FUBAR, the action-adventure comedy show on Netflix, marks a banging entry for Arnold Schwarzenegger into the world of live-action television. The 75-year-old action star plays the role of Luke Brunner, a CIA agent considering retirement who is then thrown into one last mission to rescue an important operative. As expected from the title, this mission leads to a chain of events that ultimately results in a complete mess truly beyond all recognition. Despite having a mostly simplistic plotline, FUBAR stuffs in a number of elements in the last episode, and although it is not a remarkable show in any way, it does end with a promise to return.
Spoilers Alert
‘FUBAR’ Plot Summary: What Is The Series About?
FUBAR opens near the famous diamond district of Antwerp, as the protagonist Luke Brunner stages a false fire alarm to break into the vault of a jewelry store. Stealing some of the rare and valuable diamonds, Luke takes them to a criminal contact he has made in the recent past. It turns out that Luke is actually a CIA agent who is trying to find out the secret hideout of a notorious human trafficker, and the contact is ready to give up this location in exchange for some diamonds. There is a hitch in the exchange eventually, as the criminal finds out that Luke is no diamond merchant as he had stated to be, but the protagonist now lets his gun do the talking. As the human trafficker is brought down by a drone strike, Luke escapes the place unharmed and returns to his home in Armonk, New York.
Going over to the CIA regional office in the area, Luke hands in his retirement request, but his plans are stopped in their tracks when his friend and colleague Barry briefs him on an urgent operation. The agency appoints Luke for this one last mission, in which he has to rescue an operative codenamed Panda, who is currently living undercover inside a militant camp in Guyana. The leader of this camp, Boro, happens to have a past with Luke, as Luke killed Boro’s father, Omar, many years ago. However, Boro does not know of this, and he only knows Luke as his late father’s trusted friend and business partner. Therefore, it is best for Luke to enter the camp, get close to Boro, and rescue operative Panda, and the man eventually agrees. However, upon reaching the militant camp in Guyana, Luke Brunner is in for the shock of his life, for his daughter Emma happens to be the CIA agent he has been assigned to rescue. Both Luke and Emma had forever kept their professional identities hidden from each other, and now they suddenly have to work together. While the father and daughter manage to escape the place after fighting through their personal distrust and disappointment for having lied to each other, the militant leader Boro escapes.
The CIA knew of Boro’s latest criminal plan—the mastermind had developed a unique bomb fitted into a small briefcase, making it a dangerous weapon of mass destruction. While Emma’s and then Luke’s operation was to get hold of this briefcase bomb, they failed in their attempt, and now that Boro is free, the stakes are even higher. Amidst such a scenario, the CIA plans a series of missions with both Luke and Emma at the center in an attempt to stop Boro and his suitcase nuke before it is too late.
Did Boro Die In The Nuclear Plant Explosion In Sardovia?
After the mission in Guyana does not work out as planned with regards to Boro and his suitcase bomb, the CIA continues searching for any trace of the man and his associates and soon finds one. Boro’s right-hand man, Cain Khan, had been spotted in Kazakhstan, where a huge amount of radioactive waste was being transported away on a high-speed train. Boro’s plan is to siphon out some of the radioactive materials from the waste and use them for his bomb. The CIA sends Luke and Emma to put a stop to this plan, and while they are able to do so, Boro or his team cannot still be apprehended. The next part of the plan is to break into the office of a Moldavian scientist, whose help Boro was taking, and from this mission, it is found out that the criminal mastermind is now in search of a miniature nuclear reactor. The CIA operatives next find a similar reactor at the abandoned factory of a bankrupt glass manufacturer in Duluth, and they plan on using this device to bait Boro and capture him. While this requires some more work, mainly in staging a fake seller, the plan does eventually work, and Boro is captured. However, as things turned out, Boro’s men rescued him from captivity soon after. Boro had planned his arrest only so that he could retrieve his bomb, which had been nabbed by the CIA earlier.
In the next few months, Boro meets with some Russian buyers who seem to have ties to the government, and they show great interest in the suitcase bomb. By now, Boro had grown vengeful against Luke and Emma, who had betrayed him multiple times, and he agreed to make a deal with the Russians for his bomb in exchange for information about the two. Around this time, the CIA finds Boro while he was hiding in an abandoned nuclear plant in Sardovia. The next mission is set to eliminate Boro and retrieve every weapon he has ever made. During this crucial mission, Luke and Emma have to enter the sub-basement under the nuclear reactor as Aldon gets shot, and Roo has to stay back to save him from death. As the two navigate through the place, Emma finally comes across Boro, and a fight ensues, while her father has to face Cain Khan. Both are about to complete their task when Khan throws a grenade, which ends up blowing inside a room full of explosives, and the blast destroys a part of the compound while also killing the henchman. This results in Emma and Boro getting stuck inside the nuclear plant, with an imminent deadly blast about to follow in a few minutes. The CIA agent now manages to negotiate with Boro to work together on escaping the plant, promising him that he will not be arrested upon their exit.
