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Primetime ending explained: What's the meaning of the final scene with Decoy Dan?
The new film starring Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen has just arrived in UK cinemas.
A24
- Patrick Cremona
Published: Friday, 30 October 2026 at 3:04 pm
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Robert Pattinson has continued his blockbuster year with one of his most impressive turns yet – with the star taking on the role of To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's acclaimed drama Primetime.
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The film explores the rise of the reality show as it became a major phenomenon in the US, while also asking some thorny questions about the ethics of its approach to dealing with sexual predators.
Based largely on true events – although with some characters serving as composites of various real figures and one or two surreal flourishes – it all leads up to a shocking major incident and an interesting final scenes that focuses on one of the film's most interesting side characters.
Seen the film and need those closing moments unpacked? Read on to have the Primetime ending explained.
Primetime ending explained: What happened to Bill Conradt?
Throughout the film, much attention is given to a search for a high-profile "whale" – a prospective predator who Hansen ally and Perverted-Justice founder Xavier Von Erck believes could be a government official.
Eventually, Von Erck, Hansen and their colleagues discover that this whale is Bill Conradt, an assistant district attorney from Rockland County, Texas and – under pressure to improve ratings – Hansen decides to take the team to Texas.
In a change to the usual protocol, Hansen plans to confront Conradt on camera at the latter's own house – alongside heavily armed police officers – but as they prepare to move in, Conradt glimpses them through the window and fatally shoots himself.
Although disappointed they could not complete an interview with Conradt, producer Andie Bender (who is a composite of real life figures) hopes to interview the police officers and salvage the episode.
As you can read in our piece explaining the true story behind the film, this depiction of events is more or less as it happened in real life, with some notable differences, and the incident was also featured in last year's acclaimed documentary Predators.
The film – and this climactic incident in particular – leaves us with lots of questions about the ethics of the To Catch a Predator project.
While few would argue with the fact that the predators Hansen and his team were going after were bad men who deserved to answer for their crimes, there are longstanding questions surrounding whether this was the correct way to confront them.
Critics have suggested this vigilante approach, especially when played out for spectacle on national TV with a clear focus on boosting ratings, opened up a can of worms that did little to actually address the issue and seek true justice, while also playing into some of humanity's worst and most voyeuristic impulses.
Exactly how you feel about that is likely to come down to your own views and interpretation, but there can be no doubt that Primetime asks us to reckon with some pretty uncomfortable questions.
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For his part, Hansen has criticised Primetime's depiction of real events, releasing a YouTube video about his reaction to the film, saying: "It was so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality.
"Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is, you know, me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was."
He also took issue with Pattinson's performance, calling his version of him "so detached, so unhinged, so dark, so unlikeable... I mean, it’s upset my colleagues, current and former."
What is the meaning of Chris Hansen's flashback to India and the "ancient evil"?
In one of the film's more surreal flourishes, we repeatedly return to a motif concerning Hansen's brush with an "ancient evil", which he encountered while working on a separate project in India.
Earlier in the film, Hansen explains to Dan that their goal is to "cleanse the world of an ancient evil", telling him a story of how, while he had been investigating the mysterious disappearance of children, he saw a manifestation of this evil lurking in a cave.
Later, when he sees Conradt through the window of his home just before his death, Hansen sees him as that same ancient monster.
It's clear that this is meant to signal that Hansen really does believe that he is on an urgent, righteous quest to do good in the world – with the film suggesting that he has essentially anointed himself as humanity's saviour in the face of this ancient evil, perhaps even suffering from a slight messiah complex that has seen him lose touch with reality.
What is the significance of the final scene with 'Decoy' Dan Plum?
Skyler Gisondo as Dan in Primetime. A24
While Chris Hansen is in many ways the protagonist of the film, it is perhaps Skyler Gisondo's role as 'Decoy' Dan Plum which serves as the emotional centre.
We first find Dan as a desperate actor auditioning for the role on the show, with Hansen taking him under his wing after he lands the part, and Dan finding himself getting more and more drawn into the process.
After the incident in Texas, we see that Dan has been visibly shaken by the ordeal, and the film ends with another scene set one year later – which sees him receiving his Screen Actor's Guild membership card in the post.
This whole storyline explores another of the ethical quandaries regarding the entire Primetime project, specifically the emotional and psychological toll that playing these decoys would have had on the young actors cast in the roles – and how the process could essentially be read as a form of exploitation.
Interesting, Oppenheim has revealed that this very last scene was actually Gisondo's idea, with the director explaining: "I remember we were coming to the end of the film and the movie ended a little bit earlier, and I just kept thinking, ‘I don't want it to end in this sort of way that makes you just completely f**k my life.'"
He added: "I want it to end in a way that there's still something around the corner, and you could read it a few different ways and that he has an opportunity to keep going even if he shouldn't."
"I liked seeing the devastation of what this experience had caused for him, the true emotional toll,” Oppenheim continued.
"He's the person who starts as this naive guy who doesn't know anything about the world, and by the end he's affected by it."
Primetime is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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