'It Ends' Review: Every day is a winding road, I get a little bit closer

Oh, the pitfalls of growing up and realizing that “you have your whole life ahead of you” is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a difficult thing to grapple with, but like all challenging things in life, you learn more in retrospect. What’s helped me grow through it is realizing that the only way out is through. When life is difficult, sometimes it’s best to ride the situation out and see if it gets better with the passage of time. That very notion is challenged in It Ends (2025), the debut feature film from writer/director Alexander Ullom, taking the concept to an allegorical level that hasn’t been explored quite like this in a coming of age film. The film’s unnerving tension lingering over the uncertainty of the characters’ plight radiates, creating an overarching existential dread that’s palpable in the same way that a quarter-life crisis is supposed to hit. Mileage may vary for those who would rather look for a film that provides easier answers to difficult questions, but for those looking to be challenged by its complex philosophies and introspection will be right at home in their local cinema.

It Ends centers on three college graduates, James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth), who get picked up by their friend Tyler (Mitchell Cole), whom they haven’t seen in quite a while. All seems to be an average time in the car, with each of them giving us early glimpses into their personalities, aspirations, and hopes for the future. However, when Tyler misses an important turn off the freeway, he doubles back to get back on their way only to find that the road that he’s on has since closed off behind them. While stopping briefly to collect their bearings, their car is suddenly overcome by a screaming group of strangers attempting to overtake the car. After narrowly escaping the horde, the group drives off with no signal and no explanation - just pursuing the long road in front of them. They pontificate on what this means. Did they die in a crash? Are they in purgatory? A wormhole? As they continue to drive, hours turn to days, days turn to weeks. As the trip goes on, they’re unable to sleep, their hunger goes away, their sexual arousal diminishes. All that’s in front of them are unanswered questions about their futures.

Quickly into It Ends, the allegory makes itself known: life is a highway, and no one knows when it will end. All you can do is keep moving forward. However, what makes It Ends such a fascinating concept are its gripping performances, attention to detail, and the many ways the story can be interpreted for anyone in the throes of its existential dread. The concept is extrapolated with montages and consistent logic in a world where all laws have been thrown out the window, and all possible options for cheating their environment are exhausted without suspending disbelief. As hope continues to grow dim, we begin to understand their stances on how to best handle the situation. Is it best to simply accept defeat and get out of the car? Or is the potential for hope far too alluring? After all, what better options exist in the face of insurmountable odds?

All four of the film’s performances are terrific in presenting each character’s identity, but the standouts are Yoon and Toth, acting as a yin and yang of defeat and panic as they push on headfirst into the abyss, hoping for answers to their questions. Toth especially has an unnerving sense of panic in the early stages of the film that elicit genuine fear for the group. On the flipside of the coin, Yoon’s persistence near the end of the film is remarkable, selling It Ends’ allegorical reverence when the film reaches its ultimate conclusion that life is about the journey, not the destination, despite how cliché as it looks on paper. It Ends has been the talk of indie cinema for quite some time, premiering in 2025 during the festival circuit, acting as one of the first Letterboxd Video Store rental options when the service premiered at the end of last year. Now that Neon has acquired distribution, the film is seeing the light of day in theaters after a long, arduous battle over how to sell its difficult concept to unknown audiences. Regardless of its future, Ullom has crafted a superb existential thriller that will undoubtedly connect with those hoping for a challenging descent into the unknown.

Feature image credit to Neon via IMDB