Super Mario Bros. Movie ending: what does the Yoshi egg tease?

The Super Mario Bros. Movie ends with Bowser shrunk and caged, and a post credits scene in which a spotted egg cracks open to the sound of Yoshi. That teases a potential sequel. I gave the film a solid 8.5 out of 10, with the music as the real MVP.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser. Below I go through the plot, the two credits scenes, my theories on potential sequels and my thoughts on the movie.

How The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens: Bowser, the Super Star and two Brooklyn plumbers

The film opens with Bowser wreaking havoc on the penguins' ice kingdom. He stomps them out and smashes a glowing question block to reveal a Super Star. This scene had already been released before the film came out.

The story then jumps to Mario and Luigi in Brooklyn. This is the real Brooklyn, not New Donk City. The brothers are struggling to keep their plumbing business going after leaving steady jobs with Wrecking Crew. That is a nod to the 1985 game Wrecking Crew, and Foreman Spike even makes an appearance.

On the evening news, the pair see that a crucial water main is leaking downtown, so they head out to fix it. While searching for the source, they discover abandoned pipes. One is the iconic green warp pipe, and the brothers are sucked in one after the other. The journey looked a bit like the universe jumping from the Across the Spider-Verse trailer to me.

Mario meets Princess Peach while Luigi is captured in the Dark Lands

Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, home of Princess Peach. Luigi is spat out in the Dark Lands, which is Bowser's kingdom. There he is captured by a terrifying group of Dry Bones. He ends up suspended above Bowser's lava pits with the other captives. They include the penguins from the opening and Lumalee, a Luma from the Mario Galaxy series.

Toad guides Mario to Peach's castle and introduces him to the princess, who is amazed to see another human. Word arrives that Bowser now has the Super Star, and Peach is terrified because "Bowser's coming." It's a sticky situation, because he wants to forcibly marry her. That is similar to the storyline of Mario Odyssey.

Peach tries to train Mario on a nostalgia filled obstacle course, set to Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero." The scene, the music, everything works here. They still need more help, though, so they seek an alliance with the Kongs of the Jungle Kingdom.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong, the go kart convoy and the Rainbow Road ambush

The Kongs will only team up if Mario faces Donkey Kong head to head in an arena battle and wins. It's a Thor vs. Hulk setup like the one in Ragnarok. The rivalry goes back 41 years to the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet, and the DK Rap plays as Donkey Kong's intro song.

Mario takes a beating at first, pounded like the DK Jungle Beat bongos. Then he finds his footing by grabbing the Super Bell, which turns him into Cat Mario, and he defeats DK. The Kongs and the Mushroom Kingdom crew then roll out together in a go kart formation that reminded me of Mad Max: Fury Road. They take Rainbow Road while AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" plays, and this scene is straight up fire.

The Koopa clan ambushes the convoy. Mario and DK fall into the ocean and are swallowed by that pesky eel from Super Mario 64. I still don't like that guy after all these years. Peach and Toad race off to warn the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom. All of the Kongs are captured and join Luigi over the lava pits. Luigi is done dirty throughout the movie.

Bowser's wedding and the final battle in Brooklyn

Peach reluctantly accepts Bowser's wedding proposal, which again feels very like Mario Odyssey. Mario and DK escape the eel using a DK rocket barrel. They crash the wedding like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, saving all of the prisoners before they can be sacrificed.

Peach busts out an Ice Flower and freezes most of the Koopas. Bowser then unleashes a Banzai Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Thinking fast, Mario grabs the raccoon or tanuki power up and diverts the Banzai Bill into the same warp pipe that connects to Brooklyn, where it explodes. That causes the worlds to blend, and everyone ends up in Brooklyn.

Mario is about to be singed by Bowser's fire breath when Luigi steps in. The brothers activate the Super Star together and go into full star power mode, music and all. They defeat hordes of Koopas, beat Bowser, shrink him with a poisonous mushroom and capture him in a jar. Brooklyn and the Mushroom Kingdom are saved. The brothers end up thriving in their new lives as residents of the Mushroom Kingdom rather than Brooklyn.

The mid credits scene: Jack Black's Bowser sings for Peach

There is both a mid credits and a post credits scene. The mid credits scene brings another soft piano ballad from Jack Black's Bowser, serenading his dear Peach. He still longs for the princess, but a Toad quickly cuts him off.

