Analyzing the Trunk Cleaning in I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer made me ask a question that I never thought I’d ask. How long would it take a murderous fisherman to clean out a car trunk that was once loaded with a dead body and stinky crabs? After looking at the data and sun movement affecting tree shade I have a good idea.

Watch the clip and you will see the dumb scene that has forced me to do way too much research.

Initially, I thought  Jennifer Love Hewitt was only gone for 15 minutes and that left the fisherman a limited window of time to clean. The reason I thought she was only gone for 15 minutes is she took off sprinting in the summer heat and came back totally sweat free. I assumed she only ran 50 yards and came back suddenly which left little time for sweat. However, after looking at the evidence featured in the clip there is a massive amount of tree shadow movement which means a decent amount of time passed (or it took the crew a while to reset the shot). 

In an effort to figure out the shadow movement I found a similar tree and kept track of the movement of the shade (it’s weird…I know). I’m thinking she was gone at least two hours because the shadow I tracked moved the same distance. Why was she gone so long? Did she get lunch? Why didn’t she calls the cops? Should the movie be called I Don’t Know What You Did For Those Two(ish) Hours?

I don’t think the fisherman would steal her car and take it to a car wash so I had to assume the guy took a lot of cleaning supplies, followed her vehicle and hoped she would notice the sound in the trunk in a quiet area that is free of walkers, nosy neighbors or traffic. It takes a lot of guts to stay around a vehicle loaded with a dead body and clean it.

When watching the clip way too many times I’m thinking there are about 50 crabs stuffed into the trunk. I counted 42 but underneath the guy there is movement so I added an extra eight. Also, there is a dead guy who must’ve smelt something terrible and was literal dead weight (How did he get all that in there?).

This is where things get crazy. The fisherman knew for some reason she would be gone forever (getting lunch) so he backed up his vehicle casually next to hers and began the cleaning process. Here is how I see it playing out.

1. 1. 10 minutes – backs up the car, collects cleaning supplies, and opens both trunks.
   2. 15 minutes – collects all of the crabs (and the few that escape), then looks around for a bit and pulls the body out of the trunk and dumps it into his vehicle.
   3. 90 minutes – This may seem excessive but the fisherman did an expert job on that trunk. It must have been a stinky mess because the body and crabs had been there for a decent of time which means there was blood and other gross stuff laying around. After reading through the WikiHow on car carpet cleaning I learned it is a very in-depth process. He’d need a vacuum, interior cleaner, brush, rag, wet rag, laundry starch, cold water, borax and a lot of patience while everything sets and drys.
   4. Total time – 115 minutes

The fisherman must’ve driven away minutes before the gang came back to survey the trunk. The guy is a master killer and car trunk cleaner. What I love about this scene is how the killer had to do a professional/stealthy job cleaning a trunk. Much like Michael Myers using his blinker while driving, I think a murderous man cleaning a trunk destroys any fear.

If you liked this post make sure to check out my series featuring random data and useless numbers. Start with my groundbreaking posts about Leatherface sprinting,  Deep Blue Sea and Stellan Skarsgard and Halloween H20 then work your way down the list!

1. Jet Ski Action Scenes Are the Worst
2. A Closer Look at Movies That Feature the Words Great, Good, Best, Perfect and Fantastic
3. An In-Depth Look At Movies That Feature Pencils Used as Weapons
4. Cinematic Foghat Data
5. Explosions and Movie Posters
6. The Fast & Furious & Corona
7. Nicolas Sparks Movie Posters Are Weird
8. Predicting the RT score of Baywatch
9. The Cinematic Dumb Data Podcast
10. What is the best horror movie franchise?