With a feeling of The Dirty Dozen for a new generation and a bit of Inglourious Basterds, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an absolute blast of a movie and one of WTW's best-reviewed movies of 2024 (read our full The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare review to find out why). The movie builds to an exciting final act, where our group of rogue heroes' mission faces a myriad of challenges. We're here to help break down The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare ending in case you had any questions about it.
FYI, we are going to get into major SPOILERS for the movie, so if you have not watched The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare yet, be sure to do so and then come back and read this post.
OK, with that taken care of, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on the true story of Operation Postmaster during World War Two. Though done in cooperation with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Operation Postmaster was a secret, unsanctioned mission by the UK where a group of soldiers with less than stellar reputations were tasked with crippling Nazi U-boats in the Atlantic by attacking and sinking vessels carrying supplies on the island of Fernado Po (now Bioko), which was under the control of neutral Spain at the time.
The mission was led by Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and a crew made up of Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding). They also had support on the island from undercover agents Heron (Babs Olusanmokun), who owned a bar on the island frequented by Nazi officers and soldiers, and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González), who was of Jewish descent and was tasked with seducing the Nazi commander on the island, Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger), to distract him from their mission.
The plan was for Heron to host a large party for Nazi officers and soldiers that would clear the bay and allow for March-Phillipps and his men to sink the boats. However, it is revealed that the main ship, the Duchessa, has been reinforced with steel plates to make it pretty much unsinkable, forcing the crew to formulate a new plan. Another problem arises when the operation is discovered by other UK military leaders who order it to be stopped. So how does everything conclude?
Is the mission a success in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?
Despite having to completely refigure their plan and potentially invoke the wrath of the British military leaders ordering them to stand down, March-Phillipps and his crew press on with the mission. Instead of sinking the ships, they plan to steal them and turn them over to the British navy in international waters.
The key to their new mission is that they are not discovered by the Nazi forces until they are out of the bay. However, the rush of the changing plans sees an explosion go off sooner than they wanted, which quickly brings enemy soldiers to the docks just shortly after March-Phillipps and his team have commandeered the ships and are attempting to sail them away.
Meanwhile, Stewart was ultimately discovered to be a Jew by Luhr and he is about to torture her when he learns of March-Phillipps' actions and heads down to the docks, with Stewart in tow.
March-Phillipps and his men are able to fire back at the soldiers on the docks and neutralize them and make it out of the bay. Watching this happen, Luhr demands they chase them down with their fleet of speed boats, but the heroes planned for that, exploding those as well. Frustrated, Luhr kills some of his subordinates and is going to turn his fury on Stewart, but Heron shows up, kills Luhr and escapes with Stewart. They are able to rendezvous with March-Phillipps and escape the bay and safely arrive in international waters.
So yes, their mission is a success and, what more, they were able to achieve it without suffering a single casualty, just a couple of injuries. That detail is historically accurate, not just a conceit for the movie.
However, when March-Phillipps and his crew meet up with the British navy and turn over the Nazi ships to them, they are all arrested for their illegal mission.
Could there be a Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare sequel?
The story then picks up a month later. March-Phillipps and his crew are brought to a single room within the prison. There they are met by Churchill (Rory Kinnear), who tells them their mission has helped lead to American soldiers being able to safely cross the Atlantic and join the fight. Instead of being punished, he celebrates them with a feast. He says that they work for him now, hinting that Churchill has more missions that he would like them to carry out.
Does this mean that we could be getting a Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare sequel?
First, the box office for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is going to dictate that, but in terms of whether or not there are potential stories that could serve as inspiration for a sequel, there are some additional missions carried out by the characters in the movie and the military faction that they founded.
Following the success of Postmaster, the British military formed the Small Scale Raiding Force, aka 62 Commando, which would go on to perform a handful of missions over the course of 1942. However, these missions were not as successful, and resulted in the capture and/or death of many of the characters in the movie.
Writings also detail some other units with similar training that took on missions during the war, so perhaps there could be a story based around new characters but under the same banner that Churchill establishes at the end of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
All in all, yes, there are some potential stories that could be used as inspiration for a sequel should there be a desire for one. However, with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare offering explanations of what happened to its main characters following the events of the movie, there may also not be a need for follow up.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is now playing exclusively in US movie theaters. It premieres on Prime Video in the UK in summer 2024.
