Why Fans of Now You See Me Will Love the Sequel's Ending

After staying in the shadows for over a year, the magicians emerge to expose a new tech company that's been stealing people's privacy with its new software. However, things go completely haywire when another party ruins their plan and reveals a few secrets of their own. Not only do people find out that Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) is still alive, but FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is outed for being a double agent.

As the Four Horsemen frantically try to make a getaway, they are completely disheveled to suddenly find themselves in Macau. Upon their arrival, they are taken to a tech wizard named Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe). He explains that when they tried to escape, he hypnotized them and put them on a plane while they were unconscious. He blackmails the Horsemen into stealing a chip capable of cracking any code, so that he can finally live life off the grid.

Meanwhile, in an effort to be reunited with his Horsemen, Rhodes enlists help from Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a man who makes a living off of revealing other magicians' secrets. Since it was Rhodes who put him in jail in the first place, he's a bit hesitant to help, but he eventually offers his services on one condition: that he gets out of jail. Rhodes agrees, but when the two travel to Macau, Bradley disappears in a magic shop.

Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) returns, but this time he has a new partner — his son, who just happens to be that tech wiz, Walter Mabry. After the Horsemen humiliate Tressler and clean out his bank account, the two create the ultimate plan to make the magicians disappear . . . for good. The worst part, of course, is when they throw Rhodes into the same safe that killed his father, Lionel Shrike, and send him to the bottom of the river to drown.

Now that Rhodes has exacted his revenge, he struggles to find meaning in his life. His role as the Horsemen's leader begins to falter as a result. Throughout the whole movie, Rhodes is overwhelmed with flashbacks of his father's death. But when Tressler and Mabry lock him in the safe, he has a sudden epiphany. On the brink of death, he realizes that his father's old watch is actually the key to escaping. He picks the lock, and the rest of the Horsemen show up to bring him to safety.

In an effort to gain their freedom and show everyone who Tressler and Mabry truly are, the Horsemen perform in various spots in London as a distraction. All seems to be going well, until Merritt McKinney's evil twin brother (Woody Harrelson) hypnotizes him and finds out where they are heading. The five almost escape, but they're taken hostage and forced onto an airplane. Once they hand over the chip, Tressler and Mabry have them thrown out the door. It seems like this could be the end as we know it until, ta-da, it was actually all a big magic trick devised by the Horsemen. The bad guys are arrested, and the five magicians are greeted with a huge round of applause.

When the magicians are finally taken to the Eye, they realize that they were being watched over this whole time. Rhodes makes his way into the study, and he's shocked to find a photo of his late father and Bradley on the desk. As it turns out, Bradley has actually been pulling the strings this whole time.

He explains that he and Lionel Shrike were actually good friends and that playing enemies was all an illusion for the press. He felt horrible for his father's death and has been waiting for the right moment to pass along his duties to Rhodes. Masterfully, the movie ends the same way it starts, with a perfect voice-over of Bradley telling the Horsemen that no matter what, he will find them, because he believes in taking "an eye for an eye." This time, his words take on a whole new meaning — he is, after all, the man behind the curtain.