“ |
Clover, Max, Megan, they're like... they're like the only consistent people I've had in my life, ever. |
” |
—Nina |
Nina Riley is a protagonist in the Until Dawn film. She is the girlfriend of Abe and a friend to the rest of the group. She, along with her friends, attempts to search for Clover's sister Melanie in the place where she disappeared, until they suddenly find themselves trapped in a death loop. She is played by actress Odessa A'zion.
Appearance[]
Nina is a tan-skinned young woman with medium-length curly dark hair and green eyes. She has a birthmark on the side of her nose, wears a natural-colored lipstick and has a silver septum ring.
On October 24, 2024—when she and her friends go in search of clues about the disappearance of Clover's sister, Melanie, who has been missing for a year—Nina wears a mint-green shirt with a cropped knitted coat above it, light gray, oversized jeans, white socks, and black platform boots. Her accessories are two necklaces and multiple rings.
Later on the film, she gets splattered with blood, and her eyes get cut.
Personality[]
As someone who’s gone through many failed romantic relationships (six months ago with a unnamed man and three months ago with a woman named "Julia"), Nina greatly values the stability she does have in her life. Her friendships are deeply important to her, and she is willing to clash with her boyfriend for the sake of her friends. Her comments are sometimes harsh, but she has developed such a strong rapport with the others that they know she does not truly mean things that sound hurtful.
Until Dawn (Film)[]
Nina is first seen in the passenger seat of the car, next to her driving boyfriend Abe, as they, Max, Megan and Clover, travel to search for Clover's missing sister, Melanie. When they arrive at a gas station, Clover watches a video of Melanie on her phone. In the background of the video, the Hartley’s establishment is visible, confirming it as Melanie’s last known location. Megan suggests holding a prayer circle, and after a near miss with a passing car, Clover heads inside while the others remain outside. After Max proposes to follow Clover, Nina jokes about him being unable to let go of her, but Max and Megan instead joke about Nina’s constant need to be in a relationship. “Six months ago, there was another guy just like you,” Max tells Abe. And three months before that, Nina was involved with a woman named Julia. Abe jokes that if this relationship doesn't work out, he can get Julia's number.
When talking about Clover's struggles, Nina comments that Melanie was selfish for abandoning Clover after their mother’s death. Clover then exits the gas station and tells her friends that she knows where Melanie last was, before the group drives to said location. It starts to rain heavily, and a fight breaks out between Abe, the driver, who wants to press forward, and all the passengers who wish to turn around again. Just when tensions reach their highest, the car bursts through the rain into a completely clear area. Here, there is a visitor center and one wooden cross which appears to be a grave marker. The group find the area ominous but Nina, along with Abe, and Megan, begins to explore the visitor center. She observes an hourglass and a guest book on a table, with names from previous guests. Nina then sees Melanie’s name repeating and getting more messy in the guest book. She is called by Abe who shows her many missing posters which seem to lack purpose because there is no information written on them. One poster is for Melanie. Max pulls Clover from the rain outside and the group reconvenes.
Nina tells Clover about Melanie’s name and signs her own name into the guest book. Abe then notices that his car is missing. The group then sees its headlights out in the rain, and believe someone has taken the car. They propose to approach the person, but the car rushes forward, causing Abe to usher them all back inside.
Clover, Max, and Megan go down into the basement where they find a radio, and Max notes that it is strange for a basement to have windows. Nina and Abe remain upstairs. Nina calls for Abe, and he doesn’t respond. She goes to find him, becoming more and more apprehensive as she approaches the room where he last was. She turns on the lights to find that Abe has been cut in half by the Slasher—a tall man in overalls and a skull-like mask. She is then also attacked.
Those downstairs hear Nina scream and run up only to find her on the floor with a pickaxe in her back. Clover, Max, and Megan rush back downstairs to hide. The Slasher looks for them, and Max emerges from hiding in an attempt to knock the Slasher out with a chair. The attack does no damage, and the Slasher stabs Max through the face, pulling his eye out with a knife. Next, the Slasher locates Megan, throws her out of a closet and kills her by repeatedly bashing her face on the ground. Clover tries to run into the woods, but thinks she sees Melanie again and is impaled by the Slasher.
