Spider-Man: Far From Home ending explained

Spider-Man: Far From Home had one of the most shocking endings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! How did it unfold to lead to other big projects?

As this 2019 movie begins, the MCU is still getting used to “The Blip,” the five-year period between when Thanos “snapped” half the universe into dust in Avengers: Infinity War, and when everyone was restored in Endgame. That means Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and his various “blipped classmates” are all still in high school again. 

Peter is still mourning Tony Stark as he takes part in a class trip to Europe. Nick Fury then recruits him to aid Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), who claims to be a hero from an alternate Earth fighting massive Elemental creatures who destroyed his Earth’s heroes and are now targeting the MCU's Earth. 

Peter and Mysterio get along well, and Peter also reveals his identity as Spider-Man to MJ (Zendaya). Eventually, Spidey sees Mysterio as a better hero than he could be, and so he gives him the EDITH special tech glasses Tony had bequeathed him. At which point, we get the movie’s first big twist.

Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Far From Home

Mysterio's true motivations revealed

It turns out that Mysterio’s entire story of being from an alternate Earth is all a total crock. Quentin Beck is a disgruntled former Stark employee who developed the holographic technology Tony claimed to be his own. With Tony gone, Beck is faking the Elementals as huge threats so he can “stop” them and be hailed as a hero, backed by a group of ex-Stark scientists. 

Peter finds evidence of the Fire Elemental being fake and tries to warn Fury only to be tricked by Mysterio into giving up how MJ and Ned know about this and he is then put through a nightmarish ordeal. Nearly broken, Peter pulls himself back together to head to London, where Beck plans another “Elemental attack” that will also kill Peter’s classmates. 

Peter and Mysterio battle it out, with Peter stopping the illusions. Beck ends up being accidentally shot by one of his own drones and gets a message to one of his underlings to download the data before he dies. Peter heads off, thinking it’s all over.

The first post-credits scene is a stunner

Spider-Man: Far From Home continues its central story after the credits. That's right, when the movie seems to be over as we get a mid-credits stinger of Peter Parker as Spider-Man swinging around New York in a good mood. He has agreed to take MJ for a spin around the city, but she quickly decides that it is a bad idea and the two land in Times Square.

At which point, TV screens across Times Square show footage courtesy of J. Jonah Jameson (once more played by J.K. Simmons) - frontman of the Daily Bugle - playing Beck’s last trick: Doctoring the footage to make it appear that Spider-Man was the villain and Beck died trying to stop him. 

Beck then lays in one more attack from the grave by revealing to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man! It's a moment of shock that audiences watching in the movie theaters certainly didn't expect, but nobody was more shocked than Peter Parker himself. Like the previous film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, the scene ends just as Peter is about to let out a curse.

The second stinger is more striking

One thing confusing fans throughout the movie is how Fury, the most paranoid man alive, could have bought Beck’s scam. The answer comes in the last scene, where we see Fury and Maria Hill in a car, only for them to transform into the Skrulls Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and Soren (Sharon Blynn). Talos calls up the real Fury, who’s in space on a Skrull ship on his own private mission.

This explains why "Fury" was so insistent on not using the Avengers or Carol Danvers as he knew they'd see through his disguise quickly. It also makes fans wonder just how long Talos has been posing as Fury....

What the Far From Home endings meant for the future

This was a huge twist for the MCU and set up the events of the 2021 sequel Spider-Man: No Way Home as Peter’s attempts to make the world forget his identity caused a multi-verse disaster involving the Spider-Men of the 2000s and 2010s films. 

Meanwhile, the Fury-Talos connection would set up Secret Invasion, with Fury and Talos working together and more on Fury aiding the Skrulls in finding a new home world. 

So Far From Home ended up having one of the most important climaxes in MCU history that would change Spider-Man’s life forever and it is still one of the best cliffhangers you could ask for.

Spider-Man: Far From Home streaming on Disney+.