Warning: Full spoilers follow for Black Adam. Do you want to know if the film has a post-credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: Yes, Black Adam has a mid-credits scene. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been talking about it for days in fact! Read on for all those details and more.
It’s about drive. It’s about power! Black Adam blasts his way onto the big screen to fight some superheroes, kill some terrorists and ultimately set up a future confrontation with a certain Super Kryptonian refugee. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, this superhero fever dream includes a lot of action, and… yeah it has a lot of action.
We’ll break all that down here, plus we’ll dig in on the Black Adam ending and what it means for the rest of the DC Extended Universe.
Black Adam Ending Explained: A Blast From the Past
We get the Black Adam backstory via voiceover. Given the power of Shazam some 5,000 years ago in the city of Kahndaq, Teth-Adam (The Rock) is awakened from his slumber in the modern day when Intergang takes over the country while hunting for this movie’s McGuffin, the Crown of Sabbac. Archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) is the first to it, but Intergang jumps her and her brother Karim (Mohammed Amer) and their co-workers. So, as any sane person would do, Adrianna wakes up Teth-Adam with an incantation. He slaughters most of Intergang before getting wounded by a missile made of Eternium, which he’s vulnerable to.
When Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) finds out about the whole Intergang-Kahndaq situation, she calls in an assist from the J.S.A. (the Justice Society of Ameria) – Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). The J.S.A.’s objective? Stop Teth-Adam from going rogue.
Adrianna’s son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui) thinks Teth-Adam should be the hero of Kahndaq basically, and suggests he go by Black Adam because it sounds cooler. Eventually, Black Adam battles the Justice Society, but when there’s a break in the fighting the team explains that thousands of years ago Adam lost control of his immense power, destroying most of Kahndaq. So Adrianna and the J.S.A. decided to work to convince Black Adam to be a hero and not a villain.
Eventually, however, Black Adam reveals to Hawkman that he was never Kahndaq’s champion, but rather it was his son. In an attempt to save his father, he gave Adam his power… but died in the process. That was what led to Black Adam’s attack on the realm all those centuries ago as he took revenge for his son’s death.
But now he feels guilty and surrenders to the J.S.A., depowers himself, and is put in an underwater prison to keep him from ever losing control again. But meanwhile, Intergang member Ishmael Gregor (Marwan Kenzari), who had been killed earlier in the film, is resurrected as Sabbac. He in turn summons a bunch of Kahndaq’s undead as a skeleton army-type situation. So having a fully powered Black Adam to help fight them off would be pretty handy.
When the J.S.A. can’t stop Sabbac, Doctor Fate astral-projects to Adam just before he’s killed by the villain. Black Adam then comes to the rescue, with a timely assist from Hawkman wielding the dead Doctor Fate’s helmet. Eventually, Adam straight-up rips Sabbac in half, long ways. Like he grabs his two horns and… separates.
In the end, Black Adam is cool with the J.S.A now, and they realize sometimes they need someone with a darker edge who can rip a monster in half! The film ends with Black Adam seated on the throne of Kahndaq before also smashing it, saying the city doesn’t need a ruler… it needs a protector.
And that’s where we leave him, protecting Kahndaq and staying out of trouble with Amanda Waller. And speaking of Amanda Waller… there’s that mid-credits scene.
Black Adam Mid-Credits Scene Explained
Yes, Henry Cavill’s Superman shows up, and we think this right here might have been the whole point of Black Adam – to set up a possible future confrontation between Black Adam and Superman. At least that’s the way Dwayne Johnson has been talking.
He’s been spoiling the heck out of this scene in the press so it was hardly a secret to begin with. Amanda Waller contacts Black Adam using a drone and she says that she’s letting him remain a free metahuman for now because Kahndaq will essentially serve as his new prison, and if he ever leaves she’ll make him regret it. Black Adam scoffs at this and obliterates the drone. And that’s when Cavill’s Superman shows up, saying it’s been a while since anyone made the Earth shake. He then offers to talk… and the credits resume.
Dwayne Johnson has been saying his Black Adam would eventually fight Superman since as early as 2021, and obviously this mid-credits scene simply introduces the two characters and leaves the fight to some unannounced possible future project. Follow the link for more on what the Black Adam post-credits scene might mean for the future of the DCEU.
Black Adam Easter Eggs
And of course, now it’s time for the Easter eggs we found in this non-stop face-punching superhero movie – specifically the ones we found that kind of give an idea of how Black Adam fits into the larger DCEU.
- Henry Cavill’s Superman is obviously the big one. We haven’t seen him since The Snyder Cut, but his appearance here shows he’s still the Superman of record and that everything that has happened to this Superman is still DCEU canon.
- There’s a fight scene in a kid’s bedroom with posters of the other Justice League superheroes: Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, and Ezra Miller’s Flash. In this world, they’re real-life heroes.
- Of course, we last saw Amanda Waller in Peacemaker, and in The Suicide Squad before that. Speaking of both of those, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is also working in Amanda Waller’s underwater prison. So Black Adam is tangentially connected to The Suicide Squad characters now.
- But what about the power of Shazam? It’s definitely represented here in a big way and Djimon Hounsou reprises his role as the Wizard Shazam.
- So you have Superman, the Justice League, the Suicide Squad and Shazam. Whatever you think of Black Adam, this movie is kind of a lynchpin lore-wise as this one character connects to most of the other active parts of the DCEU.
That said there were a few other character-based Easter eggs worth mentioning:
- Sarah Shahi plays Adrianna Tomaz. In the comics Adrianna is also the superhero Isis.
- The Justice Society of America was DC Comics’ Golden Age superteam, first appearing in 1940. Just like the Justice League, the J.S.A.’s roster changed from time to time but usually included characters like Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Atom Smasher. Cyclone first appeared in Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come as the daughter of Red Tornado.
- Intergang also draws its origin from the pages of DC Comics. Portrayed more as terrorists in the film, Intergang is a worldwide criminal syndicate in the comics that regularly faces off against DC’s most powerful heroes, frequently using otherworldly tech from places like Apokolips (Darkseid’s home!).
But what did you think of Black Adam? Let’s see your best theories down in the comments!
