Atlas ending explained: How does Atlas beat Harlan?

Well, that stance proves to be a problem when the rest of his team is wiped out during a mission to capture an “AI terrorist” named Harlan (Simu Liu), leaving him no choice but to confront his prejudices and their connections – figuratively. and literally – with a robot called Smith who communicates with her from inside a giant suit of armor.

As she prepares to confront Harlan, we learn that he was created by his mother and raised as a brother, leading to a major confrontation in the final act.

If you’ve seen the movie and need a quick recap or explanation of what happens in the final scenes, read on to explain the ending of Atlas.

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Atlas ending explained: How does Atlas beat Harlan?

In desperation – and partly due to his growing dynamic with Smith – Atlas accepts that the only way to defeat Harlan is to sync with Smith, allowing them to work together to fight the robots Harlan sent after them.

Eventually, they arrive at Harlan’s base and discover that he has a nuclear warhead that could spell disaster for Earth. Shortly after their arrival, Harlan is able to use his hacking prowess to stop Smith, then explains to Atlas that while he still loves her as his sister, he has no choice but to wipe out humanity given the threat he believes the species poses.

It also becomes apparent that Harlan has been pulling the strings from the start and deliberately lured Atlas to his compound so that she can provide him with the codes he needs to bypass Earth’s security systems. Although she is not happy to comply, he tortures her in an attempt to obtain the codes before leaving her for dead.

Things don’t look very encouraging at this point, but just at this desperate moment, Colonel Banks, Atlas’ superior – who had been captured by Harlan earlier – wakes up and gives her his “neural link”, which she can use to bring back Smith.

The only way this will work is if Smith and Atlas achieve 100% synchronization, forcing Atlas to reveal all of his deepest concerns and secrets, and in doing so we learn the root of his distrust of AI: She was responsible for accidentally giving Harlan the power he now wields by reprogramming him due to the jealousy she felt since he was receiving more attention from his mother.

Atlas manages to achieve synchronization and launches after Harlan, and with Smith, she succeeds in disabling and destroying the missile with which he plans to destroy Earth before attempting to flee in an escape pod while Harlan’s base is set on fire.

Before she can escape, she is confronted by Harlan again and the two become embroiled in an epic battle, which sees Atlas briefly lose consciousness only to eventually emerge victorious and kill Harlan.

During the fight, Smith has Harlan stab his fusion reactor and begins to shut down, using his last reserves of energy to provide Atlas with enough oxygen so she can escape to Earth.

In the final scenes, we see that Atlas is now employed as a ranger with a new robot companion – and when she goes inside, it turns out he has the same voice as Smith and already knows everything on her. When she asks him his name, he simply replies “guess”, implying that this robot is essentially a recreation of Smith.

Atlas is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up to Netflix from £6.99 per month. Netflix is ​​also available on Sky Glass And Blank media stream.

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