Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa play strangers who fall in love in Prime Video’s The Map That Leads to You — but do they get their happily ever after?
The film, which was released on Amazon Prime Video Wednesday, August 20, is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Joseph Monninger. The story follows Heather (Cline) a woman who embarks on a European adventure with her friends Amy (Madison Thompson) and Connie (Sofia Wylie) before starting her new post-college job. However, her plans are thrown into disarray when she meets Jack (Apa), a mysterious fellow traveler who is dead set on living in the moment.
“They say opposites attract, and together Heather and Jack form one very complete Venn diagram,” Cline, 27, said in an August interview with Cosmopolitan of the twosome’s “opposites attract” love story.
Heather and Jack have the summer of their lives together, but how does their story end — and how does it differ from the book? Keep scrolling for everything to know:
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Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Map That Leads to You:
What Happens at the End of ‘The Map That Leads to You’?
After Helen meets Jack and decides to push back her return trip to the United States so she can continue to travel with him around Europe, the pair share their first “I love you.” A blowup fight, however, leaves them at odds about their future, with Helen wanting Jack to return to New York with her despite his claims he doesn’t like to plan ahead.
He eventually decides to return with her so they can stay together, but once they get to the airport, Jack receives a call about abnormal test results. The call causes him to lie and tell Helen he’s going to the bathroom before their plane boards. He disappears and blocks her on his phone so that she is forced to board the plane alone with no idea where he is or what happened to him.
Months go by with no word from Jack. When Heather travels to Italy for Connie and her fiancé Raef’s wedding, Heather asks if Raef has heard from his friend. It’s then that he reveals Jack sent him a letter to give to Heather, where he confesses to her that his cancer has returned and he doesn’t want her to watch him die. Determined to find him, Heather uses the phrases in Jack’s letter as a map to where he might be. She travels to the Spring Festival in Bulgaria, where she finds him.
Although he tells her that he can’t give her “a future,” Heather — who has since quit her job and left New York — tells him she doesn’t care, because she’s “here now, and I want to dance.”
Is There a Post-Credits Scene in ‘The Map That Leads to You’?
There is no post-credits scene in The Map That Leads to You. The final scene is of Heather and Jack kissing in Bulgaria. We do not know where they go next, or how long Jack has to live.
How Does ‘The Map That Leads to You’ Movie and Book Ending Differ?
There are a few key differences between The Map That Leads to You book and movie. For one, Jack is honest with Heather that he previously had a “health scare” in the film, he simply downplays how serious it was. In the book, he tells Heather stories of his sick friend “Tom,” later revealing that he has been Tom the whole time.
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In the book, Heather is told by Raef that Jack is sick, which causes her to return to the place they planted a tree together where she uncovers a letter from Jack that confesses everything. While the duo do plant a tree in the movie, it’s not connected to the reveal and Raef hands Heather the letter directly. He also does not tell Heather about Jack’s illness returning, he lets Jack convey the news himself in his message.
In the film, Heather and Jack say “I love you” when they are first traveling Europe together. In the book, the pair don’t get to exchange the words until Heather finds Jack in Bulgaria, where they say it again.
