How Did Phil Die In Power Of The Dog?

The Power of the Dog comes to a sudden end with the death of the main character, but the nature of the movie can make it easy to miss how Benedict Cumberbatch’s Phil Burbank meets his demise. Director Jane Campion is a master of the “show don’t tell” principle of storytelling, providing little explanation even regarding the meaning of the film’s title. The film moves along at a careful pace and much of the story is subtly told through the actors’ physical performances rather than through dialogue. Phil’s death comes with little exposition and viewers might miss the steps the story takes in moving towards his end.

The main events of The Power of the Dog are set off when Phil’s brother George (Jesse Plemons) marries the widowed Rose (Kirsten Dunst). She moves to their ranch, much to the disdain of the brutish Phil who bullies her mercilessly. He treats her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) similarly when he returns from school, but eventually takes the seemingly delicate teenager under his wing.

It would initially seem that Phil has the upper hand in the relationship between himself and Peter. He teaches the young man the basics of ranch living and finds a kindred spirit in Peter. But as The Power of theDog‘s story unfolds, the audience finds that Peter is actually using his relationship with Phil as a means of protecting his mother. Though Peter seems mild-mannered, his outward timidity covers a calculated plan to murder Phil.

Seeing the effects of Phil’s intimidation upon his murder, Peter makes some astute observations about Phil such as the fact that he doesn’t use gloves when he handles rawhide. Perhaps more importantly, Peter discovers that Cumberbatch’s character is secretly gay and discreetly uses his knowledge to gain his trust. A key but understated aspect of Peter’s character in The Power of the Dog is that he is studying to be a doctor. Separately, these things may seem unimportant but they all come together to explain the end of the movie and Peter’s scheme to put a stop to Phil’s brutality for good.

After learning some key skills of ranch life from Phil, Peter rides out alone and takes the hide from a cow that has apparently died from an illness. When Phil is in need of a hide to teach Peter how to make a leather rope, Peter offers his hide without revealing where he found it. Phil’s eagerness to bond drives him to make the rope that very evening, without using gloves and with an open wound on his hand. Phil’s wound quickly becomes infected from being in close contact with the diseased cowhide and he dies.

Phil’s premature death is taken as a tragedy by his family and surrounding community and no one ever suspects foul play, or that Peter ever had a hand in it. It may take a second viewing for audiences to even piece the story together, as Campion places the clues subtly across the film and doesn’t have a Poirot-style explanation scene like 2022’s Death On the Nile. However, the slow playout of the murder builds to The Power of the Dog‘s climactic twist and perfectly fits the dramatic pace of the film.

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