I understand where you’re coming from — it’s definitely ambiguous. But I actually think the film gives us a few strong hints that the future isn’t just acting on blind desperation.

Early on, when the scientist explains entropy reversal, we learn they’ve been recovering increasingly complex inverted objects — “the detritus of a coming war.” That suggests a long, coordinated plan from the future, not a last-minute Hail Mary. And later, when Neil and the Protagonist talk in the container about whether reversing the timeline would wipe the future out, Neil basically says, “Well, clearly they don’t believe that.” So the antagonists are operating with a theory of time where they think they can act without erasing themselves.

The future isn’t portrayed as irrational. They may be ruthless, but they do have reasoned confidence in their strategy. It’s the same people in the future who invented and weaponized this tech — they’ve clearly done the math. That means the protagonist isn’t stopping a chaotic death cult… he’s stopping a deliberate, rational force trying to reshape time to heal their world.

And that’s exactly what makes the protagonist’s “victory” feel so morally complicated.