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‘How It Ends’ Review: What, You Expected Us to Tell You?

In this apocalyptic comedy, Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein count down Earth’s last day, measuring out the hours in serial conflict resolutions.

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By Teo Bugbee

In the apocalyptic comedy “How It Ends,” the Earth faces destruction by meteor at the end of the night. Here, the world ends not with a bang or a whimper, but with self-deprecating jokes and irreverent self-reflection.

For her last hours before Earth’s expiration, Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) wanders Los Angeles, visiting family, friends and lovers in a search for spiritual resolution. In a metaphysical twist, the adult Liza is accompanied by the manifestation of her younger self (Cailee Spaeny).

Among the standouts from the film’s deep cast are Helen Hunt as Liza’s mother, who offers a heartfelt monologue about not being meant for parenthood. Liza and her former best friend, played by Olivia Wilde, demonstrate their psychic bond through complicated and rhythmic overlapping dialogue. Logan Marshall-Green, as the man who got away, brims with brooding romanticism.

The film’s writers and directors, Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein, ensure that each reconciliation has an arc that builds from confrontation to explanation to resolution, and they are also careful to ensure that each scene stands on its own. The film plays as a series of perfectly enjoyable sketches strung together, an excuse for veteran actors to chew on playful dialogue. Liza attempts to tie up the loose ends of her life in one day, and if it seems like she succeeds rather economically, the writing, ever clever, builds in an explanation for the film’s breeziness. The characters shrug off the importance of their revelations — it’s only the end of the world.

How It Ends Rated R for language and references to drugs and sex. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV , FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

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‘How It Ends’ Review: A Sweetly Personal Yet Wearisome Apocalyptic Indie Grappling With the World’s End

Shot entirely during the pandemic, filmmaker duo Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein portray the nihilism of our strange times in a comedy that can use more laughs and depth.

By Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly

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If you ever found yourself staring at an old childhood photograph, scrutinizing what your younger self was thinking in that moment, the idiosyncratically existential comedy “How It Ends” will leave a bittersweet aftertaste. Especially if you happen to catch this oddly sedative (if not tiresomely repetitive) Sundance 2021 premiere amid the loneliness of the ongoing pandemic. In the end, we’re all a little perplexed nowadays, just like the film’s protagonist, a woman negotiating with the past and hoping to tie her life’s loose ends on what appears to be the last day of human existence. And we all have been finding ourselves with more reasons than usual to nostalgically wonder what we could have done differently in the normal days, panicking about all the missed opportunities, as if an asteroid is about to wipe out the world as we know it.

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Well, this is exactly what’s about to happen in the eccentric husband-and-wife filmmaking duo Zoe Lister-Jones (“Band Aid”) and Daryl Wein ’s (“White Rabbit”) quiet, science-fiction-lite tale, which finds a wide array of Los Angeles dwellers with merely hours left to live and plans to conclude their lives in whichever way they see fit. On the surface, it’s just one of those annoyingly perfect, bright and sunny, 70-something-degree days in Tinseltown, with eerily vacant streets emitting a sense of tranquility. Except, there is also a fiery asteroid in the blue sky — albeit, a very homemade-looking low-budget one — steadily making its way toward earth.

Elsewhere, Liza (Lister-Jones), a tech whiz who made a killing by inventing and selling an app, unenthusiastically greets the new day in her airy L.A. home and gets dragged out of bed by a young, precocious kid (Cailee Spaeny, the film’s greatest asset) who curiously looks like her. The duo has evident rapport and history. They have been through this morning routine before, but they aren’t a mother-daughter pair, or even sisters. The young one is Liza’s metaphysical Younger Self (or YS, as referred to in the film) and just hangs around her like an invisible imaginary friend.

“My whole life, I’ve been terrified of dying alone. But tonight, I’m literally dying alone,” Liza protests, letting her YS convince her to attend a popular farewell party she suspects an old flame will also drop by. Meanwhile, given this is everyone’s final day in the world, why not clog the arteries a little with a towering stash of fluffy pancakes and drink maple syrup out of a glass like it’s orange juice? And why not spend the hours ’till the bash going from door to door, making amends with people?

Shot entirely during the Covid-19 pandemic throughout empty Los Angeles streets, with strict safety protocols in place (you can often see physical social-distancing between the characters, even Lister-Jones and Spaeny), “How It Ends” is perhaps the first one of those fiercely independent, low-budget pandemic-centric movies most of us suspected to see at Sundance in a couple of years’ time. Beating everyone to the punch, Lister-Jones and Wein perhaps don’t take Covid-19 head-on or inhabit 2020’s skin-crawling misery with their sometimes monotonously whimsical tone and atmosphere, accompanied by Ryan Miller’s fanciful score. But to their credit, they do acutely hit on the comedic nihilism this universally-shared experience brought about, even though their film falls short on laughs.

The “So what?” nihilism informs the attitudes of everyone Liza and her YS decide to visit as they walk up and downhill like the West Coast equivalent of Will Smith and his German Shepherd in “I Am Legend.” Looking slightly uncomfortable in her block heels but at ease in her high-waisted jeans, Liza drags her free-spirited YS, boisterously clad in baggy pajama pants, to a weed store first, refusing to be caught dead without some legal substance. Too bad that an oddity played by Nick Kroll, who’s pitched a tent on an open field, had bought out the entire store before they could even get there. Also in their path are a romantic crush (Logan Marshall Green) with two adorable puppies, a neighbor (Bobby Lee) who’s failed to watch over Liza’s now-stolen car, Fred Armisen in the role of someone else’s YS, Glenn Howerton as a stalker with an unknown agenda, Ayo Edebiri’s aspiring standup comedian, Paul W. Downs’ speedo-wearing sex therapist as well as Sharon Van Etten’s soulful guitar player.

But these side characters and others like Colin Hanks — who aptly defines Liza’s day as “an existential scavenger hunt” — aren’t even a part of the young woman’s chief schedule. The lengthier scenes are with Bradley Whitford in the role of Liza’s selfish father, evidently victimized by a midlife crisis, her estranged mom (Helen Hunt), who bravely admits her disinterest in motherhood, her chronically cheating ex-boyfriend (Lamorne Morris) who has the film’s funniest scene, as well as a friend played by Olivia Wilde, who indulges in a giant cake, agrees to let bygones be bygones and hilariously lusts over Timothée Chalamet with her giggly friend.

Despite the film’s compact running time of just more than 80 minutes, some of these scenes drag out and never quite arrive at a level of depth and originality a filmmaker like Miranda July, whose distinct style the film brings to mind, possesses with her one-of-a-kind voice. Still, they contain a level of calming casualness, with all the performers somehow looking like they’re playing a version of their own alter egos. Sweet and personal, “How It Ends” is hardly an entertaining movie, or one that will go down as one of the defining films of these unpredictably strange times. But you can’t really blame the artists for trying to make some therapeutic sense of it all, with a little help from one another.

Production: A Mister Lister Films production. Producers: Zoe Lister-Jones, Daryl Wein.
Crew: Directors, writers: Zoe Lister-Jones, Daryl Wein. Camera: Daryl Wein, Tyler Beus. Editor: Daryl Wein, Libby Cuenin. Music: Ryan Miller.
With: Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Whitney Cummings, Tawny Newsome, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Logan Marshall Green, Bobby Lee, Fred Armisen, Glenn Howerton, Bradley Whitford, Ayo Edebiri, Sharon Van Etten, Olivia Wilde, Paul W. Downs, Raymond Cham Jr., Lamorne Morris, Angelique Cabral, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Helen Hunt, Colin Hanks.

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‘how it ends’: film review | sundance 2021.

A woman seeks closure before the Earth explodes in the latest comedy from Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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A gently funny take on the last-day-on-earth microgenre, Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein’s How It Ends sets its protagonist (Lister-Jones) up with an ambitious to-do list, then slows her down so she can appreciate the journey. Shot in Los Angeles during the pandemic, it’s one of the most enjoyable responses yet to Covid constraints: Deprived of her car (and with ride-hail drivers presumably having told their exploiters to go to hell), our heroine walks the deserted streets of well-off neighborhoods, enjoying at-a-distance encounters with strangers and backyard reunions with old friends. Packed with cameos from seemingly every celebrity the writer/directors have befriended during their careers, it’s more breezy than bittersweet, more about acceptance and forgiveness than a movie made in 2020 has any right to be.

