'Heads Of State' Ending Explained & Summary: Why Did Noel Meet Marty In The Mid-Credits Scene?

The 2025 action comedy film on Prime Video, Heads of State, can be treated as a lighthearted entertainer if you don’t go in expecting much from the plot, such as convincing global espionage or a moving story about political leaders who have to take tough decisions for the sake of their nations. Here, the President of the United States of America, played by John Cena, and the British Prime Minister, played by Idris Elba, have to get over their personal differences in order to protect the world order from terrorists, while an MI6 agent (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) jumps in to help them on their adventures. Overall, Heads of State is good enough for a mindless single watch, but any attempt to look for depth in it will end in immense disappointment.

Spoilers Ahead

What is Prime Video’s Film about?

Heads of State begins in the Spanish town of Bunol, where thousands of people have gathered for the biggest food fight in the world as part of the yearly tradition that is the Tomatina Festival. Noel Bisset, a journalist, reports on the festivities live, and going by the puns that she throws into her reporting, she seems to be enjoying herself, although her crew members find her puns too cringy. But as the live reporting comes to an end, Noel’s real identity is revealed, as she is actually an MI6 agent on a mission with her team, and posing as journalists is the best cover for them, as the Tomatina Festival is widely covered by global media. The MI6 and CIA joint team are here in Bunol to track a man named Viktor Gradov, who has been on the radar of Western intelligence for a long time. 

But as Gradov arrives at the scene, he is revealed to be using decoys, meaning that there’s multiple men dressed similarly to him, and Noel has to seek real-time help from Echelon, the surveillance organization working in the shadows for the Five Eyes nations. US representatives at Echelon provide full support to the joint intelligence team, but by the time they can track down the real Gradov, something unexpected plays out. A van full of mercenaries drives into the area and kills each of the MI6 operatives, as if they had full knowledge about the covert operation and also where each of the operatives would be. The real Viktor Gradov then shoots Noel and escapes, evading Western intelligence once again.

Back in London, Prime Minister Sam Clarke arrives at Buckingham Palace, quite nervous, as he is about to welcome the new President of the United States of America, Will Derringer. Although the two heads of state do not have the best of relations, they have to pose as friends and allies in front of the media, as they are to head to a NATO conference together. Sam and Will both have to pretend like there is nothing wrong, while their close aides keep briefing them about the recent situation in Spain, and very soon, the world leaders find themselves in tremendous trouble, which they can only overcome together.

Why do Will and Sam dislike each other?

The main reason for Will Derringer and Sam Clarke’s mutual dislike is the fact that they come from very different political backgrounds and therefore have differing opinions about each other. The UK Prime Minister has had a long and varied experience in the world of politics, having risen from the lowest levels of public service to climb up the rungs successfully and become the leader of his country. On the other hand, the President of the USA is a former actor whose specialization was playing the glorified hero in mainstream action thrillers. Perhaps this is a nod at how individuals without significant public service history can still be elected into power in the United States. It is mentioned that Will only served a few months in public service before he was voted to become the president solely because of his popularity as a movie star.

Sam has a deep-rooted belief that Will is an undeserving politician who has only managed to get to a position of power because of his simple-minded countrymen. He has had to grind his way up the political ladder, not just as someone genuinely interested in public service, but also as a person of color who still has to face a lot of opposition in the West. Moreover, he feels himself to be a superior leader also because he has actually served in the British military, while Will has only played the role of a soldier in his outlandish movies. Sam feels that Will has had things too easy in life, meaning he does not understand what it means to be a world leader, and he is also convinced that the POTUS does not actually care about his citizens. But he is wrong in this assessment, as Will later reveals that he had decided to go into politics only because he had wished to bring unity and harmony to the people of the world, which is quite similar to Sam’s dream as well.

On the other side, Will is not very fond of Sam because of the latter’s condescending nature towards him, and also because of a specific incident that took place in the past. During a crucial phase of the presidential elections in the USA, Sam had invited Will’s rival candidate for a fish and chips lunch in London, clearly showing his support for the rival candidate. Therefore, Will believes that the British PM had openly opposed his candidacy and had even suggested the American citizens vote against him. Will still holds a grudge against his British counterpart, and he still senses an evident air of disrespect from the latter, which frustrates him even more.

How is NATO under threat?

However, Will and Sam have to put up a show of friendship and mutual respect, since they both need each other’s approval, and so they fly to the NATO conference in Trieste together on the Air Force One plane. But an attack is launched on the plane by the team of mercenaries working for Viktor Gradov, which results in the two heads of state having to jump out with parachutes. Although they safely land somewhere in Belarus, they are officially reported missing and presumed to be dead. Since Belarus is not an ally nation to either the USA or the UK, there is no way for their respective governments to carry out thorough searches in the country. 

As a result, the Vice President of the United States, Elizabeth Kirk, takes the oath to become the acting president until further deliberation, and Will is replaced just like that. This sudden change in leadership is what causes the NATO alliance to come under threat, as it is suggested that the NATO nations had already been in a sort of shaky relationship. With the POTUS missing from the picture, the heads of the NATO countries start to lose confidence in the alliance, and then an even more horrific attack worsens the situation. Turns out, the attack on Air Force One had been carried out not only to kill the US and UK leaders but, more importantly, to hack into the Echelon system and take control of it. 

Gradov’s real plan was to access a database of confidential documents stored in the Echelon system, which he then leaks after getting his hands on it. This leak wreaks massive havoc, as information about covert activities carried out amongst the NATO nations suddenly becomes public knowledge, terribly hurting the diplomatic relations between these countries.

