This is the movie, which I accidentally noticed on the Netflix, and decided to dive in. Starring Morgan Freeman & Jack Nicholson (undoubtedly one of the best actors), this is a story of two terminally ill man in their late sixties, who got only 6 months to live. Carter (Morgan Freeman) is a mechanic who has a loving family behind him. On other side, Edward (Jack Nicholson) is a billionaire health care magnate, who has limited attachment to his family. Both have been diagnosed with cancer, currently in treatment phase when they encountered themselves for the first time in a same hospital room allotted. Carter was already there, when Edward had been allotted the same room. Edward himself as a rude & annoyed person, has not a good connection at all with his roommate Carter, who is calm, self centered man. Instead of being in his owned hospital, Edward got no option but to stay with a roommate.
First few days went by, with both tolerating each other without any understanding. Carter were usually accompanied by his family members visiting him in hospital, but none from Edward side came to visit Edward. Even as a billionaire, except money, he got nothing in his life to cherish & celebrate, and he knew it very well. Soon both began to know each other, spending their times by playing cards, talking or watching TV. Especially during the difficult times in hospital, both had no one but only each other to share their sufferings. One day, Edward were watching football game, when a doctor came with his test results, giving the devastating news that he got only 6-12 months to live, with very little chances of recovery from cancer. Listening this news, Carter also become sad, and began to scribble on paper a list of those things, that he wanted to do in his life. But when he got the same bad news for himself from same doctor on same day, he left this note, crushed and throw it away on floor. Next morning, Edward wake up, he saw that note, and when Carter noticed his note handed by Edward, he straight-forwarded confront to throw it away. But soon, both realized that things written in this note can be the most exciting part of their remaining lives journey. Both started to add more things into that list, like “watching something spectacular, Kiss the most beautiful girl, have a body tattoo, do skydiving, drove Shelby 350” and more. Not to worry about the money involved, Edward convinced Carter to not missed this adrenaline-rush adventure journey for a lifetime, without any regrets to miss it. Even being confronted by his wife, Carter decided to take this journey with almost a stranger. Carter knew that he deserves this freedom, after all he had dedicated 45 years of his life for his family. And so, here they go. Giving chance to everything on that list, by giving their first shot to skydiving(breathtaking for everyone) .
In this movie, you will get to know different facets of life, that we all encountered in our lives, like our faith, believes, attitudes or sentiments, but we never cross questioned with ourselves whether it is right or wrong. But more important aspect to understand, it is not fair to judge people based on their beliefs and faiths.
Edward and Carter visited Pyramid tombs in Egypt, and I must say the spectacular view from top of it, is nothing like you should miss. At that point, Carter asks two questions to Edward, “Have you found joy in your life” & “Has your life brought joy to others”. For first , he nodded Yes, but on second he describes his incident with his daughter and breakup with her husband, and eventually his death. Visiting to a Taj Mahal monument in India, they discussed about their funeral plans, whether they should be cremated, burnt or being frozen. Its funny how they talked about their death, when both are almost certain when it is going to happen. While going to Himalayas in Nepal, they heard the news about the bad weather condition , and so they couldn’t go up to the mountains till the next summer, and thus both missed this opportunity of the lifetime to watch and feel the magnificent beauty at the top. When sitting in a bar in Hong Kong, Carter met a lady who has been up to the Himalayas, and hearing her experience made him ask her this question, “Did you hear it, the sound of mountains”. As he said, when a person reach the top of the mountains he/she encounter a profound silence, which they hardly could experience anywhere else. After that Carter decided to return back to home, and thus Edward did. On the way back home, Carter wanted Edward to reunite with her daughter, to whom his relation were broken, and need to be fixed. But Edward got pissed off for Carter to go deep into his personal life, and then both left each other on that day.
Next meeting of Edward with Carter happens when Carter got admitted to the hospital due to his deteriorating health due cancer. Edward realized that it is Carter whose turn had came to say goodbye to his loved ones first, before Edward turns. So without wasting any time, Edward reconcile with his daughter, and cross one item from the The Bucket List, “Kiss the most beautiful girl”. Guess the girl who did that, daughter of his daughter- his own little granddaughter.
Whatever happens thereafter is left for you to watch. Of course death is an inevitable part of life. Difference is that some people know when it could happen, and most of us don’t. But regrets is what everyone has in their lives, and if you don’t know when your time period is going to be end on this earth, then there may be probability that it could end soon. So what we could do is probably have less regrets in lives, and that could be done when you know who you really are, not as someone your belongings wanted you to become. Travelling can be one of the ways to find out your original authenticity, and it could be one of the most profound experience of your life journey. Like a quote in movie “Into the Wild”(blessed to watch this):
“If you want something in life, reach out and grab it“,
“The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences“.
Adios Amigos.
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