Salt movie ending explained: What was Evelyn Salt's real mission in the spy thriller?

Salt, the Angelina Jolie-led spy film, is the kind of action-packed thriller that'll keep you tuned in even if the story asks you to invest in a romance that we barely see built on-screen. The driving force of CIA agent Evelyn Salt is getting to her husband Mike before he's killed.

The drama started when a man named Oleg Vassily Orlov, posing as a Russian defector, paid the CIA's cover building a visit under the guise of divulging secrets. But he was really there to expose Evelyn as a Russian mole who'd been tasked with killing Boris Matveyev, the Russian president. Evelyn denied the allegation but Darryl Peabody, the Counterintelligence agent on site for the CIA's interrogation of Orlov, wasn't going to let her leave without thoroughly investigating Orlov's claim.

They tried trapping her when she fled the interrogation room but Evelyn was wily and crafted a makeshift bazooka to get herself past the agents looking to bring her in and she escaped. From there, Salt spends more than half its runtime showcasing Evelyn's abilities as a spy while also flashbacking to how she came to fall in love with Mike who'd previously been a mark.

But at one point, as U.S. politicians and foreign dignitaries gathered for the vice president's funeral, it did seem like Orlov had been telling the truth. Evelyn, with freshly dyed hair and a cool looking black ensemble, devised a plan to take Matveyev out that ended with her blasting through the floor beneath the lectern he'd been standing at and shooting him as soon as she had him in her sights.

Evelyn's actions angered Ted Winter, her fellow CIA operative and friend who'd been defending her this entire time. Strangely, however, while Ted's temper spiked with the assassination, Peabody was thrown off because Evelyn could have shot him, but she didn't. This was the first clue that something wasn't quite right.

Does Evelyn's husband die in Salt?

While she was arrested, Evelyn didn't stay that way for long. She met up with Orlov, who was revealed to be the spymaster who'd trained KA agents as children to infiltrate American institutions to one day conduct missions for Russia's benefit. He welcomed her with open arms and brought her back into the fold. Orlov had Mike and just when it seemed like Evelyn might get to reunite with her husband, he was shot right in front of her to confirm that her allegiance remained with Russia.

Evelyn quelled her reaction, swallowing her hurt to appear as if she didn't care that Mike, the same man who pushed for her to be released when she was being held in a North Korean prison, was murdered. Of course, as soon as they were alone, she killed Orlov and then wasted no time killing her "brothers" in retaliation.

After this moment Salt's objective shifts. We're taken with Evelyn as she heads off with Shnaider, a fellow KA agent she knew as a child, to complete the mission of killing the U.S. president. Disguised as a serviceman, she gained access to the White House as his colleague but she wasn't fully privy to the plan because Shnaider being a suicide bomber took her by surprise.

Ted Winters is a Russian spy, too!

Still, Evelyn threw herself into her new mission though it's shown that she had no interest in killing the president. She was there to save him. The reveal came after she finds Ted surrounded by the prone bodies of Cabinet members and White House staff who were with the president in the bunker. Prior to him taking them out, and knocking the president unconscious, he'd been biding his time waiting for the "football" which holds the country's nuclear codes to be activated.

The president had been prepared to retaliate against Russia as the country was mobilizing to attack the United States in the aftermath of Matveyev's assassination as it was believed to be a hit by America. With the nuclear football ready to rain terror, Ted intended to launch a missile attack at Mecca and Tehran to incite Muslims and trigger a war.

Orlov's grand plan came into its full picture with Ted ready to execute it but Evelyn stopped him. Their relationship disintegrated with the truth of him being bred a Russian spy, too, as they were on opposing sides and Ted intended to frame Evelyn for his crimes. So much for being friends with inappropriate chemistry!

Evelyn prevented the attack but the agents that swooped in weren't aware of this and Ted was able to slip back into his persona of a good CIA agent. But it didn't matter. As soon as she had a chance, she killed him even as she was in custody.

Salt ends with Evelyn and Peabody in a helicopter. To keep appearances, he was gruff, rough, and even hit her. He, however, was also putting the pieces together. Seeing that Evelyn singlehandedly stopped a world war from happening by faking Matveyev's death (via paralytic venom from one of Mike's spiders) and pulling the plug on the nuclear football, Peabody uncuffs her and gives her the opportunity to pitch herself out of the helicopter to escape.

Evelyn's new objective at the film's conclusion, now that her husband is dead and she's no longer a Russian operative, is to hunt the KA agents still out there. Ted had been right, falling for Mike caused her to abandon the mission she'd been raised to complete, and it's her love for him that fuels her desire to bring the whole program to an end.

Though Salt's story leaves room for a sequel, there isn't a second movie. Plans for a continuation fell through years ago.

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