How It Ends

How It Ends is a 2018 action thriller set during a sudden, unexplained catastrophe that throws the country into disorder. Will, a young man on the West Coast, sets out to reach his pregnant wife Samantha on the other side of the continent. He travels with his father-in-law Tom, a former soldier who has little affection for him, and the two men must navigate a collapsing society as they try to get home. The film leaves the cause of the disaster itself unexplained, keeping its focus on the journey and the tension between the two companions.

David M. Rosenthal directed from a screenplay by Brooks McLaren, with Paul Schiff, Kelly McCormick and Patrick Newall producing. It was Rosenthal's third feature, following A Single Shot in 2013 and The Perfect Guy in 2015, and it came before No Limit in 2022. Theo James plays Will and Forest Whitaker plays Tom, with Kat Graham as Samantha, Kerry Bishé as Meg, Grace Dove as Ricki and Mark O'Brien as Jeremiah among the 23 credited cast members. Made on a budget of 20 million US dollars, the film was released on 13 July 2018 and runs 113 minutes.

Audience response has been muted: on IMDb it holds 5.1 out of 10 from roughly 63,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 5.3 out of 10 from just over 2,000 votes. A critics' rating of 3 out of 10 from 18 reviews places it noticeably below even those modest audience scores, suggesting a broadly negative professional reception alongside limited public enthusiasm.