‘I See You’ Ending Explained: Helen Hunt’s Twisty Horror Thriller Is Now Streaming on Netflix (2024)

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I See You (2019)

  • ‘I See You’ Ending Explained: Helen Hunt’s Twisty Horror Thriller Is Now Streaming on Netflix (1)
  • ‘I See You’ Ending Explained: Helen Hunt’s Twisty Horror Thriller Is Now Streaming on Netflix (2)

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The 2019 indie horror movie, I See You, is now streaming on Netflix, and quickly rose to the top of Netflix’s trending titles charts. And if you watch the film, you’ll understand why it’s drawn so many viewers in. This movie has everything: Helen Hunt, a creepy mask, crazy plot twists, and—spoiler alert—homeless people secretly living in the attics of rich folks.

Directed by Adam Randall, with a screenplay written by Devon Graye, I See You first premiered at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, before releasing select theaters in December. The movie was well-liked by critics and horror fans, but for most casual moviegoers, the film flew under the radar. Now it’s finding new life streaming on Netflix, as viewers are uncovering this twisty, turn-y little film.

I See You comes with several major plot twists, and some of them are quite subtle. If you found yourself confused while watching the movie, don’t worry. Decider is here to help. Read on for an analysis of the I See You movie plot and the I See You movie ending, explained. (Spoilers ahead, obvioulsy!)

I See You movie plot explained:

The movie opens with a sequence of 10-year-old Justin Whitter, who is riding his bicycle in the woods. The bike is brought to an abrupt halt, and Justin flies off the back, as if by magic. It’s soon revealed that Justin has been kidnapped. Detectives discover a green pocket knife on the scene where he vanished, which harkens back to a 15-year-old kidnapping case, in which young boys were disappearing and the kidnapper left a green knife as a calling card. However, that case was closed when the kidnapper was caught and put in jail, and two boys were rescued from captivity.

One of the detectives on Justin’s case is Greg Harper (Jon Tenney). Greg lives in a nice house with his wealthy doctor wife, Jackie (Helen Hunt) and their teenage son, Connor (Judah Lewis). Greg and Connor are both pissed at Jackie, because she recently cheated on Greg. Greg is sleeping on the couch, and later the guest room. Conner is being generally horrible to his mom, and, apparently, steals his mother’s sunflower mug and uses it as an ashtray to smoke on the roof. But then weird stuff starts happening to the family. While Jackie is home alone, the TV turns on suddenly without her touching the remote. All of the family’s silverware goes missing. Greg gets lured into his son’s closet, and a mysterious assailant slams the door on him. Someone steals Greg’s covers in the dead of night, and when he wakes up, he finds he’s peed the bed.

Meanwhile, on the missing child case, Greg and his partner, detective Spitzky, go to visit one of the former kidnapping victims, Tommy. Tommy’s face is severely burned, and when he sees Spitzky and Greg, he freaks out. Later, Spitzky discovers a trip wire in the woods, which explains why Justin flew off the back of his bike in the opening scene.

Back at the Harper house, Jackie gets a surprise visit from her lover, Todd (Sam Trammell). While Jackie and Todd are outside arguing, Todd is hit over the head with the sunflower mug. Jackie brings Todd to the basement to fix his head. When she discovers Connor was upstairs the whole time, she assumes Connor is the one who threw the mug at Todd. While Jackie is driving Connor to school, a mysterious assailant takes out Todd from behind. When Jackie gets home, she finds Tom dead on the floor, and assumes he died of the original head injury. She gets Greg to help her hid Todd’s body, not wanting her son to go to jail.

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Meanwhile, Connor gets a strange text on his phone asking him, “Do you know what phrogging is?” Then a man in a creepy frog mask approaches him from behind. When Greg and Jackie get home from burying the body, they find Connor drugged and tied up in the bathtub. Jackie rushes Connor to the hospital, while Greg stays behind to find the attacker.

