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Directed by Kyle Balda (best known for animated films at Illumination like Despicable Me 3 and Minions: The Rise of Gru), with a screenplay written by Craig Mazin(Chernobyl, The Last of Us), The Sheep Detectives is an adaptation of the 2005 novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, an international bestseller. The story follows a shepherd named George Hardy (played by Hugh Jackman in the movie), who, one day, is found mysteriously dead. George’s beloved sheep suspect something suspicious is afoot, and vow to solved this murder mystery .
Critics were delighted by The Sheep Detectives, which currently holds a 95 percent rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Now that The Sheep Detectives is streaming on Prime Video, even more families will get to watch this adorable, philosophical, and moving talking sheep movie together. If you get lost along the way, or just impatient to know the end of the movie, then read on for Decider’s full breakdown of The Sheep Detectives plot summary and The Sheep Detectives ending explained.
The Sheep Detectives movie plot summary:
George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is a kind shepherd who lives in the small English village of Denbrook, and absolutely adores his flock of sheep. As he writes in a letter to a woman named Rebecca, he has given each sheep a name, and they all have distinct personalities. Some of those sheep include Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the smartest sheep; Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston), the loner sheep; Mopple (voiced by Chris O’Dowd, the patient sheep; and an unnamed “Winter Lamb” (voiced by Tommy Birchall) who has been rejected by the flock for being born in the winter.
Every night, George reads a mystery novel out loud to his flock. He admits to Rebecca that while he knows deep down they can’t understand him, sometime he likes to believe they are listening the story. In fact, as we soon find out, the sheep do understand him. In this universe, the sheep understand the human language, but the humans can’t understand the sheep language. The sheep love these mystery stories. Lily always figures out who the killer is before the end of the story.
We also learn that in this universe, the sheep have the ability to forget anything at will. Well, all the sheep except for Mopple, who was born without this magical ability. Any time anything even slightly bad or disappointing happens, the sheep choose to forgot. For example, when Lily’s parents died, she choose to forget that. Instead, she lets herself believe the myth that sheep don’t die—they just eventually turn into clouds someday. Mopple, who never forgets, knows this isn’t true. But he lies to protect the rest of the flock to let them carry on in blissful ignorance, as per their request.
One morning, Lily discover George dead outside his trailer. At first Lily doesn’t understand, because she thought death was something that only happened in stories, not real life. Mopple reveals that death is real, but falsely maintains that it’s only for humans, while sheep turn into clouds. Lily, distraught, wants to forget George, much to Mopple’s dismay. But when a human photojournalist named Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine) suspects George was murdered—poisoned by toxic berry that grows in the church yard—Lily decides to solve George’s murder.
Lily, Sebastian, and Mopple listen in on the reading of George’s will—a new will, that was conveniently written three days before George’s death. George requested seven people be present at the will-reading: Rebecca (Molly Gordon), the person George was writing to, who turns out to be George’s daughter; Caleb (Tosin Cole), a rival shepherd who wanted to buy George’s sheep; Ham (Conleth Hill) the local butcher that George, as a vegetarian, disliked; Beth (Hong Chau), an innkeeper who was in love with George; Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), a priest that George had mysterious beef with; and Officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), the bumbling local cop who’s on the case.
George’s lawyer (Emma Thompson) explains that George put his two twin babies up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth, and had recently reconnected with them. Molly’s twin brother, Peter, lives in South Africa, and calls into the will reading. The lawyer reveals that George left Molly his farm, his sheep… and a $30 million inheritance. Wait, what? Why does George have $30 mil? Well, it turns out the blue goop he was always making was a medicine for a sheep disease called Orf, and he sold the patent to a big animal vet company and made a lot of money!
So, now Rebecca has a clear motive for killing her father. But George’s will implies there are other suspects, when he mysteriously write that there is “a fool, a bad shepherd, a spring lamb, a winter lamb, a victim, and two murderers” among the group of seven that he gathered at his will reading. But who is who?
With the help and encouragement of Elliot the photographer, Officer Derry investigates Rebecca, the daughter, as the main suspect. Lily the sheep also believe Rebecca is the most likely killer, especially after she learns that Rebecca is the “winter lamb,” born in the winter. We also learn that Caleb is not the “bad shepherd,” as he assumed. Rather, the “bad shepherd” is Reverend Hillcoate, who agreed to take a bribe for the church from George, in exchange for information about the babies he put up for adoption at the church years ago.
Rebecca looks even more suspicious when the sheep discover her bracelet on George’s meadow, despite the fact that she told the police she had never been there. The sheep lure Officer Derry to the evidence, and uses that to obtain a search warrant for her hotel room. Officer Derry discovers a crushed poison berry on Rebecca’s boots. Rebecca admits she was at George’s meadow on the night of her father’s death, but insists she is not the murderer. She only lied because she knew how suspicious it would look. Officer Derry doesn’t believe her, and tells her she will be officially arrested in the morning.
