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Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.
Linda, Rose Byrne, is a dedicated therapist who is stretched to the limit as she cares for her daughter, who suffers from an eating disorder. Her child’s needs are constant and specific—the daughter must be fed through a PEG tube each night—creating a relentless cycle of obligation, fatigue, and anxious vigilance. The weight of responsibility is compounded by an largely absent husband, Charles, who is away on a two-month work trip and offers little more than critiques in the few conversations they manage to have.
When a catastrophic incident upends their life, a bedroom ceiling collapses in their Montauk apartment, flooding the space and forcing Linda and her daughter to relocate to a shabby motel. The sudden upheaval strips away the familiar safety of home and pushes Linda into a precarious new routine, where every day feels like a delicate balancing act between care, duty, and survival. The motel becomes a crucible where stress, fear, and a search for support collide, revealing the fragility of Linda’s carefully managed world.
Seeking help in a system that seems to stall under pressure, Linda reaches out to her colleague therapist, Conan O’Brien. But the professional door closes quickly as Linda’s behavior crosses lines, leaving the colleague exasperated and unable to accept her as a patient. The denial lands with a blunt honesty that underscores Linda’s isolation and the professional boundaries that she struggles to respect and redefine.
Inside the motel, Linda’s world expands in unexpected directions. She meets Diana, a snarky clerk played by Ivy Wolk, whose sharp wit and blunt candor cut through the day-to-day drudgery, and James, a motel superintendent played by A$AP Rocky, who becomes a source of both comfort and chaos. James offers practical help—he helps her score drugs online—and, in the face of her mounting stress, becomes a complicated emotional anchor for her daughter as well. Their relationship is charged, messy, and frequently unsettled, mirroring Linda’s unstable surroundings.
Caroline, a new mother who enters Linda’s orbit through sessions, embodies a troubling reckoning for Linda. Initially, Caroline—Danielle Macdonald—is described as someone who abandons her baby mid-session, placing Linda in an ethical and emotional bind. This fragile bond between therapist and patient evolves as Caroline later reappears at Linda’s home, but the encounter turns volatile when Caroline slaps Linda and runs away after her plea for help is refused.
Back in the tense rhythm of daily life, Linda confronts a dire medical milestone: her daughter cannot reach the weight necessary for the PEG tube to be removed. In a moment of desperation, Linda returns home and removes the feeding tube herself, a decision that triggers a cascade of surreal, hallucinatory imagery as she imagines the surgical hole closing. The scene underscored the depth of her deteriorating grip on reality and the costs of keeping everything together.
When Charles unexpectedly returns home and finds the aftermath, he repairs the ceiling hole, thrusting Linda into a spiral of fear about the truth resurfacing. Linda tries to shield her family from what happened, but the truth surfaces through James, who chooses to tell Charles the difficult facts rather than let the illusion continue. The revelation forces Linda to confront the consequences of her actions in a stark, unforgiving moment.
In a final, harrowing turn, Linda heads toward the ocean with the intention of drowning herself, a desperate act born of exhaustion and despair. She awakens beside her daughter, who expresses a quiet resolve to be better, a fragile thread of hope that threads through a story of struggle, error, and the stubborn possibility of change.
Follow the complete movie timeline of If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.
Linda's relentless caregiving
Linda is a therapist stretched to her limits as she cares for her daughter, who must be fed through a PEG tube each night. The constant caregiving and mounting stress push her toward emotional exhaustion and blur the lines between her personal and professional life. The home routine becomes a weight she carries as the situation spirals.
Ceiling collapse and relocation
During a catastrophic incident, the bedroom ceiling collapses and floods the Montauk apartment, forcing the family to abandon their home. Linda and her daughter relocate to a shabby motel, trying to survive the aftermath. The disaster shatters any remaining sense of stability in their lives.
Charles away and isolation
With Charles away on a two-month work trip, Linda is left to cope largely on her own. He only calls to complain and criticize, offering no real support. The lack of help deepens Linda's isolation and increases the pressure on her daily duties.
Caroline abandons her baby mid-session
Caroline, a new mother in Linda's practice, abandons her baby mid-session. The shocking act exposes the fragility of Linda's boundaries and the volatility of her clients. It marks a turning point in how Linda sees her ability to help others.
Linda seeks help but is rejected
Linda seeks help from a colleague therapist for her own problems, but her boundary-crossing behavior wears thin. The colleague becomes exasperated and ultimately declines to treat her as a patient. This professional rejection compounds Linda's personal turmoil.
New motel acquaintances
Living in the motel, Linda meets Diana, a snarky clerk, and James, a neighbor and motel superintendent. James becomes an unlikely source of support and chaos, helping her score drugs online and offering emotional comfort to her daughter. The relationship is complicated and strained.
Caroline returns and lashes out
Caroline later appears at Linda's home but slaps Linda and runs away after being refused help. The harsh confrontation shows how Linda's inability to assist creates further friction with her clients. The incident underscores the collision of professional boundaries with personal crisis.
PEG tube crisis and removal
Linda discovers that her daughter cannot reach the necessary weight for the PEG tube to be removed. In a desperate act, she takes her daughter home, removes the PEG tube, and then hallucinates the surgical hole closing. The sequence reveals Linda's escalating risk-taking as the situation spirals.
Truth about the ceiling and the family
Back at the apartment, Charles returns unexpectedly and repairs the hole in the ceiling. Linda tries to hide that she left their child alone, but James tells Charles the truth. The revelation heightens the tension as trust frays within the family.
Desperate ocean escape
When Charles discovers the removal of the feeding tube, Linda runs to the ocean and attempts to drown herself. The act reveals how far she has spiraled and exposes the fragility of the entire situation.
