An American woman named Sara Price arrives in Japan after the police inform her that her twin sister, Jess, has gone missing and is presumed dead following her last known entry into Aokigahara, the forest at the base of Mount Fuji notorious for suicides. Sara rejects the authorities' conclusion because she believes that twin intuition binds her to Jess; she insists Jess must still be alive and needs help. Her fiancé, Rob, voices his worry over the phone and urges caution, but Sara presses on alone to the area where Jess was last seen.

At the hotel where Jess checked in, Sara meets an American reporter, Aiden, who approaches her with the offer of documenting her search. The two share a drink in the hotel bar and Sara recounts the traumatic history that shaped both sisters: she tells Aiden that their parents died in a drunken driving accident, a version she says she believes because Jess saw the event and Sara did not. Aiden listens and proposes that they join a local park guide, Michi, and enter Aokigahara together to look for Jess. Sara accepts his help, partly because Aiden promises to write the story and partly because she is determined to find her sister.

Michi leads Sara and Aiden into the dense forest. As they walk under the canopy toward the area where Jess was last seen, Michi speaks plainly about the forest's reputation and the inevitability of many who go missing there. He tells Sara that it is likely her sister took her own life after entering the woods. Sara refuses to accept that verdict. On their first day in the forest, as dusk approaches, they discover a yellow tent and personal items that Sara immediately recognizes as Jess's. Michi insists that they mark the camp and leave a note for the searchers, arguing that staying overnight is dangerous and imprudent. Sara, however, refuses to abandon the site; she wants to wait in case Jess returns. Aiden volunteers to remain with her for the night.

During the long night, Sara hears sounds in the underbrush. She wakes and moves toward the noise, convinced she might be hearing Jess. Flashing darkness and rustling lead her deeper into the trees; she finds a young Japanese girl named Hoshiko, who identifies herself as one of Jess's students. The girl tells Sara that she knows where Jess is and warns her not to trust Aiden. As Aiden calls from nearby and approaches, Hoshiko vanishes into the gloom before Sara can get answers. Sara chases in the hope of following Hoshiko but loses the girl in the forest.

When dawn breaks, Aiden and Sara realize they have become disoriented. Their positions on the trail no longer make sense; the forest seems to have shifted. Sara grows suspicious of Aiden because of inconsistencies in his story about Jess and his past. She asks to see his phone. Aiden resists but finally hands it over; Sara scrolls through and finds a photograph of Jess on his device. Aiden insists he does not know Jess and appears surprised by the picture. Angered and feeling betrayed, Sara runs away from Aiden. While fleeing through the trees, she hears voices urging her to turn back. She stumbles into a clearing and comes upon a hanging body suspended from a tree. The sight of the corpse triggers panic; she bolts, slipping and falling into an opening in the earth and tumbling into an underground cavity. She loses consciousness when she hits the ground.

When Sara regains consciousness, she finds herself inside a small cave where she again confronts Hoshiko; only now the girl is no longer a normal child. Hoshiko's movements and features have a stillness and pallor that mark her as a yurei--a restless spirit. Hoshiko tells Sara things in a manner that shocks and unnerves her, and Sara recognizes that she is encountering something supernatural. Outside the cave, Aiden arrives and climbs down to help her out; he pulls her to the surface and supports her until she stabilizes. Despite her misgivings and the earlier discovery on his phone, Sara agrees to continue walking with Aiden because she has no other options.

Aiden leads Sara away from the tent site toward a ranger station he says he found earlier while searching. The station is abandoned and weathered; Aiden suggests they check inside for clues about Jess. As they explore, Sara hears a voice calling her sister's name from within a closet. She opens a door and finds a note on the floor that accuses Aiden of holding Jess captive. The note and the voice together convince Sara that Aiden has been lying and that he has Jess hidden in the station. In a frenzy of betrayal and fear, Sara grabs a small knife from the kitchen area. When Aiden moves toward her to stop her, she stabs him repeatedly; she kills him with that knife, plunging it into his body until he collapses.