Sebastian and Lily argue. Sebastian, who was also born a winter lamb, believes Rebecca is innocent, and accuse Lily of prejudice. Lily has doubts, but tries to convince herself that Rebecca is definitely guilty. She’ll be arrested, and the flock will be sold to Caleb, and they will all live happily ever after. Lily and Mopple decide to go visit Caleb’s flock to say hello. They discover a terrifying scene, where the sheep are treated like livestock, being raised to be butchered for food. They realize that if they join Caleb’s flock, they will be killed.
They are attacked by one of Caleb’s vicious herding dogs, and saved by Sebastian, who sacrifices his life. Sebastian dies, and Lily realizes the whole “sheep turn into clouds instead of dying” thing was never real. Mopple confirms that sheep die, but he urges Lily to keep her memories, even the painful ones, because remembering loved ones is how they keep them alive.
Lily and Mopple try to convince the flock to run, but they are distraught. Upset by the knowledge that Sebastian is dead, that sheep die, and that they all could die soon, they decide to forget everything. Lily tries and fails to stop them, and they return to the field in their blissful ignorance. A crushed Lily decides to forget, too—everything, including George. But before she can do so, she is visited by George’s ghost, who tells her Rebecca is innocent, and if Lily can figure out the real killer, she will inherit the flock and they will be saved. Lily remembers a detail about George’s dead body: He had one hands stained blue, and one hands stained green. Aha! She knows who the real killer is.
With the help of the young winter lamb, Lily tries to communicate her revelation about the real killer to Officer Derry. The winter lamb draws a diagram on the police station floor, mixing together blue and yellow paint. (Where did the sheep get the paint? Don’t worry about that!)
Officer Derry doesn’t get it at first. But when he looks at the green stain on his hand from the blue and yellow paint that was mixed together, he realizes who the real killer is.
Who is the killer in The Sheep Detectives?
The real killer in The Sheep Detectives is Elliot the photographer, aka Nicholas Galitzine. In fact, his name is not Elliot but Peter, aka Rebecca’s twin brother who is supposed to be in South Africa. What?!
Here’s how it happened: After reconnecting with his long lost father and learning of his wealth, Peter invented a new identity as an English photographer. He came up with an excuse to come to his father’s remote home town, ie; the cultural festival. He forged his father’s old will to include a new $30 million inheritance to Rebecca (instead of being donated to charity, as it was in the old will), because he knew he would be the first suspect if the money went to him.
Then, Peter poisoned his father and framed his sister for the murder. He planted the poison berries in her room, and guided Officer Derry into believing she was the murderer. If you’ll recall, he was not in the room during the will reading, after he was asked to leave by the lawyer. In fact, that’s exactly what he wanted to happen, so he could call into the will reading as himself.
The Sheep Detectives ending explained:
So how did Lily and Officer Derry figure this all out? Because of the stained hands on the body. George’s hand being dyed blue makes sense, as that is the color of the Orf medicine George was always making. But why was his other hand green?
It wasn’t a grass stain, as previously believed. It was a mix of the blue orf medicine, and the cheap yellow hair dye that Peter used to hastily create a new identity as a blonde man. (Any true fake blondes know we use bleach, not yellow hair dye, which would make hair bright yellow. But, sure.) It was raining on the night of George’s death. His blue-covered hand mixed with the running dye in Peter’s hair in the struggle, staining it green.
Peter scoffs that none of this can be proved, but Officer Derry corrects him. All they need is a DNA test to prove Peter is George’s biological son. Peter, seeing the truth in this, tries to run. Looks pretty guilty to me!
Because the will was forged, Molly does not inherit the $30 million. However, she does get what George left her in the old will, including George’s meadow, trailer, and flock. She rejects an offer from Caleb and the butcher to sell the flock to them, revealing they are the “two murderers” from the will, because they kill and eat sheep.
Yes, what about those titles? Who was who? Caleb and Ham were the “two murderers.” The reverend was the “bad shepherd.” Beth, the innkeeper who was once romantically rejected by George, was the “victim.” If Rebecca was the “winter lamb,” that must mean Peter was the “spring lamb.” But how is that possible if they are twins?
Well, that part is never explained in the movie. (Maybe cut for time?) But my guess is that Rebecca was born a few minutes before Peter when it was still technically “winter,” just before midnight on the first official day of spring. That would make Peter, technically, the “spring lamb.” Maybe some one who read the original book can confirm this for me!
In the final scene of the movie, Rebecca settles down to read the flock a story. Lily finally accepts the young winter lamb into the flock, and gives him a name: George. Lily looks up at the sky and see a cloud that looks like Sebastian. Wait, does that mean sheep really do turn into clouds? It’s up to your interpretation, but my take is that it’s a sign that it’s OK to have some hope after death—to maybe believe in some sort of heavenly afterlife—but you also have to accept that bad things like death do happen, and it is sad, even if you do have that hope. Ignorance, is not, in fact bliss. Because if you’re ignorant of all the bad stuff, you’ll miss out on all the good stuff too.