‘The Bad Guys’ Ending & Credits Scene, Explained: How Did Wolf And His Gang Stop Professor Marmalade?

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Sometimes, a wolf isn’t hiding in a sheep’s skin and wants to be comfortable in its own skin, but the world isn’t ready to accept that kind of narrative. They have a set of preconceived notions according to which every fierce-looking creature is the bad guy. Some creatures try to fight that stereotype, but many of them give in and become what people want them to be. “The Bad Guys” is the story of five notorious robbers who have accepted the fact that humans will never accept their good side no matter how hard they try because of their intimidating physical appearances. Hence, they turn towards the world of crime and decide to achieve a legacy by being the baddest criminals of their time. Because why not? One has to climb the ladder no matter where it leads to. 

Directed by Pierre Perifel, “The Bad Guys” is an animated film that is sure to leave a mark on you. It is filled with cliches yet tries to break the stereotypes in the funniest way possible. The film is about friendship and getting comfortable in one’s own skin while also following the resurrection arcs of each of the five criminals who decide to finally pursue goodness inside them after years of denial. And last but not least, there is a grand heist with a lot of twists and turns that keeps the viewers hooked. Hence, without any further ado, let’s dive deep into the world of the bad guys.


Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?

The screen opens with two best friends, Mr. Wolf, a cunning gray wolf, and Mr. Snake, a grumpy eastern brown snake, sitting in a cafe in Los Angeles, celebrating Snake’s birthday. Snake doesn’t like celebrating birthdays, and as the screen widens, it is established that the entire crowd inside the cafe is frightened of these two anthropomorphic creatures. Without wasting any moment, Wolf and Snake rob a bank, and as they try to escape the police cars, Wolf breaks the fourth wall and introduces his entire gang to the audience. His team include Snake, who is a safe cracking expert, Ms. Tarantula, aka Webs/Mata Hairy, who is the gang’s in-house hacker and traveling tech wizard, Mr. Shark, aka Jaws/Surf Snacker, who is an apex predator and a master of disguise, and the fifth and most lethal member, Mr. Piranha, who is a loose cannon willing to scrap anyone or anything but farts under stress. These misfits of Wolf’s gang tried to settle into human society, but humans only saw them as monsters. Hence, they decided to become what they physically represent: the bad guys.

Police chief Misty Luggins has been trying to arrest these notorious criminals for a long time, but they flee away every time, thereby topping the charts of their criminal records. The gang escapes the police vans and reaches their hideout, which is an underground facility near the closed sewer lines. They cherish their victory and celebrate Snake’s birthday, but as soon as Wolf opens the television, the newly elected governor, Diane Foxington, a red fox, calls the gang amateurish and second-rate has-beens who are just looking for some validation. Her words hurt Wolf’s ego, and he decides to rob the Golden Dolphin trophy that is going to be presented to the city’s best citizen. Wolf believes stealing the trophy will cement their legacy. However, Snake reminds him that so far, any criminal who has tried to steal it has failed miserably, including the most celebrated criminals of their time, “The Crimson Paw,” who hasn’t been arrested but disappeared soon after her Golden Dolphin heist.

However, once Wolf has his eye on something, he doesn’t hold back his urges and thus convinces his gang to steal the trophy to show the governor what “The Bad Guys” gang is capable of. Wolf coins a grand plan to steal the trophy from backstage, and the gang arrives at the Museum of Fine Arts, where the trophy is going to be represented to the city’s most cherished philanthropist, Professor Rupert Marmalade IV, a guinea pig. At the event, Wolf, in disguise, meets Diane and introduces himself as Oliver Poodleton, while his gang arranges the necessary codes and keycards to steal the trophy. Wolf even encounters an old woman on the staircase and tries to steal money from her purse when suddenly the woman slips on the staircase and Wolf saves her life, but as soon as the woman hugs Wolf in gratitude, he feels a tingling in his heart and his tail starts wagging after committing the first good deed of his life, probably. Wolf quickly comes out of his trance and the gang commits the robbery, but they fail to escape the premise. The police arrest them, and before chief Misty can take them away, Professor Marmalade intervenes and asks the governor to give them a second chance. He decides to take them under his wing as an experiment and will try his best to change their persona before his Gala for Goodness, a charity event that is going to happen soon. After a bit of hesitation, the governor agrees, and the gang is transferred to Marmalade’s safe house, where he starts instructing his new pupils. However, Wolf and his gang are just buying time to steal the Golden Dolphin trophy that will be on display during Marmalade’s charity event. But before the gang can commit the perfect heist, Marmalade cons them and gets them arrested for stealing the legendary Love Crater meteorite that crashed into the city some time ago. But why?

Major Spoilers Ahead


What Was Professor Marmalade’s Sinister Plan?

The film, from time to time, tried to explore the theme that people or things are not what they appear to be. Wolf and his gang might appear sinister, but they were good at heart and only committed robberies because human society outcasted them, calling them dangerous and frightening. Professor Marmalade, on the other hand, was hiding behind his charming physical appearance and plotting a grand heist under the disguise of his philanthropic works.

