Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Tommy and his friend Hawes exhume Jason's grave during a thunderstorm to cremate his body and end Tommy's nightmares. As Tommy experiences a violent flashback of his previous encounter with Jason, two lightning bolts strike the metal fence post that was driven through Jason's chest. This surge of electrical energy somehow revives Jason as a supernatural revenant, giving him renewed strength and allowing him to rise from the grave.

Earlier scenes establish Tommy's traumatic flashbacks and his desperate need to confront Jason, driving him to take the grave-robbing action.

Tommy brings Jason's iconic hockey mask as part of his psychological need to confront his trauma directly. He wants to destroy it along with the body as a final act of closure, believing that cremating both the killer and the mask will rid himself of the nightmares that have plagued him since their last encounter.

Tommy is shown to be deeply traumatized by his past experience killing Jason, and his decision to return to Crystal Lake represents his attempt to face those fears head-on.

Sheriff Mike Garris treats Tommy as delusional because he was previously institutionalized at a hospital for the criminally insane. The sheriff dismisses Jason's return as a product of Tommy's psychological delusions and sees his warnings as attempts to cause trouble. This blind spot allows Jason to continue killing unchecked while the authorities focus on Tommy as a suspect rather than investigating the actual threat.

The film establishes Tommy's institutionalization early on, which creates the logical reason for the sheriff's skepticism throughout the story.

Jason spares the younger campers during his attack on Camp Forest Green, continuing a pattern from previous films where he avoids killing children. This appears to be connected to his own childhood trauma, he was drowned by camp counselors as a child and has complex psychological associations with youth. He targets teenagers and adults, particularly those who are sexually active or engaged in reckless behavior, while showing restraint toward pre-adolescent children.

Jason's backstory as a deformed child who was bullied and ultimately drowned establishes his complicated relationship with young victims.

After Tommy and Hawes exhume Jason's body, Hawes is killed by Jason. When caretaker Martin discovers the robbed grave, he covers up his negligence by burying Hawes' corpse in Jason's coffin to hide the fact that the grave was tampered with on his watch. This means when Tommy returns, he finds Hawes' body buried in Jason's place, making him believe Jason's corpse is missing when it's actually the killer himself who has escaped.

Martin's secretive behavior about the cemetery and his reluctance to discuss the grave robbery hint at his cover-up from the beginning.

Tommy recruits Megan, the sheriff's daughter, to help draw Jason back to Crystal Lake by using herself as bait. Recognizing that Jason is drawn to areas with activity, Tommy positions Megan as bait to lure the killer away from the camp and back to the lake where Tommy can confront him. Megan agrees to this dangerous plan because she recognizes the real threat Jason poses despite her father's denial.

Megan has shown curiosity about Tommy's claims and a willingness to believe him, setting up her decision to help with the plan.

Megan helps Tommy because she witnesses the real evidence of Jason's killings, the bodies of Cort, Nikki, and others, and recognizes that her father's refusal to believe Tommy is endangering everyone. Despite the personal danger, she chooses to break Tommy out of custody and assist his plan to trap Jason, showing courage and practical judgment that contrasts with the adults' denial.

Megan arrives at the story already skeptical of her father's dismissal of the missing campers and is drawn to investigate the truth.

Tommy lures Jason to the lake by boat and chains a heavy boulder around Jason's neck, forcing him underwater in an attempt to drown the immortal killer. Jason destroys the boat and pulls Tommy under the water, but Megan rescues Tommy using the boat's outboard motor to push Jason to the lake bottom. Tommy declares that Jason is finally 'home' in the water where he can never escape, though the final shot shows Jason still alive beneath the surface, imprisoned by the boulder but not defeated.

Throughout the film, Jason is associated with Crystal Lake as his original hunting ground, making the lake the logical place for the final confrontation.

Jason does not die in this film. While Tommy successfully chains a boulder around Jason's neck and traps him at the bottom of Crystal Lake, the final shot reveals Jason is still alive and conscious beneath the water, just unable to break free from the weight. This ambiguous ending was designed to set up future sequels, leaving the iconic killer as an ongoing threat rather than a defeated villain.

The film's tone and the established pattern of the Friday the 13th franchise both suggest Jason will return, making a permanent death unlikely.

After Jason is revived and kills Hawes, he retrieves the hockey mask that Tommy brought to the grave. The mask has become his iconic identity since the original films, representing his transformation from a deformed, bullied child into the masked killer. Donning it again signifies his return to his murderous persona and marks the reestablishment of his terrifying presence at Crystal Lake.

The mask was shown in Tommy's possession early on, and Jason's return to wearing it connects the resurrection to his established killer identity.