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The pandemic movie How It Ends takes a chill approach to the apocalypse

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and everyone’s exploring therapy and drugs

by Tasha Robinson

Zoe Lister-Jones and Cailee Spaeny stand in front of the same mirror, taking a moment before preparing for a party in How It Ends

Polygon’s entertainment team is logged on for the 2021 Sundance Film Festival , which has gone virtual for the first time ever. Here’s what you need to know about the indie gems that will soon make their way to streaming services, theaters, and the cinematic zeitgeist.

Logline: On Earth’s final day, as a planet-obliterating asteroid streaks toward Earth, an awkward woman named Liza (co-writer and co-director Zoe Lister-Jones) and her younger self (Cailee Spaeny) walk around Los Angeles together confronting people, determined to finally get closure on their relationships before everything ends.

Longerline: If you knew exactly when you were going to die, what would you get done before you go? The question makes for a rich cinematic theoretical, and filmmakers have come up with widely varying answers, from a poisoned man trying to solve his own murder before dying in the 1950 noir D.O.A. to a woman who mostly spreads contagious death-panic to everyone she knows in 2020’s She Dies Tomorrow .

In How It Ends , Liza and her younger self instead decide that it’s time to finally try honesty. Liza has spent her life avoiding confrontations and emotional conflicts, to the point where she fled from a relationship with a man she loved. On the last day before oblivion, she decides to tour L.A. and separately confront her parents, an estranged friend, and the guy who repeatedly cheated on her. She hopes to wrap up her life at a drug-fueled end-of-the-world bacchanal, and tell the love of her life how she really feels about him.

Mildly complicating her plans: the presence of her younger self. It’s implied that Young Liza has been invisibly hanging out with Liza for a long time, but mysteriously, other people can now see and hear her, which both Lizas shrug off as par for the course during a time where everyone just seems a little more tuned into the infinite. It’s an odd device, but it gives Liza a cheerleader and enabler who’s constantly pushing her out of her comfort zone, and most of the film’s actual drama comes from the natural clash between younger self and present self, given how far they’ve drifted apart.

What’s How It Ends trying to do? In the Q&A after the film’s premiere at 2021’s virtual Sundance Film Festival, writer-director partners Lister-Jones ( The Craft: Legacy ) and Daryl Wein ( White Rabbit ) admitted that How It Ends was their attempt to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that followed. Lister-Jones laid it out: “We don’t really know any way, for better or for worse, to process existential crises except through our work… [it] sort of serves as therapy.”

In a way, that makes How It Ends no different from other people’s endless lockdown pursuits of making better sourdough bread. But the timing of the film’s production (it was shot in late spring and early fall of 2020) explains a lot about the filmmaking, like the way L.A. seems to be weirdly empty, and the way Liza’s various planned confrontations take place outdoors, usually with participants about six feet apart. It also explains the story’s queasy relationship with death: all the characters are focused on the oncoming global extinction event, but at the same time, no one seems particularly worried. It’s as if they’ve lived with mass death hanging over their heads for months now, and have started to find the waiting tedious. Most of the characters have arrived at a philosophical place where they’ve thought through their apocalypse plans, and present them with a dreary casualness.

That partially feels metaphorical — as with the pandemic, the characters here are all dealing with the exact same existential crisis at the exact same time, but they’ve each been steeped in impending death long enough to take it on in their own idiosyncratic ways. At the same time, those methods all feel like utterly L.A.-centric approaches. Several of the Angelenos Liza talks to seem casual about the apocalypse because they’re heavily self-medicated. Most of them talk the language of self-help books and spiritualism seminars, particularly a cheerfully drugged-up couple played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Charlie Day, reuniting from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia . Stroking a giant crystal and shouting things they appreciate about each other (“Feet!” “Oral sex!”), they’re grooving toward death without fear. Similarly, when Liza visits her father (Bradley Whitford, chirpy and hilarious as usual) to confront him about his failings, he encourages her toward primal howls and shoving gestures, as he tries to take on all her negative energy and leave her free. In multiple encounters, Liza’s acquaintances talk casually about the next life they’re all headed to, as if explaining why they aren’t too nervous about leaving this one.

That mellow hippie vibe seems like it’s meant to be particularly therapeutic; apart from random encounters with squabbling neighbors, the Lizas mostly encounter peaceful people and positive emotions. Almost everyone seems sincere and willing to cooperate in their attempt to reconcile. Liza has major issues with her mom (Helen Hunt), but they talk through them sincerely and openly. She’s angry at her cheating ex Larry (Lamorne Morris), but he’s willing to listen and give feedback, graciously if not exactly sincerely. For a film where nearly 8 billion people are about to die in flames, How It Ends is pretty chill.

The quote that says it all: “Tonight I just want to get really fucking high, eat until I puke, and then die.”

Does it get there? That lack of meaningful conflict also means the film lacks urgency, or a sense of rising or falling action. It’s largely just a series of incidents, each fairly closely toeing the line between comedy and drama. The writer-directors explained during the Q&A that some of the scenes are strictly scripted, while others were largely improv, which explains the variation in tones and tightness. The openly ludicrous one-upsmanship of the face-off with Larry is a highlight, as Liza gamely waves a boombox, Say Anything style, then tries to express her frustration with him through straight-faced Alanis Morrisette lyrics. But other scenes drift around a central gag without going anywhere in particular, and the film’s biggest drama crops up suddenly, without the sense of growing tension that would have made it feel like a natural and inevitable part of the story.

What does that get us? How It Ends isn’t as depressing and exhausting as the otherwise similar Melancholia , Lars von Trier’s 2011 study of depression in the days before an asteroid obliterates the Earth. It doesn’t explore as much variation in response to incoming death as Seeking a Friend for the End of the World , Lorene Scafaria’s 2012 comic drama that similarly follows the lead-up to an asteroid-based extinction event. Mostly what it brings to an inevitable future “Death By Asteroid” triple-feature is warmth and uplift: it’s low-key to a fault, full of quirk and charm. In this version of the apocalypse, even the most self-absorbed, narcissistic people on Liza’s extended friends list are well-meaning and supportive.

The other thing it brings is that odd device of the inner child (or in this cast, inner twentysomething), which Lister-Jones says the filmmakers drew from therapeutic tools. What’s most missing in the film, though, is a sense that the device is really necessary. It enables some late-film tension, but the film perpetually feels like it’s lacking the kind of end-to-end revelations about Liza and her younger self that would make that big central split feel meaningful. Thematically, as everyone cheerfully gives Liza some time to speak her truths and find her center and whatnot, sometimes at their expense, the only person she isn’t at peace with is herself. But that idea feels basic, and the execution is similarly basic. There’s a wealth of potential humor and trauma in her daily interaction with her own younger self, but the script barely scratches the surface of it.

The most fundamental problem with How It Ends is that it feels like exactly what it is: a hobby project put together by a bunch of bored people looking to process their own anxiety. Granted, those bored people include Fred Armisen, Paul Scheer, Nick Kroll, Rob Huebel, Sharon Van Etten, Olivia Wilde, and even Finn Wolfhard in a tiny phone cameo, so the film has something of the vibe of an L.A. comedy podcast, where every casual acquaintance also has some level of fame in their own right. But the story feels a bit slapped-together. It’s a pleasant enough hangout movie, and someday it may be held up as a slanted portrait of what mid-2020 felt like for people privileged enough to ignore politics. But it still feels like a minor movie in the face of a major catastrophe.

The most meme-able moment: Pretty much any shot where Liza and Young Liza trade meaningful, judgmental looks is prime “Me to me” or “Me / Also me” meme material.

When can we see it? How It Ends is currently seeking distribution.

