The Ipcress File Book Ending Is As Thrilling As The Series

Starring Peaky Blinders’ Joe Cole and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton, ITV’s The Ipcress File has definitely got everyone talking. Based on British author Len Deighton’s novel of the same name, it follows a British spy Harry Palmer as he is tasked with finding a kidnapped nuclear scientist in the midst of the Cold War. Many viewers will be wondering if the ending of ITV’s The Ipcress File will be the same as the book, or whether it will take more inspiration from the film?

After being sentenced for eight years in a military jail in England, army sergeant Harry Palmer is faced with an ultimatum: either live out his sentence, or agree to use his connections and expertise to become a useful asset for British Intelligence. Obviously he agrees to the latter, and goes undercover to investigate the kidnapping of a British nuclear scientist.

Transferred to a small intelligence agency called WOOC(P), Palmer is tasked with uncovering who’s behind the kidnapping. The plot of the book, series, and film revolves around mind control, with IPCRESS itself standing for the “Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned Reflect Under Stress.” It’s eventually revealed that it’s this process that the kidnapped scientists are put under, too. As the story progresses in the novel, Palmer finds himself deeply entwined with IPCRESS, and eventually ends up being brainwashed himself.

As for what happens in the end, Palmer is told that he’s being taken to Hungary. However, he knows he has to escape, and when he eventually does Palmer comes to the same realisation that he’s been in London the entire time. As British novelist and blogger Graeme Shimmin explains in his review of the book, the final chapters reveal that Military Intelligence suspected that the head of the intelligence agency, Dalby, was a Soviet agent, which is why Palmer was transferred there in the first place.

Dalby was the one behind the plot to brainwash the scientists, and had Palmer under his command all along. Dalby’s been trying to frame him “to draw suspicion away from himself.” In the end, Dalby is killed in a staged car crash by British Intelligence, and Palmer is promoted to the head of intelligence agency in Dalby’s place.

In contrast to the novel, the film sees Palmer hypnotised with “electric sounds and disorientating images” after being told he’s been taken to Albania. Palmer eventually overcomes his guard and escapes, but realises he’s still in London. He’s nearly framed for killing someone else by the use of a trigger phrase used while under IPCRESS, but Palmer clasps a nail into his hand to distract himself with pain.