The hourglass reverses, and all five friends come to in the place they were when the loop started. They all bear marks from how they were killed. Abe calls for them and shows that they each now have a missing poster hanging among the others. The front door begins to slam and the group barricades it. Megan sits and begins to show signs of fatigue. Max checks on her and she says that her psychic connection is giving her trouble. She begins to have seizures then disappears. Nina and the others find her, in a trance, hovering before the fliers. She begins pointing her finger and channeling the missing peoples’ voices. She begins screaming, telling the others “not to let them in” before snapping her neck and dying. Max goes to her, but Abe yells at him not to touch her body, saying Max could become possessed next. Angrily, Max says possession cannot be caught that way, and that people have to be open to it.
The group hears Melanie’s voice at the door, but Nina recalls that Megan just said not to open the door, and insists to heed Megan's warning, but Clover opens the door and tries to go to her sister anyways; she is then dragged away by an invisible force to a shack that has appeared on the grounds. Max tries to hurry to her aid, but is stopped by Abe who tries to reason with him, saying Clover is beyond help and that they must leave with Nina. Max refuses to go with Abe and heads to the shack to find Clover. Abe and Nina run to the car, and Abe locks the car door to keep Nina inside. He tries to drive away, but a giant blocks their path and they promptly head back. The Slasher then appears and kills Abe. Nina, unable to flee the locked car, is also killed.
The hourglass reverses again, bringing them to the third night. The group lock themselves in the bathroom in an attempt to wait things out. Abe fills a glass with tap water which surprises Megan who’d previously tried the tap and found that it didn’t work. He takes a drink and asks who else wants water. Everyone accepts his offer. As they talk, Abe begins to cough more and more. Looking into his palm, he sees that he has thrown up blood and bits of his insides. He tries to hide it but the group notices how much he’s hacking. Nina attempts to ask him if he’s okay, and he explodes over everyone. Having gotten Abe's blood and gore into her mouth, Nina panics and rushes to the sink where she also explodes. Clover, Max, and Megan become hysterical and run into the hall. Megan’s leg explodes off her and she falls, her stomach expanding. It bursts, killing her. Clover begs Max to kill her and puts his hands on her throat. However, he cannot do it and explodes. Clover falls to the ground. She listens to some whistle. When the person arrives before her, she sees that it is the gas station attendant, Hill. She explodes, covering him in blood.
The group begins to notice their bodies beginning to change. Everyone decides to go into the basement to find clues. They discover some old VHS tapes and ID cards from Dr. Hill whom Clover recognizes as the gas station attendant. The tapes show that Hill has been experimenting with the death loop and that, if a person is stuck in it for thirteen nights, they will become a Wendigo. The group realizes that the basement has windows because it used to be the first floor but has fallen into the mines along with the rest of Glore Valley.
Hill then talks to the group through a speaker and tells them that the loop must claim someone, but four may be able to leave. Abe jumps on the idea, and the group is horrified that he is even considering it, Nina being particularly furious. When Hill says that he is willing to speak to Clover alone in the woods, Abe presses more, saying that one dying is better than five. He is then forced to admit that he is not willing to be the one who dies. Clover runs out into the woods and gets caught in a bear trap, while the others begin to argue inside the visitor's centre. Abe insinuates that Max is trying so hard to protect Clover because he wants to be her boyfriend again. Then, Abe argues that Clover has attempted suicide before, so she is the one who would be the best choice to die. Enraged, Nina tells him off, and then stabs him in the back so that he will be unable to attempt to survive the night without the others. Max and Megan run after Clover while Nina stays with Abe.
Clover is attacked by Melanie who is now a Wendigo. Inside the house, Nina holds Abe and talks to him. She looks up and sees the Slasher. She says that she wants to go first, and Abe asks what she means before looking up to see the Slasher attack them.
