Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

This is an opinion for after you have read those that don't recommend this movie.

Somehow I got onto the stream of opinions not recommending this movie. I really liked this movie, but it just has too many opinions for me to normally bother with it. But then I read the opinions against this movie, and it was just too much. The people who don't like this movie are why I love epinions. I like a good laugh.

This opinion will obviously give away pretty much everything about the movie's plot, but I can hardly believe you don't know anyway.

If you have ever watched any movies or documentaries about native hunters in Africa (hang on it'll make sense) you may have seen the demonstration of how they find water in the desert. They catch a monkey. And how do they catch the monkey? They put some nuts in a hole in a tree that is big enough for the monkey to get his hand in, but not big enough to get his fist out. The monkey reaches in and grabs the nuts and then becomes alarmed because he is trapped. The native casually walks up and grabs and puts a rope around the monkey's neck. (There is more about how the monkey leads to water, but it isn't important here)

This scenario illustrates what happens when someone with an I.Q. of 100 (or average) meets up with someone with a higher I.Q. or generally tries to get about in the world. Somewhere out there is a person standing next to a small whole in a fence, smiling and saying, 'Care for a nut?'

As I read through the opinions that didn't care for this movie, I just see the writers squirming in their seats in the theater muttering, 'give... me... my... hand... back'

One of the main objections to the movie is that these people want to know how Willis can possibly not know that he's dead. I love this objection. They point out all these parts in the movie or things about the story in which he should have obviously known he was dead. They then give us lots of examples of when, why, and how he would know he was dead. Things that alert you that you are dead, when you are dead, of course being well documented.

The story, in the movie, goes like this... he's dead, and he doesn't know it. There isn't anything internally inconsistent with that no matter how many things happen that you would think would give it away. You could imagine the book that starts out with the line, 'He's dead, and he doesn't know it.' You don't then read through the book coming up with things that would alert him to his deadness. The rules of the dead as laid out here are that he is dead and he doesn't know it. Most of the dead in the movie don't know they're dead, but we do see some dead that do know (or seem to know) that they are. Willis knows it too at the end, and there was a big, dramatic happening that caused him to realize he was dead. That may well have happened to the other dead people who realize they are dead.

This whole sort of objection leads you to think you might read a review of Excalibur and find in it objections like, 'look there is this lady who lives in a lake. Now how is she going to live in a lake? How does she breathe? How come that sword isn't rusty if it was in that lake all that time?'

They criticize this movie as though it were a documentary on death, and they say, look that isn't what happens when you die. Ummm, did I miss something?

Another part of the movie that has people upset, although it is within the same objection, is the scene where Willis and the boy's mother are sitting in the living room waiting for Cole to come home. Several people have mentioned what a ridiculous scene this is. Of course, the objection is in retrospect, because what they say is that Willis had to get there somehow, and that means he must have knocked on the door and come in (after all he doesn't know he's dead). Care for a nut?

Again, this is a bizarre objection. Where did we get this solidified impression that his life in death, as it were, progresses in a uniform temporal way? Maybe, he just appeared there, and he just thinks he came in, and even thinks that he had talked to the woman.

Reading through these objections I am reminded of Russel's proposal that perhaps the entire universe was created fifteen minutes ago, but it was created in such a way as to include all sorts of memories you have about things that happened (but didn't really) more than fifteen minutes ago. There is no way to refute that this is a possibility, still I can see these opinion writers making the attempt. How could the universe be created fifteen minutes ago when I am x old and yesterday I was at y and there are lots of fossils and whatnot..... Um, yes you aren't quite following are you? This is how I felt reading through their opinions. Point of movie -- he's dead and he doesn't know it. Objection -- how could he not know he's dead? There's x and y and z that would let him know he was dead. Um, yes you aren't quite following are you? Care for a nut?

Another objection is that the boy, Cole, clearly knows who is dead and who isn't, and his main problem in the movie is that he is scared of dead people and generally wants nothing to do with them. So, A) why doesn't Cole just tell Willis that he's dead, and B) why isn't Cole scared of Willis? These are at least somewhat more interesting questions, but they still aren't objections really. Looking at the plot of a movie and saying to yourself, 'you know it could have gone this way,' isn't an objection. And besides, A) he seems to think Willis can help him, and telling a person that they're dead might not be the best way to keep them around (how would you like it?) and B) Willis doesn't go around screaming at him or puking weird stuff at him or showing him the spot where you can see his brains.


Alright, I'm done. The movie is excellent, the objections are infantile.

Recommended: Yes