic worldview, not mine, but there it is.
The other idea that came out of conversations between me; fellow EP Charles Murray; and Cameron Litvack, who penned the last episode, was that his coming “clean” here was a power move. It is not a confession, nor is it unburdening, it’s more of a test of his team – one to which he already knows the answer. “Yeah, I did it. What are you going to do about it?” And he is right. They won’t do anything. At least they won’t do anything Kid can’t handle. Even Herschel who uses it to feather his nest isn’t asking for something that Kid can’t easily get the studio to pay for. I felt like getting away with an obvious crime is the pinnacle of celebrity accomplishment, and what good is that if you can’t tell anyone. But nobody truly gets away with it. His inability to own the Carlton part of it, to own the fact that he killed his own brother, speaks to the fact that he is not as comfortable with it as he may project. Not to mention we all appreciated the ironic unreliability of a guy who tells stories for a living – he’s always going to leave something out.