At this point, the movie abruptly shifts point of view. We are introduced to two new characters, Mindy (Libe Barer) and Alec (Owen Teague). Mindy and Alec are homeless young adults who sneak into the Harper’s house with the intention of squatting there for a few days. They are making a DIY documentary about “phrogging,” which Mindy explains is “hopping from pad to pad,” or squatting in wealthy homes for a week or so at a time, in the same way that frogs leap from place to place. Mindy and Alec set up home base in the guest room, and hide in the attic.

Mindy insists they not bother or interfere with the family’s life in anywhere. But Alec, who bought a creepy frog mask for himself, is interested in “messing” with the family. He steals the silverware, turns on the TV with an app from his phone, and pisses on Greg in the middle of the night. So that explains all of that weirdness! It was also Connor who hit Todd on the head with the mug. After he does that, Mindy insists they leave. She goes downstairs to retrieve their stuff, and accidentally witnesses Todd being attacked. Plot twist alert: Greg is the one who killed Todd, by hitting him in the head with a baseball bat.

After Mindy witnesses Greg gaslight his wife, she finds Alec has taken things way too far: He has drugged Connor and tied him up in the tub. Mindy threatens to call the cops. They get into an argument, and Alec accidentally pushes Mindy down the stairs, knocking her out. Alec loads Mindy’s body into Greg’s car, presumably to drive her to the hospital, but then Greg and Jackie come home. They discover Connor in the tub, and now we’re all caught up.

‘I See You’ Ending Explained: Helen Hunt’s Twisty Horror Thriller Is Now Streaming on Netflix (3)

I See You movie ending explained:

Alec hides, and witnesses Greg drive away, with Mindy unknowingly hidden in the trunk of his car. Mindy wakes up while driving, and discovers a kid’s green jersey and a bag of green knives in the back of the car. Earlier in the film, Mindy read a news story that said the kidnapped boy was last seen wearing a green jersey. Greg stops the car at a remote location in the woods, and Mindy manages to escape. She calls 911 and tells the cops she believes she is with the kidnapper, but then her phone loses signal. She finds a mobile home in the woods, and finds the two missing boys are locked in a bathroom that is zip-tied shut. Before she can free them, Greg confronts her and, once again, knocks her out. (This can’t be good for her brain!)

Alec, who apparently didn’t move from his hiding spot during all of this, witnesses Greg return to the house with an unconscious Mindy. Greg wakes Mindy up, makes her stand up, and then shoots her. He then begins arranging evidence to make it look like there was a struggle. There really is a struggle when Alec attacks Greg. Alec manages to get the better of Greg, and shoots him. The police arrive, and Detective Spitzky bursts in, sees Greg on the ground, and shoots Alec. Before Alec passes out, he recognizes Detective Spitzky, and says his name.

Through a series of quick shots, we realize that not only is Greg the man who kidnapped Justin, he is also the man who kidnapped the two young boys 15 years ago. And not only that, but one of those two boys was Alec. In a flashback sequence, we see Greg approach two young boys on the railroad tracks. One of them has a Pez dispenser in his pocket, a candy we’ve seen the adult Alec eat several times. We see adult Alec’s tortured face as he is put into an ambulance, and with that, the movie ends.

I See You movie ending meaning:

Now that we know Alec was one of Greg’s victims, we realize that he did not choose Greg’s house to “phrog” by accident. Alec’s seemingly erratic behavior toward the Harper family now makes sense—he was looking for revenge on the man who kidnapped and tortured him all those years ago. It’s not clear what Alec’s plan was, but his actions suddenly seem justified, in retrospect.

I think we can all agree the real victim here is Helen Hunt. No wonder she cheated on her psychotic husband!

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  • Ending Explained
  • Helen Hunt
  • I See You (2019)
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‘I See You’ Ending Explained: Helen Hunt’s Twisty Horror Thriller Is Now Streaming on Netflix (2024)
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