The Ending of One of the Worst Movies of the Year Is a Confusing Mess

Borderlands is considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. A shame then that its film adaptation is possibly one of the worst movies we’ve seen this year.

Starring Cate Blanchett, Ariana Greenblatt, Kevin Hart, Florian Munteanu, Jack Black, Édgar Ramirez, and Jamie Lee Curtis, this film from Eli Roth (Thanksgiving) is probably a masterclass in how not to make a video game movie adaptation.

What happens in Borderlands?

The film opens on the planet Pandora, where a rogue mercenary named Roland (Kevin Hart) kidnaps a teenage girl named Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) from a facility belonging to Atlas Corporation, owned by her filthy rich businessman father. He’s helped by a Psycho (psychotic maniacs on Pandora), Krieg (Florian Munteanu), who was also kept in the same facility and broken out during the fight-off with the security.

On another planet, Cytherea, the bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is contacted by Atlas (Édgar Ramirez), who offers her a huge sum to track his daughter Tina and activate a tracker that would enable his people to locate them. Lilith is initially reluctant but concedes to return to her home planet for the first time since she left it as a child to track the bounty. Once there, she is joined by a robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), who is mysteriously activated by someone to help Lilith. 

Lilith finds Tina but soon learns that Tina is an Eridian, an ancient race that inhabited Pandora, and is the only one who can open a fabled Vault on the planet that contains powerful technology and secrets of the race. Tina doesn’t want to return to her father. Lilith and Claptrap then join the gang of Tiny Tina, Roland, and Krieg as Atlas’ private army, Crimson Lance, begins attacking and tracking them. Together, they must navigate through Pandora and its many dangers, the biggest being Atlas himself, and find the missing keys that will lead them to the Vault before him. 

What happens at the end of Borderlands?

With the help of their newest addition, Dr. Tannis (a friend of Lilith’s mother’s and played by Jamie Lee Curtis), the rag-tag group is able to locate the second key to open the Eridians’ Vault, in an underground maze that is full of tunnels inhabited by Psychos. Combined with the key they already have, it reveals a map with the location of the Vault. However, in their efforts to escape to the surface, they’re forced to leave Roland behind. The group is stuck in an elevator and suddenly gets teleported to another place, an abandoned city that used to be Lilith’s home—a feat that Tina attributes to her being a daughter of Eridia.

That very day, Tina overhears the end of Lilith’s conversation with Atlas’ holograph and believes that Lilith betrayed them. Leaving her behind, Tina, Tannis, and Krieg go to the location of the Vault, where Tina tries to use the keys to open the Vault but fails. Suddenly, Atlas and his Crimson Lance army appear, hidden the entire time and tracking them. Roland, somehow having managed to stay alive, also appears. Atlas realizes that Tina, whom he created from Eridian blood he had found on one of the keys, is a failed experiment, and orders his army to kill her. When the commander Knoxx (Janina Gavankar) stops his army and tries to reason with Atlas, he kills her. 

Does Lilith have powers?

A fight ensues between the Crimson Lance, the Psychos, and our heroes, when suddenly Lilith and Claptrap appear, and she reveals that she is the daughter of Eridia. Turns out, back in her hometown, as Lilith had stumbled upon an old familiar drawing she made as a child, Claptrap suddenly plays a video message from her mother, confirming who Lilith truly is, and why Claptrap was activated the moment Lilith set foot on Pandora. In the present, Dr. Tannis then recalls that Lilith’s mother sent her away with Tannis because she didn’t want her to be used to open the Vault.

Atlas assures Lilith that if she opens the Vault, he’ll set them all free, but the truth is that opening the Vault might kill the key. However, Lilith believes that it would actually make her powerful. As she takes her stance to open the Vault, an archway of stones appears, she’s lifted off the ground, and suddenly sprouts fiery wings. Tannis exclaims that not only is Lilith the key to the Vault but she is also Firehawk, the Goddess of Eridia and protector of Pandora. 

What’s inside the Eridians’ Vault?

More fight ensues, and despite Atlas’ best efforts to subdue Lilith with his weapons—and it almost works—Lilith persists. She’s also able to create a sort of forcefield shield around her team to protect them from the firepower from Atlas’ airborne ship. Finally, Atlas grabs hold of Tina, and threatens Lilith to take him inside the Vault. Once inside, he, Tina, and Lilith are in a vast cavern of sorts filled with blue-illuminated and suspended in mid-air formations of rocks, much like the archway, with etchings on them. Atlas reveals in wonder that these are the technological secrets of the power of the race that once ruled the galaxy, and harnessing them for weapons would be incredible.

However, Lilith manages to steal the gadget on Atlas’ body that powers his forcefield of armor. Defenseless, Atlas is quickly snatched by a tentacled monster that emerges from the Vault’s surface. While it isn’t explained what this monster is in the film, according to Borderlands lore, the Eridians’ Vaults actually exist to cage eldritch beasts in, and this monster could be The Destroyer. 

Where do Lilith & Co. go next?

The group, having successfully evaded Atlas and his cronies, returns to Sanctuary city, where celebrations are in full swing now that they can finally have peace. Lilith, Tina, Roland, Krieg, Tannis, and the robot Claptrap enjoy a moment on the deck, watching the fireworks, before going inside to join the party. However, Tina hangs back with Lilith and tells her to do something that she knows Lilith really wants to do. Lilith then transforms into her fiery avatar once more, and flies straight into the fireworks, transforming into the fiery Firehawk symbol superimposed in the sky.

Does Borderlands have an end-credits scene?

There were expectations that the film could have an end-credits scene that might set up a sequel and a Borderlands franchise, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the film has a goofy mid-credits scene, where the robot Claptrap, who as we know loves singing, is dancing, before the end credits begin rolling and push him off the screen.