Warning: Full spoilers to follow for Sony’s Uncharted. If you’re wondering if the movie has an end credits scene: it does! There are two, actually. One is near the beginning of the credits, and the other is in the middle, so be sure to stick around.
After it’s long and impressive journey to the silver screen, Uncharted is finally here. With Tom Holland starring as a much younger Nathan Drake, Uncharted serves as more of a prequel or origin story than anything we’ve seen in the games. As such, Drake’s dynamics with other major players like Mark Wahlberg’s Sully and Sophia Ali’s Chloe Frazer play out a little differently than game fans may be used to.
Thankfully, Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer sat down with us to break down the story, the supernatural elements from the game that didn’t make it into the film, and the giant mustache in the room.
As the trailers have indicated, there’s a lot of Uncharted still going on here. The homages to franchises like Indiana Jones are on full display as well. So much so that we wanted to get Fleischer’s take on the challenges of having treasure hunters as the protagonists instead of, say, an archeologist that just wants to get these artifacts into a museum where they belong. Obviously, there’s a word of difference between historians and thieves.
“Well, I think that they're treasure hunters. I don't know if I'd necessarily label them as thieves, per se,” the director explained. “They don't end up with [most of] the gold. The treasure's returned to where it belongs, which is the people from whom it was once taken, so I think, in the end, everybody wins. Nate gets a taste for adventure. Sully gets to have a little bit of gold, and the audience, hopefully, had an exciting adventure play out before them.”
What Fleischer is talking about here is the very end of the film. After Nathan discovers that Sully is more of a cad than expected and Chloe can’t be trusted no matter how he feels about her, he manages to find the clue his long-lost brother Sam left for him in his postcards. The compass found in the two crosses takes the newly minted adventurer right to the treasure — which actually ends up being double the size that the legends said it would be.
By this point, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) has murdered her employer Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and taken over his team of miscreants so they can acquire the gold for themselves. While this in and of itself is a more exciting prospect than Moncada taking “his” money and paying his contractors scraps, it also means a heightened danger for Uncharted’s protagonists. Braddock is much more shrewd than Moncada, a fact that is made much clearer when she finds herself on Nate’s trail immediately after he finds his true course.
Of course, Sully manages to stumble across Nate’s path as well, but this is more due to sheer luck and poor Nate’s trusting nature rather than the thief being overly capable.
Sully, Nate, and Braddock and her cronies coming together in the third act is the catalyst for that impressive midair pirate ship battle we’ve seen in the trailers. The heli-lifted ships swing through the air as friend and foe swashbuckle their way through the climax in an attempt to be sure they’re the ones who make it home with the fabled gold.
With huge moments like this, it’s easy to question if lesser moments may have ended up on the cutting room floor, but Fleischer confirmed that very few things got axed from the film, game-related or otherwise. (Sorry, y’all. No Fleischer cut!)
“We had a pretty high conversion rate from that which was shot to that which ended up in the movie,” he said. “There's not a ton of material that didn't make its way into the finished version of the film, and certainly nothing that I can think of that was a direct reference to the video games.”
Speaking of callbacks to the games, some fans may notice that there’s a considerable lack of supernatural elements in Uncharted despite their prevalence in the games themselves. Though some thought they may simply be saving the mystical as a reveal for the film itself, no such magical moment makes its way into Drake and Sully’s adventure. And, while this film does basically serve as a prequel-y kind of origin story, don’t expect those elements to show up in future sequels unless something groundbreaking makes its way to the creative team.
“I find that, from my own personal taste, I get taken out of it a little bit when the supernatural is introduced in what is otherwise a pretty grounded reality,” Fleischer said of the lack of supernatural elements in this first chapter of Uncharted. “My preference would be to keep it grounded in reality and avoid a supernatural component. But, that being said, if it was the right idea and it was really compelling, I’d consider it. Anything we can do to make the movies as satisfying and exciting as possible for audiences, we'll pursue it. But I like the way that this plays in a world that we can relate to as our own reality.
The first post-credits scene we see actually occurs right as the credits begin to roll. The camera pans down a hallway of a stone prison before shifting into a cell where we see a disheveled Sam writing another postcard to his brother, Nate. On the card is a warning in regards to who Nate trusts, but we don’t currently know whether this pertains to Sully or some foe we’re yet to meet. Given that Sully and Nate’s relationship in the games is much less antagonistic than the origins we see laid out in the film, fans can likely expect to see someone else enter our sweet, trusting Nate’s life with ulterior motives in future chapters of the story.
