Spoiler alert! This post contains important spoilers for the new Disney and Pixar movie Soul, which is now available on Disney +.
Soul follows Joe Gardner, a high school band teacher who almost dies after getting a show that could change his career. Joe escapes the afterlife and ends up in the Great Before, where he accidentally becomes the mastermind of the soul 22. After a series of setbacks (including changing bodies), Joe and 22 learn what makes humans on Earth so good . Joe then gives up his chance to return to life so that 22 can finally be born.
Fortunately, the Jerry’s at the Grande Before take notice and give Joe a second chance. When Jerry asks how he is going to live, Joe says, “I’m not sure. But I know that I will live every minute of it. ”The film ends with Joe leaving his house and taking a deep breath.
Although this is the ending they chose, co-writers and directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers have gone through several possible endings, including some versions where Joe died.
Powers told Collider, “[W]We did several versions of Joe dying in the end and staying dead, in all different ways. Some of them were much more emotional. Some of them were funny. We did a lot of different endings. “
“We feel that he had learned enough to appreciate the things he didn’t value to start with,” Docter told USA Today. “And that’s why we think, ‘Oh, it can work.’ It seemed very noble that he was sacrificing his chance to return and instead handing it over to 22. But as it turned out, much of the film was about him learning for the first time that, ‘Hey, wait a minute. My barber has a lifetime that I knew nothing about. I didn’t know that I could be honest and truthful with my mom. ‘It looked like he was stealing not to allow him to come back. “
Other endings showed what happened to 22, which is not seen again after his soul descends to Earth. But every time they thought of an epilogue for 22, they changed their minds. Powers said, “There was one where Joe was touring with Dorothea and teaching students privately, and 22 was a new student and he recognized it as her.”
The filmmakers decided that “there was something innately unsatisfactory about it”, so they chose to leave the life of 22 a mystery.
A post-credit sequel that they considered would have shown what happened to Mr. Mittens, the cat whose body Joe has throughout most of the film.
In the end, they decided that showing the future of the characters went against the message of the film, which delves into the experience of small moments and the sometimes unsatisfactory nature of making a dream come true.
“We know that audiences generally want to hear exactly what happened to the character,” Powers told USA Today. “They want to know if the character made the ‘right’ decision. But in Joe’s case, we didn’t want to put a choice on him. We wanted to say that regardless of what he ended up doing, whether he went back to teaching, playing in a band or some hybrid of both, he just enjoyed life better. “
Soul is broadcasting free of charge on Disney + and is full of Pixar’s usual charm. Make sure to read our posts about the movie’s Easter eggs as well.