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How It Ends

Play trailer 2:27 Poster for How It Ends TV-MA 2018 1h 53m Sci-Fi Mystery & Thriller Action Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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17% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 17% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant wife, who is thousands of miles away.
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How It Ends

Critics Reviews

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Brian Tallerico RogerEbert.com You're better off not even beginning. Rated: 1/4 Jul 13, 2018 Full Review Nyle Coleman InSession Film If anything it generates more questions and provides no answers, all as the film is preparing to close. Rated: D May 9, 2024 Full Review Charlie Ceates Cultured Vultures How It Ends is truly unique in the fact that it's the only disaster or post apocalypse film to leave me bored. The cinematic version of watching paint dry. Rated: 2/10 Oct 29, 2019 Full Review Amanda Sink The Hollywood Outsider How It Ends is a mildly effective thriller with an ending that will leave some viewers frustrated. Rated: 5/10 Jan 9, 2019 Full Review Chauncey K. Robinson The Twisted Girl Next Door You won't beg for the two hours of your life back after watching this film. It had it's moments. Oct 11, 2018 Full Review Josh Martin Film Inquiry Even with a good hook, How It Ends suffers from a lack of vision, which is exactly what you don't need in an effects-heavy disaster movie. Aug 8, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Matt N Just watched after seeing the first third years ago & rediscovering with a morbid sense of "what ever happened in that movie"? Finished it and still asking, but remembering why I forgot. Had real potential, and the one good concept was the eerie feeling of not knowing what was up and that the world / nature / situations were largely beyond one's control and even understanding. Turns out it was a movie of disconnected & causeless occurrences, typically just repeat run-ins with evil people with guns setting traps to take people's supplies/lives and apparently hanging out 24/7 stationed at literal (pointless) roadblocks. Several plot holes illuminated how bad the writers were... waterpark stop was clearly abandoned for YEARS, but there was a half-eaten sandwich in the diner and snacks in a vending machine? That's a very tiny hole compared to many others... Plane crash didn't make much sense, but there wouldn't sensibly be any large planes in the air AT ALL esp after day 2, unless military, but that looked commercial and recent smoke billowing. Military train crash also seemed WTH, except maybe in connection with the sudden prevalence of bad guy gangs setting traps. They could've messed with the tracks to cause crash to steal supplies & (laughably) somehow killed the few soldiers on board, who were seen laying at the wreck site. Also, why didn't he take some AK47s and handguns from said soldier bodies / train cars? Ammo is a prime commodity in any lawless apocalypse. Zero explanation for the HUGE FIRE somewhere in Montana? Causing a long chain of people to march away, except the gas thief trap gang in the smoke that they had to run down. (You'd think he'd learn to stop approaching people who seem shady...yet he STILL went in the woods with neighbor knowing the guy was off - IDK, maybe with the intent to kill him instead?) Also, didn't he clearly see volcanic smoke clouds past Seattle before going into the city (which would've taken an entire day in/out), and everybody knows about Mt. St. Helens, but he thinks nothing of the increasing earth tremors and ash, until an apparent epiphany immediately after taking out wife-creeping neighbor. There were some other actions that made a ton of sense, which was nice to see. Forrest Whit was awesome at the beginning in taking on the 1st car thief gang @ gas station, and the convict fake cap without any hesitation. Covering the brake lights (usually easy to remove the bulbs, but okay). Avoiding other people mostly (other times blindly entering traps tho). I like how they left the girl (I'm terrible with character names), when she disappeared on them, I mean...went a little crazy & "off the reservation". Weird why she did that in the middle of nowhere without a plan, or that she was surprised by the guys fighting for survival, but apparently she had "survived on her own since birth", so I guess that makes sense to her somehow in an unknown field with insane storms crashing through? Yeah, this was dumb overall, but could've/should've been much better. Another film full of non-sensical unrealistic conflict for the sake of conflict (as if the world ending wasn't enough), but at least it wasn't MOSTLY annoying just because of characters making unbelievably terrible & uncharacteristic emotional decisions, like is the case with even worse movies. The irony is literally in the title. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 10/11/25 Full Review Gizela A It seemed promising in the beginning and during the course , but it ends up disappointing. I wish I had seen some reviews before watching it cause I feel like I just wasted my time. We never got to know what is going on, why this thing started or what it is, we didn’t even understand if they survived. Deeply dissatisfied on how it ends… probably they knew and that’s why they named it that way? Idk,but it’s a no from me too. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/21/25 Full Review Ruby V let me start off by saying, not AWFUL. But then again i feel like the plot or whatever they were going for making this movie went all into the middle of it, they put a lot of thought and suspense/excitement into it, then completely said screw it with the ending. maybe in fear of making it an unbearably long movie but after the time i put into watching it, i wouldn’t have minded. that’s all you had to come up with? come on. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 09/20/25 Full Review Joshua C. It could have been good. One of those movies that had me going... "oh come on" with disgust and disbelief. 'How it ends' It ends dumb af. I wont spoil anything but ill say if it ended the opposite of how it did i probably would have given it 3 stars. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 09/15/25 Full Review Audience Member Was it a movie, was there a plot? What did I just watch, elevator music version of a movie, or was it some form of money laundering? Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/25/25 Full Review Alex P 1hour and 58 minutes I’ll never get back. I HATE the ending dude this movie edged me so much bro the black guy dying pmo bro he was my favorite I forgot his name tho but he looked like terry cruise or sum not really but they both a 🥷 that’s not the point tho cuz the other girl ran away once again I forgot their name but don’t waste your time your gonna be upset with the ending just watch a diffrent movie Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 08/10/25 Full Review Read all reviews
How It Ends

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Movie Info

Synopsis In the midst of an apocalypse, a man struggles to reach his pregnant wife, who is thousands of miles away.
Director
David M. Rosenthal
Producer
Tai Duncan, Kelly McCormick, Patrick Newall
Screenwriter
Brooks McLaren
Rating
TV-MA
Genre
Sci-Fi, Mystery & Thriller, Action, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Jul 13, 2018
Runtime
1h 53m
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