Now You See Me 2 brought back the group the Four Horsemen for another wild ride of magical shenanigans and another takedown of a corporate mogul, complete with another wild ending. Unfortunately, Isla Fisher’s Henley is absent from Now You See Me 2 due to scheduling issues with the actress, but Lizzy Caplan joined the troupe with Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco. Led by Mark Ruffalo’s Dylan Shrike, the son of famous magician Lionel Shrike, who died in a freak accident, the magicians take on Daniel Radcliffe’s Walter Mabry, who wants to rob people of their digital privacy.

Now You See Me 2 picks up a few months after the ending of Now You See Me, with the Horsemen still in hiding, planning their big comeback. However, they’re tricked into stealing technology for Walter, whom they eventually decide to deceive and expose. The ending of Now You See Me 2 focuses on the Horsemen’s flamboyant and elaborate magic tricks, which culminate in Walter’s takedown. Now that Now You See Me 2 is streaming, fans can rewatch the final scene, which also drops hints about the mysterious organization of magicians known as The Eye, and their global reach.

What The Now You See Me 2 Final Scene Reveals About The Eye

They’re Everywhere And Always Watching

After the large-scale magic trick that ends with Walter being exposed, Now You See Me 2 has a final scene that attempts to tie up some loose ends and set up a third film in the franchise. Now that Now You See Me 3 is confirmed, it remains to be seen whether it picks up from where Now You See Me 2 ends. The last scene in Now You See Me 2 is set in one of the possible headquarters of The Eye and has clues that point towards the organization’s involvement in all the events in the movie.

The Horsemen walk into a room with a collage of images that suggest that they, including Dylan, were being observed by the Eye throughout the film. There are folders of information that hint at their subtle acts of ᴀssistance to the Horsemen during the movie, all across the world. From Macau to London, the Eye has been helping them achieve their goals, even though they chose not to reveal themselves until the beginning of the third act of Now You See Me 2, when Li and Bu Bu from the magic shop in Macau confirm that they’re members.

To the utter disbelief of the Horsemen, even the guard in the vault from where they stole the chip for Walter is a member of the Eye. The vault scene is likely the best in the Now You See Me franchise, involving an elaborate card trick where the members exchange the card with the chip on it while being scanned and watched. The fact that the head of operations in the vault knew about the Horsemen and their plan is an eye-opening revelation.

Early on in Now You See Me 2, while the Horsemen are trying to plan out their escape in Macau, Lula (Lizzy Caplan) thinks out loud about the Eye. She asks the others if they ever wonder whether the Eye is always watching and will swoop in at the last minute to save them. The final scene in Now You See Me 2 all but confirms this is the truth, and the Horsemen’s success is in no small part due to the many efforts on the Eye’s part behind the scenes to ensure their plans go smoothly.

What’s even more surprising is that Dylan is among the characters to be pH๏τographed. Possibly the best of the magicians in the Now You See Me franchise, Dylan Shrike is the mastermind behind the Horsemen’s elaborate schemes and plans. He brought them together in Now You See Me, tested them while having them believe he was just an FBI agent they were tricking, and eventually inducted them into the Eye.

In Now You See Me 2, though, it initially feels like Dylan doesn’t know everything about the Eye’s activities, since they were speaking to Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) separately, even suggesting he could replace Dylan. However, these are later revealed to have been orchestrated by Walter, and not the real members of the Eye. So, it is especially shocking that Dylan, who represents the Eye and has been masterminding the Horsemen’s activities, is also not at the top level of the organization, suggesting it goes just as deep as its mythology.

Now You See Me explained that the Eye was an ancient organization that was born in Ancient Egypt, and it’s an elite society of the world’s best magicians today. They’re still largely a mystery, especially their hierarchy, because even members like Dylan are apparently only being watched by them. One of the biggest expectations from Now You See Me 3 is thus a possible explanation for who belongs in the Eye, who is working above Dylan, and how they came to be the all-knowing, all-seeing organization they are today.

How The Horsemen Perform Their Final Trick In Now You See Me 2

Misdirection Is Key

The most burning question that characters and viewers alike are left with at the end of every Now You See Me setpiece is “how did they do that?” Unlike with real-life magicians, though, the audience is allowed to learn the tricks of the trade. Every major setpiece is prefaced or followed by a block of exposition. While Now You See Me‘s explanations for the two safe thefts are significantly better, the montage that explains how the Horsemen tricked Walter and Arthur into thinking they were throwing the magicians off the plane does a relatively decent job.

Walter’s employee (their relationship is never properly explained), Chase McKinney (Woody Harrelson), the twin brother of Merritt McKinney, thinks he has successfully unearthed the secret of the Horsemen’s final act. After he pᴀsses the information on to Walter, the Horsemen are caught and boarded on a plane where Walter takes back the chip and decides to throw the Horsemen off the plane while it’s in flight to kill them, so his secret stays safe.

However, the Horsemen had switched out the truck driver so he could drive them to the wrong hangar, with the fake runway. Using lights and anxiety-inducing antics, they ensured Walter and Arthur would board them on the fake plane. Meanwhile, Jack (Dave Franco) had earlier hypnotized Chase into suggesting they throw the magicians off the flight. Merritt hadn’t been trying to hide the location of their final trick and had simply led Chase to believe he had cracked the case so he would become sloppy in his work.

Once they were thrown off the fake plane, all they had left to do was reveal to the world that Walter was alive. Just like the leap from the building in Now You See Me, though, the final escape from the authorities isn’t explained in Now You See Me 2. However, even though the airplane trick is explained, it seems much too simple an explanation for such a difficult maneuver. Walter has a whole crew of people, but some simple misdirection fools them all? The best thing to do is to not look too closely, lest the explanation fall apart.

