Plot Explained Spoilers guaranteed!
Plot Explained

Browse by genre

Games (1967) movie poster

Timeline

Games (1967) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Release, runtime and language
1967 · 100 mins · English
Loading streaming availability…
Directed by
Curtis Harrington
Starring
James Caan, Eddra Gale, Marjorie Bennett, Estelle Winwood, Simone Signoret, Kent Smith

Passion wears a mask of terror in this strangest of all games! A mysterious woman in black moves in with married Manhattan thrill-seekers and helps one trick the other.

On this page (6)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 Events in order (12)
  3. 3 Timeline questions answered
  4. 4 Movie threads
  5. 5 Movies like Games
  6. 6 Every angle
Loading streaming availability…

12 events in order · contains spoilers

Games Timeline: Events in Chronological Order

Every key event of Games (1967) in order, scene by scene, with when and where it takes place. Use it to untangle flashbacks, time jumps and parallel storylines, to refresh your memory before the sequel or to find the exact scene you are thinking of.

  1. Lisa's arrival and the first game

    Lisa Schindler arrives at the Upper East Side townhouse and is invited to stay for the night. She claims psychic abilities, and Jennifer asks her to organize entertaining 'games' for their circle. The couple begins to anticipate the provocative scenarios that will unfold.

    When
    Evening
    Where
    Upper East Side townhouse, New York
  2. The staged affair as dinner-table spectacle

    Lisa orchestrates several setups of simulated domestic discord for the couple, including a phony affair between Jennifer and Norman the grocery deliveryman. Paul and Jennifer react with a mix of amusement and discomfort as the scene plays out. Lisa reveals that all of it is part of her game.

    When
    That night
    Where
    Townhouse parlor, Upper East Side
  3. Norman's advance and the fatal shot

    The next day Norman delivers groceries and makes a romantic advance toward Jennifer. Paul confronts him with a revolver, initially firing blanks, then shoots Norman in the head after the joke is revealed. The couple laughs, but a real murder has just occurred.

    When
    Daytime
    Where
    Townhouse
  4. Stash and cover-up begin

    In a panic, Paul hides Norman's bloodied corpse in a small elevator inside the house. Jennifer sends Lisa to the drugstore to buy a salve, attempting to cover up the evidence and keep the secret from unraveling.

    When
    Afternoon
    Where
    Townhouse
  5. Disposal through sculpture

    That night, Jennifer drugs Lisa so Paul can decide how to dispose of the body. Paul decides to encase Norman in plaster, turning him into a new statue for their collection. The act deepens their commitment to the deception.

    When
    Night
    Where
    Parlor / studio, Townhouse
  6. Tarot omen

    In the morning, Lisa performs a tarot reading for Jennifer and draws the Death card, unsettling her. The reading foreshadows more turmoil to come. The mood is tense as the consequences of their games loom closer.

    When
    Morning
    Where
    Parlor, Townhouse
  7. Ghostly warning

    Late at night, Lisa confides that she senses a ghost in the house. In the parlor, Jennifer is horrified when she sees an apparition of Norman with a bullet through his eye. The haunting deepens the sense that the deception is leaking into reality.

    When
    Late night
    Where
    Parlor, Townhouse
  8. Lisa exits, Paul departs

    Lisa departs in the morning after a confrontation with Paul, who announces a business trip to Maine and leaves Jennifer alone in the townhouse. The house feels emptier, but the fear remains. The absence of Paul signals plans behind the scenes.

    When
    Morning
    Where
    Townhouse
  9. Jennifer's deadly misidentification

    That night, Jennifer hears noises and the electricity fails. In the kitchen, she sees a man resembling Norman approaching and flees to the elevator to escape upstairs. She shoots him several times, killing him, convinced she is defending herself and the illusion.

    When
    Night
    Where
    Townhouse
  10. The frame-up revealed

    Paul arrives moments later and calmly removes a prosthetic from Norman's eye, exposing the ruse. He phones the police and reports that Jennifer has committed a murder. Jennifer realizes she has been used by Paul and Lisa to eliminate Norman and secure her fortune.

    When
    Moments after the shooting
    Where
    Townhouse
  11. The downfall and the poison

    Jennifer is arrested for murder while Paul and Lisa celebrate with a drink. Paul gives Lisa a ten-percent cut of Jennifer's fortune as their partnership seems secure. He soon collapses, realizing Lisa has poisoned his drink and sealed her own escape.

    When
    Following Jennifer's arrest
    Where
    Townhouse
  12. Exit with the fortune

    Lisa leaves the townhouse with a briefcase full of Jennifer's fortune, slipping away after the killer's schemes come to fruition. She disappears into the night, carrying the spoils of the elaborate manipulation. There are no witnesses left to challenge her ascent.

