The Accountant 2 Ending Explained

Spoilers follow.

You never really know what will become a franchise. Studios like Warner Bros. will greenlight a mid-budget movie that has some star power to carry its premise. It won’t do record-breaking numbers, but it’ll turn a nice profit to have made the entire venture worth it. Nearly a decade or so down the line, whether because of a creative spark or simply for monetary reasons, a late sequel will go into production to capitalize on the IP. Sometimes they’re massive successes that surpass the original (“The Strangers: Prey at Night”) and other times they’re “Zoolander No. 2.” You never really know whether an audience will want to spend time with the same characters so far detached from the first film, but “The Accountant 2” is here to gauge that interest.

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Gavin O’Connor’s 2016 action-drama “The Accountant” is a bizarre movie that doesn’t always work, but there’s a lot of interesting things going on in it. It stars Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff, an autistic man with some of the best mathematical skills the world has ever known. He was taught from an early age by his military father to roll with the world’s punches and learn to take a few, so that one day, he’ll be confident to dole them back. Christian moonlights as a freelance tax consultant in a small accounting office in Illinois on the side to launder the money made for his forensic accounting for various criminal enterprises.

Christian ends up getting himself into more than he bargained for when he’s hired by Living Robotics CEO Lamarr Blackburn (John Lithgow) to weed out any financial discrepancies. The endeavor leads to the mysterious Accountant discovering a string of dead bodies, fighting for his own life, and protecting a company assistant named Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) from mercenaries. At the same time, Treasury Director Ray King (J.K. Simmons), along with the blackmailed data analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), start an investigation to find this Accountant once and for all.

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One of the more notable aspects about “The Accountant” is that it keeps changing what kind of movie it wants to be. At times, it’s a brutal action-thriller that sees Christian wreck a bunch of criminal goons one minute, then it’s a drama where he attempts to make a romantic connection with Dana. The film’s climax is split between King regaling his obsession with the Accountant on account of saving his life long ago, while Christian goes after Blackburn after learning that he orchestrated the whole affair. On top of that, the Accountant learns that his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) has been operating as the hitman protecting the Robotics CEO. There’s definitely a lot to keep track of, but by the end, all of the pieces fall into place for a sequel to pick up from.

Medina is groomed as King’s successor, along with the revelation that the computerized voice behind Christian’s tip line is from Justine (Alison Wright), a nonverbal autistic woman running her operation out of the Harbor Neuroscience center they were both at. Where “The Accountant 2” comes into play is Christian and Braxton making up, hoping that one day they’ll be able to reconnect as brothers.

“The Accountant 2” gets things kicked off with a re-introduction of King, who’s now semi-retired, but still doing odd jobs as a private investigator. In meeting up with the mysterious Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) at a bar, King tells her that he was hired by someone to investigate the disappearance of the Sanchez family, who immigrated from El Salvador to the United States and then disappeared. We’ll learn later why King contacted Anäis, but for the meantime, things don’t look so good. A bunch of mysterious men that have been circling the bar like vultures finally strike in an attempt to take the private eye out.

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King at least puts up a good fight in the end by landing a few punches and stabbing a goon in the balls with a pen. You think he might make it out of there alive before he’s fatally hit by a car. The now promoted Treasury Deputy Director Medina is notified of her mentor’s passing and asked to come see the body, where she sees that King has written “find the accountant” on his arm. It’s fitting that this baffles everyone else, but she immediately knows what to do.

“The Accountant 2” carries on the tradition of offering up an important side character from the first movie to Death on a silver platter in order to kick off the sequel’s plot. Where Medina was once an understudy, she’s now at the forefront of solving this murder and the investigation that King left behind.

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Although it’s been about an eight year gap between movies, it’s also roughly the same amount of time since Christian appeared on anyone’s radar. He still takes odd jobs here and there, but doesn’t cause the kind of noise he used to. In a surprising turn of events, he’s actually taken to finding companionship in an amusing sequence at a speed dating event. The room is full of average-looking guys, with the stunning Ben Affleck in the middle as a beacon for every woman in the room. But even with his reverse-engineered profile that hits on all of the things women would be attracted to, Christian sadly doesn’t land a single date.

