Anthony Mackie's spunky robot, Herman, sets up one major twist during The Electric State's action-packed ending, as he seemingly dies during the movie's final act
The new Netflix film from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo follows a young girl named Michelle (Mille Bobby Brown) as she pairs up with a smuggler, Keats (Chris Pratt), on a quest to find her thought-to-be-dead brother.
Joining the pair of humans are several robot companions, including the Anthony Mackie-voiced Herman—Keats' robotic sidekick who (while reluctantly) serves as a mechanical partner in crime to Pratt's human character.
The Electric State's Herman Twist Explained
The supposed death of Anthony Mackie's Herman is just the beginning of one of The Electric State's biggest ending twists.
One of the key moments of The Russo Brothers' new movie sees Mackie's robot die in a dramatic final battle with Stanley Tucci's Ethan Skate.
As Tucci's mad scientist villain descends an army of drones on Chris Pratt's Keats, Millie Bobby Brown's Michelle, and their gang robotic compatriots (one of which was reportedly once planned to be the Kool-Aid Man), Herman puts himself in harm's way.
Mackie's Russian doll-esque stacking robot jumps in front of Keats, protecting him from incoming gunfire from Skate (who has taken the form of a gun-touting mechanical drone).
Herman stops Pratt's wayward smuggler from taking a blaster bolt to the chest but suffers devastating damage in the process, lying still on the ground with a smoking hole in his chest.
Luckily, just as this happens, Michelle finds the switch within Skate's base to deactivate his robot army, stopping the carnage but seemingly leaving Herman dead and gone on the battlefield. And that is when The Electric State's big ending twist comes into play.
After an impassioned speech from Keats, where he lets out all of his feelings for his metallic friend that he had been holding in, Herman shows signs of life.
Where the robot LED face once stood begins to jitter, flipping upward and revealing a smaller, miniature version of the robot audiences have come to know and love during the film to that point.
It turns out Herman was not dead (with the filmmakers pulling a move some have come to call "The Rise of Skywalker Chewbacca maneuver"). Not only was he not dead, but Herman heard everything Keats said as he begged for his mechanical friend to come back to life.
Herman is now occupying his (as he calls it) eight-inch model used for finer repairs and detail work, making a crude joke about never seeing Pratt's "eight-inch model" before hopping on his human pal's shoulder and running to Michelle's rescue.
The movie comes to an end with Herman reuniting with Millie Bobby Brown's teenage hero, as she exposes the Skate for the fraud he is.
After sadly saying goodbye to her imprisoned brother, Michelle broadcasts to the world that his Neurocaster technology was not the answer some had thought it was while inviting those who can hear her message to come together for peace (read about the entire Electric State story here).
So, while Anthony Mackie's Herman does end up a bit more pocket-sized than he once was by the end of the movie, he does not die in The Electric State, instead, he gets close, tricking Pratt's Keats (and, in turn, the audience) into thinking he is dead before emerging from his powered-down sleep safe and sound.
The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.
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