Mike Flanagan's new film The Life of Chuck is a metaphor. It's a fairy tale, adapted from a short story by Stephen King, told backwards. Explaining the ending means explaining the beginning. If you're confused about what happened in The Life of Chuck, or would just like someone to confirm a suspicion, you've come to the right place.
The film stars Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Trembley, Benjamin Pajak, and Cody Flanagan as Charles "Chuck" Krantz from his somewhat early death at 39 years old to his childhood. Oh, and his death seems to coincide with the end of the world. And the people experiencing the end of the world appear, exactly as we see them during the apocalypse, in other parts of Chuck's life whether he's an adult or a child or halfway across the country. What gives?!
Why was Chuck the only character who aged?
They tricked you! The first part, labeled as the third act and titled "Thanks Chuck!" does not take place in real life as the world during a series of natural disasters. It takes place in Chuck's head, amidst the multitudes created by everything he has experienced in his life, as he dies. The apocalypse happening, the world that's ending, is the life of Chuck.
That's why the characters don't seem to age. That's why the television plays Cover Girl, the classic Hollywood musical he watched with his grandmother. That's why all of the monitors in the hospital changed to reflect Chuck's hospital monitor. That's why Marty, Chiwetel Ejiofor's character, has a locked attic door just like Chuck's grandparents even though he does not live in the same house. Towards the end of the movie, the narrator bluntly details how Chuck's mind and body slowly shut down. That manifested in Chuck's universe as sinkholes, fires, famine, mass amounts of death by suicide, and other horrors–as well as an odd sense of calm as those who remained accepted their fate.
What does that mean, on a thematic or even spiritual level? That's for you to decide! Take a walk outside, listen to music instead of a true crime podcast (for example) and think about it.
Why didn't the people in Chuck's universe recognize him?
That is interesting, isn't it? As Chuck dies and his universe nears its apocalypse, the characters we follow don't understand who Chuck is and why they're seeing his face everywhere as their world shuts down. My best guess is that the people populating the universe that is Chuck's multitudes... at least the people we saw, were more important to Chuck than he was to them.
We don't see his family, favorite teacher, best friends, or busking partners from that one magical day. We see a teacher who never had him in class but paid him a compliment one time and his wife, a nurse, who looked a little bit like his mother. We see a man Chuck saw sitting outside of a cafe on a work trip out of town and a girl who roller-skated past him a little while later. We see an undertaker who has probably consoled hundreds of grieving family members. These people all interacted with Chuck, but he may not have made an impression. (Or, perhaps, not to be a huge bummer: but perhaps they're forgetting Chuck as his brain shuts down IRL and he is forgetting them. Eek!)
Was there really something supernatural going on in that cuppola?
Maybe! Or, maybe not. When Chuck is a Jacob Trembley-sized teenager, he goes back to the attic his now dead grandparents forbade him to unlock and takes a look inside. It's empty. But then he sees himself on a hospital bed, dying. He doesn't know how old his future self is. We, the audience, can confirm that what he sees will happen. He recognizes that his clock is ticking and that all he can do now is wait. But he makes the decision to live and contain multitudes—which he does, even though he only lives to be 39-years-old.
Is the cuppola really haunted? Were Chuck and his grandfather really seeing ghosts and visions of their death? Or do impressive views from great heights (you could see the whole town from up there) make people think about life and death? That's up to our interpretation as well.
Why, after all that, does he become an accountant and not a dancer?
Please ask me again later. I need 3-5 business to processes how upsetting that is. Even with the knowledge that he had only so many years left to live, Chuck chose a narrow life full of opportunity where he could help other people with math to the performing arts. Bittersweet doesn't even begin to cover it.
