The Ending Of The Losers Explained
Originally released in 2010 and boasting an all-star cast that includes Idris Elba, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, and a pre-"Captain America" Chris Evans, the action-comedy "The Losers" had the potential to be a big hit. Instead, it ended up being a mostly-forgotten gem. Thanks to Netflix, though, the film has found a new legion of viewers who are checking out this fast-paced story of betrayal and revenge for the first time over a decade later.
The title of the film refers to a group of black ops special agents — Clay (Morgan), Roque (Elba), Jensen (Evans), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) — who begin the narrative on a mission to destroy the compound of a Bolivian drug lord. After the raid goes sideways, the extraction helicopter they were meant to be on is blown up by the person giving them orders, a mysterious man known only as Max (Jason Patric). Not only are the Losers horrified that one of their superiors tried to kill them but the helicopter was also full of children the team had rescued from the compound. Betrayed and presumed dead, the team decides their best move is to lay low until they have a chance to reclaim their identity and get revenge.
They soon learn that they're not the only ones on the hunt for Max. While in Bolivia, they meet Aisha (Saldana), who has her own reasons for wanting their former superior dead. With Aisha's resources they are able to sneak back into the US and track their target down thanks to a shady billion-dollar weapons deal he's in the process of orchestrating. However, before the Losers are able to get their man, they must first weather several major upsets to their plan.
Aisha's true identity is uncovered
The Losers make a big breakthrough on their quest when Jensen cracks into a hard drive stolen from Max. Not only do they learn that it contains $400 million dollars that have been earmarked for a black-market nuke deal, but they also learn that the entire operation to Bolivia was a setup by Max. He always intended to use the Losers to kill the drug dealer and then eliminate them to cover his tracks.
The drug dealer, they learn, had gotten wind of Max's nuke deal and was a potential wrench in the works. That would be a surprising enough revelation, but it's nothing compared to what Jensen discovers when he digs deeper into the files on the drive. It contains information on the drug dealer's finances that include the identity of his next-of-kin: his daughter Aisha.
This news comes as a surprise to the team, especially team leader Clay, who has formed a rather intense physical relationship with Aisha. While the team had never fully trusted her, they were clearly not expecting to find themselves as pawns in her game.
The revelation also makes very clear to the audience what type of person Aisha is. Her character's sole goal is to get revenge for her father's murder and everything else — the Losers, her budding romance with Clay, any semblance of morality — is nothing more than a means to an end for her. When Clay later points out that her father was a terrible man, she simply replies, "It doesn't matter." In a film full of morally questionable characters, Aisha is perhaps the one that exists most firmly in the gray area.
However, her betrayal isn't the last, nor the most extreme, that the team faces.
The team faces its biggest betrayal yet
After Aisha escapes, the team heads to the location of Max's deal with the intention of putting an end to his nefarious scheming once and for all. But almost as soon as they arrive, the team realizes they've been set up and Roque reveals himself to be a traitor.
"After the Miami fiasco, I cut a deal, Clay," he says, referring to the team's attempt to hijack an armored truck that they believed contained Max. However, when they actually cracked the truck open, they found that Aisha had lied to them and it contained nothing but a hard drive. At the time, Roque was furious and urged Clay to kill Aisha and walk away from their revenge mission. When Clay implored him to remember their vendetta against Max, Roque replied, "No, I don't want him to pay, I want my life back. Okay? I want my life back."
Clay told him that if he wanted to go, he could go. However, Roque had no legitimate way to do that. The team is officially dead and had to sneak across the border to even get back into the US. While Roque clearly wanted to walk away from it all, without any money or an official identity, his options were limited.
The Miami fiasco also exposed a major rift between Clay and Roque. While Clay is, deep down, driven by his morality, Roque is driven by self-preservation. When Clay refused to burn Aisha and abandon their revenge mission against Max, Roque went to the place that made the most sense: right to Max to trade in his former teammates for money and a place in Max's operation.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
After Roque's betrayal, things look particularly dire for the remaining Losers. Max is in the process of acquiring his black-market nukes and his security forces have the team lined up ready to be executed. However, at the last moment, they get a major assist from Aisha and her rocket launcher. It may seem like a strange development considering the last time the team saw her they were trading gunfire but as the old saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Aisha further cements her single-minded determination in the film's penultimate scene. After they are freed, the Losers kill the traitorous Roque and disarm the nuke that Max was threatening to detonate. However, the man himself manages to evade capture. When the dust settles, Clay gets a call from the criminal mastermind, which he ends by saying, "Be seeing you soon, Max."
Clay then invites Aisha to join them as they continue their search for the man they all want dead. Although he doesn't explicitly say he's hoping they'll also rekindle their relationship, she seems to pick up on that hope and tells him, "When this is over and he's dead, you and I are going to finish that dance."
Although Aisha has lied to the group on multiple occasions, by the end, they seem to have reached a detente. So long as they all have the same goals in mind, everyone's personal motivations are a bit irrelevant. She even shows her willingness to play ball with them by helping Pooch reunite with his pregnant wife in the film's final moments.
That endnote and the dynamic it firms up makes for an excellent setup for a sequel. Unfortunately, none ever materialized.
Will there ever be a sequel to The Losers?
Considering the unresolved nature of the ending and the fact that "The Losers" was adapted from the first two volumes of a multi-volume comic book series, it seems very likely that the film was originally produced with the intention of making a sequel. So, what happened?
In a 2018 Fandom interview with Morgan, the actor revealed, "There's all sorts of stories about what went wrong with that movie and it's mostly studio/producer stuff, and nothing to do with the actual film itself."
While Morgan didn't clarify exactly why a sequel never materialized, those behind-the-scenes problems combined with the fact that the film made a little over $29 million at the box office against its $25 million budget is most likely the answer. Morgan even noted, "It wasn't promoted the way it should have been, to be honest with you."
Is there a possibility that we could get a sequel now that the movie is finding a new audience on Netflix? While Morgan said he would be down to play Clay again during his Fandom interview, the prospect seems rather unlikely. The good news is that if you're looking to see what happens next in the Losers' search for Max, you can always check out the comics.