Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a wild innovative entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This 2021 movie centered on Shaun (Simu Liu), a nice guy working as a valet attendant in San Francisco with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). The pair are attacked by a pack of warriors led by the aptly named Razorfist, which wrecks a bus.
Shaun is forced to confess to Katy his past: His real name is Shang, the son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), a thousand-year-old warlord also known as The Mandarin. He was known for controlling a set of ten mystical bangles that he used to form a criminal organization called the Ten Rings. When his wife was murdered, Wenwu went on a darker path that forced Shang to kill someone. Shang broke away from his dad to find a normal life.
The pair meet up with Shang’s estranged sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), who’s part of a big fight club. They’re all soon captured by Wenwu, who wants the pair’s pendants as they’re a map to Ta Lao, the hidden realm where he met his wife Li. Wenwu believes he’s hearing Li call out to him from a gateway and is determined to free her.
Shang, Katy and Xialing find that a fellow prisoner is Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), the quirky actor who’d impersonated the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. The trio manage to escape and find their way to Ta Lao.
The truth of Ta Lao, explained
Ta Lo is a mystical realm full of the impossible; magical creatures, beautiful landscapes and all of the elements that would make up an immersive fantasy novel. But it hides a darker secret. As Li’s sister, Ying (Michelle Yeoh), explains: The wall holds back the Dweller in the Darkness, a monstrous creature who feasts on souls.
Years ago, Ta Lo's beautiful water dragon, who is called the Great Protector, drove him into this prison, and there has been peace in the realm ever since. However, the creature has been uising some underhanded tricks to free itself from the wall. The Dweller is tricking Wenwu into thinking his wife, Li, is trapped behind the wall, so he decides to bring his whole Ten Rings army there to set it free.
Wenwu and his army arrive for a battle but Ta Lo's warriors are ready for them. Wenwu, however, leaps over the battle and begins attacking the wall. Despite Shang’s attempts to stop him (and those bats overhead clearly breaking through), Wenwu continues to break down the wall, convinced that his wife is calling him. This allows the Dweller to break free and attack with his demonic forces.
Realizing how he was used, Wenwu sacrifices himself fighting the Dweller to protect Shang and gives his Rings to his son. Shang is then able to use the Rings to summon the Great Protector and defeat the Dweller.
Shang-Chi's post-credits crossover with The Avengers
The movie ends on a more light-hearted note than other MCU entries. On a night out, Shang and Katy tell some friends of their adventures in Ta Lo, but their pals naturally don't believe it, once again chalking it up to the fct that Shang and Katy haven't really "grown up". However, they change their minds when Wong (Benedict Wong) suddenly shows up through a portal to whisk the two off for a discussion involving the Ten Rings.
In a holographic talk with Avengers Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), the group realize the Rings are somehow acting as a beacon but don’t know for who or what. Captain Marvel has to leave promptly to attend to another matter but she tells them that Bruce has her number (he doesn't, apparently), but the scene very much implies that the Ten Rings will continue to play a major role in both the Multiverse Saga and the MCU in general.
As Wong and Bruce prepare Shang and Katy for their lives to change, it becomes clear that the pair are destined for an even bigger role in the franchise. Much like the Phase One MCU movies, this is the beginning of their story, while also teasing the role they will have in the overall story.
We then see Wong cutting loose with Shang and Katy at a karaoke bar.
The Ten Rings lives on in the second post-credits scene
Before they parted, now on better terms, Xialing had told Shang she would dismantle the Ten Rings organization. Thus, when we see her again in the movie's stinger with her seemingly in her apartment, everything seems as she said it would be. That is until Razorfist calls for her, as she seems to walk through a bar and enters a courtyard. It is revealed that, rather than shutting down the Ten Rings, Xialing has taken it over to run it with women now in the ranks.
This is a major character moment for Xialing, as her father wouldn't treat her the same way as he did her brother, never seeing her for the powerful woman that she was. Now, as the leader of the organization, she continues to prove him wrong, while also showing that women are equally as formidable in the ranks of the Ten Rings as their male counterparts.
So Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ends with the hints that the Rings are somehow summoning something while Xialing is making the Ten Rings organization more dangerous than before, all of which wraps up a highly underrated MCU entry.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is streaming on Disney+.