Spoiler warning: the following text reveals the killer, the deaths, and the ending of I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).
The Fisherman is Ben Willis, played by Muse Watson. He is the man Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry hit with their car on July 4, 1996, but he survived being left in the sea. A year later, he hunts the four friends for revenge. There is another layer to their secret: before the collision, Ben had murdered David Egan, whom he blamed for the death of his daughter Susie. The film ends with Julie and Ray alive, Ben missing at sea, and one last threat that prevents a reassuring conclusion.
The hit-and-run and the four friends' pact
In the coastal town of Southport, Julie James, Ray Bronson, Helen Shivers, and Barry Cox celebrate Independence Day. Helen has just won a local beauty pageant. After the party and a stop at the beach, the group drives home. Ray is behind the wheel, but Barry's recklessness and distractions unsettle the passengers. The car strikes a man on the road.
Julie wants to contact the authorities, while the others fear that the accident will destroy their plans for the future. When Max drives past, the friends conceal what has happened. They carry the victim to the water to dispose of the body. The man is still showing signs of life and grabs Helen before being thrown into the sea. Instead of calling for help, the group makes a pact of silence. That decision, even more than the impact itself, becomes the source of the guilt running through the story.
One year later: the letter, the suspicions, and the threats
In 1997, Julie returns from college and receives an anonymous message saying that someone knows what happened the previous summer. The four reunite with their friendships damaged and their ambitions derailed. Barry suspects Max, who drove past on the night of the accident, but the suspicion proves unfounded.
The killer, wearing a fisherman's dark raincoat and hat and carrying a hook, murders Max. He then runs Barry down with a car and injures him without killing him at that point. Helen wakes to discover that someone has cut her hair while she slept and left a threat on her mirror. Julie finds Max's body in her car trunk, but it vanishes before she can show the others. The attacks make clear that the stalker knows their secret and is tracking their everyday lives.
Who was David Egan, and what does Billy Blue mean?
Julie investigates a body recovered after the accident and initially concludes that the man they hit was David Egan. She and Helen visit David's sister, Missy. Missy speaks about her brother's death, considered a suicide, and mentions a visitor who introduced himself as Billy Blue. A message attributed to David also troubles Julie because its writing resembles the threatening note she received.
The investigation uncovers an older tragedy: Susie Willis died in a car accident involving David. Susie's father, Ben Willis, blamed David and murdered him. On the night Ben was returning from that act of revenge, the four friends hit Ben, not David, with their car. The man believed dead after the first summer is therefore the person who comes back to punish them.
The name Billy Blue creates an important false lead. When Julie spots the name on a boat associated with Ray, she suspects her boyfriend. Ray, however, had visited Missy out of guilt and a need to learn who had been struck on the road. The boat's name is not evidence that he is the murderer.
The order of the murders and the confrontation during the festivities
- Max: the Fisherman kills him after the friends wrongly suspect him of sending the letter.
- Barry: he survives the initial attack but is later murdered within Helen's sight during the beauty pageant.
- Police officer: while escorting Helen after Barry's death, the officer is attacked and killed.
- Elsa: Helen's sister is murdered in the family store, where Helen seeks shelter.
- Helen: she flees through town during the celebrations but is caught and killed near the festivities.
David Egan belongs to the backstory rather than the attacks on the group: his death is tied to Ben's revenge for Susie. The chronology also shows that the Fisherman kills people other than those directly involved in the hit-and-run.
Who is the Fisherman, and why does Ben Willis seek revenge?
Ben has two connected but distinct motives. First, he blamed David for Susie's death and murdered him. Later, after the teenagers hit Ben and threw him into the sea without getting help, he decided to punish them for abandoning him and concealing what they had done. The hat, raincoat, and hook obscure his identity until the reveal aboard the boat.
The revelation does not morally exonerate Julie, Ray, Helen, or Barry. They did not kill the man they struck, but knowingly chose to hide the accident and abandon someone who was still alive. That contrast between the guilt they imagined and the responsibility they actually bear gives the ending its irony.
Ending explained: the boat, Ben's hand, and the survivors
After becoming suspicious of Ray because of Billy Blue, Julie accepts help from another fisherman and boards his boat. She discovers too late that the man is Ben Willis. Inside the vessel, she finds evidence of his stalking and the bodies of Helen and Barry. Ben pursues her through the boat as Ray manages to follow and reach her.
In the final confrontation, Ray turns the vessel's equipment and rigging against the killer. Ben loses the hand holding the hook and falls into the sea. His body is not recovered. Julie and Ray survive and reconnect, but the missing body means the film does not establish that Ben died then. The threat remains unresolved without the ending confirming that another attack has succeeded.
What happens in the last scene? Was there an alternate ending?
Another year later, Julie is back at college. In a bathroom, a message appears on the steamed-up shower door, followed by the sudden lunge of a shadowy figure. This is the final scare in the version released in 1997. The scene does not confirm Julie's death: it closes on a threat and leaves her immediate fate unanswered.
There is an important distinction between the finished movie and earlier screenplay material. In a Bloody Disgusting analysis, Jason Jenkins described a Kevin Williamson draft that ended with Julie receiving a threatening email instead of the shower attack. That account concerns the screenplay examined by the writer; it does not demonstrate that the email scene appears in the theatrical cut. This recap covers the 1997 film and does not blend its story with the 1998 sequel or the 2025 production.
Sources and references
- Sony Pictures: official page for the 1997 film
- Horror Guys: detailed account of the movie's events (Brian Schell)
- Bloody Disgusting: retrospective on Ben Willis and the survivors (Jason Jenkins)
- Bloody Disgusting: comparison of the 1997 screenplay and the movie (Jason Jenkins)
- Rotten Tomatoes: 1997 film details and clips
- AdoroCinema: Brazilian title and film listing
