Are You “Up” for an Adventure?

Of the many themes that could be discussed in the movie “Up”, the pursuit of adventure stands out amongst them all. The film opens with Carl and Ellie meeting as children in the context of wanting to go on a great adventure to the Lost Land in South America. They grow up together, get married, and live a long, full life. Ellie can’t have children (a particularly and surprisingly heart wrenching scene), and Carl makes his living selling balloons. Ellie passes away, and Carl is left at home, alone, and full of regret. He always meant to take Ellie on an adventure to the Lost Land in South America, but “boring life” got in the way.

After her passing, their house became the manifestation of Ellie to Carl. Soon to be sent to a “retirement community”, Carl hatches a plan of escape. Using thousands of balloons of his trade, he floats his house from all who would take him away from all that he had. Of course, the plucky scout Russell is along for the ride, and they have lots of fun together as Carl goes through some great character development, but that could be a topic of another post.

Near the end of the film, Carl shuts himself in his house, now situated in the Lost Land in South America. There’s a need for him to act, but he has finally brought “Ellie” to where he promised he’d take her. Leafing through her adventure journal, he sees the progression of his wife’s life through her eyes, which is her life with him. At the end of the journal, she changes his entire perspective. “Thanks for the adventure,” she tells him. In a few words, she changes his bitterness to joy, as he realizes that he gave the woman he loved exactly what she wanted. His “boring life” was not boring after all. He had been on the greatest adventure he could have been on- living a full life with Ellie.

Emboldened by her words of encouragement, Carl goes off and saves the day. This is only possible because he listens to Ellie, and realizes that he hadn’t missed the adventure of a lifetime. Oftentimes, we think that our life is boring, and that we are missing out on a better, more exciting life. Look around you and see that you are most likely living a great adventure already. Sometimes all it takes is changing our perspective to see that life is not that different from Carl’s, Indiana Jones’, or Frodo and Sam’s adventures.

You just need your Ellie to tell you, “Thanks for the adventure. Now, go have another one!”