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“It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” One of R.E.M. ’s most popular songs is not just a banger, it’s kind of a motto for the new comedy from writers/directors Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein . How It Ends takes place on the last day on Earth as a meteor is barreling towards us and is due to wipe out the planet at 2am. But instead of focusing on turmoil and fear and frustration, How It Ends is populated with pleasant, carefree characters who are just trying to stay super chill and tie up a few loose ends before it all, well, ends. And while the film feels almost too loose at times and suffers from a bit of awkwardness owing to being shot during the pandemic, ultimately Lister-Jones and Wein craft a successful feel-good story that’s not really about the end of the world at all, but about learning to love yourself.

Lister-Jones co-wrote, directed, and stars in How It Ends as the film’s central character Liza. When the film opens, Liza is conversing with a whimsical teenaged girl ( Cailee Spaeny ) who you soon find out is Liza’s younger self. “It’s metaphysical,” she explains, and she refers to herself as a “YS” or “Younger Self.” Liza and YS decide that on their last day on Earth, Liza is going to look for closure in a few of her relationships – her father ( Bradley Whitford ), her mother ( Helen Hunt ), her former BFF ( Olivia Wilde ), a skeezy ex-boyfriend ( Lamorne Morris ), and a dreamy ex-boyfriend ( Logan Marshall-Green , whose first scene in the film feels like an attack as he appears in slow-motion with a gorgeous head of hair and is cradling two adorable puppies).

When the day begins, Liza and YS are shocked to discover that Liza’s car has been stolen, so she must travel on foot throughout Los Angeles to make these separate confrontations — and this is where the unique filming circumstances come in. How It Ends was shot in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the film gains its production value not by building sets or working on soundstages, but literally by just having Lister-Jones and Spaeny walk down deserted street after deserted street. Even the character interactions follow safety protocols as characters are shown at least six feet apart, which to be honest proves to be a bit of a distraction in some scenes, but in others Lister-Jones and Wein find creative ways to separate people.

But the lack of random characters or moving cars flooding the background actually gives the film a more ethereal quality that is in lockstep with the pleasant and lighthearted tone that Lister-Jones and Wein settle on. Liza has regrets to be sure, but this is not some stressful madcap journey in a race against time. Liza and YS take multiple detours along the way that offer up some very funny comedic cameos from the likes of Fred Armisen , Nick Kroll , Charlie Day , Mary Elizabeth Ellis , Glenn Howerton , and many more. But in one of the film’s most striking scenes, Liza and YS stumble across a musician singing alone in a street. The musician explains the song she’s singing was written as a duet, and the three then sing the song together. This deep connection with a complete stranger on the last day on Earth is a moment of beauty and peace, and it’s scenes like this that give How It Ends emotional weight alongside the comedy.

Indeed, we come to find out that Liza and YS have some stuff of their own to work out, as How It Ends is less about Liza finding closure with others and more about her coming to some understanding with her own self – namely, self-love. It’s an action that so many of us struggle with and shrug off as unimportant, but when it comes down to it, loving yourself is one of the most important realizations one can make. Especially when it’s your last day on Earth.

Lister-Jones gives a really thoughtful performance here and toes the line between comedy and grounded emotion well, while Spaeny – after standout turns in films like Bad Times at the El Royale and Lister-Jones’ own The Craft: Legacy , and in particular on the FX limited series Devs – continues to be one of the most talented and compelling young actresses working today. The choices she makes are surprising and tremendously watchable. And craft-wise, for a film that was shot and completed during a global pandemic, How It Ends looks and feels pretty great. Ryan Miller ’s delightful score in particular compliments the story well and helps keep the tone light without it feeling frivolous.

The film does meander a bit owing to its loose structure, and some of the scenes feel more stilted or out of place than others. Some go on too long, while others feel like they could have been cut altogether. But one imagines that’s part and parcel with the film’s freewheeling nature. Had it been tighter, it may not have felt as dreamy or leisurely as it does.

It’s hard to convince anyone to watch a movie about the end of the world right now , which is what makes How It Ends unique – it’s so endlessly pleasant and joyful that it brings some semblance of peace to the viewer, even in the wake of so-called “uncertain times.” That Lister-Jones and Wein are able to sneak in an emotionally affecting story about self-love in an “apocalypse comedy” package makes How It Ends all the more satisfying.

For more of our Sundance 2021 reviews, peruse the links below:

John and the Hole
On the Count of Three
Sundance Film Festival

How It Ends

The interminable slog of Netflix’s “How It Ends” had me thinking about endings in general. How it felt like the close of this film would never come. How we so commonly return in cinema, especially lately, to visions of the end of the world. How the actual ending of this film is an atrocious cheat. Trust me, you’re better off not even beginning.

The cheesy pitch for “How It Ends” could be “Meet the Parents” meets “ The Rover .” It’s an apocalyptic road trip movie between a man ( Theo James ) and his future father-in-law ( Forest Whitaker ) from Chicago to Seattle as the world is ending. It opens with relatively stale domestic drama as James’ Will flies to the Windy City to meet with Whitaker’s Tom, the father of the woman that Will loves, Samantha ( Kat Graham ). Sam is pregnant, and Will wants to ask Tom for her hand in marriage to start a family. Will is a buttoned-up millennial who has moved Tom’s baby girl across the country and even once crashed his boat; Tom is a former Marine, who maintains a lot of that old-fashioned decorum (he yells at Will for swearing in front of his wife). Wouldn’t it be dramatic if these two were forced into an emergency?

Not really. And yet that’s what happens when Will is speaking with Sam on the phone and is abruptly cut off. All cell service to the West Coast goes down. And then things get even more ominous as the power goes out in Chicago and panic sets in. Knowing that transportation will go down shortly and that the roads are their best route west, Will and Tom jump in the car and head to Seattle to save Sam. They don’t know exactly what’s happened or if Sam is even in real danger, but these men are coming to save her!

What unfolds is a bleak, dull slog across the country that consists primarily of Will trusting people he shouldn’t trust. Brooks McLaren’s once-Blacklist script is a hodge podge of clichés about what would happen after the lights went out. Two days into this vision of national crisis and people are shooting each other for gasoline and basically taking the law into their own hands. It’s all stuff you’ve seen before, done better, and what’s most disappointing is how completely McLaren and director David M. Rosenthal completely waste even the minimal opportunity to say anything interesting about macho men trying to save their damsel in distress. There’s an interesting concept buried deep in “How It Ends” that would comment on two very different dudes from very different backgrounds bonding in their macho need to be White Knights. That movie never takes shape.

Of course, Will and Tom bond along the way, but it’s mostly because Will learns how to use a gun and talks about how much he loves Tom’s daughter. These are two of the least interesting characters to headline an end-of-the-world movie in years—there had to be more intriguing people to follow into the apocalypse. And James and Whitaker do the film no favors, sleepwalking through their roles. (Only Grace Dove, as a Native American who joins them for part of the journey, puts any effort into it. Her performance and a reasonably strong visual language from cinematographer from Peter Flinckenberg are the only things that get it even to its one-star rating.)

Netflix has escalated their war with the studios with each passing month, clearly trying to offer every genre and type of movie possible to compete. So, this means they have high-brow Oscar fare like “ Mudbound ” and low-brow mainstream fare like “ Bright ,” and everything in between. It also apparently means they have once-straight-to-video fare that used to get buried on the bottom shelf of a Blockbuster, rented 2-3 times by dissatisfied customers.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Theo James as Will
Forest Whitaker as Tom
Kerry Bishé as Meg
Mark O’Brien as Jeremiah
Kat Graham as Samantha
Atli Orvarsson
Brooks McLaren
David M. Rosenthal
Jason Ballantine

Cinematographer

Peter Flickenberg

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Review: This is ‘How It Ends’ — a stroll through L.A. before the apocalypse

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The Los Angeles Times is committed to reviewing new theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries inherent risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials. We will continue to note the various ways readers can see each new film, including drive-in theaters in the Southland and VOD/streaming options when available.

Perhaps it’s all the rethinking we’ve had to do during this pandemic era, but the end-of-the-world genre has enjoyed some new beginnings of late. “ How It Ends ” is one of the more thoughtful and fun of these one-way tickets.

Liza ( Zoe Lister-Jones ) and her constant companion, her metaphorical younger self ( Cailee Spaeny of “Mare of Easttown”), spend Earth’s final day facing down “regrets.” Liza plans to address unfinished business before partying with friends until the meteor hits and ends it all. Liza and Young Liza trek through Los Angeles neighborhoods, having surreal encounters with strangers and heart-to-hearts with loved ones.

Very much made during lockdown, the tiny indie is more of a spiritual cousin to the underrated “ Deep Impact ” (sans VFX set pieces) than to Netflix’s 2018 apocalyptic adventure also titled “ How It Ends ” or its recent, top-notch “ Awake .” Rather than wallowing in humanity’s dark side or cinematic world destruction, the new film is an intimate, mostly light rumination on what a person might want to come to terms with, given the chance, knowing death is inevitable. Its unhurried stroll is the opposite of the underseen, appropriately frantic “ Miracle Mile ” (1988; another small-scale, pending-apocalypse movie set in Los Angeles ).

Co-writer, co-director and co-producer (with husband and creative partner Daryl Wein ) Lister-Jones follows her 2017 directing debut, “ Band Aid ,” with another smart, funny, deadpan comedy-drama. It’s arranged in a series of vignettes with well-known costars dropping in. Not all the scenelets are created equal; some moments feel unexplored or too easy. If the message is that, even in the final moments, not everyone can get real, then fair enough. Such encounters are less compelling than others, however.

In cameo-heavy movies, much of the fun is in being surprised when Star A or B pop up. Readers who’d rather know who’s in the movie can visit its IMDb page , but those appearances will be treated here as minor spoilers — mostly. A couple must be noted: Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten shows up for a lovely musical interlude that beautifully scores the low-key wonderland of nearly deserted Hollywood Hills streets on End-of-Everything Day; and Lamorne Morris of “New Girl” and “ Woke ” crushes as an ex-boyfriend so unfaithful, he can’t remember exactly how unfaithful he was, or to whom. There’s a fun, easy-feeling exchange with an estranged friend in overlapping dialogue, deftly conveying their relationship rekindling.

L.A. Times Talks @ Sundance Film Festival Full Q+A: HOW IT ENDS sponsored by Chase Sapphire

Made during the pandemic, Sundance comedy ‘How It Ends’ is a love letter to Los Angeles

Filmmakers Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones discuss the apocalypse comedy starring Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Lamorne Morris and Helen Hunt.

Jan. 29, 2021

Mostly, the film rides on the chemistry between Lister-Jones and Spaeny. Lister-Jones, with her cynicism and too-cool-for-schoolishness, convincingly portrays someone hobbled by the safety of low expectations. The very watchable Spaeny has the energy and openness Adult Liza killed off to survive but never comes off as exhausting. She’s not playing an attitude of youth; she’s playing Liza at a younger age but with knowledge of her older version’s missteps. Lister-Jones and Spaeny read as sisters rather than Protagonist and Narrative Construct. When they finally address their unfinished business with each other, it feels earned.

“How It Ends” works both as an alternative to the usual, race-against-time or humanity-sucks apocalypse dramas, and as a personal exploration of settling affairs — and it’s a comedy.

'How It Ends'

Rated: R for language throughout, sexual references and drug material Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes Playing: July 20-22, Alamo Drafthouse, Downtown L.A.; also available July 20 on digital

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The Ending Of How It Ends Explained

There have been countless films and TV shows depicting different interpretations of the fall of society. Whether by a zombie virus or climate change, it seems that the human race is inevitably headed toward its ultimate doom (at least according to Hollywood).

In 2018, Netflix threw its hat into the ring of apocalyptic cinema with the action-packed original movie "How It Ends," starring Forest Whitaker and Theo James . James plays Will, a white-collar lawyer whose girlfriend, Sam (Kat Graham), is pregnant with their child. He flies across the country to see Sam's father, Tom (Whitaker), to give him the good news and ask for Sam's hand in marriage. Tom is a military man and a traditionalist who clearly does not approve of Tom, which makes things awkward when disaster strikes and the two of them must work together to keep their family safe.

"How It Ends" is a unique take on the end-of-the-world genre. It's an interesting combination of suspense, drama, and buddy-cop action movies . While the first two acts of the movie are jam-packed with high action and thrills, the third act takes quite a different turn. The ending of "How It Ends," ironically, leaves the audience with more questions than answers. So here's a breakdown of what exactly happens at the end of "How It Ends."

What you need to remember about the plot of How It Ends

"How It Ends" begins with Will flying from Seattle to Chicago to visit his girlfriend's parents. Will and Sam's dad, Tom, have never gotten along, since Tom resents Will for taking his only daughter away from him. Things erupt into an argument between Will and Tom, so Will decides not to go through with his original plan and head back home instead. While on the phone with Sam, Will hears a strange noise on the other end before losing the connection. Soon, all of the power in the western United States is down, and the crisis soon spreads across the country.

Since Will can't fly back to Seattle where Sam is, Tom offers to drive both of them to go and get to her. Their road trip does not go smoothly, to say the least. While on the road, the two men run into hostile civilians, including a man in a police uniform who holds them at gunpoint and a group that steals their gas. They also befriend a mechanic named Ricki (Grace Dove) who accompanies them on their journey for a time.

After a harrowing escape from an exploding car, Tom sustains a serious injury and his lung collapses. As Will attempts to patch him up, he and Tom finally manage to reconcile their differences, and Tom gives his blessing to Will and Sam's marriage. Unfortunately, it's not long before Tom's body fails him and he dies, leaving Will to continue the journey alone.

What happens at the end of How It Ends?

Eventually, Will makes it back to Seattle. However, by the time he gets there, there isn't much of Seattle left. The whole city is in shambles, with ash falling like snow, bodies everywhere, and buildings collapsed into heaps of rubble. Will manages to find his way to his and Sam's apartment, where Sam has left a message telling him where to find her.

Will finds Sam in a cabin outside of the city staying with a man named Jeremiah. The two of them share a happy reunion as Will relates the tumultuousness of the journey and the sad news of Tom's death. Meanwhile, Jeremiah appears to be in an unstable, paranoid state, which makes Will uneasy. Shortly after, Jeremiah confronts Will, revealing that he is in love with Sam. Will fends off an attack from Jeremiah, killing him in the process.

Will doesn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief, however. A volcanic eruption forces him and Sam to jump into their car and race away from the oncoming wave of smoke and ash. As Will turns to Sam and assures her that they are going to be okay, the car continues speeding down the road with the eruption close on their heels as the credits roll.

What the end of How It Ends means

Given the abruptness of it all, it's understandable why people might be confused by the way "How It Ends" just — well — ends . There are a lot of layers to peel back before we get there, though, so let's take them one at a time.

As Will and Tom make their journey through the chaos of the unexplained disaster, they find themselves in unprecedented situations. The various people they come across are as desperate as they are to make it out alive, and their actions are just as desperate. A woman feigns needing help just so her group can take Tom and Will's gas cans at gunpoint. Later on, a biker gang attacks them when they try to pass over a bridge. It becomes a dog-eat-dog world in a short amount of time, and survival of the fittest quickly becomes the number one rule for many.

However, not everyone whom Tom and Will encounter shares the same principles. Ricki is willing to help fix the damaged car, as well as accompany Will and Tom in order to aid them. Will also later meets a family who gives him a ride, and in turn, he offers them a place to stay. In other words, a major theme of "How It Ends" is what humanity will do in times of crisis. Do they help one another or turn against each other? And how far will a person go to protect someone they love? In Will's case, he will stop at nothing to get back to Sam and his unborn child.

Another possible explanation of the ending

Perhaps the biggest question in "How It Ends" is the cataclysmic event itself. Was it man-made? Was it Mother Nature on a bad day? The ending leaves it unclear, but it does give a few hints.

