The Bucket List

In 2007, director Rob Reiner took a premise that could have been pure tearjerker schmaltz and turned it into a $175 million global hit. The secret weapon? Two of Hollywood's most magnetic stars at the peak of their powers. Jack Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a billionaire who owns hospitals but has no one to call at 3 a.m. Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers, a mechanic who spent forty years fixing cars while dreaming of fixing the world. They meet as roommates in a cancer ward, sharing a diagnosis and not much else.

The film's title gave the English language a new phrase. Before this movie, people had lists of things they wanted to do before dying. Afterward, everyone had a bucket list. The phrase spread into everyday conversation, into obituaries, into travel ads. Not bad for a movie that critics mostly shrugged at. Audiences disagreed. The film grossed $93.5 million domestically and another $81.9 million overseas, proving that people wanted to see these two actors banter, bicker, and eventually find common ground on a mountaintop.

Shot on a $45 million budget, the production took Freeman and Nicholson from a Los Angeles hospital set to the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the Serengeti. The Himalayas scene was a set, but the emotions were real. Freeman's real-life son Alfonso plays his on-screen son. The script came from first-time screenwriter Justin Zackham, who wrote it based on his own personal list of dreams. Reiner, fresh off a string of less successful films, found his footing again with this crowd-pleaser.[edit]

Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) is a mechanic who has spent his whole life working under cars, raising a family, and putting his own dreams on hold. Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) is a healthcare billionaire who has spent his whole life acquiring wealth, firing employees, and avoiding emotional attachments. They share a hospital room, a cancer diagnosis, and a grim prognosis. Carter, a self-educated man who once dreamed of teaching history, scribbles a list of things he wants to do before he dies. Edward finds it, laughs at it, then adds his own items and insists they go do them.

Edward's wealth opens every door. The two men skydive over a desert landscape. Edwards buys a vintage Shelby Mustang and they race it around a track. They fly to the Taj Mahal, where Edward hires actors to pretend to be a welcoming crowd. Carter is both appalled and amused. Their journey takes them to the Great Wall of China, where Edward rides a motorcycle on the ancient stones. They eat dinner at a French restaurant in Paris, drink expensive wine in the shadow of the pyramids, and hunt lions in the Serengeti. Edward tries to set Carter up with a beautiful French woman; Carter resists, loyal to his wife back home.

As they travel, the men argue about life, death, and what matters. Carter presses Edward about his estranged daughter, a subject Edward refuses to discuss. Edward pushes Carter to admit that his life of duty and sacrifice left him unfulfilled. They share their regrets. Carter confesses he never kissed the most beautiful girl in the world. Edward confesses he never saw his daughter after she married a man he disapproved of. The list becomes a way to force each other to confront the things they've been avoiding. The journey builds toward a final destination: a mountain in the Himalayas, where they hope to see something truly majestic. But as they approach that moment, Carter's health deteriorates rapidly, and the trip becomes a race against time.[edit]