Chicken Run 2 ending explained

It’s clucking crazy out here, thanks to Chicken Run 2 coming back 23 years after the original movie. Here’s the ending explained in full.

For many adults over the age of 20, watching Chicken Run was a rite of passage, with the original movie coming out in 2000.

23 years later and a sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, is about to land on Netflix – even though a few key voices have changed along the way.

But will the adventure be just as memorable as the first? Here’s the ending of Chicken Run 2 explained in full. Warning – spoilers ahead!

Chicken Run 2 ending explained: Ginger’s breaking in

At the beginning of Chicken Run 2, all is well. Ginger (Thandiwe Newton), Rocky (Zachary Levi), and the gang inhabit a secluded island away from the nightmare at Tweedy’s farm. Seemingly picking up just where the original movie left off, Ginger and Rocky soon have a baby named Molly (Bella Ramsey). As Molly grows up, she begins to get bored of life on the island, wanting a new adventure.

While exploring, Molly spots a van on the mainland with a picture of a happy chicken on it. The van is advertising a new company that claims their chickens are happier than any others. Intrigued by the possibility of something more, Molly becomes intent on getting there. Meanwhile, Ginger spots the same vans and tries to send the island into hiding, dreading the same fate they had back on the farm. One morning, Molly goes missing, and the group decides there’s no longer any use in hiding.

Making her escape to the mainland, Molly meets Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies), another young chicken who’s also on the hunt for said new paradise. Together, they track down one of the vans full of chickens, with Ginger and co. hot on the tails to try and bring them back. Ginger and Rocky narrowly miss them, with Molly and Frizzle taken away behind iron-clad gates and a seriously impressive security system.

Mrs. Tweedy is back for more

Aardman/Netflix

Once Molly and Frizzle are inside the new factory, they are presented with an indoor version of paradise. There are slides, games, and all the chicken feed in the world to eat – and immediately the pair feel as though they’ve hit the jackpot. However, it doesn’t take long for the cracks to show, with Molly evading being tagged with a neck brace. Slowly, she realizes that the braces are sending the chickens into a state of hypnosis, dulling their emotions to nothing but sickly sweet ‘happiness.’

Meanwhile, Ginger, Rocky, and the gang devise a plan to break into the factory. After some face-offs with robotic ducks and some fairly redundant security guards, they get inside. The group splits up in the hopes of finding Molly faster, with Ginger ending up bumping into the flaccid Dr. Fry (Nick Mohammed) and visiting guest Reginald Smith (Peter Serafinowicz). Only then does she realize who is actually behind the operation – her old nemesis, Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).

Ginger overhears the trio’s entire plan – to make the chickens as ‘happy’ as possible in order to make their meat tender, exporting tasty chicken bites for the masses to enjoy. Meanwhile, Molly watches innocent chickens being led up the stairway ‘to heaven,’ trying to snap them out of their hypnosis. While trying to escape, she runs into Ginger, and the game to take down Tweedy is on.

Mission: Impossible, chicken style

Netflix

The Chicken Run 2 ending sees Ginger, Rocky, Molly, and the gang all working together to stop Tweedy’s mass production of chicken bites. While Babs (Jane Horrocks), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), and Mac (Lynn Ferguson) distract the guards, Ginger and Molly make a run for it – but not before Mrs. Tweedy realizes who is trying to stop them. Ginger is cuffed in a neck brace, slowing the pair down enough to be reunited with Babs and the group. The gang is thrown into a vat of unpopped popcorn, with a previously missing Rocky later joining them. Figuring out how to pop the kernels themselves, the gang is freed and is back on the run.

The group’s plan is simple – turn off the hypnotizing neck braces, field the chickens into a van outside, and floor it back to the island. Each of the group takes a specific role in executing the plan, which of course doesn’t happen without its obstacles. With the majority of the chickens heading up the escalator through the bites factory processor, Ginger faces off with Mrs. Tweedy in a way that echoes their final encounter in the original, with Tweedy narrowly missing victory against Ginger once more. She falls into her own bites contraption, leading the rest of the gang to make their break for freedom.

Thanks to Fowler (David Bradley) waiting outside, the majority of the chickens are freed – including Frizzle, who has next to no clue what actually happened to her. Once again, the chickens head back to their true paradise of the island, as Molly learns that she has it pretty great just where she is. At the same time, Ginger realizes that she doesn’t need to helicopter parent Molly so much, who shows exactly the same feisty spirit that Ginger has always had.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hits Netflix on December 15, 2023. Find out more about the sequel here.