Hey guys, this is Ryan here from explained and today,
we will be watching a movie titled “Good Will Hunting” which was released in 1997.
Let’s get started. Turn on the subtitles and spoilers ahead.
The story begins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A professor named Gerald Lambeau is
teaching his class on mathematics. At the end of his lecture, he tells his graduate students that
he is going to write a very difficult mathematics problem on the board outside the class, and
whoever solves it will get their name written on the MIT Tech. He further encourages his students
by saying that previous students who solved that question included top mathematicians. Given the
difficulty of that question, Professor Gerald gives them until the end of semester to solve it.
The lecture ends, and then we see Will Hunting; a janitor at MIT,
looking at the math problem written by Professor Gerald.
Will later goes home and tries to solve that equation on the bathroom mirror.
Next day, when he’s the only one in the hallway, he takes a chalk and writes the
answer to the problem that Professor Gerald had prepared for his students.
Outside of work, Will spends his time drinking and hanging out with his friends Chuckie,
Billy and Morgan. One day, while watching a kid’s baseball game, Will notices a guy who
used to bully him at school. Later, he along with his friends go up to that guy and start a fight.
At the end, Will gets the better of his bully and beats him mercilessly. His friends stop
him and while the police try to restrain him, he attacks a police officer, which gets him arrested.
Professor Gerald, on the other hand, gets informed by his students that the math problem is solved.
He immediately goes to check and sees that someone had really solved his question.
He asks some of his students if they’re the ones who solved it,
but he’s left confused when none of his students confirm who actually solved the question.
His next class gets packed as everyone wants to know who the mysterious math genius really is.
Professor Gerald calls for the person to come forward and claim their prize.
But the whole class is left staring at each other, waiting for someone to step forward.
With no one claiming that they solved his question, Professor Gerald tells his
students that he has written another math problem which took him two years to solve.
Not knowing who the anonymous math genius is, Professor Gerald has laid out a challenge.
Will, on the other hand, gets out of jail and almost immediately gets to solving the problem.
At the same time, Professor Gerald comes out of his office and sees Will writing on the board.
He tries to confront Will thinking that he’s just graffiting on the board.
Seeing him come towards him, Will flees the scene.
It’s only later when Professor Gerald walks back and sees that Will had actually solved the
problem which took him 2 years to do so. He now knows who the mysterious math genius really is.
After work, Will meets his friends and goes to a bar to get some drinks.
Seeing a couple of beautiful ladies, Chuckie goes up to them and starts flirting.
To impress the girls, Chuckie lies that he goes to the same class with them.
Just then, a man interrupts him and asks what class he exactly means,
to which Chuckie replies “History”. The man goes to the same class as those two girls, so he knows
Chuckie is lying. He tries to embarrass Chuckie by asking him his thoughts on historical matters.
Not being a history student, Chuckie stays silent. So, Will steps in for his friend and starts his
debate with the man by laying out facts and his own thoughts. The man counters with something,
but Will cuts him off and completes his entire sentence, before calling him out
for reciting a passage word by word from a book. Will makes fun of that guy for
spending thousands of dollars on education which he got for free in a public library.
After getting embarrassed by Will, the man walks off from there. Later, one of the girls
named Skylar comes to Will and gives him her phone number. Impressed by Will’s earlier show
of intelligence, Skylar asks him to call her so they can go out for drinks in the future.
Will later shows off that number to the guy who was trying to act smart.
Meanwhile, Professor Gerald has been searching for the janitor who solved his complex mathematics
problems. After asking around a few people, he finally gets contact information on Will.
He shows up at the court hearing of Will in the case of him assaulting a police officer.
Will defends himself in the case, but the judge tells him that he has a lot
of prior cases of petty theft and assaults. The judge says that he can’t turn a blind eye
on everything that Will has done and gives him jail time with bail of 50,000 dollars.
With that, Will gets sent to prison, but there he meets Professor Gerald who has a proposition
for him. He tells Will that he has spoken with the judge and is ready to pardon him,
but Will must agree on two things. The first condition is that Will takes mathematics
class with Professor Gerald, and the second condition is that he must get counseling.
