Tuck Everlasting (2002)
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A young girl discovers a family of immortals who must hide their secret from a man seeking to exploit it.
The story
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Winnie Foster, who is from an upper-class family in the American town of Treegap, wants to make her own choices in life. After being told that she will go to a boarding school, she runs off into the forest, where she meets Jesse Tuck, who is drinking from a spring at the foot of a great tree. She is kidnapped by his older brother Miles and brought back to the Tucks' home where they tell her they will return her as soon as they can trust her. She becomes enamored with their slow and simple way of life and falls in love with Jesse.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Winnie Foster runs off into the forest to escape her life in Treegap and meets Jesse Tuck. She is taken to the Tuck home, where she learns they are immortal because they drank from a magic spring a century ago. They warn her that immortality is painful and they must keep the secret. A man in a yellow suit spies on them, wanting to sell the spring's water. He kidnaps Winnie to force the Tucks to reveal the location, but when they refuse, he shoots Jesse, exposing their immortality. Mae Tuck kills the man in self-defense, leading to her arrest and a death sentence. Winnie is returned home but later helps Jesse and Miles break their parents out of jail. Jesse asks Winnie to join them and drink from the spring to live forever, but she chooses not to, believing that living a typical life is better than immortality. More than 85 years later, Jesse returns to Treegap on a motorcycle and finds Winnie's headstone, learning she lived a full life and died at 100.
- First release year
- 2002
- Runtime (minutes)
- 90
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Jay Russell
- Writers
- Jeffrey Lieber · screenplay; James V. Hart · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Alexis Bledel · Winnie Foster; Ben Kingsley · The Man in the Yellow Suit; Sissy Spacek · Mae Tuck, Jesse and Miles's mother; Amy Irving · Betsy Foster, Winnie's mother; Victor Garber · Robert Foster, Winnie's father; Jonathan Jackson · Jesse Tuck; Scott Bairstow · Miles Tuck, Jesse's older brother; William Hurt · Angus Tuck, Jesse and Miles's father
- Genres
- romantic fantasy; drama; teen drama
- Themes
- immortality; choice; mortality
- Tone and mood
- solemn; sensitive
- Setting
- Treegap, USA in 1914 and 2002
- Premise and plot tags
- fantasy; romance; drama; immortality
- Source material / true-story basis
- Natalie Babbitt's 1975 book of the same name
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $19.3 million against a $15 million budget.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 61% · review count: 119; Metacritic · score: 66 · scale: 100
- Production trivia
- Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney, the future creators and stars of the long-running sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, met during auditions for the film.; None of them were cast in the movie.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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