Death and spiritualism are closely interconnected as death is deeply knit with the human soul and the relation to oneself. Innumerable books and other literary materials dig deep into the subject of death. For those who like movies instead, there are several that make you think about death. Some could be purely fictional while others could be based on someone’s life giving valuable lessons to move on. Some might teach you indirectly about death through other things. Whatever the case may be, we have ten movies that make you think about death.
1. The Fault In Our Stars
2. P.S. I Love You
3. Up
4. Coco
5. Big Hero 6
6. The Sixth Sense
7. Death At A Funeral
8. The Bucket List
9. The Descendants
10. Marley & Me
The Fault In Our Stars
When both the protagonists suffer from deadly cancerous situations, you know the elements of death and grief are central to the movie. Even then love triumphs evil, in this case Hazel’s thyroid cancer and Gus’s bone cancer and their motto of enjoying their lives to the fullest. The dialogue from Hazel that she would not trade the short time left with them for anything is a testament that death can strike anytime without a doorbell.
The fault in our stars teaches us not to worry much about the future. Enjoy every moment with your friends, family, and loved ones.
P.S. I Love You
As Latin as the origin of P.S. is, the message of this movie is straight and simple- life continues and you should too. Gerry ensures that his wife, Holly, does not stop living her life post his death as she receives a series of 10 messages from him. Those messages are intended to make her single life as easy as possible by exploring adventures.
This is one of the movies that make you think ‘really’ about life even after tragic events. It shows a person is the strongest when he/she gets up after a heavy blow to his/her life. And life should be loved especially when you got loved ones by your side even when they aren’t present.
Up
Even an animation movie such as Up can make you think about death. In fact, this Disney brilliant begins bang with the death of the protagonist Carl’s wife, Ellie. His love for his wife is heartwarming and touching when he decides to visit South America, they both had planned, alone in his ‘flying balloon home.’
Disney teaches us that you can still honor the memory of your loved ones by fulfilling their wish, what they had desired. It will be long before things start to come on track again. The conclusion though is there are friendships that will make your life equally happy.
Coco
Let’s continue with the Disney list with yet another movie revolving around death and life after it, Coco. This musical journey takes you on a ride of a young boy wanting to become a musician to follow his family tradition. When you see skeletons walking around in the fantasy land of death, you know this movie wants you to really think about death.
Coco brings the importance of family, family traditions, loss, and grief in a perfectly combined musical manner coupled with witty humor to make things light. This movie teaches you to carry on with the legacy of a family member post their death even when there are hardships along the way.
Big Hero 6
Yet another Disney ‘superhero’ movie revolving around a brother’s death and how life changes for his younger sibling in a matter of few minutes. When Tadashi runs to rescue a person from the fire, the university blows up leaving him dead. Many days into the grief, his younger brother Hiro, also a science nerd like Tadashi takes his legacy ahead by bonding up with a robot named ‘Baymax’, Tadashi designed originally. He makes use of Baymax to make the world a better and healthy place.
This Disney movie is an absolute gem in teaching the importance of having friends and family members by your side when tragic events such as death hit your family. Friends can genuinely turn things around.
The Sixth Sense
If you think only family drama movies have death and grief elements, let us disappoint you by saying horror flicks can make you think about death too. Rewind 21 years back and 1999 released The Sixth Sense forced the audience to think about the ways to cope up with tragedies like death. As Dr. Malcolm works alongside Cole to make things better for the young lad, he is puzzled by Cole’s ability to see and communicate with the dead. This makes us wonder if it happens in the real world too by making everyone think if the death of people around us left any spirits behind.
Cole’s sixth sense is his ability to talk to spirits with regard to various reasons. What is your sixth sense?
Death At A Funeral
If you think this is a classic family drama with loads of tears and emotions, think again because this black comedy will make your toes tingling with questions on disrupting a funeral. The movie opens with the funeral sequence of Daniel’s dad and him arranging a funeral for friends and relatives. Comic twists begin when a series of issues erupt and a deadly revelation by Peter that he was in love with Daniel’s dad. Such a shocking incident acts as a catalyst to the already shocking moment for the family.
This is certainly one of the unusual movies that make you think about death in a rather different manner.
The Bucket List
When Rob Reiner directs two Academy Award winners in a movie centered on terminal illness like cancer, you really have to start thinking about the death and buckets of tears. When Edward and Carter meet in the hospital as complete strangers for their respective cancer treatments, they bond strongly over a small list. Carter starts listing things to do before he dies in his ‘bucket list’. Edward, on finding the list on the floor, encourages Carter to strike off the things one by one from the list. There was no looking back for them as they head to explore the adventures in the world.
One of the best movies that make you think about death teaching us to enjoy, explore, learn, and welcome life’s twists. An example is an unexpected friendship on the way that lasts a lifetime. Things on Carter’s bucket list are not imaginary but for real for us to enjoy the same experiences as him and Edward.
The Descendants
As a husband when you come to know your wife is cheating on you when currently she is in a coma, how do you react? Do you grief and pray for her speedy comeback or end the things with loose ends? This movie may not directly deal with death. Being in a coma is equally tragic since you don’t know when the person will come back or ever wake up again!
Matt’s wife Elizabeth goes into a coma post a boating accident in Hawaii. But soon, Matt discovers she was cheating on him with a realtor. Now, do you grief about Elizabeth’s situation or empathize with Matt for his sorry state of affairs. Even though The Descendants do not show mortality, in reality, it speaks volumes about death when it inches close to you or your loved ones.
Marley & Me
We all believe that a dog is man’s best friend and it is indeed true for the invaluable life lessons they teach us on unconditional love. Deciding to relieve your pet’s troubles permanently by euthanizing since you cannot tolerate its condition further is harder than grieving for a human in some cases. This is Marley & Me for you, one of the few movies that make you think about death through the lens of a dog.
John and Jenny become regularly irritated by the erratic behavior of their pet dog Marley and equally love him. As Marley suffers from serious gastric problems as he grows old realizing surgery won’t help to recover, the couple makes their hardest decision to euthanize Marley to bid goodbye to him.
There are countless other movies that make you think about death in one way or the other. The death of a family member, relative, a pet animal, or someone you knew makes you feel sorry and your heart sinks for months at a stretch. Death leaves a permanent scar in one’s life but you emerge stronger once you start living once again. So create your own bucket list, love every family member, go out and play with your Marley. Pack your bags and go on a solo trip of a lifetime. You may never know when you start regretting yourself for not taking the time out to explore the world.
