Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for The Gray Man & descriptions of child abuse.
The Gray Man mentions Six’s brother when explaining why he went to prison, but what actually happened to him? Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling), AKA. Sierra Six, has a largely mysterious past in The Gray Man, which is one of the key reasons he was recruited as a CIA assassin. The Gray Man includes a series of quick flashbacks to Six’s childhood that show him being abused by his father – with this violence mirroring the challenges he faces on the run – but explains very little about his family today.
When Six was 15 years old, he went to prison for fatally shooting his father. Six explains that his father used “unsound” methods to try to turn his sons into “macho” men, with The Gray Man’s flashbacks showing him burning Six with cigarettes and submerging him in a bathtub. Eventually, Six realized that the violence had become so intense that he feared his brother would end up dead, so young Sierra Six took matters into his own hands. After killing his father for what he thought was a just cause, Six landed in prison as a minor, with The Gray Man character's identity being erased in 2003 when the CIA recruited him to the Sierra program.
While The Gray Man confirms that Six’s father died, it never reveals what became of Six’s brother, who he went to jail for when trying to protect him. The Gray Man hinted that Six’s mother had been out of the picture for quite some time, suggesting that she may have died when the Gentry brothers were young. Consequently, with the 15-year-old Six being sent to prison and their father dead, his brother was likely placed in the foster system. Six and his brother perhaps lost touch due to one being in prison and the other likely bouncing from home to home. Although Six says that Claire Fitzroy (Julia Butters) and Donald (Billy Bob Thornton) are the closest things to family that he has left, it’s possible that his brother is still alive, but he has no idea where he went. If Six’s brother was alive at the time he became a Sierra agent, they might have chosen to cut off contact to keep his brother from being used as leverage.
Although The Gray Man doesn’t confirm his fate, one piece of evidence pointing to Six’s brother being dead is the criteria Fitzroy originally used to recruit Sierra agents. The Gray Man's antagonist Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page), explains that the assassins were partially chosen for their lack of family, which aligns with Six’s suggestion that the Fitzroys are the only family he has left. If the CIA knew that Six still had a brother, especially one that he went to jail for, they may not have chosen him to be a ruthless assassin in their program. While this would indicate that Six’s brother is dead, the agency may have overlooked their relationship if the two are estranged.
The Gray Man’s ending not revealing what happened to Six’s brother may be setting him up to appear in a sequel. Since Claire and Six are on the run from the CIA, they’ll need help to go into hiding, with their only ally being CIA Agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas). With Dani being watched by the agency as one of their operatives, Six and Claire will still need someone under the radar to help hide them, which could turn out to be Six’s brother. If he’s revealed to still be alive, Six’s brother would be the only character left in The Gray Man who they could trust.
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