Netflix’s Luther: The Fallen Sun is a fitting continuation to the original BBC series, and its action-packed ending is the perfect note to potentially leave the character on. Luther: The Fallen Sun serves as a follow-up to the BBC series, Luther, which follows DCI John Luther, who will go to any length necessary to capture a criminal. The Netflix movie sees Luther in prison following the end of the original series, but the return of a serial killer from Luther’s past prompts the disgraced detective to break out of prison to finish the job.
Luther: The Fallen Sun does a good job of setting up its plot to be both accessible for fans of the original Luther series and newcomers alike. However, given how eventful the Netflix movie conclusion is, it can be difficult to discern the connection between the sequence of events. Here is the ending of Luther: The Fallen Sun explained in detail.
What Happened In Luther: The Fallen Sun's Ending
The Luther: The Fallen Sun ending is jam-packed with action leading up to the capture of David Robey, the main villain of the film. Going into the ending, DCI Odette Raine discovers that Robey has kidnapped her daughter. Desperate to get her back, she almost turns Luther over to Robey, but instead, they decide to join forces to both take down Robey and save Raine’s daughter. A fake corpse of Raine’s daughter left to upset Raine leads to Raine and Luther getting captured by Robey, who intends to make them torture each other in the Red Bunker in exchange for Raine’s daughter’s safety.
Luther (played by Idris Elba) eventually uses Robey’s plan against him to escape, and they end up fighting in the snowscape, leading to a car crash that allows for Robey’s capture. After Robey’s capture, Luther is informed that he will have to go back to prison, but instead, he is taken to a safe house. Government officials arrive to see him, and the Luther: The Fallen Sun ending concludes with Luther getting into a car with the officials as a free man.
Why Raine Decides To Work With Luther
Going into the Luther: The Fallen Sun ending, DCI Raine has her morals challenged when Robey kidnaps her daughter, Anya. As a condition of ensuring Anya’s safe return, Robey asks Raine to “deal with Luther” for him. Though Raine clearly has intentions of turning Luther over to Robey at first in the Netflix movie, Raine quickly has a change of heart and decides to work with Luther to take down Robey instead. While working with Luther is in Raine’s best interests, it’s not immediately obvious why she changes her mind, as she has been vehemently opposed to Luther’s involvement in this case throughout the movie.
Raine’s decision to work with Luther to take down Robey in Luther: The Fallen Sun ending is not a sign that Raine has come around on Luther. Rather, it’s because Luther points out that if Raine complies with Robey’s demands, she’s just another pawn in Robey’s game, and she’s playing into it. Even though Raine doesn’t want to work with Luther and still doesn’t like him, he is the lesser of two evils, and working with Luther gives Raine the best chance of getting Anya back alive before the Luther: The Fallen Sun movie plot is complete.
Robey And Georgette’s History, Explained
In Luther: The Fallen Sun, Robey is seen visiting a woman named Georgette, who has clearly undergone copious amounts of trauma. The two have some sort of relationship, but the exact nature of it is initially unclear. However, Raine’s computer screen reveals the truth. Robey and Georgette are married, and when Georgette was going to leave Robey and free herself from his crimes, he attempted to kill her in a house fire, akin to how he got rid of his victims at the start of the movie. Georgette survived with severe burns, but Robey tells people she died, using the sob story to get close to his victims’ families.
Why Robey Made The Red Bunker In Luther: The Fallen Sun
At the end of the Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, it is revealed that Robey has been kidnapping people in order to torture and kill them on a livestream, with his viewers voting how they want the victims to die. Robey’s plan takes inspiration from the real life urban legend of a “red room,” which is confirmed by Robey calling his livestream “the Red Bunker.” Robey is a sadistic villain who loves having an audience. Therefore, the Red Bunker gives Robey validation, which makes Robey feel better about having the same kind of secrets that he blackmails others for having. This is why Luther’s ridiculing of Robey leads to the villain’s defeat.
Luther: The Fallen Sun's Killer Motivation Explained
In the Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, Robey has been blackmailing people with their darkest secrets, as they are often so ashamed that they will do anything to ensure their secrets don’t come out. Although there isn’t an explicit moment where Robey reveals why he’s committed these acts, Luther gets under Robey’s skin by exposing his true nature. It’s Robey’s reaction to Luther’s ridiculing of him and his actions that reveals the real reasons Robey targets insecure people and commits these crimes.
Ultimately, the reason that Robey targets people who are ashamed of their deep, dark secrets is because they remind him of himself. Luther points out that outside of Robey’s theatrics committing these crimes, he’s really just an anxious, pathetic man, which is the real motive behind Robey’s actions in the streaming platform movie. Because Robey is ashamed of who he is and has anxiety surrounding his choices, he targets people like himself, which both serves as an act of self-punishment of sorts as well as a means of feeling in control.
Why Didn’t Luther Go Back To Jail At The End Of Fallen Sun
After the events at the end of Luther: The Fallen Sun, Luther wakes up in a safe house rather than jail. Not long after, a squadron of government officials arrive, with neither Luther nor Schenk understanding why they have arrived. One of the officials congratulates Luther on “a job well done,” opening a car door to beckon Luther to go with, which Luther ultimately does. While it’s exciting that Luther is not going back to jail after the Netflix movie, it’s unclear why he is now free, as it was initially made clear after they took down Robey that Luther had to go back to jail after the job was done.
While it’s not completely clear why Luther wasn’t taken back to jail, it’s reasonable to assume that his actions in the Robey case led to Luther’s crimes being forgiven. When the government officials arrive, Schenk hypothesizes that their reason for coming to see Luther at the safe house is a “job offer,” which could point to the government feeling that the value of Luther’s skills and dedication outweighs his previous actions. Whether Luther does get a new job after the end of the Netflix movie or not, the Luther: The Fallen Sun ending leaves the door open for more Luther adventures in the future.