The Old Guard 2 Ending Explained: The action-packed sequel to the popular Netflix Fantasy film is directed by Victoria Mahoney. The movie starts fan favourites Charlize Theron as Andy, KiKi Layne as Nile, Marwan Kenzari as Joe, Luca Marinelli as Nicky and Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker and welcomes new additions like Uma Thurman as Discord and Henry Golding as Tuah. With a runtime of 106 minutes, the film sees the immortal warriors fighting a former friend turned enemy and an older enemy whose growing powers could alter everything.
Now let’s break down the ending of The Old Guard 2, which might leave a few of its viewers with a couple of questions.
The Old Guard 2 Recap: What Is in the Sequel?
The movie opens with Andy and her fellow fighters embroiled in clandestine missions. In the process, they uncover that they are not the only ones being manipulated from the shadows, someone, who is all too familiar with them is behind the scenes doing the pulling. Nile starts to have odd dreams about a woman breaking into a magical library and stealing some books and attacking a librarian. That man is Tuah, immortals kept alive for 2000 years and who keeps secrets of other immortals in a little black year.
Andy and Copley go to South Korea in search of Tuah. Discord, the first immortal ever known to have existed, is the woman in Nile’s dream, Andy tells them. Much to their surprise, Tuah admits Andy isn’t the oldest immortal after all. Discord holds a vendetta against Andy, and she has Quynh—Andy’s former colleague—in tow. After that, it’s one man’s fight. Andy struggles with her mortality, wrestles with Quynh’s betrayal and learns the bitter price of living forever.
The Old Guard 2 Ending Explained
Does Andy Regain Her Immortality?
Andy is immortal again at the end of the movie, all right — but not the way you’d think. At the start of The Old Guard 2, Andy is still mortal after losing abilities in the first one. She can get hurt, or killed — and more vulnerable than ever before. The wise immortal Tuah tells us about an ancient myth: If the newest immortal (that is, Nile) kills another immortal, it can drain or wipe out their powers.
Booker comes forward to counter this belief. He has Nile wind him a bit, and sacrifices his immortality, passing it on to Andy. It works. Andy is immortal again, but she doesn’t know by what until its too late. Soon after, Booker is killed, and his death inspires her — and breaks her heart in the process.
Why Did Booker Give Up His Powers?
Booker’s own sacrifice is also one of the tear-jerkers of the film. After the uncountable pain and loss over the centuries, Booker simply wants to die. He lost his family decades ago and since then has been hollow and shattered.
He knows Andy is to have a role even after she lost her immortality. He feels she is entitled to a final opportunity to be the commander of the struggle. So when he learns about Tuah’s theory, he makes a leap — he transfers his immortality to Andy, at last attaining peace in death. It is a humble and selfless offering, and and though Andy mourns its loss, it also rescues her own life and probably the team’s future as well.
Is Quynh the Villain In The Old Guard 2?
The why isn’t quite so simple. Quynh is not an easy bad guy, but, like most of the characters in the film, she’s solidly in the wrong. After spending 500 years in the pressurizing vault of the sea, drowning every day of them without dying, Quynh can only be lousy with rage. She thinks Andy left her there, and when she’s freed by Discord she finally has someone who listens and gets that she is in pain.
Quynh assists Discord with the lethal scheme. She battles Andy, blaming her as a traitor for having left her. We realize why she is upset but she is jeopardizing the whole team with her behavior. Quynh is also losing her immortality during the final scenes, so perhaps she will have to re-evaluate her methods as well. So while Quynh is a villain here, she is not evil — again, she is hurt and seeking meaning where she shouldn’t.
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What Does Discord Really Want?
At first, it looks like Discord just wants to destroy Andy and her team. But she has something worse planned for us, we shall see later on. Discord has had to give up her immortality, and she wants it back. She learns that Nile, as the latest immortal, has the ability to take it and transfer immortality through touch. Discord wants Nile to all serve to stab Andy’s teammates one by one and steal their powers.
With that in mind, she kidnaps Nile, Joe, Nicky and Copley on an Indonesian job. Andy and Quynh are left behind, injured and anxious, but raring to punch back.
Will There Be a The Old Guard 3?
Netflix hasn’t commented, but all indications are that it’s a trilogy. The second season concludes on several ginormous cliffhangers — most of the team are in jail, Discord is alive and deadly again, and Andy and Quynh are preparing to go on a rescue mission — and I’m sitting on the edge of my seat. It doesn’t feel like it’s over.
Andy’s back in fighting form, but her pack is in shambles. Quynh’s betrayal is set to turn towards redemption, and Nile’s link to immortality has never been tighter. There’s clearly more to come. Whether it’s Andy finally coming to grips with Discord once and for all, Quynh getting some serious apologizing done or Nile finding out how to be herself, there’s all The Old Guard 3 can work with here. Only fans can hope the next instalment in the saga does the closure and action this bloody emotional rollercoaster is owed.
Netflix’s The Old Guard 2 didn’t exactly come together to provide us with as much of the ass-kicking action, emotional richness, or world-shaking move to the realm of immortals that we were hoping it would. But Andy’s evolution from impotency to leadership, Booker’s tearful sacrifice, and Quynh’s poignant return add richness to make it more than just an action movie. It’s not quite an unmitigated triumph, but the film definitely left me wanting and wondering what’s next. If The Old Guard 3 comes to be, all I can say is, Justice, Redemption, and The Final Battle we’ve all been waiting for.
Also Read: The Old Guard 2 Review: Stunning but Emotionally Hollow Sequel That Misses the Spark
