‘Wasp Network’ Ending Explained: What Happened in the Penelope Cruz Netflix Movie

Wasp Network on Netflix may have a stacked cast of beautiful, talented actors— Penélope Cruz, Édgar Ramírez, Gael García Bernal, Ana de Armas and Wagner Moura—but the movie itself is hard to follow. Writer/director Olivier Assayas re-edited a new cut after critics at Venice Film Festival called the political spy drama confusing; but even still, I found myself pausing and rewinding to keep track of the different entangled characters and plot-lines.

Perhaps it’s because Wasp Network, which began streaming on Netflix today, is very faithful to the true story. Sometimes the truth is confusing! If you were confused by the Wasp Network plot, never fear. I am here to help. Let’s get into the Wasp Network true story and the Wasp Network ending, explained.

What is the Wasp Network true story? Who are Rene Gonzalez and Juan Pablo Roque?

Before you can truly understand the plot of Wasp Network, you need to understand the Wasp Network true story. One reason the film is so confusing is thanks to director/writer Olivier Assayas’s roundabout approach to the story of the “Cuban Five,” which he based on the non-fiction book The Last Soldiers of the Cold War: The Story of the Cuban Five by Fernando Morais. Also known as the Miami Five, the Cuban Five were five Cuban intelligence officers sent to spy on Miami’s Cuban exile community in the ’90s. Those five men were Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González. Despite the fact that Wasp Network is an ensemble film, only one of the Cuban Five—René Gonzalez, aka Edgar Ramírez—ended up being a major character in the film. The others are merely mentioned in a brief montage sequence in the middle of the film.

The Cuban Five infiltrated many different Cuban exile groups in Miami, including Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and Brothers to the Rescue. They were spying on these groups for the Cuban government, because some of the groups were planning terrorist attacks against Cuba and plotting to kill Fidel Castro.(Another thing that’s confusing about the movie—it’s hard to keep track of which group is which.) They were arrested in September 1998 and later convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government, and other illegal activities in the United States.

The other main character in Wasp Network, Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura), is not part of the Cuban Five. However, he was suspected of being a Cuban spy who infiltrated the Brothers to the Rescue organization, and did have ties to the FBI, as we see in the film. The implication in the film is that Juan’s connection to the FBI is what helped tip them off to the Wasp Network agents.

What is the Wasp Network plot, explained?

Wasp Network begins with a text card that reads: “Cuba has lived under a Communist regime since 1959. It is subjected to a brutal embargo imposed by the United States. This has resulted in tremendous hardship for the population. Many Cubans fled an authoritarian state and settled in Miami where many militant groups fight to free Cuba.”

Put another way: Cuba is a hard place to live, so some Cubans flee to Miami. In Miami in the 1990s, several different non-profit and militant groups of Cuban expatriates worked to overturn former communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro, hoping to bring democracy to Cuba.

With that knowledge in mind, we meet our main characters. There is René Gonzalez (Édgar Ramírez), a pilot who defects from the Cuban government and leaves his wife Olga Salanueva (Penelope Cruz) to start a new life in Miami, Florida. He meets with CANF, Cuban American National Foundation, and begins a new job with an activist non-profit called the Brothers to the Rescue as a pilot helping other Cubans fleeing their county on rafts make it safely to the land.

Next we meet Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura), another pilot who defected from Cuba by swimming Guantanamo Bay. He, too, joins the Brothers to the Rescue in helping Cuban exiles escape the country. He also meets a beautiful young woman named Ana Magarita Martinez (Ana de Armas) and marries her.

Here’s where it gets confusing: Juan and René become friends and start working with different anti-Castro and Cuban exile groups in Miami, including Partido Unidad Nacional Democrática, or PUND. PUND apparently is less about politics and more about drug deals. But Juan knows a guy at the FBI, so he and René become FBI informants and help them pull off a drug bust. But René claims he doesn’t like being a rat, so he quits.

Ironically, an hour into the film, we learn that both René and Juan are rats, though not for the FBI. Surprise! Both René and Juan are spies for the Cuban government. A man who goes by the fake name “Manuel Viramontez” is the leader of a group known as the Wasp Network, aka Cuban government spies who have been sent to infiltrate anti-Castro, pro-democracy groups in Miami, some of whom carry out terrorist attacks. This whole time, René and Juan have been sharing information with Manuel, who then sends that information back to Cuba.

Fast-forward to the year 1995. René and Juan have been living in Miami for 3 years. A pro-democracy group in Cuba called Concilio Cubano has just released a list of demands: A peaceful transition to democracy, amnesty for political prisoners, and participation by Cuban exiles in the transition to democracy. The Cuban government reacts harshly, attacking the group and imprisoning many unarmed activists. The Brothers to the Rescue group from the beginning of the film decides to fly over Cuba and drop fliers in support of the Concilio Cubano. The Cuban government shoots their unarmed planes out of the sky. Conveniently, on that same day, Juan has an injured arm and cannot fly with the Brothers to the Rescue, and is therefore spared. He returns to Cuba and denounces the Brothers’ actions, and is suspected of being a spy. Also, Ana de Armas is really mad at him.

Meanwhile, someone named Luis Posad Carriles is accused of being involved in terrorism because he is funded by Jorge Mas Canosa, the president of CANF. He is apparently recruiting mercenaries in Central America, and we see one of those recruits, Raul Cruz Leon, bomb three hotels in Cuba. One of those bombs kills an Italian tourist. He’s caught by the Cuban government and begins working for them.

What is the Wasp Network ending explained?

Back in Miami, René tells Manuel of a plan to kill Fidel Castro involving a boat sailing from Puerto Rico. Manuel thinks they should tell the FBI, so they do. The FBI thwarts the assassination attempt. The U.S. government then meets with the Cuban government to be briefed on the CANF-funded terrorist attacks against Cuba.

Now armed with new intelligence against Cuba, the FBI, who have been spying on René, arrests him, Manuel, and others for being Cuban spies. They are charged and sentenced to prison for non-U.S. espionage and forgery of immigration documents. Rene is offered a plea deal—a reduced sentence for information—but he doesn’t take it. Olga is told that because she is not a U.S. citizen like her husband, she can be deported. After laying low for a while, she is arrested and deported.

The closing credits inform us that René served 12 years in prison and was released in 2011. Manuel got 2 life sentences but was freed in a “spy swap” after 15 years. Ana Martinez sued the Cuban government and was awarded $27 million in punitive damages, but has only collected $200,000. According to the NY Daily News, she actually only won a $7.1 million judgment for “emotional distress” when she found out Juan Pablo Roque wasn’t the man she thought she had married, thanks to a ruse orchestrated by the Cuban government. When she tried to collect the money, by ordering banks that may have been holding Cuba’s assets to pay up, she ran into red tape involving which banks actually had the money and the American documents necessary for obtaining it. It’s all very legal and complex and boring. (That same article confirms that Roque really did say that line about the Jeep.)

The one person the credits doesn’t give us an update on is Juan Pablo Roque. All we learn is that he was never a pilot again, and is facing financial troubles. According to a recent interview, the real Roque is 64 and resides in Havana and denounced the film, calling it, and the book it is based on, “shit.” In a 2012 Miami Herald article, Martinez said of her ex-husband, “If you look up the definition of sociopath, it describes him well.”

Phew. I hope you all learned something. I know I did.

Watch Wasp Network on Netflix