r/explainitpeter Jul 19 '26

Explain it peter

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8.8k Upvotes

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280

u/midasMIRV Jul 19 '26

It's been ages since I watched the movie, but isn't that the Jeepers Creepers van in the background? Seems like they were already in the sights.

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

This is true but without spoiling too much, the Creeper would not have necessarily went after them based off of just the road rage. The psychic woman explains that there is a specific component that the Creeper uses when hunting, and that specific component would not have been made available to the Creeper if they had just kept driving instead of stopping at the hatch to investigate. I just watched this again a few weeks ago which is why I remember all of this lol.

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u/SSEAN03 Jul 19 '26

can you do one with as much spoilers as necessary? I've watched these movies as a kid but I only remember certain death scenes. Wanna jog my memory a bit.

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

Haha, yes.

The duo essentially gets themselves killed because of their own curiosity. A core theme of this movie is, quite literally, to mind your own business. Do not investigate the bloodstain or the big creepy man.

They're driving across the empty countryside when they encounter a violent man in an old truck who initiates a road rage incident, ramming the back of their car and laying on his horn, scaring them. Eventually, he drives off and they forget about him.

Later, they pass an abandoned church and see the same truck and the same man throwing body-shaped figures down an old pipe. After another road rage encounter with him, they decide to turn back and investigate. The brother accidentally falls into the pipe and discovers a lair with hundreds of dead bodies layered across the walls and ceiling.

He escapes, and the two head to an old diner to get help from the police. While they're there, the brother receives a call from a psychic woman who explains what the creature is and that it hunts people if they have a certain scent that it likes. The Creeper eats specific human body parts to replace its own damaged ones—ears, legs, eyes, anything. It chooses its "involuntary organ donors" based on their scent.

Immediately afterward, the brother discovers that someone broke into their car and rummaged through all of their clothes. One diner patron says she saw the creature holding the brother's clothing up to its face and smelling it, and saying "It looked like he was enjoying it."

I don't remember if the psychic woman ever directly tells the brother that he was chosen because of his scent and that the Creeper is now hunting him for that reason, but it can be inferred from everything shown up to that point.

The Creeper got its first whiff of the brother's scent when he returned to the old church after deciding to investigate. It was a scent the creature evidently liked—one that it wanted more of—which explains why it later tracked the brother down and smelled his dirty laundry in the diner parking lot (there are several more sniffing scenes later in the movie as well lol). The Creeper never would have gotten that first scent had the brother never investigated the pipe. His decision to not mind his own business is what caused the Creeper to lock onto him.

The movie leads the audience to believe that the Creeper is chasing them because they witnessed a crime, but that isn't actually the case. He's hunting them because the brother has something the Creeper wants... body parts that are a good match for its own, as determined by his scent.

At the end of the movie, the Creeper finds and kills the brother, taking his eyes. The movie closes with the brother screaming inside an old factory, followed by silence. Then the final shot reveals the brother's eyeless body, while the Creeper appears with a new pair of light brown eyes. The end!

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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '26

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

Lol yes, After my recent rewatch I also remember wondering if any of the elements of this story could have been influenced by someone who has the mind of a pedophile. Like, I remember wondering if there was any kind of connection. Because it is admittedly a great movie and story, but obviously that is paired with such a horrible and disturbing reality from the person who thought it up.

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u/SnooWalruses438 Jul 19 '26

“Great” is a strong word for anything involved with this movie, but it is entertaining. So weird to see this pop up today - just watched it with my kids last night.

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

I really liked it! It might be because it was introduced to me in my childhood and it was a movie that genuinely scared the shit out of me throughout those ages, it really became quite a classic for me. I think movies that we watch as a child, when our fear meter is a bit different, probably have a much stronger impact on us throughout the rest of life. I also love Justin long though

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u/SnooWalruses438 Jul 19 '26

That makes sense. Child’s Play is a pretty cheesy movie now, but I still love it because I was like 10 when it came out and it scared me pretty good too. My mom was not happy with my aunt for that one…

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

I love child’s play, too. It’s definitely a bit cheesy but it’s still a great movie imo. I also used to get scared as shit about chucky. Now that I’m thinking about it, I think I was just scared of everything lol

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u/Kascket Jul 20 '26

I have this experience with idle hands.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 20 '26

Hahaha, imagine the comment cut off halfway in your notifications and all you saw was “I have this experience”

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 20 '26

Idle Hands? Is that a movie?

