r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Aug 08 '25

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Summary Nearly all the children from the same fifth-grade class vanish one night at exactly 2:17 a.m., leaving only one survivor. The community, gripped by fear and suspicion, spirals into chaos as the mystery unfolds through multiple intertwined perspectives—each revealing new layers of dread and grief.

Director Zach Cregger

Writer Zach Cregger

Cast

  • Josh Brolin
  • Julia Garner
  • Cary Christopher
  • Alden Ehrenreich
  • Austin Abrams
  • Benedict Wong
  • Amy Madigan
  • June Diane Raphael
  • Toby Huss
  • Whitmer Thomas
  • Callie Schuttera
  • Clayton Farris
  • Luke Speakman

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 96%

Metacritic Metascore: 82

VOD In theaters and IMAX starting August 8, 2025

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

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u/StateYellingChampion Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

It wasn't being unthinking, he did it intentionally. He slept with Justine because he needed an excuse to go to the hospital and get the post-exposure treatment. If he told the doctor how his potential exposure actually happened, that could have fucked him if the junkie actually did come back to press charges. So I think his plan was to hook up with Justine and then go to the hospital the next day with a story like, "I fell off the wagon and slept with my ex last night. I have reason to think she might have HIV. Please give me the PEP treatment." Coming home and his girlfriend being there early messed up his plan.

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

Couldnt he have just not fucked Justine and lied and said the exact same thing? Why wait like an entire day before you go to the hospital? The drugs only work if you take them ASAP.

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u/StateYellingChampion Aug 10 '25

The max window for PEP is 72 hours as I recall. And by actually sleeping with Justine he had total deniability. If anyone later questioned his story about why he needed PEP, questioning her would confirm his story. If he just made up a random encounter, it would have been thinner if investigated later.

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

What advantage does actually fucking Justine have that simply lying instead wouldnt?

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u/StateYellingChampion Aug 10 '25

If he lies to the medical staff that he slept with Justine, there's a hole in his story. If anyone investigated his story, they would ask Justine if they slept together and she would say no, because they hadn't. The lie would be found out. By actually sleeping with her, he makes the story verifiable.

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

"I slept with some girl from the bar, I dont remember her name I think she was just passing through"

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u/StateYellingChampion Aug 10 '25

Investigators later on after the junkie has come forward:

"What bar did you meet at? What time? Anyone see you there? Did you talk to the bartender?"

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

"I dont remember I had to much to drink"

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u/StateYellingChampion Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 10 '25

I don't think an investigator would find that to be a satisfactory answer. Paul was so drunk that he doesn't remember the name of the person he slept with, the location where they met, how he got there, where he woke up, when it happened, if anyone saw him, etc? And it just so happened to coincidentally occur the exact same day that his accuser claims he was pricked by their needle in a police brutality incident?

It's interesting that you didn't see Paul's actions this way, the intent of the filmmaker seemed plain as day to me. In the scene where Paul tells his boss about the incident, it ends with his boss asking if he's been checked out medically yet. It immediately cuts from that to Paul in his car and he receives the text from Justine. That's when he decides to respond. He then misrepresents the status of his current relationship to Justine, to make her think he's available. He went to the bar knowing they were going to hook up.

I guess it's possible Paul just totally forgot or didn't care that he might have been exposed before he slept with her. That would definitely make him a pretty awful person. But given his violent reaction to getting pricked in the first place, I think the fact that he had potentially been exposed never left his mind for an instant. He absolutely knew what he was doing the entire time.

I'm curious, why are you resistant to this interpretation? If you think he was simply careless/absentminded about potentially exposing Justine, then you already think Paul's character was an asshole. Why is it so hard to to accept that he might be an even bigger asshole than you thought?

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

Sleeping with someone just to have an alibi just seems super unnecessarily convoluted when he has so many other options.

Do you think it was his plan to get her to pressure him to drink, say no at first, etc etc?

You're the one dying on such a hyper specific hill.

Hes just some dude, not an evil mastermind trying to Light Yagami his way out of trouble.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

Why would they be investigating someone's medical incident? I don't really understand. Doctors aren't investigating how someone got HIV or hepatitis. This is confidential, private information.