‘Red Notice’ Ending Explained: Netflix’s Star-Studded Action Comedy Comes With Several Plot Twists

Warning: This article contains major Red Notice spoilers. Hopefully, you gathered as much from the headline.

Red Notice on Netflix cares less about the plot of the story than it does about setting up opportunities for Ryan Reynolds to dunk on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. All in all, that’s probably a smart move for the new Netflix action-comedy, which is clearly mostly about getting A-list stars like The Rock, Reynolds, and Gal Gadot on screen together.

The movie is written and directed Rawson Marshall Thurber, who recently wrote and directed The Rock in movies like Central Intelligence and Skyscraper, and who previously wrote and directed the popular 2004 comedy, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

As for Red Notice, this is not a movie that demands 100 percent of your attention. This is the kind of movie you watch while drinking beer with friends. So no one could blame you for losing the thread of the Red Notice plot by the movie’s end, especially because the Red Notice ending doesn’t try very hard to make sense.

Never fear, because Decider is here to help. Read on for the Red Notice plot summary and the Red Notice ending explained.

WHAT IS RED NOTICE ABOUT? RED NOTICE PLOT SUMMARY:

The movie begins with an educational video that summarizes the (entirely fictional) story of Cleopatra’s three eggs. According to the video—which, again, is not a true story and was made up entirely for the film—Marc Antony gave Cleopatra three bejeweled eggs on their wedding day. Supposedly, a farmer dug up two of the eggs in Cairo in 1907, but the third one remained a mystery. The first egg is in a museum in Rome, while the second egg is in someone’s private collection.

Just after this video, we see that a mysterious figure is forging a fake egg. Meanwhile, in Rome, FBI Agent John Hartley (Johnson) is working with Interpol Inspector Urvashi Das (Rita Arya) to apprehend the thief who stole Cleopatra’s first egg from the museum. Hartley eventually catches the thief, Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds), but the egg they confiscate from him turns out to be a fake. Inspector Das suspects Hartley might be behind it, so she calls the Bureau—turns out no one has heard of FBI Agent Hartley.

Hartley insists he’s being set up, but he gets sent to prison all the same. His cellmate turns out to be none other than Booth, aka Ryan Reynolds. Booth assumes that The Bishop—his rival criminal who ratted Booth out—framed Hartley. After a prison fight, both Hartley and Booth get called in for a meeting with the captain, who turns out to be the infamous criminal, The Bishop (Gal Gadot). She confesses to framing Hartley and gloats to Booth that she will soon steal the second egg. She then asks Booth to tell her where the third egg is because he is apparently the only one who knows its location.

Hartley and Booth hatch a plan to break out of prison and thwart The Bishop from stealing the second egg. Several action-heist shenanigans later, and eventually Booth tells Hartley that third egg is—and I’m not making this up—in “Hitler’s secret bunker” in Argentina. So they go there, they find the third egg, and of course, The Bishop followed them and finds it too. And so do the Interpol agents and law enforcement.

WHAT IS THE RED NOTICE PLOT TWIST? RED NOTICE ENDING EXPLAINED:

Hartley, Booth, and the Bishop all work together in a shoot-out with the law enforcement. The three of them manage to escape with the egg. But then, when Booth expects Hartley to arrest the Bishop and let him go, as per their agreement, something strange happens: Hartley kisses the Bishop instead. It turns out that Hartley is a criminal, not an FBI agent, and that he was working together with his lover/partner in crime in order to screw over Booth. They are both “the Bishop,” or as Hartley puts it, “There are two Bishops in chess.” Whaaaat!

Apparently, The Rock helped Gadot get the first two eggs, and the only way for them to get the third egg was to have Ryan Reynolds lead them to it. Now we get a little flashback of the hints you may have missed, like Hartley telling Booth he knows how to run a con, as well as moments we didn’t see, like The Bishop passing Hartley the key to the handcuffs in the scene where she electrocuted him “downtown.”

The Rock and Gadot sell all three eggs to some random Egyptian wealthy guy in Cairo to give to his daughter as a wedding present. (Bit out of left field, but sure.) But apparently, the criminal couple tipped off Interpol, and frame the father of the bride to take the fall for the stolen eggs.

But wait! These outrageous, non-sensical plot turns aren’t over yet. Six months later, The Rock and Gadot are on vacation on a boat in Sardina. Ryan Reynolds crashes their yacht to inform them that he escaped while being transported to prison. He also tells him that he tipped off Interpol Inspector Das about the bank account where The Rock and Gadot are storing the money that they got from the wealthy Egyptian father-of-the-bride. Interpol drained and froze their bank account, leaving The Rock and Gadot broke.

Then Ryan Reynolds tells them there is a “new score” that will be “double the payout, triple the challenge.” Also, if they don’t say yes, then Interpol is on their way to arrest them. Surprise, surprise, they take the job. The final shot of the film shows Gadot, The Rock, and Reynolds standing outside of The Louvre museum in Paris. We don’t know what it is they are stealing, but we do know a blatant attempt to set up a franchise when we see one!

In conclusion, the Red Notice ending logic in order to set up Red Notice 2. We’ll just have to wait and see if this strategy pays off for Netflix.

Watch Red Notice on Netflix