Sunday Yomee S.

Yu

11-STEM A

A Look Through Walter’s Life

The movie follows the main character, Walter Mitty. Walter is a man who often zone out,
daydreaming of scenarios that seems impossible like jumping into a burning house through its
window and saving the owner’s dog but Walter’s reality is far from that. Walter was an awkward
person; he is timid and doesn’t have the guts to ask his crush out. On his work he is tasked to
take care of the 25th negative that will be used as the cover of their company’s last issue, it is a
very important photo, it is also a gift for him from his partner Sean, the one who captures the
negative. But there is a problem, he can’t find the 25th negative from the mail, he tried finding it
on his office with the help of his co-worker but it is nowhere to be found. He tried looking to the
other photos to find clues but it doesn’t connect. He talked to Cheryl Melhoff (his coworker and
also the girl he likes) then Cheryl offered help to track down Sean. They found in one of the
photos a boat that is located in Greenland.

Greenland is far so he hesitated if he should go. Walter decided to go, so his journey to
Greenland begins, still dressed on his office attire with his suitcase. When he got to Greenland,
he goes to a bar and ask if Sean has been there but bartender didn’t say anything besides what is
his order. As Walter waits for his order a singing drunk man approached him then commanded
him to continue singing the song he was singing, Walter sung but the drunk man didn’t like it so
he insults him the got into a fight.

Then Walter saw the man’s thumb, it is similar to the thumb in one of the photographs and
then they talked. Walter asked if the man have met Sean, the man answered that he have met
Sean and took a photo of his thumb. The man said that he could escort him to the boat through a
helicopter and again, Walter hesitated because the man is drunk and the weather looked bad.

As the drunk man walked to the helicopter, Walter started daydreaming and saw Cheryl
strumming a guitar and singing, Walter got inspired and started to run to the helicopter. When
they are near to the boat Walter asked where they would land, the man answered they won’t.
Then the man continued, he asked Walter to jump to the boat on their side and bring the radio
parts near him, Walter was flabbergasted, but he jumped anyway, to the wrong side. As he was
submerged underwater, he lost the radio parts. When he was on the surface, he saw a fin.

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A Look Through Walter’s Life
 The men on the boat said that it wasn’t a shark, he was told to befriend it so it would protect
him from sharks. The fin came close to him and attacked him, it was a shark actually.
Fortunately, he was saved, they accommodated him and he found another clue. Sean’s next
destination was Iceland. Luckily, the boat needs to go to Iceland too tomorrow morning because
Walter lost the radio parts.

When he was there, he biked to a small town and asked for Sean. An old man told him he
booked Sean a flight. Walter hurried and when he was on the small town where Sean is supposed
to be no one was there. Alarms started to ring and the old man from earlier found him and told
him there was a volcanic eruption.

In the end he didn’t found Sean. When he came back his colleagues were fired and him too.
When he visited Cheryl, he met her husband and found out they got back together. When he
come back home, he doesn’t have money anymore so he threw his wallet (that was also a gift
from Sean) to the trash. He looked at the photos again and realized that one of the photos was his
mother’s piano. He asked his mother if Sean came to their house and her mother said yes and she
took the photo of her piano with Sean’s camera. He found that Sean wasn’t in Iceland but
Afghanistan. He decided to go there, to start his journey again to track Sean again.

When he met Sean at the mountain, he saw him taking pictures. He asked him about the 25th
negative. Sean answered he put it inside the wallet, he told him he thought it was a cute surprise.
Walter was shocked, he lost hope of finding the photo ever again. When he came back, he found
out that here mother took the wallet from the trash. He looked inside and found the 25th negative.
He barged in to the office and give them the negative, and he left the company.

Later, when he went to get his payroll, he saw Cheryl they talked and found out she didn’t get
back to her husband. When they walked together, they found a stall and saw the final issue.
There he saw what was the 25th negative was, it was a photo of him.

In the beginning we saw Walter contemplating if he should send wink to Cheryl’s profile, but
throughout his journey on finding the 25th negative, we saw his growth. How he used his
daydreaming as his strength when he run to the helicopter. His courage when he jumped to the
ocean, him surviving the shark’s attack, and surviving the eruption. The journey is where he
realized how beautiful life is. We saw him being like what he was before when he was a kid and
have a mohawk. He was happy throughout his journey, even though he did not find what he was
looking for.

When he met Sean at the summit, Sean told him what was the photograph. Sean compared it
to a snow leopard, where he said “beautiful things don’t ask for attention”. later we found out
that the photo was a picture of unaware Walter. We also found out that the photo was in his
wallet all along. I think it is funny the he wouldn’t get the negative from Sean because it’s with

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him all along, but if he saw the negative in the beginning, he wouldn’t have gone through the
journey. He wouldn’t have experienced it.

His profile at eHarmony does not have anything at the beginning, he also didn’t receive any
wink. But when he filled out his profile after the journey, he received a lot within an hour but he
deleted his account anyway. I think it supports the quote.

Additionally, at the montage of him deciding to go to Greenland, we can see a poster him in a
space suit. I think it symbolizes him living his comfort zone and finally exploring. It could also
represent dreams (like children dreaming being an astronaut) and that is such a cool little detail.

Sometimes, we fantasize and think about extraordinary things, we dream about being super
rich, having superpowers, going to space or anything just to escape reality. For daydreamers it is
their comfort against reality, it is a strength. But, when we experience life, when you know you
are there, when you know you enjoy living it, and felt alive, it is better. You realize living life,
and experiencing your fantasies is cool.

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A Look Through Walter’s Life