Back in Action Ending, Explained: Is Chuck Dead?

Netflix’s action thriller, ‘Back in Action,’ follows the story of Matt and Emily, who live a normal life with their normal family. They drop their kids to school, keep an eye on them and their lies, and go about things as normally as possible. However, no one knows that they harbor a dark secret. Before they chose to settle down in the suburbs, they worked as spies for the CIA. They were among the best and were on a very important mission, which went awry and gave them the window to escape. Fifteen years pass as they live comfortably, even if they struggle to get their teenage kids to open up to them, but that’s not the worst thing to happen to them.

A minor fight at a bar, where they find their underage daughter drinking with her friends, leads to a video of them going viral. This attracts the attention of the people who have been looking for them all these years. When they are found, Matt and Emily quickly realize that they must secure their children and find a way to deal with their enemies so that they can go back to their normal lives. It all comes down to the Key, which is what their last mission was all about.

They were supposed to deliver the Key to their boss, Chuck, but when the crash happened, they chose not to go back. With the Key’s whereabouts in the wind for fifteen years, Matt and Emily’s reappearance opens the window for all interested parties to find them. Through the couple, they hope to find the Key that can give them unimaginable power. While Matt and Emily figure out a way to save their family while also keeping the Key from falling into the wrong hands, they first have to deal with the shock of being betrayed by a person they thought they could trust. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Is Chuck Dead or Alive?

When their cover is blown, Chuck- Matt and Emily’s former co-worker at the CIA- is the first to find them. He knocks at their door as if walking up to an old friend, and the first thing he talks about is the Key. He wants them to turn it over before it falls into the wrong hands, but before the conversation can be resolved, he is shot dead, or so it seems. Days later, when Matt and Emily are hiding out at her mother’s place in Foxhound Manor, the bad guys storm the place having been tipped off by someone. At first, it seems that Baron may be the one who gave up their location, but then Chuck appears out of nowhere.

It seems that Chuck’s career took a huge hit after Matt and Emily’s plane crash. They were supposed dead, but at the same time, the question of the Key remained, and because it wasn’t retrieved from the crash site, Chuck’s mission was labelled a failure. With two of his best agents disappearing into thin air at once, he was demoted and sent out to the pasture, so to speak. From here, things only got worse for him, and he had to make do with whatever he had. Eventually, when he found out that Matt and Emily weren’t just alive and well but were also living a very normal, suburban life with their kids, he found the opportunity to rectify the situation.

Blaming the duo for his downfall, Chuck decided to get the Key from them, which would get him a lot of money as he could easily sell it to the highest bidder. At the same time, he would also get to ruin Matt and Emily’s life and get revenge in the process. In the end, his idea of selling the Key is ruined when the couple crashes his party. He is forced to run away from the scene, and the chase ends with him on a boat that crashes into the Thames barrier. The explosion makes it look like Chuck is gone for good, but then, a twist arrives.

In the final scene, when Baron shows up in Matt and Emily’s car, he reveals that Chuck’s body hasn’t been found. Considering that he had faked his death once, the agency doesn’t want to take any chances with him anymore. Because they haven’t seen a dead body yet, it is fair to assume that Chuck may have somehow survived the ordeal. It might seem impossible at first, but then, the opening scene of the movie has Emily and Matt surviving a plane crash that should have killed any normal human being.

With this in mind, it is smart to side with Baron and believe that Chuck may not yet be completely out of the picture. This also means the danger is still lurking on Matt and Emily as now, he has even more motivation to destroy their lives. They have already ruined his twice, so there is some balancing of the scales that needs to happen. There is no doubt that Chuck will find a way to come back and haunt them, which is why perhaps Baron shows up, asking for Emily’s help.

Who is Emily’s Father? Why Does Baron Want to Find Him?

There are two reasons for Baron to find Emily and Matt. Well, not exactly Matt. Baron is more focused on Emily, and there is a good reason for that. The first reason is to warn her about Chuck’s survival so she and her husband are not caught out of the blue and are prepared for all possibilities. The other reason is her connection with someone that Baron wants to recruit. When he mentions this, Emily’s mind goes straight to her mother, and she assures Baron that she will talk to Ginny about it. But then, Baron corrects her, revealing that it isn’t her mother that he wants to recruit. It’s her father.

The fact that this is the first time that Emily’s father is mentioned in the film makes it even more interesting. Throughout the film, we hear about her and Matt’s exploits as CIA agents. Then, we find out about Ginny Curtis and her colorful past with the British secret services and how her career as a spy impacted her relationship with Emily. We also find out that Ginny continues to be relevant to the administration because she knows too much, which is why she is protected. This shows how deep she dug into the secrets of some of the most important people, and it makes sense why Baron or any other spy agency would want her.

Extrapolating from Ginny’s career, we can only imagine what her ex-husband would have been like. Because Emily never mentions him, it seems that she has been on even worse terms with him than her mother. The fact that she didn’t speak to Matt about him shows how much she wants her father to stay out of her life. And this is what makes the possibility of his return to her life, especially now that she has a family of her own, even more interesting.

What makes things more curious is why Baron would come looking for him specifically. Both Ginny and Emily have been top-tier spies. Baron demanding Emily’s father shows that the man has had an even more interesting career as a spy, even if he hasn’t been a very good family man. Mentioning him in the final scene creates a compelling tease that will pull viewers back to the world of ‘Back in Action,’ setting up the next film in the series quite neatly.

What Happened to the Key? Who Has It?

All the problems in ‘Back in Action’ can be traced to one thing: the Key. It is introduced in the opening scene and is described as the key that opens all doors. The program allows its users to access anything in the world, no matter how heavily protected it might be. What makes it an incredibly potent weapon is the ease with which it allows its users to access things relating to infrastructure. With the Key, a person can cut off water, electricity, transport, and every other essential facility required to keep the society up and running. If one can shut down entire cities with one command, they have all the power they need, which is what makes the Key so important.

When the crash happens, Matt has two options. He could leave the Key on the site and leave it for the CIA to find it. Or, he could keep and hide it for the eventuality when his and Emily’s past as spies comes back to haunt them. He hopes that it will never happen, but he has to prepare for the worst. He keeps it a secret from Emily because he doesn’t want to put her in danger and stashes it away in the last place she’d ever want to visit: her mother’s house. With Ginny being a veteran and under heavy protection, he knows that the Key will stay safe until he comes back to get it. And lo and behold, fifteen years later, his worst fears come true.

Matt’s plan was to use the Key as leverage, but then Chuck waltzes in and takes it away from him. He plans to sell it to the highest bidder and holds an exclusive auction where he invites all the parties that he knows will drive the price of the Key higher. Sure enough, he finds someone who is ready to pay $250 million for it. When the bid happens, Chuck keeps the Key hidden, giving it to his operative, who uses it to show the bidders what the program is capable of. So, even when Matt and Emily find him and chase after him, the Key is still out of their reach.

Eventually, Nigel finds Chuck’s operative whom he notices leaving a different building. To stop her, he crashes into her vehicle with his car, rendering her unconscious. He proceeds to take over the Key, using which he closes the barriers of the Thames to save the city. From here, the Key is taken over by the authorities, most likely the British intelligence, as the whole thing takes place in their territory. It is unclear what they plan to do with it, but it is fair to assume that they haven’t destroyed it as it is too powerful a thing to waste like that. This means that the Key is still around, and it could still come into the picture, which means that Matt and Emily might have to come back from their second retirement to save the world, this time, joined by Emily’s father.

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