At the end of Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire, Kora (Sofia Boutella) defeats Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), sending him to his apparent death, but the Imperium’s advanced technology brings him back from the dead. The twist ending creates a number of questions about Noble and the Imperium, although some additional context help explain what actually happened.
As a brand-new, wholly original sci-fi fantasy story from the mind of Zack Snyder, Netflix’s Rebel Moon universe introduces brand-new characters, cultures, and technologies, leaving a lot of mystery to be explained in future installments. With Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire ending on a cliffhanger revealing that Noble survived, there’s a lot more to explain as the universe expands in Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver when it arrives on Netflix on April 19, 2024, but there’s a few clues to explain what happens to Noble at the end of the first installment.
Did Noble Actually Die At the End of Rebel Moon?
Was he simply healed, or completely resurrected?
Kora’s defeat of Noble on the Gondeval platform at the end of Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire is absolute. She breaks numerous bones in his body, stabs him in multiple places, and bashes his skull in with his bone staff before he falls from a massive height onto the rocks below. Despite the massive injuries and physical trauma, when the Imperium medical team begins hooking him up to the neurolink, they say they’re going to wait to stabilize him, until after he speaks with Balisarius, meaning he’s still alive, but in critical condition.
The fact that Noble’s consciousness can be sent to the astral plane to communicate with Balisarius in and of itself is further proof that he’s not actually dead yet. In the astral plane, his body appears totally healed and dressed in a crisp new uniform because it’s a mental projection of himself, but the fact that his mind is intact at all to make the neuoralink means he’s still alive, even if his body is broken.
Is Admiral Noble Even Human?
Noble’s robotic parts create a lot more questions.
Noble’s miraculous survival and revival create a number of other questions, especially thanks to the reveal of Noble’s cybernetic augments allowing him to connect to the neurolink. In a universe with robots like Jimmy, is Noble actually human, or merely an android wrapped in human flesh like a cyborg? Based on Noble’s available backstory, and our understanding of the neurolink and astral plane, it appears he’s a normal human. Noble comes from an important family on the Motherworld, Moa, and his position give him privaleged access to the astral plane, which is reserved for high-ranking nobility, military, and Imperium priests.
The cybernetic augments appear to be what facilitates his access to the neurolink that sends him to the astral plane, so it seems logical to assume the same is true for the medical technology that revives him, as that would also be reserved for the privileged upper classes of the Imperium homeworld. It’s not clear if the enhancements give Noble any additional capabilities, but his connection to another device earlier in the movie and brief interaction with a tentacled creature suggest there’s a lot more to learn about Noble in the extended director’s cut of Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire as well as the sequel, Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver, both set to hit Netflix in 2024.
