Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) drags Southport’s haunted shoreline back into view, reshaping the slasher classic for a generation weighed down by secrets. Behind the blood-soaked set pieces lies a story less about body counts than about the lingering poison of guilt, shame, and generational silence. At its center is Ava Brucks (Madison Iseman), who returns home for her best friend Danica’s engagement, only to find herself entangled once more in the nightmare born of a single fatal accident one summer night.

That moment binds Ava, Danica, Ava’s ex Milo, Danica’s fiancé Teddy, and their newly sober friend Stevie in a pact of silence—what they bury becomes the very thing that claws back to life, cloaked in the fisherman’s slicker, armed with his merciless hook. The ending leaves its most unsettling question hanging in the salt air: why does Ray Bronson—once the survivor, the protector—now stand revealed not as a savior, but as an accomplice and a traitor?

Spoilers Ahead

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Why Do Ava, Danica, Milo, Teddy, and Stevie Hide the Accident?

On the Fourth of July, the group’s reckless night spirals out of control when Teddy’s careless driving causes Sam Cooper’s car to plunge off a cliff. Ava immediately pleads to call the police, her conscience unwilling to let another secret fester in Southport. But Teddy, fearful of losing his privileged future and backed by his politician father Grant, convinces the group to keep silent. Stevie, newly out of rehab, finds herself dragged into the pact despite being the least guilty. Her reluctance sows the seeds for her eventual unraveling. Ava’s decision to comply, though reluctantly, chains her to the others, forcing her to carry a guilt that bleeds into every action one year later.

Who Sends the Threatening Note?

At Danica’s engagement party, she receives the ominous message: ‘I know what you did last summer.’ At first, suspicion falls on Teddy. His arrogance and ability to manipulate situations make him an easy target. But his vehement denial, followed by the gruesome murder of Danica’s new fiancé, Wyatt, proves the danger is real. The note is a callback to the 1997 murders, serving as a cruel reminder that history repeats itself in Southport whenever the truth is buried.

Why Does the Fisherman Seem to Be Back?

When the hook-wielding killer begins slaughtering townsfolk, panic sets in. Ava and Tyler, the podcaster, suspect the ghost of Ben Willis has returned. Tyler’s curiosity leads him into the fisherman’s lair of death, where his gruesome end reinforces the myth. But the fisherman isn’t Ben, it’s Stevie. Her disguise is deliberate, designed to terrify and echo the trauma that Southport has never truly buried.

Why Does Stevie Become the Fisherman?

Stevie’s motive is rooted in grief and betrayal. During rehab, she befriended Sam, who genuinely tried to guide her toward recovery. His sudden death, caused by her own friends, becomes the breaking point. She dons the fisherman’s mask not just to avenge Sam but to expose the hollowness of their pact. To her, Ava, Danica, Milo, and Teddy deserve the same fate as those who once wronged her. Every hook strike is both punishment and confession: they will never wash the blood off their hands.

Why Do Teddy and Grant Get Killed?

Teddy’s arrogance finally catches up with him. For a year, he leaned on his father’s influence to cover up Sam’s death, convinced money and status could silence truth. When the fisherman slaughters both Teddy and Grant, it’s a symbolic execution of privilege. The system that shielded them crumbles under the hook’s blade. Their deaths also strip Danica of protection, forcing her to confront the horror without her fiancé or his family’s power.

How Does Ray Bronson Return, and Why Does He Betray Julie?

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
A still from “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2025)

The shocking twist comes when Ava notices Ray has the same injury she inflicted on the fisherman during her escape. This small detail unravels the truth: Ray, once a survivor of Ben Willis, has now become the very thing he once fought against. Ray’s bitterness festers from decades of being defined by the 1997 killings. His marriage with Julie crumbled, his life stagnated, and his legacy rotted into shame. Taking Stevie as his accomplice, he channels his resentment into revenge, not just against Ava’s group, but against Southport itself. By framing Julie for the new murders, Ray attempts to erase his pain by dragging her down. His betrayal is not impulsive. It’s the culmination of years of disillusionment and festering hatred.

Why Does Ava Kill Ray?

When Ray attacks Julie and Ava at the bar, his monologue lays bare his twisted philosophy: Southport ruined his life, and now it must pay. For Ava, however, this is the moment where her arc completes. From the girl who once bowed to Teddy’s pressure, she finally chooses action. Killing Ray with a speargun isn’t just survival; it’s Ava’s rejection of complicity. She refuses to let another secret define her life. Her action severs the chain of silence that has haunted Southport for decades.

Is Stevie Still Alive?

Despite being shot off the yacht, Stevie’s survival is confirmed in the final moments. Her continued existence ensures that vengeance remains unfinished, echoing the franchise’s tradition of unresolved terror. Danica’s survival alongside Ava suggests that friendship endures. But the joking pact to ‘kill Stevie if she returns’ hints that trauma has reshaped their bond into something darker.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Movie Ending Explained:

Why Does Ray Turn Against Julie and Ava?

Ray’s betrayal is not simply a dramatic reveal. It is a psychological shattering of self that is decades in the making. His arc represents the consequence of unprocessed trauma – unprocessed because it was repressed. While Julie sought therapy, resilience, and secondly, a chance to repair her life, Ray was stuck in a cycle of resentment. Every summer, every name drop of Ben Willis, every passing reference to ‘the fisherman killings’ caused him to return to the same place of feeling helpless he experienced in 1997.

From a psychological perspective, Ray is showing classic signs of trauma fixation: an attachment to a trauma that holds formative significance, with complete inability to shift away from it. Survivors can either learn to incorporate their trauma as part of their narrative (as Julie is trying to do) or become so consumed by it that it reshapes their identity around suffering. Ray chooses the latter.

For him, the past is not something that leaves a scar; it is an open wound. He sees aligning himself with Stevie as an outlet for his bitterness, in a perverse quest to reclaim a sense of power. By putting on the fisherman’s coat, Ray becomes the monster he once feared. It should be noted that what occurs in this metamorphosis is a well-known psychological occurrence called identification with the aggressor. This happens when a trauma victim unconsciously takes on traits of the aggressor of the trauma, usually as a defense mechanism.

Instead of fearing the fisherman, Ray becomes Ben Willis – his punishment of Julie is a form of rebellion and release. To Ray, destroying Julie is a notion of rewriting, or punishing, what he sees as the symbol of hope he could never have for himself. In his choice of revenge instead of healing, Ray doubly twists the knife into himself, even as he lashes outwards.

For Ava, Ray’s death by her hand carries significant psychological implications. On the one hand, it is cathartic. She has now taken action instead of being silenced or pressured, therefore terminating the cycle of secrecy that began with Sam Cooper’s accident. Yet it is not cleansing. Killing Ray does not erase her guilt or undo her complicity. Instead, she inherits the burden Julie once carried: the constant awareness that the cycle of guilt and vengeance in Southport never truly ends. The closing note to Julie, “It isn’t over”, underscores this generational curse. Psychologically, it suggests that trauma in Southport is not individual but collective. Secrets become communal, passed down like an heirloom. Just as Julie’s generation carried the weight of Ben Willis, Ava’s must now shoulder the legacy of Stevie and Ray.

Read More: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Movie Ending Explained: Who’s the Mysterious Attacker?

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Movie Trailer:

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Movie Cast: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Sarah Pidgeon, Billy Campbell, Gabbriette Bechtel, Austin Nichols, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jennifer Love Hewitt
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) Movie Released on Jul 18, Runtime: 1h 51m, Genre: Horror/Mystery & Thriller
Where to watch I Know What You Did Last Summer

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *