The Gray Man is an action film that follows Sierra Agent Six (Ryan Gosling) as he faces off against former CIA colleague Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans). The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Years before the events of the film, Court Gentry, a criminal in jail, was recruited by Donald Fitzroy to work undercover for the CIA.
Today, he goes by the name of ‘Six’ for Sierra, an organisation created by Fitzroy to deploy former criminals as ruthless assassins without any trace of identity.
Four is assigned a mission in Bangkok by the Director of National Clandestine Service, CIA, Denny Carmichael. However, when he gets too close to the target, startling information comes to light.
The target turns out to be a member of Sierra as well; ‘four’. Although Six manages to kill him, he is convinced that the man actually belongs to Sierra.
Four warns him about trusting the CIA, especially Carmichael. He gives him a pendant and asks him to give the CIA hell before dying.
Following this, Six has a talk with Carmichael over the phone, with the latter clearly worried about the pendant. Finding a drive inside the pendant, Six chooses to run as Carmichael decides he needs to be eliminated.
Six contacts Fitzroy, with whom he has built a father-son relationship over the years after his recruitment. He orders an extraction to help him escape.
Carmichael orders notorious CIA member, and Six’s former colleague, Lloyd Hansen, to hunt him down and retrieve the drive. He captures Fitzroy’s niece, Claire, forcing him to order the personnel sent for Six’s attraction to eliminate him instead.
The former Sierra agent manages to best all of them and calls Fitzroy, who reveals that they have his niece and Six understands the situation, having spent time with her as well years ago.
Six tries to forge a new passport and escape but the one he goes to for help ends up betraying and capturing him.
Lloyd arrives and Six escapes. The former gives him a chase until he is shot and stopped by Dani Miranda, another CIA agent who is being clubbed with Six and wants to understand his motive.
She and Six escape to Prague, where former CIA chief Margaret Cahill lives. The three figure out the contents of the drive. It had evidence of Carmichael’s wrongdoings and four was blackmailing him, which is why he had him killed.
Lloyd’s forces arrive and Cahill sacrifices herself to take out a number of them. Cops in Prague handcuff Six to a bench but he still manages to escape Lloyd’s forces.
Suzanne Brewer, the current CIA chief, is absolutely horrified by the insane measures that Lloyd has been taking to hunt Six down.
Six and Dani, who believe they have escaped, are attacked by Avik San, an assassin sent by Lloyd who manages to fight both, steal the drive and escape.
Six reveals to Dani why he went to jail in the first place. He killed his own father, who was abusive and on the verge of killing his brother.
The Gray Man ending explained in detail:
Is Fitzroy dead? Why does he sacrifice himself?
Six and Dani arrive at the place where Lloyd is holding Fitzroy and Claire hostage, ambushing the entire forces.
He locates the two and they try to escape with Lloyd and his men giving chase. During the crossfire, Fitzroy reveals that he has been shot.
Despite Six’s reluctance to accept the situation, Fitzroy urges him to give him the grenade and take the gun instead. He firmly believes that he won’t be able to survive and asks Claire to leave with him, essentially trusting him with protecting her life.
As the forces arrive, he detonates the grenade, killing everyone in the area. In the end, he trusted Six enough to leave the care of the person he loved the most in the world to him.
Why does Suzanne kill Lloyd?
At the end of the scuffle, Lloyd escapes with Clare. Dani is stationed away from the scene but has a clear view of Lloyd to snipe him.
Lloyd, holding Claire hostage, accepts that Six has been a thorn in his side since the time he started chasing him and while he could escape, he doesn’t want to.
He thinks he is better than Six and releases Claire, challenging him to a one-vs-one fight, to which he agrees.
Dani asks to snipe Lloyd but Six instructs her to protect Claire instead, who pleads Six to come with her. But, the former Sierra spy decides to face Lloyd head-on.
Six and Lloyd have an intense fight with both gaining the upper hand at different points in battle as they put their CIA training to use.
The fight culminates with Six trapping Lloyd in a hold but before he can snap his neck, he is shot and killed by Suzanne.
The CIA chief reveals that she was a colleague of Lloyd and Denny growing up and the two were so close she could never make Denny understand that he was a liability.
She decides to pin the blame for the destruction in Prague on Lloyd posthumously, confirming his death, and keep Six locked up to do her bidding occasionally.
What happens to the drive?
During all the mayhem, Avik manages to retrieve the drive and store it inside the pendant again.
Even after he fights and bests Dani, he still chooses to give her the drive as he is an honourable person and does not feel Lloyd and the others are.
Looking at how Lloyd was more than willing to kill an innocent person like Claire is what made Avik have a change of heart.
Suzanne arrests Dani after the fight between Lloyd and Six. She finds the drive and gives it back to Denny, who smashes it to pieces, eliminating the evidence of his crimes.
What is Claire’s fate at the end?
Dani is let go for going along with Denny and Suzanne’s version of the story but promises to come after Denny if he ever tries to hurt Claire.
Denny is wary of Six being held captive but Suzanne reassures him that as long as they have the girl, he will comply. However, the two shockingly find that he has escaped. Claire is being held by the CIA but finds a music record, with a note to play it.
As she does, all the guards outside are beaten up as Six enters the room, leaving Claire overjoyed. The two escape together at the end of the film.
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