There is a strong military presence that appears shortly after the event begins. Fighter planes can be seen flying over Chicago as Will looks out a window, and Tom manages to talk his way through a soldier-manned checkpoint. They also spy a train loaded with tanks and heavy artillery that's no doubt military-grade stuff. It seems very suspicious that the military would react so quickly in such a short time, which suggests a high possibility of an attack of massive proportions from an outside threat.

There are also natural disasters occurring all over the place — wildfires, earthquakes, and the massive volcanic eruption in the film's final moments. The ash that covers Seattle is probably the aftermath of a volcanic event as well. However, there's also evidence that many of these disasters could have been the effects of a nuclear attack. According to the U.S. Geological Survey , a nuclear explosion can cause an earthquake and aftershocks, although the damage is not as devastating as the blast itself. This wouldn't explain the volcanic activity, however, though it might have been just a timely coincidence. To be fair, from a scientific standpoint, not a lot about "How It Ends" makes much sense.

How Tom changes at the end of the movie

At the beginning of "How It Ends," Tom is a man who's difficult to get along with, to say the least. When Will arrives at his home, Tom is cold and unwelcoming. He passive-aggressively hints that Will is trying to squeeze money out of him and criticizes Will for allowing his daughter to be the breadwinner. He also insinuates that Will stole his daughter from him and moved all the way across the country just to distance himself and Sam from her parents.

No matter how much Will tries, it seems impossible to earn Tom's respect. This changes over the course of the movie as the two men are thrown into dire circumstances. In the scene where Tom is wounded and sitting in the backseat while Will drives, the two bond for the first time. Tom allows himself to be vulnerable in front of Will as he talks about his own father, and how Tom wished to be a better father to his daughter. He then goes on to assure Will that he will be a good father to Sam's baby. Sadly, Tom dies not too long afterward.

By the end of "How It Ends," Tom finally recognizes Will's worth. He sees his willingness to do what's necessary in order to survive and protect the ones he loves. Once he's certain that Will is capable of looking after his daughter, Tom is finally able to let go of his resentment and give his approval to their marriage.

How Will changes at the end of the movie

Will goes through his own transition from the beginning of "How It Ends" to its conclusion. Like many millennials, he's reliant on modern technology and has little to no experience in dealing with a real crisis. His job at a law firm also doesn't exactly prepare him for the trials of a world gone mad. By the end of the movie, however, Will learns what he's truly capable of.

In an early scene, Will is shocked and horrified when Tom produces a pistol and uses it to scare off some potential attackers. Later on, however, the same pistol ends up saving his and Tom's life. With instructions from Tom, Will learns how to load and shoot the gun at a man in a police car who attempts to run them off the road. In another scene, Will has to save Tom after an injury causes his lung to collapse. Again following Tom's direction, Will performs an emergency thoracotomy with a needle, and he does so with very little hesitation.

By the end of the film, Will goes from someone who can barely stand up for himself to someone who is resilient and adaptable. Much of that is due to his experiences with Tom. It's also Will's promise to Tom that he will keep Sam safe that steels his resolve. Though the audience doesn't know for sure what happens to Sam and Will in the end, they know that Will can do whatever it takes to keep them both and their coming child alive.

What has the cast of How It Ends said about the ending?

Theo James' and Forest Whitaker's characters butt heads in "How It Ends," but in real life, the actors seem to agree on many things. In an interview with BUILD in 2018, both actors discussed some of the film's themes and how their characters evolve from the beginning of the movie to the end.

"[Forest's] character has a very specific set of rules, the way he sees life, and there's a black-and-white nature to that," James said. "Whereas Will is a little bit complacent and a little softer in that way, but then they get to respect one another on equal terms as the film goes on." Whitaker elaborated on James' thoughts, saying, "The movie starts to explore what you'll do to survive," which is a big part of the relationship between the two characters. "What he will do to save my daughter, and to survive, is very important for me to see. When I start to see that he is even willing to protect himself appropriately, then maybe he'll be able to protect her."

The actors also noted how the movie's themes might relate to current turbulent times. "It reflects how close we feel to the potential for chaos," James said. "In America, in Britain, the way things are evolving in the Middle East, there is a sense that things could change very rapidly on a dime and could throw everything we conceive about our lives into jeopardy." Whitaker added that the film reflects "what's going on with the global system — climate change that's happening in the world and the disasters that are happening all over the world." As Whitaker said, "All these things make you have to look at what will happen if people are put in a situation where they have to deal with these phenomenons [sic]."

What viewers thought about the ending of How It Ends

With "How It Ends" ending the way it does, it's natural that viewers would have a lot of questions. It's also natural that such an abrupt conclusion might cause audiences to feel cheated. In one particular Reddit discussion, users were very eager to voice their thoughts.

several users pointed out the logical flaw that none of the heroes bother to make use of the military weapons that seem to be everywhere. Redditor u/kraken9911 noted, "I'm even more bothered that Forest Whitaker is supposed to be this hardass military [veteran] that served for 27 years by his own words, and his 'bug out bag' consists of a single pistol with just a few mags." While some of the thread's participants were there to slam the movie, others took to posting their own theories. Several users presented the idea of a strong magnetic field due to shifts in the planet's polar caps, which might explain Tom's compass not working, as well as the appearance of the Northern Lights. Some even suggested (and rooted for) the idea of the movie tying into the "Cloverfield" franchise .

Reddit user u/WeaponsHot offered another unique theory, suggesting that a coronal mass ejection may have caused everything. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , CMEs are "large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's corona," which can cause intense geomagnetic storms. In other words, they're a very possible world-ending event. Whatever may have caused the devastating events in "How It Ends," the general consensus among many viewers appears to be that the filmmakers should have done a little more homework.

What the end of How It Ends could mean for the franchise

The cliffhanger ending of "How It Ends" leaves a big insinuation that there might be a follow-up of some kind. However, it has been five years since the movie first streamed on Netflix, and as of yet there has been no official announcement of a sequel in the works.

The likelihood of a "How It Ends 2" seems pretty low. It was universally panned by critics and holds a dismal 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . If a sequel to "How It Ends" were ever to get up and running, speculation suggests it likely would not make it to Netflix for a few more years at least. A possible plot might pick up where the first movie leaves off, with Will and Sam driving away from the volcano and making it out of danger just in time. Another idea might be to make Ricki the new protagonist and show what happens to her after she leaves Tom and Will.

Yet another option would be to have an entirely new cast of characters and depict their struggle, while possibly discovering what caused the disaster in the first place. It probably won't happen, but who can say for sure?

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How It Ends Reviews

If anything it generates more questions and provides no answers, all as the film is preparing to close.

Full Review | Original Score: D | May 9, 2024

How It Ends is truly unique in the fact that it's the only disaster or post apocalypse film to leave me bored. The cinematic version of watching paint dry.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Oct 29, 2019

How It Ends is a mildly effective thriller with an ending that will leave some viewers frustrated.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 9, 2019

You won't beg for the two hours of your life back after watching this film. It had it's moments.

Full Review | Oct 11, 2018

Even with a good hook, How It Ends suffers from a lack of vision, which is exactly what you don't need in an effects-heavy disaster movie.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2018

Should begin with you not loading this one in your Netflix queue. It has potential, but squanders all of its goodwill and audience patience by the time the end credits roll.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Jul 28, 2018

Violent, profanity-filled tale lacks logic and resolution.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 25, 2018

This is a mediocre post-apocalyptic movie that turns into a downright horrible one by refusing to provide any semblance of meaningful answers about its central mystery.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2018

Delivers the vague shape of the apocalypse, but it's a frustrating sit, continually interrupting compelling stretches of drama and terror with low-wattage stunts and tedious sequences of back roads survival.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jul 19, 2018

It's competently made and easy to watch, but you know every move the thriller wants to make before it happens.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2018

Director David M. Rosenthal finds news ways to say and feel nothing. There are no bold ideas or thought bubbles; no exciting action sequences or set pieces.

Forest Whitaker's performance is just terrible. You can tell the director, David M Rosenthal, had no power over him. He just did his character-which the script failed to fully develop and exploit-his own damn way.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2018

Theo James has gotten good at playing this one kind of protagonist; he's like the exact midpoint between all of the overwhelmed-but-capable disaster movie heroes you've ever seen.

