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It Chapter Two is the sequel to 2017's It: Chapter One and an adaptation of the second half of Stephen King’s classic horror novel.

Twenty-seven years after the events of the first film, the members of the Losers' Club return to Derry to finally put an end to the malevolent force that terrorized them in their youths. While they managed to beat Pennywise the first time, he was only toying with them then; it was the first time he was hurt, ever, and now he is taking off the kid gloves.

The cast includes James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, all in addition to Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jack Dylan Grazer reprising their roles as the younger versions of the Losers.

In March 2022, a prequel series to the duology, titled It: Welcome to Derry, was announced for HBO Max. The series premiered on October 26, 2025.

After the release of Chapter Two, Andy Muschietti had indicated an interest in re-cutting the two IT films together to include deleted scenes and format the narrative structure more like the book's. While the project seemed to fall through, Muschietti spoke up about the recut, and reconfirmed his intentions to make it, after the first season of Welcome to Derry aired.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer.

These tropes float too...

• 20 Minutes into the Past: Takes place in 2016, despite being released in 2019, to maintain the timeline of IT reappearing every 27 years,
• Actionized Adaptation: The film is a lot more action oriented than either the novel or the miniseries, especially during the final battle. Whereas in the first two the climax is essentially "Go into It's lair, Eddie dies, knock over giant spider and rip its heart out", the movie has the fight with Pennywise be more drawn out, with the clown actively fighting back against them.
• Adaptation Expansion: Mike in the book and 1990 miniseries is badly injured by Henry Bowers and is not involved in the final battle due to being in the hospital. Here, he is not injured, save for a mild arm sprain that Ben quickly patches up, and actually does fight IT at the climax of the movie. He is even the one in this version to pull out IT's heart.
• Adapted Out:
  • Understandably, many minor characters were cut from the adaptation. But notably and thankfully, IT hasn't laid any eggs in this continuity.
  • There's a minor subplot where after Beverly walks out on Tom, she goes to her friend Kay first. Tom later tracks Kay down and beats her up to get Beverly's whereabouts. With Tom's role reduced, Kay is removed from the film completely.
  • The Guard, John Koontz, who works at the asylum taking care of Henry Bowers, has a fear of Doberman Pinschers, and is eventually mauled to death by It, who transforms into an enormous Doberman while helping Henry escape. The film removes this subplot and simply has him confront Henry when the latter already knifed one of his colleagues, and both his fate and name remain unrevealed.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Not the whole place, per se, but it's where Adrian Mellon catches the gang's attention in the first act of the film, and is the setting for Dean's death.
• Anachronism Stew: During Richie's flashback to 1989, a cabinet for Mortal Kombat (1992) is visible even though that game didn't debut until 1992.
• And Show It to You: After the Losers weaken IT by standing up to him and overcoming their fears, Mike rips his heart out and the rest of them crush it, getting rid of the evil clown for good.
• Anyone Can Die: Two of the seven main characters from Chapter One are killed, one within the first half hour.
• Avengers Assemble: Blended with Gondor Calls for Aid. Almost everyone had moved on and forgotten their encounter with IT back in 1989, but when Mike calls the group, they all knew they had to return.
• Bait-and-Switch: When we are introduced to Ben's business, we see an overweight man resembling the younger Ben pitching a new building to the investors. We are then introduced to the real Ben, who looks completely different from his childhood self, speaking to this man and the investors on a video chat. For bonus points, the overweight man is played by Brandon Crane, who played young Ben in the miniseries.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With The Reveal that Richie was in love with Eddie, their Vitriolic Best Buds relationship takes on shades of this trope as well.
• Big "NO!": Beverly screams one, when Pennywise impales Eddie to death with his parasite during the final battle.
• Bittersweet Ending: Pennywise is dead for good and Derry is free from ITs terror, but not before Pennywise adds Adrian, Victoria, Dean and Eddie to his (presumably high) body count. In addition, Stanley killed himself to ensure that the Losers' plan would work, Eddie dies without knowing that Richie had feelings for him, and Bill and Richie will still have to cope with losing Georgie and Eddie respectively. Ben and Beverly end up together (which Bill accepts), Mike moves on and leaves town, Bill becomes a better writer, and everyone finds happiness now that the threat of IT is no longer hanging over their heads. Unlike in the book, the Losers remember each other after splitting ways, and it's implied that they'll still be friends.
• Blood Bath: Pennywise gives Beverly one.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The body count here is only a tad bit bigger than the first movie, but the deaths are way messier and rarely use Gory Discretion Shot.
