The It saga is a complex story with a lot
of moving parts, and at times, things can get a bit confusing. But don't worry about getting lost in the
details. We're here to explain everything you need
to understand the full story of the movies made from Stephen King's gargantuan novel. The otherworldly being who often appears as
Pennywise arrived in Derry millions of years ago on an asteroid. That's kind of all the origin we get from
the movies. In the book, It is billions of years old and
hails from a dimension known as the Macroverse. In prehistoric times, after arriving on the
asteroid, It hibernated until humans appeared, beginning its cycle of awakening every 27
years to feed on people. Its true form, known as the Deadlights, cannot
be fully comprehended by human beings, and looking upon them can drive someone insane. Beverly Marsh manages to glimpse them in the
first film and make it out with her sanity, though she is cursed with morbid visions. It's mortal enemy is even more bizarre: A
giant turtle named Maturin, who created our universe. The turtle is a benevolent being of creation
rather than consumption. The films opted to omit the turtle, aside
from some quick Easter eggs. The story of It starts in October 1988 - it's
1957 in the novel - when 7-year-old Georgie Denbrough ventures into a rainstorm to play
with a paper sailboat that his older brother Bill made for him. The boat gets away from Georgie, and goes
down a storm drain. Georgie attempts to fish the boat out, only
to discover that there is a clown down there. Though Georgie doesn't know it, this clown
is Pennywise, who has just awoken from its 27-year slumber. Pennywise entices Georgie to come into the
sewer, promising not only to give him his boat back, but also telling him that an entire
circus is waiting for him down there. "What are you doing in the sewer?" "Storm blew me away. Blew the whole circus away." Georgie is a little suspicious, but he still
wants his boat back, so when Pennywise offers it to him, Georgie goes for it. Pennywise bites his arm off and drags him
into the sewer. No one in Derry knows what happened to Georgie,
and the town eventually moves on, assuming that he drowned. Except Bill, that is. Bill is the de facto leader of the Losers
Club, whose original members include Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stan Uris. The club adds more members in the first film:
Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, and Mike Hanlon. Everyone in the group is an outcast in their
own way. Bill has a stutter, Beverly is rumored to
be promiscuous, Ben is overweight, Mike is seemingly the only black kid in town, Stan
is a weakling, Richie is a loudmouth, and Eddie is sickly. The gang bonds over their various shortcomings,
and they spend the entire summer of 1989 together. Many members of the Losers' Club are also
suffering from private traumas. Beverly's father is abusive, which makes the
bullying she takes for her supposed promiscuity all the more hurtful. Eddie has an overprotective mother who refuses
to let him do anything on his own. Mike is an orphan who watched his parents
burn alive. And Bill is still mourning the disappearance
of his little brother, for which he feels responsible. "I go home, and all I see is that Georgie
isn't there." Ben develops a major crush on Beverly, going
so far as to write her a love poem from a secret admirer. "Your hair is winter fire. January embers. My heart burns there, too." Beverly cherishes the poem and comes to believe
Bill wrote it, and as a result, develops feelings for him, much to Ben's chagrin. Even after discovering that Ben was her mystery
poet after he revives her from her Deadlights-induced coma with a kiss, Beverly is unable to dismiss
her feelings for Bill. Bill and Beverly share a kiss after Pennywise
is defeated. In It: Chapter Two, this love triangle continues. The Losers all go their separate ways, and
in the ensuing 27 years, Ben physically transforms from an overweight kid to a wealthy and attractive
man. Beverly certainly notices when the gang reunites
as adults, but it's still Bill she pines for. Bill and Bev share a kiss, but during the
final battle with Pennywise, Bev finally remembers her feelings for Ben, and they end up together. Following Georgie's disappearance, other children,
such as Betty Ripsom and Edward Corcoran, go missing. Ben begins researching the town's history
and finds that that disappearances seem to spike in the town every 27 years. After joining the Losers Club and learning
how they're trying to find out what happened to Georgie, Ben shares his research. And it's not always Pennywise who directly
causes the killings. His evil influence infects the town whenever
he awakes, causing violence to spike. In the novel, the role of town historian belongs
to Mike rather than Ben. Mike first learns of the town's sordid history
from his father, who keeps a photo album filled with pictures of Derry's history that consequently
features a number of photos of Pennywise. In both the movies and the book, Mike is the
only Loser to stay behind in Derry after the rest of his friends part ways, becoming the
town librarian and furthering his knowledge. Pennywise appears to each Loser separately,
first appearing as one of their worst fears before turning to its clown form. Bill sees Georgie in his basement, Mike sees
burning bodies trying to escape a building, Eddie sees a deformed leper, Stan sees a ghoulish
painting come to life, Beverly is attacked by hair and blood from her bathroom sink,
Ben is chased by a headless man in the library, and Richie sees a maggot-infested doll of
himself. The Losers quickly deduce that this clown
must be behind the child disappearances in Derry. Pennywise also appears to Henry Bowers, the
vicious town bully who torments the Losers, using Henry as an agent of destruction. Pennywise must eat humans to survive: It's
only purpose is to consume. And while It does sometimes kill adults, It
greatly prefers children. According to Pennywise, people taste better
when they're afraid, and children are easier to scare than adults. That's why Pennywise shapeshifts into whatever
its victims are most afraid of, and why it usually stalks them for a time. In the book, It compares this process to salting
meat. Appetizing, huh? The Losers decide to confront It head-on. They track Pennywise to the town's well house,
and have a terrifying confrontation that results in Eddie breaking his arm. Afterward, most of the Losers lose interest