The story has a clear-cut destination, but the technique makes the journey there and there itself aimless while watching and pointless when done.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/10 | Jul 16, 2018

The desire to fast-forward becomes almost overpowering.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 16, 2018

It's always just a bit too easy to see the writer's hand at work, which serves to undercut immersion and identification.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 14, 2018

How It Ends would have been well served to ask itself a few big questions.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 13, 2018

Impressive looking, but undercut by passive characterizations. And how's it end? By petering out.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 13, 2018

You're better off not even beginning.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 13, 2018

Cast & crew
User reviews

How It Ends

In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant fiancé, who is thousands of miles away. In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant fiancé, who is thousands of miles away. In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant fiancé, who is thousands of miles away.

David M. Rosenthal
Brooks McLaren
Nancy Sorel
1.9K User reviews
64 Critic reviews
36 Metascore
5 nominations

Top cast 45

Will Younger

Samantha Sutherland

Sonographer

Paula Sutherland

Tom Sutherland

Flight Attendant
(as JJ Ramberg)

Airport Bar Woman
Town Car Driver

Lakepoint Tower Doorman

Ricki's Father
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia The cause of the event might be a strong shift in the earth's magnetic field, which could explain power outages across the board and loss of communication. There are a few hints pointing in that direction; for example, a compass spinning aimlessly and northern lights over a cabin in Seattle. Shifts in the magnetic field can also trigger heavy changes in the climate as the earth temporarily loses some protection against cosmic rays. Shifts in the past (the last full switch has been around 750,000 years ago) are not proven to have triggered mass extinction events though. Also, this would not explain a sudden volcanic eruption and probably not explain a tsunami-like tide.
Goofs When Will is on video chat with Sam and things start happening where Sam is, he asks her "What's going on?", then when he starts to say "Can you hear me?", he pushes the End Call button.

Ricki : [hearing a helicopter in the distance] It's a Blackhawk.

Tom : You know about helicopters?

Ricki : Not really. Just the irony. Cheyenne, Chinook, Chickasaw, Apache. I just think it's funny that the Army named its helicopters after tribes they tried to wipe out.

Connections Featured in Let Me Explain: How It Ends (Netflix) Forgot It's Ending (2018)
Soundtracks Last Exit to Brooklyn Written by Dr. Steven Trip and Lawrence Sam Goldings Courtesy of Extreme Music

User reviews 1.9K

digression_jim
Jul 12, 2018
How long is How It Ends? Powered by Alexa
July 13, 2018 (United States)
United States
Official Netflix
Thời Khắc Tận Thế
Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Paul Schiff Productions
Sierra / Affinity
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$20,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 53 minutes

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How it ends.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 18 Reviews
Kids Say 7 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Violent, profanity-filled tale lacks logic and resolution.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 17+?

Apocalyptic story with frequent violence: gunfire with point-blank killing, gun

Continuous use of "f--k" and other profanities, such as "s--t," "slut," "f--got,

Characters drink whiskey, beer, in several scenes. Cigarette smoking.

Kissing. A man and woman engage in brief foreplay and begin to undress.

Glenlivet, Cadillac.

Any Positive Content?

Hero has integrity and conviction; his courageousness and resourcefulness emerge

Bonds can be forged under desperate conditions. When survival is at stake, human

Violence & Scariness

Apocalyptic story with frequent violence: gunfire with point-blank killing, gun battles, fistfights, explosions, car chases, multiple fatal vehicle accidents, bloody injuries, on-camera deaths. Meteorological occurrences wreak havoc on Earth: fire consumes people and destroys buildings; deadly ash rains from sky, covering cities; clouds of dust destroy everything in path; ferocious thunderstorms with lightning occur.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Continuous use of "f--k" and other profanities, such as "s--t," "slut," "f--got," "Jesus Christ," "a--hole."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive role models.

Hero has integrity and conviction; his courageousness and resourcefulness emerge. Rigid, powerful parental figure learns to respect man whom he gave little credit. One leading female character is strong, determined, competent; the other is dependent upon men. Ethnic diversity.

Positive Messages

Bonds can be forged under desperate conditions. When survival is at stake, humankind has almost no boundaries of cruelty and selfishness; only a rare few are righteous.

Parents need to know that How It Ends is an action/adventure film in which a young man and his prospective father-in-law embark on a treacherous journey from Chicago to Seattle during what may be an apocalyptic event. Along the way, they face all manner of chaotic natural disasters as well as ruthless humans fighting to survive. Violence is frequent and savage: gunfights that include point-blank kills, explosions, fires, horrific car accidents, chases to the death, and brutal hand-to-hand combat. A leading character dies a slow, agonizing death. Profanity is constant, with countless uses of "f--k" and "s--t" punctuated by occasional swearing: "a--hole," "Jesus Christ," "f--got," "slut." A brief scene shows a couple kissing and starting to undress. Characters consume alcohol and beer, and there's some cigarette smoking. Explanations for the ongoing suspense and violence are hard to come by. More questions are raised than ever answered. Definitely not for kids. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (18)
Kids say (7)

Based on 18 parent reviews

How it ends

What's the story.

Will Younger ( Theo James ) is on a mission in HOW IT ENDS. He's on a trip from Seattle to Chicago to ask Tom Sutherland ( Forest Whitaker ), his indomitable prospective father-in-law, for his blessing. Samantha "Sam" (Kat Graham), his partner, is pregnant, and they're planning to make their relationship permanent. Tom is a hardheaded ex-military officer with little respect for Will. In a shocking turn of events, while Will is on the phone with Sam, it appears that Seattle has either been attacked or experienced a horrific natural disaster. As Will and Sam disconnect, with Sam seemingly in fear for her life, power goes out in Chicago as well. All communication is gone; air travel is stopped; no explanations, no news. Chaos erupts. Desperate to reach Sam, Will and Tom set out together to make the journey from Chicago to Seattle. It's a harrowing journey during which the two men, now having to work together to survive, encounter violence from malevolent thugs, panicked victims, and an array of natural phenomena.

Is It Any Good?

Wonderful camera work, along with top-notch stunts and special effects, can't begin to make up for a story that simply doesn't track, that lacks logic, cohesion, and even a modicum of resolution. And sincere performances fail to mitigate the script. The action-packed journey seems to go on forever. Every cliché of dystopian villainy shows up to impede the two heroes. Mains roads are either too dangerous or closed, but that doesn't mean that the men won't conveniently show up just down the road from a friend or even a family member. And they're isolated the rest of the time -- speeding down lonely roads. Where is everybody else on the planet? Endings that leave some question for audiences to ponder and/or sort out can be inspiring, provocative, or fun. But there's no ending; How it Ends simply stops. If the folks who created this film hoped that the title would explain everything, it was wishful thinking. Not recommended.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in How It Ends . Was it shocking? Gruesome? What do you think the filmmakers were trying to say about how far a person will go to survive? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Sometimes movies end without full resolution. How did you feel about the ending of this movie? Was it satisfying? Why or why not? What conclusions, if any, did you draw?

Many movies with environmental calamities at the story's heart hope to inform or inspire audiences about the ultimate effects of human behavior on the planet. What, if anything, do you think the filmmakers intended to say about such issues?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : July 13, 2018
Cast : Theo James , Forest Whitaker , Grace Dove
Director : David M. Rosenthal
Inclusion Information : Black actors, Female actors, Indigenous actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Adventures , Science and Nature
Run time : 113 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 18, 2023

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Kevin costner addresses cancelled horizon chapter 2 release following chapter 1's poor box office, james earl jones dies age 93, legendary actor behind darth vader & mufasa's voice, how it ends tries to balance drama and thrills with a sci-fi premise, but ultimately fails to deliver in this bland but beautiful apocalypse film..