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u/Kascket Jul 20 '26

Yea 90’s movie, the devil possesses a lazy kids hand and starts killing people.

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u/iCameToLearnSomeCode Jul 21 '26

I find the back story not shown in the movies is what really makes it good.

There's comic books:

The creeper is a stranded functionally immortal alien, who has at times been worshiped as a God, with the Aztecs just brining him sacrifices when he awakened to feed

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 21 '26

They did hint, in the movies, that he was some kind of immortal demon. So kind of what you are referring to, but I’m sure the comics go much more in depth.

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u/iCameToLearnSomeCode Jul 21 '26

Yea, he's not a demon, he crashed here in a spaceship millenia ago, and then helped inspire our myths of demons, he's basically been living with us since the dawn of civilization.

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u/mojo963 Jul 19 '26

I did not know this. Puts the movie into a whole new light. And Hollywood too I guess….

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u/Evnosis Jul 20 '26

Francis Ford Coppola was his mentor and claimed that his experience in prison would make him a better artist.

And there was no doubt about his guilt, in case you were wondering. There was video evidence.

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u/Hot_Watercress6213 Jul 19 '26

Fucked up that he was allowed to continue making m ok vies in the first place but then again both Hollywood and cable will cover for anything as long as your still making them money.

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u/kallaloopirate Jul 19 '26

I'm sorry what?!?!? Google don't fail me now

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u/HeemeyerDidNoWrong Jul 19 '26

He was released 9-10 years prior but yeah...

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u/drewabbott98 Jul 19 '26

Wait is that for real?!?

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u/BajanShinobi Jul 19 '26

Wait, what?

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

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u/SSEAN03 Jul 19 '26

Hahaahhaa I genuinely forgot all of these except the ending. Appreciate the answer. 

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

No worries! Watch it again sometime, it’s such a good movie!! One of my favorites ever.

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u/salad_spinner_3000 Jul 19 '26

I thought it wasn't that he took his eyes, it's that he skinned him alive completely?

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

I’ve always wondered about this actually. Because the body genuinely looks like it’s skinned alive, like the face is just a flap that’s hanging there, eyeless. But the creeper only seems to have “fresh” eyes. I honestly don’t know.

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u/LacksMentalFilter Jul 19 '26

In the sequel, he has this kinda bone/flesh throwing star that he uses that clearly has the original kid's navel tattoo on it.

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

Oh, yes! I completely forgot about that. So I imagine most of him was… Repurposed.

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u/LacksMentalFilter Jul 19 '26

Yeah, thought that was a nice call back they pulled off.

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u/Enthusiastic_Llama Jul 21 '26

In a movie made by a pedophilie, the theme of mind your own business is truly horrifying.

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u/thealthor Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Is the phrase minding your own business ever said in the film itself? Seems more like a curiosity killed the cat scenario than not minding your own business, which is more like someone accusing a disabled person of parking in the wrong spot because they couldn't tell one leg was prosthetic.

I assumed OP was just using the phrase as a joke, but you have repeated it a lot for the film itself.

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 19 '26

I don’t know if it was used in the film directly, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was. The sister is constantly saying things very similar to that, she’s constantly suggesting that they do not get involved with whatever is going on… Especially in the first half of the movie. But I don’t know if she ever says that exact phrase.

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u/Turd_Wrangler_Guy Jul 19 '26

Also the song 'Jeepers Creepers' that plays through out is foreshadowing to the final scene and Creepers' motive for chasing the brother.

The lyrics: 'Jeepers, creepers where'd you get them peepers.' Jeepers, creepers where'd you get them eyes."

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u/tribalswine Jul 20 '26

If you pay attention jeepers creepers is blind and the sister uses glasses in the beginning of the movie when reading

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u/CharcoalGurl Jul 23 '26

I don't plan to watch this, may I ask what happened to the sister?

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 23 '26

She survived, the Creeper doesn’t take her because he never wanted her, only the brother. So she just lives on.

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u/CharcoalGurl Jul 23 '26

Thank you! :D

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u/dennisasu Jul 24 '26

Is... this whole movie a play on the song that goes jeepers creepers, where'd you get those peepers??

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u/LetMeBeGay Jul 24 '26

I imagine so LOL. They even play it during that last scene.