I just watched The Menu and loved it. If you haven’t seen it scroll away because of spoilers and also go watch it if you like horror and have any interest in food or cooking shows.
(Spoilers below)
At first I was confused when Chef Julian said that before the last course, there was the matter of payment. I was seeing the customers dying as their payment but after thinking about it, of course they’d still play at paying the bill. Chef Julian refers to the fire as cleansing, not punishing. (Yes, all the guests have been hand-chosen for a reason but the fire isn’t the whole point. It wasn’t even his idea to kill everyone).
Paying the bill usually ends the relationship between server and customer. The difference between givers and takers as Chef Julian says is a huge theme throughout the movie. What else would be a fitting last step before the final course? They’re all about to be freed from their role.
There’s also some interesting character shown in how the guests pay. The businessmen throw their cards on the table, they’re used to having stupid amounts of money and didn’t even really enjoy the food before things went sideways.
They don’t care.
They never did but now they don’t care because they know their death is imminent.
The food critic, Lilian, goes to put her card down and the fucking magazine guy goes, “No, this is on the magazine,” and puts down his (presumably) company card. He’s still thinking about and playing his role as the good employee.
Finally, Mrs. Leibrandt looks utterly defeated when she sets her card down. She’s accepted what’s going to happen and even thanks Chef Julian when he explains they’re going to be burnt to death. She’s ready for death at this point (but as others have pointed out, she still urges Margot/Erin to leave)
Interestingly, Margot/Erin is the only one who pays in cash. She sets her crinkled up ten dollar bill on the table (and doesn’t ask for her 5 cents in change) and that’s worth more to Julian than everyone else’s $1,250 payment because she understood him enough to get him to cook something he actually enjoyed making for the first time in years.
I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Very cool movie and awesome symbolic portrayal of different ideas.