Street Fighter (2026) Ending Explained: Who Wins The Tournament?
by Bill Bria · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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This month's "Street Fighter" is the latest (mostly) live-action adaptation of the popular fighting game series that began all the way back in 1987. Those games were heavily inspired by martial arts movies of the '70s and '80s, from "Enter the Dragon" to "Bloodsport." As with those particular examples, just about every game in the series involves a fighting tournament as part of its story, and 2026's "Street Fighter" is no different. So, in theory, no extensive explanation should be necessary for the film, as it should boil down to an easily answered question: Who wins the tournament?
The fact that the actual answer is as complex, confused, and unsatisfying as it is makes it worthy of discussion. "Street Fighter," as directed by Kitao Sakurai and written by Sakurai and T.J. Fixman, doesn't seem to be cognizant of the actual story it's telling. Though the film revolves around a new World Warrior Tournament in 1993, we're shown relatively few fights within the tournament, and a couple are even relegated to being completely off-screen. The crux of the story ends up not being about who wins the tournament per se, but what will happen once the tournament finally has a winner.
In one corner, the evil dictator M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) hopes to see Ryu (Andrew Koji) unleash his dark nature so he can capture it with a power-draining machine. In the other corner, the evil deity Akuma (Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i) has promised to challenge the champion of the tournament. As a result of all these distracted interests and motivations, the actual winner of the World Warrior tournament ends up being perfunctory, and a joke of a footnote. It's a large part of what makes the ending to "Street Fighter" so inconclusive and ultimately unsatisfying.
Technically, Joe is the winner of the tournament, but it's complicated
As the 1993 World Warrior Tournament begins, Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) sees it as an opportunity to prove himself and finally step out of the shadow of Ryu as well as his own soured reputation. So, he begins competing in the tournament with an eye to win it, and manages to fight his way to the final match. However, during the tournament, Chun-Li (Callina Liang) convinces him that there are more important things at stake, like Bison's machinations and Ryu's battle against both Bison and his own soul. So, Ken decides to forgo the final match and spring Ryu from Bison's clutches. However, the two get recaptured briefly before being rescued by Blanka (Jason Momoa). Then, Ryu reveals his shameful secret from his and Ken's past: He deliberately kept Ken from completing his training and competing in the earlier tournament out of competitive jealousy. The two battle, and Ryu wins.
Meanwhile, Don Sauvage (Eric André), only too happy not to see Ken show up, declares Joe (Alexander Volkanovski) the champion by forfeit. Joe advanced this far because Ryu, whom he was due to fight initially, was captured by Bison earlier. Soon enough, injury is added to that irony, as Akuma descends from his mountain and challenges Joe, defeating him (and seemingly killing him) within seconds. Ryu then shows up and challenges Akuma, whom he's only able to defeat by unleashing Evil Ryu. Thus, Ken, Dan (Andrew Schulz), and Chun-Li show up to try to stop Evil Ryu, which occurs when Ken finally learns to fire a Hadouken. So while one could make a case for Akuma, Ryu, or Ken being the true tournament winner, it feels like Joe is the most salient answer. Kind of.
In many ways, Street Fighter doesn't have an ending
That inconclusive finale to the tournament extends to the entire movie, which only has an ending insofar as the film stops arbitrarily. Throughout the runtime, the ensemble of heroic characters has been aimed at defeating M. Bison. Yet it seems that Kitao Sakurai and T.J. Fixman decided that it would be subversive if Bison got away scot-free, despite all the narrative and thematic buildup. In this way, Akuma's presence feels as much like a last-minute substitute as Joe "winning" the tournament does. It's consistently unsatisfactory, and perhaps that was the intention. Yet it doesn't make the so-called ending to "Street Fighter" any more pleasing. Bison gets away with Akuma's body, leaving Ryu, Ken, Dan, and Chun-Li having to hitchhike out of Metrolao city. They eventually get picked up by Guile (Cody Rhodes) and Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal) in a little car, and the group drives off into the sunset to, one assumes, continue the fight another day. Meanwhile, Bison and his lieutenants come across another character, Sagat.
The implication is that these threads will be picked up in a "Street Fighter" sequel, but the net effect it has is of giving the audience an incomplete experience. It's too generous to assume that a sequel will happen, or that the huge fanbase will automatically want more, and it's insulting to casual viewers to make them wait an indeterminate amount of time for a conclusion. "Street Fighter" seems to emphasize the journey over the destination, but that only works if the destination isn't a dead end. The feeling the film gives is akin to a "Game Over" screen when you've run out of quarters but still keep playing. Regardless of who wins the tournament, we all lose.
"Street Fighter" is in theaters now.