'Wreck-It Ralph 2' Spoilers, Ending Explained: How It Sets Up Another Movie

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 might be a kids movie, but that doesn’t mean you should expect an emotional ending. For a movie full of jokes and exciting chase scenes, the final act is a real tearjerker. Here’s what you need to know. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Wreck-It Ralph 2 picks up shortly after the first one left off. Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) are best friends and video game characters in an old-school arcade. Every night they goof off, and every day they go through the motions in their respective games. It’s a rhythm Ralph seems fine with, but Vanellope is bored.

In an attempt to spice things up, Ralph accidentally breaks Vanellope’s racing game, Sugar Rush, and the only replacement part is selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars. So the dynamic duo heads into the internet to find an arcade cabinet steering well and the rest pretty much writes itself.

Ralph becomes a viral video star to raise the money they need, meanwhile, Vanellope becomes enraptured by an edgy online racing game that puts Sugar Rush to shame and considers never going back to the old arcade. In an act of desperation, Ralph enlists a sketchy internet virus to ruin Vanellope’s new game, and it works — until the virus escapes and replicates Ralph’s insecurities all over the internet.

All of a sudden, the entire internet is infested with Ralph clones obsessed with chasing down Vanellope. In the end, Ralph and Vanellope manage to avoid destroying the web completely by simply mending their own friendship — but it isn’t that simple.

Vanellope decides to stay online forever after all, and her final goodbye with Ralph will put tears in your eyes. Just in case that isn’t enough, we’re treated to a final scene in which the two friends chat via video call. It’s an emotional bit of closure that might be enough to instill some hope in fans. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see Ralph and Vanellope together again.

Assuming Disney decides to make Wreck-It Ralph 3 that is.

Wreck-It Ralph 2 is in theaters now.