Death anxiety and mortality in The Bucket List

Bucket List

Reflection on the Movie: The Bucket List

The Bucket List is a lighthearted comedy about a serious and heart-wrenching human experience: death. Two terminally ill cancer patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman decide that they have had enough of lying around being sick and waiting to die and that it is more important that they find a way to live life to the fullest, for however much more time they have to live. The two characters, Carter Chambers, and Edward Cole, are unlikely friends. One is a billionaire with a trail of failed marriages and the other a blue-collar man who was happily married for many years. After being placed in the same hospital room they discover that what they have in common is the little time that they have left on earth and their desire to not spend this time just waiting to die. The two new friends head off to fulfill their Bucket List. Although the movie is often funny, it highlights the feelings and emotions that each of us is likely to experience when contemplating and ultimately facing our mortality. They easily step on each other's toes and feelings, neither one knowing exactly how much longer they have to live and feeling anxious that their time is running out. Death Anxiety is a concept felt by all of us, at any age. It is a sense that is hard to exactly pinpoint, but it is an uneasy feeling related to the sense that we are mortal and that our end could come at any time. As we age, this anxiety can grow worse if we have the sense that we have left things undone or if we have many regrets. Researchers have found that those who live with few regrets and live life to the fullest tend to have lower levels of death anxiety, and thus are able to face the concept of their mortality with less anxiety and fear.

The movie does a very good job of provoking one's own personal thoughts on death and dying, making the viewer consider how they have lived their own life up until this point and how they might want to live the rest of their life. It also forces one to consider the very real mortality that we all face, and even though we may not be terminally ill cancer patients, we must face the reality that one day, somehow, death will take us as well. In some ways, I felt that these two gentlemen were lucky. They knew that their end was coming in a finite amount of time, and they knew exactly how they wanted to spend their final days. Of course, I also felt pain and sympathy for them both, as it was clear that what they truly wanted was more time to live and especially, more time to love.