Immediately after Aiden's body goes limp, Sara's perception of the scene fractures. The photograph she found on his phone, the voice from the closet, and the accusing note begin to appear less certain. The image flickers and the evidence dissolves into a horrifying realization: those items and sensations were hallucinations shaped by the forest and by Sara's mind. The last moments show Aiden lifeless on the floor at Sara's hands, and Sara standing over him, the blade cold in her grip.

A door in the ranger station opens down to a basement. Sara goes inside, drawn by a sound she takes to be Jess's voice. In the basement she experiences a vivid vision of the night her parents died, but now she sees that night through Jess's eyes. The memory slides into clarity: the deaths were not the accident Sara remembered. Instead, their father is the active agent--a murder-suicide initiated by him. In the vision she sees two bodies in a basement; later in the memory her father is the one who causes their deaths. The image contradicts the drunk driving crash story Sara told earlier and forces her to confront a different truth about her family's past.

As Sara wrestles with these new images, the ghost of her father manifests in the basement. The apparition grabs her wrist with a vise-like grip. Sara, believing she has killed Aiden to protect Jess and needing to fend off her father's ghost, slashes at the spirit's fingers with the knife she carried. She thinks she saw the fingers of the ghost and cut them away. Outside, she bursts back into daylight, convinced she has freed herself of the father's grip and cut the ghost's hand. She runs toward a figure in the distance she believes to be Jess sprinting toward a waiting search party. Sara shouts and calls Jess by name, chasing after her. Jess runs on, seemingly moving toward safety and rescue, but she does not hear Sara's calls.

As Sara closes the distance, Hoshiko steps into her path. The child--revealed earlier as a yurei--blocks Sara's way and lifts her sleeve to show a deep, bloody cut on her wrist. In that instant, Sara realizes the truth of the night's violence: when she thought she had cut the ghost's fingers, she had actually severed her own skin and opened a fatal wound on her wrist. Blood pours from the cut. The hill she is running across changes subtly; the forest seems to pull at her feet. Sara staggers as the world narrows to the pain and the spreading warmth of blood. She collapses to the ground and cannot rise.

A yurei comes for her at that point; whether it is Hoshiko herself or another spirit of the forest, a ghostly hand seizes Sara and pulls her downward. The forest floor seems to open as the spirit drags Sara into the earth. Her body sinks out of sight as the searchers call out and a rescue team approaches from beyond the trees. They reach the spot where Jess crosses into their light, and the searchers take Jess to safety. The rescuers leave the wood with Jess in tow; Michi, who helped guide the earlier search and remained nearby, senses that something else remains in the forest. Michi looks toward the trees and feels the presence of Sara's spirit caught between the living world and the forest.

By the time the party departs, Jess is in the hands of rescuers and Aiden is dead, killed by Sara's blade during a sequence of hallucinations. Sara herself lies dying of a deep wound to her wrist that she inflicted in the basement, believing she was defending herself against her father's ghost; she bleeds out and the forest claims her when a yurei pulls her into the earth. The last concrete image is Michi standing at the edge of Aokigahara, sensing a lingering presence that suggests Sara Price's fate is sealed within the forest's depths as the search party leaves with Jess.

Here is a short, simple summary of the ending:

After surviving numerous dangers in the wild, Heinrich and Em form a deep bond. As they are pursued by Samuel's gang, the film emphasizes their struggle to protect each other and find a sense of belonging. The movie ends with the implication that, despite devastation and betrayal, trust and human connection can still be found even in a harsh, ruined world--leaving the viewer with hope for the pair's uncertain future together.

Now for the expanded, chronological, scene-by-scene description of the ending:

As the final act unfolds, Heinrich and Em have managed to stay ahead of Samuel's ruthless gang by navigating deeper into the vast, shadowy forest. The trees loom over them, their branches twisting into the sky, as mist creeps along the ground. The tension is palpable, every rustle of leaves or snap of a twig threatening to reveal their location. Heinrich is exhausted, his face worn with years of survival, but he keeps an eye on Em, whose silent presence has become his only comfort.

The gang, led by Samuel, closes in, crisscrossing the landscape in search of the pair. The pursuit is relentless; Samuel, ruthless and determined, barks orders to his men, making clear that nothing will stop him from capturing Em, whose strange abilities he covets. The forest seems to conspire against them all, isolating the characters amid its endless, tangled depths.

