MovieChat Forums > The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Discussion > Of course he NEVER actually travelled to...

Of course he NEVER actually travelled to Greenland, Iceland, etc.

posted 10 years ago by John-G
101 replies | jump to latest

Warning; this post obviously contains spoilers!

Well, I never intended to create this topic in the first place because I thought my observations were obvious. I guess not. I was surprised reading so many posts here on imdb (and of some critics) of people who really think he went to Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan and he really made it to the cover of the magazine.

As the movie shows in the beginning, most of his life (in particular the adventures) are daydreams. Do people really think the travelled to Greenland? Battled sharks? Stars at skateboarding? Escaped a volcanic eruption? Climbed mountains? Made it to the cover of LIFE? And, perhaps, got the girl?

Is this a feelgood movie? Why? He got fired for losing a negative (creating his own imaginary adventure based on photos to retrieve it from his wallet), never leaves New York, only has a helpdesk guy to talk to on the phone, and hopelessly tries to approach a female colleague who already started dating a guy (her outdated profile is broken which explains why he cant sent a wink). It made me feel pretty sad at the ending. On the other hand, this "secret life" of his brings him to mountains in Afghanistan while actually being in a city park next to kids playing soccer. This makes his life richer than any of us can imagine, so ok, for that reason, it can be considered a feel good movie..............

The hints that most stuff is not real are countless:
1. The sequences at the beginning of the movie of him being a hero heavily warning the viewer. 2. his cell phone reception talking with the dating-site helpdesk in the middle of nowhere. The calls are real, but the location and the conversation itself arent. 3. A NY pizza place in Iceland when he steps out of a car. 4. unrealistic action (eruption, sharks, high-altitude mountain climbing). 5. kids playing soccer on high mountains like its a park. 6. After his final hero talk with the bearded bad-guy, he suddenly is in the elevator with a colleague, showing it was again just a day dream. 7. the cellphone text message of his colleague on the mountain which only half-succeeds to bring him back to reality.

Any moment that is normal is real, any moment where he is a hero is obviously not. The only doubt is created in the final scene with the girl, I really hope for him that was real!!......

Many people might find this post obvious, so my sincere apologies to them. Its just surprising that a movie like "Life of Pi" (similar to this one since what you see isn't "real") needs to put in a final scene to explain stuff, which was not necessary of course. As soon as it is not explained (as in this movie), its shocking to see how many people take what they see literal....... How many hints do you need? Does it really need to be spelled out for you all time? I also thought about the excellent horror movie "Drag me to hell" which shows the mental state of a woman with an eating-disorder, but never spells this out to the viewer, resulting in >90% of the viewers misinterpreting the entire movie.

In hindsight, I have to agree with the critics that this movie is not as good as it could have been. Its a commercial-like "feel good" movie that is misinterpreted by many people. Deep issues remain unfortunately unaddressed, making the movie shallow (nonetheless amusable!). Truly good scenes are absent. Its just nothing compared to something like Forest Gump.

[–] The_Purge 10 years ago

Explains why he was getting cell reception in not so friendly places.

[–] bing-57 10 years ago

Agreed on all points. You just have to be obvious to not realize that everything past him flicking on the lights in the basement was fantasy. Even the "normal" moments of him working at the office and walking around the city were part of the big fantasy.

The title of the movie even screams that this is not real. Why is this his "secret life" if he's doing everything out in the open and calling people with updates?

He realized that he was about to lose his job and he conjured up a big fantasy that made him the hero. Ironically, the cover photo showed him as anything but a hero -- just a hard-working average guy at the magazine.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

[–] leojr2005 10 years ago

This is your interpretation of the movie and it is also not so accurate.
To claim that the movie was a total fantasy and that he never travel anywhere makes absolutely no sense.

First of all Walter's dreams are very colorful, absurd, extreme and full of action while his normal live was very conventional, monotone, simple and boring.
(which is actually the point of the whole movie)

When the movie start and he is calling to complain about some feature about his profile with this date site he realizes that he haven't ever done anything at all out of the ordinary, he is very aware of that so he is not crazy.

Then he decides to change that a little inspired by the girl and in fact he does travel, but there are two different versions of this trips. first the fantastic adventures that he describes to the date site guy and he place on the profile in order to feel like the adventurer, and the real version of the trips that he mention to other people.

[–] luckystepho-70-947310 10 years ago

He did travel. I think anyone who thinks otherwise is completely missing the point of the movie or reading way too much into it.

For a start, the back of my DVD says 'a moment comes when you stop daydreaming and create your own destiny... when his job is threatened Walter takes action in the real world, embarking on a journey more incredible than anything he could've imagined.... this inspiring story about an ordinary man who finds the courage to leap into the extraordinary adventure that is life'.

When Walter daydreams, as others have pointed out, the daydreams are over the top and impossible- he is a superhero, totally in control of the situation and performs incredible feats. We know he has 'zoned out' as the scene cuts to him standing there with everyone staring at him/ laughing/ tube leaving without him.