• Bloody Horror: The entire film uses this quite liberally.
  • IT uses Adrian Mellon's blood to paint a message for Mike underneath the town bridge.
  • Pennywise murders Dean, the little boy Bill had been trying to protect the entire film, by biting his head so hard, blood explodes all over the glass wall separating him and Bill.
  • IT also traps Beverly in a bathroom rapidly filling with blood.
• Bookends: One of the first things the Losers all did together as a group was cliff jumping. The first thing they do after the battle is the same thing.
• Brick Joke:
  • In the first film, Bill and Richie come across the infamous Not Scary/Scary/Very Scary doors in the Neibolt house. Behind the Not Scary Door, they find Betty Ripsom's upper torso, having been cut in half at the waist. In Chapter 2, Richie and Eddie find the same doors. Behind the Very Scary door, they find Betty Ripsom's legs, minus her torso, skipping towards them!
  • Related to the above, Richie jokes hopefully that IT's true form is a harmless, little Pomeranian. One appears behind the Not Scary door, but is far from harmless.
  • In the first film, Richie freaks out when a missing child poster of him is found in the Neibolt house, with the same day's date written on it. In this film, one of the ways IT torments the now adult Richie is by having a reanimated corpse (Adrian Mellon's corpse, to boot) hand him a program for his own funeral.
  • In the beginning of the movie, Adrian insults one of the bullies by comparing his hair to Meg Ryan. Later on in the movie, when Richie goes to the abandoned movie theater, there is a poster of You've Got Mail in the background.
• Bury Your Gays: Adrian still dies as in the book, but Richie is also gay in this continuity, allowing at least one LGBT character to be alive at the end.
• But Not Too Gay: The movie has received some criticism for this, despite giving Richie Adaptational Sexuality and canonizing the subtext between him and Eddie present in the book. It's never stated outright that Richie is gay and his feelings for Eddie are only revealed right at the very end, once Eddie is already dead and there's no hope for them to end up together. The movie also cuts a lot of the more overtly tender moments they share in the book - most notably Eddie caressing Richie's face and Richie kissing his cheek after he dies - with the result that The Reveal can come out of nowhere for those that weren't already paying close attention to the relationship. Admittedly, it's a horror movie with six main character arcs to juggle, but the difference when compared to the Ben/Beverly storyline is stark.
• Call-Back:
  • Immediately after Stan's suicide, the scene cuts to Beverly waking from a nightmare with blood dripping on her face, echoing the water splashing on Bill's drawing of her in Chapter One.
  • Pennywise taunting them just after the Ritual of Chüd.
  "Tell them why it didn't work, Mike. Tell them it's all a... what's the word, Eds? Gazebo?"
• The Cast Show Off: Bill Hader is known for his spot-on impressions, and he gets to show off at least two (Jabba the Hutt and Pennywise) in the film.
• Celebrity Paradox: This has a reference to The Shining, a movie based on another of Stephen King's novels... despite King himself never liking the movie and here he's playing a shop owner that Bill gets Silver. Given Dick Halloran's presence in It: Welcome to Derry and indicates that he's set to travel to the Overlook, the paradox only deepens.
• Chekhov's Gun: When the Losers first go into the library, the camera lingers on a tomahawk in a display case. In a later scene when Henry Bowers attacks Mike, that tomahawk gets put to use for Richie to save him by killing Henry.
• Collapsing Lair: The house on 29 Neibolt Street completely collapses upon itself after Pennywise dies.
• Company Cameo: Bill is introduced as a writer overseeing an adaptation of his work by Warner Bros..
• Company Cross-References: Among the arcade games left behind in the old Derry movie theater are Defender and Mortal Kombat II, both of which were made by Midway Games, whose IP Warner Bros. purchased when they went defunct after the failure of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
• Compressed Adaptation: A 169-minute film that is based on (the second half of) a 1,138-page book.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: When a skateboard wheels itself down the stairs and the blood on it starts to float upwards, Beverly asks if they should run, to which Bill remarks that he's Seen It All by now.
  Beverly: Should we start running?
  Bill: No, this is Derry, I'm actually starting to get used to it.
• Cool Car: Both Richie and Eddie have pretty sweet rides as adults, highlighting their success. Belch's blue Trans Am also makes another appearance.
• Cooldown Hug: The Losers give Richie one when he has a breakdown over Eddie's death.
• Creator Cameo:
  • Stephen King is the owner of the antique shop where Bill finds Silver.
