If A 'Tomb Raider' Sequel Happens, It Needs To Answer This Big Question

Lara Croft just wants to find out what happened to her father in the new movie Tomb Raider, and instead she gets stranded on a mysterious island in the Devil's Sea off the coast of China and has to fight for her life and the lives of every living human being. The main villain of the new film is Mathias Vogel, but he's just the current embodiment of the film's real big bad: the Order of Trinity. What the Order of Trinity in Tomb Raider actually is, though, is left a bit unclear in the movie, unless you're a major fan of the video games the film is based on.

Spoilers ahead. Throughout the film, Mathias hints that Trinity is pulling all of the strings, and is even forcing him to stay on the island to find the tomb of Himiko. So Lara is aware that Trinity is a looming presence, but the extent of the organization is, for the most part unclear. In his research, Lara's father, Richard Croft, describes the Order of Trinity as an international organization desperate to harness supernatural powers and secrets of the world to rule mankind. They were monitoring his research into Himiko, and early in the film it is made clear that they likely had something to do with his mysterious disappearance and assumed death seven years prior. In other words, the Order of Trinity is bad, but the exact nature of their evil, not to mention the extent of their reach and their leader, remains unknown.

For audiences who have never played a game of Tomb Raider in their lives, the Order of Trinity will be almost as much of a mystery at the end of Tomb Raider as it is at the beginning. But fans of the game should recognize Trinity from the 2013 reboot, which also takes place on Yamatai, the island in the film. Though not a huge part of the 2013 game, the name Trinity pops up a few times in Lara's journey. "That name again — Trinity. Some kind of organization. But who are they? And how do they know about this island?" Lara says in the game, as Game Informer reports. Trinity plays a bigger role in the 2015 game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, when they start following her progress as a Tomb Raider.

According to the fan-made Tomb Raider Wikia page, The Order of Trinity is almost like its own religion. Followers believe they are on a righteous path to discover ancient secrets and attain supernatural power. However, as we see in the film, not all followers are really believers. It's hinted that Mathias isn't on the island so much by choice as he is by blackmail or as a prisoner. His tentative ties to Trinity makes the organization slightly less prominent in the film, which sets it up more as a future villain for potential sequels.

The Order of Trinity is set up in Tomb Raider as a future villain. The organization, Richard stresses, is everywhere. An inescapable force with unlimited resources (money, technology, spies, and even an army of soldiers) that would do anything to get their hands on Richard's research and Lara's skills. And the movie ends with Lara hot on their trail.

At the end of the film, Lara finally signs papers declaring her missing father legally dead, thus granting her the head of the family company. She decides to let her guardian, Ana, keep control over the company's day to day activities, but sticks around the office to look at a huge book of Croft assets. What she discovers is PATNA Ltd, a small company owned by Croft that just happens to be the same company providing supplies to Mathias on Yamatai. In the video game, Ana is an agent of Trinity, but the movie hints that her role could be much larger. Is Ana the mastermind behind Trinity? If the movie gets a sequel, we might just find out.