“I am large, I contain multitudes.” That quote by poet Walt Whitman looms large over The Life of Chuck, the latest Stephen King adaptation by writer-director Mike Flanagan. It fascinates the title character while he’s in school and, eventually, speaks to the film as a whole, which may leave one or two people scratching their heads at the end.
So, below, we’ll talk about The Life of Chuck with full spoilers to both help put everything into context, but also marvel at how beautiful the whole film is when it all comes together.
As I wrote in my review of The Life of Chuck last week, the first time I saw the movie, I was a little confused. The movie is told backwards, with the first third showing some seemingly random, end-of-the-world scenario, a second showing the titular character dancing in public, and the third all about Chuck’s childhood. Watching it, I wasn’t thinking of the film beyond what happens on the surface, and so the fact that characters from the first part of the movie appear in the third part of the movie, but as the same age, didn’t quite click for me. Why did they look the same when Chuck was 39, but also when he was 15?
The answer goes back to the Whitman quote. When young Chuck asks his teacher about what “I am large, I contain multitudes” means, she explains how each person has a universe inside their brain. Every person, thing, and place they’ve ever encountered lives in their minds. It’s a world that gets bigger and bigger as we get older and experience more things, all of which are added to our own world. And that’s the key. The first third of The Life of Chuck isn’t real. It’s happening in Chuck’s head, and all the apocalyptic things that are happening—the sink holes, the blackouts, the planets disappearing—show Chuck dying.
We’re watching Chuck’s world. A world populated by people and things he’s crossed paths with. A world filled with ideas he’s encountered, in locations he’s been to. We see most of this through Marty, the central figure in that story. The movie portrays Marty as a normal guy who has no idea who Chuck is but, as we see in the last part of the story, he was a teacher in school when Chuck went there all those years ago. He’s also living in Chuck’s grandparents’ house. A house that, we learn later, was knocked down.
Those are just two of the many, many connections in that opening third of the film. The girl Marty talks to on the roller skates appears after Chuck was dancing. Rahul Kohli’s doctor character was sitting in that area too. The funeral director talking to Marty was the funeral director who helped Chuck with his grandfather’s funeral in real life. Marty talks about the Carl Sagan special Chuck watched as a child. The list goes on and on. But, where the list ends is at anyone who actually had a profound impact on Chuck’s life.
Chuck’s wife and son aren’t in his fantasy world. The drummer and dancer aren’t there. The teacher who taught him about Whitman isn’t there. If any of them showed up, it would break the reality that, as Chuck is dying, he’s kind of watching his life flash before his eyes. He would know it wasn’t real if he saw someone important. We would know too. So, to keep the illusion of comfort, Chuck’s world is populated with people, places, and things that live on the tangents of his mind.
And, of course, the whole first section is about how the world started ending slowly about a year ago. How things are moving faster now. And, eventually, the lights go out. That’s his illness. “Thanks, Chuck. 39 great years.” A sign and slogan appear everywhere, and also coincide with what his wife and son are saying to him in the real world.
Once you start looking at The Life of Chuck as it’s meant to be seen, you see it differently. Not only does the whole apocalyptic scenario make more sense and get infinitely sadder, but every moment in Chuck’s life becomes more magical. All the dancing, of course, both in the street and when he was a child. But learning with his grandma, talking to his grandfather about life, the flirtations, the awkwardness, everything is a piece of a new world. One that takes a turn when, at the actual ending, Chuck sees himself dying.
Because he lives in this house with a haunted cupola, Chuck’s family shelters a blessing and a curse. That’s the ability to see death coming and, like his grandfather before him, Chuck sees the future and his own death. He knows it’ll be in a hospital bed. He doesn’t know how long he has or what will happen between then. But he knows, as we all do, that the end is coming. And Chuck takes comfort in knowing, no matter what kind of life you lead, you’re creating a big, beautiful world for yourself. A world where a simple dance or glance can bring joy to everything and everyone.
Watching The Life of Chuck not only makes you appreciate the smaller things in life, it makes each and every one of us feel grand. It makes you feel like something bigger. Maybe it makes you believe in something bigger. Because there’s a comfort in knowing we all have our own world with us at all times.
One final point to bring up is that The Life of Chuck is dedicated to a person named Scott Wampler. Scott was a friend of mine and, yes, that certainly adds a different level of emotional attachment for me. He passed away in 2024 in his mid-40s, way before he should have gone. Like Chuck, Scott lived a too-brief, but beautiful life. And, in that life, Scott had a Stephen King podcast called The Kingcast where he became friendly with Mike Flanagan. That podcast meant Scott and his podcast partner Eric Vespe got to visit the set of the film and appear in it both as background extras during Tom Hiddleston’s dance, and also as the radio DJs Karen Gillian is listening to at the beginning of the movie. Scott loved King, he loved Flanagan, and he loved this story. One that will now carry his world forever. So while it’s horrible that he’s gone, it’s beautiful that this film ifeatures and is dedicated to him. Just another small thing in this glorious world called The Life of Chuck.
The Life of Chuck is now in theaters.
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