During the thirteenth night, Clover wakes up to Max, Abe, and Nina around her. They are confused by which night they are on, then Nina says that the book shows that she has signed thirteen times, meaning they are on their last night. Abe recalls that he has been recording the whole time and opens his phone gallery to find found footage of the missing nights. They notice that Megan is missing. Now armed with weapons, they decide to go look for Megan, and open the doorway to the mines they found earlier. However, they quickly get pursued by the Slasher, and Nina, Max and Abe try to escape him and fend him off, while Clover looks for Megan.
Clover, after having killed Wendigo Melanie, finds Megan trapped in a Sanatorium chamber with a shackled Wendigo, but cannot enter the room without a key. Leaving Megan, she finds Hill’s office where he stands drinking coffee. Clover defeats Hill by poisoning his coffee with bad water, and the last minutes until dawn are spent in a mad race to escape. Max, Abe, and Nina work together to finally kill the Slasher before escaping from the house. Clover finds a key and goes back to Megan, barely saving her before the Wendigo breaks loose. Together, Megan and Clover hurry to escape the mines. They dig their way above ground, similarly to Melanie had done at the beginning. But, this time, it is their friends who are waiting for them. Abe, Nina, and Max pull Clover and Megan from the ground (where the cross seen previously is). The girls are freed just as the hourglass marks the end of the night. Having successfully beaten the curse, the group piles into Abe’s car and drives from the visitor center.
Relationships[]
Abe[]
Abe is Nina's newest romantic partner. Because of past experiences with breakups, she appears to be uncertain of whether or not he will be a long-lasting part of her life. Despite this, her relationship with him is very affectionate. As the death loop continues, Abe and Nina conflict over ideals, with Abe believing that they cannot save everyone and Nina arguing that her friends are the most consistent part of her life and that she will always protect them. Sometimes Abe misunderstands Nina; when he tries to be as blunt as she is towards the others, she corrects him, saying that when she is harshly-worded, the others know she is not serious. Tensions reach their highest when Abe tries to convince the others to let Clover be the sacrifice to the death loop, and Nina stabs him. However, despite these seeming acts of grave betrayal, the two do not harbor any lasting bitter feelings and ultimately work together with Max to defeat the Slasher.
Clover[]
Clover and Nina are friends, and Nina counts her as one of the people who has been there consistently for her. While Nina feels for Clover after the death of her mother and sister's disappearance, Clover's strong insistence to find her sister can lead to her ignoring her friends' advice, frustrating Nina, such as when Clover ignores Nina recalling Megan's warning to not open the door after hearing a voice which appears to be Melanie's. Still, she feels a need to stand up for Clover; when Abe argues for Clover to sacrifice herself, and points out her already suicidal nature, Nina becomes furious at Abe's insensitiveness and willingness to throw her under the bus, and proceeds to stab him in the back.
Max[]
Max often is the butt of Nina's (and Abe's) jokes, especially regarding his hung-up feelings for Clover, but Max playfully teases Nina back about her own numerous relationships. Regardless, Nina cares for Max and vice versa.
Megan[]
Nina and Megan are friends, and Nina counts her as one of the people who has consistently been in her life. Nina seems to trust Megan's psychic instincts, being accepting of Megan's hand-holding circle idea, and later taking her warnings seriously when Megan is possessed. When Megan goes missing during the thirteenth night, Nina is determined to find her.
Deaths[]
- Hacked by the Slasher
- Stabbed by the Slasher
- Spontaneous explosion from bad water
- Stabbed by the Slasher (implied)
- Bled from eyes due to siren sound frequency
Trivia[]
- Nina shares the same last name as Jessica.
- According Odessa A'zion, Nina is more trying to help Clover cope with the loss of her sister than trying to find Melanie.
- According Max and Megan, Nina is bisexual and has had relationships with men and women, making her the first known LGBTQ+ character in the Until Dawn universe.