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● Movie Guide · Last updated May 18, 2026

(500) Days of Summer: Plot, Cast, Ending & Where to Watch

2009 · United States of America · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 1h 35m · English

(500) Days of Summer is a 2009 United States of America comedy film directed by Marc Webb. This guide covers the plot, full cast, an overview of the ending, where to watch, and similar films you might want next.

Read Ending Explained → Movies Like (500) Days of Summer Where to Watch
ComedyDramaRecommended
Original Title
(500) Days of Summer
Director
Marc Webb
Writers
Michael H. Weber, Scott Neustadter
Country
United States of America
Runtime
1h 35m
Release
Jul 17, 2009
§ 01 Plot · 6 min read

(500) Days of Summer Plot Summary

(500) Days of Summer is a 2009 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Marc Webb in his feature directorial debut, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and produced by Mark Waters. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as Tom and Summer respectively, and in a nonlinear narrative structure, Tom chronicles the story of his relationship with Summer.

● Quick takeaway

(500) Days of Summer (2009) is a United States of America comedy film, directed by Marc Webb, running 95 minutes. Tom, greeting-card writer and hopeless romantic, is caught completely off-guard when his girlfriend, Summer, suddenly dumps him. He reflects on their 500 days together to try to figure out where their love affair went sour, and in doing so, Tom rediscovers his true passions in life. Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Critical reception: IMDb 7.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes 86%, Metacritic 76/100. Tagline: "This is not a love story. This is a story about love.." This guide covers the plot, full cast, ending, and where to watch.

§ 02 Cast · 6 roles

Cast and Characters

Joseph Gordon-Levitt headshot
as Tom
Gordon-Levitt anchors the film by playing Tom as a sympathetic unreliable narrator rather than a wounded hero — his shoulders carry the karaoke-night exuberance and the post-breakup diner collapse with equal credibility. The performance is calibrated around small failures of self-awareness: the half-smile when Summer says she does not believe in love, the way he hears it as flirtation. His morning-after dance through downtown LA to Hall & Oates is the film's signature image because Gordon-Levitt commits to the embarrassment of being that happy in public.
Zooey Deschanel headshot
Zooey Deschanel
as Summer
Deschanel's Summer is the film's quietly radical act: she is given the manic-pixie iconography of the era — blue eyes, ironic vintage dresses, a love of The Smiths — and then plays the role as a person who has been telling Tom the truth from day one. The performance lives in micro-tells: the slightly tired pause before she agrees to another date, the way she keeps her face still during the karaoke scene. Deschanel refuses to make Summer cruel, which is what makes the breakup land.
Geoffrey Arend headshot
Geoffrey Arend
as McKenzie
Arend plays one half of Tom's two-man Greek chorus, the friend who tries to keep the post-breakup spiral grounded in reality. His scenes are short by design — the bar consultations, the awkward office cubicle reassurances — but Arend's deadpan timing keeps the film from drifting into pure interior monologue. He plays McKenzie as a man who has clearly heard this conversation before and is gently running out of patience without ever giving up on his friend.
Chloë Grace Moretz headshot
Chloë Grace Moretz
as Rachel
Moretz, twelve when the film was shot, plays Tom's younger sister as the film's clearest-eyed character — a precociously direct adolescent who tells her older brother, point-blank, that he has been mythologising Summer in ways the actual relationship will not support. Her soccer-field scenes function as the film's reality check; Moretz's underplayed cadence makes the writing feel like a conversation rather than a monologue handed to a kid.
Matthew Gray Gubler headshot
Matthew Gray Gubler
as Paul
Gubler is Tom's other anchor — the friend in a long, settled relationship whose perfectly reasonable answers about what he likes about his girlfriend serve as a constant rebuke to Tom's epic-love framework. His bar speech about how the real version of a person eventually beats out the dream version is one of the script's load-bearing lines, and Gubler delivers it without any winking, which is precisely why it lands.
Clark Gregg headshot
Clark Gregg
as Vance
Gregg plays Tom's greeting-card-company boss with the brisk middle-management patience that defines his career-best supporting work. His office scenes — particularly the post-breakup meeting where Tom proposes a sympathy card written in pure rage — are some of the film's funniest moments because Gregg refuses to play exasperation; he plays a man genuinely worried about a young employee who has just hand-delivered a stack of nihilistic Hallmark drafts.
§ 03 · Spoiler Zone · Read with care

Ending Overview

How does (500) Days of Summer end? Our spoiler-aware breakdown walks through the final act beat by beat — including the choices, motivations, and ambiguous final shot that viewers most often debate.

Read full Ending Explained →
§ 04 Watch · Updated May 18

Where to Watch (500) Days of Summer

Availability may vary by region and change over time.

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§ 06

Frequently Asked

What is (500) Days of Summer about?

Tom, greeting-card writer and hopeless romantic, is caught completely off-guard when his girlfriend, Summer, suddenly dumps him.

Where can I watch (500) Days of Summer?

See the Where to Watch section below for the current streaming, rental, and purchase options in your region.