Summary

• Paul's lack of trust and paranoia drives his decision-making in It Comes At Night's ending, leading to a violent confrontation with Will's family.
• Travis's nightmares serve as foreshadowing for the events of the movie and may be symptoms of the virus or fever dreams brought on by the illness.
• The movie purposely leaves many questions unanswered, including the nature of the virus and what "it" refers to, highlighting the themes of self-preservation and paranoia.

The Trey Edward Shults post-apocalyptic drama It Comes At Night tells the story of a family trying to survive in a world ravaged by an unexplained virus. This mysterious virus kills off a large swathe of the population, and a family (Paul, Sarah, and teenage son Travis) has been surviving in a ramshackle cabin in the woods, cut off from fellow survivors. This ends when Will (Christopher Abbott) breaks in. After ensuring he's virus-free, Paul (Joel Edgerton) reluctantly allows Will and his family inside. Unfortunately, the living arrangements turn violent when It Comes At Night ends.

Throughout A24's virus outbreak movie, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is plagued by nightmares about the virus and his grandfather's death that blur the line between reality and hallucination. One night, Travis finds Will's son Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner) sleeping in his grandfather's old room and their missing dog, Stanley, gravely wounded and infected at the cabin's supposedly secured front door. Distrust mounts between the two families as they blame each other for the security breach and suspect each other of bringing the virus into the home, with the tension reaching a boiling point in It Comes At Night's ending.

Why Paul Didn't Let Will's Family Leave

Paul Believed He Had To Kill Will And His Family To Protect His Own

In It Comes At Night's ending, Paul — believing Andrew is sick — forces Will and his family out of the cabin. A fight breaks out that ends with Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) shooting Will and Paul shooting Andrew and Will's wife Kim (Riley Keough). Later, a visibly infected Travis lies in bed and is comforted by his mother. The horror film closes with a scene showing a devastated Paul and Sarah seated at a table, presumably having put Travis out of his misery and succumbing to the virus themselves.

On the surface, It Comes At Night reveals Travis was the one who was infected, and Will and his family die for nothing. Paul won't let Will and his family leave because of a line he mentioned in a previous conversation with Sarah and Travis. Paul says if Will's family leaves, they'll want to take half of their supplies, and there's always the possibility they return with nefarious intentions. Paul's lack of trust, bordering on paranoia, informs his decision-making.

When Paul believes that Will's family is sick with the deadly horror movie virus, he feels that it's his responsibility to put them out of their misery, and in an act of self-preservation, he kills them all.

What Travis's It Comes At Night Nightmares Mean

The Visions Travis Has Are Probably Fever Dreams

Until the ending, Travis experiences several surreal and terrifying nightmares. While these may seem complex and nonsensical, they act as the film's biggest form of foreshadowing. One of the first nightmares that Travis has involves seeing Will with hugely dilated pupils, basically meaning that Will has the mysterious sickness. This, along with his dream about Kim dripping bile into his mouth, foreshadows the events in It Comes At Night's ending.

If Will and his family are the ones who are sick, then Travis' nightmares encapsulate and play into the movie's final moments. This is highly likely in the underrated psychological horror, considering Kim's imioned plea to her son Andrew not to let Paul "see his eyes." However, if Travis has been sick the entire time, then the nightmares could be fever dreams brought on by the illness. Travis' nightmares still act as a narrative device in this instance, ultimately teasing his fate in It Comes At Night's ending.

What Comes At Night?

The Movie Reveals Very Little About Its Zombies

It Comes At Night's ending doesn’t give away who infected who, nor does the movie offer much information about the virus or what it does to people, which necessitates the infected being killed. Similarly, the audience never discovers the “It” of the title or why it comes at night. The ambiguous ending is by design, probably why It Comes At Night left critics so divided. Director Trey Edward Shults explained in an interview that his goal was to leave the ending with some unanswered questions (via Thrillist).

"A lot of questions are left unanswered. That is intentional. I will say I left things the way they are for a reason and I hope it sticks with you. I hope it doesn't frustrate."

Ultimately, what comes at night is never truly explored, but audiences can ascertain that the virus' effects are enough to warrant killing someone. The most obvious answer is zombies and, based on what happened to Travis' dog, this could be the most likely conjecture. Otherwise, there's no reason to kill someone after the virus takes hold. Masks and gloves seem to protect their wearers, and it's doubtful that family would kill one another over a regular virus.

The nightmares could be a symptom of the sickness, with the fever dreams letting the infected know beforehand what is about to happen to them.

Instead, it makes more sense if it were to be a Night of the Living Dead-type sickness. The answer could simply be that the illness itself may be traced back to Travis' nightmares. The nightmares could be a symptom of the sickness, with the fever dreams letting the infected know beforehand what is about to happen to them. It Comes At Night doesn't let audiences know what "it" is, but these are the two most viable options.

The Real Meaning Of It Comes At Night's Ending

It Comes At Night Is About The Fine Line Between Self-Preservation And Paranoia

In the end, Paul's paranoia and mistrust reveal the movie's true meaning. Ultimately, it's a film about self-preservation, how strict Darwinism hardens those against trust, and how paranoia leads to false, if not detrimental, assumptions. It is a "survival of the fittest" mentality, and when this adage is applied, it strips humanity along with it. It Comes At Night's changing aspect ratio marks Travis' slow descent from being numbered among the "fittest" and his subsequent death. When one takes Darwinism to the highest degree, it ultimately focuses on self-preservation.

Self-preservation is taken to extremes, usually at the cost of one's humanity. When someone is solely honed in on themselves, it creates a lack of trust in others and paranoia that someone else could rise to the top of the food chain. Trey Edward Schultz hopes the movie will stick with audiences, and his criticisms of capitalism are in It Comes At Night's ending. Both the ending and the whole premise of It Comes At Night, are open to individual interpretation, and that’s precisely why it works so well.

The Film's Original Ending Wouldn't Have Worked

The Original Ending Was Another Giant Dream Sequence

It might come as a surprise to know that It Comes At Night's ending was almost very different. The original ending was much more twisted with Trey Edward Shults wanting to end things with a nightmare sequence. However, he chose to change that ending, and actor Joel Edgerton agreed completely with the new direction the movie took (via Cinema Blend). This ending would see Travis in another fever dream, battling the demons he came across in his house.

"I think ultimately maybe it was a little confusing, when we are in the real world and when we are not. And when you try to marry the real world with that fever dream it becomes a little, the audience wants to know, 'Is this real? Or is it not? And what if it's both?' It is almost too much of a meta idea."

Trey Shults said that the main story was what happened in the woods between the two families. However, he also felt it was important to have the dream sequences since that was how viewers got to know Travis, his battles, and what was happening to him. His opinion was the final dream would show Travis having that one last big dream and ending up going to hell — with hell as a version of the house with his parents, Will, and a great fire.

This seemed important to Trey Shults, and Edgerton agreed that it was a powerful moment to end the film. The idea is that Travis would slip into his illness and have that final dream where he is now being tortured, and his family is going to set the audience on fire. With that said, they shot the ending and realized it confused audiences, who didn't know what was real, fracturing the message. What resulted was changing It Comes At Night's ending into something simpler and more effective.