FAQ

Savages is based on Don Winslow's novel of the same name.

"Neptune's Net" by M. Ward.

It's insinuated but unlikely. Lado's trainee, Esteban, theorizes them to be lovers as he watches Ben and Chon with O returning from a restaurant, and Elena tells O that Ben and Chon wouldn't share her unless they loved each other more than her. However, Ben and Chon show no signs in the movie of being IN love, nor of being lovers with each other.

After learning that Elena's daughter is alive and living in Laguna, Ben and Chon kidnap her to trade for O, and a clean break from Elena's cartel. The trade is to take place in an open plateau between two hills, on which both Chon and Elena have snipers. After the trade, Elena asks Chon who the rat in her cartel is. Chon outs Lado as the rat, and this leads to a grand shootout in which Elena, Lado and a few of the snipers are all killed, while Ben and Chon are wounded. When O sees that Ben's wound is mortal, Chon injects Ben, and then O and himself, with drug overdoses and they die together in each others' arms in a triple suicide-- or, as O says, she merely imagined it. We 'rewind' back to the start of the trade, where O reveals that the actual events were a 'fuck-up.' When Elena steps forward to make the trade, Lado slips into the car and drives off, just as Dennis and a team of DEA agents arrive to seize and arrest Elena. Ben, Chon and O are also arrested, but released as informants to Dennis because they have enough information on him to send him to prison as well. Ben, Chon and O all leave their business and travel, spending time in Indonesia and Africa, where Ben resumes humanitarian volunteer work.

A montage of closing scenes show that Ben, Chon and O continue to stay in touch and spend time together, but are mostly all living apart; O having accepted that perhaps Elena was right about three people not being able to live equally in love. O delivers a closing narration where she says they might all return to their business one day, but for the present, are enjoying their time as 'beautiful savages,' as O puts it.

While the theaters got an R-Rated version of the movie (for strong brutal and grisly violence, some graphic sexuality, nudity, drug use and language throughout), Stone assembled a longer Unrated Version for the DVD/Blu-ray releases. This cut extends the movie by more than 10 minutes and includes solely character scenes. Especially del Toro's character Lado gets a lot darker here and we also get to know more about O, Marina and Dennis. If you look at the small changes at the end of the theatrical version, you may conclude that it tries to let Lado and Dennis appear a little more likeable.