Ice Road: Vengeance ending explained: Why does Mike stay back in Nepal?

The action thriller film Ice Road: Vengeance is directed and written by Jonathan Hensleigh. It is a sequel to the 2021 film The Ice Road and was released in limited theaters on June 27, 2025. With a runtime of 133 minutes, the film stars Liam Neeson and the Chinese star Fan Bingbing in lead roles. It is produced by Eugene Musso, David Tish, Bart Rosenblatt, Shivani Rawat, Al Corley, and Lee Nelson.

Set in Nepal, the story follows Neeson's character, Mike McCann, as he embarks on a dangerous mission to save the local village of Kodari from a businessman's greed. The trekking guide Dhani becomes his accomplice and helps him navigate the local region. By the end of the film, Mike falls in love with Dhani, and they decide to live together in Nepal.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Ice Road: Vengeance.

Mike and Dhani help the villagers of Kodari in Ice Road: Vengeance

Mike and Dhani as seen in the film Ice Road: Vengeance (Image via Amazon Prime)

Mike McCann travels to Kathmandu, Nepal, to fulfill his brother Gurty's last wish by scattering his ashes at Mount Everest. There, he enlists the help of local trekking guide Dhani to accompany him on his quest.

Elsewhere, businessman Rudra Yash plans to build a dam on the river flowing through the village of Kodari, located near the Tibet-Nepal border, to generate 4000 megawatts of hydroelectricity. However, villagers are reluctant to give up their land for the project, as they consider the river sacred in their culture.

The wealthy Rai family, who own most of the land in the village, pose the biggest threat to the project, as they oppose the dam's construction and convince other villagers to do the same. The Rai family has a lot of goodwill in the community, having built roads and other crucial infrastructure in the village. With no way to get the Rai family on board, Rudra decides to get rid of them.

After killing the family patriarch, Raj Rai, Yash goes after his son, Ganesh, and his grandson, Vijay. Since Ganesh goes into hiding, Yash sends his goons to kidnap Vijay. The young man boards the same bus on which Mike and Dhani are traveling to the base camp of Mount Everest. Yash's henchmen take the passengers hostage while searching for Vijay, forcing Mike to take action and fight off the goons single-handedly.

Liam Neeson plays Mike McCann in Ice Road: Vengeance (Image via Amazon Prime)

In the climax of Ice Road: Vengeance, Mike and Vijay decide to cross the border into Tibet, hoping to seek help from the Chinese government. However, Yash's men give chase as the duo crosses a river on an old-school crane to reach the other side. Ganesh operates the crane to help his son and Mike escape, but Rudra kills him.

Mike and Rudra face off in the final battle, where Mike takes charge of a bus and drives Yash's car off the cliff, leading to his death in a fiery explosion. With the problem of the dam resolved, the village of Kodari selects Vijay, the only surviving member of the Rai family, as their leader.

Mike and Dhani return to their lives and visit Mount Everest to scatter his brother's ashes. Before Mike heads back home, the two confess their romantic feelings for each other. Mike decides to stay and build a life with Dhani in Nepal, as he has no family left in the United States.

How does Ganesh outsmart Yash in Ice Road: Vengeance?

An image taken from the 2025 film Ice Road: Vengeance (Image via Amazon Prime)

After confronting Yash's goons on the bus, Mike hands them over to the local police chief, Captain Shankar, and leaves Vijay in his custody. However, the corrupt police officer takes Vijay straight to Yash after confiscating his phone. When Professor Myers, a representative of the US Department of State, learns the truth about Vijay, he joins Mike and Dhani to save the young man.

The group successfully rescues Vijay from captivity. Furious, Yash uses Vijay's phone to contact Ganesh (by pretending to be his son) and arranges a meeting at Ganesh's safehouse in the mountains. However, Ganesh had anticipated such a situation and had previously created a secret texting pattern between him and Vijay, which Yash was not aware of.

After confirming that the messages are not from his son, Ganesh sets a trap for Yash and his men. He texts the address of an outhouse, where the assassins sent to kill the father-son duo fall prey to a booby trap and die.

Ice Road: Vengeance is available to purchase or rent on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

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Edited by Shubham Soni