  • Director Andy Muschietti also briefly cameos as a customer browsing the shelves of the pharmacy behind Eddie.
• Creepy Children Singing: Used to a horrifying degree in the film's soundtrack.
• Crush Blush: Meta-example: Ben's adult actor, Jay Ryan, tried to invoke this all throughout the film, having noticed that Jeremy Ray Taylor (Young Ben) could do this on cue in the first film whenever Beverly was around.
• Darker and Edgier: While the original film wasn't exactly light-hearted, the sequel is much darker and meaner, focusing more on gore and the grotesque. That being said, a criticism leveled against it by critics is that it is less scary, with fewer moments played overtly for horror, and the story itself is more focused on the characters than the scares. There is also a massive amount of Black Comedy.
• Death by Adaptation: Minor example. Beverly's mother is said to have committed suicide while her daughter was still a child. In the book she did not, though she died of cancer before Beverly returned home.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The arcade scene during Richie's flashback shows that he was only being friendly with Henry's cousin but is shunned instead when Henry's cousin accuses him of being a "fairy", a homophobic slur towards homosexual men.
• Denser and Wackier: This movie is much less of an overt horror movie than the first, with even more jokes and a lot of Black Comedy. Even some moments that would otherwise be horrifying are Played for Laughs.
• Description Cut:
  • An adult Bill, after re-buying his childhood bike, Silver, mentions to the owner of the antique store that it could "outrun the Devil." The music builds dramatically... and then cuts to Bill awkwardly pedaling his rusted-out bike that looks like it could fall apart any second.
  • Ben says he has one bit of good news: that he convinced Richie to stay. Cut to Richie bailing out the back entrance with a Precision F-Strike.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Losers kill IT the Eldritch Abomination by reducing IT to a quivering pathetic mess, ripping out IT's heart, and crushing the heart with their bare hands.
• Divided for Adaptation: This is the second of two movies covering different cycles of the fight against IT, adapted from a single novel that incorporated both stories.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: In the climax Richie starts throwing rocks and trash talking Pennywise... and gets cut off mid-sentence with a blast of the Deadlights.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Eddie is completely ecstatic when he manages to land a direct hit on Pennywise in the finale. Too bad this means his back is turned, and he doesn't see the giant Combat Tentacle headed his way, resulting in his death.
• Dramatic Irony: During the flashback scene in the beginning. Stan asks what he looks like when he's older.
• Driven to Suicide: In addition to this becoming Stan's fate after he gets the call from Mike, it's revealed that Beverly's mother killed herself while Bev was still a child.
• Drowning Pit: During the climax, Beverly is trapped in a bathroom stall that rapidly fills with blood as she's tormented by her childhood bullies and abusers.
• Dull Surprise: Upon seeing Mike smash the table, the waitress in the Chinese restaurant calmly asks him if everything is all right.
• Eldritch Location: The place in Derry where Pennywise touched down on Earth, at the bottom of a preexisting cavern, connected to a network of caves. Droplets of black liquid float upwards from the almost organic-looking spikes protruding from the floor, and when Pennywise descends to the point of impact in the form of the deadlights, the cavern walls warp as they pass into the appearance of a fanged gullet — reminiscent of Pennywise's throat — that undulates like the lights are being swallowed down.
• Epilogue Letter: The film ends with one, as each surviving Losers Club member reads a copy of a note left by Stan before his suicide.
• Establishing Character Moment: The adult Losers all get one of these as the audience is reintroduced to their characters.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Disregarding the extensive flashbacks, the majority of the present day story is over the course of about three days (counting the prologue and epilogue, possibly a week). The Losers gather in Derry for dinner one night and have their final confrontation with IT the following evening.
• Fan Disservice: The audience is treated to several long, loving shots of Ben's chiseled abs... as Pennywise graphically carves the words HOME AT LAST into his stomach.
• The Film of the Book: The second part, specifically.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The opening scene with Adrian Mellon foreshadows what later happens to Eddie; both are attacked by human bullies (the homophobic teens and Henry Bowers) before being brutally murdered by Pennywise while the man that loves them is forced to watch. Adrian is even shown reaching for his inhaler during the initial assault, and his comment about one of his attackers' hairstyles is echoed by Eddie mocking Henry's mullet.
  • Just before answering Mike's phone call, Stan is shown assembling a jigsaw puzzle, and being unable to complete it due to missing the final piece. This foreshadows his suicide a few minutes later, making him the Losers Club's "Missing Piece."
