Luther: The Fallen Sun ending explained

In Luther: The Fallen Sun, Idris Elba’s detective faces off against one of his most dangerous villains yet – here’s a breakdown of the ending and what it means for the future.

Just like its BBC predecessor, the movie opens in creepy fashion: a young cleaner hastily leaves an office to meet a man threatening to release photos on the other side of the phone. Soon after, he falls off the grid, never to be seen alive again.

As we soon discover, this is the handiwork of David Robey, a sinister ‘Shut Up and Dance’ blackmailer and serial killer who puts Luther behind bars before getting to work on his nastiest plan yet.

The Fallen Sun isn’t much of a whodunnit, instead following Luther on David’s bloody trail all the way to another country – here’s what happens.

Spoilers for Luther: The Fallen Sun to follow…

Luther: The Fallen Sun ending explained

Luther accompanies Odette to Norway, where David is holding her daughter Anya hostage in a remote mansion. When they get there, they find another collection of dead, hanging bodies – but Anya isn’t among them.

Downstairs, they find the stage for Robey’s Red Room – a livestream where people are murdered and tortured – and Robey forces Odette to stab Luther to get her daughter back. She complies, and Robey turns the tables: he orders Luther to clobber Odette’s knees with a sledgehammer.

He can’t go through with it, instead warning Robey’s viewers that their IP addresses are being tracked by police, sparking a mass exodus from the stream. Robey then makes a hasty escape, turning the room into a ticking incinerator before running away. Luther pursues him, while Odette and Anya manage to kill the last remaining goon and escape the room before it’s set alight.

Luther reaches Robey as he’s about to drive away, climbing inside the car and duking it out before crashing through the ice into the depths of the freezing water. Robey tries to swim to the surface but can’t find a way out, drowning and floating alongside the rest of his victims.

Before Luther dies, Schenk arrives in a helicopter and two divers rescue him. When he wakes up, he’s not back in prison – he’s in a large estate. Suddenly, a large fleet of black vehicles pull up outside, and Schenk suggests it may be a “job offer, perhaps.”

Luther walks outside, where he’s congratulated for his work on the case, and he’s invited into the backseat to meet “the chief”.

So, where does this leave him? It certainly appears Luther has been recruited by a secret, shadowy government agency, but we don’t know who the chief is or where he’ll be operating. Basically, in the world of the movie, he’s James Bond without the 00 title.

Luther: The Fallen Sun is available to stream on Netflix now.