Fear of Rain (2021) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Rain stops taking her medication because she feels it inhibits her passion for painting. During therapy sessions, she admits that the medication dulls her creativity, so she chooses to stop taking it in order to continue pursuing her art, despite the consequences on her mental health.

• medication
• schizophrenia
• painting
• therapy

Caleb is real. Throughout the film, Rain's mother Michelle questions whether Caleb is merely a figment of Rain's imagination, causing viewers to doubt his existence. However, at the film's climax, Caleb arrives at Ms. McConnell's house to save Rain and Malia, and he later verifies his own existence to Rain, confirming he is not a hallucination.

Foreshadowing: Rain's doubt about Caleb's existence is triggered when her mother interrupts their first kiss, foreshadowing the revelation about Michelle being imaginary.

• Caleb
• real
• hallucination
• Rain

Michelle has been deceased for three years. Rain's father John reveals this devastating truth during one of Rain's mental breakdowns. Rain's mind created an imaginary version of her mother to cope with the grief of losing her, and this hallucination appears throughout the film, providing comfort but also adding to Rain's confusion about reality.

Foreshadowing: The film foreshadows this twist when Rain's parents are never shown together in certain scenes, and Michelle sometimes appears at odd moments when others aren't looking.

• Michelle
• death
• hallucination
• Rain
• mother

Yes, the child is real. Rain sees a vision of Ms. McConnell dancing with a young girl in her attic, and later discovers the girl named Malia is actually imprisoned in Ms. McConnell's basement. While Rain's schizophrenia causes her to see things that may not be there, in this case, her vision led her to discover a real missing child.

Foreshadowing: Rain's vivid nightmare about Ms. McConnell and the child appears early in the film, setting up the central mystery she becomes determined to solve.

• Malia
• attic
• missing child
• Ms. McConnell

John reveals Michelle's death during Rain's mental breakdown because he realizes Rain needs to understand what is real. With her therapist unavailable and Rain descending into crisis, John decides the painful truth about her mother is necessary to help Rain distinguish between her hallucinations and actual danger.

• John
• Michelle
• death
• truth
• breakdown

Yes, Ms. McConnell is actually keeping Malia captive. Rain discovers Malia imprisoned in a cage in Ms. McConnell's basement. When Ms. McConnell returns home, she tells Rain that Malia isn't real and that she only wants to help, but the reality is that she has been kidnapping and holding a missing child captive.

Foreshadowing: The film foreshadows Ms. McConnell's guilt through her defensive behavior when Rain and John first visit to investigate the attic, and her quick dismissal of the strange items found there.

• Ms. McConnell
• Malia
• kidnapping
• captivity
• basement

Rain gets into a physical altercation with her father after he confronts her about refusing to take her medication. In a heated moment of defiance, Rain swallows several pills, and the situation escalates into a physical struggle. This confrontation highlights Rain's internal conflict between her desire to be creative and her need for medical treatment.

• John
• fight
• medication
• pills
• confrontation

Rain breaks into Ms. McConnell's home for the third time, determined to find the truth. After Ms. McConnell leaves for dinner, Rain finds the basement door locked but manages to steal the keys. Inside the basement, she discovers Malia imprisoned in a cage. Rain hides in the same cage when Ms. McConnell approaches, narrowly avoiding detection.

Foreshadowing: Earlier failed attempts to search Ms. McConnell's house build toward this climactic discovery, with each break-in bringing Rain closer to the truth.

• Malia
• basement
• cage
• keys
• discovery

Yes, Rain begins her recovery in the weeks following the traumatic events. She starts new medication that significantly reduces her hallucinations, allowing her to think more clearly. She visits her mother's grave with John, finding closure while honoring Michelle's memory. The film ends with a hopeful note, as Rain is finally able to sleep peacefully with only a comforting memory of her mother rather than a hallucinatory presence.

• recovery
• medication
• healing
• closure
• Michelle

Rain begins questioning Caleb's existence after her mother Michelle interrupts their first kiss. This moment triggers Rain's suspicion because her mother, being a hallucination, shouldn't be able to see Caleb if he were also imaginary. The next day, when Caleb is absent from school, Rain fears her suspicion may be correct, though this doubt is later resolved when Caleb proves he is real.

Foreshadowing: The interruption by Michelle during the kiss plants the seed of doubt that Haunts Rain throughout the middle of the film.

• Caleb
• doubt
• reality
• existence
• mother

Rain's initial psychotic episode is caused by her early onset schizophrenia combined with her decision to stop taking her prescribed medication. The film opens with her hospitalization following this severe episode, which marks the beginning of the story and sets up her ongoing struggle with distinguishing reality from her hallucinations.

• psychotic episode
• schizophrenia
• hospitalization
• medication