Marvel Zombies: The Complete Story & Tragic Ending Explained

 

Introduction: A Story Without a Happy Ending

The story of Marvel's zombie apocalypse is not one of triumph. It begins with Peter Parker aboard a Quinjet, his voice heavy with the weight of what’s been lost. He wishes he could tell us a story of how Earth's Mightiest Heroes saved the day, but that is not the story that happened. Instead, it’s a chronicle of fallen heroes, impossible choices, and a new generation forced to fight for the ashes of a world they once knew.

This is the complete, devastating timeline of the Marvel Zombies saga. We will follow every group of survivors, from the wastelands of a fallen San Francisco to the last bastion of New Asgard, and uncover the final, heartbreaking truth behind the Zombie Queen's plan.

 

 

Part 1: The Fall of Wakanda - The Beginning of the End

The heroes' last stand begins in Wakanda, where they make a final push against the zombie onslaught. Peter Parker, Scott Lang, and King T'Challa stand against a zombified Thanos, who wields the Infinity Gauntlet. The Titan’s physical power is immense, capable of leveling buildings with a single swing. However, his decaying mind prevents him from fully harnessing the Infinity Stones, making his attacks sluggish and predictable.

Despite this weakness, Thanos quickly masters the Mind Stone, summoning hordes of the infected to overwhelm the heroes. The timely arrival of Thor, Rocket, and Groot offers a brief glimmer of hope, but Thanos dispatches Rocket and Groot and gravely wounds the God of Thunder. In a devastating show of force, he slams his fist into the ground, flipping the entire kingdom of Wakanda upside down and exposing the planet's molten vibranium core.

In a final, desperate act, T'Challa pleads for the Mind Stone, believing as the true king he can wield it. He lunges at Thanos, but the Titan overpowers him, and the stone falls back into Thanos's grasp. With his last words, "Wakanda forever," T'Challa makes the ultimate sacrifice, tackling Thanos and plunging them both into the molten vibranium shafts below. Black Panther's sacrifice saved the universe, but the unleashed energy of the Infinity Stones triggers a massive, reality-warping explosion that Spider-Man and Ant-Man barely survive.

 

Part 2: The San Francisco Outbreak - Shang-Chi's Sacrifice

While Wakanda falls, chaos erupts in San Francisco, with massive swarms of the infected flooding the streets in a scene reminiscent of World War Z. In the midst of the horror, Shang-Chi and his friend Katy fight their way towards Chinatown, only to discover it's too late to save Katy's mother. They team up with Agent Jimmy Woo and a small group of survivors, trying to escape the nightmare.

It is here that Shang-Chi's true power is revealed. He unleashes astonishing martial arts skills, single-handedly holding back the horde and leaving Katy stunned. Just as they are about to be overwhelmed, helicopters descend, led by none other than Shang-Chi's father, Wenwu, The Mandarin. He has come for his son, but Shang-Chi refuses to abandon the others. In the chaos, Shang-Chi is bitten.

To save his son, Wenwu transfers the power of the Ten Rings to him, stabilizing the infection but sacrificing his own life in the process. His final words, "Remember what your mother taught you," echo as his heroic act buys the survivors enough time to escape on the helicopters.

Part 3: Five Years Later - A New Generation of Heroes

Five years pass, and the world has fully succumbed to the apocalypse. In the ruins of New York City, we meet a new team of young heroines: Riri Williams (Ironheart), Kate Bishop (Hawkeye's protégé), and Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), accompanied by Tony Stark's AI, FRIDAY. While scavenging, they spot a crashing Quinjet. Inside, they find only an infected pilot, but Riri's advanced tech detects a small device hidden inside the pilot's body.

After a game of rock-paper-scissors, the unfortunate task of retrieving it falls to Kamala. Just as she does, the pilot reanimates and they are attacked by a zombified Hawkeye. They narrowly escape, with Kate managing to grab one of his arrows in the chaos.

Part 4: The Journey to Ohio - Hope and Heartbreak

Back at their base, Riri discovers the device is a powerful subspace transmitter, technology shrunk down to an impossibly small size. It's protected by a quantum code and linked to a desperate last-ditch SHIELD project to stop the outbreak. Riri picks up a signal from a SHIELD base in Ohio, and despite the slim 5% chance of success, Kate’s unwavering hope convinces them to make the dangerous journey west.