The second scene comes at the mid-credits point and has a little bit for both game superfans and casual viewers alike. Nate finds himself in a meeting gone wrong with a man in an eyepatch named Gage (Pilou Asbæk). Nate’s seeking out an old Nazi map, but what may be most interesting to fans of the franchise is that Gage is working for a man named Roman, who it feels pretty safe to assume will be Gabriel Roman — the primary antagonist from the first Uncharted game.
Whatever’s on the Roman crony’s map is worth a lot to Nathan Drake, as he’s willing to trade his brother’s prized ring to get it. He doesn’t let go of the ring for very long, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. What this trade-off (and villain reveal) means is that we can expect Uncharted 2, should such a thing ever occur, to follow Nate and Sully as they seek out the gold of one Francis Drake. Yes, the surname is intentional. According to Sam, he and Nate are descendents of Francis. But it’s likely that Roman isn’t tailing them because of some misguided belief that Francis Drake’s fortune belongs to him. In the games, Gabriel Roman follows the two treasure hunters because Sully owes him money. Which, y’know… tracks.
Speaking of Sully, guess who shows up at the last possible second to save Nate’s tail after Gage and his henchmen get the drop on the younger of the two unlikely heroes in this scene? Turns out Mr. Whiskers (Sully’s new feline friend) needs special papers to get on an airplane, and Sully finally has some whiskers of his own — the famed Sully mustache.
When asked about the giant mustache in the room, Fleischer had an explanation as to why the much beloved facial hair wasn’t in the majority of the movie.
“I think it was a combination of the script and that Mark didn't have it yet. This movie's meant to be a precursor to the adventures that are featured in the video games,” the director explains. “In the reality of our films, it's something that he adopts down the road from when we first meet him. Our preference was just to have it be a real satisfying payoff at the end the film and not something that we have to see throughout the film, and it's a really great moment when it is introduced. And as far as future films, I would think that he would keep it, but ultimately, I guess that'd be Mark Wahlberg's decision. But I would hope that Victor Sullivan, from this point forward, has a mustache.”
What did you think of Uncharted and its post-credits scenes? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Some quotes edited for clarity.
Amelia is a Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers, or across social @ThatWitchMia.
Continue reading...
After it’s long and impressive journey to the silver screen, Uncharted is finally here. With Tom Holland starring as a much younger Nathan Drake, Uncharted serves as more of a prequel or origin story than anything we’ve seen in the games. As such, Drake’s dynamics with other major players like Mark Wahlberg’s Sully and Sophia Ali’s Chloe Frazer play out a little differently than game fans may be used to.
Thankfully, Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer sat down with us to break down the story, the supernatural elements from the game that didn’t make it into the film, and the giant mustache in the room.
Uncharted Plot and Ending Explained
As the trailers have indicated, there’s a lot of Uncharted still going on here. The homages to franchises like Indiana Jones are on full display as well. So much so that we wanted to get Fleischer’s take on the challenges of having treasure hunters as the protagonists instead of, say, an archeologist that just wants to get these artifacts into a museum where they belong. Obviously, there’s a word of difference between historians and thieves.
“Well, I think that they're treasure hunters. I don't know if I'd necessarily label them as thieves, per se,” the director explained. “They don't end up with [most of] the gold. The treasure's returned to where it belongs, which is the people from whom it was once taken, so I think, in the end, everybody wins. Nate gets a taste for adventure. Sully gets to have a little bit of gold, and the audience, hopefully, had an exciting adventure play out before them.”
What Fleischer is talking about here is the very end of the film. After Nathan discovers that Sully is more of a cad than expected and Chloe can’t be trusted no matter how he feels about her, he manages to find the clue his long-lost brother Sam left for him in his postcards. The compass found in the two crosses takes the newly minted adventurer right to the treasure — which actually ends up being double the size that the legends said it would be.
By this point, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) has murdered her employer Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and taken over his team of miscreants so they can acquire the gold for themselves. While this in and of itself is a more exciting prospect than Moncada taking “his” money and paying his contractors scraps, it also means a heightened danger for Uncharted’s protagonists. Braddock is much more shrewd than Moncada, a fact that is made much clearer when she finds herself on Nate’s trail immediately after he finds his true course.
Of course, Sully manages to stumble across Nate’s path as well, but this is more due to sheer luck and poor Nate’s trusting nature rather than the thief being overly capable.
