Boiling Point Plot Synopsis
Boiling Point is a chaotic culinary thriller, revolving around head chef Andy Jones who arrives late to a restaurant he partly owns. Caught up between personal issues at home and increasingly stressful issues in the restaurant, Andy and his team struggle to manage one of the busiest nights of the year, right before Christmas.
Why does Jones & Sons’ hygiene rating drop?
Early on in the movie, Andy shows up late to work, sipping on his water bottle (an important item to note for later). A Food Safety Inspector has arrived and found that there are several alarming issues. Not only is the fridge temperature “just on regulation” at 8 degrees, but one of the new chefs is using the food sink to wash her hands (a big no-no) and another isn’t wearing gloves while handling oysters.
However, the cherry atop a wobbling cake here is Andy’s record-taking, or lack thereof. We learn that he’s been pretty on-the-ball with this until a couple of months back, where there are big gaps. He should be taking regular temperature checks of the fridges but isn’t. Among other things, Andy hasn’t been on top of food prep, the menu, buying inventory or reprimanding his staff. As a result, his rating is reduced down to 3 stars rather than 5. However, he has 3 months to try and turn it around.
Why is Andy struggling at work?
Throughout the movie we learn important snippets of detail about Andy’s personal life. He’s recently divorced and is struggling to live after being separated from his young son. This has not only affected his professional life, but also his personal one too.
After taking a loan from his former colleague Alastair, Andy is now drinking heavily and also on drugs too, which we find out later on in the movie. That water bottle he’s been sipping on? That’s actually full of alcohol, reinforcing his addiction.
What happens with Beth? Does she turn a new leaf?
Beth portrays the bossy head waitress role in Jones & Sons to perfection. She begins with a team meeting, where she snaps a photo of everyone for their Instagram just before they open. However, she also informs everyone that she’s overbooked the restaurant to try and squeeze more money out of the place.
This not only puts pressure on the kitchen but it also has a knock-on effect for the customers as the staff are forced to turn tables. Although Beth is quick to point out that they shouldn’t rush people, it’s a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.
Midway through the movie, Beth decides to change the menu for four Instagram influencers, who demand steak and chips. When she hands their ticket over to Carly, she’s not happy. She scathingly assesses Beth’s incompetence as well as reminding her that no one actually likes the girl. When Carly asks about her raise, Beth is clueless and asks what she’s talking about. We’ll cycle back to that later in this article!
Beth is shocked and takes to the toilets to compose herself. When she returns, she tries hard with the staff, even offering to go out for a drink after work with a couple, and to patch things up with Carly too.
Toward the end of the movie, during a horrible disaster (detailed below), Beth approaches the influencers but this time is far more stern. She demands they delete the videos and photos they’ve taken. It’s a brief segment, as the camera doesn’t linger on her, but it also shows that Beth is willing to make changes based on the harsh criticism she’s received.
What happens to the sick guest? Why is the ambulance called?
Andy’s problems begin early in the night and only compound further as the movie progresses. Andy learns that Alastair Skye, his old colleague and “friend”, has brought along a super harsh food critic in Sara. This rattles Andy, as he feels under pressure and ill-equipped to serve them good food after the early mishaps in the kitchen.
Although Sara seems to like the food, Alastair is super judgmental, claiming that it’s “millimeters” away from perfection. It’s clear he’s trying to tarnish the restaurant’s reputation. When that fails though, he tells Andy he wants his money back. £200,000 to be precise.
These are important points to note because when Andy returns to cook food, he makes a huge error that could cost his business. Table 13 make a specific request not to include nuts for their meal as the young lady is allergic. Although the order is called out and everything is carefully prepared, Andy’s nonchalant attitude to the salad comes back to bite him. With the kitchen out of dressing, he mixes it up for another which happens to include walnut oil.
Inevitably, the lady goes into anaphylactic shock. An ambulance is called and out of all the customers to be there helping the couple outside Alastair and Sara are the first responders. The paramedics eventually take the couple away, but not before the man angrily retorts that they had one job and failed.
Alastair proposes that Andy should put all the blame on Carly, fire her, and promote Alastair up to become his partner chef. That way, Andy wouldn’t have to pay back the money and Alastair’s PR company can clear up the mess he’s caused.
Does Andy throw Carly under the bus? What does Carly decide to do?
Andy does the morally right thing and decides not to blame Carly for his own mishap. With all the staff gathered, Freeman angrily blames Andy and calls him an alcoholic. Andy tries to swing at his chef but he’s held back. As a result, Carly decides to leave the restaurant, unwilling to cover for Andy any more and needing to get out of this sinking ship before it goes down.
Earlier in the movie, Carly had been asking about a raise, which Andy had promised to speak to Beth about. Although he mentioned it in passing before the film started, it’s clear Beth hasn’t bothered to relay this information on to her father, who owns the majority of the restaurant. As a result, Carly doesn’t see herself valued and decides to leave.
How does Boiling Point end?
Andy leaves and heads into the offices in the back, realizing that the worst possible night he could have has materialized. He drinks half a bottle of vodka and snorts cocaine off the table. He calls his ex-wife and promises to be a good father and promises to go to rehab if need be.
When Andy leaves the room, he collapses and clutches his chest. He seems to be suffering from a heart attack and a couple of waitresses find him some time later.
What happens to Andy and the restaurant?
Although the film ends here, we can still theorize over exactly what’s transpired when the credits roll. Carly has been an integral part of the restaurant still running and with her gone, the kitchen is likely to fall apart.
Laziness is contagious and with Jake somehow still in a job, despite slacking off and taking long breaks, it’s fair to assume that the fed-up dishwasher would also leave. She’s pregnant too, so she’d be on maternity leave soon but it’s another nail in the coffin.
As for the restaurant, the knock-on effect of the nut allergy disaster and the hygiene rating dropped to 3 stars would see the mainstream media jump all over this like a rash, and run numerous stories in papers about the place. Overnight, this would likely tarnish the entire reputation and it could be a while before the restaurant recovers – if at all. London is a very competitive place for dining, and with rental prices eye-wateringly high, it could prove to be too much. It would seem highly unlikely that the restaurant would survive through all of this.
As for Andy’s fate, that’s very much left up for debate, depending on whether you’re a pessimistic or an optimist. It could well be that Andy survives and gets his life together and goes through rehab, but whether he’d still be able to serve food after all this is up for debate. In the end, Boiling Point’s ambiguous ending leaves everything up to interpretation.
Read More: Boiling Point Movie Review