The scene reveals that Bowser is still shrunk by the poisonous mushroom from the end of the movie. He is trapped in a tiny cage in the Mushroom Kingdom. It's a nice final touch of the Tenacious D stylings. I think it lets the audience know that Bowser is out of action for now and trapped, but he still has his motive for wanting Peach.

The post credits scene: Yoshi's egg hatches under Brooklyn

The post credits scene teases a potential sequel. The camera weaves through the elaborate maze of pipes under Brooklyn, New York, where Mario and Luigi were first pulled into the Mushroom Kingdom through the green warp pipe. Among the rubble left over from Bowser's invasion sits a familiar white and green spotted egg.

The camera slowly zooms in as the egg begins to crack. Then the screen cuts to black and we hear the iconic sound of Yoshi. For anyone who doesn't know, this dinosaur-like companion first appeared in 1990's Super Mario World. He has a big long tongue, eats things and produces eggs. He has starred in his own games and been a series staple, despite Mario constantly disrespecting him.

The egg was originally a gift at Bowser and Peach's wedding. It seems Yoshi will be showing up in a potential sequel.

Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel theories: Yoshi's Island, Peach's origins and Princess Daisy

At the time, early reports projected an opening weekend of somewhere around 225 million dollars. That's a lot of gold coins. With numbers like that, I thought a sequel, and even multiple sequels and spin offs, were bound to be cooking over at Nintendo and Illumination.

With Yoshi as the final tease, a sequel will most likely involve him. It could potentially expand the world to Yoshi's Island and develop the bond between Mario and Yoshi further. There were also multiple shots of environments beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, so there is still plenty to explore.

Beyond Yoshi, the film leaves little clues about what else a sequel could cover. The movie mentions that Peach arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom through a warp pipe as a baby, with her origins unknown. A journey to find her parents or family could be a plot beat, and that could introduce Princess Daisy. The two are often portrayed as best friends. A couple of unofficial guides for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii even stated that they are cousins. Nintendo has never officially confirmed this, but it could add another element to this cinematic world.

Rosalina, Mario Galaxy and a Luigi's Mansion movie

Rosalina and Mario Galaxy could be another direction. That's mainly because Peach mentions there are multiple galaxies out there while looking up at the night sky. Lumalee, "the lovable psychopath who ends the movie," also appears in both Mario Galaxy games. Lumalee is technically a Luma star, and Rosalina is the adoptive mother of the Lumas. So I think the writers are cooking up something.

Luigi was left out of the spotlight as usual. That's why I think everyone, Charlie Day included, wants a Luigi's Mansion movie: a haunted mansion story with a Ghostbusters influence, done in the Mario style. Personally, I would love to see a weird Alice in Wonderland adaptation of Super Mario 64, with jumping into paintings and the whole thing.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie review: fan service, music and an 8.5 out of 10

I had a blast at The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It was just me alone at a 10 a.m. showing full of parents and their kids, but everyone was enjoying it. It showed the power of Mario across generations and dozens of games, and it offered plenty of cleverly placed fan service. That was fan service in a good way, from the small, obscure Easter eggs hidden in the background to the musical cues in certain scenes. The overall attention to detail went beyond what I would have asked for from a Mario movie.

The real MVP carrying the movie was the music. It used classic themes, newer themes and small cues like the familiar notes of World 1-2. There were obscure, beloved songs like the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, plus new songs written for the movie and sung by Jack Black's Bowser. The Mario Kart montage moments were some of the coolest parts of the film, and the Rainbow Road shortcut Easter egg spoke to my 10 year old N64 gaming heart.

Mario and Luigi's big screen outing gets a solid 8.5 out of 10 from me. Two small problems kept it from a perfect finish. The first is that some of the voice cast, mainly Chris Pratt, is a distraction from the fun. After the first 10 minutes it all blends together, but his "Mamma Mia" lines needed more gusto. The second is that the story feels far too rushed. It almost implies the characters already have a rapport, and when a sticky situation comes up, it's solved 30 seconds later.

Please put Mario in the frog costume for the sequel. I'm begging. Those are minor problems, though. This was awesome.