Stephen King's It is a complex story in which a lot of things happen, and at times things
get a bit confusing.
But don't worry about getting lost in the story — we're here to explain everything
you need to understand the full story of the movies made from the classic novel.
Possible spoilers ahead.
2017's It didn't get into the backstory of its ancient antagonist outside of implying
that it's been around for a long time, but thankfully, King's original novel goes into
much more detail.
It, the shapeshifting being that often manifests itself as a creepy clown named Pennywise,
has actually been around longer than mankind itself — It's an ancient cosmic being that's
billions of years old that originated in another dimension outside of our universe known as
the Macroverse.
In prehistoric times, It came to Earth on an asteroid, landing in the place that would
millions of years later become Derry, Maine.
It hibernated until humans appeared, and then began a cycle of awakening roughly every 27
years to feed on them.
It can take on any form, but its favorite eventually became that of Pennywise the clown.
Its true form, known as the Deadlights, is apparently so trippy it'll drive you crazy.
Beverly Marsh managed to glimpse them in the first film and make it out with her sanity,
though doing so did render her comatose for a time.
As strange as Pennywise is, its mortal enemy is even more bizarre: A giant turtle named
Maturin who hails from the same place as Pennywise.
"ye-YEAH"
The turtle is a being of creation rather than consumption, and actually vomited our universe
into reality when it had a stomach ache.
So, you know...compared to that, a shapeshifting death clown isn't all that weird after all.
In the 2017 film, the story of It picks up in 1988 when 7-year-old Georgie Denbrough
ventures out into a rainstorm to play with a paper sailboat that his older brother Bill
made for him.
The boat gets away from Georgie, and journeys down the street until it ends up in a storm
drain.
After chasing it, Georgie attempts to fish the boat out, only to discover that -- uh-oh!
-- there's a clown in the storm drain as well.
Though Georgie doesn't know it, this clown is the evil entity Pennywise, who has just
awoken from its most recent 27-year slumber.
Pennywise entices Georgie to come into the sewer, promising not only to give him his
boat back, but also by telling him that an entire circus is waiting for him in the sewer.
Georgie gets a little suspicious, but he still wants his boat back, so when Pennywise offers
it to him, the kid goes for it.
And for his trouble, Georgie gets his arm bitten off.
Don't you just hate Mondays?
In the film, Georgie gets dragged into the sewer, and the town eventually moves on, assuming
that he simply drowned.
Bill, however, seems determined to find out what really happened to his brother.
The Losers' Club is the name of Bill's group of friends who eventually go head to head
against Pennywise.
Along with Bill, the club's original members are Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stan
Uris, with three more members added as the story progresses: Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh,
and Mike Hanlon.
Everyone in the group is an outcast in their own way.
The gang bonds over the fact that they're all "losers" — hence the group's name — and
they spend the entire summer together following Georgie's disappearance the previous fall.
Though they aren't all aware of it initially, a number of the Losers' Club are also suffering
from some sort of private trauma.
Beverly's father is abusive and domineering, not to mention creepy as hell.
"Where are you sneaking off to?"
Eddie has an extremely overprotective mother who makes him believe he's constantly sick.
Mike is an orphan whose parents burned alive — an event he witnessed firsthand.
And Bill, of course, is still mourning the disappearance of his little brother, for which
he feels guilty.
A few of the Losers are more than just friends.
Or, at least, they hope to be.
Over the course of the first film, Ben and Bill develop feelings for Beverly.
Ben is the first to develop a major crush, going so far as to write Beverly a love poem
from a secret admirer.
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, and at the conclusion
of the first film, Beverly and Bill kiss.
In It: Chapter Two, fans can definitely expect this love triangle to increase in importance.
In the book, following the Losers' Club's initial defeat of Pennywise, the group all
go their separate ways.
In the ensuing 27 years until Pennywise returns, a number of them go through major changes,
but none greater than Ben.
He physically transforms from an overweight kid to a wealthy and attractive man, and Beverly
certainly notices when the gang reunites as adults.
After exploring some residual feelings for Bill that include sleeping with him even though
they're both married, Beverly determines that it's Ben for whom she really cares, and the
two of them finally end up together at the novel's conclusion.
In addition to Georgie, other children go missing in Derry, such as Eddie Corcoran and
Betty Ripsom.
This leads the Losers to believe that something is amiss in their town.
Before becoming a Loser himself, Ben begins researching the town's history, and finds
that violent deaths and disappearances seem to spike in the town every 27 years at a rate
six times the national average.
"And that's just grown-ups.
Kids are worse.
Way, way worse."
But it's not always Pennywise who directly causes the killings.