Netflix has made great strides in recent years to increase their output of original movies, even attempting to break into the blockbuster realm with 2017's Bright . The streaming service made headlines earlier this year with their high-profile acquisition of The Cloverfield Paradox . However, Netflix's original movies tend to be hit or miss in terms of critical and audience reception, with both Bright and The Cloverfield Paradox proving to be divisive. To be sure, Netflix has earned critical praise for films like Mudbound and Set It Up , but some have criticized the streamer of aiming for quantity over quality with its originals. As a result, many of Netflix's originals fly under the radar, and the latest release may do just that. How It Ends tries to balance drama and thrills with a sci-fi premise, but ultimately fails to deliver in this bland but beautiful apocalypse film.

How It Ends follows Will (Theo James), a lawyer visiting his girlfriend Sam's (Kat Graham) parents - Tom (Forest Whitaker) and Paula (Nicole Ari Parker) - in Chicago in order to get their blessing to marry their daughter. However, the dinner doesn't go well because of the friction between Tom and Will. But when Sam calls Will the next morning to discuss it, something goes wrong and their call is disconnected. Will is unable to fly home from Chicago to Seattle due to widespread power outages and he can't get in touch with Sam as communications seem to be down as well. So, Will returns to Tom and Paula, and sets out with Tom to make their way to Seattle to find Sam.

Along the way, Will and Tom learn a bit more about what's going on, that there's been some kind of seismic event off the west coast of the United States, as they see how the mass power outages and lack of cell service have affected communities along their route. As Will and Tom progress toward Seattle, their journey becomes more perilous, encountering environmental and human dangers. The pair meet up with a number of other refugees along the way, including the young mechanic Ricki (Grace Dove). But ultimately Will and Tom need to overcome their own issues and form a united front if they're going to get to Seattle and save Sam before the world completely descends into chaos.

Written by Brooks McLaren, How It Ends was developed from his 2010 Black List script that garnered attention from the Sierra/Affinity production company in 2011. However, the project didn't gain momentum until director David M. Rosenthal came aboard in 2015, and the film's worldwide distribution rights were acquired by Netflix in early 2017. Based on the premise of How It Ends , it's easy to see how McLaren's script gained attention since it puts a new twist on a classic story: a young man must prove his worth to his girlfriend's father in order to gain the man's blessing. However, in How It Ends , that dynamic is set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic nightmare scenario and the uncertainty that the woman they both love is still alive.

How It Ends had the potential to be entirely about this dynamic, forcing Tom and Will to confront the source of their conflict and how it may be exacerbated by the societal expectations placed on them to protect and provide for Sam in the ways they see fit. Undoubtedly, the apocalyptic setting of How It Ends allows the film to strip the characters down to their core, and it could have provided for some compelling drama if the movie had taken the opportunity to really dive deep into what makes Will and Tom tick. Instead, the trajectory of their characters' relationship is rote, following a familiar narrative - albeit, in an unfamiliar setting - leading to a predictable end without challenging or probing any deeper into how men in this particular dynamic interact with each other. For their parts, Whitaker and James offer compelling enough performances, though they don't quite elevate the characters enough to make up for their one-note nature.

It would make sense if the character ruminations were sacrificed for the sake of sci-fi action-adventure, since that can often be the case in such films, but How It Ends doesn't offer much in the way of apocalyptic action. It's clear How It Ends aims to be a quiet character drama that just so happens to be set in a apocalypse, with tiny tidbits of information about what's going on sprinkled through the movie more as set dressing than actual world-building. How It Ends only uses its apocalyptic setting to enhance the human drama of the film outside of Will and Tom's dynamic, but that human drama essentially boils down to "look at what wild things humans will do to survive" without interrogating why - neither on the individual level nor on a larger scale. As such, the interpersonal drama is trite, while the action only helps the story limp forward toward its conclusion.

Where How It Ends does excel, though, is in the beautiful imagery of its apocalyptic setting. Cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg takes advantage of the various types of beauty that can be found in the western United States, creating truly striking visuals that offer rich depth to the film. Further, the environmental dangers Will and Tom face throughout their journey also offer a chance for unique settings in which the drama and action take place. The cinematography isn't enough to sustain the film on its own, but it does provide for more interesting visuals that help to elevate certain scenes in How It Ends .

Ultimately, How It Ends tries to do too much. It tries to be a compelling character drama about two men who must overcome their differences to save the woman they love. It tries to be an apocalyptic mystery, as the characters attempt to unravel what really happened. It tries to take a look at what becomes of humanity when the structures of society breaks down. Since it tries to be all these kinds of films, How It Ends doesn't do justice to any of its themes, failing to balance the drama and action with the movie's interesting science fiction premise. It's neither another foray into blockbuster fare for Netflix, nor an Oscar campaign-worthy drama. Instead, it falls somewhere in between, which may doom How It Ends to being another Netflix original that flies under the radar or is quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, that may be for the best.

How It Ends is now available to stream on Netflix.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

How It Ends

In this feel good apocalyptic comedy, freewheeling Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) scores an invite to one last wild party before the world ends. But making it there won’t be easy, after her car is stolen, and the clock is ticking on her plan to tie up loose ends with friends and family. Accompanied by her younger self (Cailee Spaeny), Liza embarks on a hilarious journey across Los Angeles, running into an eclectic cast of characters.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘How it Ends’ on Hulu, in Which Zoe Lister-Jones Deadpans Her Way Through the Apocalypse

Where to stream:.

How It Ends (2021)
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Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein’s How it Ends — now on Hulu, after getting a limited theatrical release in July of 2021 — dubs itself a “feel-good apocalyptic comedy,” which, you know, ha ha ha? Lister-Jones also stars, as a lonely-ish woman seeking closure on a few interpersonal issues in the 24 hours before a meteor rends the Earth asunder, killing all its denizens with hideous explosions and fire and crumbling and falling rock and miscellaneous geophysical upheavals and stuff like that, one presumes. Making things even a touch weirder, the film was shot on unpopulated Los Angeles streets during pandemic lockdowns, which could explain why Lister-Jones’ character never even hugs her mom on their final day of the planet not being wholly aflame — which only adds to the movie’s abundant (deep breath) quirkiness (exhaaaaaaalllllllllle).

HOW IT ENDS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Liza’s (Lister-Jones) younger self (Cailee Spaeny) drags her out of bed, makes her a towering pile of pancakes and pours her a nice glass of maple syrup — the good kind, not just some Butterworth’s fructose crap. Yes, her younger self. Usually, Liza is the only one who can see and interact with Young Liza, who looks to be maybe 13 or 14, but this is an inexplicably special day in which others may do the same. It’s unlike any other day in the sense that it’s the last one on Earth as me and you and everyone we know knows it, as a flaming ball of space rock streaks across the sunny blue California sky, poised to murder billions of people and probably all the mammals and fish and insects too. One imagines that this would suck and be not much fun, but surely one would rather not imagine it.

Today, Young Liza will help her present self make amends with some people as best as she can — ex-boyfriends, an estranged former BFF, her parents — before hitting a goodbye-to-all-existence-as-we-know-it party, where she plans to get high and eat food until she barfs. They walk outside to see that Liza’s car has been stolen, so they’ll have to walk. They meet a guy named Gary (Nick Kroll) who bought out the local dispensary, but gives them some of his weed because hell is so very very nigh. They visit their father (Bradley Whitford) and mother (Helen Hunt) and an ex (Lamorne Morris) and the friend (Olivia Wilde) she lost because she warned Liza about the aforementioned ex, and banter with the occasional stranger on the street, including Jet (Sharon Van Etten), who sings a lovely song, a standup comic (Ayo Edebiri) telling jokes to nobody, a fella who reveals he’s the newly not-invisible younger self to an elderly man (Fred Armisen), etc.

Notably, everyone here is pretty blase about being force-fed armageddon by a cruel and cold god or universe. There’s no angst or despair. They’re so very droll about it, having apparently accepted their fate and come to the conclusion that this sunny day should be appreciated — save for maybe that one guy who says the meteor is a hoax, to which Liza responds, hey, don’t you believe in science, and then he responds that science is bullshit. Anyway, all of Liza’s encounters are (deep breath) quirky (exhaaaaaaalllllllllle), and one has to wonder what all she’s accomplishing here, if anything.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Melancholia and Me and You and Everyone We Know .

