Atlas Ending Explained: What is the Protagonist’s Secret and What Happened to Harlan?
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Atlas is a Netflix film directed by Brad Peyton from a script by Leo Sardarian and Aron Eli Coleite. The sci-fi action film follows a brilliant data analyst who, due to a tragic event, does not trust artificial intelligence. When she locates the location of Harlan, an AI terrorist, she joins the mission to capture him. But when the plan gets complicated, she must learn to work with technology to save humanity. Does Atlas Shepherd (JLo) manage to overcome his distrust and survive? What’s going on with Harlan? Below, I tell you the most important events of the film.
In the film, which quickly climbed the ranking of the most watched products, JLO plays Atlas, a brilliant scientist who distrusts artificial intelligence and robots in general. The reason? A connection with his childhood and a robot revolt put down years earlier, which was about to exterminate humanity. This professional, who has an interesting connection with artificial intelligence, is recruited for a mission at the edge of the world to stop the AI terrorist who attempted to raze the Earth. All this leads to an explosive and emotional epilogue at the same time, in which Atlas manages to put his old demons to rest follow us in this explanation of the ending of Atlas!
Atlas: The Story Plot
Jennifer Lopez is committed to showing her feisty side in a new role for her. The actress plays an analyst who participates in a mission to capture an artificial intelligence and who, 28 years earlier, rebelled against humans, causing millions of deaths. This AI represents a terrorist threat and, for the protagonist, also a personal pain, since it was created by her mother, a pioneer of technological development. The mission on a distant planet thus turns into a death trap. With her fellow rangers killed in the attack, the protagonist must fight to survive and face the artificial intelligence. Protected inside a mecha, her only way out is to overcome her reluctance towards advanced AI and collaborate with the computer program that drives this war machine.
Atlas incorporates elements of the eternal battle between humanity and artificial intelligence, similar to those seen in iconic films such as The Matrix and AI. Artificial Intelligence, enriched by philosophical reflections, and the spectacular nature of The Creator, was recently released in cinemas. The character played by Jennifer Lopez can be annoying, but this is intentional: she defines herself as a misanthrope and is committed to making herself unpleasant to others. Atlas’ big bad, Harlan, played by Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), is instead a little out of tone compared to the more positive roles the actor is used to. The film makes good use of Liu’s martial skills, but acting-wise, the villain comes across as more of a henchman than a criminal mastermind.
Atlas: The Battle Against the AI in the Finale?
As we saw in our review of Atlas, in the film Atlas Shepherd (Lopez) is tasked with taking down the world’s first terrorist AI, Harlan. The robot belonged to his scientist mother, which leads Atlas to distrust any artificial intelligence. After the International Coalition of Nations (ICN) conducted an attack to stop Harlan and his followers, the terrorists left Earth for refuge on another planet, but for decades no one knew where. Everything changes when one of Harlan’s minions is captured and Atlas, who is an ICN analyst, manages to pressure the AI into revealing Harlan’s location. Lopez’s character joins the team that wants to hunt down the terrorist, but the bad guy ambushes their ship and Atlas just has time to don his suit and escape to the planet. This leaves Atlas alone against the AI powering his suit, Smith, to stop Harlan’s plan.
Although Atlas is reluctant to trust Smith, he eventually comes around to it. To survive, it is necessary to use neurotechnology to fully connect her mind with the AI, and this terrifies her. Gradually, however, a close bond develops between the two, until Smith decides to divert the rest of his power to provide Atlas with enough oxygen to survive long enough to be rescued. Ultimately, Atlas returns to Earth without Smith. However, in the final scene of Atlas, Lopez’s character wears another suit on Earth, and when she asks the AI to tell her her name, it replies, “Guess.” Atlas smiles and it’s clear that somehow Smith survived and that his code now lives inside this new suit.
Atlas Ending Explained: What is the Protagonist’s Secret and What Happened to Harlan?
As the protagonist of Atlas warned, the Dhiib ship, led by Colonel Banks (Sterling K. Brown), is attacked when approaching the planet where Harlan is taking refuge. To survive, the analyst is forced to use one of the mechanical suits called ARC, but she refuses to connect neurally, due to her past traumas. The AI named Smith insists that the only way to help her is to create that bond, but she immediately dismisses it. Upon arriving at the meeting point he discovers the bodies of all the crew members, except for Banks. Other robots also arrive at the scene, including a clone of Casca. Despite Smith’s advice, Atlas launches an ion bomb to rid himself of the enemies. Although he kills most of them, the explosion forms a sinkhole into which he falls and breaks his leg. After receiving the required care, he understands that his only option is the neurological link. Meanwhile, Harlan extracts something he needs from Banks’ eye and prepares for his next attack. After synchronizing with Smith, the analyst arrives at the Atlas operations center and understands what the robot’s plan is: to use the Dhiib ship’s missiles against its pursuers. Her attempts to stop him are thwarted when Harlan captures her and reveals that Casca’s capture was intentional to get her and his weaponry.
What is the Secret of Atlas?
