It Ends

How you relate to It Ends will depend, in large part, on how you relate to It Ends. To make things even simpler: if circular logic alone is enough to irritate you, this definitely isn’t your movie.

What this is, in fact, is a movie in which four friends literally drive around in circles… forever. Soon after Tyler (Mitchell Cole) picks up James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), and Fisher (Noah Toth) for a night out, they realise they’ve misread the GPS and missed their turn. Then they discover that there is no turn. And finally, it dawns on them that there is no exit at all. They’re just stuck on an unfamiliar two-lane country road, surrounded by forest on both sides, indefinitely. 

This unusual development alone would, obviously, be concerning. But it gets worse when they stretch their legs, and are almost immediately beset upon by zombies. Or are they zombies? Maybe they’re just other people who eventually went crazy driving down the same road forever. Either way, things are not looking great.

Being culture-savvy members of Gen-Z, though, they’re pretty good at figuring out what they can figure out. Each relies, ultimately, on their own strengths: ambitious James sets about defining the scenario (Purgatory? Hell? A communal nightmare?) so he can best conquer it. The thoughtful Day times the arrival of the zombies, and discovers that it’s always safe to leave the car for exactly 90 seconds. Anxious Fisher plans games, conversations, and other daily structures, so they don’t lose their minds. And Tyler, who signed up for the military when his friends went off to college, brings a weary realism the others aren’t ready to hear.

If circular logic irritates you, this definitely isn’t your movie

Are you? Because writer/director Alex Ullom, who graduated from film school during the pandemic, intends for It Ends to serve as a voluble metaphor. He barely even bothers with the zombies, since he’s not making a horror movie in the traditional sense. The fear here is dread, existential and immediate alike. Will these bright and hopeful young people, who have their whole lives ahead of them, end up at their planned destinations? Will they just keep spinning their wheels? Or will they opt out of a rigged game, and decide not to play at all?

For the audience, this becomes an increasingly demanding ask. After all, we’re stuck in the same white Jeep Cherokee, riding down the same apparently unending road, alongside them. By minute 60, you may start wondering if this would have made a great short.

Then again, the actors, all unknowns, bring impressive depth to their modestly-sketched characters. The visuals are strong, which is important when so little is actually happening. And Ullom’s unwavering insistence – that we see their problems, hear their voices, acknowledge the impossibility of a path that was defined long before they arrived – is undeniably compelling. It’s still a tough watch, at times. But if you buy into his premise and passionate urgency, it should be.

In US theaters Fri Aug 21. In UK and Ireland cinemas