What actually happens
Mae's idea of a first date
Caleb Colton lives in a small Oklahoma town, and one night he meets a drifter named Mae. At the last minute before dawn she bites his neck and runs off, and the sun then makes his skin smoke and burn. Mae returns in an RV with a group of roaming vampires and takes him along. Severen, the most unstable of them, wants Caleb dead, but Mae points out that she has already turned him. Their leader, Jesse Hooker, gives Caleb a week to learn to hunt and earn some trust. Caleb refuses to kill anyone to feed, which does not help his standing, so Mae kills on his behalf and lets him drink from her wrist.
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Last call, with a fire
Early on, once Caleb is traveling with the group, Jesse's vampires walk into a bar and kill everyone inside. They set the bar on fire and leave. That is the scene to brace for: a massacre, then a fire, and then the movie moves on to a motel. The group turns on Caleb afterward, because he let the only living person in the bar get away, and everyone except Mae wants him dead. He earns his way back by helping them get out of a motel room during a police raid in daylight, and Jesse and the others warm to him. Caleb asks Jesse how old he is, and Jesse says he fought for the South, which makes him about 150. Severen once hinted that he and Jesse started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Jesse spits out the bullet
Meanwhile, Caleb's father has been searching for the group. Homer, the child vampire, takes an interest in Caleb's sister Sarah and wants to make her his companion, and Caleb objects. While everyone argues, Caleb's father shows up with a gun and demands Sarah back. Jesse dares him to shoot, takes the bullet, regurgitates it and takes the gun off him. Sarah then opens a door in the chaos, and the sunlight pushes the vampires back. Caleb is burning, but he gets out with his family.
The tractor-trailer solution
Caleb suggests trying a blood transfusion, and it reverses his transformation. That night the vampires come for Caleb and Sarah. Mae keeps Caleb busy by asking him to come back to her while the others take his sister. Caleb finds out, finds his tires slashed and chases them on horseback until the horse throws him and Severen is waiting. Caleb takes a tractor-trailer and runs Severen over, but Severen appears on the hood and tears out the wiring. Caleb jackknifes the truck and jumps clear before it explodes, which kills Severen. Jesse and Diamondback go after him and have to retreat in their car when dawn arrives.
The ending, explained
At dawn Mae gets Sarah out of the car and carries her to Caleb, sheltering under his jacket while her skin smokes in the sun. Homer tries to follow and dies in the sunlight. Jesse and Diamondback, no longer protected, start to burn too. They try to run Caleb and Sarah down, miss, and die when their car blows up. Mae wakes later with her burns healed, because she has had a transfusion like Caleb's and is cured. She says she is afraid, and Caleb hugs her as the film ends.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Near Dark scary?
Somewhat. Near Dark is a 4.5 out of 10 with medium dread: a grimy kind of tension, one violent bar scene and no jump scares.
How does Near Dark end?
Mae carries Sarah to Caleb as the sun comes up, and Jesse, Diamondback and Homer die in the sunlight or in a car explosion. Mae is then cured by a transfusion, and Caleb hugs her as she says she is afraid.
Does the dog die in Near Dark?
No. No dog dies in Near Dark.
Is there a post-credits scene in Near Dark?
Nobody has confirmed whether Near Dark has a scene after the credits.
Can the vampires in Near Dark be cured?
Yes. In Near Dark a blood transfusion reverses Caleb's transformation, and Mae is cured by the same treatment at the end.