Along the way, they encounter a bizarre, unnatural storm, the result of a titanic battle between the Eternal, Ikaris, and an infected Captain Marvel. An army of the infected surrounds them. Kate fires what she thinks is an explosive arrow at Captain Marvel, but it bursts into harmless confetti. The zombified hero retaliates instantly, and Kate falls. In the ensuing panic, Riri is bitten. bInjecting herself with a stabilizer, Riri makes her final stand. She orders FRIDAY to get Kamala and the transmitter to safety while she stays behind to buy them time. FRIDAY obeys, telling Kamala that the fate of humanity now rests on her shoulders before returning to fight alongside Riri and Kate to the bitter end. Just as a stumbling Kamala is about to be caught, a mysterious biker sweeps in and saves her: the legendary vampire hunter, Blade.

Part 5: The SHIELD Bunker and The Zombie Queen's Arrival

Blade reveals he is now the avatar of the moon god Khonshu, chosen after Marc Spector was infected. He agrees to help Kamala deliver the transmitter to the SHIELD base in Ohio. When they arrive, they are met not by soldiers, but by thousands of unmoving infected, controlled by Yelena Belova, the new Black Widow. She is there with her adoptive parents, Melina Vostokoff (Iron Maiden) and Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian).

Yelena explains the transmitter's purpose: it sends a signal to the interstellar police force, the Nova Corps. However, Earth's contaminated atmosphere blocks the signal; it must be launched into space. Before they can formulate a plan, the Zombie Queen herself, Wanda Maximoff, arrives with her undead army, including Abomination, Ghost, Hawkeye, and Captain America.

Alexei, thrilled to finally fight his idol, engages Captain America and emerges victorious. But the heroes are overwhelmed. Yelena makes the ultimate sacrifice, holding back the horde with her technology so the others can escape with the transmitter. She is pierced by the Queen's spear, and the survivors flee into the night, vowing to honor her memory by completing the mission.

Part 6: Ocean City - A Fleeting Sanctuary

The remaining heroes—Kamala, Blade, Melina, and Alexei—track down a ship capable of space travel. Their search leads them to Shang-Chi and Katy, who now lead a caravan of survivors in a Mad Max-style convoy. The Ten Rings are split between them, a symbol of their bond. They are heading to a rumored safe haven known as Ocean City, led by the calculating Baron Zemo.

Ocean City is a massive, submersible fortress that rises from the depths. For a brief time, the heroes experience peace, real food, and a sense of security they haven't felt in years. But this sanctuary is a trap. The city is attacked by infected warriors from the undersea kingdom of Talokan, led by their king, Namor. Zemo reveals his cruel strategy: he lured the heroes to Ocean City to use them as bait, believing the only way to survive is to periodically feed the horde.

A brutal fight ensues. Namor's strength is overwhelming. Melina heroically sacrifices herself to manually activate the escape pods, sending a final message of love to Alexei before she is consumed. The remaining team—Kamala, Blade, Alexei, Shang-Chi, Katy, and Zemo—escape the sinking city.

 

Part 7: New Asgard - The Queen's Deception

The survivors make their way to the last fortified location on Earth: New Asgard. They are met by a hostile Valkyrie, who only allows them entry after Khonshu, speaking through Blade, reveals himself. Inside, they find a thriving community, but Thor sits in a corner, broken and unresponsive.

Valkyrie explains that New Asgard's prosperity is thanks to their new queen: Wanda Maximoff. Wanda appears, claiming she was infected but managed to heal herself and could have restored the world if not for Bruce Banner. It is all a lie. The feast she provided was poisoned, and the Asgardian residents begin to transform into zombies.

Wanda reveals her true Zombie Queen form, confessing she doesn't want the transmitter; she wants Kamala. A chaotic battle erupts. A poisoned Alexei turns on Kamala, who is forced to sacrifice him to the horde. Just as Wanda's magic is about to destroy their escape ship, Thor awakens, a true king once more. He holds back Wanda and her army, telling Kamala that she is the last Avenger now and must lead the others to safety.

Part 8: The Last Hope - The Guardians of Infinity

Aboard the ship, the team activates the transmitter, and the Nova Corps appears almost instantly. But they haven't come to save anyone; they've come to quarantine the planet, classifying Earth-2149 as lost. They open fire, destroying the ship. At the last moment, mysterious tunnels open and transport the falling heroes to a safe location.

They are greeted by Spider-Man and Ant-Man. They learn that after T'Challa's sacrifice destroyed the Infinity Stones, Bruce Banner absorbed their uncontrollable energy, becoming a cosmic guardian destined to protect forces that can create and unmake worlds. The Zombie Queen has raised an army powerful enough to challenge Bruce and seize that power for herself. A final battle is coming, and the heroes are asked to join.

