Honor Among Thieves ending explained: Szass Tam sequel

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant, ends with a thief turning his back on gold to save a city. Behind it sits a bigger villain who I think a sequel would center on. I had a really good time with it, and I gave it 8.5 out of 10.

Below I go through the plot, the final scenes and the post-credits scene. Then I look at Szass Tam, the true big bad, and where I think things could go with him.

Edgin's Harper past and the loss of his wife

Chris Pine plays Edgin, a former Harper turned thief. He is jailed after trying to get a resurrection tablet to revive his dead wife. The Harpers are a secret organization dedicated to protecting the Forgotten Realms. Edgin was one of their best members. He saved several lives and captured many Red Wizards.

Then he got greedy. He took the Red Wizards' treasures and went home to his wife and their child, Kira. The Red Wizards had marked their treasure. His wife hid their daughter before she could be found, but she was killed by the vengeful group of evil magicians. Red Wizard blades prevent resurrection, so Edgin could not save her, and he fell into a deep, dark depression.

Harpers were supposed to act out of the goodness of their hearts. Had he not been tempted by the treasure, his life would have taken a different course. In the end, he turns his back on gold to save the people of Neverwinter.

Holga, the elk tribe and the crew Edgin assembles

At his wife's funeral pyre, Edgin burned his Harper book. While doing it, he noticed the sapphire dragonfly that comes to represent her throughout the film. He then met Holga, an exiled barbarian, and together they raised Kira.

Holga belongs to the elk tribe, described as arrogant and ill-tempered pillagers. They had very few friends, and mixing with others is a banishable offense. Holga fell in love with a character played by Bradley Cooper, who has a small cameo.

On the road they gathered allies, including the con man Forge and the sorcerer Simon. They also met the mysterious Sofina, who is later revealed to be a Red Wizard. Many of their backstories are expanded in the prequel comic Honor Among Thieves: The Feast of the Moon, which covers heists they pulled off and some they failed to pull off. If you want more of this world, I highly recommend it.

Sofina, Szass Tam and the Red Wizards' undead army

Sofina turns out to be an ally of Szass Tam, a powerful lich who works with eight members of the Council of Zulkirs. Szass Tam is the Zulkir of necromancy. He wants to raise an army of zombie-like slaves to do his bidding. A paladin named Xenk witnessed this when it was first carried out and barely escaped with his life.

Posing as an ally, Sofina got the group to try stealing a tablet of reawakening. During the job she cast a time dilation spell that held Edgin and Holga in place. That was when she carried out her real plan: grabbing a horn needed for her spell, which turns people into puppets.

Edgin and Holga were jailed, which is where the film opens. After they escape, they travel to Neverwinter to get Kira back. Forge had been tasked with guarding her. Sofina had put the lord of the realm under a spell, which let Forge take his place. Since then Forge has poisoned Kira against her father and made him out to be the bad guy, because he wants a kid he can mold into admiring him.

Doric and why it plays like a fantasy Mission Impossible

After escaping execution, the pair team up with Simon again and meet Doric, a tiefling druid. She's the it girl of this movie. There's a fantastic one-take scene in which she spies on the castle and makes a breakthrough while shapeshifting into different animals. It's stellar stuff.

When talking about the film to friends, I've described it as a fantasy Mission Impossible. It has a ton of personality. Many scenes set one thing up, divert into another, then return to the original plan, which then falls apart. It's well written and put together, leading to dynamic action scenes full of humor and charm. It's the most Chris Pine movie you'll ever see.

Most of it centers on the group gathering tools to storm the city during the High Sun Games. Sofina has let Forge host the biggest one yet, drawing people from across the realm whom she can convert into puppets. Forge, meanwhile, will make off with the wealth the elite bring to the city.

The graveyard questions and the post-credits scene

The group goes to a graveyard and uses a spell to resurrect the dead so they can ask them five questions. This pays off in the post-credits scene. They keep hitting loose ends because most of the soldiers died before things played out and didn't see what happened.

