Time Cut Plot Summary
Time Cut is a Netflix sci-fi slasher movie that follows Lucy, a high schooler living in a small town named Sweetly, whose entire life is defined by the older sister who died at the hands of a murderer in 2003 — Summer. Summer was killed a few years before Lucy was born, along with three of her friends — Val, Brian, and Emmy. Her parents are still grieving while also being overly protective of Lucy. When she gets a NASA internship in a different city, they are less than enthusiastic.
While visiting a memorial to Summer, Lucy notices a light in a barn nearby. She goes to investigate and finds a machine which takes her back to the year 2003. Lucy meets Summer and then befriends a boy named Quinn when she stops bullies (Ethan and Brian who are also Summer’s friends) from throwing him into a river.
Lucy tries to stop the first murders, of Val and Brian but isn’t able to. In fact, her intervention causes the death of a security guard that hadn’t happened before. Quinn cautions her not to intervene in the past and focus on returning to the future. Is Lucy able to save Summer? Does she return to the future? Here’s the full explanation of the movie and how it ends!
Are Lucy, Quinn and Summer able to save Emmy?
Quinn and Lucy realise that the time machine is made by SONR, the company where Lucy’s father works. When Lucy tries to steal her dad’s SONR passkey from the house, Summer catches her. She demands to know what’s going on and Lucy tells her the truth, showing her a letter signed by ‘E’ that she found under Summer’s bedroom floorboards in 2024. Summer later gets the same letter in her locker and believes Lucy’s telling the truth.
Meanwhile, Lucy and Quinn figure out that they need SONR’s anti-matter capsule to charge up the time machine. Summer then joins them and asks who will be dying next. When Lucy says it is Emmy, Summer insists that they try to save her.
The three of them go to the marine museum and manage to save Emmy from the killer and run away before any of them get hurt. More hopeful now, Lucy tells Quinn that Summer is going to die next and that they need to save her too.
Does Lucy tell Summer about her death?
After saving Emmy, Lucy tells Summer she knows Summer and Emmy have romantic feelings for each other. The letter from ‘E’ was Emmy. Summer had promised she would come out to her parents but then hadn’t.
Summer then asks Lucy why their parents had her so late. This sets Lucy thinking and the next morning, she asks her parents if they would ever have another child. They laugh the idea off and Lucy realises they only had her because Summer died. So, if Summer lives, she dies.
Lucy then heads to Quinn’s garage where she finds a letter where he professes his love to Summer. When Quinn realises Lucy is unsure about saving Summer, they argue and he storms off.
Who is the Sweetly Slasher?
Having decided to save Summer and sacrifice herself, Lucy tells Summer the truth and says that she has a plan. Later that night, Lucy goes to the SONR lab and is pleasantly surprised when Quinn arrives to help. They sneak into the facilities and steal an anti-matter capsule, although they realise that the slasher has already stolen one. The killer is from the future! He’s the one who got the machine.
Meanwhile, Summer goes to the Spring Fling party and kisses Emmy in front of everyone, telling her she loves her. She then goes to the barn where she is supposed to die, luring the slasher there. Just as he’s about to attack her, Lucy and Quinn’s car crashes into him. He doesn’t die but his mask breaks off — it’s Quinn! But a Quinn from 20 years in the future.
Do Lucy, Summer and Quinn kill Older Quinn?
The three teenagers drive to Quinn’s place and lock themselves in the garage. Lucy puts the capsule into the time machine and it begins to charge up. Older Quinn breaks inside and reveals that it all started when Ethan and the others threw him inside the river. He says Summer laughed as he screamed. She also later rejected him when he confessed his feelings for her. So, he decided to kill her and all her close friends.
When the machine is fully charged, Lucy grabs Older Quinn and transports both of them to 2024. They turn up in a parking lot where they fight and Lucy ends up stabbing Older Quinn. She then takes the anti-matter capsule from his jacket and considers it.
How does Time Cut end?
Back in 2003, Summer tells Quinn that she wishes she had told Lucy it was nice to have her as a sister. That’s when Lucy turns up in front of them and reveals that she used Older Quinn’s capsule to return to 2003. Her parents in 2024 didn’t recognize her and she didn’t feel like she belonged there anyway. From Lucy’s hints about the future, Summer seems healthy and alive.
At the end of the film, Lucy is settled in with Summer as her sister and Quinn as her new best friend. She even applies to a NASA internship and mentions her newfound appreciation for the present in her statement of purpose.
Read More: Time Cut Movie Review