Will laughs at the suggestion of him seeing a therapist. But, to avoid jail time,
he has no option but to agree to all the conditions laid out before him.
Soon, he starts to take mathematics class with Professor Gerald, who is amazed and
proud of Will’s intelligence. Next, he has to get counseling from a therapist. But despite
how many of them he visits, Will refuses to open up, and even makes fun of them. He reads
their books the previous night, and makes a mockery out of them during his counseling.
As a last resort, Professor Gerald turns up to his old friend Sean Maguire for help,
who now teaches psychology at a community college. Sean at first,
says that he doesn’t have time to do this. But, Professor Gerald insists he should help Will,
saying that he’s a genius and his counseling can help Will achieve the best in his life.
Sean finally agrees and meets with Will. In his first therapy session, Sean asks
Professor Gerald and his assistant to leave the room. Just like with his previous therapists,
Will begins to make fun of Sean’s book collection. Sean knows this is Will’s
defense mechanism and that he’s deliberately trying to make him mad. So Sean keeps his
composure and engages in normal conversation with Will, without asking anything about his life.
Will then notices a painting that was painted by Sean himself.
Looking at the painting, and quoting several art books, Will makes several
false assumptions about Sean’s life. Sean yet again doesn’t react to Will’s insults,
but when Will brings up his wife in the conversation, Sean gets a little bit irritated.
Will realizes that Sean’s weak point is his wife,
so he keeps bringing her up. He asks if Sean’s wife was cheating on him. Sean completely loses
his mind and grabs Will by this throat. He warns Will to never disrespect his wife.
Just then, Will tells Sean that the session is over. Sean lets go of him
and Will goes out believing he yet again managed to break a therapist.
Seeing Sean’s mood, Professor Gerald believes he won’t agree to do more sessions with Will.
But surprisingly, Sean asks to continue his sessions with Will from next week.
After his counseling, Will goes out on a date with Skylar. On their date, Will finds out that Skylar
comes from a very rich family and is studying at Harvard. The two immediately get along,
and enjoy their time with each other. To end the night of their first date, they even share a kiss.
Will shows up next week at Sean’s office who tells him to come outside with him.
Sean takes Will out to a park and talks to him. He
tells Will that he thought a lot about what he said to him about his painting,
and after a while came to realize that Will’s just a kid who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Sean tells Will that just like how he cannot make assumptions about someone else’s life by reading
a few art books, he cannot tell about Will’s problems by just having a degree in psychology.
Sean says he understands that Will doesn’t want to speak as he’s scared of what he’ll say,
but at some point he’ll have to start talking,
or else he’ll never experience the best things in his life.
Will goes back to his life where his friend Chuckie picks him up and drives him to their
workplace at a construction site. He calls Skylar but is afraid of talking to her.
On his third therapy session with Sean, Will doesn’t speak a word, and so does Sean.
They just keep silent for the whole hour. The fourth session starts in similar fashion with
Will not speaking a word. But then, out of boredom, Will tells a joke to Sean.
Taking it as an opportunity, Sean asks if he has a girlfriend. Will then tells
him about Skylar and how he hasn’t been in contact with her ever since their first date.
Sean asks why, and Will replies that he feels Skylar is too good for him,
and if he continues talking to her, it’ll just ruin everything.
Sean then tells him that no one is ever too good or perfect. Everyone has flaws, but what
matters the most is if that person is perfect for you or not. To get the message more clear to Will,
Sean tells him about how his wife; the most beautiful person he ever saw
and the one who he fell in love with, used to fart in her sleep.
This, changes the whole atmosphere inside the room. Will and Sean start to laugh uncontrollably.
At this moment, they get closer to each other, and Will starts to get comfortable around Sean.
The session ends with Sean advising Will not to think that Skylar is too good for him.
He should rather ask if they’ll be happy together. Will is so concentrated on what
Sean just said, that he has to be reminded that their session is over.