Sully, Nate, and Braddock and her cronies coming together in the third act is the catalyst for that impressive midair pirate ship battle we’ve seen in the trailers. The heli-lifted ships swing through the air as friend and foe swashbuckle their way through the climax in an attempt to be sure they’re the ones who make it home with the fabled gold.
With huge moments like this, it’s easy to question if lesser moments may have ended up on the cutting room floor, but Fleischer confirmed that very few things got axed from the film, game-related or otherwise. (Sorry, y’all. No Fleischer cut!)
“We had a pretty high conversion rate from that which was shot to that which ended up in the movie,” he said. “There's not a ton of material that didn't make its way into the finished version of the film, and certainly nothing that I can think of that was a direct reference to the video games.”
Speaking of callbacks to the games, some fans may notice that there’s a considerable lack of supernatural elements in Uncharted despite their prevalence in the games themselves. Though some thought they may simply be saving the mystical as a reveal for the film itself, no such magical moment makes its way into Drake and Sully’s adventure. And, while this film does basically serve as a prequel-y kind of origin story, don’t expect those elements to show up in future sequels unless something groundbreaking makes its way to the creative team.
“I find that, from my own personal taste, I get taken out of it a little bit when the supernatural is introduced in what is otherwise a pretty grounded reality,” Fleischer said of the lack of supernatural elements in this first chapter of Uncharted. “My preference would be to keep it grounded in reality and avoid a supernatural component. But, that being said, if it was the right idea and it was really compelling, I’d consider it. Anything we can do to make the movies as satisfying and exciting as possible for audiences, we'll pursue it. But I like the way that this plays in a world that we can relate to as our own reality.
Uncharted Post Credits Scene
The first post-credits scene we see actually occurs right as the credits begin to roll. The camera pans down a hallway of a stone prison before shifting into a cell where we see a disheveled Sam writing another postcard to his brother, Nate. On the card is a warning in regards to who Nate trusts, but we don’t currently know whether this pertains to Sully or some foe we’re yet to meet. Given that Sully and Nate’s relationship in the games is much less antagonistic than the origins we see laid out in the film, fans can likely expect to see someone else enter our sweet, trusting Nate’s life with ulterior motives in future chapters of the story.
The second scene comes at the mid-credits point and has a little bit for both game superfans and casual viewers alike. Nate finds himself in a meeting gone wrong with a man in an eyepatch named Gage (Pilou Asbæk). Nate’s seeking out an old Nazi map, but what may be most interesting to fans of the franchise is that Gage is working for a man named Roman, who it feels pretty safe to assume will be Gabriel Roman — the primary antagonist from the first Uncharted game.
Whatever’s on the Roman crony’s map is worth a lot to Nathan Drake, as he’s willing to trade his brother’s prized ring to get it. He doesn’t let go of the ring for very long, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. What this trade-off (and villain reveal) means is that we can expect Uncharted 2, should such a thing ever occur, to follow Nate and Sully as they seek out the gold of one Francis Drake. Yes, the surname is intentional. According to Sam, he and Nate are descendents of Francis. But it’s likely that Roman isn’t tailing them because of some misguided belief that Francis Drake’s fortune belongs to him. In the games, Gabriel Roman follows the two treasure hunters because Sully owes him money. Which, y’know… tracks.
Speaking of Sully, guess who shows up at the last possible second to save Nate’s tail after Gage and his henchmen get the drop on the younger of the two unlikely heroes in this scene? Turns out Mr. Whiskers (Sully’s new feline friend) needs special papers to get on an airplane, and Sully finally has some whiskers of his own — the famed Sully mustache.
When asked about the giant mustache in the room, Fleischer had an explanation as to why the much beloved facial hair wasn’t in the majority of the movie.
“I think it was a combination of the script and that Mark didn't have it yet. This movie's meant to be a precursor to the adventures that are featured in the video games,” the director explains. “In the reality of our films, it's something that he adopts down the road from when we first meet him. Our preference was just to have it be a real satisfying payoff at the end the film and not something that we have to see throughout the film, and it's a really great moment when it is introduced. And as far as future films, I would think that he would keep it, but ultimately, I guess that'd be Mark Wahlberg's decision. But I would hope that Victor Sullivan, from this point forward, has a mustache.”
What did you think of Uncharted and its post-credits scenes? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Some quotes edited for clarity.
Amelia is a Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers, or across social @ThatWitchMia.
Continue reading...