The Woman in Cabin 10 Plot & Ending Explained
Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 turns a glittering luxury cruise into a nightmare as Keira Knightley’s Laura Blacklock spots a woman no one else will acknowledge—igniting a high-stakes mystery at sea. Adapted from Ruth Ware’s bestseller, the exclusive voyage curated by Richard Bulmer for his wife Anne is hiding secrets that refuse to stay below deck.
Netflix has a new twisty yacht thriller on its hands with The Woman in Cabin 10, and yes, it goes exactly where your brain thinks it will... and then a couple of places it probably doesn’t. If you’re planning to watch, tap out now. Spoilers ahead.
Quick rundown
- Title: The Woman in Cabin 10
- Director: Simon Stone
- Cast: Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce, Gitte Witt
- Rotten Tomatoes: 27%
- Where to watch: Netflix
The setup
Keira Knightley plays Laura Blacklock, a journalist invited on a very exclusive cruise thrown by businessman Richard Bulmer for his wife, Anne. It’s a boutique sailing with a small circle of guests, the kind of trip where everyone knows everyone and secrets don’t stay secret for long.
On night one, Laura accidentally wanders into the cabin next to hers, bumps into a blonde stranger, apologizes, and backs out. Later, she hears a scuffle through the wall, rushes to her balcony, and sees a body in the water. She raises hell. The crew tells her Cabin 10 is unassigned and has been empty the whole time. That contradiction becomes the spine of the movie: Laura knows what she saw, but the ship insists it didn’t happen.
What really happened in Cabin 10
Everything hinges on a mess Richard has engineered off the ship’s manifest. Anne has leukemia, and she planned to leave her money to a new charitable foundation. Richard, not loving that plan, had other ideas.
On the first night, Anne catches Richard with the mysterious blonde. She puts the pieces together, tries to bail, and Richard stops her. In the struggle, he shoves her; she hits her head and dies. To hide it, he dumps Anne’s body overboard. So the figure Laura spotted in the water? Not the woman from Cabin 10. It was Anne.
The blonde woman, explained
The stranger is Carrie. She later pulls Laura down to the lower decks and tells her to knock off the amateur sleuthing. Then she lays out her role: Richard hired her to impersonate Anne long enough to change the will so the money flips to him. It’s a grim plan with a very specific paper trail, and yes, it’s the kind of plot point thrillers love because it’s both outrageous and just plausible enough.
Laura, correctly, points out that once Carrie signs, Richard will cut her loose. Carrie knows, but she’s broke, raising a daughter, and thinks this is her only way out. She didn’t sign up for murder, she’s rattled by what happened to Anne, and the guilt finally wins.
Carrie decides to help Laura blow everything up at the ship’s gala. Richard panics, grabs Carrie as a hostage, and tries to bolt. Laura intervenes and gets Carrie out intact. In the final beat, Carrie sends Laura a video message: she and her daughter are safe, and she even invites Laura to visit sometime. Not subtle, but it lands as a clean grace note after all the chaos.
The takeaway
It’s glossy, pulpy, and not exactly beloved by critics at 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, but if you’re in the mood for a slick seafaring mystery with a face-swap scheme, a dead-of-night cover-up, and Keira Knightley playing dogged and increasingly fed up, it does the job.
Seen The Woman in Cabin 10 yet? Curious where you landed on the ending.