It Comes at Night (2017) is a post-apocalyptic psychological horror movie written & directed by Trey Edward Shults. The movie is focused in a family who creates an own circle to make secure because the Earth is taken over with an enormously contagious disease.

It Comes at Night Ending Explanation and Plot Story in Details

* * * Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t seen the movie yet, turn back now! * * *

The movie starts in the time of near future when a deadly virus spread all over the world. Middle of this epidemic a family stays in a house in the jungle. There are four members of the family – Paul, Sarah, their teenage son Travis, Bud, and a pet dog Stanley. Bud is already infected, and he got wild in his whole body. That’s why Travis and Paul take Bud into the jungle and kill him. So that they will get uninfected by Bud.

Travis was very close to Bud. After his death, Travis becomes very depressed and he starts bad dreaming. He sees himself taking walks right into a room inside the home and sees a sick, wheezing guy in the bed. The man screamed as Travis approached him.

One night Paul finds someone breaks his house. He captured him by seeing a gun tied outside in a tree. The next morning Paul starts interrogating the man. His name is Will, and he let Paul know that he tried to steal food & water for his wife & child. He had a brother but a few days ago he died. Paul believes in Will and tells him that his family can live with them.

Sarah & Travis also agrees with Paul and then he drives Will in a pickup to get his wife & son. Middle of the journey two people attack them & Paul shoots them both. Will pleaded not to kill them but Paul didn’t stop. After confirming their death Paul puts Will at the gunpoint and asks why he tried to save them? Did Will know them? Will declared he didn’t know those people. He just wanted to know from them what is going on in the world. Paul satisfies and releases him.

They two take back home Kim (Will’s wife) & Andrew (Will’s son). At the dinner table, Will explains all the rules they follow. We see Travis is looking at Kim.

Both families are carrying goods in the new home. They enjoy their life by eating & playing board games. He develops a crush on Kim and day by day it gets increased. Paul realizes Travis’s feelings and advises him not to trust anyone but his family.

I’m starting to come into Travis’s dream. He has a dream where Kim comes to Travis in a short dress and rides on him. She is going to kiss Travis but then she starts spewing black bile into her mouth. Travis wakes up and goes to the kitchen where he meets Kim, and they talked a little because they both can’t sleep at night.

Read more, The Deep House (2021)

The next day, Stanley starts barking at something in the forest. The men go outside to see what is bothering Stanley but they don’t see anything suspicious. Stanley suddenly runs into the forest. Travis also chases him. But eventually, Stanley disappears. Paul shouts at Travis for going off like that alone.

Later at night, Travis finds Andrew sleeping on the floor in the living room. He wakes him up and asks why he was lying there. But Andrew doesn’t remember anything. At that time a sound came from the door. Paul & Sarah takes the gun and goes down there when Travis informs them about the sound. They find it is Stanley. He returns home. But he is now bleeding & weak. Clearly, Stanley is infected by the virus. Sarah takes Travis inside the house, and Paul kills Stanley by gunfire. Then he burns Stanley’s body too.

Everyone sits down to discuss the situation. Travis says he found Andrew and saw the door had opened before Stanley was found. Paul asks if Andrew sleepwalks but Kim denies it. Andrew says he doesn’t remember getting out of bed when Paul asks him. Then Paul suggests staying in quarantine for both families. Then they move to their room.

Paul asks him if he really saw the door open? Travis confirms that he told the truth.

Travis sees another nightmare where he is infected, and his skin is covered with boils. He spits up black bile from his mouth and also sees Bud sitting on his bed. He also spits black bile from his mouth.

Paul hears Andrew coughing & whining. Later Travis sees Andrew crying and he assumes that Andrew is infected. Travis tells about his susception to Paul. Then Paul & Sarah wear gloves & masks and takes the gun. They go to Will’s family. Paul points the gun at Will because he suspects they are infected. Kim with Andrew & Will tried to run from Paul but Sarah killed them by gunshot.

The scene cuts after a few days when Travis is visibly infected and lying-in bed. Sarah tells him everything will be fine. Which we hear from her telling Bud for her last meeting. After that Paul & Travis killed him. The same dialogue we hear for him. This indicates it is the last meeting between Sarah & Travis.

In the ending scene of the movie, Paul & Sarah sit at the table in silence and Travis’s chair is empty.

After watching the movie, the first thing that hits in mind is what is the disease? what actually comes at night? Is it the sickness? Or the sick? But the answer is ‘Nothing.’ Yes, Director intentionally makes the plot and ending ambiguous so that the discussion can go in various ways. Therefore, people are saying ‘Nothing came at night.’

Official Synopsis

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, the tenuous domestic order he has established with his wife and son is put to the ultimate test with the arrival of a desperate young family seeking refuge. Despite the best intentions of both families, paranoia and mistrust boil over as the horrors outside creep ever-closer, awakening something hidden and monstrous within him as he learns that the protection of his family comes at the cost of his soul.

– A24