The Drama’s controversial plot twist explained

The Drama starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya came out in cinemas on Friday (April 3), and in the run-up and following its release there is one particular aspect that is living up to the film title.

Do not read on if you want to go into the film without knowing anything beforehand...

*Spoilers ahead for the twist and ending of The Drama*

The story follows a couple, Emma and Charlie (Pattinson and Zendaya), preparing to get married when a game prompts secrets to emerge and derail everything - the night before their wedding.

More specifically, in the company of their maid of honour, Rachel, and best man, Mike, the group takes part in a drinking game where they confess to the worst thing each of them has done.

This is where Emma reveals that when she was 15 years old, she planned to commit a school shooting with the intention of getting revenge on her bullies by taking her father's rifle to school and massacring her classmates. But ultimately, she changed her mind and didn't go through with it.

Upon this secret being revealed, we see how the revelation impacts Emma's and Charlie's relationship ahead of their big day as Charlie questions whether he truly knows his wife-to-be.

Backlash over the film's marketing

Following this plot twist, there has been criticism regarding how the film has been marketed, with there being a big emphasis on wedding and romance themes, and keeping the darker twist under wraps.

For example, some of the marketing stunts include an engagement announcement for Emma and Charlie, which was published in the Boston Globe, with a save-the-date for April 3, the film’s release date.

Then there was the one-day wedding chapel in Las Vegas, inviting couples to tie the knot “the A24 way" with Zendaya making an appearance at one of the nuptials, as Haim was the DJ (Alana Haim stars as Rachel in the film).

On the press tour for the film, Zendaya continued the wedding theme by wearing "something old" (a bridal white Vivienne Westwood gown that she first wore to the 2015 Oscars), "something new" (a custom white Louis Vuitton column dress with a long black train), "something borrowed" (a black Armani Privé gown borrowed from Cate Blanchett), and "something blue" (strapless Schiaparelli ballgown with black and electric blue ombré feathers).

March for Our Lives, a student-led organisation in support of gun control first created by students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, have called out the film's marketing for being "deeply misaligned."

“The film may be attempting to engage real questions about accountability and change, but A24’s marketing does not meet it there,” the organisation wrote. “With a subject this serious, especially in the U.S., that conversation cannot begin and end on screen. It has to carry through in how the film is presented. We understand that art can provoke discomfort and use humor to approach difficult subjects. But when something like a school shooting is treated lightly or played for irony, it raises a deeper question: what kind of conversation is this meant to start?”

Other gun safety advocates have also spoken out with similar criticisms.

“Gun violence, particularly in schools, is not just another dramatic device. Art has the capacity to deepen public understanding and create emotional clarity and awareness, but it can also flatten and distort reality, especially when it leans on shorthand or tries to make something more palatable than it actually is," Parkland shooting survivor Jackie Corin told The Hollywood Reporter:

“With something like a near school shooting, even small tonal choices can shift whether a story feels productive or dismissive.”

Additionally, Mia Tretta, a survivor of two school shootings, told USA Today: “A character planning a school shooting isn’t something that should be joked about – it’s a reality that me and hundreds of thousands of others live every day.”

“Even the title of the film being The Drama,” she continued. “A school shooting is not girls gossiping in class or stealing someone else’s boyfriend – it’s real people’s nightmares.”

“It’s frankly exploiting a crisis. There are ways to show this nuance without using people’s trauma as a gimmick. Studios and stars have massive platforms that they should use to give dimension to survivors, not perpetrators.”

At the time of their interviews, neither Corin nor Tretta had watched The Drama.

Elsewhere from Indy100, What are critics saying about The Drama? and Zendaya's 'something old new borrowed' style fuels marriage speculation.

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