Performance Worth Watching: Spaeny — who we saw in Mare of Eastown and Devs — grounds this irony-heavy movie by playing the key role with a touch more earnestness than the rest of the cast.

Memorable Dialogue: Liza: My whole life, I’ve been terrified of dying alone, and tonight I am literally dying alone.

Young Liza: You’re not alone. You have me.

Liza: You don’t count. You’re metaphysical.

Sex and Skin: The fact that we don’t see people in this movie effing at the end of the world is because during the real-world near-apocalypse, one actor getting too close to another actor would have violated COVID protocols.

Our Take: OK, maybe that isn’t fair, the thing about the effing. Liza’s goal isn’t to get some just before/as existence goes kablooey, although it wouldn’t be so bad if she enjoyed a physical rejoinder with that one hunky ex she astronomically blew it with, and who we meet while he’s flipping his luscious hair and holding a small adorable puppy in each arm. Her goals are a different cliche than the humping-your-way-into-eternity cliche; she wants to maybe find a snatch of happiness before she’s incinerated. Who can blame her? Although true closure sure seems to be a myth, the quest for it is noble.

The issue with How it Ends , though, goes beyond its meandering, episodic structure, which is essentially a small-scale parade of celebrity cameos. The characters’ flattened response to near-immediate death feels like heavily calculated whimsical irony. The core idea is funny — saving the world is moot, might as well dive into your navel and find a little personal truth — but the execution is a touch humdrum, and never elevates amusing situations and interactions into big laughs.

There’s a scene in which Liza and Young Liza come upon a road sign that would usually read DO NOT ENTER but instead says YOU ARE ENOUGH, and Liza quips, “That’s a little on the nose.” That’s the most self-consciously (deep breath) quirky (exhaaaaaaalllllllllle) moment in a movie full of self-consciously (deep breath) quirky (exhaaaaaaalllllllllle) characters, although Hunt’s turn as the mom with regrets is its most grounding and emotionally realistic moment. Such self-awareness works better when Liza realizes she just needs to come to terms with Young Liza, that living with and accepting yourself is perhaps more meaningful than any attempt to right past wrongs — you know, you do you and the rest will work itself out, even though you and the rest will soon cease to exist. That’s the heartfelt, meaningful core of a movie that’s otherwise full of people just deadpanning until they’re just dead.

Our Call: STREAM IT, because How it Ends has just enough marginal charm to keep it afloat. But maybe wait until it’s free on a streaming service before you pony up 10 bucks for it.

Will you stream or skip Zoe Lister-Jones' quirky end-of-the-world comedy #HowItEndsMovie on VOD? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) July 21, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Where to stream How it Ends

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IMAGES

How It Ends (2018)
How It Ends
How It Ends Netflix Review: Theo James Apocalyptic Thriller is a Dud
How It Ends movie review & film summary (2018)
How It Ends movie review & film summary (2021)
How It Ends Movie Review

COMMENTS

How It Ends movie review & film summary (2021)
Bradley Whitford and Helen Hunt are her spectacularly self-absorbed divorced parents. Olivia Wilde plays a former friend that Liza abandoned when she tried warning Liza that the guy she was seeing was a sleaze. Lamorne Morris is that sleazy ex, who is being inundated by a litany of exes seeking closure. Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer are neighbors ...
How It Ends (2021)
Rated 4.5/5 Stars • Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/28/23 Full Review Margaret F I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is an odyssey through the neighborhoods of Los Angeles for a woman at the end of ...
How It Ends
How It Ends
'How It Ends' Review: What, You Expected Us to Tell You?
'How It Ends' Review: What, You Expected Us to Tell You?
How It Ends
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 7, 2022. How It Ends is a mix of genres, upbeat, with modern music and some of the best cameos and a great duo of actresses in main roles. The film forces ...
'How It Ends' Review: An Indie View of the World's End
'How It Ends' Review: A Sweetly Personal Yet Wearisome Apocalyptic Indie Grappling With the World's End Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (online), New York, Jan. 29, 2021. Running time: 82 ...
'How It Ends': Film Review
Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. A gently funny take on the last-day-on-earth microgenre, Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein's How It Ends sets its protagonist (Lister-Jones) up with an ...
How It Ends review: a pandemic project featuring the most amiable
In the Q&A after the film's premiere at 2021's virtual Sundance Film Festival, writer-director partners Lister-Jones (The Craft: Legacy) and Daryl Wein (White Rabbit) admitted that How It Ends ...
How It Ends Review: Apocalypse Comedy Puts Pleasant Spin on ...
Ryan Miller 's delightful score in particular compliments the story well and helps keep the tone light without it feeling frivolous. The film does meander a bit owing to its loose structure, and ...
How It Ends movie review & film summary (2018)
The cheesy pitch for "How It Ends" could be "Meet the Parents" meets "The Rover."It's an apocalyptic road trip movie between a man and his future father-in-law (Forest Whitaker) from Chicago to Seattle as the world is ending.It opens with relatively stale domestic drama as James' Will flies to the Windy City to meet with Whitaker's Tom, the father of the woman that Will loves ...
'How It Ends' review: L.A. before the apocalypse
Review: This is 'How It Ends' — a stroll through L.A. before the apocalypse. A woman (co-writer and co-director Zoe Lister-Jones, left) and her younger self (Cailee Spaeny) stroll around Los ...
The Ending Of How It Ends Explained
The Ending Of How It Ends Explained - Looper
How It Ends Review: Apocalyptic Dramedy Provides Laughs & Introspection
How It Ends. 3.5. In this feel good apocalyptic comedy, freewheeling Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) scores an invite to one last wild party before the world ends. But making it there won't be easy, after her car is stolen, and the clock is ticking on her plan to tie up loose ends with friends and family. Accompanied by her younger self (Cailee ...
How It Ends
Freewheeling Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) scores an invite to one last wild party before the world ends. But making it there won't be easy, after her car is stolen, and the clock is ticking on her plan to tie up loose ends with friends and family. Accompanied by her younger self (Cailee Spaeny), Liza embarks on a hilarious journey across Los Angeles, running into an eclectic cast of characters.
How It Ends
Amanda Sink The Hollywood Outsider. How It Ends is a mildly effective thriller with an ending that will leave some viewers frustrated. Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 9, 2019. Chauncey K ...
How It Ends (2021)
How It Ends: Directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, Daryl Wein. With Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Whitney Cummings, Tawny Newsome. In this feel-good apocalyptic comedy, Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) embarks on a hilarious journey through LA in hopes of making it to her last party before it all ends, running into an eclectic cast of characters along the way.
How It Ends (2018)
How It Ends: Directed by David M. Rosenthal. With Theo James, Kat Graham, Nancy Sorel, Nicole Ari Parker. In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant fiancé, who is thousands of miles away.
How It Ends Movie Review
Parents Need to Know. Parents need to know that How It Ends is a quirky comedy about self-acceptance within the context of the impending end of the world (via meteor). Main character Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones, who also co-directs, writes, and produces) uses her final day to revisit the significant, largely broken, relationships in….
How It Ends Movie Review
Parents need to know that How It Ends is an action/adventure film in which a young man and his prospective father-in-law embark on a treacherous journey from Chicago to Seattle during what may be an apocalyptic event.Along the way, they face all manner of chaotic natural disasters as well as ruthless humans fighting to survive. Violence is frequent and savage: gunfights that include point ...
'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 ...
How It Ends (2018 film)
How It Ends (2018 film)
How It Ends Movie Review
How It Ends tries to balance drama and thrills with a sci-fi premise, but ultimately fails to deliver in this bland but beautiful apocalypse film. Netflix has made great strides in recent years to increase their output of original movies, even attempting to break into the blockbuster realm with 2017's Bright.
'How it Ends' Hulu Movie Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Published Feb. 22, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ET. Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein's How it Ends — now on Hulu, after getting a limited theatrical release in July of 2021 — dubs itself a "feel-good ...

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