Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a comedy,
fantasy film from 1991, titled Defending Your Life. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
It's another normal day in Los Angeles and advertising executive Daniel Miller is spending
his thirty-ninth birthday alone, driving the new car he just gifted himself. Unfortunately,
this celebration doesn't end well when he gets distracted and ends up crashing against a bus.
Then, he wakes up in a Purgatory-like area where he and a large group of people, mainly made up of
the elderly, are put in trams and sent to Judgment City, which looks like the western half of the USA
on purpose because that's where today's arrivals are from. There are plenty of activities for them
to enjoy for the next five days, all of them for free. What is also free is the hotel they'll be
staying at. Daniel is given his own room with all the basic necessities, and after the employees
promise him he'll get explanations in the morning, he falls asleep as soon as he crashes on the
bed. The next day, Daniel is woken up by a phone call from Bob Diamond, his new defense attorney.
Bob asks Daniel to come to see him so they can talk about what's going on, and gives
him a very interesting tip: he's allowed to eat all he wants because he can't gain weight here.
Daniel takes a shower and watches some tv before going downstairs to have breakfast, wearing the
same tunic as all the other arrivals. He orders an omelet and a glass of orange juice, which arrive
as soon as he's done talking and taste better than anything Daniel had ever tried in his life.
However, he barely gets to take a bite before he's reminded that the trams will be leaving soon and
it wouldn't look good on him if he was late for his appointment. After spending the ride talking
to an old lady about the ways they died and the dogs they left behind, Daniel makes it to Bob's
office, who proceeds to explain it all. People live through multiple lifetimes, and after each
one, there's an examining period, which Daniel is in right now. These lifetimes are recorded
from beginning to end, so a pair of judges examine them and decide if the soul is ready to move into
the next lifetime or must go back to Earth to try again. Speaking of Earth, everyone there only uses
three to five percent of their brains, which is why people like Bob call them Little Brains. As
you advance through lifetimes, you get smarter - for example, Bob uses forty-eight percent of his
brain. In the beginning though, that three percent means people make decisions based on fears,
so to pass the examination, Daniel must prove that he's conquered enough fears during his lifetime.
Bob will be there with him as his defense attorney, helping him make a case, choosing which
memories to show the judges, and going against the prosecutor, who works for the Universe itself and
must keep it working properly. While Bob was on Earth six times before he got to move forward,
Daniel has already been twenty times, but Bob tells him not to worry because some people don't
get it right until try one hundred. Daniel's trial will last four days, during which they'll
look at nine memories of his life. Afterward, Daniel and Bob go to have lunch together,
and Bob tells him a bit more about how this place works. Children don't have to defend themselves,
they automatically move forward; and teenagers are too much trouble so they don't even bother
and send them somewhere else. Bob also shares some of his food, which tastes awful to Daniel
because he still isn't smart enough to manipulate his senses. Later, Daniel decides to spend his
evening watching a stand-up comedian at the local theatre, but the man isn't making anyone laugh.
Daniel notices a beautiful blonde woman in the audience, who looks pretty bored with
the comedian's bad jokes. But when Daniel throws a jab at the comedian and makes everyone laugh,
the blonde woman comes to sit with him at his table. The woman's name is Julia and she thinks
she's met Daniel before, a weird feeling that Daniel shares about her. The two of them quickly
hit it off and leave the terrible show to go for a walk, during which they bond while chatting about
various topics. Daniel is divorced and doesn't have any kids, and while Julia is also divorced,
she does have two children. Her trial, however, will only look at four of her memories. A few
hours later, Daniel walks Julia back to her hotel, which is way fancier than the one he's staying at,
and they agree to talk on the phone the next day, since they can't see each other because Julia
will be going to a party with her lawyer. The following day, Daniel meets with Bob, and they go
to the office where the trial will be held. There they meet the judges and prosecutor Lena Foster,
who is infamous for being an extremely ruthless opponent. She is the one to choose the first
memory they'll be examining, which appears on a big screen in the room: it shows Daniel as a kid,
being bullied in the playground and doing nothing to defend himself. Lena calls him a
coward for that, and Daniel tries to explain it hadn't been fear, just frustration. Bob cuts in
to help and chooses another memory, this one of Daniel as a baby watching his parents fight. His
dad had been about to hit his mom, but he stopped himself just in time when he saw the baby crying.
Bob argues that this has taught Daniel the meaning of restraint, and it was restraint that
he showed on the playground, not fear. Next, Bob presents another memory from middle school. In it,
Daniel gives his art supplies to a classmate that would get expelled for stealing again,
so when the teacher discovered them, Daniel was the one to get in trouble. However,
Lena answers by playing another memory from the same day a few hours later: when Daniel's dad
scolded him for what happened, Daniel felt under pressure and quickly gave in, confessing the truth
about the supplies. Bob thinks the act itself had been courageous regardless of what happened later,
but Lena argues this later development erases the meaning and brings fear back on the table.
