The Amateur ending explained: Here's what went down

The Amateur came out on April 11, 2025, and met with mixed critical response; it holds a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. James Hawes directed the film while Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli wrote this film. Its official synopsis reads,

When his supervisors at the CIA refuse to take action after his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a decoder takes matters into his own hands.

The film stars Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, and Laurence Fishburne among others. So let us take a look into how this vigilante spy action film actually ends. Read on.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers.

What is the plot of The Amateur?

A still from The Amateur | Image via YouTube / 20th Century Studios

The Amateur is an adaptation of the namesake 1981 novel and follows Charles Heller who works as a cryptographer for CIA. As he is planning to gift his wife Sarah a restored Cessna plane, she is k*lled in a terrorist attack in London. Charles finds out the suspects but the CIA refuses to act against them which then leads him to do things in his own way.

How does The Amateur end?

The Amateur has Charlie hunting Horst Schiller who heads a group of mercenaries that is responsible for his wife's death. He gets three of his close men killed but spares Schiller's life and lets Interpol catch him. With this plan, he manages to uncover Alex Moore's conspiracy and bring all the culprits to justice. Charlie finds out that Moore has been ordering drone attacks on civilians and has been labeling them as suicide bombing missions. As soon as Charlie figures it out, Moore orders his k*lling to save himself and cover up the entire situation.

While Moore and his aides are arrested in the end, several other co-conspirators manage to walk Scott free. Moore had tasked Robert Henderson to eliminate Charlie. But as he is tailing Charlie, Henderson slowly develops a sense of respect for his junior and decides not to kill him.

One of the revelations in the film is that the mercenaries were backed by the CIA but they didn't work for the organization. The mission that caused Sarah's demise was not sponsored by the CIA. They were planning a mission at a bank which went awry and they took several people, including Sarah, hostage. Schiller eventually tells Charlie that they killed her to show the cops that they were not fooling around and could take lives. In the source material, the CIA is directly linked with Sarah's death, but this is changed in the film.

Towards the end of The Amateur, Charlie goes back to the USA and is about to resume his work with the CIA under Henderson. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rami Malek revealed that the ending sets up the groundwork for a sequel. He said,

"We would love for people to appreciate this film on its own as a standalone feature — if it resonated with people, that would be enough for me but to take Charlie’s story into further iterations would be an absolute joy."

He then added,