Seriously funny. Sah!
Deafening silence. Fwa, fwa!
Original copies.
Found missing!
"Student teacher"?
Liquid gas.
Clearly confused.
- Living dead! - Oh!
"Almost exactly."
Genuine imitation.
- Accidentally an purpose. - Aah.
Jumbo shrimp.
And even though he never said a word...
...for the first time since Dad died, I felt like I had someone to talk to.
No one's there
Ring it again and I'll kill you!
- What are you doing? - Get out of there!
Hey, you!
What are you doing with that camera?
So haw came you stopped talking?
I did some extensive research.
You know, it's medically impossible to stop talking...
...unless your vocal cards are taken out or cut...
.or diseased with carcinoma of the larynx or something.
It said, "Otherwise, it is a hysterical reaction...
...ta a singularly traumatic event...
...in which the person makes a psychological decision not to speak...
...because speaking would re-create the event."
Just thought you should know.
Wait! I can't crass this! The bridge isn't safe.
I might fall through.
I can't read what you're writing from there.
He wrote, "If you cross the bridge, I'll tell you my story. "
Wait for me! Don't go tan far! Wait for me!
He also wrote, "Let's take a break and we'll talk. "
We can't! We only just started.
Wait here.
Don't leave me!
Hello?
Did you hear me?
There's no one here!
You promised not to leave me.
What's he saying?
Okay. Uh...
He's saying, "I have lived in many places...
...but I was barn in Germany.
After the war, I gut married.
There was a child, but I was tan afraid to be a father.
When I was a young bay, I was in a bomb shelter with my parents.
A bomb exploded, and they were bath killed."
Is that why you stopped talking?
I'll get you a soda, kid.
Is that when you stopped talking?
I want you to came with me from new an.
And he shrugged the way Dad did.
I loved that.
A month of Saturdays and Sundays he'd come with me...
...and we'd seen 37 more Blacks.
Na, nu, nu!
You have to watch what you're doing.
Cassidy Black doesn't live in Glendale. She lives in Woodhaven.
Here, let me help you.
Aurelia Black lives in Whitestone.
Baz Black lives in Flushing.
Bea Black lives in Rosedale.
B.G. Black lives in Sunnyside. Got it?
Tomorrow we can make it to Amara Black...
...in zone JJ, map grid AN-50, Mill Basin.
Rule number seven, nothing gets in the way of the search.
Hello, my name is Oskar Schell My father...
Wrong way!
Enjoying that?
You know, I don't say anything when you walk too slowly because you can't help it.
And I don't say anything when you go to the bathroom three times an hour...
...because I know you need ta.
But you could eat a little faster!
It was James Black, Dan Black, Amos Black...
...Guthrie Black, and all three Ben Blacks.
Pointless.
We're not finished.
Hey, guys, I gut a wife and kid to get home ta.
Please! Just give me a minute.
Right.
Ben Black.
Guthrie Black.
Amos Black.
Da you really expect me to go out there and see what I...
Hey, kid, you need a master key.
I can't!
If I ask you a question, will you tell me the truth?
Even if it will hurt me?
Do you think the key fits a lack?
Really?
I mean really?
And do you think we'll find the lack?
I'm not so sure either.
There's something I've gut to show you.
I couldn't be sure, so I didn't say anything.
But I felt it all the time.
The way he walked, the way he shrugged his shoulders...
...the way my grandmother wouldn't talk about him.
He must be my grandfather.
My mom is cut.
This way.
You can sit an my bed.
I printed these out from the Internet.
This is probably him.
Or it might be him.
He's dressed like he was.
When I magnify it until the dots are so big it stops lacking like a person...
...sometimes I can see glasses on him
Or I think I can.
Probably the other kids see their dads tan.
This is what I want to show you.
On the worst day, my dad left six messages an this answering machine.
Na one else has ever heard them but me.
Especially not her.
The first message was at 8:55.
I was still waiting to be let into school.
I was playing with Minch, wasting time.
Are you there? Hello?
I just tried the office, but no one was picking up
Uh, listen, uh, something's happened. I'm okay.
They're telling us to stay where we are.
The second message was at 9:12.
I was in class by then.
...parallelogram.
Okay, so, you take the beautiful, magical parallelogram...
...and you'll cut it into two beautiful...
It's me again.
Hello?
Sorry, look, I was hoping you would be home.
I don't know if you heard about what happened...
...but I just wanted you to know that I'm okay.
Everything is fine. We're still waiting to find out what we're supposed to do.
