See You Yesterday: Netflix: Ending Explained

See You Yesterday has just dropped on Netflix and the new time travel film has a hell of a lot to unpack from it.

The movie is being touted as Back To The Future meets The Hate U Give and throughout there’s lots of symbolism and metaphor that really elevates the film above your typical time travel affair.

Throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the movie as well as what I took from it’s ending.

This is full spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen See You Yesterday yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly recommend that you turn off now.

With that out the way, I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, I hope you enjoy it, now sit back, relax and let’s get into my breakdown of See you yesterday.

See You Yesterday Plot Recap

The film follows Best friends CJ and Sebastian who are working on a machine that has the ability to send to two back into the past. Whilst the movie initially has a rather playful tone to it, things quickly change for the pair when CJ’s Brother, Calvin, is tragically killed by Policemen after a case of mistaken identity.

Instantly this grounds the movie and going into this film knowing very little it wasn’t a turn that I was expecting. The duo decides that they have to go back to stop the tragedy but the real tragedy is that they shouldn’t have to in the first place. The movie takes a firm stance that police brutality and the deaths of innocent lives in stops similar to what we see play out are becoming too much of a problem to be ignored. We have made it far to easy to kill one another and this is a pretty firm statement that we need to reassess how we as people treat one another. Whilst police get a pretty bad rap, it also paints the opposite side of the argument with the gangs in the film having as much blood on their hands as the apparent oppressors.

See You Social Commentary

Though the film is laced with social commentary, what I love about See you yesterday is that it doesn’t beat you over the head with it, the movie paints both sides of the argument in all of its issues. There’s an amazing scene to do with Feminism and Men standing up for women in an overly protective way with both characters putting their pro’s and cons across which makes the movie easy to appreciate and lets you know that this piece is here to make you think rather than tell you what you should.

This too is reflected in CJ who is an extremely complex character and she holds a lot of guilt over her aggressiveness and has to learn throughout the film that her hot-headedness gets her in more trouble than it doesn’t.

Michael J. Fox who plays CJ’s teacher in an amazing cameo, argues probably the biggest point of the film with the fact that Time Travel ethically and philosophically poses one of the biggest conundrum ever as this power would mean that the possessor would have to decide what to change and well…what not to. During the movie, CJ soon realises that her actions inadvertently cause more problems with Sebastian being killed in the past due to her actions and though she saves her brother because of this, it’s at a cost.

This really laces the movie with complexity and shows that sometimes there is no right answer.

See You Yesterday: Ending Explained

Anyway, CJ discovers that she must tune her time travel device frequency to the previous jump and this would allow her to go back without Sebastian knowing and from her divert to her brother to stop him from ever crossing paths with the police. However, things aren’t that simple and watching the police arrive once more is an extremely tense moment that had me with my hands on my face wondering what would happen.

In the end, Calvin sacrifices himself to avert the death of Sebastian once more and this is a really heartbreaking moment that really showcases the struggle that people have to go through in these kinds of situations. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t message that cements that as long as we don’t learn from these tragedies that they will forever continue to haunt us.

These over the top stops and overt aggressiveness with the whole guilty until proven mindstate that the police take towards black youths will forever cause the past to repeat itself and for us to watch more teenagers faces splashed across the news.

The main thing that I took from it is that we cannot change the past no matter how much we try. Instead, we must learn from our losses and go forward with this new knowledge in order to improve our future. We can never get back those that have been lost but instead, in their memory, we have to go forth with one another and stand up for each others rights.

See You Yesterday True Meaning

The final scene involves CJ going back once more to try and attempt to stop it again though we don’t get confirmation that she succeeds. Whilst it’s a nihilistic viewpoint, I personally don’t believe that she does and that once more she will be stuck with more loss, whether it’s her brother or another innocent bystander.

That’s the true message of this, there will forever be those at the wayside brought into murders like this because the police seem to be only willing to draw guns instead of talking things out.

In addition to this, the last shot of her running could be sacrificing herself as she realises she is the only one who can stop the entire event. This would too destroy the time machine and mean that the cycle has ended with Calvin and Sebastian ending up safe.

There’s no clear answer but there doesn’t need to be either as there is no end in sight to the violence. Instead what we must take from this movie is that we have to change the way we think, act and behave towards one another in order to progress positively into the future.

My Review

See You Yesterday is a powerful movie that stuck with me long after I finished watching it. The piece is arguably one of the best Netflix Originals that has been released this year and it’s difficult to really find fault with it. The acting is realistic, grounded and earnest and the social subtext is laced throughout to let you draw your own conclusions, meaning that the film will be accessible to all.

This is already one of the strongest time travel stories I’ve ever seen and the fact that it is so easily applicable to modern day makes it relatable from start to finish.

See You Yesterday is the one to watch on Netflix this weekend and I definitely recommend that you cancel your plans to sit down and take it all in.

This is outstanding

Your Thoughts

Obviously, Id love to hear your thoughts on the film and what you took from it. Comment below and let me know and if you enjoyed this video then please like it and make sure you check out my breakdown of this weeks other big movie, John Wick Chapter 3, which will be linked at the end.