To launch the missiles, Harlan requires two codes. One he gets from Banks and the other from Atlas, who remains chained. As the terrorist AI leaves, the colonel awakens and helps her call Smith, who is also incapacitated and needs full synchronization to override the restrictive code. Finally, the protagonist of the Netflix film confesses that Harlan did not violate his protocols. Her jealousy because her mother paid more attention to her robot led her to ask her “brother” to help her be smarter to get Val Shepherd’s affection. To alter the neural link and make it both ways, Harlan requires the order of a human and gets it from Atlas. When Val returns too late his creation takes control.
Does Atlas Manage to Survive and Defeat Harlan?
After confessing that she feels guilty for the death of her mother and millions of people, Atlas is completely connected to Smith, who frees herself and helps the analyst and the colonel. They both prepare to stop Harlan, even though the chances of failure are very high. As they fight their way to prevent the warship from taking off, Colonel Banks sacrifices himself amid a large explosion that destroys several of Harlan’s AI soldiers. However, the ship does not stop, and time is running out. Atlas and Smith work as a team and thanks to their trust they manage to blow up the ship without setting the atmosphere on fire.
However, they still have to face Harlan. Atlas is clear that the terrorist AI always knows what it will do, so Smith suggests doing something it doesn’t expect. Atlas can read the movements of his rival thanks to Smith’s technology and manages to defeat him. But Smith suffers serious damage in the process. To keep her alive until rescue arrives, Smith disconnects her neural link. After the emotional farewell, Atlas is taken back home, where Boothe informs her that Harlan’s processor is being analyzed. After freeing herself from the weight she carried for years, Atlas is a different person, she designs the ARC10. When it comes time to test it, she realizes that Smith also survived.
Consciences Not So Distant…
At the beginning of the film, Smith and Atlas have a conversation about death. The analyst says he believes that both humans and AIs simply disappear once they die. Smith disagrees and explains that everything is connected, ensuring that no one actually dies. Before the final battle, Atlas and Smith manage to fully synchronize thanks to neurotechnology, meaning their consciousness becomes one. When Smith’s “body” dies, his mind continues to live in Atlas‘s until she can be moved to a new home. Before Smith sacrifices himself to save Atlas, the two must work together to stop Harlan. The AI eventually revealed that it had allowed the analyst, whom it considered a sister, to purposely discover her location, knowing that she would bring a ship to pursue him.
Harlan intended to arm this ship with a carbon warhead and send it back to Earth. The AI believed it was helping humanity, as the species needed to be reduced to save the planet and ensure its future, but Atlas could not allow this to happen. After a short time apart, Atlas and Smith reunite and begin working on a plan to escape Harlan’s fortress and stop the ship that intended to attack humanity. The two manage to wire their minds to work as a single unit, so Smith warns Atlas that by deciding to shoot the armed ship, he would risk hitting the carbon warhead and decimating the entire planet. Before he can fire, Smith would have to enter the ship and deactivate the warhead, but they only have five seconds to do so.
What Really Happened During Atlas‘ Childhood?
Although Smith warns Atlas not to be ready to fire, she seizes the opportunity: her missile strikes at the exact moment Smith successfully deactivates the carbon warhead. Lopez’s character explains that she trusted Smith and that their bond meant she knew exactly the right moment to shoot: if it weren’t for their bond and trust, Harlan’s plan would have succeeded. Through the renewed bond, Smith and Atlas manage to dismantle Harlan and she can return to Earth. Throughout the film, it becomes clear that Atlas and Harlan have a bond: the film’s opening scene reveals that Atlas‘ mother created Harlan and that Harlan was a sort of big brother to Atlas during his childhood.
The big question is why Harlan rebelled against his programming to destroy humans instead of protecting them, and as the bond between Atlas and Smith forms, we get the answer to that question: It’s all Atlas‘ fault. Smith wasn’t the only AI Atlas had connected with via a two-way neural link. The night his mother died, Atlas had linked his mind to Harlan’s, meaning they both retain parts of the other in their respective minds. As long as Atlas or any other individual, human or AI, who came into contact with Harlan is alive, there is a possibility that the terrorist could return.
The Meaning of the Epilogue and Harlan’s Mysterious “Death”?
Atlas‘ entire character arc revolves around trust and connection. His trauma led her to cut the entire world out of his life, meaning he had no connection after Harlan’s betrayal and his mother’s death. Even when his life seemed to depend entirely on it, Atlas rejected the idea of contacting Smith; that is until she was forced to reveal her darkest secret, which made her able to fully synchronize with Smith, thus saving both their lives. The robot had already explained that connections between beings, be they AI or humans, keep them alive even after death. Thus, Atlas‘ bond with Smith made her truly alive for the first time since she was a child and brought the robot back to life, even after he was technically killed: the same goes for Harlan, which opens up the possibility of a sequel.
When Atlas was a child, she was jealous of her mother’s attention to Harlan, so she asked the robot to help her become smarter, so she could be more like him and make her mother love her too. Harlan explained to her that she could only do this if Atlas allowed him to alter the neural link so that her consciousness could be transferred to him and vice versa. Once connected, Harlan suddenly became aware of humanity’s impact on the environment. This led him to turn against her creator, forcing her, through the neural link, to take her own life. Ultimately, Atlas kills Harlan and brings his CPU to Earth to study it: everyone seems to believe that the evil terrorist has been defeated but, throughout the film, there are hints that he may still be active.
