‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’ ending explained: What happened to Luther?

Idris Elba’s formidable police inspector Luther finally made his big screen debut earlier this week in The Fallen Sun.

Set shortly after the events of 2019’s fifth season, Luther: The Fallen Sun is “an epic continuation of the award-winning television saga reimagined for film. A gruesome serial killer is terrorising London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.”

Luther: The Fallen Sun sees the return of Dermot Crowley as Martin Schenk and introduces Cynthia Erivo as Odette Rayne. Andy Serkais plays baddie David Robey.

What happens at the end of Luther: The Fallen Sun?

After delivering Luther to Robey’s frozen lair somewhere in Europe, Rayne is instructed to stab him in front of a global audience watching via Robey’s Red Room subscription service. She cooperates in a bid to save her daughter’s life, who is watching from the next room. When Luther is told to shatter Rayne’s knee with a hammer though, he refuses and scares off a majority of the viewers with the threat they’re currently being tracked by the police.

Robey tries to escape and Luther follows, with Rayne and her daughter trapped in a fiery room, fighting for their lives with a hose pipe. Robey and Luther come to blows and end up at the bottom of a frozen lake.

Luther holds Robey down long enough to stop him from finding the hole in the ice to escape and he drowns, joining his many victims in the watery tomb. Seeing this, Luther frees Rayne using Robey’s mobile phone and is about to pass out when a helicopter arrives, saving his life.

Shortly afterwards, Luther wakes up somewhere that isn’t prison before a fleet of vehicles with blacked-out windows arrive. Schenk says it’s probably Government related and Luther is swiftly invited into the backseat of a car by a smart looking chap wearing a suit for a job offer from “the chief”.

So, is Luther a spy now?

At the beginning of The Fallen Sun, Luther has his reputation publicly ruined thanks to Robey leaking all his dark secrets. The end of the film reiterates this, via a news report about the showdown. So Luther definitely can’t return to being a policeman.

However, Luther: The Fallen Sun suggests the former inspector ends up with a job in the secret service. The film makes numerous references to James Bond movies, from the reveal of Luther’s iconic car through the London Underground-based pursuit to a scene in a bar that sees Luther turn down a martini and ask for water instead.

Speaking about Luther: The Fallen Sun ahead of its release, Elba told Total Film (via Radio Times): “It’s not a competition, but I reference Bond as a template for the type of film we’re going for.”

He continued: “John is a leading character in a film that he’s the hero of. That’s the comparison I’m making. Some films do them well – Bond is one of them. But my ambition for it is to have that sort of scale, that reverence.

Elba then suggested The Fallen Sun could be the start of a series of movies. “I want people to be like: ‘Ooh! Luther, the first film? Wicked.’ And to continue that. And then maybe later down the line, when I’m too old, someone else will step in to play John.”

So the next time you see Luther, don’t be surprised if he’s traded in that dirty grey overcoat for something a little more sophisticated.

Luther: The Fallen Sun is in cinemas now ahead of a Netflix release on March 10.