Wish 143 is a 2009 short film (24 minutes) directed by Ian Barnes.
David is a 15-year-old boy. Like most 15-year-old boys, he is preoccupied with sex and the prospects of losing his virginity. Unlike most 15-year-old boys, he is terminally ill, dying of lung cancer, already committed to a pediatric hospital ward.
When a representative of the Dreamscape Charity (Rory Kinnear) comes to the ward to ask David what his last wish is, David says he wants to have sex with a woman. The Dreamscape guy suggests meeting a famous soccer player, but David is having none of it. The priest at the hospital (Jim Carter, Mr. Carson from Downton Abbey) gently suggests a less outrageous wish, but David remains insistent.
Jodie Whittaker appears as Maggie, a call girl.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: David is taken aback when a round woman three times his age, having seen the article in the paper, shows up at the cancer ward and offers to help him lose his virginity. He claims that he's already done it.
- Auto Erotica: Specifically how David imagines losing his virginity, with his ex-girlfriend Amy in the interior of a fancy sports car.
- Captain Ersatz: The "Dreamscape Charity" is an obvious stand-in for the real-life Make-a-Wish Foundation.
- Comically Missing the Point: The Dreamscape Charity guy, panicking after David says his wish is to have sex with a woman, says "What about [famous soccer player] Gary Neville?" David shoots back "I'm not having sex with Gary Neville!"
- Coming of Age Story: Concerning a boy who has to come of age in a hurry as he doesn't have much time left.
- Don't Come A-Knockin': The Auto Erotica scene in David's Imagine Spot shows the car rocking enthusiastically.
- Flipping the Bird: A boy on the bus flips David the British version of the bird, where you raise the index and middle fingers.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Maggie the call girl, who is kindly and gentle and holds David while he cries.
- Imagine Spot: David has a rather elaborate one concerning losing his virginity in an Auto Erotica moment.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Lung cancer will cause this.
- Platonic Prostitution: When he finally gets there, an emotionally wrecked David can't bring himself to do anything with Maggie the hooker. She holds him as he cries.
- Professional Sex Ed: David eventually gets a prostitute to deflower him.
- Streetwalker: David approaches some streetwalkers but they recognize him as underage and tell him to get lost.
- Visual Title Drop: We see the Dreamscape Charity man with a form that says "Wish" next to an empty box; he scribbles "14" in the box right before the camera cuts.
