'Deadpool 2' Ending Explained

Warning - This Article Contains Massive Spoilers!

Deadpool 2's story has an unexpected amount of both sci-fi head twists and heart - especially for a Deadpool movie! By introducing the iconic X-Men character Cable to the movie franchise - and all the time travel mechanics that come with him - Deadpool 2's ending may have left some fans confused.

Read below for a breakdown of what happens in the final act of Deadpool 2, and what those events may mean for the franchise's future. This is your final spoiler warning, so read on only if you want to know!

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

The final act of Deadpool 2 sees Wade Wilson / Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), his remaining X-Force teammates (Cable, Domino), and some X-Men allies (Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and her girlfriend Yukio), all racing to stop young Russell Collins (Julian Dennison) from making a decision that would forever change the future in apocalyptic ways. Russell (with help from new pal the Juggernaut) is returning to his orphanage home, the Essex House for Mutant Rehabilitation, to burn it down and kill the Headmaster who has tortured him so badly. While Cable wants to take Russell out immediately, Deadpool wants thirty seconds to try to convince the young kid to choose a better path.

Even though Wade tries to get through to Russell - motivational speech, complete with a hug - the kid is too far gone down the dark path and is about to go full inferno on Essex House and the Headmaster, until Cable makes the call and fires his last bullet at the kid. Deadpool (still wearing the inhibitor collar that negates his healing powers) jumps in front of the bullet meant for Russell, and takes one to the heart. In a hilariously drawn-out death sequence, Wade gets his Logan ending and dies protecting the younger generation of mutants from a dark future of bondage and brutality.

However, even though Wade is seen traversing the afterlife and being reconnect with his dead love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), fate isn't done with ol' Pool yet. Cable has one last charge in his time travel device, which he was supposed to use to return to his own timeline, where his family (murdered by an evil adult Russell) are now safe and alive. In a moment of major sacrifice, Cable uses his last time jaunt to go back to the start of the Essex House raid and slip the little game token memento that Wade and Vanessa cherished into Deadpool's suit, right where the bullet will hit. That decision creates a new version of events, where Russell is still convinced to side with the good guys, but Deadpool still gets to live. Cable explains the sacrifice is worth it, and that he will remain in this timeline to help secure a better future for mutants.

All of these harrowing events convince the lost and broken members of this flegeling X-Force (Deadpool, Cable, Domino, Russell, Dopehinder) to all find solace in one another as a sort of surrogate family. A hilarious epilogue and series of mid-credits scenes then show Deadpool using Cable's repaired time travel device to right some other wrongs in history.

Deadpool 2 is now in theaters. The X-Men movie universe will continue when X-Men: Dark Phoenix opens February 14, 2019, followed by The New Mutants on August 2, 2019.