THE LIFE OF CHUCK

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

*The film is told in three acts, but in reverse chronological order.

Act Three – Thanks Chuck
In the classroom of teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), students see news reports on their phones of an earthquake happening. Moments later, the internet is gone from the classroom and the rest of the world. Marty later has to deal with the frustrated parents of his students, including one father (David Dastmalchian) who is lamenting the fact that his wife left him, as well as how Pornhub is down.

Disasters start to plague other parts of the world. Marty and other people start to notice billboards and ads of someone named Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), thanking him for “39 great years”. Marty’s ex-wife Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan), a nurse, overhears a radio ad thanking Chuck. She calls Marty, and they start to discuss the possibility that they are living in the end of days. After Marty and Felicia hang up, another ad appears on Marty’s TV to thank Chuck.

Marty learns from his neighbor Gus Wilfong (Matthew Lillard) that a sinkhole has opened up in town, making it difficult for people to travel. Gus also discusses with Marty how he thinks the apocalypse is upon them, leading to Gus getting emotional over the possibility. Marty notices other people are seeing the Chuck ads. Up in the sky, Marty and Gus see “Thanks Chuck” being written by an airplane. Meanwhile at work, Felicia and her coworker Bri (Rahul Kohli) see numerous empty hospital beds, but the monitors they are hooked up to appear to have active lifelines.

After failing to call Felicia due to the service going out, Marty goes for a walk and runs into an undertaker named Sam Yarbrough (Carl Lumbly). They walk together towards Felicia’s neighborhood, where Sam talks to Marty about how there are not actually 24 hours in a day, but 23 hours and 56 minutes. He also tells Marty that the people of Earth have not respected their planet, but he thinks whatever is happening is related to something much bigger. The two part ways.

Marty gets closer to Felicia’s home as it starts to get dark. He runs into a young girl named Lily (Violet McGraw), who is trying to skate until all the street lights black out. Images of Chuck suddenly start to appear on the windows of buildings. Marty runs to Felicia’s house as they accept that everything is about to end soon. In a hospital room, Chuck lays dying next to his wife Ginny (Q’orianka Kilcher) and son Brian (Antonio Raul Corbo). Marty reaffirms his love to Felicia as things suddenly go black.

Act Two – Buskers Forever
Through the voice of the Narrator (Nick Offerman), we meet a young woman named Taylor Frank (Taylor Gordon), a busker who sets up her drums at a specific spot in the town square and makes a few dollars a day if she’s lucky. At the same time, the Narrator talks about Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso), who was just dumped by her boyfriend via text.

Not far from them, Chuck is out and about on an ordinary day. The Narrator states that six months from now, Chuck will die from a brain tumor. Chuck walks by the area where Taylor is playing, and she starts to play an upbeat tune with cowbell as she sees him. After a moment, Chuck puts his suitcase down and begins dancing to the music. A crowd gathers, impressed by the performance. Chuck sees Janice and invites her to join him in a dance. Although reluctant at first, Janice gives in and joins Chuck, putting on a good show for the people. Chuck appears to have a headache and stops at first, but he gets back into it quickly, and everyone cheers and applauds them.

Chuck and Janice join Taylor and her friends as they pack up and drive elsewhere. Taylor splits her earnings with Chuck and Janice. She asks Chuck what made him start dancing when he saw Taylor playing, and he admits that he doesn’t know. Taylor suggests that the two join her and that they can form a traveling performing act, but the two decline and part ways with Taylor. Chuck and Janice later walk together until they also split up. Chuck walks past the spot where Taylor was playing and he continues to ponder why he stopped to dance for her. As Chuck walks away into the night, the Narrator mentions how Chuck will lose the ability to walk, speak, and even forget his wife’s name.