How The Horsemen’s Individual Tricks Set Up The Finale

They Foreshadow The Climactic Trick

In true Four Horsemen style, the flamboyant group of magicians performs a set of large-scale magic tricks to set up the finale. They advertise the tricks beforehand, and then pop up at various spots in London, beginning their magic tricks out of nowhere. Part of the announcement by the Horsemen before their appearance is an insistence on the fact that each of their tricks will be part of the finale. While the magic is exaggerated and might be impossible in the form in which we see it, every Now You See Me 2 trick is based on real techniques.

Jack Wilder performs the timeless three-card monte trick with life-size playing cards and three real people in the plaza. Three people stand behind three cards, and then Jack tells two people to switch places a few times before asking the audience to guess which card the woman is holding. They inevitably fail each time, and before disappearing after revealing all three places as empty, Jack leaves them by asking if they think he used duplicates or hidden doors to achieve this.

Meanwhile, Lula stands above her audience and promises to fly a large vessel across the Thames. She starts by making a pigeon fly, which doesn’t surprise anyone, but then a pigeon flies out of a man’s fly, and we know the magic trick has begun. However, after killing a pigeon and still making it fly, she has to suddenly leave without making the vessel fly, leaving one wondering if she failed. She has successfully drawn people’s attention to the vessel and the Thames, though.

After this comes the best of the individual tricks in the finale. Atlas shows up with the bizarre promise of controlling the weather. He then, with all his trademark theatricality, points outwards, and to people’s shock, the rain freezes, with raindrops floating still in the air. Next, he makes them move upwards, before letting them move randomly in every direction possible. Before he leaves, he tells people that the trick was done using strobe lights and a rain machine.

It was using a duplicate that the Horsemen switched out Walter’s truck driver, just like in Jack’s three-card monte. The fake hangar in the middle of the Thames is the vessel that Lula had suggested flying over the Thames. Meanwhile, strobe lights were used to keep Arthur and Walter from noticing that they were boarding the wrong plane, and a rain machine was used to make it seem like the plane was flying in the air from the inside. This is how each trick sets up the final plane trick in Now You See Me 2‘s ending.

Now You See Me 2’s Ending Explains Who Thaddeus Bradley Really Is

He Has Always Been A Member Of The Eye

While the Horsemen have charismatic stage presences, they’re not particularly interesting as characters. Instead, Dylan and Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) are by far the most intriguing characters in the Now You See Me franchise. Thaddeus Bradley is initially introduced in Now You See Me as an ex-magician who makes money debunking magic and exposing the secrets behind the most celebrated and elaborate magic tricks in the world. Since he blames Thaddeus for his father’s death, Dylan had plotted to imprison him by framing him in Now You See Me.

Now You See Me 2 provides the much-needed backstory of this character. We first see him disapprovingly introducing Lionel Shrike’s fatal trick, which ended in his demise, in the film’s prologue, and then finally learn the truth about his role in Shrike’s life in the movie’s epilogue. Thaddeus informs Dylan that he and Shrike had always been close friends, and they merely pretended to hate each other as a PR stunt. Thaddeus Bradley had also been a member of the Eye like Dylan all along, and he had been waiting for the right time to reveal this information.

Potential Plot Holes Created By Now You See Me 2’s Ending

There Are Many Questions Left Unanswered

While there is a spotlight on the expository final scene that supposedly explains the Horsemen’s final trick and then the Eye’s involvement through an epilogue, Now You See Me 2 explains less than it doesn’t. For instance, Atlas insists that the chip he has is fake, but when Walter finally takes it from him, he finds it to be real. Did Atlas not know what he was talking about, or was he misdirecting his fellow Horsemen? Moreover, the overuse of hypnosis to explain away any potential plot holes is textbook lazy writing.

Jack hypnotizing Chase to convince him to suggest throwing the Horsemen off the plane is even worse because Jack didn’t leave his three-card monte trick until after Merritt informed Dylan that Chase had discovered details of their plan. Thaddeus reveals in the ending that he knew Dylan’s watch, which was gifted to him by Lionel Shrike, had a key to open the safe in which Walter locked him earlier in the film. However, the watch also has a UVLED light, and that technology didn’t exist in the early ’90s.

The epic revelation about the Eye’s scope as an organization may be wonderful, but it begs the question of why the Eye didn’t do more to prevent obvious harm to the characters. In a world where a group of magicians can be put to sleep and shipped off to Macau, hijacking this maneuver shouldn’t be difficult for established magicians in the Eye. Their role as observers makes one question their motivations and leaves a glaring plot hole about their capabilities.

How Now You See Me 2’s Ending Sets Up A Sequel

Development Delayed Pushed Back Now You See Me 3

The final sH๏τ in Now You See Me 2 is an obvious setup. It is a classic instance of misdirection, not different from a magic trick, except we will only be getting the revelation nine years after the setup. It shows the Horsemen looking down from a spiral staircase in glee, while Thaddeus Bradley’s monologue from the beginning of the film plays in the background. The zoom out from the ceiling of the room makes the ceiling look like an eye, and builds anticipation about the Horsemen’s role as members of the Eye, who have met the inner circle now.

Moreover, Bradley says that he is officially out of tricks, and suggests that Dylan should take over, while also looking for a worthy successor. So, this sets up a possible hunt for an heir in the sequel. However, the biggest setup in Now You See Me 2, which the Now You See Me 3 trailer at least doesn’t talk about, is Dylan Shrike officially becoming a magician and clearing his name with the FBI after giving the new FBI agent the flash drive with all the information needed to exonerate him and the Horsemen.