Heart of Stone (2023) Ending Explained: What happens to the Heart?

Heart of Stone Plot Summary

Heart of Stone is Netflix’s second big action blockbuster starring Gal Gadot after Red Notice. Although the movie embarrassingly fails to conjure up original storytelling, there are enough explosions and large-scale action sequences to see us through. Alia Bhat, Jaime Dornan, and Matthias Schweighöfer also star in this movie.

Heart of Stone begins in the Alps in Italy. We follow an MI6 team comprising Yang, Parker, Bailey, and Rachel Stone. While the first two are field agents, the latter two are support teams. They have been tracking an arms dealer called Mulvaney for years. He has come out of hiding to participate in a Casino of Blood. The team wants to take advantage of his gambling habits and nab him for information. The plan is to administer a substance that will trigger a heart attack so that the team can stretcher out Mulvaney in an ambulance.

What is The Charter and The Heart?

Stone volunteers to venture out when her attempts to hack into the system fail. If she doesn’t do this, Yang and Parker won’t be able to make it to the back of the establishment where the Casino of Blood is live.

As expected, the plan goes awry as the security detail is aware of the danger. The team is also perturbed by the presence of a mysterious girl (Keya) who hacked into their comms feed and even waved at Stone before disappearing.

While Parker apprehends Mulvaney and takes him down in a cable car, Yang and Bailey take off in the ambulance anticipating more of Mulvaney’s men coming to get him. Stone pretends she is injured and stays behind. It is then revealed that she is a double agent, working for a secret organization called The Charter. This organization is comprised of highly skilled operatives from around the world who work around the clock to “keep the world safe.” Stone (whose code name is “Nine of Hearts”) is guided by her handler, Jack, who uses a piece of software called The Heart to guide her safely in the mission.

The catch is that Stone must not let her cover break and still save the day. She manages to do it with aplomb only to find out that Mulvaney has ingested cyanide and killed himself. The MI6 mission is a failure.

The Heart is one of the most highly sought-after pieces of software in the world since it can predict the future. Using it, anyone can hack into any system in the world from anywhere remotely.

Stone is surprised by Keya’s presence at a party and makes an attempt to track her down.

Why do Keya and Parker want The Heart?

Stone visits the Hearts Team HQ (one of the teams working under The Charter) to learn more about Keya Dhawan. She was an orphan and came on the radar of Niam Kharche while he was visiting Pune, India. The Heart tells them that Keya is headed to Lisbon for the opening of Club Moritz. They leak this information to MI6, who act on it.

Parker’s team heads to Lisbon. In the middle of the night, they are attacked by an unidentified mercenary team. Although Stone is given clear instructions to abandon the team and escape, she decides to stay on and save the lives of her team.

Her remarkable field skills catch the attention of the rest of her team. Stone comes clean about her association with The Charter only to learn that Parker is not an MI6 agent. He is also a double agent who is working together with Keya. Parker shoots Yang and Bailey dead and poisons Stone. He also injects a device into her, intending to hack the Charter’s systems when they bring her in. Stone takes out the device as soon as she gains consciousness. The systems of the Charter haven’t been breached.

It is revealed that The Heart is securely flying in the air like a satellite. So stealing it is a difficult task. Nomad, the head of the Hearts Team, suspends Stone since her cover is blown. She has gotten too close to this saga and needs to step back.

In a meeting with her superiors, Nomad learns that Parker was originally an MI6 agent. During a mission in Chechnya in 2015, Parker’s team was compromised and all of his colleagues were killed by a Chechnyan warlord. Since MI6 was in possession of high-grade military weapons, the Charter ordered a drone strike on the location to ensure that they didn’t get their hands on the weapons.

They presumed Parker died in this strike but he did not, even though MI6 revealed that all their agents were dead. They assume Parker wants revenge by destroying the organization. Stone goes to Bailey’s apartment and pets his cat when she realizes that Keya interacted with her by hacking into the camera feed of the bus. Stone backtracks her code to learn Keya’s location: West Africa.

Key and Parker are planning to steal the Heart from The Locker. They had planted a virus into the Charter’s system a while back and have now activated it.

Heart of Stone Ending Explained:

Jack is essentially locked out of the system and Keya lowers The Locker, which is an aircraft, to board it with Parker on a chopper. Stone is flying right above them and decides to intercept them on the plane. While Parker engages her in a duel, Keya steals The Heart. Parker places explosives on The Locker and escapes in the chopper. Stone manages to latch on to the rope that Parker and Keya are hanging on to and cuts it in half, taking Keya with her.

What triggers Keya’s change of “heart?”

Although Parker has The Heart, Keya has encrypted it to her biometrics, meaning no one can access it without her. Stone decides not to kill Keya and instead tries to get back into civilization from the Lampoul Desert. Keya reveals that Kharche killed her parents and she wants to exact revenge on him. They are rescued by a Senegalese woman and brought back to her village. Stone surreptitiously places a tracker on Keya. It turns out that the woman was recruited by Parker’s men. They begin shooting at the truck, which is when Keya and Stone go their separate ways.

Stone manages to escape while Keya’s abhorrence of Parker’s method grows stronger when his henchman kills a Senegalese woman who asked for her due. Stone is picked by Nomad’s agent. The tracker on Keya points towards them heading to the Rejykyavik University in Iceland, where they plan to activate The Heart. Stone is now the only hope to save the organization.

What happens to The Heart after the Iceland incident?

Keya’s fears are further exacerbated when Parker orders a hit on members of the Charter. A former Chinese Secret Agent leads the team of Clubs at the University. Stone is also heading to it. But Keya’s conscience gets the better of her and she installs a failsafe into The Heart, shutting it down. She also warns Stone that the lab is a decoy and she is heading into a trap.

The Clubs team is blown up but Stone makes it out safely. She heads to the correct location. Parker has found Keya and holds her at gunpoint, asking her to get The Heart online.

Keya and Stone fight off Parker together and Stone saves the life of the Hearts team, who were stuck inside the bunker without an oxygen supply. Four weeks later, the dust has settled on this incident. Stone has recruited Keya to her team and Jack has also joined them in the field. The Heart is restored to its original position, although The Charter is wary of its impact on the world.