Endings Are Confusing—But ‘Blue Beetle’s Doesn’t Need To Be
Endings are confusing…
Why did my ex end things with me when I decided to dump a box full of live spray-painted blue beetles on the floor of our apartment in order to celebrate the Blue Beetle release? Why do I need to go to court for a hearing about a restraining order? Why did the landlord evict us? Some things I’ll just never understand.
At least it wasn’t as confusing as the ending of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue or as disappointing as the ending of Secret Invasion. There’s always a silver lining. Or a blue lining. Like the lining of the bed we once slept in, that is now infested with blue beetles.
But lucky for me I have the internet to help me out! That’s why I’m going to use it to help me represent myself in court AND to explain the ending of the Blue Beetle movie! What could go wrong?
To understand the end, first we must go back to the beginning …
Wise words! Words to live by. Gotta backtrack to know how things went wrong. So the Blue Beetle began by focusing on Kord Industries, which was originally created by Ted Kord before his mysterious disappearance. The tech company was then overtaken by Vicky Kord and transformed into a legal grey area weapons manufacturing company. While business is booming, Vicky thinks that she can REALLY turn profits up a notch by uncovering the Scarab, an ancient artifact of advanced technical design. She meets a man named Carapax at a dig site, where Carapax is confident they will find the Scarab.
Meanwhile, recent college graduate Jaime Reyes finds out that his family is in jeopardy of losing their home because Kord Industries is raising the rent. Jaime decides to go out and find a job in order to support his family. So what does he do? He gets a job in the belly of the beast: a janitorial position at Vicky Kord’s mansion. He eventually meets Vicky’s young niece Jenny, and after Jenny has a falling out with Vicky, she offers Jaime a job in Kord Industries.
While working for Kord, Jaime comes in contact with the newly unearthed Scarab, and the ancient device bonds with him. He turns into the Blue Beetle. Yay! But Vicky gets suspicious that Jaime’s family was involved in the Scarab’s disappearance and sends her private security force after them. Not yay! After Jaime defends his home, he and Jenny find out that Kord Industries are developing new weapons on the Pago island using code sourced from the Scarab. Jaime and Jenny go to Pago island to confront Vicky, and are met with a cybernetically augmented Carapax, who intends to destroy them. Jaime is almost killed by Carapax, but after an intervention from his tech-savvy Uncle Rudy, he is able to turn the tide. Rather than kill Carapax, Jaime decides to show mercy, leading the villain to have a change of heart. In order to stop Vicky and Kord Industries, he triggers a self-destruct sequence in his cybernetic suit and explodes Pago island.
Jaime returns home to his family, where the community has come together to support them in their time of need. Meanwhile, Vicky takes over as the leader of Kord Industries, and vows to rebuild the company and steer it away from weapons manufacturing. At the end of the movie, Jenny and Jaime get a little bit of alone time, and Jaime flies her around using his suit. How romantic!
So that’s it! Happy ever after, right?
Or is it …
Earlier in the film, we learned that Ted Kord, the original founder of Kord Industries, the original Blue Beetle and Jenny’s father, had gone missing. Jenny theorized that he left in order to search for a way to unlock the power of the Scarab, building his own Blue Beetle tech in the process. In Ted Kord’s now defunct secret Blue Beetle lair, one of the old computers turns on and begins playing a message from a mysterious sender! The voice tells Jenny that he loves her, and that her father Ted Kord is still alive. Because … the voice IS her father. I mean … has to be, right? Good one, dad. Real mysterious. You really thought that Jenny wouldn’t figure that out?
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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