Writing (Andrew has the ability to do it)

In the movie “5 People You Meet In Heaven”, theme park repairman Eddie is killed violently in a freak amusement park accident. Eddie had lived a long life as a lover, soldier, and worker at the amusement park Ruby Pier, yet was not convinced that he had made anything important of his life. When his life finally comes to an end at the bottom of an amusement park ride trying to save a little girl, he finds himself back in Ruby Pier. Only this is not the Ruby Pier of earth, but a heavenly Ruby Pier. He finds himself able to jump and run like he could when he was a child, yet unable to speak like a new born babe. This place he finds himself in is actually heaven, though not his own heaven. Through his own death, Eddie will now meet five people in heaven that were somehow connected to his life, each person with a new lesson to teach him.

As Eddie wanders around Ruby Pier, a voice calls him into one of the “Freak show” tents. He meets a blue, Arabic-looking man. The man claims Eddie had watched him before when he was young, explaining that Eddie feels like a child because his only memories of the blue-colored-man were when he was a child. The blue man explains that he loved his life at Ruby Pier even though he was looked upon as strange. He then takes Eddie back to the day of his own death, a day when Eddie was young boy playing ball on the streets. The blue man died from a heart attack he experienced after narrowly missing a young Eddie in his car. The blue man teaches Eddie that all lives are interconnected, such as Eddie and the blue man, despite Eddie not knowing what he had caused.

Eddie then leaves the blue man and finds himself in a battlefield located in the pacific sometime during World War II. He wanders into a group of trees and meets his old war Capitan, a man he served under for the entirety of his military service. They both reminisce on happenings during the war, such as the time Eddie defended one of his fellow soldiers from teasing. They then talk about how they were captured by Japanese forces in the Philippines and sent to an army base to help with the enemy’s grueling manual labor. After losing a dear friend, the company of American soldiers escapes their clutches after Eddie distracts the foreign guards with a juggling act. Before leaving, Eddie decides to burn down the enemy buildings with a flamethrower, only to realize that there was someone inside one of the structures he was burning. He tries to rescue them, but is shot in the leg and carried out alive, eventually making it back home. The Capitan tells Eddie that he was the one that shot him in the leg, but did it out of sacrifice. If he had not, Eddie would have been lost in the flames he himself created. He teaches Eddie the value of sacrifice.

Eddie leaves and arrives at a new place in Heaven; a diner. Inside the diner he meets a woman working at the diner named Ruby. Ruby explains that Ruby Pier was named after her, and that her husband was the owner of the amusement park. She tells Eddie about how much she hated the pier because it burnt down and killed her true love. Then she shows Eddie scenes of his house and his parents from long ago, before his father’s untimely death. His father’s best friend, Mickey, hurts his wife and then is chased to a pier. Mickey falls into the ocean and starts drowning, so Eddie’s father jumps in after him and saves his life by taking him back to the pier. Unfortunately, this caused him to contract pneumonia, killing him. Eddie finally learned how his father died and was able to let go of his hate for him. Ruby teaches Eddie that hate brings only harm, especially to yourself. He then confronts his father at the diner and confesses his feelings to him.

Eddie then finds himself in a large garden full of dancers, performers, feasting guests, and laughing children. He is in the middle of an everlasting wedding, the place his wife, Marguerite, chose to be her Heaven. Marguerite explains to Eddie her love of weddings and how she feels when two people are joined in marriage. They reminisce on their previous lives, sharing regrets of Marguerites death at a young age from terrible sickness. Marguerite teaches Eddie that even though life ends, love doesn’t. Eddie realizes that even though his wife was gone, he still loved her and basked in the warm rays of his memories of her. They then shared a dance at the location of their own wedding before his departure.

Eddie arrives at a river located somewhere in the pacific islands, a river that is full of oriental children frolicking in the water and playing with each other. Eddie realizes that this is the 5^th and final person he will meet before his journey is over. He meets a small Asian girl who barely speaks any English, yet is able to get the message across to Eddie. She is the girl that was in the building that Eddie burned. This comes as a shock to Eddie because his Captain had told him that he was going crazy and that his imagination tricked him to believe there was someone in the building. The girl shows Eddie her terrible burn marks and Eddie helps her wash them away with water and a stone. The girl teaches Eddie that his purpose in life was to keep the children at Ruby Pier safe. They then dive into the river and swim in a magical ocean until they appear at Ruby Pier again. This time Ruby Pier is full of people, people that Eddie saved through his repairman skills. Eddie finally finds his heaven and waits to give other people lessons.

In the end we learn that Eddie’s life and death were both meaningful, and that all human life is interconnect and meaningful. Although I do not agree with all these lessons, or even like the movie that much, I can appreciate the meaningfulness of the lessons as Eddie learns them. Although this portrayal of heaven seemed boring, materialistic, and completely unrealistic, it served its purpose in relaying the lessons.