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It’s the first indicator that “The Accountant 2” is going to take on a bit of a lighter tone, which would be an interesting turnaround for the franchise if its plot didn’t contradict that.

For all that she went through in the first film, it’s interesting to finally see Medina actually meet Christian face to face for the first time here. She recruits the numbers savant to help find King’s killer by bringing him to the house where a whole web of photos, tax records, and other clues are scattered on a wall. Anyone else wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of it, but this is Christian’s speciality, so naturally, he reorganizes it in a manner that he can understand. The clues lead them around town like a frozen pizza factory, where Christian delivers a butt kicking on the loud-mouthed boss running the place. But otherwise, Medina realizes they need some additional help, which gives the Accountant an idea of who to call.

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In the interim between movies, Braxton has been continuing his run as a hired gun. When he gets the phone call to California, he’s in the midst of having some ice cream after a job he just pulled. Bernthal’s entrance into the film is this weirdly upsetting scene where the character is simultaneously talking on the phone while a distraught woman, who we know nothing about, sobs right next to him. It’s ultimately played for laughs because on his way out the door, the camera reveals that he’s left dozens of dead bodies around the apartment indicating he just completed a job.

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It’s telling that the most effective scenes of “The Accountant 2” are whenever Affleck and Bernthal are off on their own, divorced from the movie they’re obligated to be in. In the midst of getting clues, locking a suspect in Medina’s car and laying some beatdowns, there’s a portion of this movie that’s simply dedicated to these two talking it out like long-lost brothers would. Braxton is loud and brash, but deep down inside, is hurt that his brother took this long to reach out to him. Christian has to remind his “have gun, will travel” sibling that he did attempt to make contact, but was met with silence.

The best scene in the film sees Christian and Braxton going out to a honky tonk bar where there’s line-dancing, getting into bar fights (complete with broken windows) and securing a pretty woman’s digits. It’s the exact kind of brotherly bonding that would work in a much better buddy movie than the one it’s currently in.

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One of the weirder avenues “The Accountant 2” takes is in how Christian, Braxton and Medina get their information. At the end of the first movie, it’s revealed that the Harbor Neuroscience facility that Christian was nearly admitted to as a child also doubles as a secret headquarters for Justine to act as his virtual assistant setting up jobs and whatnot. The sequel takes things a step further by revealing that she’s not only still going strong, but has recruited a collection of autistic children in the facility to form a superteam. It’s like Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters for hackers on the spectrum.

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Throughout the film, the Neuroscience kids illegally break into laptops, change traffic lights, and steal confidential information like it’s nothing. It’s definitely a choice that illustrates the different direction O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque wants to take this franchise in, but it really just opens the door to an even larger issue.

“The Accountant 2” sees Medina, the head of the Treasury, using government resources to illegally help a known killer and his assassin brother. When Christian and Braxton throw a trafficker from a balcony and stuff him in her trunk, she tells the brothers that this isn’t how they do things. It’s a downright laughable notion considering she’s doing this all on the government’s dime. How is she able to do all of this sleuthing and illegal stuff while running one of the biggest agencies in the United States? It’s all played for laughs, especially when Medina forgets the guy in the trunk.

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In the midst of “The Accountant 2” basking in the brotherly love between Christian and Braxton, the central mystery plays out in the margins. It’s the kind of plot you would expect to be fleshed out over a season of television, but has been condensed into a 2 hour movie. I’ll do my best to lay it all out here.

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So, it turns out that Anäis, the mysterious assassin present at King’s death, is actually the woman in the photograph he showed to her. Her real name is Edith Sanchez. She illegally immigrated from El Salvador to the United States with her husband Gino (Abner Lozano) and son Alberto (Yael Ocasio), but were ambushed by traffickers. Gino is murdered, while Alberto is taken to a facility in Juarez, Mexico, as a kind of insurance policy to make sure she complies with her captors. That’s the reason why most of the trafficked women Braxton asked for information from in his hotel room wouldn’t speak up. Edith’s father is the one who initiated King’s investigation, but is taken out by Cobb (Grant Harvey) at his home.

