What actually happens
A circus tent lands in Crescent Cove
Mike Tobacco and his girlfriend Debbie Stone are parked at the local lovers' lane outside the small town of Crescent Cove when a glowing object comes down nearby. A farmer takes it for Halley's Comet and walks into the woods to find where it landed. He finds a structure that looks like a circus tent and gets captured by clown-like aliens called Klowns. Mike and Debbie go in to look and find a complicated interior full of odd rooms, and they work out that the tent is a spaceship. They find the farmer, whose flesh is gone, sealed in a cocoon made of something like cotton candy. A Klown spots them, shoots popcorn at them from a weapon shaped like a bazooka, and chases them with help from other Klowns.
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Nobody believes a story about clowns with a popcorn bazooka
Mike and Debbie get away to the police station and tell their story to Dave Hanson, who is Debbie's ex-boyfriend and an officer, and to his grumpy partner Curtis Mooney. Mike leads Dave to where the ship landed, but it has gone and left a crater. Dave arrests Mike for making up the story. They go back to the lovers' lane, which is empty, and one car is stuffed with cocoon material, so Mike was telling the truth. Meanwhile the Klowns are wrapping more townspeople in cocoons with toy-like ray guns. Some of them stage pranks and fake circus acts, and a number of onlookers die as a result.
A Klown learns ventriloquism from a police officer
In the middle of the film, Mike and Dave see a Klown use a shadow play to shrink a crowd at a bus stop, then toss the shrunken people into a bag of popcorn, which turns out to be the Klowns' larval form. At the police station, another Klown walks in and Mooney, who thinks it is a delinquent, tries to lock it up. When Dave comes back, he finds the Klown using the dead Mooney like a ventriloquist's dummy. Dave shoots the Klown's fragile nose, and the Klown spins around wildly and bursts into confetti. That is the scene to be ready for: a Klown uses the dead Mooney as a ventriloquist's dummy, and then it bursts into confetti.
An ice cream truck with a public address system
Mike meets his friends Rich and Paul Terenzi, and they drive around town in the brothers' ice cream truck, using its public address system to warn everyone about the Klowns. At Debbie's house, the larvae from her earlier encounter grow into juvenile Klowns and attack her. When she tries to escape, other Klowns catch her and hold her inside a giant balloon. Mike, Dave and the Terenzis see it happen and chase them to the amusement park, where the Klowns have moved their ship. Dave and Mike sneak aboard, while the Terenzis get separated from them and watch a Klown drink from one of the cocooned victims. Dave and Mike rescue Debbie and run deeper into the ship.
The ending, explained
The three rescuers are surrounded by a crowd of Klowns until the Terenzis show up in their ice cream truck to draw attention away. The Klowns' enormous leader, Jojo the Klownzilla, appears and smashes the truck, and it looks as if the brothers were inside. Dave covers for Mike and Debbie as they flee, and the ship begins to lift off. He uses his badge to break Jojo's nose, which defeats Jojo and destroys the ship. The Klowns' car falls out of the sky, and Dave climbs out along with the Terenzis, who survived by ducking into the truck's freezer just before it was crushed. Dave, Mike and Debbie watch the ship's destruction as fireworks, and pies drop from the sky onto their faces.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, and we're sorry.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Killer Klowns from Outer Space scary?
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a 2 out of 10 with low dread. It is campy and silly, with a lot of cotton candy cocoons.
How does Killer Klowns from Outer Space end?
Dave breaks the nose of the giant Klown Jojo, which destroys the ship. The Terenzi brothers survive in their truck's freezer, and pies fall on Dave, Mike and Debbie.
Does the dog die in Killer Klowns from Outer Space?
Yes, a dog dies in Killer Klowns from Outer Space. It gets caught in a net and disappears, and the body is never shown.
Is there a post-credits scene in Killer Klowns from Outer Space?
No. Killer Klowns from Outer Space has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What are the Klowns in Killer Klowns from Outer Space?
The Klowns are clown-like aliens who arrive in a spaceship shaped like a circus tent. They wrap people in cotton candy cocoons, and the popcorn they scatter is their larval form.
