I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)--My Take On the Movie With Spoilers!
Plot: A group of friends are terrorized by a stalker who knows what they did last summer.
QUICK MOVIE REVIEW
Nostalgia is overrated, but it is also how studios are making money.
Not so surprisingly, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, the reboot, is a lot better than the TV series.
Of course, it relies heavily on the stars from the original movie to make it work. The new story doesn't dare to try new tricks and plays it safe by closely following the plot of the original movie.
The climax especially cements the fact that the studio executives decided to involve the former cast mates to pull off the twist.
Regardless, the movie does have momentum, and if you were a fan of the franchise, you'll enjoy this one.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER Movie Plot
Ava goes to her friend Danica's engagement party on July 4th. Danica is getting engaged to Teddy and has invited all their friends from high school. The event is happening in Southport, the same place where the events of the first movie took place.
Ava is nervous about running into her ex Milo, who is Teddy's best friend. He notices her at the party and clearly still has feelings for her.
Teddy is the son of real estate developer Grant and his wife Jill. This is important information for what happens later.
After the party, the four friends regroup and decide to go watch the Fourth of July fireworks away from the city lights.
They spot another classmate of theirs, Stevie, who is putting the crates of empty liquor bottles in the car. She wasn't invited. She works at a bar and was asked by her boss to work at this party. Guess who the boss is?
Anyway, the friends decide to invite her to see the fireworks but Stevie is reluctant. Her colleague pushes her to go and have fun anyway.
They all catch up. Stevie was ditched by these friends who went off to college while she had to face financial issues due to family problems. This led to her having a substance abuse issue.
Okay, so it's clear there is a lot going on with Stevie, and her anger towards them is justified. But her actions are not. Yes, spoiler alert. The fact that the writers gave too much prominence to Stevie's backstory is a dead giveaway.
But let's pretend we still don't suspect her.
They all get into the car and catch up and laugh and stuff. Eventually, they come to a stop at a winding cliffside road. It's very important for them to stop right near a sharp turn.
Drunk and in the mood to have fun, Teddy gets on the middle of the road while a car approaches. Everyone tells him to move, but he's goofing off. Eventually, Milo pushes him away just in time.
The girls give him a piece of their mind, which has no effect on Teddy, who ends up repeating his prank. This time, things go differently. A truck approached swerves to avoid hitting him and crashing against the railings, which caused the truck to see the eyes on the edge.
The friends try to save him, but the driver pulls out Teddy's shirt as he he is about to go over.
The friends are unable to help, and the truck falls below.
Ava gets hysterical, and because she's the only one who is deeply disturbed by this, it is hence established that she is the protagonist, and therefore the final girl.
Ava wants to call the police. Teddy does call the police but advises they all leave. His father's influence will help them get off this case without a scratch.
It is then decided that they will go to the police but Danica, who is at the wheel, decides not to stop. Ava unsuccessfully tries to convince her to go to the police.
At Teddy's house, the friends create a pact to never tell anyone the truth. Ava is the most hesitant but agrees it is in all of their best interests.
And so a year passes.
It's Danica's bridal shower, and if you're wondering why there was such a large gap between engagement and wedding, well, it turns out Danica has changed her fiance over the past year. It's no longer Teddy.
Now she's marrying someone called Wyatt.
But first, we see Ava getting frisky with a woman called Tyler in the plane. Ava even offers her a ride home while Milo is confused as to their relationship.
Tyler runs a podcast about true crime and is especially fascinated by the Southport Massacre of 1997, the events of the first movie.
At the party, Teddy is obviously not present, and Ava discovers that Stevie and Danica have bonded in her absence. Ava is more confident, too.
Danica is opening up her gifts when she finds a card. Expecting it to be a gift certificate, she is shocked to see someone send her an "I Know What You Did Last Summer" card instead. She pales but manages to cover up her surprise, then visibly gestures to her friends to talk to her on the side.
She shows them the card, and Danica deduces that it is her ex Teddy, who is still not over her.
Ava, Milo, and Stevie go to talk to Teddy, who is now living on a boat. He is drunk and bitter that his friends chose now to come talk to him.
They show him the note, and he is confounded at first, then pissed that his friends suspect he may have sent it. He tells them to leave immediately.
