A key mystery of Mark Mylod's The Menu's cast is unsurprisingly star-studded, with Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik and Anya Taylor-Joy as "Final Girl" Margot.

Taylor-Joy's heroine — who isn't the girlfriend of Nicholas Hoult's Tyler but rather an escort he paid to accompany him because Chef would not accept singles — escapes the night's slaughter by unraveling how Chef came to hate his craft because of the apathy of his rich clientele. Before The Menu's ending, Margot has the chance to investigate Chef's residence, where she discovers relics from his happier past, including an image of him working at a fast food restaurant. As it turns out, this scene reveals what was behind the mysterious silver door in the main restaurant all along.

The Silver Door's Room Simply Has A Table With The Photograph Of Young Chef Slowik Flipping "The World's Most Perfect Cheeseburger"

The Door In The Menu Only Holds Something We've Already Seen

In the restaurant where the bulk of the movie takes place, there is a distinct silver door, which Elsa (Hong Chau) says hides "something very special." When Margot goes into Chef's house, she finds a replica of the restaurant; she goes through the duplicate door, which is where she sees his old newspaper clippings and photos. However, while the first door is never opened in the final cut of the film, the script ends with a description of the final scene that would have revealed this (via Deadline):

"FIREFIGHTERS scavenge through the charred remains of Hawthorn Restaurant. We STEADICAM through the wreckage, ing the remains of the dining room and the kitchen. [...] We finally reach the locked SILVER DOOR, the portal to the room inside, which has somehow not burned. [...]

We continue in through the door. When the smoke clears, we see the interior -- a bare room with only a single table in the center. On top of the table rests a framed photograph. The same photograph Margot saw in Chef's home.

We hurtle closer still and finally see what Margot saw: A photograph of a YOUNG CHEF SLOWIK, perhaps at his first summer job at a fast food stand. He has a big smile on his face and an apron that reads "Kiss the Chef." He’s never been happier, his face lit by the fire of the grill.

And he's flipping the world's most perfect cheeseburger."

Notably, in this version of the film, the audience does not clearly see the image when Margot does, as we do in the final cut. The key clue to what she needs to do to earn her freedom — order a cheeseburger, which Chef is actually happy to cook — is concealed. This moment was seemingly meant to be a big reveal, but it may have come across as ambiguous, while the alternate and final version serves the story better.

Why The Menu's Ending Worked Better Without Revealing What's Behind The Silver Door

The Final Version Allows Us To Trace Margot's Thinking While Preserving Chef's Mystery

"He's flipping the world's most perfect cheeseburger" are pretty words to end the movie, but these words may not have been so apparent to the audience if they depended only on the dated photo without Margot ordering a perfect burger after we see it. Depending on how it was shot, the audience might have gotten the reveal's meaning, but the sequence of the photo being seen, Margot's plan, and Chef's reaction work better as is. Because the audience sees the photo beforehand, they understand both Margot's cleverness and the joy Chef is experiencing.

The Menu still accomplishes a lot of gravitas surrounding the cheeseburger through the build-up to it, as well as Margot continuing to eat it after she escapes. Additionally, Chef and his staff are pulling off such a wild performance that the movie is better off with the overblown mystery of the door to add to the enigma of the whole thing. The Menu stands with excellent reviews and ratings, including an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, so clearly, the story has an incredible impact as it was seen upon release.