Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire has finally made it to Netflix, with a sequel on the way for Spring 2024. Taking a cue from — or in some cases entirely ripping off — genre staples like Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Heavy Metal Magazine, and Star Wars, this sci-fi action romp features a group of rebels bound by fate, putting their lives on the line to, you guessed it, stop an evil empire.
Rebel Moon’s cast of characters all come from different planets, but they are brought together by a shared desire to fight against the oppressive rule of the Imperium. Led by the rebel Kora and the farmer Gunnar, the stakes couldn’t be higher for this unlikely group of heroes. With the fate of the galaxy in our hands, we’re going to explain what exactly happens in Rebel Moon - Part One.
Rebel Moon - Part One: Child of Fire Ending Explained
Through exposition at the start of the film, we learn that a planet called Motherworld was ruled by the monarchy known as the Imperium for around “one thousand kings.” After tapping its planet’s resources beyond recovery, its people set their sites on conquering space. One day, the Imperium’s King and Queen, along with their daughter Princess Issa, were assassinated. In the fallout, General Balisarius seized power and now has sent the sadistic Admiral Noble to kill “those who would call themselves rebel.” To be clear, they’re also killing a lot of people that don’t call themselves rebels.
Cut to: our protagonist Kora is hanging out on an isolated agricultural planet doing way too much farm work. Though she’s been with the village for two years, the shadows of her past as the adopted daughter of Balisarius continue to haunt her. When Noble comes to the planet and drops off some particularly heinous henchmen to terrorize the village in his absence, Kora decides it’s time to take a stand. But first, she’s going to have to find - and stop us if you’ve heard this one before - a rag-tag group of rebels willing to unite for the common good.
First hoping to flee Noble and his men, Kora decides to fight after witnessing an attack on a local girl. With the help of a robot named Jimmy, they save her, eliminating the small but hostile military presence left by Noble. Kora teams up with the farmer, Gunnar, who accidentally caused the death of the town’s beloved leaders by attempting to work with Noble against Kora’s advice. The pair run into a supposedly charming rogue named Kai during a bar fight. In turn, Kai offers to help them round up some random people with vendettas against the Imperium. This includes - nobleman turned blacksmith, Tarak! Intergalactic swordsperson, Nemesis! Disgraced former general, Titus! Rebel soldier, Milus! And rebel organizers, Darrian and Devra Bloodaxe!
Kai turns out to be the not-fun version of a scoundrel, and he betrays the team to Noble. They are taken by the army, but our band of merry travelers regain the upper hand (minus quite a few deaths, including Darrian’s). This leads to Kora beating Noble six ways to Sunday and knocking him off a floating platform to his doom. Noble is resurrected, but not without a tremendous amount of pain. That, combined with the fact that Balisarius now knows that Kora is alive, does not bode well for our heroes. The trailer for Part 2 shows the group training with the villagers to mount a defense against the Imperium.
We close on Jimmy hanging out in a field, wearing antlers on his cute robot noggin. We’ll probably hear more about whatever that’s about in Part 2. There is no post-credits scene, but we do have a trailer for the sequel that plays automatically after the film.
What Does This Mean For The Future?
Rebel Moon wears its love for sci-fi and action films of yesteryear on its sleeve, but the film hasn’t quite landed with critics. Currently sporting a low rating of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, the audience scores are at 73%. For his part, Snyder is already dream-casting future Rebel Moon films, so we’ll see.
What we do know is that Part 2: The Scargiver is set to debut on April 19, 2024, and that Netflix has aired a 90-second teaser to hype the event. Synder has also teased intentions to release an R-rated Director’s Cut via the streaming platform at some undisclosed time in the future. There is a prequel comic series through Titan on the way, along with projects like a mobile game and a photography book from the set in development.
For now, Snyder has confirmed in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that Rebel Moon is set in the same universe as his film Army of the Dead. Whether this will lead anywhere, we can’t say, but the idea of dropping the Army of the Dead cast into deep space will keep us busy while waiting for the release of Rebel Moon - Part 2.
