I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

Plot

One year after the events of the first film, Julie James is attending summer classes in Boston, in avoidance of returning to her hometown of Southport. She suffers from memories and nightmares of the accident and brutal murders of her friends by the vengeful fisherman, Ben Willis, the summer before.

Julie's friend Karla Wilson receives a phone call from a local radio station, asking her to participate in a contest to win an all-expenses-paid vacation to the Bahamas for the Fourth of July weekend. Karla must guess the capital of Brazil. Her answer is "Rio de Janeiro". The radio host tells her she is right (despite the fact that the correct answer is Brasília) and she is given four tickets for the trip. Julie invites her boyfriend, Ray Bronson, but he declines. He is hurt by her earlier refusal to visit him in Southport. Ray, intending to propose to Julie, changes his mind about the trip, planning to show up as a surprise.

That evening, Ray and his co-worker Dave drive to Boston to meet Julie. They stop due to a BMW and body in the middle of the road. Ray gets out to inspect the scene, only to find the body to be a mannequin dressed in fisherman's clothing. Suddenly, Ben Willis appears and kills Dave with his hook. Ben takes Ray's truck and chases him down the road. Ray gets away, but he is injured from falling down a hill.

The next morning, Julie and Karla depart on the trip with Karla’s boyfriend Tyrell and their friend, Will Benson. Knowing that Will has a crush on Julie, Karla invited him as a replacement for Ray, much to Julie's discomfort. The group arrives hotel in Tower Bay, only to find that other guests are leaving due to the imminent hurricane season. To her surprise, Julie is sharing a hotel room with Will. That evening at the hotel’s bar, Julie is talked into singing karaoke. She stops when the words “I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER” roll onto the screen. Terrified, she runs back to her room and is met by Will, who laid out for her flowers and a love note. Julie sidesteps Will's affection for her, while Tyrell and Karla (and later Will) get into the hot tub.

Julie notices her toothbrush is missing. Feeling something is wrong, she searches the room and finds Darick, the dockhand, hanging dead in the closet. She finds Tyrell, Karla, and Will, but when they return there is no sign of Darick's body. The hotel manager refuses to believe her story and Julie tries to call the police, but the phone lines are dead due to an incoming hurricane. The group and the hotel staff prepare for the storm. Meanwhile, Ben arrives at the hotel and kills the employees. Olga, the maid, is stabbed in the back while the pool boy, Titus, is impaled with a pair of garden shears.

The following day, the group finds that the hotel staff and the manager have been murdered, and the two-way radio, their only way of contact, has been destroyed. Isolated, Julie tells the others about the previous summer. Tyrell suspects that Estes, the boat hand porter, is the killer, since he is the only one who cannot be found. The group goes to Estes’ apartment, searching for clues. They find Julie’s toothbrush and Karla's hair tie, concluding Estes has been using voodoo to protect them. Estes appears and states the capital of Brazil is not Rio, meaning the trip was a set-up. He leads them to a graveyard in the forest with the graves of Ben's wife and daughter, and an empty grave and tombstone with Julie’s name. Estes explains that Ben and his wife Sarah had two children: son Will and daughter Susie. Ben murdered Sarah in the hotel room that Julie is staying in when he found out about her affair and her plans to leave him with their children. In anger, Julie shouts that she will not be killed by Ben and that they will fight against him.

Estes goes missing, and Will volunteers to find him. Julie, Karla, and Tyrell return to the hotel and gather supplies to defend themselves. They head to the hotel kitchen for something to eat, and find Nancy, the bartender, hiding in the freezer. Will finds Estes, but he attacks Will while Ray takes a boat to the island. Ben appears and stabs Tyrell in the throat with his hook, killing him. The girls retreat to the attic, where Karla is attacked by Ben. They both fall through to the hotel bedroom below. Karla runs from the room and jumps onto the greenhouse. Julie and Nancy rescue Karla and run to the storm cellar to take refuge. They find that the storm cellar stores Ben's victims. Will bursts in and convinces the girls to head back to the hotel, stating that he saw Ben on the beach.

Back at the hotel, Julie sees Will is bleeding from his stomach, so Nancy takes Karla to find a first aid kit. While retrieving the kit, Nancy and Karla find Estes has been impaled with a harpoon. Ben appears and kills Nancy. Back in the lobby, Julie is tending to Will, unable to find a wound. Will admits this is because it is not his blood. He asks Julie what her favorite radio station is, revealing he was the radio host and killed Estes. Will drags Julie to the graveyard, and tells her he is Ben's son, explaining his actions. Ben appears and attacks Julie. Ray arrives, and a fight ensues between him and Will. When Ben tries to stab Ray, he accidentally kills Will instead. While Ben is distraught from killing his son, Julie takes a gun and shoots him in the chest. Ben falls dead into the grave made for Julie. Ray comforts Julie. Back at the hotel, Karla is found alive. The three are rescued by the coast guard.

Sometime later, Ray and Julie have married and are in their new home. Ray is brushing his teeth before bed and Julie is in their bedroom. The bathroom door is quietly shut and locked while Ray is occupied. Julie sits down on her bed, looks in the mirror, and sees Ben under the bed. She screams as Ben grabs her feet with his hook and hand and pulls her under.

Cast

Production

While the film is set in The Bahamas, it was actually shot at El Tecuan Marina Resort Costalagree, in Jalisco, Mexico; Los Angeles, California; and Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

Box Office

The sequel made a gross $16.5 million at 2,443 theaters during its opening weekend. Unlike the original, the sequel opened at number two at the box office and dropped to number five only a week later. At the end of its fifteen-week run, the film grossed $40,020,622 in the United States. It grossed $44 million internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $84 million.

Critical reception

The film received highly negative reviews, with an overall rating of 7% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics consensus being "Boring; predictable." It also has a 21 score on Metacritic compared to 52 for the original. The highest review score on Metacritic was 60 which came from Variety, who said "Purists will find the pic's obviousness disappointing, but there's no question that the film delivers a sufficient shock quotient to satisfy its youthful target audience". The film, much like the original, has obtained a "cult following".

Soundtrack

1. "Sugar Is Sweeter" (CJ Bolland; Danny Saber remix featuring Justin Warfield) – 4:57
2. "How Do I Deal" (Jennifer Love Hewitt) – 3:23
3. "Relax" (Deetah) – 3:51
4. "Hey Now Now" (Swirl 360) – 4:37
5. "Blue Monday" (Orgy) – 4:32
6. "Polite" (Bijou Phillips) – 4:25
7. "Try to Say Goodbye" (Jory Eve) – 3:35
8. "Testimony" (Grant Lee Buffalo) – 3:59
9. "(Do You) Wanna Ride" (Reel Tight) – 3:33
10. "Getting Scared" (Imogen Heap) – 4:51
11. "Górecki" (Lamb) – 6:22
12. "Julie's Theme" (John Frizzell) – 2:52

The soundtrack was released on November 17, 1998 by Warner Bros. Records. On January 19, 1999, "How Do I Deal" was released a single, backed by Jory Eve's "Try to Say Goodbye". A music video for "How Do I Deal" was made available to music television networks.

Stand-alone sequel

On August 22, 2006, a straight-to-DVD sequel titled I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer was released. The film is unrelated to the two previous films, and features no returning cast members. It was originally proposed to continue where I Still Know What You Did Last Summer left off. Instead, the film features an unrelated plot with a brief mention of the first two films.