Explaining The End of 6 Underground

By the end of 6 Underground, almost all of the characters have gone through complete arcs, the themes have been clearly stated and explored, and the pipe has been laid for the inevitable sequel. You were probably just too busy watching things blow up to notice.

6 Underground foreshadows the ending to its main plot fairly early. About half an hour into the movie, we see a flashback in which One is in Paris, where he meets the dictator of Turgistan, Rovach, at a performance of Shakespeare's Richard III. It's an important meeting. Rovach's smug attitude convinces One to found his own paramilitary organization. Once its up and running, Rovach is its first target.

The play offers One and Rovach the opportunity to trade barbs about how tyrants always get their comeuppance, but the parallels between Rovach's downfall and Richard III run deeper than that. In the play, Richard keeps his brother Clarence locked away in a tower, where he can't interfere with Richard's plans. Rovach does the same thing to his brother just swap the Tower of London for a Hong Kong skyscraper.

In addition, before Richard's downfall, he's visited by an army of ghosts who predict his demise. Naturally, it's One's group of "ghosts" who invade Turgistan, turn the citizens against Rovach, and break into the dictator's yacht, leading to Rovach's death.

Ultimately, it's not a bad thing. The closer the Ghosts get, the better they work together, the more successful they become, and the happier they are. By the end of the movie, they're a family a dysfunctional one, sure, but a family just the same.

Despite what One says, he desperately wants a family. You get a hint of that early on when you see that the plane he crashes to fake his death is full of pictures of his girlfriend.

Even One's turn towards vigilantism is sparked by family. He's inspired to found the Ghosts when delivering medical supplies to Turgistan a stop that's more about photo-ops than really helping people and sees first-hand what happens when Rovach uses chemical weapons on his own people. As One passes out gas masks, it's not the mass suffering that makes One reconsider his life choices. It's the plight of a few children, separated from their families.

Ultimately, One accepts that personal connections make you stronger, not weaker. After stopping Rovach's reign of terror, One returns to New York. He clandestinely follows his ex, and realizes that she has a four-year-old, blond-haired child. We don't know for sure that the kid is One's, but it seems pretty likely. Before, One thought he had to give up his life to help others. Now, he's has something to live for and he's even more willing to fight for it. Keep watching the video to see how we are explaining the End of 6 Underground!

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