THE Whip The mystery of the briefcase remains one of the unanswered questions from the Oscar-winning film that fans still wonder about. The 2014 film follows Andrew (Miles Teller), a young, competitive drummer studying at the prestigious music academy Shaffer Conservatory. But he quickly discovers it will be a difficult course when he meets his terrifying and emotionally manipulative music instructor, Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons). The instructor takes pleasure in making his students cry, laugh at their personal lives, and criticize the music they play for not keeping up with his rhythm, and Andrew is his biggest victim.
Despite Fletcher’s setbacks, Andrew gets a big chance to show Fletcher how perfect he can be during a jazz competition, an event where Andrew’s original role was to turn pages on Tanner (Nate Lang). He got the opportunity because he lost Tanner’s music folder with his sheet music, and out of all the drummers, Andrew was the only one who memorized “Whiplash”. However, no one else was near Andrew when the briefcase disappeared into the hallway next to a vending machine, and how it got lost remains unanswered, but there are three main suspects.
Tanner may have stolen the briefcase
Tanner’s sabotage of Andrew backfires
Fletcher made a whole ordeal about the students keeping their music folders safe, almost threatening their lives. So it’s possible that Tanner, another Shaffer drummer who was competing with Andrew, Could have stolen the briefcase to make Andrew look bad. Competition between students is what makes Whip so stressful, and if that was the case, it backfired, as Tanner didn’t suspect Andrew had memorized “Whiplash.” It is also unlikely that Tanner stole the folder, as he did not know how to play the piece without it.
Andrew may have lost the folder on purpose
Andrew took ruthless measures to prove his worth
Tanner can’t play without sheet music, which is why he gets so aggressive when Andrew doesn’t turn the pages at the right time. Given that Andrew is trying to get ahead of Tanner and prove to Fletcher how good of a drummer he is, it’s likely that Andrew purposely lost the sheet music to sabotage Tanner.
Andrew looked genuinely shocked and terrified as he turned around and the folder disappeared.
Since Andrew knew “Whiplash” by heart, he knew that if he lost the briefcase, the only solution would be to replace Tanner on stage.. However, although this is extremely likely, Andrew looked genuinely shocked and terrified when he turned around and the briefcase disappeared.
Fletcher is the biggest suspect
He may have done this to teach Andrew a lesson
Oscar winner Simmons nails the role of Fletcher in Whipsince he’s completely believable as the manipulative music teacher, which is why he’s the biggest suspect in the missing briefcase case. Although Tanner and Andrew are competitive, they wouldn’t have risked sabotaging each other. Fletcher had nothing to lose by stealing the sheet music, and this also plays into his mind games and sadistic behavior.
This is especially the case because he gave a full monologue about the importance of music folders. Fletcher probably stole the briefcase to teach Andrew a lesson when he saw her lying carelessly on a chaironly he didn’t know that Andrew had memorized “Whiplash.”
The Whiplash folder question is best left unanswered
The mystery highlights the twisted environment of Fletcher’s government
While there are some intriguing and compelling theories about who stole the briefcase in WhipThe fact that the film doesn’t answer this question seems like a deliberate choice. It presents a compelling mystery, as evidenced by the fact that audiences are still debating the possibilities so many years later. It’s easy to see that all suspects have motivations for doing so, but the point is that it’s the environment that turns the missing briefcase into a mystery, not the “crime” itself.
The audience might look at the characters and assume that they were all trying to sabotage each other because that’s what they are driven to do under their teachings.
The fact that we don’t know who took the briefcase highlights the kind of toxic environment Fletcher has built with his band. The audience might look at the characters and assume that they were all trying to sabotage each other because that’s what they are driven to do under their teachings. Musicians are tense and stressed to the point that they go to such extremes.
The fact that the audience can look at Fletcher and see him as a plausible suspect in the robbery also highlights how powerful he is. Director Damien Chazelle puts the audience in the shoes of his students as they begin to question everything as part of their mind games. Although theories about WhipThe missing briefcases are fun to explore, it’s hard to imagine the reveal would have improved the film instead of keeping it a mystery.