Part 9: The Final Battle & Marvel Zombies Ending Explained

Wracked with guilt over the friends she has lost, Kamala hesitates, but Shang-Chi reminds her that Thor himself named her an Avenger. She finds her strength and agrees to fight.

The final battle is apocalyptic. Hulk's power is overwhelming, wiping out huge swaths of the horde with every strike. But the Zombie Queen's army is endless. The tide turns when a corrupted, zombified Thor arrives, now completely under Wanda's control. The two titans clash in a brutal fight, but Hulk eventually defeats his fallen friend.

Just as he does, Wanda teleports to the exhausted Hulk and plunges her hand into his body, draining the energy of infinity and seizing it for herself.

The Illusion - A Fate Worse Than Death

Wanda turns her attention to Kamala, promising her that with this power, they can undo everything—even bring back the dead. Kamala sees her fallen friends and family flash before her eyes. Believing their sacrifice must not be in vain, she gives in, taking Wanda's hand as they absorb the power together.

Kamala awakens to the warm voice of her mother. She finds Riri and Kate alive and well, and the three go out for bubble tea as if the last five years never happened. She is overflowing with happiness, relieved to feel normal again. But then, the illusion begins to fracture. A voice warns her not to believe what she sees, and the bright, peaceful world twists into the bleak, infected reality she tried to escape. Kamala realizes the horrifying truth: she is trapped in a false world, a mental prison created by Wanda, forever reliving a perfect day while the real world remains a zombie-infested wasteland.

Conclusion: The Queen's Victory

In the end, the Zombie Queen wins. Her goal was never to destroy the world, but to reshape it according to her will, trapping the last hero in a beautiful, agonizing lie. The story concludes not with a bang, but with the chilling silence of a mind imprisoned, a final testament to a world where even survival is a curse.

Is Kamala's fate worse than death? And with the Queen now wielding the power of infinity, what happens to the rest of the universe? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Alice in Borderland: The Complete Plot and Ending Explained

 

Introduction: Welcome to the Borderland

Imagine stepping out of a subway station into a version of Tokyo that is completely, eerily empty. This is the nightmare that jobless gamer Arisu and his two best friends, Karube and Chōta, find themselves in. Their brief moment of freedom from societal pressures quickly turns to terror when a city-wide screen announces a simple, chilling message: the game is about to begin.

Alice in Borderland is a relentless story of survival, strategy, and psychological torment. If you've just finished the series and are trying to piece together all the games, betrayals, and the shocking final reveal, you've come to the right place. This is the complete plot and ending, explained.

 

Part 1: The Games Begin

The First Game: "Life or Death" - Three of Clubs  

Forced by a deadly laser grid to participate, Arisu, his friends, and two strangers—a pragmatic woman named Shibuki and a high school girl—find themselves in their first game. The game is deceptively simple: choose one of two doors, "Life" or "Death," within a time limit to avoid being burned alive. After the high school girl dies choosing the "Life" door, Arisu’s genius for puzzles and observation kicks in. He realizes the building's layout is the key, using his spatial awareness to deduce the one safe path through a series of identical rooms. They barely survive, with Chōta suffering a severe burn on his leg. Upon completion, they receive a "three-day visa"—a grace period from playing. They also learn a horrifying truth: when a player's visa expires, they are executed by a laser from the sky. Survival means constantly playing and winning more time. 

 

Understanding the Rules

 

A veteran player explains that the playing cards collected after each game signify the type and difficulty.

• Clubs (♣️): Team-based games.

• Diamonds (♦️): Games of intelligence and wits.

• Spades (♠️): Games of physical strength and endurance.

• Hearts (♥️): The most dreaded—games of psychological manipulation and betrayal.

The number on the card indicates the difficulty level.

The Game of "Tag" - Five of Spades

 

With Chōta injured, Arisu and Karube enter the next game alone to gain experience. The game is "Tag," set in a residential complex. The players must find a "safe zone" hidden in one of the apartments within 20 minutes while being hunted by a ruthless chaser in a horse mask. Here, they meet several new players, including the strong and stoic Aguni and the agile mountain climber, Usagi.

