The 'It' Quote That Turned Pennywise Into a Nightmare Icon

It is scary for so many reasons. One of the main reasons is Pennywise the clown's method of preying on his targets.

As a narrative, It is pretty straightforward. Based on Stephen King’s novel, the movie revolves around a malicious, evil-spirited clown who preys on kids and their fear.

However, deep down, It addresses something bigger—the play of fear in our lives. While every plot point in the movie realigns the narrative with this theme, there’s a particular catchphrase that dedicatedly spotlights it, repeating itself throughout the movie like a warning: "We all float down here.”

In this article, let’s unveil how Pennywise encapsulates the true essence of fear and its effects on our lives in just five words.

The Scene

On a lonely afternoon, Eddie is walking home via Neibolt Street. He walks past an abandoned house, slightly scared of the eerie quiet and seclusion. Suddenly, he is attacked by a dead leper. Eddie manages to make a run for it. He enters the premises of the abandoned house with the zombie leper following him.

Suddenly, he notices something that makes him stop in his tracks. The leper is gone, but someone holding onto a cluster of bright red balloons is right before him.

Pennywise moves the balloons away from his face, flashes a bright, eerie smile at Eddie, and says, “Where are you going, Ed?”

Eddie is shaken. The evil clown continues in a husky baritone, “Now come join the clown. You’ll float down here. We all float down here. Yes, we do.”

Pennywise begins laughing. The sound of his maniacal laugh echoes. Eddie screams out in fear and runs for his life.

Multiple pops from behind startle him, and he falls to the ground. He sees that the balloons are all popped, and Pennywise has vanished into thin air.

The True Meaning of “We All Float Down Here”

As the movie nears its end, we realize that courage weakens Pennywise, proving that he feeds on fear for his strength. If the children didn’t fear him, it would mean the end of him.

However, fear works the same way across all age groups. Just like supernatural beings, our insecurities and traumas feed on our fear—fear of rejection, judgment, abandonment, failure—the list is endless.

Over time, we get used to this parasitic relationship that we have with our fears—they keep us in a trance while they grow stronger because we enable them. Soon enough, our fears become our whole life. And what do we do, even when we’re aware of what we’re doing? Get used to that, as well.

It explores fear philosophically through horror.

When Pennywise says, “We all float down here,” he means the sewer where he pulled Georgie in early in the film.

However, the sewer is a metaphor for a limbo of limitations that we create for ourselves in the real world, where fear is more tangible than Pennywise.

Every time we let fear get the better of us, we pay for it in lost opportunities, broken hearts, and abandoned dreams.

It uses the sewer as a metaphor for a life full of regrets and fear. Pennywise, the supernatural entity, preys on your fear, and if you act out on it, he kills you and places you in an eternal limbo.

In another scene, when Bill sees Georgie in the house after Pennywise kills him and follows him into the basement, even Georgie reminds him, “But Bill, if you come with me, you’ll float too.”

Sometimes I think back on why Pennywise attacks Georgie and pulls him into the sewer. The boy wasn’t really scared of Pennywise; in fact, he was conversing with him and laughing at his jokes. Why did Georgie become a victim?

I think it's because Pennywise planted the fear of Billy’s reaction if he were to tell him that he lost his paper boat. I know it sounds small, but maybe that’s the point. Fear, however trivial, will always catch up to you and can land you in unforeseen trouble.

The red-lipped clown is a horror icon that reflects what’s on the other side of fear.

Do you know of more such icons that share similar thematic elements in their narratives? Let us know in the comments.