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Meet Joe Black
Bill Parrish has it all - success, wealth and power. Days before his 65th birthday, he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger, Joe Black, who soon reveals himself as Death. In exchange for extra time, Bill agrees to serve as Joe's earthly guide. But will he regret his choice when Joe unexpectedly falls in love with Bill's beautiful daughter Susan?
1998 · Directed by Martin Brest · 178 min · Fantasy · Drama · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 16 frames
Tagline
Sooner or later everyone does.
Plot
Media mogul Bill Parrish is nearing his 65th birthday, and hears a mysterious voice that he tries to ignore. His eldest daughter Allison is planning an elaborate party for him, and his younger daughter Susan, a resident in internal medicine, is in a relationship with his protégé Drew. Recognizing that Susan is not deeply in love, Bill suggests she wait for someone who will sweep her off her feet. Susan forms a connection with a man at a coffee shop, but departs without getting his name, before he is fatally struck by multiple cars.
At his office, Bill experiences chest pains as the voice says, "The answer to your question is yes". During dinner with his family, he is summoned out of the room by the voice. It says the question haunting Bill is "Am I going to die?" The voice reveals itself, inhabiting the body of the man Susan met and Bill deduces he is Death. Curious about life, Death declares that for as long as Bill serves as his guide on Earth, he will postpone taking him.
Under pressure to introduce his new companion, Bill spontaneously names him "Joe Black". Surprised to see him again, Susan is intrigued by Joe's naïveté as he becomes fascinated by food, emotion, and the small things everyone else takes for granted. Drew, jealous of Susan and Joe's mutual attraction, conspires to sell the company after Bill rejects a major merger. Capitalizing on Bill's strange reliance on Joe, Drew manipulates Allison's husband Quince to convince the board of directors to vote Bill out as chairman and approve the merger.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade, Bo Goldman
- Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki
- Edited by: Joe Hutshing, Michael Tronick
- Music: Thomas Newman
- Production design: Dante Ferretti
- Produced by: Martin Brest
Cast
- Brad Pitt as Joe Black / Young Man in Coffee Shop
- Anthony Hopkins as William Parrish
- Claire Forlani as Susan Parrish
- Jake Weber as Drew
- Marcia Gay Harden as Allison
- Jeffrey Tambor as Quince
- David S. Howard as Eddie Sloane
- Lois Kelly-Miller as Jamaican Woman
- Jahnni St. John as Jamaican Woman's Daughter
- Richard Clarke as Butler
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Dutch, English
- Studios: Universal Pictures, City Light Films
- Budget: $90,000,000
- Box office: $142,940,100
- Themes: life and death, broken engagement, love at first sight, fireworks, religion and supernatural, based on play or musical, fate, teenage crush, grim reaper, doctor
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