    When
    After Paul's death
    Where
    Townhouse

Last updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:16

Was this helpful?

Timeline questions answered

Games Timeline Explained: Your Questions Answered

When does it happen, and why in that order? The questions people ask about the chronology of Games (1967): time jumps, flashbacks, cause and effect between scenes and the correct order of events, each answered with spoilers.

Q1

Why does Paul shoot Norman with real bullets after firing blanks?

Paul initially fires blanks as part of the staged game, but when the joke is revealed and everyone laughs, he pretends to shoot again without switching back to blanks. The real bullets kill Norman instantly. Whether this was intentional or a tragic accident caused by Paul's carelessness with a loaded weapon remains ambiguous, but it sets the murder in motion.

Foreshadowing: The earlier staged affair was meant to provoke Paul jealousy, testing his reactions for the real scenario to come.

  • paul
  • norman
  • shooting
  • blanks
  • murder
  • games
Q2

Why does Paul frame Jennifer for Norman's murder?

Paul orchestrates the entire scheme to murder Jennifer and inherit her fortune. By manipulating Jennifer into believing the figure in the house is Norman returning as a ghost, he sets her up to kill what she thinks is an attacker. When Paul arrives and reveals the prosthetic eye, he frames her for murder, ensuring she goes to prison while he escapes consequences.

Foreshadowing: Lisa's tarot reading of the Death card for Jennifer foreshadows her downfall.

  • paul
  • jennifer
  • frame-up
  • inheritance
  • murder scheme
  • conspiracy
Q3

How does Lisa manipulate Paul and Jennifer throughout the film?

Lisa poses as a psychic and stages elaborate 'games' of simulated domestic drama. She orchestrates the staged affair to test reactions, then later creates the false ghost appearances that terrorize Jennifer. Her real purpose is to help Paul dispose of Norman and eventually manipulate Jennifer into killing a man Paul has hired to impersonate Norman with prosthetic makeup.

Foreshadowing: Lisa's claim of psychic abilities establishes her control over the narrative and the couple's emotions.

  • lisa
  • manipulation
  • games
  • psychic
  • fake ghost
  • prosthetics
Q4

Why does Lisa poison Paul after celebrating their success?

Lisa betrays Paul by poisoning his drink because she wants the entire fortune for herself. Having helped orchestrate the scheme to eliminate Jennifer and inherit her wealth, Lisa sees an opportunity to take everything and leave Paul dead with no witnesses to challenge her. She takes the briefcase full of money and escapes.

Foreshadowing: Lisa's calm, otherworldly demeanor and her confession about sensing a ghost foreshadow her detached willingness to kill.

  • lisa
  • paul
  • poison
  • betrayal
  • fortune
  • double-cross
Q5

What is the prosthetic eye that Paul removes after Jennifer shoots the intruder?

The man Jennifer shoots is not actually Norman. Paul hired someone to wear prosthetic makeup, including a fake bloody eye, to impersonate Norman's ghost and manipulate Jennifer into attacking. When Paul arrives after the shooting, he calmly removes the prosthetic, revealing it was a setup. This proves to Jennifer that she was deliberately framed.

Foreshadowing: Lisa's earlier claim that she senses a ghost moving through the house sets up this false apparition.

  • prosthetic
  • fake ghost
  • norman
  • frame-up
  • makeup
  • trick
Q6

Why does Jennifer shoot the man in her house?

Jennifer believes the figure approaching her is Norman returned as a vengeful ghost, or worse, coming to harm her. The power outage, strange noises, and earlier sighting of Norman's apparition have terrified her. When she sees a bloodied figure in the kitchen, she fires in self-defense, not realizing it's a man in prosthetic makeup hired by Paul.

Foreshadowing: Lisa's late-night confession about sensing a ghost and Jennifer's earlier glimpse of Norman's apparition build her paranoid state.

  • jennifer
  • shooting
  • self-defense
  • ghost
  • fear
  • intruder
Q7

What happens to Norman's body after he is shot?

After Paul accidentally kills Norman, he and Jennifer panic and hide the body in a small house elevator. Later that night, Jennifer drugs Lisa so Paul can decide the body's fate. Paul chooses to encase Norman in plaster, transforming the corpse into a sculpture that becomes part of their art collection, effectively disposing of the evidence while preserving it in plain sight.

Foreshadowing: The couple's earlier parlor tricks and statue collection establish their willingness to display macabre objects.

  • norman
  • body
  • plaster
  • statue
  • disposal
  • cover-up
Q8

Why does Lisa leave the house before Paul frames Jennifer?

