Borat 2's ending could mean Sacha Baron Cohen has retired the character
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm spoilers follow.
In 2007, Sacha Baron Cohen announced Borat Sagdiyev's retirement.
The huge success of his first movie – very simply titled Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – meant that the journalist had become too recognisable to pull off his public stunts.
For years, he was mostly used to promote Baron Cohen's other work. This was, of course, until he secretively rediscovered his grey suit and filmed Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – with an equally simple subtitle of Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – during the end of 2019 and 2020.
With the sequel, Baron Cohen brought the character back into the public eye via a series of clever disguises and a brand new co-star, Maria Bakalova, who took the lead in many of the movie's most ambitious set pieces.
Baron Cohen himself calls her the "lead actor" and as much as it introduced Bakalova to the world, the way the movie ended seems to suggest that it doubled up as a mission to finally, conclusively, put Borat to bed.
Related: Borat 2 deleted scene shows Borat's daughter getting into the White House
Since his days guiding us through life in Britain and the USA on Da Ali G Show, the driving force behind Borat has always been controversy.
Baron Cohen would use homophobia, sexism, racism, antisemitism and just about everything else offensive to guide his target towards revealing outrageous thoughts that typically aligned with Borat's warped perspective on the world.
We saw it back in 2006 when he had a gun shop owner recommend "the best gun to defend from a Jew", and we saw it in 2020 when he had a plastic surgeon explain that he thinks "most men" would want to "sex attack" his 15-year-old 'daughter', Tutar.
However, by the end of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the character (and his entire country) had reached the other end of the political spectrum. Kazakhstan had become a feminist nation whose greatest fear was "no longer the Jew, but the Yankee".
Watch Borat 2 on Amazon Prime Video
Borat introduced us to the 'Running of the Jew', a (fictional – obviously) Kazakh custom in which a monstrous, egg-laying 'Jew' is chased and attacked by locals. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm depicts a new custom: the 'Running of the American'. Here, Trump and the American right-wing is the focus.
Now that Borat's anger is aimed at those abusing a position of privilege rather than innocent minorities, there is much less space to use well-placed outrage to get a reaction.
Borat's newfound character development means he would no longer encourage a Republican politician to jubilantly agree with him that women have fewer rights than bears, or make the baseless claim that ethnic minorities are dangerous.
He'd be on the other side, disagreeing and arguing in favour of morality and human rights. There's no entertainment in that – we see it every day.
Of course, Baron Cohen would still be able to make it funny. Just watching Borat grin and talk is hilarious in itself, but if everything he said went against everything we know about the character, it just wouldn't feel right.
Even in scenes where his offensiveness exposes the good in people – like his time spent demonstrating to the constantly kind, caring and encouraging babysitter how he will be getting his daughter breast enhancements to give her as a gift to a rich white man – it wouldn't work if his opinions and actions were... normal. Nice, even.
It feels like the implications behind this dramatic personality shift were intentional. The character's 20-year story arc has been wrapped up beautifully, and Baron Cohen is now in a position where he'll almost certainly know that a successful return to the character would be a major challenge.
But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. He used what were probably his last moments as Borat to deliver some world class comedy and make a powerful point.
With arguably the most important election of all time just around the corner, things like his exposure of Rudy Giuliani and the concluding demand that viewers "vote now" are important messages that align with Borat's poetic political enlightenment.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video.
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