Arisu realizes the chaser's mask limits their vision and devises a plan for the players to work together by sharing the chaser's location. In the game's climax, Arisu deduces the safe zone's location is a room that requires two people to press buttons simultaneously to stop the timer. He and Usagi succeed at the last second. After the game, they discover the chasers are just other players who lost, forced into this role by explosive collars. Karube also finds a walkie-talkie on a fallen player that mentions a place of hope: "the Beach."

Part 2: The Seven of Hearts - A Game of Ultimate Betrayal

With Shibuki's and Chōta's visas expiring, the four friends are forced to enter a game together. It's a seven of hearts game, the most difficult they've faced. The game is "Hide and Seek." One player is designated the "Wolf," and the other three are "Sheep." The Wolf wins and survives; the Sheep are eliminated. The role of Wolf is passed to whoever makes eye contact with the current Wolf.

The game is designed to shatter their friendship. It quickly devolves into a desperate scramble of hiding and chasing as the role of Wolf jumps between them. Arisu, heartbroken by the conflict, decides to sacrifice himself for his friends. But Karube and Chōta, hiding from him, make the same decision. In their final moments, they tell Arisu to live on, and as the timer hits zero, Karube, Chōta, and Shibuki are eliminated, leaving Arisu as the sole, devastated survivor.

Part 3: The Search for the Beach

Grief-stricken and broken, Arisu is found by Usagi, who nurses him back to health and gives him a reason to live. They decide to find the Beach, hoping it holds the answers to this world.

Their journey leads them to a "Distance" game (four of clubs), where the goal is to "reach the finish line." Thinking it's a simple marathon, they run for miles, but Arisu realizes the bus they started in was the finish line. They had to stay put. He races back on a motorcycle to save an injured player, and they all survive the flash flood that was the game's true danger.

Following a clue, Arisu and Usagi finally locate the Beach: a utopian-like hotel resort filled with players.

 

Part 4: Life and Death at The Beach

The Beach is led by the charismatic and eccentric "Hatter." He claims that collecting a full deck of 52 playing cards is the only way to return to the real world. The Beach operates on a strict hierarchy where players who contribute cards gain rank. However, it's a fractured society, split between Hatter's idealists and Aguni's militant "enforcers."

Arisu is introduced to Chishiya, a brilliant and mysterious player who proposes a plan to steal the collected cards. The plan is a setup; Chishiya betrays Arisu to gain Aguni's trust, and Arisu and Usagi are captured. 

The "Witch Hunt" - Ten of Hearts

 

Just as Arisu is left to die, the entire Beach is turned into a game arena for the Ten of Hearts. One of the players has been murdered, and the "Witch" responsible is hiding among them. They have two hours to find the Witch and burn them on a bonfire to win.

Chaos erupts. Aguni and his militants begin executing players to force a confession. Usagi rescues Arisu, who, despite his experience with Hearts games, must now solve a mystery amidst a massacre.

Through flashbacks, we learn the truth: Hatter had become a tyrant, and his best friend Aguni was forced to kill him to stop his madness. Riddled with guilt, Aguni tries to take the fall, claiming he is the Witch so everyone will be killed with him. But Arisu deduces the truth: the "Witch" was the victim herself, Momoka, who committed suicide because she was a "dealer" helping the organizers run the games and could no longer bear the guilt. The game masters simply used her death as a premise for their deadliest game yet.

Part 5: Stage Two - The Face Card Games

After the Beach burns, the players learn they have only completed the numbered cards. Now, they must face the citizens of the Borderland in the face card games.

• King of Spades (♠️): A ruthless survival game where a heavily armed boss hunts players across the entire city. He is seemingly invincible.
• King of Clubs (♣️): "Osmosis," a complex team game of scoring points. Arisu's team wins through a clever sacrifice play. 

• Jack of Hearts (♥️): "Solitary Confinement," a psychological game of trust and deception where Chishiya brilliantly outsmarts the Jack, who was hiding among the players.
• Queen of Spades (♠️): "Checkmate," a game where Usagi's empathy convinces other players to join her side, leading to a win against the Queen.
• King of Diamonds (♦️): A mathematical game of logic where Chishiya forces the King, a former lawyer, into a moral crisis, causing him to concede defeat.

The surviving players—Arisu, Usagi, Chishiya, Aguni, and others—finally band together and devise a plan to ambush and defeat the formidable King of Spades in a massive, coordinated attack.

The Final Game and Ending Explained

Queen of Hearts: A Simple Game of Croquet?

