Fridge / The Green Mile

• Fridge Brilliance:
  • In the book Dean Stanton dies only four months after John Coffey's execution when he is stabbed by another prisoner. This will make more sense upon watching the movie. Wild Bill manages to trick Percy, Terwilliger and Stanton by pretending to be doped. Had it not been for Brutus and Paul being there Stanton would have been killed. There are other scenes of Stanton that highlight how is he prone to making dangerous mistakes. Dean Stanton despite being one of the nicest characters is not really a good prison guard so it's no wonder that he would get killed without Paul or Brutus there to protect him.
  • When the angry mob finds him, John does little to actually make himself look like anything but the killer when he's caught with the bodies of the little girls. It is possible he wants to be executed so he can stop feeling the pain of the world.
  • The story Burt tells John to explain his view of black criminals may actually be a bit of forshadowing at John's innocence. He tells John that his family dog attacked his son out of nowhere, despite the dog being very loyal and loving overall, and that he did not question the reason why it happened, and simply put the dog down personally. However, it is mentioned that Burt did not see this happen, and judging by his son's age, he may have been too young to explain what occured. So really, the only evidence he had was the existence of the dog and his son's bitten face. Which is compelling evidence... but by this logic, so was the evidence that got John arrested and put on death row. It is also possible that the dog's attack was a result of Burt's son unintentionally abusing it, or, it was a completely different dog that did it, and the family dog was actually innocent. Either way, this connects well with the way John was so quickly villainized, and implies Burt assumed John was guilty because he believes black people are animals.

• Fridge Horror:
  • Wild Bill has shown himself to be completely depraved and odious by revealing that he was responsible for raping two innocent young girls and killing them in cold blood. You know what's even worse? It's the fact that he might've done that to countless other people (especially minors) before being caught.
  • If John Coffey's statement that he can feel the ugliness the world over is intended to be taken literally, he can feel something very ugly going on in 1935 Germany. To say nothing of Stalin's Russia, the European powers' colonization over the world, and the Empire of Japan's conquest of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Or he just feels it constantly.
  • John Coffey made Mr Jingles a near-immortal by mouse standards in an accident, and quite generously extended Paul's life so much that he's quite fit for a 108-year old man (hell, he's a lot more healthier than even an average eighty year old person). How old is John exactly? How much of the world's events was he personally witness to? Possibly why John just goes along with them arresting and sentencing him for execution, as he has grown terribly tired from living very long in this world.
  • At 108, Paul is uncommonly but not impossibly old for a human. But, if the idea that he could potentially live until 1000 is true, what happens when he starts reaching those sorts of impossible ages? How does he keep it secret? What happens if he can't? Does he get coerced or even outright forced into scientific studies? Have his death faked and kept locked up to avoid the news getting out?