It's night, and Danica is by the window. She's in her tank top, but the minute she hears noises, she immediately covers herself up. She doesn't want to be a final girl who is known for wearing tank tops.
She goes to take her bath and listen to some podcast or calming video. The point is she is wearing headphones in a bathtub so that she doesn't hear a peep of what is going to happen next.
Unless she was listening to heavy metal, she should have been able to hear all the ruckus, but whatever.
Anyway, Wyatt is attacked by someone wearing a fisherman costume. He is shot with a harpoon gun, and his role ends here.
When Danica finally comes downstairs, Wyatt has been made to stand upright with a harpoon. Behind him is a message written in blood: You can't erase the past.
So the killer had time to brutally kill someone, then position him upright and use the blood to write a message, but Danica didn't hear anything?
The friends regroup at the police station. Even Teddy comes, although Danica is wary of him.
They wonder why Wyatt was targeted since he wasn't with them that night.
Ava wants to speak to Tyler since she has knowledge about the previous massacre that occurred here in Southport.
Tyler is busy roaming about using a recorder for her thoughts and opinions. Ava joins her, and Tyler leads her to the Bayside house where the killings from the first movie had taken place. Tyler gives her a brief about Julie James and Ray Bronson and how they both got married. It's not a great plot summary for those who have never watched the first one, but it will do. For now.
Tyler goes upstairs to look around for more material for her podcast while Ava busies herself by running around after the fisherman appears.
She manages to defend herself, but he ends up dropping a cage on her. Tyler arrives to help her out, but Ava tells her to go get help. Tyler gets on a lift, but the fisherman arrives to attack her.
They make it to the attic where Tyler no longer has any place to hide. The fisherman comes to get her, and she manages to remove his mask and utter, "You?" Before being tossed off the window.
By this time, Stevie has arrived to save Ava, who had unscrewed the cage, but they both exit the house just as Tyler is thrown out the window with a noose around her neck.
A town meeting is held where Teddy's father Grant announces that Tyler was a disturbed individual who committed suicide. Ava stands up and claims that Tyler wad her friend, and that is not what happened. She brings up the fisherman, but Grant is reluctant to create panic among locals and tourists who may be entering the town to celebrate the Fourth of July.
And that's when we have a surprise entry: Ray Bronson, who walks in as if expecting an applause. No doubt, fans of the franchise will be excited to see him. He claims that the fisherman from the 1997 killings has returned, and the town needs to do something to put a stop to it instead of suppressing the news.
Stevie sees him and wonders what her boss is doing her. The new generation may not get it, but this is a pretty obvious clue to where this is all headed.
Anyway, Ava decides to meet up with Julie to understand how she managed to survive.
Julie is now a professor in college and doing a mock scream for her opening. She talks about trauma and its effect on people's lives in the long run. Another hint! Julie could have been an admin, but she just happened to be talking about trauma and how it needs to be treated, or it could lead to psychotic episodes.
As Julie is walking out, Ava calls her. At first, Julie dismisses her as another nosy reporter, but when she tells her about the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" notes, Julie has only one question: what did Ava do last summer
Ava ends up in Julie's house and immediately gets to snooping around. There's a photo of Helen as well from the previous part. Ray's photo is torn, signifying that they got married and divorced, and it was ugly.
Julie isn't too happy with Ava snooping around but doesn't throw her out of the house yet. Julie asks her about the man who died. He was someone named Sam who never got a talking part. In fact, he only gets a photo. Julie suggests Ava and her friends look into his history.
Ava, Milo, and Stevie go to the impound lot to investigate Sam's truck. Ava makes up a sob story, and the in-charge lets her see the truck.
The trio finds out that the truck never belonged to Sam but to Pastor Judah.
Meanwhile, Danica and Teddy check up on Sam's grave. In the cemetery, they also see Helen's grave and her photo.
At Sam's grave, they see fresh flowers and decide to ask the grounds keeper, who just happened to be walking that way at a convenient moment, if he could help. He agrees quickly so as not to waste screen time.
While he's looking at the videos, the fisherman arrives and slashes his throat.
Danica sends Teddy to see what's taking the grounds keeper so long just so that she can be all alone for when the fisherman attacks.