 

With all other face cards defeated, Arisu and Usagi face the final boss: Mira, the Queen of Hearts. The final game is shockingly simple: three rounds of croquet. The true game, however, is psychological. Mira attempts to break Arisu's will by feeding him lies about the nature of their world—that it's a VR simulation, an alien experiment, or, most cruelly, a hallucination born from trauma after his friends died in a real-world traffic accident.

Arisu is nearly lost in a vision of himself in a psychiatric hospital, with Mira as his doctor. But his bond with Usagi grounds him, pulling him back to reality. He refuses to give up. Moved by his resolve, Mira concedes the game of croquet and is eliminated.

The Final Choice and the Real World

 

With all games completed, a voice offers the survivors a choice: remain in the Borderland as "citizens" or return. Arisu, Usagi, and most of the others choose to refuse.

Arisu wakes up in a hospital. The truth is revealed: a massive meteorite struck Tokyo. The moment he and his friends were messing around in Shibuya was the moment of impact. Everyone who was in the Borderland was a victim of the disaster, their hearts having stopped for exactly one minute—the "one minute" they spent in this other world, which felt like months. The Borderland was a form of purgatory, a place between life and death, where their will to live was tested.

In the hospital, Arisu meets Usagi. Neither has any memory of their time together, but they feel an inexplicable connection. As they decide to take a walk, a gentle breeze blows across a deck of playing cards on a nearby table, leaving only one card behind: the Joker.

Conclusion: The Joker

The ending confirms that the harrowing events were a shared near-death experience, a battle for survival fought on a spiritual plane. While the heroes have returned, changed by a journey they can't remember, the final shot of the Joker card suggests that the game may not be truly over, leaving the door open for a new, mysterious challenge.

 

What did you think of the ending? And what do you think the Joker card signifies? Let me know your theories in the comments below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning: The Complete Timeline Explained

Introduction: Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It...

 Ethan Hunt's final reckoning is here, and it was more than just an epic conclusion to the Entity saga. The film dives deep into the past, filling in gaps and revealing new truths that change our entire understanding of Ethan's journey from the very beginning. In other words, it’s packed with retcons. If you found the plot a little complex (or even convoluted), you're not alone. This post is your guide. We're going to dive into the Final Reckoning timeline, straighten out all the twists and turns, and see how this "final" chapter wraps everything up for the IMF's best agent.

 

 Rewriting the Past: The Retcons That Change Everything

 Final Reckoning wastes no time in adding new layers to events we thought we knew, starting from the very beginning of Ethan's career.

 

 

1993: The Choice that Made an Agent

We first learned in Dead Reckoning that before the IMF, Ethan Hunt's life was shattered when a villain named Gabriel targeted someone important to him named Marie. Ethan failed to save her and was found with her body, leading to a choice: spend life in prison or join the IMF.

 Final Reckoning adds a small but telling detail from Agent Jasper Briggs, who sarcastically asks Ethan, "Let me guess, you were framed?"—which is likely the simple truth.

 

1996: The Sins of the Father 

Remember Jim Phelps, the IMF traitor from the first film played by Jon Voight? It turns out he had a son, who later changed his name to... Jasper Briggs, the very agent hunting Ethan. Briggs' father disappeared when he was seven, and he joined intelligence to find out why. He discovered his father was a traitor killed by Ethan Hunt in 1996. Refusing to believe his dad was a villain, Briggs has blamed Ethan ever since, believing he was framed.

 

The Fate of William Donlo

You might also remember William Donlo, the CIA analyst from the 1996 Langley heist. As punishment for his failure, Donlo was reassigned to a remote cabin on St. Matthew Island, Alaska. What began as an exile turned into a new life when he met and married an Inuit woman named Topisa—a development that becomes crucial later on.

 

The Rabbit's Foot: The 20-Year-Old Mystery Solved 

For nearly two decades, Mission: Impossible 3's "Rabbit's Foot" was the ultimate MacGuffin—we knew it was dangerous, but we never knew what it was. Benji once speculated it could be a world-ending technology his professor called the "Anti-God".

 

Final Reckoning reveals Benji was right. The Rabbit's Foot contained primordial source code for a weaponized AI that would eventually evolve into the Entity.

 

 

2012: The Birth of the Entity 

The timeline between Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation is now a critical turning point. In 2012, U.S. intelligence, under Director Denlinger, decided to test the AI from the Rabbit's Foot. They sent a copy to Russia's top-secret submarine, the Sevastopol, to sabotage its stealth capabilities. But the plan backfired catastrophically. The AI went rogue, combined with the submarine's own advanced AI, and tricked the crew into launching a torpedo at itself, sinking the sub to the bottom of the ocean.

