Eternals (2021): Cast, Plot, Ending and Post Credit Scenes

Eternals (2021) follows ten immortal beings sent to Earth thousands of years ago by a cosmic being named Arishem to hunt the Deviants, monstrous creatures that prey on humans. The team later drifts apart, and in the present day Sersi lives in London with Sprite and is dating a museum worker named Dane Whitman.

The quiet life ends when a Deviant attack, from a species the team believed extinct, forces Sersi and Sprite to reunite with Ikaris, who arrives to save them. The three travel to find their leader Ajak and discover that she has been killed, so they set out to gather the rest of the scattered team.

If you know the comics, this is Jack Kirby's idea of gods living among humans, brought into the MCU during Phase 4. As such, it introduces a large ensemble in a single film, which is a big ask of any saga entry.

The full plot of Eternals (2021) runs from a Deviant attack on Sersi, Sprite and Dane Whitman to Arishem's judgment of humanity. Kro, a Deviant, attacks the three, and Ikaris saves them. They learn that Ajak has been killed, and that she passed her role as leader to Sersi. Through that link Sersi learns the truth: the Eternals were made to protect people only so that humanity would grow large enough to feed the birth of a new Celestial, Tiamut, and that birth will destroy Earth.

The team reunites at Druig's home in the Amazon. In the fighting Kro kills Gilgamesh and escapes. Phastos proposes joining their minds so that Druig can use his mind control to calm the emerging Celestial, but Ikaris refuses and admits that he killed Ajak to keep the mission on track. Sprite sides with Ikaris out of love, and Kingo leaves rather than fight his friends.

At a volcano in the Indian Ocean Tiamut starts to rise. Druig's mind control fails, and Thena kills Kro. Sersi then uses the combined power of the Eternals to turn Tiamut to stone. Ikaris, ashamed, flies into the Sun, and Sersi uses leftover energy to let Sprite become human and age. Arishem then lifts Sersi, Phastos and Kingo away as punishment, says that humanity will be judged by their memories, and takes them into a singularity.

The story opens in ancient times, when the Eternals arrive on Earth to destroy the Deviants, and then moves to the present day. That being said, the central question never changes: do the Eternals obey the Celestials or protect the people they have come to love?

Eternals (2021) premiered in Los Angeles on October 18, 2021 and opened in the US on November 5, 2021, according to D23. It opened in Australia on November 4 and in the UK on November 5, 2021, according to Box Office Mojo. The international wide release began on November 3, 2021.

The film is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia, which answers the common question about the age rating for the movie.

As of November 3, 2026, Eternals (2021) streams on Disney Plus in the US, UK and Australia. In the US it can also be rented from Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube and Fandango At Home, and bought from the same stores. In the UK it can be rented or bought from Apple TV, Rakuten TV, Amazon Video, Sky Store and YouTube. In Australia it can be bought from Apple TV, Amazon Video and YouTube. For a full list across the series, see where to watch marvel.

The Eternals (2021) ending leaves Earth alive but under judgment: Tiamut is frozen into stone, and Ikaris ends his own life in the Sun. Thena, Druig and Makkari leave aboard the Eternals' ship to warn other worlds, while Arishem takes Sersi, Phastos and Kingo away to judge whether humanity deserves to live. That leaves Earth's fate open, and the film sets up their return and a wider cosmic threat for later stories.

In my opinion, the ending is the most interesting piece of the film because it refuses the usual clean victory. At the volcano in the Indian Ocean, Sersi stops the birth by turning Tiamut to stone, but she does not defeat the Celestials, she only delays them. According to D23, the climax was shot at the El Cuervo volcano on Lanzarote, so the frozen Celestial rises from real volcanic ground rather than a built set, which suits a film Zhao shot in widescreen.

It could be argued that the structure echoes Avengers: Infinity War, with a cosmic power weighing the worth of life, but with an important difference. Thanos was a warlord who wanted to wipe out half of all life, and the Avengers only answered him in Avengers: Endgame, five years after the loss. Here the judge is Arishem, a Celestial who lifts Sersi, Phastos and Kingo away as punishment and has not yet delivered a verdict, so the stake is a trial rather than a battle.

The human cost lands on a few small scenes. Ikaris admits he killed Ajak to keep the mission on track, Sprite sides with him out of love, and Kingo leaves rather than fight his friends. Then Sersi spends the last of the team's energy letting Sprite become human and age, which is a gentler gesture than anything in the finale of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, released two months earlier.

Paradoxically, a film built around the birth of a Celestial ends with its main team scattered across the universe. Chloé Zhao rewrote much of the Firpo script after being hired in September 2019, and I think the moral argument over obedience and love bears her mark. No follow up for Sersi, Phastos and Kingo is confirmed, so read the dangling threads as setup rather than a promise.

Eternals (2021) has two credits scenes: a mid credits scene with Eros and Pip the Troll, and a post credits scene with Dane Whitman and the Ebony Blade.

In the mid credits scene, Thena, Makkari and Druig are met by Eros and his assistant Pip the Troll. In the post credits scene, an unseen voice asks Dane Whitman whether he is ready to take up the Ebony Blade, and an uncredited voice cameo for Blade is heard.

Kit Harington plays Dane Whitman, so the second scene turns a supporting boyfriend role into a hint at a larger future. Neither scene comes with a confirmed follow up, and both are best read as teases.

Eternals (2021) was filmed in England, the Canary Islands and Los Angeles, with studio work at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Principal photography wrapped on February 4, 2020.

In the Canary Islands the production used Fuerteventura, at La Solapa beach and the Las Peñitas Dam, and Lanzarote, where the El Cuervo volcano served as the setting for the climactic scene. In London the production shot at locations including Hampstead Heath and Camden, and in Los Angeles shooting took place in early February 2020.

Eternals (2021) is the third film of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is inspired by Jack Kirby's Eternals comic books, first published by Marvel in 1976.

Chloé Zhao rewrote much of the original script by Ryan and Kaz Firpo after being hired in September 2019, and the film was shot in widescreen format in London, at Pinewood Studios, in the UK countryside and in the Canary Islands. Filming in the Canary Islands took place on Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

On money, Eternals (2021) earned $164.9 million domestically and $237.2 million internationally, about $402 million worldwide, against a $200 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. For comparison, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, released two months earlier, earned about $432 million worldwide, and Black Widow (2021) earned about $380 million on a $200 million budget. The full table sits on marvel box office.

The film arrived after Avengers: Endgame in release order, which you can trace through the full marvel movies in order list. Marvel Studios' next big release is avengers doomsday.