8/14/2019 Billionaire Media Mogul William
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Billionaire media mogul William "Bill" Parrish (Anthony Hopkins)
is considering a merger between his
company and another media giant, while also about to celebrate
his 65th birthday with an elaborate
party being planned by his eldest daughter Allison (Marcia Gay
Harden). He begins to hear mysterious
voices, which he tries with increasing difficulty to ignore.
His youngest daughter Susan (Claire Forlani), an internal
medicine resident, is involved with one of Bill'sboard members,
Drew (Jake Weber). She is considering marriage, but her father can
tell she's not madly
in love. When she asks for the short version of his impassioned
speech, he simply says, "Stay open. Who
knows? Lightning could strike!"
Susan meets a vibrant young man (Brad Pitt) at a coffee shop.
She is instantly enamored but fails to even
get his name. Minutes after their encounter (but unbeknownst to
her), the man is struck by multiple
cars in what appears to be a remarkably serious motor vehicle
accident.
Death arrives at Bill's home in the body of the young man,
explaining that Bill's impassioned speech has
piqued his interest. Given Bill's "competence, experience, and
wisdom," Death says that for as long as
Bill will be his guide on Earth, he will not have to die. Making
up a name on the spot, Death is introduced
to the family as "Joe Black."
Bill's best efforts to navigate the next few daysknowing them
now to be his lastfail to keep events
from going rapidly out of his control. Drew is secretly
conspiring with a man bidding for Parrish
Communications. He capitalizes on Bill's strange behavior and
unexplained reliance on Joe Black to
convince the board to vote him out as Chairman, using
information given to him inadvertently by Bill's
son-in-law, Quince (Jeffrey Tambor), to push through approval
for the merger which Bill had decided to
oppose. Quince is devastated.
At first confused and repulsed by Joe, believing him to be the
young man from the coffee shop, Susaneventually falls deeply in
love with him. Joe is now under the influence of human desires and
becomes
attracted to her as well. Bill angrily confronts him about his
relationship with his daughter, but Death
declares his intention to take Susan with him for his own.
As his last birthday arrives, Bill appeals to Joe to recognize
the meaning of true love and all it
encompassesespecially honesty and sacrifice. Joe comes to
understand that his love for Susan means
he must forego his desire to take Susan with him and allow her
to live her life. He also helps Bill regain
control of his company, exposing Drew's underhanded business
dealings to the board by "revealing"
himself as an agent of the Internal Revenue Service and
threatening to put Drew in jail.
Bill devotes his remaining hours of life to his daughters
Allison and Susan at his birthday party. Joe says
his last goodbye to Susan, who senses something of the truth
behind his words but is unable or unwilling
to vocalize this realization. A fireworks show in the distance,
Joe escorts Bill away while Susan watches.
She is astonished when Joe reappears. The young man, unaware of
what events have transpired from
the time of his death until his return, isn't even aware how he
got here. A mystified but pleased Susan
seems to have forgotten about her time with Joe since her
meeting the man at the coffee shop, and
