Badland Hunters ending explained: Will there be a third movie?

Netflix’s Badland Hunters is the newest Korean movie set after the events of a major earthquake with sole survivors learning of an evil doctor’s plans to change humanity. Here’s what happens in Badland Hunters’ ending.

South Korean and Marvel actor Don Lee stars as Nam-san a wasteland hunter feared for his heavy fists. The movie takes place after the tragic events of an earthquake that turned Seoul into a barren apocalyptic wasteland. Where even water has been polluted.

Badland Hunters serves as a sequel to the movie Concrete Utopia which also occurs after an earthquake where a husband and wife try to survive. In the Netflix movie, Nam San and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) are the protectors of the wasteland.

Everything changes when an unknown gang takes young teens and their parents to a supposed safe zone at a residential building. But Nam-san and Ji-wan soon learn it’s a front for a doctor’s devious plans and twisted experiments. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Su-na is in danger

The chaos ensued when Ji-wan witnessed Su-na’s (Roh Jeong-eui) grandmother get killed by two of them from the group that came to take her away. With the help of Nam-san, they soon learn the “agents” are superhuman and won’t die. They are aided by Lee Eun-ho (Ahn Ji-hye), a special forces agent who reveals the truth.

After the earthquake, the military found only one building left standing and soon arrived Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-joon), the only surviving doctor. Eun-ho soon learns the children who came to him for help have disappeared. To make matters worse, her team has gone against her. They took Gi-su’s secret formula that gives them strength and unkillable.

Eun-ho refused to submit and was cast out. Gi-su and his followers have been taking young teens to experiment on. They promise to take care of their parents or guardians in return. Instead, the weak are killed and the parents are isolated from their children as they become lab rats.

Nam-san, Ji-wan, and Eun-ho use a local gang of thugs who deliver goods to the apartments as a cover to infiltrate. At the same time, Su-na learns the truth about Gi-su’s evil experiments and his first having been his own daughter. Su-na’s taken to be his new subject.

He reveals that the pure and clean water they provide is what also makes the residents compliable. Eun-ho battles her old comrades whose use of the formula has turned him into a mutation similar to a snake. He manages to gravely wound her. As Ji-wan and Nam-san run into him, Nam-san takes him on and successfully kills him.

In a turn of events, Sa-na tells the doctor she never drank the water. He also injects himself with the formula as Ji-wan arrives. Outnumbered, the soldiers wound him as Gi-su makes a run for it with his daughter.

Does Gi-su survive?

No, Gi-su doesn’t survive as everything he created goes down in shambles and Nam-san shoots him point blank.

Gi-su makes a run for it as the remaining teens make their way outside. But their parents notice something is wrong with them. At the same time, Nam-san arrives at the lab but Gi-su’s assistant locks the main door. Gi-su leaves her to die and sets off a grenade as Ji-wan moves an operating table to protect him and Sa-na. Nam-san rescues them both while Gi-su makes his escape outside.

The parents notice him and bombard him with questions. They become outraged and attack him. Gi-su goes insane seeing his viles broken and opens fire on them. But he soon realizes the suitcase is leaking. His daughter’s heart has stopped beating. Nam-san and the others make their way outside as Gi-su begins to mutate.

Sa-na gives him a reality check that he wasn’t able to save anyone, not even his daughter. Nam-san ends it by shooting him in the head. Badland Hunters’ ending has everyone alive and well with Eun-ho ready to rebuild. The movie ends with rainfall, Su-na saying goodbye at her grandmother’s grave. Back at camp, Ji-wan and Sa-na try to get Nam-san to date a woman who likes him.

Will there be a third movie?

For now, there are no plans for a third movie from Netflix.

While Badland Hunters is a sequel to Concrete Utopia, it also served as a standalone as none of the first movie characters appeared. Seeing as the disastrous earthquake is the connection between the two movies, it’s still possible for a third.

A third movie would explore new characters, and a new storyline the same way Badland Hunters did as its ending closed the chapter for Nam-san.