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In the interim, Edith goes to work at the pizza place and performs other tasks in order to keep the traffickers happy. She gets in an accident, which sends her crashing through the windshield. When she wakes up, the hospital notices that her mental abilities have increased tenfold as a case of Acquired Savant Syndrome. Edith is suddenly able to play chess like a champion, in addition to being an incredibly agile fighter — becoming a self-trained assassin in the process. The entire trafficking operation is heralded by a man named Burke (Robert Morgan), who places a target on Edith after she discovers the truth behind the operation.

There’s an interesting angle here where Christian and Braxton could grapple with encountering a dark mirror of what they could have become, but it’s never really expanded upon. On top of all that, Edith’s plot is laid out in an incredibly confusing fashion. It’s a really bleak story that’s such a tonal whiplash with the buddy comedy elements of the brothers. You can feel the film grind to a halt when it remembers it has a plot going on.

After Medina gets stabbed during an altercation with Edith, Christian and Braxton receive word of the Juarez compound holding all of the trafficked womens’ children. Part of the reason why Christian is so adamant on performing a rescue mission, despite the character aiding criminal organizations in his downtime before, is because Edith’s son, Alberto, is also autistic and shares a certain bond with him.

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After everything they’ve gone through, the brotherly pair raid the compound with bullets aplenty. There is, however, this strangely uncomfortable undercurrent of two white guys coming into Mexico with guns blazing against an unnamed squad of Mexican gang members. The buddy comedy angle has long left the station at this point considering they’re attempting to take down the trafficking ring before they can haul the children to a giant grave site being dug, where they’re set to be executed en masse. Braxton is shot amid the chaos, but encourages Christian to go after the kids and, thankfully, gets there before the massacre begins, personally saving Alberto in the process.

Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, Edith gets her revenge on Burke by taking him out after he gets out of the shower. It’s not unlike the same epilogue that takes place in Antoine Fuqua’s “The Equalizer.” You would think that she would be reunited with her kid after the person who uprooted her life is finally dead, but apparently Christian is able to pull some strings and get Alberto a bed at Harbor Neuroscience. Based on the way it’s framed, it appears he’s being set up as another member of their secret task force. There’s clearly some strands being set up for a sequel.

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Throughout the film, Braxton insists he’s going to get a dog when he settles down, but Christian believes he’s more of a cat person. Well, this comes to pass when they’re driving home with the busload of kidnapped children and Braxton makes his brother stop to rescue a stray cat he finds wandering on the road. You finally see the softer side of this violent character finally come out in a wholesome moment that mirrors his affection for his brother.

I remember the first “Accountant” getting some flack for conflating autism with a superpowered killing machine. But where that movie only shows Christian hopping into action when he needs to, “The Accountant 2” is practically giddy at the idea of him grabbing a gun. The most exciting scenes in its predecessor are whenever Christian is crunching numbers and following his routines. There’s very little of that here. There’s an attempt to dive deeper into how Christian operates his day to day, yet the film is much eager to point out his tendencies than the first one did.

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/Film’s Ryan Scott had high praises for the late sequel in his review, where he talked about how much the film improves upon the original. I don’t quite agree as I believe it’s not only a worse movie with an even stranger tonal imbalance, it’s also an exceptionally forgettable bore that wastes an Affleck/Bernthal buddy movie premise. It appears I’m on the outskirts as most of the critical reception thus far has been positive. But it doesn’t matter what I think because all of the marketing material indicates that the 2016 sleeper hit had held so strong across the past nine years that “The Accountant 2” could be the sign of a whole franchise. O’Connor is confident in his plans on turning it into a trilogy (via Collider).

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If “The Accountant 3” is going into effect, this series needs to find a lane and stick with it. There’s this constant tonal back and forth that was endearing in the first movie and really frustrating with this one. It’s more in on the joke here, but is still plagued by this charming buddy dynamic at odds with a generic action-thriller plot that’s way more convoluted than it needs to be.

“The Accountant 2” is now playing in theaters nationwide.