SNAKE EYES: G.I. Joe Origins

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

Washington State, 20 years earlier – A man (Steven Allerick) and his son (Max Archibald) are walking through the woods near their cabin, while the father knows that they are being watched. That night, he wakes his son up to hide as a man named Augustine (Samuel Finzi) arrives with his gunmen to find the man, who hides the boy. Augustine takes out a pair of dice and rolls “snake eyes” to determine the fate of his victims. The boy comes out and distracts Augustine long enough to fight back, but the man orders his son to run. The boy escapes and hears as his father is shot, and the villains burn the cabin to the ground. He carries this rage with him for years to come as he renames himself Snake Eyes.

Present Day – Snake Eyes (now played by Henry Golding) is in an underground fight against a much larger man. Although the opponent initially beats him good, Snake Eyes uses his wits to grab a chain to wrap around the other man before he can wield his sledgehammer, ending with the man collapsing in exhaustion. After the fight, Snake Eyes is found by a man named Kenta (Takehiro Hira), who claims to know how to find the man who killed his father, knowing this has been an obsession of his for all his life. He begrudgingly accepts a job offer from Kenta.

For the next four weeks, Snake Eyes works at a fish factory by the port of Los Angeles alongside a young man named Tommy Arashikage (Andrew Koji). The place is a front for the Yakuza, led by Kenta. He has his men gather and take Tommy captive, claiming he is a spy for his clan. Kenta gives Snake Eyes a gun to execute Tommy, but after having befriended the man, Snake Eyes chooses to help Tommy fight the other men and escape, making their way to a boat before Snake Eyes gets knocked out.

Snake Eyes wakes up on a plane with Tommy, who is thankful to the man for saving his life. He explains that he and Kenta are cousins and were rivals to take over the Arashikage clan, so Kenta attempted to have Tommy killed. Knowing that Kenta will surely try and kill Snake Eyes if he shows his face in the States again, Tommy brings Snake Eyes to Tokyo to the home of the Arashikage clan and induct him into the clan as a new member.

Tommy introduces Snake Eyes to the clan’s advisor Akiko (Haruka Abe), as well as the current leader, his grandmother Sen (Eri Ishida). Snake Eyes is set to undergo three challenges to become a full member of the clan. Akiko is suspicious of Snake Eyes since she can find no record of him in America, as he has apparently been long off the grid.

The first challenge sees Snake Eyes introduced to the two instructors, Hard Master (Iko Uwais) and Hard Master (Peter Mensah). Snake Eyes is instructed to take a water bowl from Hard Master’s hands without spilling from the bowl in his own hand. The first three attempts has Snake Eyes attempting to take the other bowl through brute force and fighting, but it causes him to spill his water. He remembers words from his father to let go of his ego, so he instead simply asks Hard Master to trade bowls with him, and he passes.

In his free time, Snake Eyes sneaks out and meets with Kenta, as he is still a mole for him trying to infiltrate the Arashikage clan to acquire an artifact called the Jewel of the Sun, and in turn, Kenta will give up Augustine’s location to Snake Eyes. Later, Snake Eyes engages in a duel with Akiko as she continues to question his motives for being there, while he asks her about where she got a scar on her face. Neither gives up their secret.

The second challenge involves Snake Eyes meeting with Blind Master. He releases a glowing blue light that Snake Eyes follows, which brings him back to the site of his father’s murder. He faces an apparition of his father, expressing his regret in not being able to save him and also feeling that he got his dad killed. Blind Master comes back and tells Snake Eyes that the challenge is not about winning or losing, but being able to let go of what burdens the one taking the challenge.

The clan learns of Kenta’s presence in the city and goes after him. They go up against his goons and do battle with them until they come across a cache of guns that are being supplied to Kenta and his men by the terrorist organization known as Cobra. With this information brought back to them, Akiko contacts an agent of theirs, Scarlett O’Hara (Samara Weaving), who also works as an agent for the GI Joes. After taking down some goons sent after her (which Snake Eyes, Tommy, and Akiko all watch through her phone camera), Akiko tells Scarlett about Kenta’s connection to Cobra. Scarlett herself has been tracking down a high-ranking agent of Cobra, The Baroness (Ursula Corbero), who is wanted for various acts of terrorism.

Snake Eyes later goes to meet Kenta, while Baroness comes out to introduce herself to Snake Eyes. She shows him a video of Augustine in captivity, and Kenta reminds him to hold up his end of the bargain if he wants to kill Augustine himself. Snake Eyes makes an attempt to sneak into the temple guarding the Jewel, but he is nearly spotted and runs back to his room before Akiko can catch him. They then have a personal discussion of what Snake Eyes is doing there, with Akiko giving him some genuine advice.

The third and final challenge has Snake Eyes enter a pit full of three giant anacondas. They surround him, and Snake Eyes remembers Akiko’s words to “open his heart”. It appears to work at first, but Snake Eyes then chuckles to himself, which prompts the anacondas to attack him, but he is pulled out in time. Snake Eyes is brought before Sen and the Masters along with Tommy and Akiko. Snake Eyes confesses to Sen that his heart is not pure, and that his main motive all his life was vengeance against the man who murdered his father. Blind Master confirms the truth to Sen, who states that Snake Eyes’ honesty has spared him his life, but he cannot be a member of the Arashikage clan. Snake Eyes attempts to leave but first says goodbye to Tommy, the two of them cutting their hands on the sword Tommy gave Snake Eyes and making a blood pact.

