Another Life

Notable Projects
Creator: Shay Hatten
Genre: Drama
Age rating: 17 and older
Bored and disillusioned, a man who can remember all of his past lives embarks on a road trip to Niagara Falls with the intention of throwing himself off. On the way he meets a young woman with a sad past who just might be able to convince him to stay alive.
Project collaboration: By Permission
Full synopsis
Synopsis: Pike is a man who can remember every life he's ever lived dating back to the mid-1700s. Although he's looked different in each life, he's always been essentially the same person: a middle class white male. Except for once, that is, when he was a small blue fish in the Pacific Ocean.

Currently Pike is leading a dull existence in a small Oregon town, having moved there to take care of his ailing father. Now his father's gone, and Pike, bored with his current life, without the means to do anything worthwhile, and altogether disillusioned, creates a bucket list of a few things that will effectively tie up all unfinished business from this chapter of his life. He plans to drive across the country checking goals off his list with the ultimate intention of throwing himself off of Niagara Falls. He doesn't expect it to kill him; he knows he'll just be reborn somewhere else. He simply wants to do it for the thrill of finally experiencing something new.

Driving his beautiful 1950s era car that he managed to salvage from a past life, Pike sets off across the country. Some of his bucket list items are of the sentimental nature, like visiting a diner that he frequented in a past life. Some of them are more darkly comic, like his mission to punch a guy who beat him at Jeopardy back in the 70's.

Near the beginning of his trip he meets November, a young woman who has been whiling away her small town existence with an unfaithful boyfriend. When he first finds her she is dangerously close to getting beaten by her boyfriend. Pike, having had centuries to learn to fight, takes down the boyfriend and his group of friends. Pike and November then blow up the man's car and spend the rest of night hiding out in a small hotel. Pike tells November the truth about himself figuring he'll be dead soon anyways and it won't matter.

The next morning when he tries to leave November announces that she wants to go with him. She figures that when he jumps off the falls he'll just leave his car in the parking lot, and she figures that he might as well give it to her. Pike begrudgingly agrees.

At the days past and the items on Pike's list check down, the two tell each other a lot about their lives. We learn that Pike has had only one truly happy existence; it was the life before this one. He had a wife that he loved, and together they had a son, Milo. Sometimes Pike still calls the son under a fake name just so that he can hear his voice. November can only remember her one life, and it has been anything but happy. Her mother killed herself, her boyfriend cheated her, and she's accomplished nothing meaningful. Pike and November grow dangerously close to one another, and Pike starts to worry about how his death will affect her.

The final thing Pike wants to do before he reaches the falls is to reconcile with his son. He and November track down Milo, who is about 60 years old, and invite him to get a drink. Pike tells Milo his story and is able to convince him that he isn't lying. Contrary to his expectations, Milo isn't happy to see him. Like November, Milo's life has been filled with sadness. His wife died thirty years ago when she was pregnant with a son and Milo has been alone ever since. He tells Pike that people die for a reason: so that they can't see their children's lives go to hell.

Pike confesses to November that this is the reason why he's given up on trying to find happiness. Even happy lives, like the one he had with his wife, turn to sadness. November makes an impassioned plea to Pike to stay with her. Even if he's cursed to live forever they can still spend a few good decades together. Pike tells her that the few good days they've spent together don't guarantee an entire lifetime of happiness. The next morning, he leaves her at the hotel and drives off.

On the drive he reconsiders and heads back to the hotel. When he enters the room he finds November passed away on the bed with an empty bottle of pills next to her. Distraught, Pike drives back to the falls and throws himself in.

We see Pike reborn in another body and, in a series of flashes, we see him lead a completely average life. He gets married, gets a decent job, has a child, grows old, and then dies.

Suddenly, Pike is standing on the Niagara Falls bridge again; he didn't jump. November reaches out and takes his hand. We see a flashback of him finding her on the bed. This time, we see that he was able to save her. He forces her to vomit, pushes her into a cold shower, and stays with her while she recovers.

Pike knows that someday he'll have to live out that average existence that he imagined. But it can wait. For now, he'll try and be happy with November by his side.

Latest Work

All Work