and try to pretend like nothing ever happened. But that changes after Beverly is abducted
by the clown, which rallies the other Losers to rescue her. They follow her trail back to the well house,
where they're confronted by Henry Bowers, who has just killed his father under It's
influence. Mike gets the best of Henry and pushes him
into the well, seemingly killing him. The Losers then enter It's domain to search
for Beverly. In the book, there was no such rescue mission. The Losers head to the sewers for a final
confrontation with Pennywise, but they do so as a group. The filmmakers' decision to put the lone female
Loser in a situation where she needed to be saved led to criticism, with some accusing
the film of adding the damsel in distress trope to a story that didn't have it before. The Losers defeat Pennywise by proving they're
not afraid of it. "We're gonna have to kill this f---in' clown." They hurl insults at It and physically attack
it, causing It to retreat to an early hibernation. After realizing the importance of what they've
just gone through, Bill suggests the Losers make a blood oath to swear that if Pennywise
ever returns to Derry, they'll return to defeat It again. He finds a piece of broken glass, cuts each
of their palms, and then they all stand in a circle holding hands. All of the Losers eventually move away from
Derry except for Mike. Twenty-seven years pass, and all of those
who left gradually forget the events of their childhood. But Mike remembers everything. And when children start disappearing in the
town once again, he calls upon each of his old friends to return to Derry and fulfill
their oath. The Losers all find success as adults. Bill is a famous novelist. Ben is a successful architect. Beverly is a highly respected fashion designer. Eddie owns a successful risk management company. Richie is a famous stand-up comic. And Stan is a wealthy accountant in a loving
marriage. But despite their professional successes,
some are still feeling the effects of their childhood trauma. Beverly is married to a man who is physically
abusive, and Eddie is married to a woman who is very similar to his overbearing mother. But none are holding onto more trauma than
Stan. After receiving Mike's call, Stan immediately
remembers the harrowing events of his childhood. Unwilling to face It again, he draws a bath
and slits his wrists. He writes to the other Losers explaining his
actions, saying he knew he wouldn't be strong enough to face Pennywise again. The other six Losers reunite in Derry at a
Chinese restaurant, the first time they've been together in 27 years. As they begin to regain their memories, Pennywise
makes its presence known by taking on various disgusting forms in the group's fortune cookies
and informing them of Stan's death. Pennywise returns from its 27-year slumber,
bringing evil back to Derry along with it. Some locals brutally beat a gay couple and
throw one partner, Adrian, off a bridge. Pennywise pulls him out of the water and consumes
him. This scene kicks off It: Chapter Two, and
it's not the movie's last instance of homophobia. In a flashback, Richie is bullied for making
a pretty innocent pass at another boy. The film strongly implies that as an adult,
Richie is living as a closeted gay man. Pennywise tells him that he knows his secret,
which is likely that he's in love with Eddie. When It kills Eddie during the final battle,
his death hits Richie the hardest. Richie refuses to leave Eddie's side and has
to pretty much be pulled away by the other Losers. He later cries uncontrollably while the other
Losers fondly remember Eddie. At the end of the film, Richie revisits a
secret carving of his and Eddie's initials he made as a child and re-carves it, showing
that he had loved Eddie all along. Despite being shoved down a well, Henry Bowers
survived. It: Chapter Two features a flashback where
Henry wakes up after being expelled from the sewer following Pennywise's defeat. He is then arrested for the death of his father
and spends the next 27 years in an insane asylum. Pennywise breaks Henry out of the asylum after
the Losers reunite as adults, doing so in the form of the corpse of Patrick Hockstetter,
a member of Henry's gang who became one of It's victims. Pennywise sends Henry after the Losers, telling
him to kill Eddie first. Henry stabs Eddie in the cheek, but Eddie
removes the knife and stabs Henry back. Henry also attacks Mike in the library, but
Richie kills him before he has a chance to do much damage. In Stephen King's novel, the only way to defeat
It is through the Ritual of Chüd, a psychic battle of wills fought on the astral plane. Maturin explains the ritual to Bill as a child,
and Bill uses it to defeat It during their first encounter. As an adult, Bill's imagination is too weak
to defeat It, so he gets help from the other Losers and they are able to kill It for good. The Ritual of Chüd is not mentioned at all
in the first film, and in the second, it's very different from the book. Mike describes it as an ancient ritual used
by the Native Americans of the area to keep Pennywise at bay. The ritual requires all those who take part
to burn an item that is sacred to them while chanting for the lights to go dark. Doing this summons It's true form, which can
then be trapped in the jar. Pretty much the entire second act of It: Chapter
Two consists of each of the Losers locating their tokens for the ritual in Derry, with
each of them remembering more from their pasts while encountering Pennywise. All six surviving Losers head to Pennywise's
lair for the Ritual of Chüd, which doesn't work. It turns out the ritual didn't work for the
Native Americans either. Mike secretly knew this, but he thought the
Losers could pull it off with their shared belief. Pennywise then battles the Losers, killing
Eddie in the process. The rest are then able to defeat It by continually
insulting It like they did when they were younger, causing It to shrink to a tiny size,
after Mike remembers a Native American proverb about all living things abiding by the laws
of the shape they inhabit. They are then able to pull out It's heart
and crush it, destroying Pennywise for good. "Losers stick together." The Losers again go their separate ways, but
this time - unlike the ending of the book - they remember everything that happened. This time, the evil seems to really be gone. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite
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