How Tom Cruise Shaped Good Boy’s Big Reveal — And the Fate of the Dog
After the Good Boy trailer dropped, one question ruled the internet: does the dog survive? Filmed from a canine POV, this horror ride thrusts its four-legged hero into escalating peril with his unstable owner—and director Ben Leonberg finally answers the fate fans fear most.
Let me save you the anxiety so you can actually watch the movie without clenching your teeth the whole time: the dog in Good Boy lives. Now, how the movie plays with that tension is the fun part.
So... does the dog die in Good Boy?
No. Director Ben Leonberg spelled it out in a chat with Cinemablend, using the most reliable safety blanket in modern action cinema to make the point. Think Ethan Hunt logic: we all know Tom Cruise isn’t going to die in a Mission: Impossible movie, but the stunt work still makes you feel like he might.
"Tom Cruise isn't gonna die, but the filmmaking still has to let you think he might fall off that airplane."
Apply that to Good Boy. The film absolutely puts its canine lead in dangerous, skin-crawling situations, but the endpoint is clear: Indy survives.
The twist: it’s horror from the dog’s POV
Good Boy is a horror movie told through the eyes of a dog living with a troubled owner. It’s an instantly intriguing setup and, honestly, a little bit of inside baseball: Leonberg cast his own dog, Indy, as the lead. Between that and the Mission: Impossible analogy, you were probably never going to watch a beloved pet get killed on screen here.
Breaking a horror habit that never dies
Leonberg wanted to flip a trope that horror fans know all too well: the dog notices something evil, nobody listens, and the dog pays the price. Movies like The Conjuring even telegraph it — remember Sadie refusing to go into the Perron house? Good Boy builds a whole story out of that exact instinct, instead of using the dog as a disposable warning siren. It’s a smart subversion, and it gives the movie its identity.
Where the movie stands right now
Good Boy hit theaters in the U.S. on October 3, 2025, and early reactions are strong. It’s the kind of high-concept genre play that could grow by word of mouth — whether it explodes the way Paranormal Activity did is a wait-and-see game, but the buzz is real.
Need-to-know details
- Title: Good Boy
- Director: Ben Leonberg
- Cast: Indy, Shane Jensen, Larry Fessenden
- Concept: POV horror from a dog living with his troubled owner
- Production: What’s Wrong With Your Dog?
- Release: 2025, in U.S. theaters now (opened October 3, 2025)
- Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
- IMDb: 6.5/10
- Outcome you care about: Indy the dog survives
The bottom line
If the only thing keeping you from buying a ticket was the fear of canine carnage, you can relax. The movie still wrings you out with close calls, but Indy makes it. Now you can focus on the ride — and the clever way it takes a worn-out horror trope and actually does something new with it.