But he is not a fantasist- he realises that the dreams are not really happening as when the e-harmony guy asks him what he has done, he says he has never really done anything or been anywhere.

In comparison the things he does on his travels are different- he jumps into the sea and fights a shark but he is panicking and not at all in control. In 'superhero daydream mode' he would have knocked the shark out of the water, not got in a lucky blow with his brief case. And when he is safely in the boat he remarks that 'it really happened' and seems shocked, expecting it to have been another day dream. He even has to feel a guy's face to make sure. Later on he tells the e-harmony guy about the real adventures he has had and assures him that they did happen (he never tried to pretend his daydreams had actually happened).

The two scenes where he imagined Cheryl singing and saw her face in the flock of birds are quite clearly day dreams (after he has jumped into the helicopter we see her fade away and when he sees her in the birds he has zoned out and crashes his bike).

The scateboard tricks are believable; we are shown a newspaper clipping of him as a teen winning a skateboarding contest and it is obvious he had a talent for it and so would have retained these skills as an adult.

I have trekked at altitude and it is perfectly normal for the porters carrying our stuff to have a football game at the end of each days trekking. The trekkers used to join in and they would laugh at our pathetic attempts to run and breathe at altitude.

The mobile phone signals- I think they wanted to show the e-harmony guy kind of sharing Walter's journey with him- plus as others have said it is a movie so things like poor network coverage can be ignored!

We see Walter listing out his expenses at the beginning of the film and as the film progresses he lists out costs such as airfare tickets, car hire etc. I don't think he would have done this it is was all in his imagination. Also is was apparent that he had disappeared from work for a few days on his first trip and a few weeks on his second.

Towards the end of the movie he tells people he is not day dreaming so much... because he no longer needs to as he is now living his life for real.

It is perfectly clear to me that he did really travel and he did really have all of those experiences. It is simply a movie about an ordinary guy who has fantastic daydreams to escape his frustratingly humdrum existence, who, one day gets the courage to go off and have adventures for real and in doing so grows as a person. And yes- he gets the girl! Okay he no longer has a job, but judging by all the (real) experiences he now has on his resumee I guess he now has the self confidence to do anything he wants.

[–] Hippo9 10 years ago

The short story he is imagining everything but in this movie I think they tried to trick the audience into thinking he imagined everything and you fell for it hook line and sinker.

Honestly it's sloppy story writing but they left it open to both interpretations.

As for the Papa Johns. Iceland has alot of Domiones and Pizza Huts so there is nothing abnormal about that. Obviously, they used Papa Johns because Papa Johns paid for the product placement but the idea of an American chain being in Iceland is not that far fetched.

[–] cyrodiil-champion 10 years ago

It's probably been mentioned before, but what smacked me over my face about the whole thing being just another fantasy is that Phil, the guy who answered Cheryl's door, was just the "refrigerator guy" even though he seems comfortable enough to open the door as if the place was his and calls Cheryl "honey".

That kind of convenience seems awfully common in fantasies.

[–] Mickyfinn 9 years ago

No, Cheryl explains that it was her ex-husband who was helping fix the fridge.

You just have to be resigned-
Youre crashing by design

[–] gabbyevs 9 years ago

sorry op it was real unbeliveable but real-maybe it had been better if it hadnt of been

[–] dansemave 10 years ago

Hey, when I see a spoiler warning in a post, I expect spoilers about the movie in question, not other movies. You just more or less ruined "Life of Pi" for me. Maybe in the future you should use black-out.

[–] Splarne 10 years ago

. A NY pizza place in Iceland when he steps out of a car

woah! that's news to me. i was completely unaware that i lived in new york. i have such a place down the street from me.

***

Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

[–] martinprince990 10 years ago

I think the movie actually does a good job of separating his dreams from actual reality.

First, of course the dreams were outrageous.

Then there is the first skateboard scene. The movie makes a point to show the audience that Cheryl never actually sees him perform any of the tricks. He stops each time she turns to look. Given that all his dreams were expressions of their potential love for each other, its clear that if it were a dream Cheryl would have certainly seen his prowess on the skateboard as a token for her love of him.

Next when he gets out of the arctic ocean he questions if that was real, feeling the face of the longshoreman for confirmation that he's really in that moment. He almost can't believe he really did it.

His dream sequences were also always abruptly ended by someone or something interrupting it and bringing him "back" to the moment, with the exception of Cheryl singing Space Oddity at the bar.

Other posters have also pointed out that had it all been a dream that there would be an inception type scenario in the movie where he was dreaming within a dream and I just don't think the movie intended to go in that direction.

There were clean lines between reality and dreams.

[–] mikey1969 10 years ago

The tone of the movie and the colors change when he starts living his real life adventure. In the beginning, it's very washed out, all of the LIFE working space is blue. Once the adventures become real, he quits looking like a corpse, and the color scheme changes entirely.

So yeah, he went all of those places. Pay attention to HOW the film is presented, and it will make sense.