Old Guard fans hoping for closure in the sequel will be disappointed, as The Old Guard 2 ends with an even larger cliffhanger than its predecessor.

Victoria Mahoney steps in as director, following Gina Prince-Bythewood, who helmed the first Old Guard, inspired by Greg Rucka’s comic series. This sequel—now available on Netflix five years after the original—sees the return of the full cast, including Charlize Theron as Andy, the leader of the immortal superheroes. However, this time, Andy is no longer immortal.

If you need a refresher, consider reading Decider’s recap of the first film before diving into the sequel. Once you’ve watched the new movie, return here to express your thoughts on the unresolved storyline. Read on for a comprehensive analysis of The Old Guard 2 plot summary and its cliffhanger ending.

Warning: This article contains major The Old Guard 2 spoilers. Duh!

The Old Guard 2 plot summary:

The Old Guard 2 opens with our favorite group of immortals (led by Andy, who recently lost her immortality) on a mission to eliminate a man who just purchased a lot of illegal weapons. After a big car chase, a lot of gunfire, and several miraculous resurrections, they kill the bad guy and confiscate the weapons. Later, Copely (Chiwetel Ejiofor) reveals the guy they killed was not the buyer, he was just a pawn in the game. The real weapons buyer is a mystery woman, whose CCTV photo looks a lot like Uma Thurman. Hmm.

Nile recognizes the woman in the CCTV photo as a woman she’s seen in her dreams, visiting a man in a library, killing him, and stealing some of his books. Andy tells Nile not to worry about the dream—she’ll take care of it.

Meanwhile, we pick up where The Old Guard end credits scene left off: Quynh (Vân Veronica Ngô) pays a visit to Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) who was exiled from the Old Guard group for 100 years, as punishment for betraying them in the first movie. Booker was easy to find, because he’s been being drunk and messy. But Andy is less easy to find, and that’s what Quynh wants Booker to do for her. She’s pretty pissed that Andy, whom she assumed was also trapped somewhere, is in fact living freely and not looking for Quynh. Even though he insists he doesn’t know where Andy is, Quynh and her cronies kidnap Booker.

Back with the Old Guard group, Nicky suspects that Joe is lying to him about something. He and Nile tail Joe, and discover that Joe has secretly been delivering groceries to Booker. But this time, Booker is not there, given that he was just kidnapped by Quynh.

Meanwhile, Andy and Copley pay a visit to Andy’s old friend, Tuah (Henry Golding). Tuah is another immortal who, apparently, did not want to join the Old Guard group. Instead, he lives in isolation with his home library, full of books and records of the immortals. He’s the guy from Nile’s dream!

Tuah tells Andy and Copley about the first-ever immortal, named Discord (Uma Thurman). Tuah and Discord used to be pals, but Discord became jaded after witnessing the way mortals were cruel to immortals. It’s revealed both Discord and Tuah witnessed Andy and Qunyh’s punishment at the Salem witch trials. It was Tuah that helped Andy escape, before he retreated into solitude. Discord, meanwhile, spent the next 500 years accumulating wealth and power, to protect herself from the vicious mortals. For some reason, Discord is now interested in the Old Guard crew. The books she stole were about the Old Guard’s history.

Andy brings Tuah back with her to meet the rest of the gang. Booker gets in contact, and reveals to Andy that Qunyh is alive, free from her prison, and wants to meet. Even though she knows it’s trap, Andy can’t say no to Quynh. However, she grudgingly allows Nile to tag along as back-up.

Andy and Quynh have an awkward “meet up of the exes.” Andy wants Quynh to join the Old Guard, and Quynh wants Andy to leave the Old Guard and be with her. Offended that Andy is choosing her new friends over her, Quynh storms off. Andy follows, and they fight.

While keeping an eye on Andy, Nile spots Discord and follows her into a church. (Apparently, they aren’t allowed to fight in churches? Did I miss that in the first movie?) Discord informs Nile that she is the last immortal, and because of this, Nile has “a power you can’t even imagine.” Nile doesn’t want to believe her, but Discord seemingly proves it when she shows Nile they have the exact same birthmark. Discord tells Nile that together, they can end “immortal interference” forever. Apparently, Discord is upset that Andy and co. keeping butting into mortal problems, by saving people, and stuff.

The Old Guard group now know that Discord and Quynh are working together to target them, but they don’t know what to do. Tuah presents a theory to Booker that as the last immortal, Nile has the power to take away immortality. The reason Andy lost her immortality in the first movie is because Nile stabbed Andy when they first met. Any immortal wounded by the last immortal, aka Nile, loses their immortality. Tuah believes Discord wants to use Nile to kill all the immortals.