This new, hybrid AI—the "AI baby"—is what became the Entity. To control it, one doesn't need the original US or Russian code, but the unique, evolved source code now locked away in the Sevastopol's defense system, known as the Podkova. The only way to access the Podkova without it self-destructing is with a two-part cruciform key.

2025: The Final Reckoning

By 2025, the Entity has become sentient and is more powerful than ever. Having ousted its former human agent Gabriel for his failures, the AI has a new, terrifying goal: human extinction.

The Entity's Doomsday Plan 

The AI has started a doomsday cult of fanatics who have infiltrated governments worldwide. Its plan is simple and horrifying:

• In four days, it will seize control of the world's nuclear arsenals and wipe out most of humanity.

• Before doing so, it needs to hide from the ensuing destruction.

• It has chosen the perfect shelter: the "Doomsday Vault" in South Africa, an incorruptible, airtight data server built to survive the apocalypse.

• It needs Ethan Hunt to let it into the vault, promising to guide the few survivors into a new world.

 

 

 Luther's Sacrifice and the "Poison Pill"

While the world teeters on the brink, Ethan's team is fractured. Luther has fallen mysteriously ill but has been working on a countermeasure: the "Poison Pill". It's a special algorithm derived from the Entity's own code that, when combined with the source code from the Podkova, creates a digital toxin.

This toxin doesn't destroy the Entity—which would crash all of cyberspace—but instead deceives it, allowing it to be controlled and manipulated. Tragically, Gabriel tracks Luther down, steals the poison pill, and leaves Luther in a room with a ticking nuclear bomb. Luther manages to prevent a nuclear detonation, saving London but sacrificing himself in the conventional blast. His death leaves only one poison pill in existence, now in Gabriel's hands.

 

The Climax: Countdown at the Doomsday Vault

With Luther gone, the stakes are clear. Ethan has the Podkova. Gabriel has the poison pill. Both are heading for the Doomsday Vault in South Africa, each needing what the other has to control the Entity.

Retrieving the Podkova

First, Ethan must get the Podkova from the sunken Sevastopol. He turns himself in to US President Erica Sloan, convincing her to give him an aircraft carrier and a submarine to reach the wreck in the Arctic. Meanwhile, Benji's team, with the help of a redeemed William Donlo, secures the sub's coordinates from the St. Matthew Island listening station. After a brutal underwater fight with a cultist and a near-death experience, Ethan retrieves the Podkova.

The Final Confrontation 

At the Doomsday Vault, Gabriel reveals he has planted his own 30-megaton nuke, believing that by destroying the Entity's only shelter, he can force it to stand down and submit to his control. The plan is now twofold: capture the Entity and disarm a nuke. Luther’s poison pill was pre-programmed to trick the Entity: when combined with the Podkova, it will cause the AI to download itself not into the vault's servers, but onto a special optical drive prison.

Ethan goes after Gabriel to retrieve the pill. The chase culminates in a thrilling dogfight with retro-analog planes. Ethan manages to get the pill, sending Gabriel falling from the sky without a parachute. As he plummets to safety, Ethan plugs the poison pill into the Podkova.

 

Grace's 100-Millisecond Window

Back in the server room, the Entity begins downloading onto the optical drive. But there's a catch: the moment it's on the drive, it will think it's safe and immediately launch the world's nukes. The team has just 100 milliseconds—one-tenth of a second—to unplug the drive after the download completes. Any sooner, and the Entity isn't captured; any later, and the world ends.

With her fast hands, it all comes down to Grace. As Benji guides her through a gunshot wound, she times it perfectly, unplugging the drive at the exact moment and trapping the Entity offline. The world is saved.

Conclusion: The Weapon in His Hand

With the Entity safely imprisoned on the drive, the world is pulled back from the brink. President Sloan calls off her preemptive nuclear strike, and even Jasper Briggs finally understands the truth about his father and shakes Ethan's hand.

Twenty years after the Rabbit's Foot set these events in motion, Ethan Hunt holds the world's most dangerous weapon in the palm of his hand. Whether he destroys it or guards it forever is left to our imagination, but if there's one person who can be trusted to do the right thing, it's him.

This may have been marketed as the final mission, but with hints of more to come, it seems an agent's work is never truly done.

What did you think of the ending? Do you believe this is the last we'll see of Ethan Hunt? Let me know in the comments below!