Ending Explained: It Follows

💡 What does the ending really mean?

At the end of It Follows, Jay and Paul perpetuate the cycle of the curse after having sexual intercourse. The film concludes with the couple walking hand-in-hand while a solitary figure follows them, confirming that the threat continues.

What happens at the end

The group devises a desperate plan to finish off the creature by luring it into a swimming pool. Jay waits inside the water while the entity approaches, taking the form of her father. Instead of entering the pool, the entity throws electrical appliances into it. In the chaos, Paul accidentally shoots Yara, but he manages to hit the entity twice before it falls into the water. As the creature tries to drown Jay, Paul fires again, allowing her to escape while the entity sinks. Jay watches as the water turns red with blood, signaling the end of the confrontation.

After the incident, Jay and Paul have sex, perpetuating the cycle of the curse's transmission. As Paul drives through the city, sex workers are seen on the streets, underscoring the relentless nature of the chain. The final scene shows the couple walking hand-in-hand down a residential street, while a solitary figure walks behind them, confirming that the pursuit continues.

What it means

The film is a cynical lesson on the inevitability of mortality and emotional irresponsibility. By turning the sexual act into a vector for transmitting a slow, constant death, Mitchell strips adolescent romance of any trace of innocence. The entity is not a monster with complex motivations, but a physical representation of the existential dread that haunts us from the moment we are born. The ending does not offer a real victory, but a temporary truce bought at the cost of passing the baton to someone else, which makes the protagonists accomplices in their own condemnation. It is a brilliant metaphor for how, in adulthood, we simply learn to live with the fear of what stalks us, always walking with our eyes fixed on the horizon, waiting for the moment when the slow pace of death finally catches up to us.

What is left open

The film does not resolve whether the entity has been permanently destroyed or if it has simply been incapacitated underwater. It also does not clarify the identity of the figure following the couple in the final scene, leaving it up in the air whether it is the same entity or a new manifestation, confirming that the threat remains present for them.