Encouraged by Sean’s words, Will goes to Skylar’s dorm and asks her out again.
Skylar says that she wants to go out with him, but she has a very complex problem to solve,
which can take her hours or even days. Will cannot wait anymore to see her,
so he solves the problem on a napkin and hands it over to her.
With nothing more to worry about, Skylar and Will head out for their second date.
Skylar asks Will about his family, and Will lies to her that he has 12 brothers.
Skylar asks Will to tell her the names of each of his brothers, and Will answers with 12 random
names in a sequence. Doubting if Will is telling the truth, Skylar asks him to say it all again.
But, being the genius he is, Will repeats the names in their correct order.
He meets Sean on his next therapy session, and asks if he has ever regretted meeting his wife,
given that after she died, he was left with a great pain to deal with. To answer his question,
Sean tells him the story of how he met his wife.
He says that he first saw his wife while waiting in line with his friends to get tickets for what
would be an iconic baseball game. Will gets excited thinking that Sean watched that game
live in the audience and not on TV. He asks about the moment and Sean details everything that went
down in that game. But then, Sean reveals that he watched the game later on TV, as he left his
friends to go out on a date with the girl he just met; the girl who would turn out to be his wife.
Will simply cannot believe that Sean gave up on a historical game,
just so he could spend some time with a girl.
Now back to Will’s question, Sean answers that he has never regretted not watching
that game live in the audience, and he certainly has no regrets meeting his wife
and having her in his life, even though it was only for a few years.
While being together, Skylar asks Will to introduce her to his friends and family.
Will is still lying to her about his life,
but he reluctantly agrees to introduce her to his friends.
Skylar, Will and his friends meet at a bar, and Skylar seems to like his friends.
She enjoys her time with them and also cracks a few jokes which gets everyone laughing.
Meanwhile, Professor Gerald asks Sean about Will’s progress.
Sean answers that Will has slowly begun to open up, but he’ll need more time before he
feels completely comfortable to speak about his life, and why he’s afraid of trusting anyone.
Professor Gerald reveals that he has been arranging job interviews for Will
at top mathematics institutes, and once his mental problems are gone,
there won’t be anything stopping him from making his name in the mathematics field. Sean protests
that they shouldn't be the ones making life decisions for Will, and should support him on what
he wants to do. But Professor Gerald is adamant that he won’t let Will’s talent go to waste.
However, Will doesn’t want to get a job like that,
so he sends his friend Chuckie to the interview in place of himself.
One night while talking about their lives, Skylar asks Will to move to California with her.
Hearing what Skylar wants, Will starts to panic, and says that he can’t move out with
her. Skylar asks why he’s afraid of committing to her and why he never tells her the truth.
She brings up how Will lied to her about having 12 brothers.
After being called a liar, Will completely loses his cool. He tells her that he was an
orphan and spent most of his life moving from one foster parents to another.
He further tells her how he was abused and beaten by his foster father.
Skylar starts to cry and tells Will that she wants to be with him and help him.
But Will pushes her away saying he doesn’t need anyone’s help. It gets clear that Will
has a fear of abandonment; where he believes anyone he loves will walk away from his life.
Skylar cries that she really loves him and will not leave him. But Will lies
that he doesn’t love her back and gets out, leaving Skylar to cry alone in her room.
After Professor Gerald’s persuasion, Will agrees to go to a job interview.
Will shows up at the interview but makes no attempt to get hired. In his therapy session
with Sean, he gets asked who he trusts the most in life. Will answers “Chuckie”.
Sean says that he understands Chuckie will give his life for Will, but he will not understand
his deep feelings. Sean asks how he plans to earn a living. Will replies that he will work
as a construction worker in Boston for the rest of his lives. Sean confronts Will for
being scared of leaving his comfort space, and how it will stop him from living his best life.
Sean doesn’t force him to take the job that Professor Gerald has planned for him,
but he asks Will what he really wants to do in his life. Will replies that he wants to be a shepherd.