  • Richie gushing over how hot Ben is and ribbing Eddie about his marriage during the reunion dinner subtly foreshadows The Reveal that Richie is gay and in love with Eddie.
  • Mike's explanation of having to steal the artifact that would be the can for the sealing that is the Ritual of Chüd makes more sense at the climax where it's revealed that the ritual doesn't work and that the last group of people who tried it were all killed. Makes sense that the natives wouldn't want anyone else trying to perform it.
  • An elderly Mr. Keene (almost certainly IT assuming a disguise) pinches Eddie's cheek and rudely teases him that the "cancer" could be removed. Not long after, the escaped Henry Bowers stabs Eddie in the same spot.
  • Pennywise essentially gives Bill the artifact (the paper boat he made with Georgie) he supposedly needs to complete the Ritual to destroy IT. Later, it's revealed that the Ritual of Chüd is useless, and that all the prior events in the movie were part of Pennywise's plan to lure the Losers into its lair so he could kill them all at once.
  • Something that actually occurred in It: Chapter One that applies here. After the Losers made their blood pact to return to Derry if IT comes back, the first two to leave are Stan and Eddie, both of whom are the main casualties in this movie.
  • Right before Stan commits suicide, he says, "I swear, Bill", remembering the pact that the Losers made to return to Derry if IT were to come back. It's revealed at the end that Stan killed himself so he would be with the Losers in spirit, as he was too afraid to face Pennywise in person and thought this would give the rest of the Losers the best chance of success.
  • During the flashback scene of the Losers' Club hanging out in their hideout, Stan gives them all shower caps to prevent spiders from crawling into their hair, which Richie finds it ridiculous as nobody should be afraid of spiders (only to be proven wrong when he sees everyone else putting on those shower caps). Later, one of IT's forms is the head of child Stan with hairy spider legs that attacks the adult Losers at Neibolt House. And during the Final Battle, IT assumes the form of a Giant Spider with Pennywise's head, which the Losers could only defeat by treating IT as something to not be afraid of.
• Gang of Bullies: A pack of homophobic teens attack a gay couple in the opening.
• Gilligan Cut: Ben is relieved when he tells Beverly that he at least got Richie to stay. Cut to Richie carrying his suitcase and escaping from the townhouse.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: When Richie meets Pennywise for the first time in 27 years, the latter jokingly suggests they should play Street Fighter.
• Grand Finale: As the Tag Line says: “IT ENDS”.
• Groin Attack: Henry gives one to Mike in the library in order to incapacitate him.
• Haunted House: Neibolt House.
• His Heart Will Go On: A male on male version, seeing as Richie was in love with Eddie in this adaptation.
• Helpless Window Death: Bill tries to save a young boy from Pennywise in a hall of mirrors, but though Bill technically finds him first, they're on opposite sides of the glass. He ultimately fails as Pennywise gets on the kid's side first and chomps down on his head, splattering the other side of the mirror with blood.
• Homophobic Hate Crime: Three homophobic young thugs beat up a couple gay men then toss one from a bridge in the opener.
• Hope Spot:
  • Bill learns that the young boy who they met in the restaurant actually lives in his old house and hears Pennywise talking to him in the bathtub. He later realizes that IT is going to find the boy at the fairground's clown attraction. Bill catches up to the boy in the Hall of Mirrors to save him, only to slam face first into a glass wall that separates him from the kid. Despite Bill's best efforts, Pennywise manages to get to the kid first, and Bill is Forced to Watch as the boy's head literally explodes from the force of Pennywise chomping into him.
  • Pennywise is briefly disabled after Eddie throws the spear into IT's throat, and he excitedly tells Richie he thinks he's killed IT. Then he gets skewered from behind by one of IT's Combat Tentacles.
• House Fire: How Mike's parents died. IT taunts him repeatedly about this.
• I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: Mike lies to the rest of the Losers about the efficiency of the Ritual, knowing fully well that if he told them the truth about the natives, none of them would even bother returning to Derry anymore.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: The Losers after their disastrous dinner at the Chinese restaurant. Upon arriving at the townhouse, Bev heads to the bar right away and begins pouring herself a drink. The boys follow suit not long after.
• Impaling Arthropodal Legs: The final form IT assumes—at least of its own volition—is a cross between Pennywise and a monstrous giant spider with spike-tipped legs, the pair in place of his hands being used as a Blade Below the Shoulder.
