Headscratchers / What Dreams May Come

• In an alternate ending (among the deleted scenes collected on the DVD), Chris and Annie are forced to reincarnate as a kind of atonement. In the ending as it appeared in the theatrical release, though, they choose to reincarnate 'cause, hey, it sounds like a fun time. The problem I have is this: It was already established that anyone who commits suicide goes to Hell. We know that Annie is capable of suicide. So why take the chance of that happening again? Why reincarnate, and risk the very real possibility that you'll wind up in Hell for the rest of eternity? If you've both made it to Heaven, why not stay in Heaven?
  • Annie lost her children and husband in a span of four years. Suicidal is not a default condition for her.
  • I will use the movie since this is what you refer to.
    • First, if they admit their sin/suicide they can escape their Hell. Simply, it's not permanent, just damn near impossible to escape.
    • Second, suicide isn't natural for anyone. It was the stress of first her children and then her husband being killed that lead her to kill herself. And with a second chance, it would not be likely to happen again.
    • Third, in the deleted ending Annie is forced to reincarnate because she must prove herself worthy. It's a test. Chris just joins her because he loves her.
    • Fourth, in the theatrical ending Annie wants to prove herself. Chris, meanwhile, just wants to be with her.
• The alternate ending also brings up a niggling question of predestination. They know, before they are even reborn, exactly how many years they'll live before they die the next time around. If the future is predetermined like that, doesn't that mean that Annie's original suicide was also predetermined? And if so, claiming that suicide "violates the order" of the Cosmos is disingenuous at best and downright evil at worst.
  • I imagine it "violates the order" because it's not predetermined.
  • I think this is something that's addressed in the book; it's not that they know when they'll die, it's that they know how old they should be when they die. Annie's suicide was "violating the order" because she would have lived for another thirty years or so if she hadn't killed herself. IIRC, there's a point made that had Chris not gone after her, Annie would have been kept in Hell at least until the years she hadn't lived had passed.
  • The original book is heavily based on Theosophical doctrine and other esoteric schools of thought. According to Theosophy if you killed yourself you end in “hell” (actually the lower astral plane which greatly resembles it) for the rest of what would have been your natural life. In the book Annie is to be in this state for around 30 years IIRC, but the movie made the change (wisely IMO) to make it “forever” probably to add suspense. In any case the movie shows that indeed going to hell for suicide is not so much eternal is just that the person dies in such tormented and depressed state that they carry their trouble psyche with them and as the character of Cuba Gooding Jr. puts it they have to “figure out” the reason for their suicide “forever” (in reality for a very very long time that feels like forever).
• What kind of message does the film send by saying a person who becomes depressed after losing their family and kills themselves goes to hell? For one thing, since clinical depression is a medical disorder, I doubt that a notion of "free will" applies to it. The film also brings up the problem of reconciling hell with a just and loving god in general, of course.
  • In the movie it is established that nobody actually sends people to hell, that place is a self-inflicted penance.
  • What does this say that a person would inflict hell on themselves for having committed suicide in despair over the loss of their family, even if they can be reunited in heaven? Or that this was not made clear to them?
    • It says "Don't kill yourself any time you lose someone you care about because you think you can be with them again that way"? Which is... a good thing?
    • It seems to say "If you're Driven to Suicide due to losing everyone you love, you'll go to hell." Bad message for sure.
    • It says trauma doesn't make suicide right? Which is true. Also, if the afterlife is mental, would it make sense for someone who's punishing themselves like that in life to suddenly be happy when they died?
  • This troper got the impression that committing suicide is kind of like accidentally inflicting intractable depression on one's soul. The action causes the soul to get stuck in a painful loop, and it's very hard to break out of it (I don't buy that hardly anyone breaks out of Hell).
  • The entire movie works on the principle of reincarnation (typical Eastern mysticism) and then incorporates the more Western (Judeo-Christian) aspects of heaven and hell. You shouldn't go scratching your head at syncretic concepts that make little sense when mixed together like oil and water.
  • This actually is explained in the film when Chris is first informed what happened. The newly dead create their own afterlives subconsciously on death, and can only control them manually through practice. The afterlife created by a suicide victim is the absolute peak of their depression and despair made manifest and self-reinforcing.
  • Most religions do believe that people who commit suicide go to hell unfortunately, so there’s nothing to be surprise about it. I heard a Catholic priest saying once that people who commit suicide because of some clinical illness like depression may be forgiven as that would be officially been insane, and insane people is not accounted by their sins (you need to be sane to sin, a schizophrenic is not accountable for the murder he/she commits for example while in a delusional state), and of course it doesen’t apply to those of other cultures who have never had the Gospel preached upon them (as you need to know what sin is to sin), but different churches may differ on this regard. However the book that inspired the movie is more based on Swedenborgian Christianity (alongside Theosophic and Esoteric ideas). Swedenborg’s teachings is that you have a Personalized Afterlife depending on your mental thoughts, you basically create your own heaven or hell depending on your thoughts (literally, from the house you live in to the people you interact with). And although he doesn’t mentions suicidal as going necessary to hell as evil and selfish people do (again a Self-Inflicted Hell) the afterlife some of they may create at least for a while would be a reflection of their last thought which in heavily depressed people may mean bad news. Notice how Annie basically lives in an incredibly depressing version of her house.