She runs into the basement of a building where there's a croaker parade float. She hides there while the fisherman finds her and bashes her head. Danica starts to lose consciousness and mumbles. Sorry when Teddy arrives just in time to lunge at the fisherman.
He obviously escapes, and so Teddy brings Danica to his house to recover.
Ava and Milo are also there, and they get to share a room so that they can make out for a bit. But Ava is now into rough stuff and asks Milo to choke her, which kills his mood.
He makes excuses and pretends he wants to charge his phone. For some reason, he can not do it in the house and has to go to his car to do it. As he is charging his phone, he convinces himself to do as Ava wants to rekindle their love.
Unfortunately, the fisherman doesn't think he should give in and kills Milo instead by breaking his neck. He then uses Milo's phone to message Ava, saying that he is leaving. It doesn't make sense why he doesn't want the friends to know that Milo is dead.
Julie is at home when she hears noises and her alarm goes off. When she sees who it is, she groans. It's her ex, Ray.
He argues with Julie about putting Ava's life at risk and advising her to investigate the killer. Julie thinks she knows what she is doing, considering she's a professor and all.
Meanwhile, Danica and Ava go to the church to meet with Judah. He is reluctant to give out any details so Ava distracts him while Danica searches his office and finds a photo of the pastor and Sam together. She manages to hide just as the pastor enters his office.
Danica and Ava go to the police, suggesting the pastor may have something to do with the killings, but the officer leaves them in the interrogation room and locks them.
Meanwhile, it is Teddy's turn to get attacked in his own house. He is stabbed several times. When his father Grant comes to him, the fisherman gets him, too.
Danica decides to get a nap at the police station and has a nightmare about Helen, who warns Danica that she will end up like her too. Blood drips down her, and Danica wakes up.
There is chaos at the station, and the girls are told to leave. However, they follow the chaos and find Teddy and Grant strung up upside down.
They both scream as Stevie also joins them.
They see Milo's car and open the door to find his body. More screaming.
Stevie suggests the all leave Southport in a boat.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER Ending Explained
The police come to the church to arrest the pastor only to find he's already dead with his eyes gouged out.
The officers are searching the place when they find a group photo of Judah, Sam, and...Stevie!
Ava and Danica are talking when Stevie shows up behind them in her fisherman costume. She was dating Sam, and he was only looking out for her when she went out with her friends last summer. He thought she might relapse and had taken Judah's truck. For some reason, Stevie didn't recognize the pastor's truck, and Sam didn't call out for Stevie when he was about to fall off a cliff.
When she found out that it was Sam, she vowed revenge. There's some running around, and Ray follows them in another boat.
Stevie manages to stab Danica and throw her off the boat. Ray manages to come on board and shoot Stevie before she kills Ava.
Stevie is gone, too.
Ray turns the boat around so that they can return. Ava contacts Julie, who gets suspicious that Ray was there at the same time. Knowing the fisherman doesn't really act alone, Julie suspects Ray.
Meanwhile, Ray decides to get rid of Ava and attacks her. Julie manages to get there only to find Ava stabbed in the back.
Ray confesses that he doesn't want people to forget what he has been through, and his history was being erased. Julie realizes she can't reason with him because he's too far gone, enough for him to want to kill his own aide, Stevie.
Before he can attack Julie, Ava manages to harpoon him from behind. As she collapses, they both say they hate the fourth of July, which is a weird thing to say.
In the mid credits, we find out Danica was washed up ashore. Ava and Danica meet up outside the hospital, where they have comfort food at the beach and discuss how Stevie is still alive. Just how did she find out? How is Stevie still alive? Where are the sharks when you need them?
In the end credits scene we see Karla (a character from the second movie) watching the news about Julie. She's happily married and safe in her home. Julie comes to disrupt her peaceful evening by showing her a message from the Fisherman that says: It's not over.
Karla decides to join Julie in her search for the fisherman and take him down.
The movie ends.
Final Thoughts About the Movie
Clearly, there's going to be a sequel, and it will be welcomed by fans of the franchise. Will it be good? Probably not, but it will be fun to watch a decent slasher if anything. There's nothing memorable about this one and it relies heavily on Nostalgia but maybe that's not such a bad thing. It just goes to show that the best stories were in movies from the 90s and early 2000s.
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