• Karma Houdini: Unlike the book, where they are all sent to prison, there is absolutely no indication that Adrian Mellon's murderers are punished in any way after fleeing. Unfortunately in the book, it is implied that the older ones remain free as their case is tied up in legal proceedings. The only one to feel any remorse is the younger boy who moves away from Derry and IT's influence.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Bill's various books, and subsequent movie adaptations, are repeatedly said to have horrible endings. This not only reflects frequent complaints about Stephen King's novels in general, but also leaning into this specific source material and having an ending that has been described as "unfilmable." Even King himself, who has frequently admitted this flaw of his, gets in on this in his Creator Cameo.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: When Bill sees that Ben and Bev have disappeared underwater, he smiles instead of feeling sad over Beverly not choosing him, and gives the two some much-needed privacy.
• Leeroy Jenkins: After being Forced to Watch Pennywise devour Dean, Bill heads straight to the Neibolt house intending to take on IT himself until the other Losers join him.
• Lesser of Two Evils: When confronted with one of IT's Combat Tentacles and the Not Scary At All/Scary/Very Scary doors, Richie and Eddie take their chances with the latter.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Mike tasks the Losers Club to split up and find their relics by themselves. Being the Wrong Genre Savvy, Eddie and Richie protest that it's a bad idea, but Mike tells them that they don't have much time and have to start working on the ritual by night.
• Like Brother and Sister: Beverly with all the male Losers bar Bill and Ben, and vice-versa.
• Logo Joke: The deadlights circle around the rusty Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema logos, with the same creepy children laughing and singing as the last time.
• The Lost Lenore: Eddie to Richie, when the former gets killed by Pennywise.
• Lovable Coward: Eddie, very much so.
• Love Confession: Ben does this for the second time for Beverly, along with Dying Declaration of Love.
• Love Letter:
  • In a platonic way, Stan's letter for the remaining Losers. He assures them that his suicide was very much his final act of love for all of them, and that he truly believes that they can defeat Pennywise, even with him only being there in spirit.
  • Played Straight with Ben's iconic postcard poem for Beverly. Reciting it together proves to be the way for Ben and Beverly to survive Pennywise's death traps.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Eddie's fence-post spear glows green right before he conjures up enough belief to impale and injure Pennywise with it. A Shout-Out to Maturin the Turtle, perhaps? Or simply the light in the cavern turning the metal green?
• Meet Cute: When Beverly and Ben see each other again in front of the Chinese restaurant, Ben greets her with "You gonna let me by, or is there a password?" It also serves as a Call-Back to the first time they ever spoke to each other on their school's steps.
• Memento MacGuffin: Part of the plot behind the Ritual of Chüd is for the Losers Club to gather these.
• Mirror Scare: When grown-up Henry attacks Eddie in his bathroom. Also plenty occour in the Funhouse scene.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: While exploring Neibolt, Ben suddenly collapses to the ground in pain, with words seemingly being carved into his skin by nothing. When he, Bev, and Mike look into the mirror opposite them, it reveals Pennywise to be behind them, doing the carving with an expression that clearly relays how much he's enjoying the deed. Realizing that Pennywise only shows up in the mirror, she opts to destroy the mirror with a fence-post spear, which reveals that the whole thing is a hallucination.
• MockGuffin: The above items and the ritual turn out to be of little use in stopping IT, but they do allow the Losers to regain their memories.
• Mood Whiplash: Quite a bit of it.
  • The Losers' reunion dinner is largely a mixture of hilarity and heartwarming as the True Companions reunite. This switches to horror when the Misfortune Cookies come out. Which bounces back to comedy when the waitress walks into a perfectly normal room to see Mike smashing a table screaming "It's not real!"
  • Right after fighting off Henry Bowers' attempt to kill him, Eddie cracks a joke about how he should cut his horribly outdated mullet while slinking away.
    Eddie: You should cut that fucking mullet. It's been, like, thirty years, man.
  • In the middle of the dramatic final confrontation with Pennywise, a mortally wounded Eddie's last words to Richie are "I fucked your mom".
  • When Eddie is struggling with the diseased leper form IT takes, IT vomits all over him while five seconds of "Angel in the Morning" plays.
  • After killing Pennywise for real, the Losers happily reminisce about Stan and Eddie until Richie suddenly breaks down crying, causing the others to join together in a Group Hug.
• Mundanger: Adrian Mellon's attackers aren't directly shown or even implied to be under IT's influence when they brutalize and throw him off a bridge.
• Mythology Gag:
  • An attraction at the amusement park has clown-pendulums that resemble Tim Curry's Pennywise.
  • Pennywise once again impersonates Bev and says "Kiss me, fat boy!" to Ben.
