Does The Amateur Have a Post-Credits Scene? Rami Malek’s New Ending, Explained

The following contains spoilers for The Amateur, now in theaters.

Rami Malek is most known for his stint as a hacker vigilante, Elliot, in Mr. Robot. He was also a James Bond villain, Lyutsifer Safin, in No Time to Die. Now, he gets to be a super-spy in The Amateur, which is a remake of a Canadian film that was itself based on the 1981 Robert Littell novel of the same name. Here, Malek plays Charlie, a CIA cartographer who is incensed when he realizes the agency is embedded in corrupt practices.

His wife, Sarah (played by Rachel Brosnahan), is collateral damage, which sends Charlie on the warpath. He might be a geek who is only good with computers, but this revenge quest changes him into a different beast while utilizing his strengths. It builds to a harrowing ending where Charlie has to recalibrate his morals and determine if he wants to keep being a monster consumed by vengeance.

What Happened to Sarah in The Amateur?

Sarah Is Killed By Terrorists Who Work Secretly With the CIA

The opening of The Amateur finds Sarah being killed in a hostage situation in London. She is a casualty when terrorists panic, need a way out and eventually escape. Charlie discovers the CIA isn’t tracking the killers because the superiors, Moore and Horowitz, have used the group for personal missions.

Rami Malek Details

Date of Birth	May 12, 1981
Place of Birth	California, USA
Notable Movies	Amsterdam, Bohemian Rhapsody, Oppenheimer
Notable TV Shows	BoJack Horseman, The Legend of Korra,The War at Home

Their leader, Schiller, accepts private contracts from the CIA rogues, so they can control world politics. This also means Charlie’s bosses won’t mess with their business venture. Charlie, however, blackmails them and goes off the radar. If they stay out of his way, he won’t expose their secrets. Of course, Moore won’t let this happen, not unless he can control it.

Moore deploys Laurence Fishburne’s Henderson in the movie to first try to train Charlie. But when Charlie decides he needs to go it alone, Moore would like Henderson to kill him. Henderson, however, sympathizes and just wants to talk Charlie out of his grief. Moore realizes he needs a contingency.

Does Charlie Kill the Terrorists in The Amateur?

Charlie Kills All the Villains But Leaves the Leader for Interpol

Henderon’s brief training shows Charlie his strength is his brain, not brawn. Charlie uses his nerdy aptitude to assassinate the terrorists, which includes blowing up a glass pool between skyscrapers, and rigging a bomb to kill another. Another gets accidentally run over after a fight with Charlie. While he leaves breadcrumbs, he hacks and places his digital image all over Europe to stump the CIA.

One of Charlie’s colleagues, Bear (played by Jon Bernthal), meets him in Russia and reminds him this will get him killed. He should mourn Sarah in a healthy way, but Charlie admits he needs to finish the mission for peace of mind. Schiller eventually kidnaps Charlie on a boat and gives him a gun to kill him in a test. After a long speech that confirms Sarah was an accident (wrong place, wrong time, coincidentally), Charlie reveals his hand.

He hacked the vessel and had it enter Finnish waters. The Finnish NAVY and Interpol arrive to lock them up. Charlie won’t sink to that depraved level and kill anymore. On top of that, he gets a confession about Schiller working with the CIA traitors. Charlie goes back home and finally gets closure, and his superiors are arrested while he finally flies the plane his wife bought for him before she died. Rising into the sky and breathing in this second chance of life is a message about letting go.

The Amateur Has No Post-Credits Scenes, But Has Threads for a Sequel

The Amateur Can Rehabilitate the CIA With Henderson, Charlie and Bear

While The Amateur doesn’t have a post-credits scene to tease a sequel, there are story threads left dangling that could be picked up in a later installment. Henderson is the key to this, since he is contacted by the CIA Director, O’Brien (played by Paradise’s Julianne Nicholson) in the finale. He is set straight and kills one of Moore’s hitmen to save Charlie. However, he is shot and looks like he dies protecting his charge. The final montage, however, has him reuniting with Charlie.

Henderson is healthy and proud of what Charlie has done: sticking it to the system. The Amateur director, James Hawes, has said he’d be up for a sequel exploring Charlie and Henderson’s dynamic. Malek and Fishburne are down as well, as they have great chemistry. It would be intriguing to see them partner up and have Charlie evolve for field work. O’Brien has a lot of cleaning up to do, a lot of villains to weed out, and she needs people she can trust.

These are elements of what Netflix has capitalized on with shows like The Night Agent and The Recruit. There are domestic enemies, moles within the CIA, and foreign jobs that can use a duo like this. It would have Henderson help Charlie through another grief arc, as Charlie’s secret partner, Inquiline, got killed protecting him in Turkey.

Inquiline was a hacker whose husband was killed by the KGB for being a CIA informant. The heroes can even rustle up other assets like this and bring them in from the cold to build a team the way Ethan Hunt does. Charlie would know how important it is to get these loyal individuals back under the agency’s protection and in a team where they feel welcomed. This is also a chance to give Henderson some extra layers and further flesh out his character and history. Laurence Fishburne excels in mentorship roles like Morpheus from The Matrix. But in the John Wick movies, his Bowery King came off thin. Henderson can be more of a Robert McCall from The Equalizer, revealing nuance and tragedy that perhaps helped him connect with Charlie. There has to be a reason for his compassion, as this Hail Mary card. The fact Hawes added extra scenes just to reveal Henderson was alive in the reunion says something. They also have Bear if they need extra muscle for the missions. Fans always love seeing Jon Bernthal in an action role, especially if it makes him a more quirky version of Frank Castle, aka the Punisher. <h2 id="how-the-amateur-differs-from-the-book-and-the-original-movie" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

How The Amateur Differs From the Book and the Original Movie

Charlie Doesn't Spark a New Romance and His Mentor Actually Survives

In both versions, the CIA was involved in Sarah’s death, as it was part of their plan to embed a mole in the terrorist group. In the new movie, Sarah’s death is a random occurrence that undoes the villains. Secondly, the book has Elizabeth and the previous film has Elisabeth as Charlie’s Inquiline. She helped him kill all the terrorists and then began a romance with him.

In Rami Malek’s movie, Inquiline dies, but she has a profound arc where she just wants to cuddle with him for one night after being alone for so long. She took on her husband’s hacking job and stayed in the shadows. It’s more about companionship than lust. In addition, Charlie’s trainer doesn’t survive the original stories.

Henderson does survive, grateful that he met Charlie and is kept on his toes about his employers. The biggest change, as mentioned, is that Charlie doesn’t murder the main villain. He wants to heal, so he leaves destiny to the courts. He heeds Bear and Henderson’s words. Ultimately, that’s what Sarah would want him to do to sooth his aching soul.

The Amateur is now in theaters.