For some reason, I just got reminded of something I saw a little while ago (or at least I think I saw it…it’s possible, but unlikely I just made it up) and now it’s bugging me from where it’s from.
Any way, I remember nothing of the movie itself (I think it was a movie…could’ve been a shrot film, maybe?) and can only recall what happened from a narrative perspective. In short, someone died (I think someone’s child?) and then the movie shows what the kid’s life would have been like had that not happened.
Yup, that’s all I remember. If anyone knows what the hell I’m talking about, I’ll be forever thankful…until I forget that too.
Sounds like Minority Report. The precog was telling Tom Cruise about his kid, growing up, being a fast runner, etc. Then the precog police come down and place him under that eye-stun device.
Wow, I think you just nailed it (and holy shit that was fast…and with no help from my horrible description). For some reason, I thought it was a movie I had seen far more recently, which was throwing me off. Well, thanks! That was going to bug me all night if someone didn’t guess it
Wait, really? That doesn’t sound anything like Minority Report; the movie isn’t about what Tom Cruise’s kid’s life would’ve been like if he hadn’t been killed, nor even is this ever depicted, to the best of my memory. Perhaps there was a brief scene where the precog on the lam discussed it to console or humor Tom Cruise, but that would be the extent of it.
I mean, if that’s the movie you were thinking of, then it’s the movie you were thinking of, but in that case, it’s all the more amazing that someone got it.
Kasuo described the scene in his post. It’s very much in the movie. I also didn’t mean to imply the the movie was based around that concept, as from what I remembered, it pertained mostly to the ending, but I avoided saying such to prevent others from being spoiled even more so.
It’s not an uncommon theme. The episode titled “Little Boy Lost” from The New Twilight Zone is about a photographer who is torn between taking an overseas assignment and getting married when a fourteen year-old kid suddenly walks into her life. She gradually realizes this will be her kid if she chooses to get married.
Similarly, I recall an anti-abortion commercial that featured a woman just full of regrets about what her son would have been like had she not… you know. I personally thought the message was ambiguous, undermining the common pro-myth of women who have abortions casually and capriciously.
Isn’t it just a short scene near the end, at that… beach house? And the bald precog shows Tom (and wife?) the son’s possible (or hmmm… alternate timeline?) life.
My son and I just watched Minority Report a few weeks ago. I remember that scene well, although I agree it wasn’t central to the plot. Also, it doesn’t show what the son would’ve done, the precog Agatha just describes it. Good movie, IMHO - and ISTR at least one Doper suggesting that
everything that happens after Tom Cruise’s character Anderton is captured and imprisoned takes place in his own mind, while he’s “on ice;” the guard had earlier said that prisoners may dream the years away. So the villain gets away with murder(s)!
The Return of the King has a brief scene in which Arwen has a vision of the son she would have with Aragorn, if Sauron fell and she didn’t take ship into the West.
It’s a Wonderful Life, of course, has quite a bit about what might happen if a particular boy hadn’t been born.
I haven’t seen it, but The Butterfly Effect has a similar angle, from what I’ve read.