Sometimes they realize early that they don't need all five questions to get what they need, so they ask arbitrary ones to let the soldiers rest in peace. The last one points them toward Xenk. They track him down, but they don't bother asking that soldier the rest of his questions. The post-credits scene is him sitting in a grave asking where everyone is. Maybe a sequel could bring him back as part of the team.

Xenk's side quest and the helmet of disjunction

Xenk takes them on a side quest, which I loved seeing. It works as meta commentary on NPCs and how they act. He even walks in a completely straight line. He doesn't add much to the story, but it's fun seeing these quests on the big screen.

He leads them to where he hid the helmet of disjunction. It's another side quest, in a lava location where they gain bonuses and face a boss fight. They run into some of Sofina's undead forces and meet a dragon who's been described as a fat Smaug.

How the Honor Among Thieves ending plays out

Using the hither thither staff and the helmet, the group gets inside the castle, where they're captured and put into the games. They break the games and escape, and they could leave on Forge's boat with the riches. But after seeing that Sofina is going to transform the people of Neverwinter, they decide to take her down.

That leads to a brilliant final battle, and the group comes out on top. Kira straps a bangle to Sofina's wrist, the kind the games used to hamper the contestants' abilities. During the fight, Holga is stabbed with Sofina's blade, so she can't be resurrected by normal means.

Edgin now has the tablet of reawakening. He would like to use it to bring back his wife, but he realizes Holga is very much a mother to Kira, having raised her since she was young. He set out to bring Zia back, but in doing so he lost years with his daughter, when he and Holga could have stayed and raised her together. The family was right in front of him all along.

Forge ends up locked away, and the group is declared heroes as the lord wakes and rules the realm again. Forge tries a similar escape to his earlier one, but the window used at the start is now boarded up.

What the filmmakers said about a sequel

When this was written, no sequel had been announced. Asked about plans, the creative team said they didn't want to jinx things. Asked when number two would start shooting, the reply was "ask us on April 1st". They added: "we're very superstitious", but that they "would love to get back together with this family."

Who Szass Tam is in Dungeons & Dragons lore

Szass Tam is the true big bad of Honor Among Thieves. Thanks to his appearances in the novels, games and Baldur's Gate series, we know a fair bit about him. Baldur's Gate 2 gets name-dropped several times in the film, and further installments could potentially feature more of it.

He was born in 1104 DR under another name. He built up allies and puppets, often sponsoring groups to retrieve magical artifacts for him, then killing them once they handed them over. He obtained a 700-year-old crystal ball, which became one of his most prized possessions and enhanced his abilities. After killing his mentor, he carried out his first act of necromancy on him, bringing his teacher back.

From then on he believed nobody should go to waste and began planning to turn everyone into a zombie. He succeeded the previous Zulkir of necromancy and became a powerful wizard before he turned into a lich. As the film shows, he retreated to the shadows. He's basically a Thanos who has spent hundreds of years trying to regain his power and put his plans in place.

Should we get another movie, I definitely think it would center on him and a possible quest for revenge against the heroes, who have just taken out Sofina. As we saw with Edgin's wife, the Red Wizards have a need for vengeance. What's great about this world is that the films can have a range of villains, like the dragon and Forge here, alongside an overarching evil threat.

My Honor Among Thieves review: 8.5 out of 10

At a time when comic book movies are falling flat, it's nice to see other genres crushing it and leaving you wanting more. I think it's well cast, and every actor sinks into the role and becomes the character. It's like a Fast and the Furious, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones crossover that travels the realm through icy locations, lush countryside, expansive cities and lava-filled lairs. The pacing is perfect, with new characters and twists keeping you on your toes.

I don't think it's perfect. It feels like they're finding their feet with what they want from this world. But I think if they get a second film, they'll knock it out of the park. I hoped it would get the box office it deserves. Dungeons & Dragons is a massive name, yet it somehow feels like the underdog, and I think people should give it a chance.

I'm not a massive D&D fan, though I played it on Friday nights as a kid. I think it's written to welcome newcomers while giving hardcore fans things to love. It's a really good film, and I'm giving it 8.5 out of 10. I might tweak that to a 9 after a second watch.