Each movie is its own piece of independently creative work — or at least it’s supposed to be. That essentially means that the director, writers and entire production team can interpret things however they like. Maybe in their movie, they interpret the wintertime as being dark, grey and miserable, but in your movie, you see it as a bright, crisp and warm time of year. Interpretations will be wildly different depending on who is in the director’s chair.
The same is true for interpretations of the afterlife. Whether religiously focused or not, movies have been reimagining the afterlife for quite some time, resulting in a variety of interpretations to look to. For some, it could be a bright, white heaven with angelic beings and constant peace, or maybe it’s some kind of repetitive purgatory, caught in between life and death. It can be sad or happy, dark or light, and even serious or lighthearted.
Whatever your style, here are five of the coolest interpretations of the afterlife in movies.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
United Artists & MGM/UA Distribution Company
1989’s All Dogs Go To Heaven is about a German Shepherd named Charlie who is killed by his former friend and makes it into heaven. Even though Charlies hadn’t really done anything good to earn a spot in heaven, he’s told that all dogs go to heaven because they’re all inherently good and loyal. Charlie cheats death by stealing a pocket watch that represents his lifetime, turns it back, and heads down to Earth to get revenge on the guy that killed him.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
All Dogs Go to Heaven is one of those movies that probably made you cry pretty hard as a kid and honestly might have the same effect today. However, the movie’s bright color pallette juxtaposed with its dark, emotional themes of things like death, dying, and grief make it a great movie for kids learning to grapple with those topics and feelings. Despite All Dogs Go to Heaven maybe feeling a little dark for family movie night, it can be used as a strong teaching moment.
5 The Lovely Bones (2009)
Paramount Pictures
Based on Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel of the same name and adapted for screen by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), The Lovely Bones is about a young girl who is murdered and watches over her family from what she calls the “in-between,” which is a sort of transitional space between life and the afterlife. While some have criticized the movie for being messy and too reliant on its bright imagery, The Lovely Bones does a good job of addressing the complexities of grief and its impact. Also, the idea that the afterlife could be this place where your loved ones go to watch over you can be very comforting for some.
4 Defending Your Life (1991)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Defending Your Life is about a guy named Daniel (Albert Brooks) who dies in a car accident and is sent to Judgement City, a sort of waiting room in the afterlife. It’s a beautiful city where every wears white and enjoys the perfect weather and provided amenities. In Judgement City, every new arrival has to attend a trial for their life to determine whether they’re worthy of ascending to the next phase of their existence or if they need to return to Earth. The idea of the afterlife being a bureaucratic mess of a courtroom where you literally have to defend your life and prove your worthiness, is both funny and thought-provoking.
The most interesting part of Defending Your Life is that your worthiness in the afterlife isn’t judged on whether you were good or evil or whether you sinned or not on Earth, like how it usually is in other movies. Instead, the judgement is mainly focused on whether you conquered your fears during your time on Earth and learned to live bravely. Defending Your Life’s unique approach to the age-old “what happens when we die?” question is both deeply philosophical, moving and, of course, peppered with humor, making it a very well-rounded watch.
3 What Dreams May Come (1998)
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
While it may toe the line of being a bit preachy, What Dreams May Come is a thought-provoking movie with impressive visuals and a great performance from Robin Williams. It’s about Chris Nielsen (Williams), a man who dies in a car accident and then is guided through the afterlife by a spirit guide. It takes Chris some time to realize he’s dead, but his world in the afterlife is vivid and beautiful. It’s made up of bright colors and paintings his wife Annie made that come to life around him, and even his two children who died four years before him are there, and he’s able to reconnect with them.
The movie takes a slightly preachy turn when Annie commits suicide and is sent to hell. It’s stated that this isn’t because of a judgment made against her, but rather that people who die by suicide are in such pain that they create an afterlife for themselves that is more of a nightmare than a utopia. Upset by this, Chris travels into hell to save Annie and bring her up to heaven. Despite that weird plot point, What Dreams May Come is a story about how strong love can be, even despite distance and death. It also provides an interesting interpretation of the afterlife and plays with ideas of spirituality and what it can look like.
2 This Is The End (2013)
Sony Pictures Releasing
This is the End is a massive comedy with a star-studded, hilarious cast. It focuses on James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride and Jay Baruchel, who all play exaggerated versions of themselves attempting to survive a global apocalypse of biblical proportions. This is the End is one of those movies that you can watch over and over again and laugh just as hard as you did the first time.
Following an entire movie’s worth of shenanigans, the group ascends into heaven, so long as they’ve done a good deed or selfless act — as the movie plays off the Book of Revelation. The heaven in This is the End is pretty identical to what most probably envision it being. They’re greeted by literal pearly gates in the sky, surrounded by clouds, and groups of people wearing white as Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” plays in the background, and upon entry, everyone even gets fitted with halos. In heaven, you can wish for anything and make it a reality. This leads to one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, where Jay wishes for the Backstreet Boys to appear and perform “Everybody,” turning heaven into a major dance party. In terms of different iterations of the afterlife, who wouldn’t want that?
1 Beetlejuice (1988)
Warner Bros.
Premiering in 1988, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is a classic horror/comedy about a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) who haunt their home to scare away its new residents. When the couple can’t quite figure out how to scare off the new homeowners, they call Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a crude, devious “bio-exorcist” from the Netherworld to help them. Beetlejuice is another interpretation of the afterlife that takes a bureaucratic approach, like Defending Your Life. Upon dying, you receive a copy of the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and travel into a waiting room in the afterlife where you pull a number and wait among other souls to meet with a caseworker to determine your fate.
The creativity of Beetlejuice is top-notch, and the afterlife waiting room scenes are some of the movie’s most memorable. There’s also plenty of undead fun in the movie like the various ways Barbara (Davis) and Adam (Baldwin) try to haunt their home’s new residents, from the dinner table “Day-O” performance to working with Lydia (Winona Ryder). Beetlejuice is simply just a fun movie with a creative approach to life after death. The movie has also held its popularity throughout the years since its release and was adapted into an animated TV series, various video games, and even a Beetlejuice stage musical in 2018.
