Welcome To Movie Recall. In Today's video, we will be going through the 2015 film : “Little Boy”.
It's Time To Recall. Let's Get Started.
Turn On Subtitles and Spoilers Ahead! The film starts in a coastal town, where
a man says that the town is O’ Hare California and that back then it was nothing more than a
small fishing village. A man says that this is where his story begins, the man’s name
is Pepper Flynt Busbee, an 8-year-old child who is small for his age. The man says that nobody likes
him much and a scene of the kids laughing at him as a picture is taken is shown.
But the man then says that the story really begins somewhere else, the scene then shifts to
a man in a hospital waiting room as a nurse walks towards him with a baby in her arms.
The man says that this is his father James, who was his only friend. The nurse tells him that
it is a boy, and his father asks why the kid is so small and whether he will grow. The baby is
then shown to grow up as his father measures his height and tells him that he has got him. Pepper
says that he wanted to be just like his father and do everything like him. The father and son start
playing together and in one incident he falls from his bike and his father tells him that he can do
everything and that he is proud of how he handled the fall. Pepper has an active imagination and
while his father tells him all these wild stories, Pepper imagines being in every one of them,
but the duo is interrupted by Pepper's mother who tells him that it is time to go to bed. Then
we see London, Pepper's older brother, he seems to be training to go and join the military.
Pepper and his father then go out to watch a movie and get their haircut, as World War II rages on,
the military starts to ask for volunteers but, London is judged unsuitable for military service
due to flat feet, this visibly upsets him. But his father decides to step in to go instead of
his son. When his father tells about his decision to the rest of the family, Pepper is devastated
and starts crying. Before he leaves James tells London that he has nothing to be sorry about and
then he hugs Pepper and heads to the bus that is going to take him to the place of his deployment.
As he leaves Pepper goes after him and hugs his leg, but Pepper’s mother comes and takes him away,
as tears flow down his face. When Pepper asks a doctor if he is a midget,
the doctor tells him that is not the right word, and the appropriate word is “dwarfism”. When,
Pepper continues to pester him the doctor says that "For now, Pepper, let's just say you're
a 'little boy,'" which would become Pepper's nickname. He grew to loathe those two words,
and it was usually a source of contention when someone referred to him by his nickname.
The next day, Pepper goes to work with his brother, he wakes up his dad’s helper and
the two of them get to work on their dad’s project. The mechanism doesn’t seem to work,
and London tells Pepper to go away, and when Pepper asks him for some money, London shouts
at him but then feeling sorry for his brother he hands him some money. Pepper goes and uses
that money to buy shoes that his father had eyes on and then goes to buy some movie tickets.
Meanwhile, a representative from the army comes to Pepper’s home and tells his mother that his father
was sent to free a village in the Philippines. Then a sequence of intertwined shots begins to
play with Pepper being chased by bullies while his father is trying to dodge incoming gunfire.
The bullies take the boots that Pepper had bought for his father and start throwing them
amongst themselves, all the while calling Pepper a midget. The bully then takes a drink from a girl
and pours it all over Pepper saying that he is baptizing him. They then throw him
in the trash and close the door on him. Meanwhile, the representative from the army tells
his mother that probably James has been taken as a prisoner of war. When Pepper returns home,
he finds his mother and brother worried and when he asks what’s wrong, his mother hugs him tightly.
London is also shown drinking beer to manage his stress. The next day Pepper is shown sullenly
sitting on a swing in his backyard and his mother seeing this tells his brother to take him to a
show and buy an extra ticket for their dad. They watch an intense action film and during the show,
London goes out for a drink and Pepper tries to tell him that the live show is about to start
but London pays no heed to him and goes out. In the live show, Pepper is invited on the stage
by the magician and when the magician tells the crowd that Pepper will perform a trick,
they start laughing but the magician shuts them all up. He utters an incantation and tells Pepper
to perform the trick and do as he says. During the performance, the crowd once again begins to laugh
at him with the bullies from before taunting him the most. But the magician tells him to ignore the
crowd and asks him if he believes he can do the trick. Pepper says he can and says that he can do
the trick, the magicians tell him to say it louder and the bottle seems to move as the magician
smiles. Seeing this the crowd starts to applaud but the bullies continue to stare at him.
The next day Pepper gets determined to gain enough faith to bring his father home after hearing the
Bible scripture, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as tiny as a mustard seed, you may say to
this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move." After hearing this Pepper goes
to the supermarket to get his hands on a mustard seed as he thinks it will give him unimaginable
power. But when he is on his way out, he sees a Japanese man and rushes out to tell his brother,
who gets up and goes with his brother. Pepper can’t believe how one of the enemies is walking
free among them. London goes to the shop and closes the door and tells the Japanese man that
they don’t serve people like him. But Father Oliver steps in and defuses the situation.
On the same day London and Sam, a man who has lost his son in the war are talking at the bar
and they say that they need to do something about the Japs even Pepper chimes in that if
he could smash every Jap he would. London drives Pepper to the Japanese man’s home
and asks him to throw a rock at his house. He continues throwing the rocks and his brother
lights a Molotov and tries to throw it at the house but ends up falling to the ground.
London is taken to jail, and Pepper is taken to the church, where he meets Father Oliver.
Father Oliver asks him if he can show him how he moved the bottle, but this time Oliver fails to
do so. Father Oliver asks him to try again, and Pepper tries to do it again. It goes on the same
way for a while and finally, Father Oliver picks up the bottle and places it on the other side
of the table, and explains to Pepper how faith works. Pepper asks him how he can get bigger faith
and Father Oliver pulls out a list and tells him all the good things he needs to do to get
bigger faith. He also reminds him that faith is meaningless to someone who harbors hatred.