His evil influence infects the town whenever he awakes, causing violence and hate crimes
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 kept a photo album filled
with pictures of Derry's history that consequently features a number of photos of Pennywise;
some from many decades earlier.
As an adult, 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 about the most messed
up little town in New England.
"No one who dies here ever really dies."
One by one, the Losers draw the attention of Pennywise.
It appears to each of them separately, first appearing as one of their worst fears before
showing them its clown form.
Bill sees Georgie in his basement, Mike sees burning bodies trying to escape a building,
Eddie sees a grotesquely deformed leper, Stan sees a painting of a ghoulish flautist come
to life, Beverly is sprayed by a geyser of blood from her bathroom sink, Ben is chased
by a headless man in the library, and Richie sees a maggot-infested doll of his own corpse.
Some of these encounters happen differently in the book, but the upshot is the same: They
soon discover that each of their hallucinations have one thing in common: a terrifying clown.
The Losers quickly deduce that this clown must be behind the child slayings in Derry.
Pennywise also appears to Henry Bowers, the vicious town bully who torments the Losers.
But instead of eating him, Pennywise uses Henry as an agent of destruction.
So why go through all the trouble of turning into a bunch of creepy monsters?
Well, Pennywise needs to eat humans to survive, and It greatly prefers to devour children.
Its reason for this is pretty simple: According to Pennywise, flesh tastes better when it's
seasoned with fear, and children are easier to scare than adults.
That's it.
That's why Pennywise shapeshifts into whatever its victims are most afraid of, and why it
usually stalks them for a time before killing them.
It wants them to be as scared as possible before making them its next meal.
In the book, It compares this process to salting meat.
"And always let it rest afterwards so it relaxes, becoming tender and juicy."
After a frightening encounter with It in the abandoned house on Neibolt Street, most of
the Losers lose interest in trying to fight Pennywise and just pretend like nothing ever
happened.
That changes after Beverly is abducted by the clown, which rallies the other Losers
to come to her rescue.
They follow her trail to the town's sewers, then enter It's domain to search for Beverly.
Then, they take care of that mean old clown once and for all...or so they think.
After the traumatic experience of defeating It, the children of the Losers' Club come
to the realization that they're growing up fast.
In the original film, 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 and hold hands.
This scene essentially concludes the film.
In the book, it's Stan rather than Bill who initiates the blood oath, but the sentiment
remains the same.
In It: Chapter Two and in the novel, 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, having remained in Derry, 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 the oath they made 27 years earlier.
The Losers all find success in their adult lives.
But despite their professional successes, some are still feeling the effects of their
childhood trauma.
But none are holding onto more trauma than Stan.
After receiving Mike's call, Stan immediately remembers the harrowing events of his childhood.
Not willing to face It again, he draws a bath and slits his wrists, writing "IT" on the
wall in blood as his final act.
The other six Losers reunite at a Chinese restaurant in Derry, the first time they've
all been at the same place in 27 years.
After learning of Stan's death — and after Pennywise makes its presence known by taking
on various disgusting forms in the group's fortune cookies — they declare their intent
to kill It once and for all.
In the 2017 It film, Henry Bowers appeared to die after Mike shoved him down a well.
This posed a potential problem for the sequel because in the book Henry goes on to play
a key role as an adult.
Well, fans of the book can rest easy, because Henry survived his fall.
The adult version of the character has been cast for the sequel, and he can even briefly
be seen in the movie's trailer.
After his final confrontation with the Losers as a child, Henry is committed to a mental
institution for killing his father.
In the book, Pennywise again uses adult Henry as a weapon against the Losers.
It frees Henry from his incarceration and tells him to kill the Losers' Club.
After siccing Henry on the Losers fails to eliminate them, Pennywise hatches a new plan
to kill the group.
In the book, Beverly's abusive husband Tom arrives in Derry looking for his wife so he
can kill her.
Pennywise takes control of Tom and has him kidnap Bill's wife Audra, who had come to
Derry out of concern for her husband.
Tom brings her to Its home in the sewers as a lure to Bill.
Once there, It reveals its true form to Tom and Audra, killing Tom and rendering Audra
comatose.
The lure works, and Bill heads to the sewer for a final confrontation with It.
But he doesn't go alone.
Ben, Beverly, Eddie, and Richie all accompany him.
These five members of the Losers' Club prove to once again be too much for It, and after
it battles them in the form of a giant spider, the Losers kill It for good by besting it
in a sort of mystical battle of wills.
"I believe in Santa Claus.
I believe in the Easter Bunny."
Eddie dies during the fight, and the rest of the Losers all again go their separate
ways — save for Ben and Beverly, who leave Derry together.
Eventually, they all forget the saga they've been through — again.
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