  • Bill and Mike's vision of It's arrival shows him first taking the form of a giant bird, which was how IT appeared to Mike in the novel.
  • The "root" used to cause the visions in the first place is referred to by the natives as "holy maturin". Maturin is the name later given to the Turtle in The Dark Tower.
  • The running gag of Bill's books having terrible endings is a likely a joke about Stephen King's books not always having good endings. (Indeed, King himself mentions Bill's terrible endings during his cameo.)
  • Stan is introduced completing a jigsaw puzzle of a painting depicting several birds, alluding to his interest in them in the book and miniseries.
  • One of the fortune cookie abominations is a tentacled eye that crawls after Richie, reminiscent of a form IT assumed that terrified his book counterpart.
  • The scene where Ben goes to his old school shows a turtle on the desk. This is a clear reference to Maturin who in the book helped the Losers fight against IT. The metal spike that Eddie throws at Pennywise glows green, and once IT is killed a green light casts into IT's collapsing lair, possibly suggesting Maturin's presence.
  • While Bev is trapped in the bathroom stall, Pennywise, in the form of young Henry Bowers, shouts "Here's Johnny!" through the slightly open door.
  • In the book, Eddie dies after IT tears his arm off. In this film, a vengeful Richie angrily tears off one of the depowered monster's arms after it mortally impales Eddie.
  • During the epilogue, we see Bill working on his new book. The words on the page are lifted verbatim from the novel.
  • In Audra's only scene, we see that she has a similar hairstyle to Beverly as an adult, and she takes offense when Bill asks her why she can't be "the woman I want you to be" (although he is referring to her character in the film). This references that in the book Audra is something of a Replacement Goldfish for Beverly.
  • Before the final battle, IT takes the form of a young Stanley's decapitated head and morphs into a creature straight from The Thing (1982), which itself is a reference to IT taking the form of movie monsters in the book. The reference to The Thing (1982) even includes (verbatim) "You've got to be fucking kidding me" as a response to the crawling spider-head by one of the characters.
• Near-Death Experience: All the Losers experience this at least once in the hours leading up to the climactic fight with Pennywise.
  • Bev is almost drowned by Mrs. Kersh in the sewers.
  • Bill is almost dragged into the storm drain by the many-handed apparition that IT takes to taunt him about Georgie.
  • Eddie is stabbed in the cheek by a deranged Henry Bowers and is bleeding heavily by the time Ben and Bev find him.
  • Richie comes face-to-face with IT itself in the park.
  • Ben has the words 'HOME AT LAST' carved into his stomach and almost has his throat slashed by Pennywise, though the wounds disappear the minute Beverly smashes the mirror.
  • Mike is nearly stabbed by Henry Bowers in the library before Richie saves him.
• Never Recycle a Building: When Bev goes back to her old apartment, she is able to retrieve her totem from behind the baseboard in her old room. After being attacked by IT in its "Mrs. Kersh" form, she escapes out to the street. Turning back, she sees that the whole building is now a dilapidated old mess, with all the windows boarded up.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: The Losers in the climactic fight when they start throwing back their worst fears in IT's face, making him out to be nothing more than a big bully.
• Not His Sled:
  • The Ritual of Chüd is nothing more than ancient superstition in this continuity. The first natives that tried it were killed by IT almost immediately.
  • Henry Bower's escape from the mental institute, bent on killing the Losers under IT's command, seems to set up Mike being critically injured and is thus unable to join the rest of the Losers to confront IT in its lair just like in the novel. While Henry did get close to achieve that, Richie is able to kill him before he could cause any lasting injuries to Mike, thus allowing Mike to join his friends to personally defeat IT once and for all.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The fact that we never find out what's behind the door between "Very Scary" and "Not Scary At All" leaves it up to your interpretation on what kind of twisted thing Pennywise had hiding in there.
• Old-Timey Bathing Suit: In a more lighthearted scene between Ben and Bev, Beverly makes fun of the boys for swimming in their briefs when they were kids. Ben sheepishly asks her if she can leave that memory in the past.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Averted. Jay Ryan's and James McAvoy's accents barely slip throughout the entire film.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Eddie's death is changed from getting his arm ripped off to getting impaled from behind, possibly to avoid potential Narm.
  • In IT's final form, it still has Pennywise's head instead of becoming a complete Giant Spider to allow for a more personal confrontation between IT and the Losers.
• Precious Photo: It's revealed at the end that the bookmark Mike uses for his journal is a strip of photos the Losers took when they were younger.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Mike gathers the Losers Club for one final showdown with Pennywise the moment he discovers that IT has returned.
