One thing I love this week: When movie credits give an epilogue for fictitious characters
And we’re back! Another week, another light dose of gratitude to make your Monday more bearable.
This week I’ve opted for the lengthiest possible title because I have genuinely no idea how else to word that.
So you know at the end of a biopic or a movie about real people and real events how they’ll say “this person went on to become X.” For example, at the end of Lincoln when they’re like “yeah he got shot.”
It’s a very satisfying moment, and it’s always cool to see who the real people were and what exactly became of them later in life. Here’s an actual example from We Are Marshall:
Kind of nice right? It’s weirdly pleasant to break the 4th wall and remember these characters don’t just exist on the screen. They’re real people who lived the story you just watched.
But what I love even more than an epilogue for real people being portrayed in a movie, is an epilogue for fictitious characters who DO only exist on screen.
Something about the fact that a screenwriter went to the trouble of writing an entire life out for a person that only exists for a moment in time makes me very happy. Like I know it’s not real and none of that actually happened, but it still brings that nice sense of closure.
It can be done for comedic effect:
Senator Blutarsky will make me laugh every time. Plus it’s a lot less depressing than the actually epilogue for John Belushi.
But it can also be used sincerely to tell you what “happened” to the imaginary characters you just saw on screen. Take this shot from the end of That Thing You Do! (It’s an image, not a video so don’t try to click it).
That all sounds well and good right? Nice happy ending. Here’s the thing though: neither of those people exist. For those who don’t know, That Thing You Do! is about a band in the 1960’s called the Wonders. That band is made up, as are its members, yet we get extensive background into what becomes of them.
Look at the level of detail in that epilogue. They came up with a specific date for a wedding that didn’t happen between two fictitious people. Then they gave them a precise amount of children, whom they moved from one extremely specific location to another, which I get. You know how it is. The kids are about to start school and you want to settle down somewhere more suburban before the kids make friends and put down roots in California. Also with the homelessness problem starting to ramp up in Venice, it just makes sense to move on while the kids are young and adaptable.
If that weren’t enough, they have Guy (still not real), found an equally fictitious musical conservatory and teach an extremely niche class. I LOVE it. Also no offense to Guy, but the Puget Sound Conservatory of Music is definitely the party school of musical conservatories. You’re not getting the next Beethoven walking through that door. Best case, you get the next Fred Durst.
Anyways, fake epilogues just make me happy. I like to imagine that Liv Tyler really is living a blissful life, teaching up and coming musicians in the Pacific Northwest, and married to her high school sweetheart. It’s way more idealistic than the reality that she’s divorced from a British guy named Royston Langdon who looks like this:
That’s actually less believable than the movie version…
Regardless, that’s one thing I love. Find something you love and make this week a great one!
