Life Itself (2018 film)

Chapter One – The Hero

Narrator Samuel L. Jackson calls Henry the hero, as he talks to his therapist, Dr. Cait Morris. Unimpressed, he focuses on Cait. As she crosses the street, Will Dempsey accidentally causes her to be hit by a bus. Breaking the narration, Sam appears, insisting Cait is fine as she is the hero. Finding her dead, he leaves.

This is actually part of Will's script. Another narrator explains Cait is Will's therapist since his psychiatric hospital release. Flashbacks show Will and his wife Abby's married life. She is a Bob Dylan fan, and pregnant.

Abby witnesses her parents die in a car accident from the backseat. Her subsequent guardian, Uncle Joe, sexually abused her for years, until she threatened to kill him if he touched her again.

Abby and Will meet in college, date and he proposes within a year. She meets his parents Irwin and Linda. Another time, Abby excitedly talks to Will about her thesis on the unreliable narrator: life is the ultimate one as it is so tricky and surprising.

In the present, Cait encourages Will to remember what happened "that day" which prompted his institutionalization. After lunch with his parents, they are walking home. Abby announces they're having a girl, whom she wants to name Dylan. Distracted, she is struck by a bus, as a little boy watches from inside. Abby dies but the baby survives. Will then kills himself in front of Cait.

Chapter Two – Dylan Dempsey

Will and Abby's daughter Dylan feels a dark cloud following her. Her parents never met her; her grandmother passes away when she is six. Dylan's dog dies the following year. Left with only her grandfather, they converse about death.

On her 21st birthday, Dylan performs a rendition of "Make You Feel My Love" with her band. Afterwards, she fights someone before leaving. Sitting on a bench smoking weed, Dylan imagines her mother's final moment. Waking up crying with the bus in front of her, she seemingly sees the young boy on the bus asking her if she is okay.

Chapter Three – The Gonzalez Family

In Spain, olive plantation owner Vincent Saccione invites worker Javier Gonzalez inside. He explains how he inherited his Italian father's wealth and land although he was illegitimate. Javier is promoted to foreman, which includes rooms in the house.

Javier marries his beloved Isabel Diaz, and they have Rodrigo. Saccione often visits mother and son while Javier is working. When he gives Rodrigo a globe, it causes a rift in the family. Javier returns it, upsetting both mother and son.

Javier's family travels to NYC. Rodrigo is enjoying himself, until he distracts their bus driver, inadvertently causing Abby to be killed which traumatizes him.

Back home, Javier and Isabel's marriage is strained as Rodrigo is sleepless. Javier reluctantly asks for Saccione's help. Fearing his family loves Saccione more than him, he confronts him, who admits he loves them both. Javier leaves although Isabel begs him not to. She stays with Saccione, but insists she won't love him like she loves Javier.

Chapter Four – Rodrigo Gonzalez

Rodrigo grows up and goes to college in NYC. He starts a relationship with Shari, a Long Island student. He returns home when Isabel contracts cancer. He wants to stay, but she tells him goodbye.

Shari's April Fool's Day prank, that she's pregnant, starts the most important day of Rodrigo's life. When she admits it wasn't true, Rodrigo breaks up with her. In Spain, Isabel has little time left, so Javier arrives for the first time in years to spend one final moment with her. Saccione has kept him updated on his family. Hearing his mom had died, Rodrigo, distraught, jogs through the city. Finding Dylan crying on the bench, he asks her if she is okay.

Chapter Five – Elena Dempsey-Gonzalez

Dylan and Rodrigo's daughter Elena reads from her book, Life Itself, the story of everything up to her parents' meeting. She repeats what Isabel told Rodrigo: even if life brings us to our knees, if we look hard enough, we will find love.

In conclusion, Elena's story hinges upon one moment which shaped her entire life. She sees both of her grandmothers (Abby and Isabel) in herself. The last scene is of Will admiring a pregnant Abby.

In August 2016, FilmNation Entertainment acquired the film's script, by Dan Fogelman, who also directed the film; FilmNation had bought the script after it appeared on The Black List.^[5] Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey served as producers on the film under their Temple Hill Entertainment banner.^[6] In November 2016, Oscar Isaac joined the cast.^[7] In January 2017, Olivia Cooke, Antonio Banderas, Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia Wilde and Laia Costa were also added,^[8] and in March 2017, Annette Bening joined as well, alongside Mandy Patinkin and Alex Monner.^[9]

Principal photography began on March 13, 2017^[10] in New York City, and continued in Spain in May.^[11]

In December 2017, a fierce bidding war for distribution rights for the film, fought between Amazon Studios, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures, concluded with Amazon Studios winning the rights with a $10-million-dollar-plus bid.^[12]

The film premiered on September 8, 2018, at the Toronto International Film Festival,^[13] and was theatrically released on September 21, 2018, in the United States.^[14] It was released on January 4, 2019, in the United Kingdom.^[15]