We Have To Talk About The Most Bonkers Moment In Marty Supreme

Spoilers for "Marty Supreme" follow.

Josh Safdie's "Marty Supreme" is one of the best movies of the year — a funny, thrilling, nerve-wracking comedy-drama loaded with surprises. One of the biggest of those surprises is how good Kevin O'Leary is as Milton Rockwell, a rich businessman who enters into the orbit of ping-pong hustler Marty Mauser, played by Timothée Chalamet. O'Leary is not an actor, but a real-life businessman who rose to fame on the TV game show "Shark Tank," where he used the nickname "Mr. Wonderful."

Here I'll confess that I've never seen a single second of "Shark Tank," so I was not familiar with O'Leary, other than reading his name here and there in certain articles. "Marty Supreme" was my first real introduction to the man, and I have to admit that he's legitimately great playing Rockwell (note: O'Leary has said some ... questionable things in real life, so I'm not commenting on him as a person here, but as an actor playing a part).

O'Leary has a surprisingly large role in the film — this isn't just a cameo, but a full-blown supporting turn. And the script, by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, gives the businessman-turned-actor a totally bonkers speech near the end of the film. We have to talk about it, and what it could all possibly mean.

In "Marty Supreme," Chalamet's Marty Mauser is a New Yorker in the 1950s with big dreams: he wants to become a table tennis star. Others laugh at this notion, but Marty is completely committed to making it a reality. Along the way he crosses paths with Rockwell, who has built an empire via a pen company, and is married to former actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), with whom Marty tumbles into an affair.

Rockwell, ever the businessman, smells opportunity when he meets the fast-talking Marty. But Marty is so headstrong that he blows up what could be a lucrative business deal and has to eventually come crawling back asking for Rockwell's help in the final act of the film. Rockwell agrees, putting up money for Marty to take part in a rigged ping-pong match in China against Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), a famous player who beat Marty during a tournament near the start of the film.

Marty agrees to take a dive in order to earn Rockwell's money, but his pride ends up being injured and he demands a rematch — a real rematch. Rockwell is incensed that Marty would double-cross him, which leads to one of the most memorable bits of dialogue in the film. As Marty is gearing up to play Endo one more time, he tells Rockwell that he understands he's blowing an opportunity yet again and he won't be getting any of the millionaire's money. Which brings us to the big, weird speech.

"Let me explain to you," Rockwell says ominously. "I was born in 1601. I'm a vampire. I've been around forever. I've met many Marty Mausers over the centuries. Some of them crossed me, some of them weren't straight. They weren't honest. And those are the ones that are still here. You go out and win that game, you're gonna be here forever too. And you'll never be happy. You will never be happy."

Marty laughs this exchange off, but the moment is so startling that it knocked me for a loop. First of all, we have to unpack what's being said here: Rockwell is claiming to be a vampire. Is he ... being literal? There's absolutely no indication of the supernatural anywhere else in the movie, and yet, the way the speech is written, with Rockwell throwing out a specific year ("I was born in 1601"), and the way O'Leary delivers it, with a devilish twinkle in his eye, gives one pause to consider that maybe Rockwell is being serious and he really is an immortal vampire.

Or he's just being a creepy, threatening millionaire trying to rattle Marty's cage, and underscoring the fact that Marty's ever-striving nature will turn him into a metaphorical vampire. Indeed, that's probably the more likely option here. And yet the scene is so memorable, so charged, so strange, that it lingers with you long after the film has ended. Maybe Milton Rockwell is full of crap. Or maybe, just maybe, he's a blood-sucking vampire who has been around for centuries.