Luke keeps trying to find a way out for his daughter from the outside, and he finds the opening to the tunnel of vents that Emma has been using to escape. As Emma and Boro manage to crawl out of the vents, they have only one last step toward safety—to be pulled out by Luke. During all this time, the CIA director, Dot, has been ordering Luke not to let Boro escape, but the agent has been carrying the guilt of having turned Boro into a monster by killing his father. However, when Emma has been safely pulled out of the tunnel, Luke does indeed decide not to help Boro out. He states how Boro’s own actions have made him a terrorist who needs to be brought down, and for this reason, Luke leaves him to die from the blast. The deadly explosion does occur very soon, and it seems powerful enough to have killed anybody in the compound, but as Luke and Emma only get out at the last minute, there is no way for them to check on Boro. As it turns out, though, Boro does not really die in this explosion and somehow manages to survive, with serious injuries and a side of his head completely burned.
How Did Boro Find Emma And Luke? What Happens To Boro?
FUBAR skips ahead a few months after the incidents at Sordovia, and the focus shifts back to the Brunner family. Earlier, after Tally had been swooned by the newfound attraction and attention of her ex-husband Luke, she had seriously contemplated breaking up with Donnie. However, when he called Luke to say so, the ex-husband feared hurting her once again and instead told her that their relationship would never work out. Hurt and also influenced by alcohol, Tally called up Donnie and proposed to get married to him. Several months later, at present, the two are about to get married at the local church, and Luke arrives at Tally’s house to congratulate her and Donnie. It is now Emma who sees the very evident love and chemistry between her parents, and she encourages Luke to go to church and at least confess his true feelings to Tally and give her one last chance. As the man does so and takes time to confess everything to Tally, the two brothers from the rival fitness company plan to cause some harm to their car outside. But as it turns out, much more serious trouble is on the way for the Brunner family as the car explodes from a bomb that had been fitted to it.
After some very brief moments, an entire group of armed gangsters enters the church and starts firing on the family members and friends gathered there. As they all manage to duck behind the pews, Emma decides to let go of her cover as a civilian and starts to shoot back. Luke also joins in, much to the surprise of all the family members, and the two together kill all of the terrorist attackers. However, Boro now emerges, with Tally held captive in his arms, and he is now back for the ultimate revenge. He reveals that he had tracked Emma down by searching her first name on new engagement announcements after he had earlier spotted the ring on her finger that Carter had given her. While Emma’s name did not directly come up, she was indeed mentioned as a bridesmaid for Tally’s wedding, and so Boro showed up at the place. He now threatens to kill Tally unless Emma and Luke shoot each other dead, and the situation looks very tense for a few seconds for our protagonist. However, during his confession to Tally, Luke had given her the distinguished service award medal that the CIA had awarded him. He now cleverly reminds Tally of the medal that she still has with her, and using this sharp-edged medal, she stabs Boro and manages to free herself from his hold. As this much-needed opportunity arrives, Luke and Emma shoot multiple rounds at Boro and finally kill the man for good.
‘FUBAR’ Ending Explained: Is Tina Working For The Russians?
At the very beginning of FUBAR, the CIA director Dot had introduced her team members to an NSA analyst, Tina Mukerji, who was to be a part of the mission tracking down Boro. Over time, Tina proved herself to be immensely helpful to the team with her ability to keep track of agents during an operation and guide them through the objectives, as well as by getting directly involved with a few missions. Along with proving her worth to the team, Tina had also managed to win the heart of Barry, who had been quite smitten by the young woman from the very moment she joined the CIA. Eventually, Tina also showed her interest in Barry, and the two became a loving couple. The team was aware of this too, and everyone seemed to trust Tina by the end of FUBAR Season 1, but a revelation at the very end shows more about the woman.
On the day of Tally’s wedding, all of the CIA agents on the team are invited to the occasion, as Tally knows them to be Emma’s colleagues from her water engineering company. While Aldon, Roo, and Barry do visit, Tina cannot, as she has to keep track of some intercepted messages from Boro’s militant group. Soon she finds out that Boro is about to launch an attack on the church, and she informs Roo and Aldon to rush to the place. However, in the middle of all this, Tina also receives a phone call, and she speaks fluent Russian over this call. Tina tells the caller that she cannot talk at the moment as she is caught up in the middle of a situation. This does seem to suggest that Tina might actually be a Russian agent planted inside the CIA. If she is to be thought of as a spy agent, then Tina does manage to get a lot of work done by her supposed boyfriend, Barry, who even ensures that Tina is not sent back to the NSA and is instead kept at Armonk. Perhaps Tina was never a part of the NSA, and having to leave the CIA would have failed her secretive mission. What is worse is that Emma, Luke, and all of their friends and family hurry inside a van sent to them by Tina, and this can very well be a setup to kidnap them or take them into some trouble. We do see Luke driving the van at the end of FUBAR, but it is very possible that Tina is tracking the van and will reveal their location to the Russians.
What Can We Expect From ‘FUBAR’ Season 2?
It is quite obvious that Netflix would want to continue with this high-budget thriller series, and the plot also leaves enough room in the end for a possible second season. The most immediate matter would be the real identity of Tina, of course, and whether she has been spying on the CIA all along. The fates of Luke and his entire family are at stake now, as the man himself tells them, for Boro has revealed their true identities to all criminal gangs and terrorist groups in the world. As both he and his daughter are CIA agents, this revelation surely paints a large target on their backs, putting all their family members’ lives in danger. Where the Brunner family goes from here and how they fight for their safety would be interesting to watch. Finally, the fates of the romantic relationships, particularly those of Emma and Aldon and Luke and Tally, remain uncertain, and these would surely be developed more in a possible second season of FUBAR.
