The Big Picture

The ending of the film Sicario is shocking and downbeat, leaving the viewer in uneasy suspense and horror. Kate Macer’s character is used as a pawn by the CIA and Alejandro to push the drug cartels under one controlled business. The original scripted ending of Sicario was changed because it lacked depth and would have ruined the film’s impact.

A story is only as good as its ending, and in the case of Sicario, that rings as true as ever. Following FBI Special Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), Sicario is ultimately a U.S./Mexico border crime drama that gets more intense the longer it plays. Directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Taylor Sheridan, the film tackles the dark reality of drug cartels and those who get in too deep with them. Sicario is most notable for its shocking and downbeat ending, leaving the viewer in uneasy suspense and horror until the very last second. But that moment between Kate and Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) almost didn’t happen.

Sicario
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico. Release Date September 17, 2015 Director Denis Villeneuve Runtime 120 Tagline The deeper you go, the darker it gets.

How Does ‘Sicario’ End?
The ending of Sicario––which is the first official entry in Taylor Sheridan’s unofficial American Frontier Trilogy––goes something like this. After first joining a joint task force led by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) of the CIA with support from Alejandro Gillick, a former prosecutor-turned-assassin, Kate Macer ends up helping them track down a man by the name of Manuel Díaz (Bernardo Saracino). But upon Díaz’s return to Mexico, the team gets into a firefight at the border that ends with Alejandro sneaking into Mexico on his own secret mission. Kate follows and watches as Alejandro abducts a corrupt police officer. Though she tries to stop him, he shoots her and leaves her behind, only to use the cop to get him to drug lord Fausto Alarcó (Julio Cesar Cedillo) and execute him (and his wife and sons) for murdering his family.

As it turns out, Kate was just a pawn that would allow the CIA (and Alejandro) to operate legally on U.S. soil with the sole purpose of pushing the cartels to all work with one Columbian-owned business so that America’s federal government could better control them going forward. What’s worse is the next day when Alejandro shows up at Kate’s apartment and forces her at gunpoint to sign a document claiming that everything they did was legal, further enveloping her within the conspiracy. Though Kate tries to get out of it, Alejandro proves too intimidating and forces her to either sign or die, where he’ll make it look like a suicide.

“You should move to a small town,” Alejandro tells her before walking out, “where the rule of law still exists.” He reminds Kate that she isn’t a wolf and that our world is made up of them. Upon watching Alejandro walk away from her balcony, Kate points her firearm directly at his head. Though she contemplates killing him then and there, ending this madness, and in some strange way, Alejandro almost seems to welcome death. But Kate can’t bring herself to do it, and Alejandro walks away, leaving her cursed by what she knows. It’s a powerful ending, and one that cuts directly to the message of Sicario, that we live in a broken and messed up world, one where nobody is left innocent or unscathed. It’s exactly the ending that works for a film like Sicario, and it’s hard to think that it could end any other way.

Emily Blunt Thought ‘Sicario’s Original Scripted Ending Was Weak

Strangely, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan––who is best known for captaining the Paramount Network’s Yellowstone universe these days––originally wrote the final confrontation between Kate and Alejandro a bit differently, and as a result, Emily Blunt and director Denis Villeneuve were forced to rework it on set. “The scene really affected me,” Emily Blunt admitted in an interview ahead of the film’s premiere. “It wasn’t as it was in the script, you know, and we just felt that we wanted to do something different.” According to Blunt, she, Villeneuve, and her costar Benicio Del Toro were unhappy with what Sheridan had penned, and spent multiple hours on set brainstorming how they might be able to pull off something better and more satisfying.

“I remember when we were talking about the scene, and what this would mean for her, and what it would cost her. And effectively, she’s signing her life away. Her whole identity, you know, is being signed away,” Blunt continued, emphasizing how important it was to her that they got the ending right for Kate’s sake. “It was one of those scenes that you sort of live for in this industry because it didn’t feel derivative of anything else. It felt so tender and yet so frightening, and so, you know, it was a really cool scene.” It’s hard to imagine Sicario, and Kate Macer’s story in particular, ending any way but how we saw it unfold on screen, but it does make us wonder how the scene played out in Sheridan’s original script.

Well, in the original screenplay, Kate (whose last name is written as Macy here) talks to herself on the balcony before being accosted and disarmed by Alejandro in her apartment, where he disgustingly lifts her shirt to see the bullet wounds he put in her chest, exposing her bare breasts in the process. Given that there was already one sexual assault in the film, it was smart to cut that bit out. To make it all stranger, he still compares Kate to his daughter after this uncomfortable and violating moment, with much of the same dialogue as before, but with less direction or purpose as seen in the film. After he leaves, Kate runs around her home with her pistol, searching for any sign of the assassin, but he’s long gone.

The Original ‘Sicario’ Ending Would’ve Ruined the Film

If the original ending for Sicario frustrates you, you’re not alone. The actors involved, not to mention director Denis Villeneuve himself, all felt as if Taylor Sheridan’s penned ending lacked any real point or depth. What’s worse is that it’s exploitative for the sake of, well, exploiting your lead actress (who had already been used, abused, and manipulated on-screen prior). Additionally, Alejandro’s original actions feel, well, out of character. Sure, he’s a killer, that much is true, and yes, he’s willing to kill Kate to keep everything secret, but Sicario is also clear that he respects her, even if he has to use her in the process. By comparing Kate to his daughter, he reveals as such––a moment that doesn’t quite land as well in the original script.

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By adding the simple element of forcing Kate to sign a document validating their objective, this scene becomes about something much bigger than Alejandro just overpowering her and “showing her whose boss.” No, this is about exactly what Emily Blunt noted above: Kate’s entire identity. In signing this form, she effectively chooses to live a lie, with her entire career as collateral. More than that, she forsakes her moral compass, just like Alejandro once did, and chooses the “lesser evil” to take down the greater. Kate has an agency here that she doesn’t have in the originally scripted scene, and we see that in her final choice not to kill Alejandro, proving to him (and even more so to herself) that she hasn’t become like him, after all.

The original dialogue in Sheridan’s ending, including the moment Alejandro explains to Kate what a sicario is, is a bit heavy-handed, and by cutting it down and getting to the bones, Villeneuve pulls out impeccable and unmatched performances from Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, who prove themselves time and again in this picture. Sicario isn’t an upbeat movie by any stretch, but by changing the ending to better address Kate’s mental state and moral failure, complete with a sort of mini-redemption at the very end, this movie turns out for the better and holds more weight than it may have otherwise. No wonder this movie got a sequel––and a third on the way––which too surprises its audience at every turn. Hopefully, Kate Macer and Alejandro will return for more.

Sicario can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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