‘How It Ends’ Ending, Explained

The action film How It Ends, starring Theo James, Forest Whitaker, and Kat Graham, didn’t make much of an impression on anyone when it first came out on the streamer in 2018, but it’s currently trending in the Netflix Top 10, which means that clearly a lot of people are watching it. An apocalyptic thriller, the film is set amid a global panic when a seismic, offshore event causes mass destruction of major cities, and total chaos in society.

What is How It Ends about?

In the film, Theo James stars as Will, a man who is expecting his first child with girlfriend Sam (Graham). Will travels from their home in Seattle to visit Sam’s father Tom (Whitaker) in Chicago to ask his permission for Sam’s hand in marriage, but while he’s in Chicago, a strange and mysterious event occurs, and all flights out of the city are grounded. The phones are out too, and Will can no longer get in touch with Sam in Seattle. Will and Tom go on a road trip to find Sam, with only the knowledge that this chaos has been caused by some kind of seismic disaster that occurred off the West Coast. Panic sets in and anarchy reigns as people start looting and fighting, and along the way, Tom is mortally wounded after an attack.

How does How It Ends end?

Will does eventually make it back to Sam, who has been hiding out in a cabin in the woods with a neighbor named Jeremiah (Mark O’Brien). Jeremiah thinks that this whole disaster scenario was actually caused by a nuclear bomb that humans set off in the ocean, but Will dismisses Jeremiah’s theory as paranoid rants. It seems like Jeremiah might be on to something but this is never actually addressed or resolved again in the film, and we never actually find out if he’s right. As the three talk, small earthquakes shake the woods that they’re in, with Sam explaining that they happen all the time.

The next day, Jeremiah leads Will into the woods with the intention of killing him, having fallen in love with Sam, but as he raises his gun to shoot Will, Will is a hair quicker and kills Jeremiah instead. Will leaves Jeremiah’s body in the woods because he sees what looks like a massive cloud of volcanic ash erupt nearby. Will and Sam get in their car and try to outrun the fiery cloud that chases them down the highway, and Will explains, “No matter what happens, we’re gonna make it!” As the world behind them gets fully enveloped in smoke, they kiss and drive off and it would appear that the volcanic ash suddenly ran out of steam and stopped chasing them and they do, in fact, make it. At least I think.

Credits roll.

And that is literally how it ends.