Until Dawn ending explained: Which ending from the video game did the film adapt?

Fans of the 2015 video game Until Dawn might be left gutted as they are more about branching storylines. Every choice can affect the story while playing the video game but it's not the case for the film directed by David F. Sandberg. The over one-and-a-half-hour film (103 minutes but many might not sit through the credits) will give them one story they will have to live with.

Branching paths are almost impossible in the films (as there can be a deleted ending like The Shining), and fans of the video game the film is based on, who are more about the ending that sees all the characters free from the death loop, will be, to some extent, satisfied. The group survives in this one, too, though not before dying gruesome deaths and respawning again.

Peter Stormare, who played the psychiatrist Dr. Hill in the video game, returns in Until Dawn, though he is first shown as one hillbilly gas station worker but is eventually brought into the fold and the antagonistic force.

How did they make it until dawn?

They make it until dawn; they have to, as that's what the theme is about. Though the interesting thing is, they all survive. Interestingly, they still have their last chance, more like life, to give another go to get out of that bloody time loop, throwing gruesome creatures and murderers their way.

Wendigos, some cannibalistic creatures pulled straight from Until Dawn (the video game), are chasing all the friends at the end, causing them to split their ways. Clover (Ella Rubin), who is also the film's need and the reason everyone is in that house as a part of a squad finding her lost sister, somehow finds and enters Dr. Hill's cabin.

After a conversation over a coffee (which she has poisoned) with Dr. Hill in his office, where there's an entire setup from which he is overlooking everything, Dr. Hill explodes. She was actually finding keys to unlock a cell where Megan (Ji-young Yoo) is strapped to a chair.

All of it is happening in one underground town and now all the friends crawl out of it and make it to the top and see the light of the sun, confirming that all of them made it until dawn.

Is that the end? Or something still lies ahead?

There's an underground town in Until Dawn. (Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Peter Stormare's Dr. Hill no doubt had some explosive send-off, but we can hear someone humming at the end of the film. What's more is that now there is another setup akin to the one that kept tabs on the underground town, but it's shifted to a snowy cabin. Maybe that's a nod to the video game where the events happen in a similar snowy cabin.

Also, we see some mysterious giants appear in the film, but they appear more like some common phenomenon, given what the group has seen throughout this death cycle. However, this and the setup instance are indications that another movie might be in place.

But that would depend on how the film performs at the box office. And, of course, how fans will receive it.