If you’re wondering if Ready or Not 2: Here I Come has any post-credits scenes, the answer is no.
Spoilers follow for the movie, which is in theaters now.
It’s time for another game of hide and seek, horror fans, because Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is now in theaters. The latest entry from Radio Silence directing pair Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Ready or Not 2 once again stars Samara Weaving as Grace MacCaullay, who barely survived her post-wedding encounter with the Le Domases last film. This time around, she’s beset by a whole squad of new nemeses who are part of the same Satanic-rich family network as her murderous in-laws. While reviews have skewed positive, the movie hits some diminishing returns, something IGN’s Tom Jorgensen echoed in his 6/10 review, saying the sequel is “less a brand new game, and more a stab at seeing how a second round of the same thing plays out.”
Let’s take a look at what happens in Ready or Not 2 and how it may be hinting at a much different game in a potential Part 3.
Double or Nothing
Ready or Not 2 opens literally the exact moment the first film ends, with Grace smoking a cigarette in her blood-soaked wedding dress as the Le Domas mansion burns down behind her. Grace promptly collapses from exhaustion and is taken to the hospital, where she reunites with her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton). It turns out Grace and Faith have a lot of bad blood between them, but since they’re orphaned foster siblings, they really don’t have anyone else to turn to in an emergency. That emergency happens before Grace can even leave the hospital, when Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand) breaks in looking to kill her. The Wilkinsons are part of a secret organization called the “High Council,” of which the Le Domases were but one of six families that apparently control the entire world through deals made with Mr. Le Bail (aka Satan). Bill gets the upper hand on Grace, but explodes just before he can finish her off because he was technically breaking Mr. Le Bail’s rules.
Grace and Faith are then kidnapped by “the Lawyer” (Elijah Wood), Mr. Le Bail’s human representative, and taken to a golf resort owned by the Danforths, another High Council family represented by brother and sister team Titus (Shawn Hatosy) and Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The Lawyer explains that Grace surviving her night with the Le Domases has triggered a clause in the High Council’s contracts with Mr. Le Bail, forcing a new hide-and-seek game where members of each family get an opportunity to hunt Grace down for the ultimate prize of the High Council’s top seat. If this all sounds very John Wick to you, trust me, you’re not the only one. With weapons in hand, the High T̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ Council has until dawn to hunt down Grace (and Faith, who gets roped into the whole affair by association), and, well, cue the rest of the movie.
SAMARA WEAVING AND KATHRYN NEWTON AS SISTERS GRACE AND FAITH MACCAULLAY IN READY OR NOT 2.
Ready or Not 2’s biggest drawback is that it doesn’t have much in the way of surprises. The reveal of a bigger network of villains tied to the events of the first film makes logical sense for a sequel, but their plan basically being “do the first movie again, but with more characters” leaves the movie feeling somewhat predictable after its first act. The arbitrary nature of Mr. Le Bail’s contract stipulations waters down the stakes, and all six evil families operating on the same game logic as the Le Domases is odd when the Le Domases made their fortune in games while the other five families seemingly have different business ventures. Besides some hilarious bits with a rocket launcher and pepper spray, the middle act winds up feeling routine as Grace and Faith get into fights and close escapes with the various villains while working through their sisterly drama. It’s not until we head into the finale where things finally pick up again.
Ready or Not 2 Ending Explained
Grace is eventually forced into a corner when Titus kidnaps Faith and says he’ll kill her unless Grace gives herself up. Grace is trapped in a locked room with all the villains right outside, so she doesn’t have a lot of options…until she shockingly proposes marriage to Titus. Earlier, Wan Chen Xing (Olivia Cheng), one of the other High Council members, revealed to Grace that there’s a loophole in Le Bail’s contract where she could marry into another High Council family, instantly ending the hide-and-seek game in that family’s favor and allowing her to live. Chen Xing was hoping to marry Grace off to her son, which would ensure her family got the top seat, but Chen Xing is killed before that can happen. Titus agrees to Grace’s proposal because it will put him on top, and therefore both Grace and Faith are spared.
Since the wedding needs to take place before dawn to be valid, the surviving Satanists convene for a quick ceremony. After Grace is dolled up, she’s visited by Ursula, who tries to convince Grace to work with her to control Titus so they will be the real power behind the family. Unfortunately, Titus eavesdrops on the conversation and snaps Ursula’s neck for her betrayal, saying it’s “not against the rules to kill a family member.” This comes back to bite him when the wedding happens and Grace stabs him in the neck with a pen right after he kisses his new bride. With Titus dead, the top seat is now Grace’s, and after confirming with the Lawyer that this gives her ultimate power, she immediately abdicates it and tosses the top seat’s ring into a pit of corpses so the remaining Satanists can fight over it.
But since dawn is minutes away, nobody successfully claims the ring by the deadline, resulting in all of them being blown to bits. Having patched things up, Grace and Faith leave the compound with the Lawyer and Le Bail’s blessing, and Faith makes fun of the fact that Grace may have set a new record for most weddings within a single week. The end.
Does Ready or Not 2 Set Up Part 3?
Ready or Not 2 doesn’t end on a cliffhanger or with a direct setup for another film, but the change in the status quo does leave things in an interesting place if the filmmakers decide to pursue a third entry. Part 2 makes clear that the High Council wields global power, but all of the families are wiped out by the end of the film. Le Bail would have to make new contracts with new families to re-establish his network, but there’s also the possibility that the world will devolve into chaos with so much of its top level infrastructure annihilated overnight. A Ready or Not 3 (hopefully subtitled “You Can’t Hide”) could have an international or even post-apocalyptic feel involving rich upstarts from around the world trying to make their name by taking down the person who destroyed Le Bail’s previous operation, which would at the very least allow for a different structure next time around.
While Grace killing Titus and screwing over the Satanists by forgoing her power at the last minute does make for an appropriate enough ending, the movie slightly overplays its hand by making it seem like Grace is actually going to go through with the wedding for a bit too long. The most tension I felt during the entire film was wondering if Part 2 was sincerely going to end with Grace accepting her place among the Satanist cult and potentially being the villain of a subsequent entry, so the movie swerving away from that possibility was a little deflating, because it would have been a pretty ballsy place to go. That said, while the film is kind of middling as a sequel, it does have its moments. Weaving is still doing a great job, Wood gives an excellent performance as the Devil’s literal advocate, and there’s plenty of blood to go around. But if the filmmakers do decide to return to this franchise, hopefully they’ll come up with a more imaginative scenario for Part 3.
What did you think of Ready or Not 2? Let us know in the comments!
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
