Warning: This post contains spoilers for I Know What You Did Last Summer.
In the idyllic seaside town of Southport, N.C., young people are prone to grave errors in Fourth of July night judgment that result in horrible accidents. At least, that’s what the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise would have you believe.
Nearly 30 years on from the 1997 original, a new I Know What You Did Last Summer from writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge, Someone Great) and co-writer Sam Lansky (a TIME contributor and author of The Gilded Razor and Broken People) introduces a whole new group of friends—Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon)—whose coverup of their involvement in a seemingly deadly roadside incident leads to them being stalked by a killer decked out in a fisherman costume. If we had a nickel for every time that happened, we’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
This time around, rather than hitting someone with their car while speeding around the Southport bluffs—and then dumping their victim’s body in the ocean, as in the first movie—the crew of 20-somethings cause a driver to wildly swerve to avoid them and subsequently smash through the curve’s guardrail. While the group attempts to pull the truck back from where it’s dangling over the cliff edge, it ultimately ends up plummeting to the rocks below with the injured driver still inside. The friends then decide to call the cops but flee the scene, and later rely on Teddy’s rich and powerful real estate developer father Grant (Billy Campbell) to ensure they aren’t implicated.
The following year, once the now-somewhat estranged pals are all back in Southport, Danica receives a mysterious note reading, “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER,” and the violence begins. After they realize their friends and loved ones are being brutally murdered by a hook and speargun-wielding Fisherman in a pattern that mirrors a local killing spree from 1997, the friends turn to the survivors of those long-ago attacks, former couple Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), for help figuring out who’s behind the disguise. Sarah Michelle Gellar also reprises her role as murdered pageant queen Helen Shivers in a dream sequence in which she appears to Danica to warn her about the consequences of her and her friends’ misdeeds.
In the wake of Danica’s fiancé Wyatt (Joshua Orpin), true-crime podcaster Tyler (Gabbriette), off-putting pastor Judah (Austin Nichols), Teddy, Grant, and Milo all being brutally killed off by the new Fisherman, Ava, Danica, and Stevie attempt to flee to safety on Teddy’s boat. However, unfortunately for Ava and Danica, it turns out their old friend Stevie may have been keeping a few secrets from them.
Once they’re out at sea, Stevie turns the tables on the pair by revealing that the victim of their accidental manslaughter was actually her pseudo-boyfriend, Sam Cooper, the only person who had been there for her when her friends had previously deserted her in the wake of her father’s abandonment. She strangely hadn’t recognized the car or realized it was him at the time, but once she found out who was behind the wheel, her intense grief and rage pushed her to make a plan to seek revenge and take on the mantle of the Fisherman. The only person involved in the accident who she was considering sparing was Ava, since she had argued they should stay and try to help the driver. But Stevie has since scrapped that idea.
After Ray arrives on a smaller boat and Stevie stabs Danica, causing her to fall overboard, Ray ends up shooting Stevie to stop her and she also falls into the ocean. Ray then takes Ava back to his bar, where he sets the scene for his own big reveal. Turns out, this time around, there were two Fisherman committing the murders—and Ray himself, Stevie’s boss and mentor, was one of them. Traumatized Ray was driven to this heel turn by the fact that the powers-that-be of Southport were trying to erase the town’s violent history in order to make it a more attractive vacation destination. Ray makes Ava question whether he even shot Stevie and also stabs her. But, luckily, Julie has put the pieces of the puzzle together and shows up in the nick of time. When Ray attacks Julie, Ava shoots him through the back with his speargun, killing him.
In the movie’s final minutes, Ava reunites with Danica, who ended up washing up on the beach alive, and the two discuss the fact that Stevie apparently also survived her fall into the ocean, seemingly leaving the door open for another installment.
Is there going to be a sequel?
In addition to revealing that Stevie is still alive, the new I Know What You Did Last Summer also features a mid-credits scene in which Julie arrives at the home of Karla Wilson (Brandy), her fellow final girl from the original 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, to ask for her help dealing with any future attacks. Karla quickly gets on board and the final credits roll.
But, according to Robinson, the potential for a sequel is still firmly in fans’ hands. “If the audience shows up and people love this movie, we would love to make more,” she says.