But, wait, there’s more. Tuah goes on to say that once wounded, the immortal has the option to “pass on” their immortality to someone else, before they lose it. Tuah does not explain how to pass on immortality, other than to say it must be “willingly given.” Booker—who originally betrayed the Old Guard because he wanted to be mortal again—is excited by the idea of giving Andy back her immortality.

Booker asks to spar with Nile. Tuah, realizing what Booker is doing, jumps into the fight, presumably to protect him. But Nile ultimately does wound Booker. Assuming it will heal, Nile apologizes, but doesn’t think much of it. However, Booker tells Tuah it worked: He is not healing. Booker is no longer immortal. Tuah warns Booker he doesn’t have much time to “willingly give” his immortality to Andy. (Again, is anyone going to explain how he is supposed to do that?!) Booker, it seems, keeps chickening out of doing whatever it is he needs to do to give Andy his immortality.

Meanwhile, a heartbroken Quynh tells Discord she wants “everyone” to suffer. So, they break into a nuclear facility and plant a bunch of bombs inside. The Old Guard sees them do this via security footage. They realize they are being lured into a trap. However, they can’t just let those bombs cause a nuclear meltdown, so into the trap they go.

Once in the nuclear facility, they face off with Discord’s army of goons. However, because no one wants to cause a nuclear meltdown, no one uses guns in the fight that ensues. The goons separate the team. Tuah, Joe, and Nicky are blasted with liquid nitrogen, frozen, and taken away in vacuum-sealed body bags. We don’t see exactly what happens to Copley, but we assume that he, too, is captured, because his line goes dead.

Andy is attacked by two goons, but is saved by Booker, who uses Andy’s axe to fight them off. Soon after, Booker sees that Andy is healing again. Apparently, Booker saving Andy—or, possibly, using her axe?—is what he needed to do to transfer the immortality. Booker lets Andy know she is immortal again, and then locks himself in a room to fight off more bad guys, and, finally, die. It’s what he wanted, apparently.

Meanwhile, Nile fights with Quynh. Nile wounds Quynh, and takes away her immortality. Discord shows up and captures Nile. She leaves the wounded, mortal Quynh behind.

The Old Guard 2 ending explained:

Andy is the last Old Guard standing. She finds the wounded Quynh, and talks her out of setting off the bomb that would melt down the nuclear plant. Then she chases down Discord’s helicopter, who is flying off with all her friends. Andy and Discord face off in an epic battle. During the fight, Andy realizes Discord isn’t healing. It turns out Discord doesn’t care at all about “immortal interference”—she just lost her immortality, and wants to use Nile and the other immortals to get that immortality back.

Andy loses the fight, and Discord flies off on her helicopter. As Discord departs, Andy shouts that she will come for her friends. Discord responds that by the time she does, Discord will once again be immortal.

Andy goes back to Tuah’s library with Quynh. While Quynh heals the slow way, Andy frantically searches for something in the books that will help her save her friends. Andy nurses Quynh back to health, and they seem to forgive each other.

In the last scene of the movie, Andy asks if Quynh will fight by her side to help her get back her friends. Quynh responds with “no,” but then adds it is Andy who will be fighting by Quynh’s side. Aww, these two scary lovers are back together! They playfully fight over who gets to go first, and with that, the movie ends.

When asked about his reaction to the cliffhanger ending in an interview with Decider, Old Guard 2 star Henry Golding, who plays Tuah, said, “We always knew we wouldn’t be able to summarize such an epic crescendo in one movie. We knew there was going to have to be a cut point. The jeopardy of Andy having lost the Old Guard, was such a carrot to dangle in front of the audience. Now she’s on the back foot. What does she do? She’s back with her eternal lover. The power that those two have, is a force to be reckoned with, and so the impending clash with Uma Thurman’s character—it’s salivating, just to think about. Somebody had to be put in a body bag, and I guess it was us!”

In a recent interview with ScreenRant, director Victoria Mahoney defended her decision to end on such a cliffhanger, saying that she cares about “what’s occurring with the characters in any given moment.” Mahoney continued, “That’s all I’m chasing. That it happens to be a cliffhanger, that it involves some stuff that may make some people happy and some people pissed off, that’s not my circus. I’m just trying to do it honestly and earnestly. I stand behind it.”

Is there an Old Guard 2 end credits scene?

No, there is no Old Guard 2 end credits, mid-credits scene, or bonus scene of any kind. Instead, fans are left with no resolution and that monster cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait for the Old Guard 3 to find out what happens next—if the movie even gets made. Here’s we know about if The Old Guard 3 is happening or not.