It's pretty chaotic. Firemen are supposed to be coming. What...
The third message was at 9:58.
A bunch of us were walking home with Minch's mom...
...wha said something was happening, but didn't say what.
I stopped at a deli at the corner of 92nd and Broadway to get a Juicy Juice.
I know I was there at that exact time because I saved the receipt.
It had the time an it.
Hello?
I have to play you all of them.
The fourth message was at 10:07.
Given that the average walking speed for a child my age is 4.4 feet per second...
...and that it was 9 minutes between those two messages...
...I calculated that I walked 2375 feet...
...putting me in front of the United Church on Broadway.
I know this because I went back and measured.
It's me.
I was hoping you were home.
I really, really wanted to talk to you I wanted to explain to you...
Wait, wait, no, no, I'm just gonna be another minute, I'm sorry.
I can't use the phone for very long.
So I wan ted to tell you...
...how much I love you.
I wanted to tell you how much I love you.
The fifth message was at 10:17.
I was talking to Stan the doorman when Dad left this.
Are you there?
Please, pick up if you're there.
No.
There's one more message. The sixth message.
Ten twenty-seven.
Hey! Wait a minute!
What are you doing?
Who said things should be getting better?
So that's it?
Hey!
Unh! You wanna go, so go!
I always knew you were my grandfather.
But if you think we'll miss you after you go now, don't worry, because we won't!
In fact, I should be saying thank you!
My dad was the greatest dad in the world because you were the worst!
My dad went to Bronx Science High School...
...where he was manager of the baseball team and science editor of the paper!
When he graduated, he went to Rutgers, where he majored in biochemistry.
He met my mom in a bookstore, and he asked her to marry him...
...in Norwalk, Connecticut. And every summer, we'd go back to Toby Pond..
...and he would ask her to marry him again.
The day I was barn, he pressed leaves between wax paper...
...and they still hang in the bedroom window. He wanted to be a scientist...
...but he became a jeweler to eam money for our family.
He loved the smell of gasoline. He hated tomatoes.
He never talked to me like I was a kid.
Sn, in a way, your boats are heavier than mine.
Hello? - Um...
Hello. My name is Oskar Schell.
Oskar? This is Abby Black.
Are you there? Hello?
It's Oskar Schell! I'm here!
Oskar, you've grown.
- Let's go. - Where are we going?
I don't take rides from strangers.
That's a good rule, but we're not entirely strangers.
Get in.
I told you when you were here before I didn't know anything about the key.
But you do.
Well, my husband...
...ex-husband had the estate sale you mentioned...
so I think you should talk to him
Where's your ex-husband?
At work. I'm gonna take you to him now.
On Sunday night?
It's Monday morning in Japan.
Okay. He said you should came right up.
32nd flour.
Aren't you coming?
I'll wait here.
Goad luck.
Came in.
Hello.
What can I do for you? What's going an?
Do you know my father?
Your father? Who's your father?
Thomas Schell.
I don't think so. I don't know any Schells.
He died at 9/11.
- Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. - I found an envelope with your name on it...
...and I thought it was your wife, who I know new is your ex-wife...
...but she didn't know anything about it...
...and there was a man yelling from the other roam.
- What do you know about my father? - When was this?
Three months and 17 days, eight hours...
...15 minutes, 11, and new 12 seconds ago.
And tonight, at 1:42:45 p. m...
...I found a newspaper clipping where my dad had circled "nut stop lacking"...
and I found a telephone number on the back.
And the number was for Abby Black.
That was me. At the house.
I was moving cut.
- I know. - Hm.
What was so special about the envelope?
Can I see that?
Was there anything written an the envelope?
It said "Black".
And did you find it in a blue vase?
Hm?
I don't believe it.
This is truly the mast amazing thing.
I have been lacking for this key...
...far more than a year.
I've spent months trying to find the lack that it fits.
- Then we've been lacking for each other. - What does it open?
A safe-deposit box.
What's it gut to do with my dad?
With your dad?
I found it in my dad's closet, and since he's dead, I couldn't ask him what it meant...
so I had to go find out for myself
Well, uh...
...my dad passed away tan.
A couple of years ago.
He, um...
He went in for a...
...checkup and, um... Ahem.
Anyway...
...next thing you know, doctor says he has two months to live.
I needed to figure out what to do with his things, his backs, his furniture.
- Didn't you want to keep them? - I didn't want any of it.
I had an estate sale.
My father and I weren't exactly close.
He spent his last couple of months writing to everyone...
cousins, business partners, people I'd never heard of.
