The Big Picture
- Rachel Stone is secretly part of The Charter, a two-decade-old agency that operates independently from any government, working to minimize casualties in terrorist attacks.
- The Charter possesses a powerful quantum computer called the Heart that can hack any electronic device and predict the future with accuracy, making their missions successful.
- Keya and Parker, the main villains, acquire the Heart but ultimately fail to use it as intended. Stone saves the day, defeats Parker, and convinces the Charter to use the Heart responsibly, recruiting Keya to join her new team.
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Heart of Stone.’After the success of Red Notice, Netflix is counting on Gal Gadot to kick off another action franchise for the streamer with Heart of Stone, a spy thriller inspired by James Bond and Mission: Impossible. As such, Heart of Stone is filled with wondrous technology, sudden villain reveals, and surprising shifts in alliances that might leave some fans wondering what exactly happened at the end. So, now that Heart of Stone is out, let’s break down the movie’s ending and answer the main question viewers might have about the plot.
What Is the Charter in ‘Heart of Stone’?
In Heart of Stone, Gadot plays the role of Rachel Stone, an MI6 hacker secretly part of a mysterious organization called The Charter. Usually, intelligence agencies are funded by specific governments – the MI6, for instance, works to protect the United Kingdom’s interests. The Charter, however, is a two-decade-old agency founded by former spies who decided to band together for the greater good, regardless of national affiliations. That means the Charter doesn’t follow orders from anyone, and its agents work to minimize casualties as much as possible. The Charter’s primary goal is to determine the best course of action for most people to come out alive from terrorist attacks and bomb threats, even if that means being strictly logical and sacrificing some innocents.
The Charter’s structure is inspired by a deck of cards. Each of its four teams is named after a suit, with Kings overseeing the operations of agents who use card-based code names in the field. Rachel Stone, for instance, is the agent known as the Nine of Hearts. Heart of Stone also introduces other prominent agents, such as the tech expert Jack of Heart (Matthias Schweighöfer) and Nomad (Sophie Okonedo), who acts as the King of Hearts.
What’s the Heart Technology?
In the years that precede Heart of Stone’s main events, the Charter got their hands into a quantum computer capable of hacking any kind of electronic device and cross-referencing trillions of data points in seconds. This computer, the Heart, allows Charter’s operatives to invade any system and calculate the odds of all their actions. With the supercomputer at their disposal, the Charter can predict the future with surprising accuracy, ensuring their field missions always have the outcome they expect.
Such a fantastic weapon doesn’t go unnoticed, though, and people are determined to seize the Heart for themselves. So, to protect the device, the Charter has placed the Heart’s physical core inside an airship that remains 85 thousand feet above ground at all times, making it impossible for any evildoer to get there, even by plane. The airship is known as the Locker and is the literal center of intelligence of the Charter.
Who’s After ‘Heart of Stone’ World-Threatening Weapon?
In Heart of Stone, Gadot goes on a globetrotting adventure to prevent the Heart from falling into the wrong hands. The team of villains is led by Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt) and Parker (Jamie Dornan). Keya is a technological prodigy raised by the computational genius Niam Kharche. As it turns out, Kharche has made his fortune by performing illegal pharmaceutical experiments that claimed the lives of thousands of people, including Keya’s parents. Kharche adopted Keya after realizing her potential, and the girl pretended to be grateful while learning everything she could. Once Kharche was no longer useful to her, Keya went after the Heart, a tool she could use to expose Kharche’s crimes and take down every unscrupulous millionaire who built their fortune thanks to other people’s suffering.
Parker’s motivations are less altruistic, as the spy seeks revenge. Eight years before Heart of Stone, Parker was an MI6 operative sent to Chechenia to help local soldiers get weapons to overthrow a tyrannical warlord. The mission goes south, the MI6 thinks all their agents are dead, and many weapons end up on the battlefield, waiting for the warlord to claim them. Fearing what the enemy could do with such destructive power, the Charter ordered a missile attack to destroy the weapons. While they are successful in their objective, the bombs also hit civilians and Parker, who carries burn scars on his back. Parker dreamt about taking the Charter down for eight years, infiltrating the same MI6 team as Stone to keep tabs on the agency. The opportunity came after Parker learned about the Heart and met Keya, the technical wizard that could make his dreams come true.
How Does Gal Gadot Beat the Odds at the Ending?
At the end of Heart of Stone, Parker and Keya acquire the Heart after executing a daring heist in the Locker. The Charter tries to stop the villains from activating the supercomputer, sending agents to follow a tracker Stone managed to hide in Keya’s clothes after their fateful encounter in the airship. Unfortunately, Keya finds the tracker and uses it to set a trap for the Charter. The agents are lured to a university in Iceland, which has the low-temperature labs needed to activate the Heart. However, Keya and Parker are actually in a different lab nearby.
After Keya activates the Heart, Parker orders his goons to take control of the quantum computer and use it to kill the leaders of the Charter. Nomad and the whole Heart team get trapped inside a bunker without ventilation, waiting for their oxygen to deplete. Furthermore, Parker’s brutal actions cause the death of bystanders and even children, proving he’s a power-hungry villain who doesn’t care about Keya’s political agenda. Realizing the dangers of letting Parker use the Heart, Keya secretively uploads a program to shut down the computer while alerting Stone of her actual position.
Keya’s warning comes too late to save the Charter agents at the university, who are caught in a massive explosion. Fortunately, Stone evades the trap just in time. Once he realizes Keya sabotaged the Heart’s system, Parker goes after the girl. Stone arrives just in time to save the hacker. With the help of Keya, Stone manages to overpower Parker and shoot him down. Keya helps Stone to get the Heart back online and save the agents trapped inside the bunker.
Four weeks after Parker is shot dead and the Charter retrieves the Heart, Stone visits Keya in prison. Stone reveals she has convinced the Charter to use the Heart as a tool while still respecting their agents’ instincts, which means they need trustworthy operatives in the field. Stone handles a Joker card to Keya, inviting the hacker to become part of her new team. Heart of Stone ends while Stone, Keya, and Jack of Hearts depart on a new mission.
Heart of Stone is now streaming on Netflix.