The hook is back, and this time, it’s personal and cuts deep. The 2025 reboot of the 1997 horror I Know What You Did Last Summer pulls a new group of friends into the same nightmare. Writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and co-writer Sam Lansky bring in Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), Danica (Madelyn Cline), Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon), a fresh batch of twenty-somethings who make a fatal mistake and bolt. What starts as a direct reboot turns into darker, messier, and way more twisted, packed with returning faces and brutal betrayals. Let’s break down that wild ending with 10 burning questions.
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I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) ending explained
What happens that night?
Ava, Danica, Milo, Teddy, and Stevie are a group of friends living in Southport, N.C. One Fourth of July night, they cause a accident while over-speeding when a truck swerves to avoid them, crashes through a guardrail, and falls off the cliff with the driver inside. They try to help, decide to call cops, but panic and run. Teddy’s dad, Grant (a powerful real estate guy), uses his influence to bury it.
When does the horror start again?
The story begins a year later when all those friends are now nearly estranged. However, once they arrive back in Southport, Danica gets a note: “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.” Soon after, people around them are murdered by a Fisherman, just like in the original two stories, with a hook and speargun, mimicking the 1997 killing spree.
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Who do they turn to for help?
The friends run to the survivors of the original attacks. Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) reprise their roles. Meanwhile, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Helen also has a small cameo when she appears in Danica’s dream to warn her.
Who gets killed?
Wyatt (Danica’s fiancé), true-crime podcaster Tyler, Pastor Judah, along with Teddy, Milo, and Grant, are among those who were killed.
Who’s the killer this time?
This season we’ve got two hook-wielding pyschos, Stevie and Ray. Stevie’s motive is driven by revenge after she finds out the driver they accidentally killed was Sam. This is the same person who helped her post rehab, her pseudo boyfriend. She didn’t realise it at first, but rage drives her to become the Fisherman. But the bigger jaw-dropper is the involvement of Ray.
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What is the motive of Ray behind the killings
Years of repressed trauma, being ghosted by Southport, and watching the town erase the past make him go insane. Stevie’s grief starts to feel personal to him, and together they plot the same massacre.
So how do the final survivors figure it out?
Ava and Danica try to escape on a boat, only for Stevie to make the big reveal she had been hiding from her friends. At first, Stevie plans to spare Ava, considering she was the only one at the time of the accident who argued that they should stay and help the victim, but she changes her plan as she attacks Danica, stabs her, and she falls off the boat. But just then, Ray shows up, pretends to save the day, even “shoots” Stevie, and takes Ava back to the bar.
How I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) ends
Back at his bar, Ava finds Ray with a new bandage exactly where the Fisherman cut himself earlier. He attacks Ava and just in time, Jennifer Love Hewitt shows up. When Ray stabs Ava, Julie confronts him, demands answers, and even throws back her iconic “What are you waiting for?” line. And, then Ava harpoons Ray from behind.
Also read: I Know What You Did Last Summer movie review: A slasher sequel that can’t escape its past
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Is Stevie dead and who are the survivors?
No. After getting shot and tossed overboard, her body vanishes. That’s horror code for: still out there. Danica is alive somehow washes up on shore. Last we see, she and Ava are on the beach, bruised, hungry, and cracking jokes about hunting Stevie down.
Is there a sequel coming?
Mid-credits, Julie visits Karla Wilson (Brandy), another survivor from the old sequel. Next we see Karla’s face is crossed out in a photo with a threatening note. She asks, “Who do we have to f— up this time?” Then credits roll. No sequel announcement yet but it might happen soon.