• The Reveal:
  • A minor one but Bill, during his battle with IT, sees an illusion IT created wherein Georgie blames Bill for his death because he lied about being sick that fateful day. Bill admits he did lie about being sick which is the big reason he blamed himself so much about Georgie's death.
  • Richie is gay and was secretly in love with Eddie.
  • The Ritual of Chüd doesn't work, and the last people who tried it were killed by IT. Mike knew all of this, and essentially recruited the Losers for a Suicide Mission, in the desperate hope that they might succeed where the natives failed.
• Rising Water, Rising Tension: Pennywise's death trap for Bev. Instead of water, however, it's blood.
• Running Gag: Bill hearing that his books have terrible endings.
• Running into the Window: More like a bunch of glass mirrors inside the funhouse, but the effect on Bill is otherwise the same. Played for Drama when he keeps running into them, and can't save Dean in time.
• Say My Name:
  • Eddie mutters Richie's name softly when he is mortally wounded by IT.
  • Ben screams Beverly's name repeatedly when he thinks he's about to die, using his last moments to declare his love with the poem he'd written for her when they were children.
  • The other Losers repeatedly yell Mike's name after the latter enters a Heroic BSoD right before the fight with Pennywise. Bill saves him at at the absolute last second, just before he is almost impaled by Pennywise.
    Pennywise: TIME TO FLOAT!
    Mike: (staring blankly) I'm so sorry, you guys.
    Bill: Mike! MIKEY! Time to move, Mikey! (shoves him out of harm's way)
• Scare Chord: Benjamin Wallfisch's score incorporates a lot of this.
• Scenery Dissonance: A downplayed example because the scenery still comes across as a bit surreal and unsettling but Pennywise scares Richie in a bright and sunny park.
• Security Cling:
  • Even as adults, Eddie still has a tendency to hang onto Richie whenever he gets scared.
  • Ben also holds onto Eddie when IT attacks them in the restaurant, though it's more of a protective gesture.
• Self-Deprecation: Stephen King's cameo where he tells Bill he did not like the ending of his book is a meta joke about King and the criticism he sometimes gets over his book endings.
• Setting Update: 27 years have passed since they defeated IT at the end of the previous movie, just as in all previous versions, meaning the setting update of the previous film means the equivalent update happens here as well.
• The Shadow Knows: In Ben's flashback to when the Losers split up as children, he's sitting in a classroom with a projector light shining behind him when Pennywise's silhouette suddenly appears on the screen. He wheels around only to see Beverly... or rather, Pennywise impersonating Beverly.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: The Losers do this to IT in the finale, making him believe that he is small, and therefore weak enough for them to attack.
• "All Grown Up" Remark: Ben, known for being short and Formerly Fat, ends up being the tallest and most muscular of the adult Losers, with Richie even describing him as "three Brazilian soccer players rolled into one." Deconstructed when Pennywise's taunts reveal that Ben worked hard to achieve his present looks, as his ultimate fears included fear of dying alone and being unloved.
• Shout-Out: Several in fact, such as:
  • One of Pennywise's many forms that appear in the movie (Stanley's rotting head with numerous spider-like legs) is very similar to The Thing's human head form from The Thing (1982). As a bonus, this also references actor Richard Masur, who played adult Stan in the miniseries and Clark in The Thing (1982). The reference is made explicit with this line from Richie:
    Richie: You gotta be fucking kidding!
  • Pennywise performs a not-so-subtle reference of "Here's Johnny!" to Beverly in the climax.
  • The Neibolt house collapsing is this to Carrie (1976).
  • So is the aforementioned bathroom stall scene with Beverly, who looks a lot like Carrie at the prom after almost drowning in blood.
  • The reading of the letter by each of the cast in turn is reminiscent of The Breakfast Club.
  • The Losers walk past a movie theater playing A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
• Ship Tease: Richie and Eddie have a lot of these. Upon The Reveal that Richie is gay and in love with Eddie, re-watching the first film and seeing all their moments together becomes this as well.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Richie and Eddie provide a lot of the comic relief in both movies through their banter and bickering. Then Eddie dies during the climax, and Richie stops being quite so humorous.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: During the final battle, Richie throws rocks at Pennywise, then starts giving him a verbal attack. Almost immediately Pennywise traps him in his Deadlights form mid-taunt.