A pivotal scene sees Heinrich and Em hiding in the hollow of an enormous, ancient tree. They huddle together, their breathing shallow, as they listen to the gang passing nearby. In this moment, the silence between them is profound--Em communicates with Heinrich through gestures and looks, her expressions conveying fear, comfort, and gratitude. Heinrich tightens his grip on her hand, silently promising he will not let her go.

Eventually, the pair is forced to make a desperate run for a clearing, hoping to escape by crossing a river that snakes through the forest. As they reach the water's edge, Samuel and his men appear, blocking their path. A tense standoff ensues. Samuel tries to coax Em away, promising safety and power, but she refuses, standing close to Heinrich. Heinrich, weapon in hand, is prepared to fight--but Em, sensing the danger, steps forward and uses her mysterious abilities to create a distraction, a sudden wind stirring the leaves and startling the gang.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Heinrich and Em plunge into the river. The current is strong, and the cold water shocks them both. The gang fires shots across the water, but their bullets fall short as the pair is swept downstream into unfamiliar territory.

The next scenes show Heinrich and Em emerging from the water, both injured but alive. The forest around them is quiet, the danger momentarily left behind. Heinrich tends to Em's injuries, his care for her evident. Em, now worn out and fragile, finally rests under Heinrich's watchful gaze. The camera lingers on their faces, showing the exhaustion, but also a quiet sense of peace.

As evening falls, Heinrich builds a small fire. Em sits across from him, staring into the flames--the light flickers on her face, revealing a mixture of sadness and hope. Heinrich, watching her, begins to speak, sharing his thoughts about the world before and the bond they've formed. Em, though voiceless, communicates her feelings through her actions and expressions, a silent but profound connection.

The movie ends with the two of them walking together into the distance, the forest stretching ahead. The closing shots show them side by side, silhouetted against the fading light, heading toward an uncertain but hopeful future. The film does not resolve all their challenges, but it underscores that, even in a world ravaged by disaster, trust and companionship can still be found.

The movie "The Forest" produced in 2025 is an adventure, drama, and sci-fi film, but there is limited information available about its content being family-friendly or otherwise. However, the genres and the post-apocalyptic setting might suggest some potentially intense or unsettling scenes, which could include:

• Intense environments: Post-apocalyptic settings often feature abandoned or damaged landscapes, which might be unsettling for children or sensitive viewers.
• Isolation themes: The theme of being alone in a desolate world could be emotionally challenging for younger audiences.
• Unsettling encounters: Without revealing plot details, encounters in a mysterious forest could potentially involve frightening or intense situations.

For specific details about objectionable content, it would be advisable to consult a parental guide similar to the one available for the TV mini-series "Forest" in 2025, which mentions categories like "Violence & Gore," "Profanity," and "Frightening & Intense Scenes" . However, these details are not explicitly mentioned for the 2025 film titled "The Forest."

There is no mention of a dog in the available information about the movie titled "The Forest" produced in 2025. The film focuses on themes of survival, mystery, and emotional depth, with the main characters being Heinrich and a voiceless woman named Em, and does not include any details about a dog. Two distinct movies are discussed under the title "The Forest" for 2025, but neither mentions a dog.

The 2025 movie titled The Forest does not have clear evidence from the provided search results that it is based on a true story. There are multiple films named "The Forest," including a 2016 American supernatural horror film set in the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, which is a real location known for suicides and haunted legends. That film uses the real-life setting as a backdrop but incorporates supernatural elements and fictional narrative, so it's more inspired by real events and folklore rather than being strictly "based on a true story".

The 2025 movies referenced in the search results include The Deadly Forest (also known as Stressed to Death), which explicitly claims to be "based on a true story", and another film called Legend of the Forest that involves a fictional adventure about Bigfoot. However, none of these sources directly link the 2025 film titled The Forest to a true story or real events.

Therefore, unless more specific information emerges directly from the filmmakers or official descriptions clarifying it as a true story, it appears that the 2025 The Forest is not definitively based on a true story. It may share thematic elements with real places or legends but is presented primarily as a fictional narrative.