Knowing that Will isn't serious, Sean asks him to leave his office.
He says he doesn’t want to waste his time, if Will plans on not being honest.
Will gets angry and starts shouting at Sean, who once again asks him what he wants to do in life.
Will stays silent and doesn’t answer, so Sean tells him to leave.
Before Skylar could leave for California, Will calls her to say goodbye.
Skylar, in hope of getting back with Will, tells him that she loves him.
Will smiles, but he has no guts to say it back in fear that he’ll only get his heart broken up.
In his conversation with Chuckie, Will tells him that he doesn’t plan on getting a job and he also
broke up with Skylar. When asked what he wants to do for the rest of his life, Will answers that he
plans on living in Boston forever, being neighbors with Chuckie and working with him on constriction.
Hearing his answer, Chuckie gets honest with him. He tells Will that it pains
him to see his friend waste his life, when there’s more that he can achieve
and be happy in his life. Chuckie says that he only has one wish.
Everyday when he comes to pick up Will at his house, he wishes that Will isn’t there.
Chuckie wishes that Will leaves his awful
life and actually starts doing something to make it meaningful.
Meanwhile, Professor Gerald is arguing with Sean about how he hasn’t been able to persuade
Will to get a job and use his intelligence to do something significant in his life.
Sean argues that they shouldn’t rush into making Will take important life decisions,
when he isn’t sure what he wants to do. He explains that Will has fear of abandonment,
so he pushes people away before he gets too close. Sean says that they should support
Will on whatever he wants to do, and not force him to get a job which he might end up hating.
But, Professor Gerald doesn’t agree with this.
He warns Sean to not let Will think that it’s okay for him to not make use of his intelligence,
and spend his life like a failure. The differing views between them ends up into a heated argument,
with Professor Gerald calling Sean to be jealous of his success and achievements.
Sean tells him that he is not a failure as he never chose to be like him.
Just then, Will walks in and hears their conversation. Professor Gerald
walks out of the room to let their therapy session begin.
Sean has a file in which he has pictures of Will’s body,
filled with bruises from the beating he got from his foster father. Will asks if he has
seen anything like that before. Sean then reveals that his father was an alcoholic and used to beat
him and his mother when he was a child. Hearing Sean’s story, Will remembers his foster father.
Sean steps in front of Will and tells him that whatever happened to him wasn’t his fault.
Will nods in approval, but Sean repeats that it wasn’t his fault. Will answers that he knows it’s
not, but Sean keeps on repeating that Will was never at fault for what happened to him.
Will gets into tears and pushes Sean away. Sean yet again tells him that the abuse he faced as
a child was not his fault. Will finally gives in to his emotion and hugs Sean.
He cries his heart out, while holding Sean tighty in his arms.
He’s finally ready to let go of his past and move on ahead in his life.
He tells Sean that he’s going to take one of the jobs that Professor Gerald has set him up for.
With this, his final therapy session with Sean is over. Will asks if he can stay in touch with
him. Sean replies that he’s always there for him and tells him to do what his heart wants.
Will hugs Sean, before bidding a final goodbye.
As a gift for his 21st birthday, Chuckie, Billy and Morgan give him a car. The car
isn’t brand new, but Will is happy with the gift, as it’s from his best friends.
Meanwhile, Professor Gerald goes to Sean and apologizes for what he said to him.
The two friends reconcile and Sean tells him that he’s going on a world tour.
While Sean is packing his luggage, Will drives up to his house and watches him getting ready for his
trip. Will walks to the front door and places a letter in Sean’s mailbox, before driving out.
In the meantime, Chuckie goes to pick up Will at his house. He knocks on the door,
but gets no answer. He peeks in through the window and sees that Will isn’t home. Chuckie
smiles as he realizes that Will has finally decided on what he wants to do with his life.
Sean also gets the letter left by Will. In the letter, Will writes that he’s not taking the job,
and is going to California to meet Skylar. Sean smiles and goes back to his house.
The movie ends as we see Will on his way to get back with Skylar.
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