Lisa departs after a confrontation with Paul, who then announces a business trip to Maine. This leaves Jennifer alone in the house. Their separation is calculated: Paul needs Jennifer isolated so the fake ghost scenario can play out without Lisa's involvement. Lisa's departure creates the vulnerable environment Paul exploits to manipulate Jennifer into killing the impostor.

Foreshadowing: The tension between Lisa and Paul during their confrontation hints at disagreements over the scheme's execution.

  • lisa
  • departure
  • paul
  • isolation
  • jennifer
  • manipulation
Q9

What does the Death card in Lisa's tarot reading signify?

Lisa reads Jennifer's fortune using tarot cards and deliberately draws the Death card, which unsettles Jennifer significantly. This is both psychological manipulation and foreshadowing: it predicts the death of Norman, the metaphorical death of Jennifer's trust and freedom when she's framed, and ultimately Paul's own death by poison.

Foreshadowing: The Death card directly foreshadows the murders that follow and the grim fate awaiting the conspirators.

  • tarot
  • death card
  • jennifer
  • fortune
  • foreshadowing
  • omen
Q10

Why does Paul need Jennifer to kill the impostor instead of doing it himself?

Paul cannot kill the impostor himself because he needs a witness to the murder, specifically, his wife committing what appears to be premeditated murder. By manipulating Jennifer into shooting an apparent intruder, Paul ensures there are witnesses (himself arriving afterward) and evidence to convict her of murder, clearing the way for him to inherit her fortune without suspicion.

Foreshadowing: The entire sequence of 'games' Lisa arranges conditions Jennifer to accept fabricated realities, making her more susceptible to the final frame.

  • paul
  • jennifer
  • impostor
  • frame-up
  • murder
  • inheritance
  • conspiracy

Movie threads

More Movies Like Games, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes Games tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Thrillers about deadly deception among the wealthy like Games

Stories where immense wealth and privilege conceal murderous plots and betrayals. If you liked the manipulative mind games and murder-for-inheritance plot of Games, you'll appreciate these movies. This list features similar stories of cold-blooded conspiracy, betrayal, and psychological manipulation set against a backdrop of wealth and decadence.

  • deceptive
  • cold
  • calculating
  • claustrophobic
  • suspenseful
  • unsettling
  • Tone: dark, cynical, cold
  • Pacing: steady, deliberate
Why these movies?

The story pattern: Stories in this thread typically center on affluent characters whose lives of privilege are a facade for sinister intentions. A plot—often for inheritance or financial gain—is hatched, involving deception and psychological manipulation of a close associate or partner. The narrative follows the meticulous execution and inevitable unravelling of this conspiracy, often culminating in further betrayal.

Why they belong together: These films are grouped by their shared focus on crime motivated by greed within a high-society context. They consistently feature a dark, cynical tone, a steady pace that builds tension through manipulation rather than action, and an emotionally heavy weight derived from the cold calculation of the characters.

Psychological paranoia thrillers with a steady pace like Games

Narratives where a meticulous plan breeds claustrophobic distrust and fatal consequences. Fans of Games who enjoyed its methodical build-up of paranoia and the feeling of being ensnared in a manipulative plot will find similar tension here. These movies feature steadily paced stories of psychological manipulation, claustrophobic distrust, and bleak outcomes for their calculating characters.

  • paranoid
  • manipulative
  • claustrophobic
  • suspenseful
  • unsettling
  • calculating
  • Tone: dark, unsettling, paranoid
  • Pacing: steady, slow burn
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative pattern involves a clever, often complex plot initiated by one or more characters. Instead of external forces, the primary conflict arises from the psychological fallout of the scheme itself. The story meticulously charts the escalation of paranoia and distrust among the conspirators, leading to a collapse from within and typically a bleak resolution for all involved.

Why they belong together: These films share a specific mood of claustrophobic suspense generated by psychological manipulation rather than physical danger. They are united by a steady, deliberate pacing that allows dread to build, a high intensity of psychological tension, and a uniformly dark tone that results in a heavy emotional impact.

If you liked this

Movies Like Games

Similar movies to Games: the same genre, themes or kind of story. Each one comes with its own plot summary, timeline and ending explained.

Browse all movie summaries

Every angle

Games (1967) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

Everything about Games in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning and a spoiler-free summary. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

Coming soon on iOS and Android

The Plot Explained Movie Summary App

Plot summaries, endings explained and timelines on your phone. Catch up on any movie in minutes, save your favorites and never miss a twist again.

Be the first to know when we launch. Your email stays private, always.

Learn more about the app