Time Cut Ending Explained: Revealing the Killer and Plot Twist

The most-watched Netflix film, Don’t Move, offers a delightful fusion of classic horror slasher, time travel, and nostalgia for the noughties.

Who is the Sweetly Slasher killer, and does Lucy return to her past? These are two crucial questions that the film’s conclusion must address.

Lucy Field, a senior in high school, is unintentionally sent back in time to 2003 through a mysterious time machine in this film, which stars Ginny and Georgia’s Antonia Gentry and Madison Bailey from Outer Banks.

The Sweetly Slasher, a serial killer who killed four teenagers in a three-day killing spree twenty years ago, gave Lucy a chance to make amends for the wrongs that led to the murder of her sister, Summer.

Would Lucy be able to watch Summer and her friends be killed? Altering the past might have repercussions for the future. If the timey-wimey left you perplexed, let’s go into Time Cut’s conclusion to clarify everything, including the identity of the Sweetly Slasher killer.

Why Lucy Chooses to Stay in 2003 in Time Cut’s Ending Explained

Lucy returns to her original 2024 timeline after killing the Sweetly Slasher and saving her sister in 2003. But by altering the past, she ultimately creates a new timeline for the future in which she shouldn’t exist. According to Time Cut, Summer’s parents were happy that Summer was their only child.

It wasn’t until the Sweetly Slasher killed Summer that they decided to have another child. Summer’s survival eliminates Lucy’s existence in the new future timeline because their choice to have Lucy depended on Summer’s outcome.

In the final moments of Time Cut, Lucy appears to regret deleting the timeline she spent nearly her entire life in, but she also comes to terms with the fact that she will have more time to spend with the sister she never met.

Because of this, when Lucy returns to 2024, she finds that everything has changed. Her parents don’t recognize her, so she has no incentive to stay. She returns to the 2003 timeline, where she feels she can live comfortably for the rest of her life after realizing she enjoyed her life there more.

Lucy appears to be sad about ending the timeline she spent nearly her entire life in during Time Cut’s closing moments, but she also comes to terms with the fact that she will have more time to spend with the sister she never met.

How Summer’s Survival and Sweetly Slasher’s Death Impact the Future in Time Cut?

In Time Cut, Lucy’s choice to alter the past has multiple effects on the future. First, Summer’s survival guarantees that Lucy won’t be born in the future because her parents never planned to have her until Summer died.

Additionally, the survival of their first child spares the parents from the sorrow that accompanies Summer’s death in the original timeline. Summer’s survival allows her to spend more time with her sister and get to know her better, even though Lucy is erased from the future and lost in time.

However, the conclusion of Time Cut is illogical, and this isn’t easy to ignore. A significant bootstrap paradox is created, in which Lucy is present but never “created.”

Even though she erased her existence after saving Summer, she manages to live on in the future and assess the effects of her previous deeds. In a never-ending cycle, she is both a cause of her erasure and a product of her sister’s fate.

Why Quinn Becomes the Sweetly Slasher Killer in the Future?

Lucy, Summer, and the “past” Quinn are all left wondering what happened to Quinn when the “future” Quinn eventually confesses that he is the Sweetly Slasher Killer. He discloses that he became resentful of those who mistreated him after being thrown into the river by the seniors and harassed by everyone at school.

Although he once liked Summer, she also made fun of him when he was bullied. He wrote a love letter to her, expressing his deepest feelings, but she rejected him, stating that she could never love him in such a way.

Before focusing on Summer, Quinn killed all of her close friends in an attempt to exact revenge after growing weary of being shunned and harassed. To avoid any legal consequences for his actions, he went back in time, carried out his plan, and then hoped to get lost in time.

He was unaware that Summer’s unborn sister Lucy would eventually journey back in time and make some important adjustments to the timeline that would guarantee Summer’s survival and stop the “past” Quinn from turning into the Sweetly Slasher Killer.

What Are the Science and Rules Behind Time Travel in Time Cut?

