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● Plot Summary 1h 35m Comedy · Drama

(500) Days of Summer (2009) — full plot summary

Directed by Marc Webb, (500) Days of Summer unfolds across 1h 35m of comedy. This page covers the story beat by beat. For the ending, see the dedicated ending explained page.

● TL;DR

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

The story

(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.

Setting & tone

(500) Days of Summer is set in United States of America and works primarily in English. Tonally it sits in Comedy, Drama, Romance, drawing on the conventions of each while filtering them through Marc Webb's direction.

Why people search for this plot

Search interest in the plot of (500) Days of Summer tends to spike around questions about narrative ambiguity, the meaning of specific scenes, and how secondary characters connect to the main arc. Our editorial team tracks those queries and updates this summary as new questions emerge — see the FAQ on the main movie page.

● Spoilers ahead?

Read the ending explained

A scene-by-scene breakdown of the final act, the closing shot, and what it all means.

(500) Days of Summer ending explained →