The headlights illuminate the bare minimum as the car continues its drive down a lone road. Surrounded by a forest blanketed by darkness, a lingering thought permeates the mind of the driver: where’s the turn? A drive down a dark road always feels longer than it actually is…but this is different. Even the GPS shows no turns in sight. Could it be a mistake? Is the driver hallucinating?
If not, then the fear builds into the hardest question yet: will this road ever end?
It Ends follows a group of friends on the road after helping one of them prepare for their post-grad life. While building more plans for what they’ll do now that college is over, the driver Tyler (Mitchell Cole) realizes that their turn would’ve been miles ago. In an effort to discover the possible mistake, Tyler makes a U-turn and realizes that they can’t even go back the way they came. No matter which way they go, one thing is for certain: they’re stuck on this road.
Is it punishment for past sins? A lesson that has to be learned? Is there an evil curse placed upon them? Or is life handing out a curveball with no reason in sight? To them, only driving forward can give them the courage to keep fighting to find an answer.
It Ends does a phenomenal job of grabbing the focus on the friends first and foremost, ignoring the fact that theories and possible moments to develop “lore” would distract from the impact of showing how these close friends deal with a threat that becomes more internal and existential than anything else. From the goofy yet anxious Fisher (Noah Toth) to the lovable Day (Akira Jackson), the four friends bounce off each other uniquely enough that the neverending road passes by almost as quickly as they’re driving down it. The emotions are at their highest when the friends reach a breaking point with no clear solution in sight, forcing a new routine that might become more detrimental as the odometer goes to levels they would’ve never expected. It’s that balance between the friends’ camaraderie and their decreasing psyche that makes the film’s near ninety-minute runtime fly by.
As much as the friends keep the film interesting, the film’s cinematography and commitment to the car as one of its only locations really shows how strong director Alexander Ullom’s vision is for the film’s straightforward premise. It would be easy to lose interest in a film that focuses mostly on four friends staying in a car to drive down a neverending road. Thankfully, cinematographers Evan Draper and Jazleana Jones find the right angles and lighting to make the car’s transformation from road trip vehicle to impromptu mobile home that much more believable while finding little ways to express the claustrophobic nature of spending nearly all of your free time in a car shared by four other people. Even the rare moments where they spread their legs and search the surrounding forest leads to an evergreen locale that is just as endless as the road. While the film could easily use its visuals to enhance the dread of the situation, Ullom and his team understand that the inherent fear and growing hopelessness of the group’s situation is solely enough to make each location and emotional crashout that much more devastating without any enhancements.
Even with the emotional highs built into the film’s narrative, the film’s pacing does get in the way of developing those moments to a stronger level due to its runtime. There’s nothing wrong with a shorter runtime inherently but, in terms of the friend group, at least half of the friends feel a little undercooked in comparison to the other two. Fisher and Day’s dynamic bring the film much needed lighter moments that counteract the seriousness of Tyler and James (Phinehas Yoon) with the latter having most of the bittersweet moments. Tyler and James are on the cusp of truly grabbing the darkness of the situation but by the time the film gives them their strongest scenes, it either feels a tad early or a little too late. Tyler especially feels pretty light character-wise overall, especially when his dynamic in the group feels the oddest when he most gives off the energy of an older brother who was tagging on for the ride because they needed a fourth person to drive for the trip. There is an implied connection between Tyler and James that could be deeper than the group’s general connection but there’s not enough time given to the duo to really shed a light on how their dynamic works in this group of four.
Which leaves me with what might become the most controversial aspect of the film: James. From the very beginning, James is planted in the narrative as our de facto protagonist; the one who is constantly fighting to keep going forward when the other three start to question the validity of driving for answers. It’s clear that the film’s neverending road is a metaphor for James and his friends’ inability to adapt to their new chapter of adulthood, discovering firsthand how brutal the world can be without any rhyme or reason. While Fisher clings to nostalgia and Day uses lighthearted activities in order to boost morale, James pushes all of it to the side to grasp at logic and purpose in a hope that a reward will wait for them at the “inevitable” end to this eternal patch of asphalt. This usually causes James to become the pragmatic killjoy of the group, attempting to force the group to brainstorm and conjure optimism out of thin air while they’re trying to still adjust to their hopeless situation.
That also leads him to be grumpy and stoic to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if viewers start to despise him by even the halfway point of the film. For me personally, while I wish more was offered to him to work with, I think Yoon does a phenomenal job with the subtle moments he’s given as James throughout the film. There’s a brooding, self-righteous facade that Yoon captures as a defense mechanism for a young man who is not ready to be in a world that feels tasked with breaking his friendships apart mile by mile. Regardless of my personal feelings towards the film’s pacing or character development, all four of the main actors really give it their all when a cathartic moment is imminent. By the halfway point of the film, I can certainly see what Ullom saw in the strengths of their dynamic for the film.
In the end, while I certainly have my issues with the film, I haven’t been able to get It Ends out of my head since watching it. It’s a really strong directorial debut that uses a simple premise effectively, committing to its small cast and inherent dread to paint a heightened picture of the fears that come from entering a world that will chew you up and spit you out with no advanced warning. It’s not malicious or intentional with its brutality; it just deals a hand and hopes that the friends will know enough to get by. It Ends shows that the ones we take with us on the journey is much more important than blindly moving forward with the expectation that the end will justify the hardships, mistakes, and regrets.
Thankfully though, It Ends does have a bold, definitive ending that makes me really curious to see where this end takes Alexander Ullom into his burgeoning career. Will It Ends justify his beginning? Honestly, I’m thrilled to find out.
Freelance writer out of Indianapolis. Co-host of Odd Trilogies podcast. Whether it's films or television, I'm always down to watch!