They are on the run and must decide the first move before they let the opponents – old familiar foe from Santo’s past – strike the first blow. In its runtime of a little over 90 minutes, My Name is Vendetta offers you pure action and genre thrills with little buildup. Although it is not the most perfect of movies when it comes to the subject of revenge, the Italian film has a skewed commercial appeal. In this ending explainer of My Name is Vendetta, we comb through the plot and summarize the various motivations for characters and moving parts of the story. All your answers about My Name is Vendetta on Netflix are answered below.
Why does Don Angelo want to kill Santo?
Almost twenty years ago, Santa, whose real name is Domenico Franze, had shot one of Don Angelos’ sons. We see a snippet of that in a brief flashback when Santo is on the run with Sofia. Angelo expressed his deep and passionate desire for having Santo’s head since that day. Michele, who is the younger son of Angelo, tries to dissuade him from pursuing revenge. He is the business arm of the entire Bianco empire and takes reprieve in carnal pleasures and luxuries, instead of focusing on things like honor and pride. But Angelo is a traditional Mafia boss and has everything at stake if he does not kill Santo. He has everything to lose in his head – his pride and repute – and hence chases Santo like a madman.
Why does Sofia call Hakim and try to run away from her father?
This decision by Sofia was perhaps to show her impulsiveness and amateurish decision-making by the creators. Because My Name is Vendetta is a coming-of-age story at its core, this was an important set piece to establish the point where Sofia was on her journey to becoming independent in Santo’s eyes. When Santo tells Sofia the story about his past, she instantly makes the connection to the reason why Santo has resisted her taking his picture and putting it out on social media. It was the Instagram story she posted of Santo repairing the outer rear view mirror of the car that was damaged earlier that really triggered the events in the film. Sofia felt betrayed in her head and could not recognize the man she called her father. It was all a big ruse on his part. She lost respect for her father for keeping her in the dark for so long. So, as many teenage girls would do, she calls the other intimate man in her life, Hakim, and call him for protection. But, as we saw, later on, Hakim was killed by Marino and that was another step in Sofia’s journey to becoming a hardened daughter of a Mafia boss. It is all part of the overarching narrative to show Sofia’s metamorphosis into an adult.
How are Santo’s family and then Santo & Sofia located by the Lo Bianco?
This aspect of the chase is perhaps the most important. But unfortunately, the creators decided to brush past it and never fully explained how the technology actually worked. Angelo contacts a former government servant, Ferrario, to use his facial recognition technology and then filter the social media posts to look for matches against Sant’s face. Ferrario had already fed the algorithm into the system and once Sofia uploaded the picture of her father on Instagram, it detected a match. That is how Angelo got the location of Santo’s family and sent Rudi and Marino to kill them. But, the man whom they killed, was in fact Patrick, Ingrid’s brother. Angelo sends them again to kill Santo and this time, Ferrario locates the father-daughter duo using the CCTV surveillance cameras in Milan, He uses the same technology but a different medium to locate them. The third time, Ferrario uses the opportunity when Santo sends the photo to Angelo from Ichele’s phone to track them down. For seconds while the phone was on, Ferrario was able to triangulate their position using cellular networks. How accurate all of that is remains a question of “artistic liberty” in the film.
Understanding the Mafia dynamics in My Name is Vendetta
The soul of My Name is Vendetta is understanding what goes on behind the scenes. Reading the violent and criminal subtext between the lines is what will give us the props to associate with the characters and the story. “Kill, or be killed; that is the law”, was something that is first said at the start of the film and then at the end. The fascinating point is that on both occasions, it is essentially the same person. Both are a Franze. That is the real takeaway from the film. Domenic wanted to protect Sofia from the zero-sum game that defines the Mafia life. You either die fighting for your clan or kill for them. But the clan must endure and thrive for generations to come. Domenic wanted this not to be Sofia’s reality. This is the reason Santo gives himself up when he still had the opportunity to surrender and go to prison. He was already a part of that Mafia dynamic wherein he had no other option but to be killed. But the reason for sacrificing himself was to kill off the entire game. This way, Sofia could live a normal life and not be burdened with her father’s past. His secrets could no longer have made a difference if he ceased to exist. They would have gone to his grave. The reality, though, was something completely different. Domenic’s plan failed, in a sense. Or at least Sofia has become the person that Domenic never wanted her to become.
What happens to Sofia and why does she murder Michele?
Sofia became a Franze when she made the decision to run away. So, a quick recap of what happened. After Domenic kills Rudi and we see Michele trying to strike a bargain with Sofia, telling her that she cannot walk in the footsteps of her father, like Michele decided, Domenic is already on his way to kill Angelo. He understood that he could not keep running away forever in his life and he certainly did not want that for Sofia. He had to “end the thing he started 20 years ago” by killing Angelo’s son. Revenge came a full circle when Domenic killed the Don for killing his family. He thought the chain would end if the police kill him. But in the aftermath of his death, we see Sofia being admitted to a Catholic housing facility. Michele comes to visit and tries to side her with him, but she adamantly refuses. Before Ferrario, who now works for Michele – showing he did become like his father but without morals, honor, or pride – could kill Sofia, she ran away. As Michel walks into his office, she is already sitting there and stabs him in the face saying a Franze is still alive. Her destiny came a full circle and now she will take the family name forward in perhaps the same style. She chose not to take a different path in life and learned that the laws of the game remain the same: kill or be killed. Sofia could never have escaped the mayhem. Domenic though like a father when he took the decision to or though of the possibility to give Sofia a normal life. That just was not possible for her. Domenic’s past will forever be with her and the legacy of his family name. Even though it is not the most pristine of endings, it sure makes the film redeemable in the eyes of purists who can appreciate the emphatic creative choice here. Read More: My Name Is Vendetta Movie Review
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