When the Love Crater meteorite hit the city, scientists found out that it emitted an electromagnetic frequency. Marmalade stole the meteorite and harnessed its power source to run a mind control device, a brain-wave helmet of some sort, with the help of which he hypnotized all the guinea pigs in the city and employed them to pull off the greatest heist that the world has ever seen. Marmalade’s Gala for Goodness had gathered some 1 billion dollars in charity, which Marmalade promised to numerous children’s schools and hospitals, but he wanted the money for himself. However, committing a charity fraud would have hurt his noble public image, and thus he came up with a sinister plan to divert the public attention and took Wolf and his gang under his wing for the charity event so that he could easily blame them for stealing the meteorite. While in the meantime, he planned to steal the money and believed that no one would ever suspect him because people do not perceive guinea pigs as being bad creatures.


‘The Bad Guys’ Ending Explained? How Did Wolf and His Gang Stop Marmalade?

After the meteorite was stolen, Wolf tried to convince governor Diane and chief Misty that he or his team didn’t commit the robbery, but who would believe a fierce-looking creature with a history of crime? And hence, without any further ado, Chief Misty sent Wolf and his gang to the Super Ultra Crazy Max (S.U.C.M.) prison facility on a deserted island. In the prison, Snake blamed Wolf for their arrest and failure to steal the Golden Dolphin, as his willingness to do good deeds sabotaged their entire heist. Wolf finally accepted that he felt a tingling in his heart when he helped the old woman, and maybe he didn’t want to be bad anymore, which led to a brawl between Wolf and Snake, and suddenly the Crimson Paw infiltrated the premise and helped the gang escape from the prison. Crimson Paw finally disclosed her identity and revealed to Wolf that she was none other than Governor Diane, who had a change of heart while stealing the Golden Dolphin and thus decided to leave the world of crime behind. She started helping people instead of hurting them and wanted Wolf to follow the same path. However, Snake didn’t approve of these ideologies, nor did the other members of Wolf’s gang, and thus they parted ways.

Diane brought Wolf to her secret facility, and with the help of her hi-tech gadgets, they decided to steal the meteorite to stop Professor Marmalade, while on the other hand, Snake and the gang reached their hideout and found out that Wolf had given in their location and someone took away everything that they had ever stolen. However, Wolf had left a push pop in the freezer, and Snake gave it to Shark without any second thought. The gang found it bizarre because Snake never ever shared anything with his teammates, and finally, Webs commented that maybe they were slowly drifting towards their good sides. Snake, in denial, left the hideout and joined hands with Professor Marmalade to take revenge on Wolf. With the help of Snake, Marmalade captured Diane and Wolf, but fortunately, Webs, Shark, and Piranha arrived there and saved them. The new gang stopped the trucks carrying the stolen charity money before it reached Marmalade’s facility and delivered them to their rightful locations. Diane and Wolf had also stolen the meteorite, and she gave Wolf a chance to redeem himself, but Wolf decided to not finish his resurrection arc without his best friend Snake, and hence quickly drove towards the helicopter that was carrying Marmalade and Snake. Marmalade put forward a deal to release Snake in exchange for the meteorite, to which Wolf inevitably agreed. Marmalade kicked Snake out of the helicopter as soon as he found out that Wolf’s car was heading towards his cliff, while Wolf, on the other hand, decided to sacrifice his life to save Snake.

In the air, Snake and Wolf finally bridged their differences, and soon the gang held hands. To save the gang, Wolf triggered his grapple gun, successfully this time, and brought his team back to safety. However, Chief Misty and her entire police force were waiting for “The Bad Guys.” Diane arrived at the scene and tried to convince Misty that Wolf and his gang didn’t steal the meteorite. She was about to give in her secret identity when Wolf intervened and took all the responsibility for his crimes, even the ones he didn’t commit. He believed that Diana was doing good for the city and apparently was needed outside the prison than inside. Suddenly, the news reporter spotted Marmalade’s helicopter with the meteorite and concluded that Marmalade was bringing it back to safety. Falling prey to his pretentious public image, Marmalade instructed his butler to land the helicopter, where Misty discovered that it wasn’t the original meteorite. Snake finally revealed to his team that he joined Marmalade only to stop him and swapped the meteorite at Marmalade’s facility while turning the machine to overdrive mode, because of which the meteorite exploded at the end of the film, finally spoiling all of Marmalade’s future plans to commit the greatest heist in the world. Misty also recovered a Zumpango diamond from Marmalade, which he took from Diana when he captured her at his facility. Misty concluded that Marmalade was the Crimson Paw who had disappeared without a trace and hence threw him into the police van without any further argument. 

While a police van took Wolf and his gang to the prison, Snake finally revealed to Wolf that he had cunningly planted the push pop in the freezer so that Snake would be able to recognize the flower of goodness inside himself and let it blossom.


‘The Bad Guys’ Mid-Credits Scene

Wolf and his gang were released only a year after their arrest because of their good behavior in prison. As they walked out of the prison, they discussed Snake’s birthday while trying to figure out what they were going to do with their lives. Standing on the deserted road, Snake wished for a ride when suddenly Diana arrived, driving Wolf’s cherished car, and the entire gang drove towards the horizon with the prospects of a brighter future. Diana will probably assign them some civil service duties or employ their skills to help people around them. But whatever the nature of work may be, it is quite clear that Wolf will not return to the world of crime again. Or maybe, he will.


“The Bad Guys” is a 2022 animated adventure film directed by Pierre Perifel.

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Shikhar Agrawal
Shikhar Agrawal
I am an Onstage Dramatist and a Screenwriter. I have been working in the Indian Film Industry for the past 12 years, writing dialogues for various films and television shows.

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