A glimmer of hope
Linda wakes up with her daughter looking at her and says that she will be better. The moment offers a quiet, fragile sense of possibility that she may begin to recover and repair their relationship.
Explore all characters from If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.
Linda (Rose Byrne)
Linda is a therapist stretched to her limits by her daughter’s eating disorder and the collapse of her home life. With her husband away, she bears mounting caregiving stress and navigates unstable relationships in a high-pressure environment. Her attempts to cope lead to blurred professional boundaries, setting up a tension-filled arc toward desperation and self-doubt.
James (A$AP Rocky)
James is the motel superintendent who becomes an unlikely source of comfort and chaos. He helps Linda score drugs online and offers emotional support to her daughter, though their relationship remains complicated and unstable. His presence adds a volatile layer to Linda’s attempts to stabilize her situation.
Caroline (Danielle Macdonald)
Caroline is a new mother in crisis who abandons her baby mid-session, illustrating the fragility of parenthood under stress. She later appears at Linda’s home, slaps Linda, and runs away after Linda refuses further help, revealing the volatility of care-seeking in this world.
Daughter (Delaney Quinn)
The daughter suffers from an eating disorder severe enough to require a PEG feeding tube every night. Her condition drives much of the family’s stress and shapes Linda’s professional and personal choices throughout the story. The tensions around weight, care, and safety propel the plot forward.
Charles (Christian Slater)
Linda’s husband, largely absent and critical, is away on a two-month work trip. He returns at key moments, questions Linda’s choices, and ultimately sees the consequences of the couple’s fractured dynamic, including the truth about Linda’s handling of their child.
Therapist (Conan O'Brien)
Linda’s colleague in the therapy field who ultimately declines to take her on as a patient after boundary-crossing episodes. He embodies the ethical limits and professional standards that Linda’s crisis threatens to override.
Diana (Ivy Wolk)
Diana is a snarky motel clerk who becomes a peripheral yet grounding presence in Linda’s new, tense surroundings. Her interactions offer a contrast to the intensity of Linda’s crisis and inject moments of blunt honesty.
Learn where and when If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) takes place. Explore the film’s settings, era, and how they shape the narrative.
Time period
Contemporary
The events unfold in the present day, reflecting current realities of therapy, caregiving, and online interactions. Modern medical devices like PEG tubes and online drug sourcing augment the tension and sense of immediacy. The timeframe emphasizes the fragility of mental health support and family life in today’s world.
Location
Montauk, shabby motel
Set in the coastal town of Montauk, the story centers on a flood-damaged apartment that forces Linda and her daughter into a cramped, worn motel. The motel becomes a pressure cooker of stress, vulnerability, and precarious safety, where help is scarce and instability reigns. The seaside backdrop contrasts with the characters’ isolation and fatigue, turning a vacation spot into a claustrophobic battleground.
Discover the main themes in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.
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Mental Health
Linda’s life is overwhelmed by caregiving duties and her daughter’s eating disorder, highlighting the toll on mental health professionals. The film probes burnout, the emotional weight of constant crisis, and the difficulty of finding effective support. It also questions the ethics of care when personal boundaries blur under pressure. The portrayal stays grounded in the emotional and operational strain of crisis work.
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Boundaries
Linda’s desperation leads to boundary-crossing choices that strain professional and personal relationships. The narrative contrasts her pursuit of help with ethical limits, ultimately showing the consequences of crossing lines. Tension grows from the clash between care, judgment, and institutional boundaries. The theme invites viewers to consider where compassion ends and risk begins.
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Desperation
A pivotal moment by the ocean frames Linda’s plunge into despair and her yearning for escape. Water symbolizes both danger and a possible path to renewal, framing a turning point in her arc. The aftermath reframes her struggle as a call to seek safer, sustained support. The ending hints at a fragile resolve to pursue help and protection for her daughter.

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Discover the spoiler-free summary of If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.
In the wind‑blown seaside town of Montauk, Linda tries to keep the pieces of her life from slipping through the cracks. By day she sits behind a therapist’s desk, listening to strangers teeter on the edge of collapse, while by night she wrestles with a far more intimate crisis: caring for a daughter whose fragile health is tethered to a nightly feeding tube. The cramped apartment they call home feels both a sanctuary and a pressure cooker, especially after a sudden structural failure forces them into a shabby motel that mirrors the disarray blooming inside.
Linda’s professional world is a mirror of her personal turmoil. Her clients arrive with raw, unfiltered panic—new mothers abandoning babies, spouses trapped in silence, and other fractured souls that echo her own sense of helplessness. The very act of trying to help becomes a tightrope, and even the therapist she turns to for guidance begins to slip away as the boundaries between caretaker and patient blur. The tension crackles in every session, making the office feel less like a place of healing and more like a battlefield of unspoken grievances.
In the motel’s dim hallway, Linda encounters a cast of unlikely companions. Diana, a sharp‑tongued clerk, offers sardonic commentary that cuts through the fog of exhaustion, while James, the building’s superintendent, drifts in and out of her orbit with an odd mixture of practicality and chaos. Their presence adds a strange, almost cathartic rhythm to her days, providing fleeting moments of connection amid a landscape of uncertainty.
All the while, the looming absence of Charles—her husband, whose brief, critical phone calls offer little solace—casts a long shadow over the fragile equilibrium she strives to maintain. Between the therapist’s own unraveling, a missing‑person mystery that whispers in the background, and the relentless drive to keep her child alive, the film settles into a tense, intimate portrait of a woman caught between duty and desperation, searching for a foothold in a world that feels constantly on the brink of collapse.
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