What actually happens
A movie date with a dress nobody else sees
The movie starts with a young woman named Annie running out of her house, telling onlookers she is fine and driving to a beach. She calls her parents to say she loves them, and in the morning she is dead on the sand. After that we meet Jay Height, a carefree college student, who takes her boyfriend Hugh to the cinema. He mentions a girl in a yellow dress, and Jay tells him she doesn't see anyone. Hugh gets upset and wants to leave. Later they have sex in his car, and he knocks Jay out with chloroform. She wakes up tied to a wheelchair, and Hugh says he has passed something on to her. An entity will now follow her, visible only to her and the people who had it before, and it can look like anyone. It walks, but it always knows where she is. If it catches her, it will kill her and then go after the previous person. A naked woman slowly approaches to prove his point, and Hugh tells Jay to sleep with someone else soon. He drives her home and disappears. The police find no trace of him, and he turns out to have been living under a false name.
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The entity arrives at sleepovers
At school, Jay spots an old woman heading her way that no one else notices. She leaves campus. Her sister Kelly and her old friends Paul and Yara stay over at her house. A window smashes, and when Jay goes to look she sees a half-dressed woman coming toward her. She runs up to the others, who can't see it. When a tall man walks into the bedroom, Jay escapes through the balcony. Their neighbor Greg helps the group learn Hugh's real name, which is Jeff Redmond, and where he lives. Jeff says the same thing started for him after a one-night stand and that the only fix is to sleep with someone else. He suggests that Jay drive far away to buy time.
A lake house with a poor view of the problem
Greg drives Jay, Kelly, Yara and Paul to the lake house his family owns. The next day on the shore, the entity shows up looking like Yara and grabs Jay from behind. Nobody else can see it, though everyone except Greg, who stepped away for a moment, sees Jay's hair yanked by an invisible hand and Paul thrown across the beach. Jay shoots it with a pistol. It collapses, but only for a short time. Jay drives off in Greg's car, crashes, and comes to in a hospital bed, her arm broken. To buy time she sleeps with Greg right there in the hospital. Greg says the entity does not exist, even though Jay's friends say it does.
Greg's mother comes over
This is the scene people dread, and it comes in the later part of the movie. Jay sees the entity, looking like Greg, walking toward Greg's house. It smashes a window and goes inside. Jay runs in after it and finds the entity, now looking like Greg's half-dressed mother, attacking and killing him. Jay leaves by car and spends the night outside. On a beach she notices three young men on a boat, takes off some of her clothes and wades into the water. Once she is home, Paul says he is willing to take the risk and asks her to pass it on to him. She says no.
A swimming pool full of electrical devices
The group plans to trap the entity in a swimming pool and drop electrical devices in with it. Jay waits in the pool until it shows up in the form of her father. It doesn't get in the pool and instead throws the devices at her. Paul shoots at something he can't see and hits Yara by accident, then shoots the entity twice more as it falls into the pool. It drags Jay underwater, Paul fires again, and Jay gets out as it sinks to the bottom. Paul asks if it is dead. Jay walks up to the pool and quietly watches it fill with blood. Back at Jay's house, she and Paul sleep together. Paul drives through town past sex workers, and Yara recovers in a hospital. Later, Jay and Paul stroll down a street holding hands and far down the road a figure is walking in their direction.
The ending, explained
The pool plan seems to work. The entity sinks, the water turns red, and Jay gets out alive. Jay and Paul then sleep together. Yara recovers in a hospital, and Greg and Annie are dead. In the last scene Jay and Paul stroll along a street holding hands, and somebody is walking behind them at a distance. The movie does not say whether it is the entity.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is It Follows scary?
It Follows is a 6 out of 10 with high dread. It uses plenty of jump scares, but most of the fear comes from the idea that something is walking toward you and cannot be outrun forever.
How does It Follows end?
Jay and Paul lure the entity into a swimming pool and shoot it, and it seems to sink. Jay and Paul then sleep together, and in the last shot a figure walks behind them as they hold hands.
Does the dog die in It Follows?
No dog dies in It Follows.
Is there a post-credits scene in It Follows?
No. It Follows has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is the entity in It Follows?
In It Follows, the entity is a presence that only the cursed person and past victims can see. It can look like anyone, walks toward its target at a steady pace and always knows where the target is.
