The Ending Of Premonition Explained

"Premonition" is the 2007 Sandra Bullock psychological thriller, filmed in Louisiana, that presents a nightmare scenario: what if you found out your significant other was going to die soon? How would you try to stop it — or, would you even want to?

Bullock plays Linda, a woman who wakes up one day to discover that her husband Jim (Julian McMahon) died the previous day in a car accident. But this turns out to be the "premonition" from the film's title. The next day, Linda wakes up to find her husband is still alive. 

This gives Linda a chance to save her husband's life, but it's not that simple. After another time jump, this time to the day of Jim's funeral, Linda discovers that he had an affair. The movie keeps jumping back and forth to different days on the week in which Jim died, giving Linda a chance not just to save her husband's life, but to save her relationship with him, too. In the end, Linda is only able to accomplish one of those things. Here's what's up with the ending of "Premonition."

Before unpacking the ending, it's worth clarifying the admittedly confusing timeline of "Premonition" — Linda herself has to draw a chart for the week to figure out what happened on what day. Here are the major events of the film in chronological order:

On Monday, Jim is still alive. Tuesday, Linda's daughter Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness) runs through the plate-glass window, which required an emergency room visit. Jim dies the following day, which is Wednesday. On Thursday, Linda finds out Jim died the previous day in the car accident. Saturday is Jim's funeral, and also the day that Linda finds out Jim cheated on her with Claire (Amber Valletta). It's also the day Dr. Roth (Peter Stormare) commits her to a mental institution — because of her claims of premonitions about Jim's death. 

One of the movie's biggest questions is whether Linda is actually living through all the days of this week, or whether she's envisioning them somehow. But since she's able to live them out of order, and affect things that happen over the course of the week, it's most likely that Linda is imagining them, not actually traveling through time and experiencing them. That doesn't make what she learns any less true, however.

The pivotal day in the timeline is Wednesday, when Jim dies. Everything before and after that is affected by the premonitions Linda begins having about his death. When the movie jumps back to the days leading up to Jim's death, knowing that Jim is both going to cheat on her and die gives her a chance to change both outcomes. After debating whether or not Jim and their relationship are worth saving, Linda relies on her faith and decides to try to save the marriage and her husband's life.

Linda recommits to her marriage and expresses her love for Jim, while also telling him about her premonition of his death. Although Jim seems skeptical, he is moved enough by Linda that they spend the night together. Because of this, Jim has second thoughts about finally consummating the affair with Claire and calls it off. In this way, Linda prevents the affair from happening and saves her marriage with Jim.

However, Linda still can't stop Jim's death. He appears disturbed by her revelation as well — after all, why would Jim suddenly triple his life insurance on Wednesday morning? Later that day, Linda follows Jim to the spot of his accident and warns him to turn the car around. He does, but this only makes him stall his car, and a tanker truck crashes into him and explodes.

If Linda hadn't had the premonitions, she wouldn't have known that she needed to save her relationship. Yet Linda's interference is literally what causes Jim's death. By changing the trajectory of events, Linda convinces Jim to give their marriage another chance, but also alters the course of his day on Wednesday, putting him on a direct collision course with the tanker truck and his doom.

Yet Linda's actions also have other ramifications: Jim, unsettled enough by Linda's seemingly unshakable belief in her visions of the future, triples his life insurance policy. While getting a large insurance payout is no substitute for having her husband alive, Jim's decision at least makes it possible for him to provide for Linda and their children after his demise. And because Linda and Jim sleep together the night before the accident, the end of the film reveals that Linda is pregnant — so Jim, in a way, will live on through the new baby that Linda is carrying.

In the end, the movie's message is that some things in life, like death, are unavoidable. You may change the circumstances, but not the outcome. Yet the choices we make, like how to conduct our relationships, are very much under our control. And even if we can't save our loved ones, love is still worth fighting for.