Pepper is advised by Father Oliver to make friends with a Japanese man named Hashimoto, only after
doing that will he be able to gain true faith. Pepper tells him that he will do it if it allows
him to get his dad back and Father Oliver tells him that his dad will be back if God wills it.
So, Pepper heads to Hashimoto’s home and apologizes to him for throwing stones the previous
day, but Hashimoto closes the door on his face. Pepper then returns to Father Oliver, who tells
him to take a gift as a peace offering so Pepper brings him a soda. Pepper gives him the soda,
but Hashimoto just throws the bottle in the trash. Once again, Pepper returns to Father Oliver and
tells him about what Hashimoto did. Father Oliver asks him to go and hang out with Hashimoto. Pepper
once again goes to Hashimoto’s house and tells him that he wants to hang out with him, and Hashimoto
agrees. He goes to pick up his coat and then asks Pepper to go on a ride with him. Pepper is
hesitant at first but later agrees, Hashimoto asks Pepper to come out with him but seeing that people
are watching him Pepper asks him to go on ahead, but Hashimoto insists that they go in together.
The two of them then head into an ice cream parlor and the waiter there refuses to serve Hashimoto
and only listens to what Pepper orders. Later, Hashimoto takes Pepper’s ice cream and tells him
that Pepper can have ice cream any time. After this Pepper asks him if they are friends and can
he remove him from the list. Taken back, Hashimoto asks about the list and Pepper shows him the list.
Later, Hashimoto and Father Oliver meet for a game of cards and Hashimoto tells him that he
hopes the list won't mess with Pepper’s head. Later, Father Oliver says that he is going out of
town, and he will come back and help Pepper with the list. In the meanwhile, he should go and meet
with a prisoner. So, Pepper goes to meet London in jail. London isn’t pleased by what Pepper is doing
and tells him that by befriending, Hashimoto he is betraying his father. The next day the bullies
start chasing Pepper once again, but this time Hashimoto sees this and stops his car next to
Pepper and asks him to get on. Pepper is hesitant at first but against this and getting a beating
he decides to get in. As they drive off the bullies shout “jap lover” behind him.
Pepper goes home and finds that his mother is crying while smelling his father’s clothes.
This troubles Pepper and he once again goes to Hashimoto and asks for his help with completing
the list. Hashimoto agrees and then tells Pepper that the first thing is that his name is not
“jap” rather it is Hashimoto. He then invites Pepper to come in. Pepper is at first scared,
but Hashimoto asks him to hand over the list, so he can check it. He takes Pepper to the hospital
to visit a sick person which is another entry from the list. When Pepper goes into a room in
the hospital, he sees an injured soldier and hands him his comic book. Later, Hashimoto helps Pepper
with another task on his list shelter a homeless person. Hashimoto recommends helping the person
at his father's workshop. So, Pepper gives the man one of his father's sleeping suits, this makes the
man immensely happy. The next entry on the list is clothing the naked, so Hashimoto takes Pepper to a
knitting club and asks him to help the ladies knit a sweater for a baby. So, with his help,
Pepper is able to complete the list in no time and his opinion about Hashimoto has also improved.
Later that day, Dr. Fox visits Pepper’s mother and as a favor to her, he helps London get out
of jail. Pepper is annoyed by Dr. Fox’s and his son, the bully's presence in the house.
He goes up to his room and sees the bully looking through his things, he asks him to stop but the
bully grabs him by the neck and pushes him to the ground and gets out of the room. Pepper once again
returns to Hashimoto and asks him how he can fight against the bullies. Hashimoto then tells Pepper
about a samurai warrior who was just weak and small like Pepper, but they had managed to fight
against the Mongols and even defeat them. This story inspires Pepper, and he goes to the bully
to ask for his list, the bully tears the list and throws Pepper to the ground, but this time Pepper
manages to hit the bully with a bag knocking him out. The next task is inviting a friend
over and Pepper invites Hashimoto to dinner, an event that surprises Pepper’s mother. During,
dinner London comes home, and seeing Hashimoto he pulls out a shotgun and threatens to shoot
Hashimoto as his mother pleads him to stop. He then fights with his mother and brother.
To pay his respects, Hashimoto attends a memorial service at the O'Hare Cemetery. There he has a
run-in with London and Pepper. London tells Pepper to move the mountain, but Hashimoto says that his
brother is trying to humiliate him. But Pepper still goes ahead and while he is trying to move
the mountain an earthquake happens, and people start to think that Pepper has magical powers.
Suddenly, news arrives that the war has ended as a bomb named Little Boy destroyed Hiroshima.
People begin to say that Pepper ended the war. But Pepper soon realizes the destruction of the bomb,
a sentiment that troubles him throughout the night. The same night, Sam and London go to
Hashimoto’s home, where Sam beats him, but London has a change of heart and saves Hashimoto.
News arrives that James has died, and a memorial service is held. Later, Pepper and Hashimoto sit
on a bench and talk about their shared losses of family and faith. Pepper returns to the cemetery
to pay his respects to his father and affixes the list on his burial marker. But, later that day,
an Army spokeswoman arrives to inform her that her husband had not died after all.
When the guy who died was shot, he grabbed James's boots, which had his dog tags tied to the laces,
and he was mistaken for Pepper's father. The family leaves town to pay a visit to James in
the hospital, and Pepper brings him the boots that James had been coveting for a long time
and that Pepper had purchased for him after he went to war. When they arrive they discover that
James has slight amnesia because of a head injury . Pepper, on the other hand, refers to his father
as "partner" and presents him with his gift. James hugs Pepper and touches the rest of his family's
faces while holding the boots. Before transporting him back to O'Hare, they all kneel around his
chair and give a group embrace. Thanks for watching.
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