Later that night, Snake Eyes observes how Tommy and Akiko access the Jewel, and he uses the blood cleaned off the blade to gain entry into the temple. Just as Snake Eyes grabs the Jewel, he is spotted by Akiko, who states that she got her scar from the last man she mistakenly trusted. She attempts to capture Snake Eyes, and once Tommy learns what has happened, he does too, but Snake Eyes manages to escape the compound.

Snake Eyes later meets Kenta, Baroness, and his goons at the location they agreed on. He hands them the Jewel, and Kenta tests its power on one unlucky goon by incinerating him. They then allow Snake Eyes to go inside and come face-to-face with Augustine. He hands the man his dice that Kenta gave him, after having realized that they are loaded and always land on “snake eyes”. Before he can kill Augustine, Snake Eyes demands to know why he killed his father. Augustine says that he used to work for Cobra and they had ordered the hit on his father. Realizing Cobra is the true enemy, Snake Eyes chooses to let Augustine go and go stop Kenta.

On the road back to the Arashikage, Snake Eyes is pursued by Tommy and Akiko on motorcycles. He uses his skills to avoid them but then proves he is on their side when Kenta’s goons show up to attack. After killing the men, Akiko rides back while Snake Eyes and Tommy hijack a car to drive back to the compound.

Kenta and company arrive, immediately laying waste to the members of the Arashikage. When Baroness attempts to secure the Jewel for herself, Kenta betrays her and says he will use it against Cobra. Snake Eyes, Tommy, and Akiko are joined by Scarlett and the Masters to defend the clan’s home. Baroness agrees to a brief alliance with Scarlett to go up against Kenta. After taking out the majority of his henchmen, the heroes (and Baroness) come up against Kenta and his remaining men. Scarlett and Baroness shoot the men while Kenta defends himself with the Jewel, and Baroness flees when she sees an opportunity. A struggle ensues where Snake Eyes and Tommy manage to get the Jewel out of Kenta’s hands. Tommy grabs it and almost kills Kenta with it, but the man runs away. Snake Eyes chases after him and ends up near the pit of anacondas. He manages to pull Kenta into the pit with a chain and sets the anacondas free. Kenta beheads one anaconda, but one of the others grabs him and promptly devours him. Snake Eyes, still hanging onto the chain, is nearly eaten as well, but once he surrenders his ego, the other anaconda bites the chain off and they let him go free.

Sen gathers the heroes together and commends them for saving the Arashikage, but notes that Tommy cannot succeed her as leader of the clan because he attempted to use the Jewel against another person, when it is meant to protect the clan. An outraged Tommy goes into exile and blames Snake Eyes for what has happened, promising to kill him if he ever sees him again.

Snake Eyes later settles into a new home and tells Akiko that he thinks they should go after Tommy. Scarlett finds them and gives Snake Eyes some files from her commanding officer, which reveal that Snake Eyes’ father was a Joe, and he revealed some intel about Cobra that saved thousands of lives, which is why they targeted him. He also kept both of them so far off the grid that there is no official record of Snake Eyes’ previous life or even his real name. Snake Eyes is then presented with his trademark armor and mask, and he gets on a motorcycle to go after Tommy.

Tommy is onboard a plane heading to an unknown location. He finds that the flight attendant is Baroness, who offers him a chance to work with Cobra. He agrees and says he prefers to go by a new name: Storm Shadow.

Since he was a child, the assassin known as Snake Eyes has been obsessed with finding the man who murdered his father. He is met by a man named Kenta, who offers him a chance to find the man. After working alongside the Yakuza for a brief period of time, Snake Eyes is ordered by Kenta to kill his cousin, Tommy Arashikage, as he is a spy for his clan, but Snake Eyes refuses to kill him and helps him escape. In return for saving his life, Tommy brings Snake Eyes to the home of the Arashikage clan to train under them and become a member. The clan's advisor Akiko is suspicious of Snake Eyes' actions and motives.

Snake Eyes is really acting as a mole for Kenta to infiltrate the Arashikage and steal an artifact called the Jewel of the Sun, which is what protects the clan, and Kenta wants to use it to wipe them out as payback for them exiling him and having Tommy be the successor to the clan. Kenta is also working alongside the terrorist organization known as Cobra, mainly with the high-ranking agent Baroness. After Snake Eyes fails his final challenge to join the Arashikage, he makes a grab for the Jewel using Tommy's blood, and he is caught by Akiko, but manages to escape.

Snake Eyes delivers the Jewel and meets his father's killer, Augustine. After learning that Augustine was working for Cobra and was ordered to kill Snake Eyes' father, he realizes Cobra is the true enemy and goes after Kenta. Tommy and Akiko then align with Snake Eyes plus GI Joe agent Scarlett O'Hara and the clan's masters, as well as Baroness since Kenta betrays her, to battle Kenta and his men, as he uses the Jewel to incinerate other members of the clan. After killing Kenta's men, Baroness escapes and Tommy attempts to kill Kenta with the Jewel, but Snake Eyes chases after him and pulls Kenta down into a pit of giant anacondas (the challenge that Snake Eyes failed) and has him eaten by one of the snakes. In the aftermath, Tommy's grandmother tells him that he cannot succeed her as leader of the Arashikage because he attempted to take a life. He is outraged and blames Snake Eyes for this, promising to kill him the next time they see each other.

Snake Eyes learns from Scarlett that his father was a Joe that gathered intel from Cobra, and that's why they killed him. She gives him his iconic mask and armor, and he decides to go find Tommy. Meanwhile, Tommy is recruited by Baroness to join Cobra, and he renames himself Storm Shadow.