Shadow (Keanu Reeves) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 from Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc.
PARAMOUNT PICTURES/SEGA
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the greatest entry in a trilogy that has gotten better with every installment, marking the end of Shadow’s sad story, and teasing a new direction for another sequel.
Warning—Spoilers Ahead
What Happens At The End Of ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’?
Sonic 3 introduces the fan-favorite anti-hero, Shadow the Hedgehog (played by a perfectly cast Keanu Reeves), giving Sonic (Ben Schwartz) his greatest challenge yet.
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Shadow plays a similar role that Venom does to Spiderman, acting as Sonic’s darker, edgier mirror. He is Sonic with a terrible father figure and a dead sister, a turbocharged hedgehog that has only seen the sharp edges of the world.
Shadow is clearly stronger than Sonic and the others in this film, but chooses not to deliver lethal blows to Sonic’s crew. That being said, Shadow doesn’t hold back when attacking Tom (James Marsden), mistaking him for an enemy and severely wounding him.
Tom’s injury awakens something in Sonic; against the recommendation of Knuckles (Idris Elba) Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transcend into his Super State.
Meanwhile, Ivo Robotnick has teamed up with that terrible father figure, his grandfather Gerald, who is something of a dark mirror too (Jim Carrey is playing both characters, and clearly having a great time bouncing between them).
While orbiting Earth, onboard Gerald’s space-faring superweapon, Ivo finally realizes that his dear old grandpa is even more unhinged than he is, and is seeking to destroy the entire planet.
Shadow, who is just as young as Sonic, is something of a grieving child, and is willing to go along with the genocide to avenge his fallen friend, Maria Robotnik (Alyla Browne).
Gerald and Ivo engage in a Rick and Morty-style fight, involving lots of metal augmentation. While the two scientists fight, Shadow and Sonic do Dragon Ball in space, both harnessing the power of the emeralds to achieve Super States.
Shadow fights back, but ultimately believes that he deserves Sonic’s vengeance, recognizing that Sonic shares his pain of losing a loved one. Like Shadow, Sonic’s pain allows him to tap into his most vicious fighting state, and manages to take down Shadow, who welcomes his death.
Sonic spares Shadow and the two make an alliance, with Shadow recognizing the importance of protecting the Earth in Maria’s memory.
Do Doctor Robotnik And Shadow Die In ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’?
Ivo quickly defeats Gerald and diverts the laser away from Earth, with the help of Sonic’s friends. But the weapon is malfunctioning and still a threat, so Shadow and Ivo team up to save the Earth from the subsequent explosion.
Sonic and his friends make it back to Earth safely (and Tom survives), but Robotnik and Shadow sacrifice themselves to push the weapon to a safe distance, apparently engulfed by the explosion.
Notably, we don’t see a full on-screen death, or bodies, so the characters could easily be brought back for a sequel, seeing as Shadow had the ability to teleport and rescue them both.
If not, they both had great endings.
Their return depends on whether or not Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey return to their roles. Reeves seemed to enjoy playing Shadow, describing the experience as “exhilarating,” and might be convinced to return.
Carrey was talking about retiring from acting after Sonic 2, but told the Associated Press that he came back for Sonic 3 because “I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly.”
There might be a possibility that Carrey would return for a sequel, as he told Comicbook.com, “I said I’d like to retire, but I think I was talking more about ‘power-resting.’ Because as soon as a good idea comes your way or a group of people that you really enjoyed working with and stuff, it just — things tend to change.”
Paramount recently announced a fourth Sonic movie slated for 2027.
What’s Going To Happen In ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 4’?
The mid-credits scene of Sonic 3 shows Sonic racing ahead and finding himself surrounded by darkness, before facing Metal Sonic, his robotic clone. Like Shadow, Metal Sonic is a popular antagonist and a mirror to Sonic.
This scene offers a different take on Metal, showing that there is an entire army of Metal Sonics, but they all get dispatched rather easily, after a surprise appearance from Amy, wielding her signature hammer.
Amy is another popular character, who is often depicted as Sonic’s love interest and fellow hero, but it’s unclear if she is travelling through time, or if Sonic has traveled through time.
The writers of the film were cautious to confirm details, describing the mid-credits scene as “planting a flag,” but the potential of time travel opens the door for another character from the Sonic franchise—Silver the Hedgehog.
Silver hails from the future and boasts telekinetic powers, so there’s a possibility that he could enter the ever-growing circle of anthropomorphic animals that inhabit the Sonic movies.
The wide range of Sonic games and comic books out there have many, many plotlines for future films to cover, and Sonic 3 director Jeff Fowler reckons that Paramount “can keep growing the world and growing the family of Sonic characters.”
Fowler seems keen to expand, telling Variety, “I feel like we’re just hitting our stride.”
