Before I Fall ending explained: Exploring Sam's eventual fate

Before I Fall is a film in the teen drama genre that was released on March 3, 2017, after its Sundance premiere the same year. Ry Russo-Young directed the film, while the screenplay was by Gina Prince-Bythewood and Maria Maggenti. Adapted from Lauren Oliver's namesake 2010 novel, the film is produced by Jonathan Shestack, Brian Robbins, and Matthew Kaplan. Here's the official synopsis:

February 12 is just another day in Sam's charmed life, until it turns out to be her last. Stuck reliving her last day over and over, Sam untangles the mystery around her death and discovers everything she's losing.

The film stars Zoey Deutch, Halston Sage, and Logan Miller.

What is the plot of Before I Fall?

A still from Before I Fall | Image via Zero Media YouTube

Before I Fall follows the story of Samantha Kingston, a popular high school senior who seems to have it all—a loving boyfriend, a tight-knit group of friends, and a picture-perfect life. On February 12, known at her school as Cupid Day, Sam expects just another ordinary day filled with roses, notes, and celebration. But everything changes when she and her friends get into a tragic car accident on their way home from a party, and the crash kills them.

To her shock, Sam wakes up the next morning on the same day. Trapped in a mysterious time loop, she is forced to relive Cupid Day over and over again. As the cycle repeats, Sam begins to see her life, her friendships, and her choices in a new light. With each loop, she uncovers secrets, reevaluates relationships, and discovers the true meaning of redemption and second chances.

How does Before I Fall end?

Towards the end of Before I Fall, Sam, after reliving the same day multiple times, uncovers the truth about Juliet, a girl bullied by her friend Lindsay. Juliet reveals that she and Lindsay were once friends, but everything changed after a camping trip. Lindsay, dealing with stress from her parents' divorce, wet the bed during the trip and blamed it on Juliet, turning her into a target for bullying.

Right after Juliet informs Sam about everything, she runs into traffic and ends up killing herself. This establishes that Juliet was the cause of their accident that day. Sam wakes up the next day with the approach that it's her actual last day; she informs people around her that she loves them. She pushes Juliet before the car can hit her, and she ends up getting hit herself. As Sam is about to die, Juliet tells her that she saved her. In response, Sam says, "No, you saved me." This signifies that Sam dies and sets herself free from the time loop. In the book, Sam ends up dying and saves Juliet.

Overall, the story focuses on being kind to people around us. Sam was not particularly kind to people in her life, especially Juliet. The time loop ends up working as a life lesson for her, and she starts appreciating everything and everyone. The ending of Before I Fall is unlike other time loop films that mostly end on a happy note. Here, the protagonist has to die to save an innocent life and realize the meaning of being kind.

In a Film Stage interview, Ry Russo-Young spoke about Juliet's character.

"[Juliet] doesn’t really have a lot to say until literally three-fourths through the movie. So it’s really challenging to kind of bring the audience into her experience and to even make her experience relatable when she comes around late. Any character that shows up that far in, it’s tough. So part of it was, how did we deal with that? We made sure that we planted the seeds enough. It was a balance of sort of getting her in early enough and showing the audience that she was going to be an important factor. But not tipping our hat too much, and I think the audience knows she’s going to be important to the plot because of the way we cover her."