The Mother ending explained: Was Lovell Zoe's father?

J-Lo stars as the titular matriarch, a former assassin who is forced out of retirement when her estranged 12-year-old daughter Zoe (Lucy Paez) is kidnapped and finds herself in grave danger.

It soon becomes clear that The Mother has all sorts of enemies to worry about – from the man initially behind the kidnapping, Hector Álvarez (Gael García Bernal), to ruthless arms dealer Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes), both of whom think Zoe is their daughter.

Even after The Mother is eventually reunited with Zoe, she still has a tough task when it comes to protecting her – read on to find out if she completes the task, and who was really Zoe's father.

The Mother ending explained: was Lovell Zoe's father?

During the course of her rescue mission, The Mother informs Álvarez that he is not Zoe's father and kills him, but it's not long before Lovell arrives on the scene.

Although Lovell shoots and kills The Mother's ally FBI Agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick), she and Zoe are able to get away to her remote cabin in the Alaskan wilderness – where she trains her daughter in the ways of survival.

Things take a turn for the worse when Zoe is bitten by a wolf puppy and gives her name while getting her injuries seen to at the nearby health clinic – not realising that this means Lovell now has a way to track her down.

Noting the danger, The Mother leaves Zoe with her old friend Jons (Paul Raci) and waits for Lovell at the cabin. However, having had a taste for adventure, Zoe is not content to just sit idly – and when she rummages through some stuff at Jons' house, she discovers a stash of pictures from her childhood along with a message from her mother reading: "I will die protecting you".

She decides to go back to the cabin to help her mother stave off the bad guys, but it soon becomes clear this wasn't such a wise move: Lovell has brought a lot of allies with him, even if some of them are swiftly killed by land mines The Mother has set up.

Zoe makes it back to her mother, but Lovell now has his gun pointed at them and The Mother begs her daughter to run so she can take on the villain alone.

At this point, we discover that Lovell is Zoe's father while the two battle it out, but Zoe interferes again by turning a rifle on her warring parents and shooting, accidentally hitting both.

She rushes down to check her mother is OK, only for Lovell to reappear and grab her before taking her to his truck. Luckily he doesn't get far before The Mother wakes and shoots at the truck – killing Lovell with a pinpoint headshot.

With her daughter now saved and her enemies eliminated, The Mother ends the film by taking Zoe back to her adoptive parents – after they have told each other that they love each other – and finally living her life out of hiding once again.

In the final scene, we see that she is now living in an apartment close to Zoe and has been gifted a friendship bracelet bearing the word 'Mom.'

The Mother is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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