Time Cut Ending Explained: The Sweetly Slasher's Identity & Why Lucy Makes That Timeline Choice

Warning! This post contains spoilers for Netflix's Time Cut.

In its ending moments, Netflix's Time Cut not only discloses the true identity of the central Sweetly Slasher but also reveals Lucy's major timeline change decision. Directed by Hannah MacPherson of the School Spirits and Into The Dark fame, Time Cut introduces a high school senior student, Lucy Field, as its main character. Although Lucy is a high-achieving student who even lands an internship at NASA, she constantly feels like she is living in her sister's shadow, who was murdered by a serial killer labeled as the "Sweetly Slasher."

To Lucy's surprise, she accidentally discovers a time machine one day that sends her back to 2003. Her journey through time not only allows her to finally know her sister but also gives her the opportunity to change the future. Although changing the future comes with its own set of rippling consequences in the Netflix time travel movie, Lucy ultimately decides to save her sister before making one significant timeline decision.

Why Lucy Stays In 2003 In Time Cut's Ending

She Realizes She Cannot Live In The Alternate Future Her Time Travel Adventures Created

After saving her sister in 2003 and killing the Sweetly Slasher, Lucy decides to return to her original 2024 timeline. However, by changing the past, she ends up creating a new future timeline where she should not exist. Time Cut reveals that Lucy and Summer's parents were content with having Summer as their only child. They never planned to have another child until Summer was murdered by the Sweetly Slasher. Since their decision to have Lucy rested on Summer's fate, Summer's survival wipes Lucy's existence in the new future timeline.

Owing to this, when Lucy returns to 2024, she notices that nothing is the same anymore. Even her parents do not recognize her, giving her no reason to stay in the future. Realizing that she liked her life more in the 2003 timeline, she returns to it, believing she can comfortably live the rest of her life there. In Time Cut's ending moments, Lucy seemingly feels sad about erasing the timeline she lived in almost throughout her life but also learns to embrace the fact that she will get to spend more time with the sister she never knew.

How Summer's Survival & Sweetly Slasher's Death Changes The Future In Time Cut

Summer's Survival Wipes Lucy From Existence

Lucy's decision to change the past in Time Cut alters the future in more ways than one. For starters, since Lucy's parents never intended to have her until Summer passed away, Summer's survival ensures she is not born in the future. Their first child's survival also spares the parents from the grief they experienced in the original timeline when Summer died. Although Lucy gets wiped out of the future and gets lost in time, Summer's survival also gives her the chance to spend more time with her sister and know her better.

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Time Cut Cast & Character Guide

Apart from walking through a compelling time travel slasher drama, Netflix's Time Cut also features memorable characters played by talented actors.

However, it is hard not to notice how Time Cut's ending does not make a lot of sense. It creates a major bootstrap paradox where Lucy exists without ever being "created." Despite deleting her own existence after saving Summer, she is somehow able to exist in the future and gauge the consequences of her past actions. She gets entangled in an endless loop where she is both a result of her sister’s fate and a cause of her own erasure.

Why Quinn Became The Sweetly Slasher Killer In The Future

Quinn Became The Killer To Seek Revenge

When the "future" Quinn finally reveals that he is the Sweetly Slasher Killer, Lucy, Summer, and the "past" Quinn cannot help but wonder what happened to him. He reveals that after being constantly bullied by everyone in school and thrown in the river by the seniors, he grew resentful towards those who mistreated him. He used to like Summer, but she, too, laughed at him when he was bullied. He reached the end of his wits when he poured his heart out to her in a love letter, but she rejected him by saying she could never love him like that.

Tired of being rejected and bullied, Quinn decided to seek revenge by killing all of Summer's close friends before targeting her. He traveled back in time, executed his plan, and then hoped to get lost in time to avoid facing any legal repercussions for his actions. However, little did he realize that Summer's unborn sister, Lucy, would also eventually travel to the past and bring some significant changes to the timeline that would not only ensure Summer's survival but also prevent the "past" Quinn from becoming the Sweetly Slasher Killer.

The Science & Rules Behind Time Cut's Time Travel Explained

Time Cut Briefly Explains How Its Time Travel Works

Although Time Cut borrows some real scientific concepts throughout its runtime, its portrayal of time travel stretches the boundaries of the current understanding of physics a little too far. Owing to this, the film's scientific aspects should not be taken too seriously and only be seen as narrative devices to highlight themes surrounding grief and the rippling consequences of one's actions. In a brief scene, Quinn and Lucy discuss how the time machine in Time Cut works. They realize that it fires a laser from point A and anti-matter from point B, allowing the machine to have two entangled particles on either end.

According to the Netflix sci-fi movie's logic, this interaction between the two particles would create a microscopic wormhole that connects to the timeline they wish to travel to. When real science is considered, an interaction between matter and anti-matter would annihilate both and cause an explosion instead of a stable wormhole. The anti-matter element, rubidium, they use in the film is real but does not have any distinct qualities that would allow it to facilitate the creation of a wormhole. Even when it comes to wormholes, they are a theoretical possibility in general relativity.

However, the idea of creating wormholes connecting to the past has not been realized in practice and will require the use of complex physics that currently seems inaccessible. Logically, if a character invents a time machine, they should not be able to travel back to a timeline when the time machine does not exist. The reason being that if they traveled to a time when the time machine did not exist, it would create a paradox where their actions could prevent the invention of the machine itself.

Many plot developments in Time Cut create this paradox, but the movie avoids focusing on being free from plot holes. The Netflix horror movie introduces a simple idea/rule where the time machine travels to the past with the time traveler. This allows the time machine to exist in whichever timeline the traveler visits.

Who Created The Time Machine In Time Cut

The Movie Does Not Explicitly Reveal Who Created The Machine

Even though Time Cut does not mention who created the time machine, it seems obvious it was Quinn's invention. After being bullied throughout school and growing resentful towards Summer's rejection, he developed the time machine to travel to the past and punish those who wronged him. He killed Summer and her friend and used the machine to get lost in time, explaining why he never gets caught for his crimes. When Lucy meets her high school teacher in the 2003 timeline, the teacher even calls Quinn a physics genius, which further confirms he invented the machine in the future.

How Time Cut's Ending Sets Up Time Cut 2

Time Cut Could Take A Back To The Future-Esque Approach With Its Sequels

Like Marty McFly from Back to the Future, Summer and Lucy could find themselves in a new situation in Time Cut 2 where they must travel to the past or the future to prevent certain events from happening. Or, despite her decision to stay in 2003 in Time Cut's ending, Lucy could end up reconsidering her choices after realizing the harsh realities of erasing her original timeline. This could prompt her to start a new time-traveling journey where she looks for the life she lost and the familial connections she longs for.

A Time Cut sequel could also explore how, regardless of Lucy's actions, Quinn eventually ends up becoming the Sweetly Slasher Killer. Since Time Cut touches upon the idea of alternate timelines, the sequel could also introduce the concept of multiverse theory, showcasing different realities where several variants of the same characters exist. With its time-travel ideas, Time Cut can delve into multitudes of narrative avenues with potential sequels. However, the sequel's fate will ultimately be determined by Time Cut's performance on Netflix.

A teenage girl goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.

Director Hannah Macpherson

Release Date October 30, 2024

Writers Michael Kennedy , Hannah Macpherson

Cast Madison Bailey , Megan Best , Michael Shanks , Antonia Gentry , Griffin Gluck

Character(s) Lucy Field , Emmy Golden , Gil

Runtime 95 Minutes