After We Fell is a 2021 American romantic drama film directed by Castille Landon from a screenplay by Sharon Soboil, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Anna Todd. It is the sequel to After We Collided (2020) and the third installment in the After film series. The film stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin reprising their roles as Tessa Young and Hardin Scott, respectively. The plot follows Tessa’s preparations for a job in Seattle, the arrival of Tessa’s father, and revelations about Hardin’s family, all of which threaten the couple’s relationship. Louise Lombard, Rob Estes, Arielle Kebbel, Chance Perdomo in his feature film debut, Frances Turner, Kiana Madeira, Carter Jenkins and Mira Sorvino appear in supporting roles.
The film was shot back-to-back in Bulgaria in 2020 with its sequel, After Ever Happy. Due to scheduling conflicts and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, several characters were recast.
After We Fell was released in Europe on September 1, 2021, and in the United States on September 30, by Voltage Pictures. Like its predecessors, it received negative reviews from critics, with criticism for its screenplay and acting.
The sequel, After Ever Happy, was released in 2022.
Plot
In a flashback, Carol Young kicks her husband Richard out of their house over his alcoholism, despite Tessa’s pleas for him to stay. In the present, Tessa and her boyfriend Hardin Scott bring a now-homeless Richard to their apartment. Tessa wants to let her father stay so she can build a relationship with him, while Hardin distrusts Richard, even offering him money to leave. Richard declines the money, explaining that he only wants to make amends.
Tessa and Landon, Hardin’s step-brother, discuss Tessa’s move to Seattle to be closer to her employer Vance Publishing. Hardin arrives and argues with Tessa over the move; he hoped to move with Tessa to London after graduation. After a phone call with his mother Trish, who asks Hardin to attend her upcoming wedding and talks about her close relationship with Vance’s owner Christian Vance, Hardin accompanies Richard to a bar, where they get into a fight with a bystander over lewd comments about Tessa.
The next day, Richard decides to leave the apartment, while Hardin and Tessa fight again about her move to Seattle. Kimberley, Vance’s fiancée, offers to let Tessa and Hardin stay with the couple in Seattle, after which Hardin apologizes to Tessa.
Tessa and Hardin accompany Hardin’s dad, Ken, his step-mom, Karen, and Landon to the family’s lake house for a weekend vacation. Hardin sheds some of his previous hostilities towards his family, growing closer to them. While the family is out for dinner, Hardin encounters an old friend, Lillian, who he introduces to Tessa. Tessa grows jealous of the attention Lillian receives from Hardin and begins to flirt with their waiter Robert.
After having sex in a hot tub, Hardin asks Tessa if she ever had feelings towards her coworker, Trevor. Tessa admits she may have briefly, causing him to storm away. When Hardin tells Tessa that he is with Lillian, Tessa goes to the restaurant from before and flirts with Robert, who gives her his phone number. Hardin and Lillian arrive, and Lillian explains that she’s gay and thus has no interest in Hardin. When Hardin finds Robert’s phone number in Tessa’s belongings the next day, they leave the lake house early.
After her move to Seattle, Tessa and Hardin do not speak for several days; he finds her journal, wherein she describes all the pain caused by their relationship. Eventually, they reconcile, and Hardin takes up boxing as a way of resolving his anger issues. Vance and Kimberly tell Tessa that they are expecting a child. When Hardin has a nightmare of Tessa being unfaithful to him, he surprises her in Seattle, admits to reading her journal, and apologizes for causing her pain.
After spending some time together, Hardin returns home, where he finds Richard in his apartment, brutally beaten. He had been attacked by men to whom he owed money; Hardin offers him a watch to pay off the debt. When Tessa visits her gynecologist to start birth control, she is informed that, because of an issue with her cervix, she may never conceive. Hardin tells Tessa he plans on moving to Seattle in two months.
Hardin eventually agrees to attend his mother’s wedding in London, taking Tessa along and showing her his hometown. The night before the wedding, Hardin catches Trish and Vance having sex, causing an altercation between the three. Trish and her fiancé get married the next day.
Tessa sits with Kimberley, who admits she knows of Vance’s infidelity, but that she loves him and can’t stay angry with him. Hardin discusses the previous night’s events with Vance at a local bar. Kimberly tells Tessa, and Vance tells Hardin, that Vance is Hardin’s real father. The news shocks Tessa and infuriates Hardin, who storms out of the bar. Tessa finds Hardin and they embrace passionately in the street.