  Richie: You wanna play Truth or Dare? Okay, here's a truth: you're a sloppy bitch! Yeah, that's right, let's dance! Yipee-ki-yay, mother- (immediately gets assaulted by the Deadlights)
• Shutting Up Now: After scaring the Losers with his surprisingly spot-on Pennywise impression and being reprimanded by Eddie, Richie does this.
  Eddie: Are you gonna be like this the entire time we're home?
  Richie: (beat) Alright. Just trying to add some levity to this shit. I'll go fuck myself.
• Sickening "Crunch!": There are multiple squelching sounds when Pennywise tosses Eddie about after impaling him mortally.
• Spanner in the Works: Eddie. After he's impaled in the chest and slowly dying, he starts to comment on how weak The Leper felt when he tried to fight back with him in the pharmacy basement. Though he seems to be trying to stay positive by talking up his bravery, it helps the others start to piece together clues they can use to kill Pennywise for good.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The town of Derry itself manages to survive the final battle instead of being destroyed in a flood, with only the 29 Neibolt Street house serving as a casualty.
• Splatter Horror: Eddie's blood splatters onto Richie when IT impales him from behind.
• Spoiler Cover: A minor example, but BluRay covert art for the film clearly shows that only six adult Losers make it back to Derry. Even someone unfamiliar with the source novel could probably work out that Stan dies very early on as a result.
• Sweetie Graffiti: In a flashback, a young Richie is shown carving his affections for someone into the kissing bridge, though we don't see who the other initial belongs to. At the end of the movie, adult Richie goes back to re-etch it and we get the whole thing: R + E, for Richie + Eddie.
• Talking the Monster to Death: How the Losers defeat Pennywise, taunting Pennywise and invoking Not Afraid of You Anymore to weaken him to the point that they can crush his heart.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Mike conveys the history of Pennywise's relationship with the local Native American tribe and the Ritual of Chüd by slipping a microdose of the hallucinogenic root they gave him into a glass of water Bill asked for.
• Teens Are Monsters: The movie begins with a group of homophobic teenage thugs insulting a happy gay couple minding their own business, then moments later beating them up. They eventually throw one of them off a bridge into a creek, allowing him to get captured and killed by Pennywise. Henry's gang are varying levels of this also, though Henry is by far the worst.
• Tempting Fate: In the climax, when it seemed as if Eddie killed Pennywise, he goes to Richie "I did it! I think I killed him!" Only for Pennywise to fatally impale Eddie.
• Thanatos Gambit: It's revealed that Stanley realized that the Losers' Club have to be reunited to defeat It, but he was too afraid to come back to Derry. So, by committing suicide, he takes himself off the board, making him 'not count' thus he didn't have to be there for the others to succeed.
• Time-Shifted Actor: The Losers are adults 27 years later, and portrayed by adult actors accordingly. To show off Separated-at-Birth-Casting, there are a number of Match Cuts to highlight it. Eddie even gets a literal, direct overlay.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The teaser trailer contains a scene that plays near the end of the movie, namely when the surviving Losers Club see a reflection of their younger selves in a building's glass. For those who didn't read the book or watch the miniseries, it also kind of spoils who is dead by the end: Stanley's and Eddie's adult selves are not present.
• Walking Spoiler: Stanley Uris' suicide happens not even thirty minutes into the film.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The gang that attacked Adrian Mellon also just disappears. Despite being set up as a threat much similar to Henry Bowers' gang, they just flee the scene and are not shown to have faced any comeuppance.
• Where It All Began: Derry, Maine, obviously.
• X Called; They Want Their Y Back: How Adrian Mellon insults his attackers at the beginning of the film.
  Adrian Mellon: Meg Ryan called. She wants her wig back.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Richie gives a speech like this to Eddie when he's freaking out in the sewers, which ends in this almost word-for-word.
  Richie: Who killed a psychotic clown before he was fourteen?
  Eddie: Me.
  Richie: Who stabbed Bowers with a knife he pulled out of his own face?
  Eddie: Also me.
  Richie: Who married a woman ten times his own body mass?
  Eddie: ...Me.
  • Ultimately it ends up being a bit of a tragic zigzag, though: Richie's pep talk is implied to be at least partly the reason Eddie is able to overcome his fear and confront It when Richie's life is in danger, succeeding but getting himself fatally injured in the process. Considering that Richie's unspoken love for Eddie is the reason why he's so quick to build up his self-esteem in the first place, it's an absolutely brutal outcome.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Once the Losers realize that belief binds IT, they set about calling IT demeaning names, which results in Pennywise shrinking smaller and smaller, until they can tear IT's heart out.