Death Of A Unicorn Explained | The Secret Of The Universe

Death of a Unicorn conveys its major theme in the opening seconds of the film. Ridley, stuck on the plane and tired, leans her head on her father’s shoulder. He’s excited  but also taken aback and drops some paperwork on the floor. Now he has a conundrum: does he leave the papers for later, in order to not disturb Ridley, savoring the moment of closeness with his daughter, or does he dislodge her in order to pick up the papers? 

The subtext of that choice is a question of priority. Is Elliot someone who prioritizes his daughter or his work? Elliot tries to please Ridley and retrieve the papers, but it proves impossible. So he makes his decision: the papers. And that’s the film. Over and over again, Elliot is torn between pleasing his employers, the Leopold family, or supporting his daughter. And over and over again, he chooses his employers. 

As much as Ridley is the main character of Death of a Unicorn, Elliot’s the protagonist. He’s the one who changes over the course of the film. He’s the one who, through the series of events, comes to realize the error of his ways.

Remember how Ridley touches the glowing unicorn horn and experiences a vision of the spiritual universe? That sequence is a way for the film to formalize Ridley’s perspective of the world and how it differs from everyone else’s. Neither her father, nor the Leopolds, understand where she’s coming from because they haven’t had the vision. At the end, Elliot finally gets to touch the glowing horn and share in the vision. It’s a story device that signals to the audience that father and daughter are now on the same page. 

One thing to understand about storytelling is that in tightly-knit thematic films, like Death of a Unicorn, pretty much everything serves as a point or counterpoint to the main theme. What’s that mean? 

We know the central conflict between Ridley and Elliot is that Elliot prioritizes work over his daughter. The Leopold family becomes an extreme version of the negative. They’re a family defined by business. As much as they say they care about each other, everything they do is in the context of money. 

On the flip side, you have the unicorns. All the parent unicorns care about is saving their baby. Their desire is pure. Primal. The two parents are willing to do whatever it takes to rescue their child. 

The Leopolds and unicorns represent Elliot’s internal conflict. When the Leopolds are winning, Elliot’s more business focused. But the unicorns gaining the upper hand coincides with Elliot becoming more focused on doing right by Ridley.

That’s the core of Death of a Unicorn. There’s some Jurassic Park-like commentary about attempting to profit off of what we don’t understand. It also chastises the ultra rich and reminds us that the pursuit of wealth often blinds us to what’s really important. 

A recurring motif is how the Leopolds attempt to frame and reframe everything in a way that allows them to exploit their workers and customers and not feel any guilt or remorse about the damage caused by the family’s actions. For example, that one conversation between Shepard and Dr. Bhatia.

• Shepard: Tough loss. Cuts deep, I bet. 
• Dr. Bhatia: Yeah.
• S: But…doesn’t it feel like it’s kind of how he might have wanted to go? You know?
• B: Not really. No. 
• S: But isn’t it? You know, in pursuit of science? I mean, so he’s gone. What do we do now? Do we sulk? Lament? Be weak?
• B: I don’t think that’s what I’m doing. 
• S: Or. Do we keep pushing? Huh? Keep pushing the science and maintain his intellectual rigor. Honor his life’s work. Or maybe he’s not worth remembering….?
• B: Of course he is. 
• S: Exactly. And that’s why I think you need to get back in there, get back to work, make him proud, and saw the horn off that f***ing pony. What do you say?
• B: I thought we were talking like a commemorative plaque or something.
• S: Oh, no, no, no. There’s not time for that. Horn first, then plaque. Right?

Shepard doesn’t actually care about Dr. Song’s memory. He only cares about making sure Dr. Bhatia gets back to work. This kind of doublespeak feels very of the times, as the 21st century has become increasingly dominated by performative politicking on TV and social media. Like in 2016, when Donald Trump had a whole campaign about bringing back coal jobs. The guy went on and on about coal and how he’d save the industry. Then, lo and behold, after he was elected, he did absolutely nothing for coal. In fact, coal use in the U.S. dropped from 38.6% in 2014 to a record low of 23.4% in 2019. When Trump took office, there were about 81,000 coal mining jobs. When he left, the number was under 40,000. 

Saving coal jobs was never the goal. The goal was to say the thing you need to say to get people to do what you want them to do. For Trump, it was to galvanize blue collar workers to vote for him. For Shepard, it was motivating Dr. Bhati to put aside her grief and cut the horn off the unicorn. Two very different results but the same method of getting there. 

Instead of taking the extremely rich at their word, Death of a Unicorn reminds us that they often have ulterior motives. The characters in the movie are exaggerated in such a way to be stupidly obvious about what they’re doing. Unfortunately, it’s not as obvious in the real world. 

Elliot tries to argue that the Leopolds can’t be entirely bad because they donated the entire nature reserve. To which Ridley says, “Yeah, but you know that philanthropy is just reputation laundering for the oligarchy.” That response will make some people roll their eyes—it feels so excessively Gen Z. But reputation laundering is a real thing that you, me, and everyone else falls for all the time. Talk shows, for example. A celebrity will go on Jimmy Kimmel and be charming as can be. The audience thinks, “I like that person!” But behind the scenes, they may be an absolute jerk. But by stringing together charming public appearances, they develop a reputation for being a great person and thus people are likely to give them the benefit of the doubt if anything ever gets out. 

Ridley’s deep skepticism of the Leopolds fits the now. In a way, I feel like Death of a Unicorn is begging all of us to stop being so Elliot and be more like Ridley. Wake up and realize the powerful people you’re trying to please don’t actually care about you and would sacrifice you the moment it was in their best interest to do so. 

And that’s what makes the message about family all the more powerful. Because we exist in a time where it’s easy to get distracted by the pursuit of wealth, fame, etc. It’s easy to forget what’s actually important. So maybe take a second and reflect on your own life. In what ways are you Elliot? Who (or what) is your Ridley? What thing have you prioritized that you know isn’t actually good for you? And what actually is important? It’s not too late to make a change. 

Cast

• Ridley Kintner – Jenna Ortega
• Elliot Kintner – Paul Rudd
• Shepard Leopold – Will Poulter
• Odell Leopold – Richard E. Grant
• Belinda Leopold – Téa Leoni
• Griff – Anthony Carrigan
• Shaw – Jessica Hynes
• Dr. Bhatia – Sunita Mani
• Dr. Song – Steve Park
• Written by – Alex Scharfman
• Directed by – Alex Scharfman