This article discusses the Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse ending, so it will contain major spoilers.
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As you probably know from watching the trailer and the film, in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan’s John Clark is about to have a very bad day. The elite Navy seal is married (Lauren London), and it’s time to settle down to raise a family. The problem is that at his last job he and his team were misled by a CIA operative (Jamie Bell). They thought they were grabbing an asset controlled by Syrian forces. Instead, it was the Russian military and they won’t pay them back. They storm the States and take out everyone except Clark and Greer, even Clark’s pregnant wife, Pam. Greer’s mentor, Secretary of Defense Clay (Guy Pearce), tries to help them, but Clark has other plans. Does he get his revenge?
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse ending explained
After obtaining the name (Rykov) of the surviving Russian operative who killed his family (and being jailed in the process for killing a Russian diplomat), Clark has his eyes on Ritter. He immediately blames Ritter for being behind the conspiracy. Clark berates him and threatens his life, but convinces him that he had nothing to do with it. They locate Rykov, but a sniper and the Murmansk police force show up. It’s all a set-up. The sniper takes out the cops, and tries to kill American soldiers so they are found by Russian officials. Rykov turns out to be a CIA agent and does not have the slightest Russian accent. He promptly blows himself up before explaining that those left behind in Washington D.C. are not the only true patriots.
Clark, Greer, and Ritter all escape by boat. Ritter tells his foe that there is a bag of money at the bottom of the ship. He can take it and run. Ritter will let everyone know he died and the body could never be recovered. Clark though shows up in D.C. to get the real man behind it all. It was Clay that he had to ghost to get the information he needed, setting him up to reveal he knew who Rykov was the entire time.
He manages to choke Clay, drag him to his car, and finally the exposed bad guy explains the United States needed a big enemy. Just like the Soviet Union to unify people to build their economy. Clark then asks him to say his wife’s name, but he refuses. So, naturally the next step is to drive off a bridge and into a river, killing them both and getting his revenge.
Except it wasn’t that way at all. Oh, sure, Clay was killed. But Clark watched his own funeral from a distance in Greer’s car. Then, after the credits roll, Clark meets Ritter, who already gave him a new identity. He is the new director of the CIA and they form a professional relationship, creating a premise for a sequel when Clark requests to head up a multinational terrorist team. He wants to call it…. Rainbow.
You know, I just might guess there will be six people on the team when the sequel comes out.
