WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Heart Eyes.

Director Josh Ruben’s horror film Heart Eyes featured a unique twist involving the film’s тιтular villain, the Heart Eyes Killer (HEK). It turns out that HEK was not one, not two, but three different people. On top of that, two of these killers were David, the IT guy, and Detective Jeanette Shaw, who was supposedly investigating the HEK murders throughout the movie.

The twist in Heart Eyes may have come as a surprise for some, given the film is filled with details and plot points designed to mislead audiences. However, there are several little details in the movie that foreshadow the idenтιтies of the Heart Eyes Killers. If one pays close attention to things such as the characters’ names and dialogue, it becomes pretty clear that the killers in 2025’s Heart Eyes were hiding in plain sight.

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David’s First Scene In Heart Eyes

The IT Guy’s Dialogue Hints That He Is The Heart Eyes Killer

Though Jay forgets about David, the IT guy, after meeting him until the movie’s third act, there are some subtle hints that he is secretly one of the Heart Eyes Killers. When he first speaks to Ally at the police station, David says he thinks that dating apps are a waste of time. The fact that he has views on dating that go against the modern norm foreshadows him harboring more extreme views on romance, which he expresses by killing people with Jeanette.

Also, when David asks Ally out on a date at the station, the phrase that he uses on her, “just shooting my sH๏τ here”, invokes the image of someone firing a gun or an arrow. This line hints at David secretly being one of the killers trying to shoot and kill Ally and Jay throughout the film.

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Detective Shaw Isn’t Seen Facing Heart Eyes

Shaw’s Disappearance Hints At A Darker Secret

After Heart Eyes breaks into the police station where Jay is being held, Detective Shaw goes off to face the killer after Ally escapes them. Though Hobbs was clearly murdered by Heart Eyes beforehand, Shaw isn’t seen for most of the film until she shows up alive at the drive-in theater after one of the killers is taken out. The sling shown around Shaw’s arm when she reappears implies that she was injured while facing HEK at the police station.

However, the film never reveals exactly what happened to Shaw during her absence until after she is revealed as one-third of the Heart Eyes Killer. Though another person was wearing the Heart Eyes costume at the police station, her unexplained disappearance when she goes to face the killer implies that something important and secret occurred between them off-screen.

3

That Reference To Hobbs & Shaw

A Throwaway Joke Says A Lot About Heart Eyes

Heart Eyes made a humorous reference to the 2019 film Hobbs & Shaw when Ally pointed out that Zeke and Jeanette share surnames with the two leads from the latter film. The Fast & Furious reference in Heart Eyes may have seemed like an easy way to get a laugh from audiences. However, this joke is actually a clever hint at Jeanette being Heart Eyes, given the context of Deckard Shaw’s character.

In the Fast & Furious film franchise, the ᴀssᴀssin Deckard Shaw was originally a villain who tried to kill Dom Toretto and his team before teaming up with Luke Hobbs in Hobbs & Shaw. Jeanette sharing the name of this Fast & Furious villain foreshadows her being a villain as well. This reference is also somewhat ironic since actor Jordana Brewster, who plays Jeanette, also played Dom’s sister, Mia, in the Fast & Furious franchise.

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Shaw Understands Heart Eyes’s Motives

Shaw Immediately Gets Heart Eyes’s Kink At The Start Of The Film

Who else knows the motivations of a serial killer better than the killer themself? When Detectives Hobbs and Shaw investigate one of HEK’s killings at a local winery, as Shaw looks through the crime scene, she describes Heart Eyes’s seemingly “simple murder” as their “kink.” She would go on to describe the murders that she and David committed the same way.

Shaw is also the only one who suggests that the Heart Eyes Killer is a woman. Specifically, she suggests that the killer is “the girl who never got asked to prom” or “the love-scorned woman who got cheated on one too many times and just snapped.” Not only does her bringing this up imply that she is the killer, but also that one or both of these hypothetical backstories were experiences drawn from her own life.

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Heart Eyes’ Wedding Ring

The Initials In The Heart Eyes Killer’s Ring Link Back To Shaw

The police suspect that Jay is the Heart Eyes Killer after discovering a ring left by the latter at one of the murder scenes at the start of the film. The initials engraved on the ring read “J.S.”, which matches the name “Jay Simmons.” However, it is revealed later in the movie that the initials were actually for “Jeanette Shaw” and that HEK planted the ring there to frame Jay for the murders in Heart Eyes.

Since Shaw’s full name was revealed long before the film’s climax, she was already set up as a suspect in the HEK murders. In addition, the fact that the Heart Eyes Killer had a wedding ring implied that they were married and that their spouse was their accomplice. This foreshadows the twist that HEK was a persona crafted by married serial killers David and Jeanette Shaw.