He wrote about all the things he wanted to do but never did...
...and all the things he did do but didn't want ta.
Shared all the things he never shared with me.
You know, all the things that I wanted to know about him.
Do you need a hug?
I'll be okay, thanks.
Didn't he write a letter to you?
Yeah, but I was afraid to open it.
I would have been extremely curious.
Well, my wife told me I was being ridiculous.
- Childish. - But you were his child.
I was afraid it was gonna be some sort of confessional.
I was hoping he would tell me he was sorry...
...or that he loved me.
Or something personal about us, but he didn't.
At the end of the letter, he says:
"There's something that I want you to have in the blue vase...
...an the shelf in the bedroom.
I think you'll understand why I wanted you to have it."
But I had sold the blue vase! Or I...
Actually, I gave it away to your dad, I guess, before I'd opened the letter.
So that's why I've been trying to find it.
You met my dad?
I guess so.
Do you remember him?
Uh, he mentioned something about an anniversary.
September 14th.
And that he had a surprise planned for your mom.
Happy anniversary.
Something about a fancy restaurant.
His tuxedo.
Without the key, I was stuck.
That's why you needed to find my dad.
But I didn't know haw to find him. I didn't even know his name.
For a few weeks, I'd wander over to my dad's neighborhood...
...hoping that I'd bump into him.
I put up sighs saying that the guy who got the vase at the estate sale..
...at 75th Street, please came contact me.
But that was a week after...
...well, you know, September 11th...
...and people were putting up posters everywhere.
Well...
you don't have to look any more
I'm sorry, I know you've been lacking for something and this isn't it.
It's okay.
Let's you and I go to the bank.
We'll find out what it is together, we'll share it.
You're nice. But nu, thank you.
Hey, you're gonna be all right there?
Can I tell you something I never told anybody else?
Sure.
On that day, they let us out of school basically as scan as we gut there.
I walked home.
My friend told me he would call, so I went to lack at the answering machine.
There were all these messages.
From your friend?
From my dad.
He was in the building.
But there's something I've never told anyone.
Nat anybody else, not anybody ever.
The phone rang.
Oh, Gad.
I couldn't pick up the phone. I just couldn't do it.
It rang, and rang, and rang, and I couldn't move.
I wanted to pick it up, but I couldn't. I just couldn't.
The answering machine came on. There was a beep.
Message six, September 11, 10:27 a.m.
Then I heard Dad's voice.
Are you there?
"Are you there?"
- "Are you there?" Are you there?
"Are you there?"
He needed me and I couldn't pick it up.
I was scared. I just couldn't do it.
"Are you there?" He asked nine times. I know because I've counted.
And why didn't he say "Anyone"?
"Is anyone there?" "You" is just one person.
I think he knew I was there.
Maybe he kept saying it to give me time to be brave enough to pick up.
The longest space between the third and the fourth, which is 15 seconds.
Are you there?
You can hear people in the background crying.
- Are you there? - You can hear helicopters.
Are you there?
You can hear glass breaking.
Are you there? Are you the...
Then it cut off.
Do you forgive me?
Forgive you?
For what? For not being able to pick up?
For not being able to tell anyone.
Oh...
Of course I forgive you.
I can't tell you haw much better that makes me feel.
I hope you find what you're lacking far.
I've gut to go.
Thank you.
What's he doing?
Oskar!
Hey, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me.
It's okay, it's okay, give that to me.
Give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, it's okay.
Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go.
It's okay, I got it. It's all right. Let go. Let go, let go, baby.
Let it go, let it go, it's all right. It's all right, let it go, let it go.
Let it go. It's all right, it's all right, it's all right. It's okay.
I promise I'll be better scan, I promise! I'll be normal!
That is the last thing that I would want. You are perfect.
I tried incredibly hard, Mom. I don't know howl could have tried any harder.
I know you did.
I know you did. I know you did.
- You don't know. - I do.
But you really don't know, Mom.
I know how proud your dad would have been that you didn't stop looking.
Sweetie, do you think I would ever let you out of my sight?
Do you think I would let anything happen to you?
I always knew where you were.
Always.
You did?
When Stan the doorman told me about all the phone books you said you needed...
...for a school project on the census, I knew you were up to something.
How?
The census isn't for another seven years.
So I went into your roam and I tried to think like you did.
I wanted to understand.
You were snooping on me?
I was searching for you.
I found your Enchanted Forest game with the list of the Blacks.
I saw your index system of the five boroughs.