Act One – I Contain Multitudes
Young Chuck (Cody Flanagan) loses his parents and unborn sister in a car accident. He is sent to live with his grandparents, Albert/”Albie” and Sarah (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara). Albie turns to alcoholism, while Sarah listens to music and also inspires Chuck’s love for dancing and classic musicals, even learning a few new dances. Albie also forbids Chuck from going upstairs to a specific room in the house. He also claims to have seen the deaths of certain people before they died, including a neighborhood boy and a former friend.

In Chuck’s (now played by Benjamin Pajak) class, he also learns from his teacher Ms. Richards (Kate Siegel) the quote “I contain multitudes”, which she explains to him as people having many different things that make up their personalities, and that Chuck himself also contains multitudes.

Going into the summer, Sarah passes away after falling at the supermarket. Albie’s alcoholism gets worse. When he is passed out, Chuck takes his keys and goes up to the room he was warned from entering. Before he can see what is inside, Albie yells at him to get away. Albie looks inside the room and has a horrified reaction before he shuts the door and locks it.

Chuck joins a dance program called Twirlers & Spinners. He ends up being the best dancer in the class and is even made by the teacher, Ms. Rohrbacher (Samantha Sloyan), to pair up with the clumsy girls. Chuck’s most frequent dance partner is an older, taller girl named Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss), whom he has a crush on. During class, Chuck impresses Cat by showing her how to moonwalk. She invites him to be her partner at an upcoming dance, though she reaffirms it’s just as friends since she already has a boyfriend. When Chuck expresses his interest in dancing, Albie shuts it down and says he should aspire to be an accountant.

At the school dance, Chuck pretends to have a hurt leg so that he won’t feel bad dancing with Cat. Ms. Rohrbacher can tell he is making excuses and encourages him to just go for it. Chuck overcomes his fears and goes to dance with Cat in front of everyone, earning them cheers and applause from people such as Marty and Felicia. Cat even kisses Chuck after it’s over. Later on, Chuck goes outside on the field to dance by himself and cuts his hand on the fence. The Narrator says that he has lied to Ginny and told him that he got the scar on his hand after Cat’s boyfriend confronted him, but he admits to being embarrassed over how he really got it.

Albie later dies of a heart attack as Chuck is a teenager (now played by Jacob Tremblay). His mother’s parents go to stay with him at his grandparents’ house until he goes off to college. Eventually, after getting Albie’s personal belongings, Chuck finally sees what is in the room. He sees himself as an adult on his deathbed, and figures that Albie had seen the visions of the deceased, including seeing Sarah’s and his deaths. Chuck tells himself that the man that he sees could not be him, and that he vows to live his life to the fullest, while also reminding himself that he contains multitudes.

The film is told in reverse chronological order in the life of an ordinary man named Charles "Chuck" Krantz.

In the third act, the world appears to be ending, with the connection coming from Chuck dying from a brain tumor. Several people, most prominently teacher Marty Anderson and his ex-wife, nurse Felicia Gordon, see ads thanking Chuck for 39 years of work, all while disasters are happening. Before the end comes, Marty and Felicia reconnect, with Chuck dying next to his wife and son not too long before everything goes black.

In the second act, six months before Chuck's death, Chuck meets and befriends Taylor, a busker, and Janice, a random woman, when Chuck starts dancing to the music that Taylor is playing and gets Janice to join in the dance. Chuck does not have a good answer for Taylor when she asks why he stopped to dance to her music, but he parts amicably with both women.

In the first act, a young Chuck lives with his grandparents Albie and Sarah after the death of his parents and unborn sister. Albie is an alcoholic with a fondness for math, while Sarah encourages and inspires Chuck's love for dancing. After Sarah passes away, Chuck joins a dance program and befriends an older girl named Cat McCoy, whom he has a crush on. Chuck later joins Cat at a school dance, where they impress everybody with their moves. Albie passes away while Chuck is a teenager, and Chuck opens the door to a room that Albie had forbidden him from entering. Chuck sees his adult self on his deathbed, realizing that Albie had seen the deaths of others in that room, including Sarah's and his own death. Chuck does not allow the sight to deter him, as he vows to live his best life and assuring himself he contains multitudes.