Time Cut’s depiction of time travel pushes the limits of what is currently understood about physics, even though it incorporates some genuine scientific ideas throughout its duration. Because of this, the scientific elements of the movie should not be taken too seriously and should only be viewed as narrative devices that emphasize themes of grief and the repercussions of one’s actions.

In Time Cut, Quinn and Lucy briefly discuss the time machine’s operation. They understand that the machine can have two entangled particles on either end because it fires a laser from point A and anti-matter from point B.

This interaction between the two particles would, by the logic of the Netflix sci-fi film, create a microscopic wormhole that connects to the timeline they want to visit. When real science is considered, an interaction between matter and anti-matter would destroy both and result in an explosion rather than a stable wormhole.

Although rubidium, the anti-matter element used in the movie, is real, it lacks any special properties that would make it easier to create a wormhole. In the context of general relativity, wormholes are theoretically possible.

Nevertheless, the concept of constructing wormholes that connect to the past has not been implemented in reality and will necessitate the application of intricate physics that today appears unattainable.

If a character creates a time machine, it stands to reason that they shouldn’t be able to go back to a time machine when it doesn’t exist. The rationale for this is that if they transported themselves to a period before the time machine was invented, it would lead to a paradox in which their actions might stop the machine from being created.

Several plot developments in Time Cut create this paradox, but the film does not emphasize that it lacks plot holes. The Netflix horror film presents a straightforward concept or principle in which the time traveler uses the time machine to return. As a result, the time machine can exist in any timeline the visitor chooses.

Who Created the Time Machine in Time Cut?

It appears clear that Quinn invented the time machine, even though Time Cut makes no mention of who did it. He created the time machine to go back in time and punish those who had wronged him after being bullied at school and becoming bitter over Summer’s rejection.

He never gets caught for his crimes because he killed Summer and her friend and used the machine to escape in time. In the 2003 timeline, Lucy’s high school teacher even refers to Quinn as a physics genius when they first meet, further confirming that Quinn was the future inventor of the machine.

How Does Time Cut’s Ending Set Up a Sequel in Time Cut 2?

In Time Cut 2, Summer and Lucy might find themselves in a new scenario where they must go back in time or into the future to stop specific things from happening, much like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

Or, after learning the harsh consequences of deleting her initial timeline, Lucy might regret her decision to remain in 2003 in Time Cut’s conclusion. This might lead her to embark on a new time-traveling quest in which she seeks the lost life and the kinship ties she desperately desires.

Another possibility for a Time Cut sequel would be to examine Quinn’s eventual transformation into the Sweetly Slasher Killer, independent of Lucy’s actions. Since the concept of alternate timelines is mentioned in Time Cut, the sequel might also present the idea of multiverse theory by presenting various realities with multiple versions of the same characters.

Time Cut can explore various narrative possibilities with possible sequels thanks to its time-travel concepts. But in the end, Time Cut’s success on Netflix will decide the sequel’s fate.

About Time Cut

Time Cut is a 2024 American science fiction slasher film directed by Hannah MacPherson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy. It stars Madison Bailey, Antonia Gentry and Griffin Gluck.

The plot follows Lucy, a girl who accidentally travels back in time (to 2003) and attempts to save her older sister Summer from a masked killer. The film was released by Netflix on October 30, 2024.

On April 18, 2003 high school senior Summer Field unenthusiastically attends the senior class celebration Spring Fling, as her close friends Emmy, Brian and Val have recently met their demise at the hand of the serial killer The Sweetly Slasher. Her lifelong friend Quinn tries to give her an envelope she brushes aside, neither is she interested in dancing with her recent ex Ethen.

As Summer is in a back bathroom, the police are shutting down the party and everyone is rushing out the front. A masked figure lunges at her with a knife, so she escapes out back towards the barn where he takes her down.

Over 20 years later, high school student and amateur inventor Lucy Field accidentally finds a time machine and travels back to 2003, the year her sister was murdered by an unknown killer.