What actually happens
A day trip with a very armed welcome committee
Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy are on vacation in Mexico when they meet Mathias, a German tourist searching for his brother Heinrich, whose last known location is a dig at a Mayan ruin deep in the jungle. Dimitri, a friend of Mathias, joins them. At the temple, villagers armed with knives, bows and a gun confront the group. When Amy accidentally steps on some vines, the villagers get more agitated and shoot Dimitri dead, so the rest of the group runs up the temple steps. The top of the temple has an empty camp with a shaft in the center, and they hear a phone ringing somewhere underneath. The rope they use to lower Mathias into the shaft breaks, and he falls and is paralyzed. Amy throws some vines at a boy and the villagers kill him. They work out that the villagers fear the vines, and that nobody who has touched them gets to go.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
The houseplants have opinions about legs
The next morning Stacy finds that a tendril of vine has worked its way into a cut on her leg. Vines have also wrapped around Mathias' lower legs, and they have eaten the flesh down to the bone. Eric and Jeff manage to pull the vines off Stacy, but they cannot remove them from Mathias. When the phone rings again, Stacy and Amy go back down the shaft. In a small room full of vines, they find a broken phone and the body of a young archaeologist who was Heinrich's friend. They realize the ringing comes from the flowers on the vine. When Amy touches one, the vines attack, and the two women barely escape. As Mathias gets worse, Jeff amputates his legs to prevent an infection. Stacy turns manic and accuses Eric and Amy of having sex, and while the group argues, the vines suffocate Mathias.
A forehead that should not be moving
In the morning Stacy shows the group vines moving under her skin, and Jeff uses a knife to cut one out of her leg and her back. Stacy tries to grab the knife and says the vines are in her head, and a vine moves under the skin of her forehead, which proves that she was right. The next morning, while the others sleep, Stacy finds a knife and slices her own body open, trying to dig the vines out. That is the scene people dread most, and it comes late in the movie. When Jeff touches her she slashes his palm, and when Eric tries to calm her she stabs him in the chest, and the vines pull his body away. Stacy is horrified at what she has done and begs Amy to kill her, and Jeff does it as a mercy.
The ending, explained
Jeff has a plan to get Amy out. He covers her in Stacy's blood, carries her down to the base of the temple as if she were dead, and then provokes the villagers to draw them away. Amy runs through the jungle, and the Mayan leader shoots Jeff in the head. Amy reaches the Jeep and drives away. Two Greek friends of Dimitri then walk up to the temple, looking for him. In the unrated version, Amy's face is shown crawling with vines as she drives off. A deleted scene shows a caretaker in a cemetery hearing a tune from Amy's grave, with red flowers around it.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Ruins scary?
Yes, The Ruins is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. It has a few mild jump scares and plenty of gore, and most of the fear comes from being trapped on a temple by a plant.
How does The Ruins end?
Amy escapes in a Jeep and everyone else in the group dies. In the unrated version, her face is shown crawling with vines, so she is infected too.
Does the dog die in The Ruins?
No, no dog dies in The Ruins.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Ruins?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Ruins has a scene after the credits.
What are the vines in The Ruins?
The vines grow over the temple and move into the wounds of anyone who touches them. Their flowers make a sound like a ringing phone, and the villagers will not let anyone who touched them leave.
