Monkey Man Ending Explained: The Legend and Martial Arts Inspirations Behind the Movie

Are you wondering if Monkey Man has a post-credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: There are no mid- or post-credits scenes in the film.

Warning: Full spoilers follow beyond this point!

If you think you’ve seen a film like Monkey Man before, you’re wrong. While the stylish and brutal debut feature from newly minted director, writer, and of course star Dev Patel wears its influences on its sleeves — literally name-checking John Wick in the script — the unique setting of Mumbai, vibrant inspiration from Hindu theology, and delightfully rough and ready action makes this a must-watch for action fans everywhere. We’ve delved into the neon-drenched underworld of Monkey Man and followed its hero to his end, and we’re here to break down everything you need to know about the ending, the lore behind the film, and the iconic martial arts movie that Patel looked to in order to make what is, in my opinion, his own masterpiece.

Monkey Man Ending ExplainedAfter a grim and gritty battle through the streets of Mumbai, we find Dev Patel’s anti-hero, bare-knuckle boxer Kid back at the club where he first began his search for the evil and corrupt cop, Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher) – who just so happens to be the man who killed Kid’s mother.

In classic martial arts movie style, Kid must battle his way up through the levels of the club that houses the elite and corrupt of Mumbai’s underworld, until he reaches the penthouse where he can finally take down the mastermind behind the raids that killed his mother: the Guru Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), who is using his public support to back a shady politician that he wants to get into power. This is analogous to the real political struggles that India has faced in recent years and is clearly a satirical commentary on those struggles. Kid makes his way up the floors and finds Rana Singh and his men, almost getting killed in the process. Lucky for him, the Hijra (third gender) community that nursed him back to health join him in Shiva masks and, in a gorgeously shot and extremely gory sequence, help him to make his way to the next level where he is finally able to kill Rana and move onto the penthouse. There he finds Baba Shakti, who shanks him with a hidden knife, but Kid gets the better of him, stabbing him in the face and killing him before falling to the ground gravely wounded and seeing a vision of his mother reciting the same prayer that the pair were learning throughout the flashbacks in the film.

Patel has spoken about how Kid’s journey represents a classic action movie structure but through a new lens. “I’m talking about the caste system and the action genre, kind of the core tenet of that is working your way through to get to the big boss. Normally working your way up like in Game of Death with Bruce Lee or The Raid or Judge Dredd,” he told Screenrant.

But the big question is whether or not Kid is dead — and of course that likely depends on how well the film performs at the box office. It does feel like it has John Wick franchise potential; but in another chat with India Express he hinted that looking at Kid’s entire journey, his fate was clear. “We are going to start in a club called Kings and we start with the poor, the slaves in the bottom in this windowless kitchen, and then this guy will go up to the land of the Kings. He will conquer that and bring down the tapestries of oppressive Maharajas and then he will meet a man-made God [sic] and then he will challenge that God. [sic] Spoiler alert. He will then reach the heaven.”

Is There a Post-Credits Scene in Monkey Man?Nope! As stated above, there are no mid- or post-credits scenes in the movie.

Monkey Man GalleryThe Legend Behind Monkey ManThroughout the film, viewers are introduced to the legend of the Hanuman. The idea of a divine monkey has been written about as early as 1500 BCE, but it’s really in the Hindu epic texts Ramayana and Mahabharata that the legend of Hanuman began.

It’s really in the Hindu epic texts Ramayana and Mahabharata that the legend of Hanuman began.

As the film illustrates, the Monkey-God was a young child when he saw the shining golden sun and mistook it for a mango. Depending on the version of the story you read, he is either struck down by a god and later given superpowers or turned to ash before being restored after his grandmother begged the gods to do so. His story continues for years throughout the tales of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The legend of Hanuman appears in multiple religions alongside Hinduism and has inspired many temples and artworks, and is celebrated during a number of festivals around the world. This is the first major Western movie that takes on the Hanuman legend directly, but his reach is massive. Hanuman was even reimagined in Black Panther as that was the name given to the Jabbari Tribe’s gorilla-like god that the Wakandan tribe worshiped in the Marvel film.

For Patel, the iconography and story of the deity have long inspired him and those around him. “Hanuman really captivated me. He has been sort of an emblem for my father and many in my family. If you go to any gym in India, there’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman, and Hanuman. What baffled me growing up was this iconography of this super-strong being who could hold mountains in one hand and split his chest open. It reminded me of the iconography of Superman. I was like, this is amazing, I wish the world knew about it,” Patel told the Hindustan Times. The mythological deity also shaped the journey that the writer, director, and star took his character, Kid, through in the brutal action film. “When you go deep into it, he is sort of a guy who has lost faith in himself and had to be reminded of who he was.”

What Martial Arts Movies Inspired Monkey Man? When the trailer for Monkey Man first dropped the internet was ablaze with talk of the “Indian John Wick” and, yes, the Chad Stahelski/Keanu Reeves gamechanger is definitely a massive influence on the film, to the point where we get a namedrop as Kid tries to get a gun for his mission. There’s also the obvious influence of Bruce Lee, something Patel talked about in a recent interview with Letterboxed, and Lee’s philosophical fingerprints are all over the film. Not only is the story — like many of Lee’s most famous movies — about an underdog fighting his way through a criminal empire, but it ends with a sequence that directly homages the famous mirror fight sequence in Enter the Dragon. As Kid fights Rana, he does so in a glamorous hall with circular mirrors hanging from the ceiling, evoking the legendary Lee’s battle from that film.

Another movie that immediately comes to mind is The Raid, Gareth Evans’ legendary Indonesian martial arts film that launched the careers of martial arts legends Iku Uwais and Joe Taslim, as well as becoming an instant classic. In that film, a group of cops must fight their way up through a tower block of violent criminals, just like Kid battling up the levels of Queenie’s club. Also, the fast-paced action and brutal gore bring to mind another Indonesian action legend, Timo Tjhanto, the director behind the horror-martial arts mashup The Night Comes for Us.

Patel also looked towards Korean cinema and its fantastic tradition of revenge movies like Oldboy, The Man From Nowhere, and A Bittersweet Life. That first movie casts a long shadow over Monkey Man, with a lone figure searching for truth in a bleak underworld where no one can be trusted. And the one scene that made our entire audience scream, which takes place in an elevator as Kid uses his mouth to plunge a blade into an assailant’s throat, feels destined to go down in history alongside Oldboy’s legendary hammer sequence.

What did you think of Monkey Man? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.