The Little Things (2021) Ending Explained: Was Sparma the Killer?

The Little Things is a film whose ending you want explained the moment the credits roll. The crime thriller The Little Things (2021) is called “Дрібниці” in Ukrainian release. Writer-director John Lee Hancock made a neo-noir about two detectives and a strange suspect, starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto. The ending gives no direct answer to the main question, so below is what the final scenes actually show, what follows from them and what Hancock himself said. Everything is based on the film and Wikipedia, with no guesswork of our own.

In short

The film never says whether Albert Sparma was the killer. Baxter kills him in a fit of rage in the desert, Deacon helps cover it up and then sends Baxter a red barrette similar to the one the missing Ronda Rathbun wore. The final scene shows that Deacon bought it himself: he burns a new pack of barrettes with the red one missing. So the barrette is not real evidence. The film does not spell out why Deacon did it, and an IndieWire critic called the ending a final note of mercy. According to Ukrainian Wikipedia, Hancock deliberately planted arguments both for and against Sparma’s guilt.

What The Little Things is about

It is 1990. Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe “Deke” Deacon (Washington) is sent to Los Angeles to collect evidence in a murder case. He used to be a detective in Los Angeles himself, and the newly appointed lead detective Jimmy Baxter (Malek) takes him along to a fresh crime scene. Deacon notices that the method matches an old string of murders he never solved. Suspicion falls on Albert Sparma (Leto), who works at a repair shop near the crime scenes. The film was released in the US on January 29, 2021, and in Ukraine on February 4.

What happens at the end of The Little Things

The FBI is about to take over the case within the week, and the detectives are running out of time. Sparma’s fingerprint is similar to the killer’s but not a definitive match. Baxter corners Sparma alone and demands to know where Ronda Rathbun is. Sparma offers to drive him to where he supposedly hid the body; Baxter agrees, and Deacon secretly follows.

In the desert, Sparma has Baxter dig one hole after another, then declares that he never killed anyone. Baxter keeps digging, Sparma taunts him, and the detective snaps: a blow with the shovel kills the suspect. When Deacon arrives, a flashback finally reveals his secret: in his last murder case he accidentally shot the one survivor, and Captain Farris and coroner Dunigan helped cover it up.

Deacon tells Baxter to bury the body, while he spends the night clearing out Sparma’s apartment and disposing of his car. In the morning he finds that Baxter has not buried Sparma but is still searching for the victim, desperate to believe he killed the right man. Deacon advises him to forget the case, or it will haunt him for life. Later, Baxter receives an envelope from Deacon containing a red barrette like the one Ronda was wearing when she was abducted. Back in Kern County, Deacon burns everything he took from the apartment, along with a new pack of barrettes with the red one missing, and walks away.

The ending explained: was Sparma the killer?

The film deliberately does not answer. Against Sparma: his obsession with true crime, the newspaper clippings about the murders in his apartment and a fingerprint similar to the killer’s. In his favor: no definitive match, no body in the desert and the fact that eight years earlier Sparma had confessed to a murder he could not possibly have committed. The young woman chased on the highway cannot help either: she saw Sparma in handcuffs at the station, so she is no longer an objective witness.

According to Ukrainian Wikipedia, citing Hancock’s interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director deliberately built arguments for both Sparma’s guilt and his innocence into the story. He let Jared Leto decide for himself whether his character was the killer and asked him not to say what he had decided. So not even the director knows which version Leto chose.

What the red barrette means

The barrette is the key “little thing” of the ending. Baxter sees an object like the one Ronda wore, but in the final scene the audience sees more: Deacon bought a new set of barrettes, sent one and burned the rest. Why, the film does not spell out. All we know is that just before, Deacon advised Baxter to forget the case because it would haunt him for life. IndieWire critic David Ehrlich, quoted by Ukrainian Wikipedia, wrote that the film ends on a final note of mercy. Read that way, the barrette spares Baxter the doubt that Deacon himself lived with for years.

Deacon and Baxter: the same story twice

The ending closes the circle. Early on, Farris warned Baxter that Deacon’s obsession with the unsolved case had cost him his marriage and caused a heart attack. Deacon is still haunted by visions of the dead victims, and colleagues helped him hide a fatal shot. Now Baxter has a secret of his own, and this time Deacon helps hide it. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter, quoted by English Wikipedia, wrote that the old-school and new-school cops end up having more in common than they anticipated, and called the ending too cryptic to be fully satisfying.

The Little Things cast

Denzel Washington plays Joe “Deke” Deacon, Rami Malek plays Jimmy Baxter, and Jared Leto plays Albert Sparma; Leto received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for the role. The cast also includes Natalie Morales (Detective Jamie Estrada), Terry Kinney (Captain Carl Farris), Michael Hyatt (Flo Dunigan), Chris Bauer (Sal Rizoli), Sofia Vassilieva (Tina Salvatore) and Maya Kazan (Ronda Rathbun). Hancock wrote the first draft of the script back in 1993 for Steven Spielberg, who passed because he felt the story was too dark.

Where to watch The Little Things

As of November 9, 2026, the film is on MEGOGO: its page says “from 139 UAH”, so it is a separate purchase, with a Ukrainian audio track and an 18+ rating. Warner Bros. Pictures Ukraine posted the Ukrainian trailer on January 13, 2021. More about the film is on our The Little Things page.

FAQ

Was Albert Sparma the killer?

The film does not say. The evidence is incomplete, no body is found, and according to Ukrainian Wikipedia the director deliberately left both versions open.

Why did Deacon send Baxter the barrette?

The film does not spell it out. Just before, Deacon advised Baxter to forget the case, and IndieWire critic David Ehrlich sees mercy in the ending. It is not the barrette Ronda wore: Deacon bought a new set and burned the rest.

Was Ronda Rathbun found?

No. Her body is never found in the film.

What was Deacon hiding?

That in a past case he accidentally shot the one surviving victim, and Captain Farris and coroner Dunigan helped cover it up.

What is the film called in Ukrainian?

“Дрібниці”. In Russian it is known as “Дьявол в деталях”.