The countries that were supposed to be allies and friends had indeed been spying on each other, and also covertly meddling in each other’s economies and politics, the revelation of which now threatens the very existence of NATO. When the American acting president, Elizabeth Kirk, tries to mediate the situation and bring everyone back to the table together, her words sound too brash and condescending, which convinces the leaders of the other nations to back out of the alliance. It is decided that a vote will be held in order to decide the future of NATO, and almost every leader clearly states that they will vote against the alliance.

Why is Gradov so vengeful against NATO?

After Will and Sam manage to sneak into Poland and temporarily take shelter at an Echelon safehouse run by Agent Marty Comer, they are once again attacked by Gradov’s goons, and they are saved by Noel. Although the MI6 spy had been believed to have died, she had actually survived because of a bulletproof vest and had then set out on a mission to track down the mercenaries who had killed her colleagues. Noel arrives in Poland, following the killers, and as she meets up with Will and Sam, she reveals the real reason behind Gradov’s vengefulness towards NATO.

Victor Gradov was originally a weapons manufacturer who built and got hold of new and modernized guns to then sell them to the highest bidders on the black market. His brilliant skills in engineering had passed down to his son as well, who became a scientist and wanted to distance himself from his father’s criminal background. The son went on to be an inventive engineer, and he was very close to building the first ever nuclear reactor incapable of melting down. This would have been an amazing invention that would have helped every country in the world, and in order to finish his project, he needed enriched plutonium, which Gradov had successfully procured from the black market. 

But as Echelon had found out about this deal for plutonium, they had quickly come to the conclusion that Gradov was procuring this material in order to build some new weapon of mass destruction, even possibly a nuclear bomb. Therefore, Echelon did not want to take any risks, and as a plan to strike Gradov’s facilities was presented, NATO approved of the scheme and a missile attack was launched. Unfortunately, the plutonium had been taken to the scientific facility of Gradov’s son, which meant that the missiles hit this facility, and Gradov’s son, the gifted scientist, died in the attack. 

Not only did NATO kill the scientist, but they then also stole his research and themselves came up with an innovative nuclear reactor incapable of melting down. This was the very ‘pebble-bed technology’ that was jointly announced by Will and Sam at the beginning of the film. Victor Gradov was already seeking vengeance for the killing of his son, and the public announcement of the innovative nuclear plant seemingly enraged him even further, because of which he intensified his attacks on NATO in order to destroy the alliance and weaken the member states.

Why did Bradshaw betray her president?

Will and Sam figure out that such a large-scale conspiracy against NATO could not have been hatched by Gradov without help from an insider in either of their governments. It is all the more suspicious that the very plane on which they were not even supposed to travel together had been attacked by the mercenaries and attempts had been made to kill them. Although they initially feel that Sam’s chief of staff, Quincy Harrington, is the traitor, they learn the actual truth a bit later. A man named Arthur Hammond approaches them to reveal that he is a British national who had been forced into working for Gradov in the recent past because of his supreme hacking skills. But Arthur now felt that the conspiracy against his country was getting too out of hand, and therefore he led the US president and the UK PM to a safehouse that contained records of the communications between the insider and himself.

Based on the information from these communications, it is revealed that the insider that Arthur had been working with was Simone Bradshaw, the US chief of staff and Will’s closest aide. However, some more expositions follow, as it is ultimately revealed that Bradshaw was not the real traitor, someone else had been using her identity to establish communications with Gradov. It was actually the Vice President, Elizabeth Kirk, who had betrayed her country and NATO in order to remove Will from the picture and to become the President herself. Since both Kirk and Gradov had a common enemy, they decided to work together to kill Will and destroy NATO. Kirk also has a different stance on NATO than Will, as she feels that the other member nations are far too dependent on America, and therefore, she does not want to be allies with them anymore. Thus, Kirk now intentionally acts to ensure that the NATO alliance is dissolved, as she is acting president with significant power in her hands.

Did Will and Sam save NATO?

In Heads of State’s ending, Elizabeth Kirk tries to play the double game and get rid of Victor Gradov once her purpose is served, but the villainous arms dealer anticipates this move and manages to survive the attack. As a result, he launches an attack with his group of mercenaries on the NATO conference in Trieste, killing the acting POTUS first. Thus, Will, Sam, and Noel have to fight the mercenaries first, and they triumphantly manage to kill Victor Gradov in the end. As the US president and the UK prime minister meet for some fish and chips after the events of the last scene, a news program confirms that the NATO alliance still exists, and newer reforms have been implemented to introduce transparency among the member nations. This means that Will and Sam are able to save NATO by the end, most possibly because of their rousing speech about unity and togetherness at the conference and also because of their heroics in bringing down Gradov, which inspires everyone to come together once more.

Why does Noel go to meet Marty in the mid-credits scene?

In Heads of State’s mid-credits scene, Marty Comer is seen on some beach paradise, sipping away on a cocktail and trying to impress women with tales of how he saved the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the UK, all at the same time. He is also careful to mention how he is quite close to the two men, who are really two of the most important figures in global politics. But the women are not impressed at all, as they clearly feel that Marty is definitely lying about the incident. Although nobody takes him seriously, Noel Bisset shows up at the bar for a chat with him, revealing that she knows who Marty is, and that she also believes in whatever he had just said to the women.

Interestingly, the last time Marty was in the film, he had been cornered by the two mercenaries, Sasha and Olga, and it seemed like he was killed by them offscreen, as a gunshot was heard. But the fact that he is still alive and that the MI6 agent is here to have a word with him clearly suggests that Marty Comer is a traitor as well, as he had strong ties with Gradov and his men, because of which he was not killed in the earlier scene. This is also likely why Noel is here to interrogate him and learn about his real intentions, meaning that a possibility for a sequel of Heads of State is kept open in the end.

...