My CZI.
Your CZI?
Collapsible Zane Index.
I saw how you used the last four digits of the phone numbers.
I thought that was clever.
That was very clever.
I made my awn map.
And I marked up all your zones.
One hundred and four.
215 addresses.
472 people named Black.
I made a list of all the people you were going to see that weekend.
I called the ones you'd already been to...
...and I went and met the ones you were going to go see.
- You did? Mm-hm.
- All of them? - Mm-hm.
So since my husband's death, my son has been searching all over the city...
...with a key he thinks might be a clue, so he's very...
Um... Oh. Um...
Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Um...
So, when he comes, he tank this entire map and he...
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Um... Oh.
Thank you.
Hector Black sure liked to hug.
He hugged me 17 times.
I wanted to get away, but he just kept on hugging
And he feels that it's somehow related to his father's death.
I know, it's sad. It's a sad story.
I liked Elaine Black and her five noisy kids.
Did you get a drawing?
Dozens.
So when he comes, maybe you guys could let him sit an that and he cauld...
And what about Leigh-Anne Black?
She yelled at me to go away.
Yeah, me tan.
Whether or not you had any connection to...
Ga. Please, get out of here. Ga!
Lana Black had an amazing story.
I thought Lana Black would burst into tears.
He's gonna be fine. Just a few questions, that's all he's gonna need.
You sure you're okay with this?
- She was fine when I gut there. - Oh, yeah?
I knew haw long it would take you to get from Eleanor Black's in Astoria ta...
...Harlan Black's in Bushwick.
I'm really sorry about your father.
- Mom, it's that bay! - It's that bay!
I think our mums lack kind of similar, don't you?
- So you knew about the key. - Mm-hm.
I knew you had to go make sense of things.
And I gut to go with you.
You weren't ever worried I was gonna be raped...
or killed or strangled or stabbed or something?
Every hour of every day.
I couldn't breathe until the door closed.
- Hey. - I'm home.
I thought only Dad could think like me.
Me too.
So many of them had last something or somebody, Mom.
Just like us.
What do you miss about him?
Oh, I miss so many things about him.
I miss haw he could tell the weather just by touching the window.
When he would came in the house and yell:
"What's everybody doing?"
I miss haw he would stick his entire arm into the coffee beans at Fairway...
- ...because he liked haw it felt. - Ah.
That would make me so angry because everyone in the stare was watching him.
- Were they? - Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
I miss his voice.
I miss his voice telling me he loves me.
Me too.
- Mom? - Mm?
It's okay if you fall in love again. If you want to.
Oh.
I'll never fall in love for the first time again. Nobody can be him.
Nobody.
He told me. He said:
"I really love your mother. She's such a good girl."
Mom?
I don't tell you I love you enough times, do I?
Oh.
Yes, you do.
Oh, baby.
You do.
Stairs are broken.
You're going to school awful early.
There isn't any school today, it's Presidents' Day.
I thought that was in February.
They changed it.
Mm.
I'd written a letter to the people I'd met.
"Dear Mister or Missus or Miss...
...or Abby or Hazelle or Tommy or Elaine...
...or anybody I'd met whose last name is Black.
You might remember me.
My name is Oskar Schell.
I came to visit you to see if you could help me find the lock...
...that fit the key I thought my father had left me.
Most of you were very helpful and nice to me.
I want to thank you for that.
And I want to thank you for the horse ride you gave me...
...and for Taylor's picture of me and my key.
You might want to know, the key wasn't meant for me.
It was meant for a Mr. William Black...
...who maybe needed it even more than I did.
I was disappointed, obviously...
...but I'm honestly glad that it's where it belongs.
And I'm even glad to have my disappointment...
...which is much better than having nothing.
My dad told me that New York once had a Sixth Borough that ﬂoated away.
They tried to save it, but they couldn't...
...and it's never coming back.
As much as I want him to...
...my dad is never coming back.
And I thought I couldn't live without him, but now I know I can.
I think that would make my dad proud...
...which is all I ever wanted."
I got the Renter's address from Grandma...
...and although I wanted to say, "You selfish butthead," and, "Fukozowa you"...
...I didn't.
I asked him to come home.
"Congratulations, Oskar.
With unbelievable bravery, and wisdom far beyond your years...
you have solved Reconnaissance Expedition Number Six.
You have proven both the existence of the Sixth Borough...
...and your own excellence.
Wherever they now are, the people of the Sixth Borough celebrate you.
And so do I.
Now it's time to go home."
One...