Two suspiciously attractive Seattleites are expecting a baby boy and they are happy: yay! Will flies to Chicago to ask for his in-law’s blessing in marriage, despite the fact that he’s, ah, already stormed the beach. An awkward conversation about money ensues and he more or less gets asked to leave.
So, not a success. “Luckily” he gets a second chance. An “event” happened “out west”. Something happened, something catastrophic. He’s on the phone with Samantha when it goes down, but they’re cut off, and she’s scared. The airport shuts down. The roads are immediately impassable. So that leaves Will (Theo James) to traverse America mid-
catastrophe (mid-apocalypse?) with his disapproving, openly hostile, not-yet-father-in-law, Tom (Forest Whitaker). Who would have thought that the end of the world would only be the second worst thing that happens to Will today?
[Acting Master Class 101: If you have a wound, you immediately stick your fingers in it so that you can wince and prove to us how painful it is.]
The road to Seattle is paved with hell. Okay, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but you know, the going is rough. It’s like: murder, murder, murder eVeRy day. Brain-flecked hair, coughing blood, impossible storms, raging fires, fucking over your fellow man, and a vague end of world scenario.
How It Ends sometimes feels like it may never end. It has a pretty good hook but then it meanders in a way that you wouldn’t think possible what with all the mayhem. It almost feels like the director loaded his actors in a car and headed out across Manitoba (standing in for rural Ohio since 1905!) (that was a random date, please don’t pay me any attention) with no destination or conclusion in mind. Which is maybe not the best way to make a movie. But David M. Rosenthal makes sure there’s something menacing and apocalyptic in nearly every scene, and dude knows a thing or two about disaster porn. It should be noted that Sean, an avowed enthusiast of ridiculous premises, said at one point “They’ve overplayed their hand here.” And yeah, the writer is not subtle. The whole thing’s pretty obvious. But did I hate it? No. Not at first. But then it started to end. And the ending just boggles the mind. So that’s my case. I’ll let you, the jury, decide. The prosecution rests.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Well this sounds like a load of baloney, I googled the ending (well I’m never going to see it) and am none the wiser. Pass!
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Haven’t seen this yet, but after reading this one: I’m with Fraggle, I’m going to give this a pass too 😀
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Dave and I watched this and had different reactions. Surprise! I felt very sad at the end, and Dave was surprised that I hadn’t anticipated the end. And he wasn’t sad. He was very understanding of my sadness though, which is pretty much normal.
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Argh, I actually gagged reading your line about sticking fingers in wounds. Regardless, colour me curious! I definitely want to give this a go!
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I’m not into the whole apocalyptic story thing. I like the setup. But the genre would still keep me away.
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Coincidentally given the title I wasn’t keen with the ending either. But then, with films like this, there’s never really a suitable ending.x
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this description
of the ending seems
to say it all 🙂
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[Acting Master Class 101: If you have a wound, you immediately stick your fingers in it so that you can wince and prove to us how painful it is.]
This line killed me🤣🤣. I always wonder why they do it. Like you have not washed your hands. You’ll get dirt all over your wound.
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I know!
It always takes me out of the movie.
I also hate it when movie characters swallow pills – they always make such a big show of gulping them down, it’s unintentionally ridiculous.
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Well I didn’t hate this one, but the time spent watching it could probably have been better spent….
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Guilty! … sentence? Not to be watched. 🙂
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Yeah, I read a post elsewhere that had a seriously difficult time coming to terms with How It Ends. What a freaking irony!
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Haha, true, I didn’t really think of it that way before!
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Yeah I saw a review like that too!
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The whole end-of-the-world, everything-turns-to-tell genre depresses me. I much prefer movies that take you out of everyday life.
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Idiots go on road trip to save daughter/GF.
Guy saves girl.
Big volcano kills everything, the end.
Shit out of ten.
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hi there Jay ,i agree goodish start but yeah ,got board and ending sucked ,good honest review Jay ,kindest regards bg 🙂😎🙂
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I watched this a week before christmas, so that may have tainted my view of the ending. I think just before the pyroclastic death cloud reaches them, it sees their deep and abiding love due to their quick smooch, and in that moment, the pyroclastic death cloud finds the true meaning of christmas and relents from destroying any more world.
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Great movie all the way to the last 2 minutes. What a letdown. Like a handjob that was abruptly stopped.
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Pretty accurate review. I will add this, technical advisers needed to do some research. Military vehicles these days are all diesel. So when Will gets “gas” at the train wreck, in 5 gallon tan plastic containers, yeah right. Friends don’t like watching movies with me, which have any military scenes, because unless they are accurate, I will dog the f**k out of the inaccuracy. My experience is 20 years U.S. Army, which included attending Strategic Mobility course, rail, sea, and air load planning. I will never recover the time I wasted watching this movie.
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