This is all for today, so after saying goodbye to Bob, Daniel goes to have dinner at a Japanese
restaurant where he meets another man that died young and will have fifteen memories examined.
By the time he returns to the hotel, Julia had already called and left a message before
going to bed saying that she misses him and that they can meet the following day. The next day,
Daniel is shocked to find Bob couldn't make it and his substitute attorney is Dick Stanley,
who is very friendly with Lena, unlike Bob who hated her. Daniel feels he's at disadvantage,
but the judges start the trial anyway. Lena begins showing a memory of Daniel as a
twenty-four-year-old man that has been working for a while and saved ten thousand dollars to invest.
A friend from college had given Daniel a tip to invest in Casio, but Daniel refused because the
company hadn't been doing well back then. Nowadays though, Casio is a very successful business, and
those ten thousand could've become thirty-seven million. Instead, he invested in cattle that ended
up dead. Daniel complains that they're passing judgment based on money, which Lena denies:
it's about the decisions he's chosen in his life. Dick stays silent though, and lets Daniel do the
talking. Since he won't show a memory to counter Lena's either, she proceeds to show another one
for her side of the case. This memory shows adult Daniel as a married man asking his wife to help
him practice for an incoming interview because he wants to ask for a high salary and he needs
courage to do so. However, when the time for the interview comes, Daniel accepts the first
low salary he's offered as soon as he arrives. Lena says this is another solid proof of fear,
and Daniel barely gets to defend himself before she plays a montage of a bunch of small mistakes
that Lena claims are a good way of judging Daniel's poor judgment process. Without a word
from Dick to help him, Daniel leaves the trial in a bad mood, but he begins feeling better as soon
as he finds Julia, who also just finished her examination for the day. They decide to visit
the Pavilion of Past Lives, which is a special attraction that shows you five of your past lives.
Daniel is weirded out when he discovers he used to be a Native American in the wild,
but Julia is incredibly happy about how different her lives had been, including Prince Valiant and
a whaler. Afterward, they take the tram to the mini-golf course, chatting about how much better
they always feel when they see each other and how they can't take the other out of their minds.
While playing golf, Julia finally confesses how she died, which is very embarrassing: she simply
tripped, fell, and hit her head. After spending a lovely evening together, Daniel drops off Julia at
her hotel, where she invites him to come to her examination the next day if he finishes early.
It's hard for them to say goodbye though, and they end up kissing. The following morning, Daniel is
glad to see Bob is back, even if he arrives late. Apparently he spent the previous day trapped near
the inner circle of thought, but he refuses to explain what that was. The trial begins and Lena
presents a memory of Daniel not wanting to get on a stage to give a speech representing the company
he worked for. His coworker pushed him onto the stage anyway and Daniel froze, but luckily he
was saved from potential embarrassment when the building got evacuated because of a gas leak.
Bob tries to argue that getting on the stage is a sign of courage, but Lena denies it, reminding
the judges that Daniel was forced onto the stage and didn't utter a word - in fact, he never even
tried to speak in public again. Next, Bob shows a memory of Daniel having an accident while driving
a snowmobile in the mountains - he fell and broke his leg, so he had to drag his body through the
snow for two miles. Lena argues self-preservation isn't real courage and points out that just like
it happened with the speech, Daniel never tried again because of fear. Daniel quickly denies this
and explains he never tried riding a snowmobile again because the whole experience had already
been awful even before the accident, he just didn't like that particular sport. The judges
seem to like the way Daniel defends himself, so he leaves the room in a good mood. Since
they finished quickly today, he goes to Julia's examination and arrives just in time to watch a
memory of her saving her kids and the cat from a fire in their house. Now Daniel feels inadequate
next to her, but he still wants to spend time together. They decide to have dinner at a
famous Italian restaurant, where they ask for two humongous plates of food. The food is delicious
and their conversation is fun as always, but two things make Daniel extremely nervous. First,
the waiter makes a judgmental noise when he hears Daniel is having nine moments examined during the
trial. And second, Lena arrives to have dinner in the same restaurant as them, watching Daniel and
his embarrassing behavior towards the waiter from a few tables over. When dinner is over,
Daniel walks Julia to her hotel, where she asks him to spend the night with her. She may look like
she's got it all together, but she doesn't, she's always putting too much work into everything.
Being with Daniel is effortless though, and Julia wants to spend their last night here together
because they don't know if they'll be able to leave together too. Daniel wants to stay but still
turns her down, believing he shouldn't - Julia is more to him than a one-night stand and he doesn't
want to ruin their relationship, which has already been more amazing than any night he's spent with
any woman in his life. Julia tells him she loves him and the couple kiss before Daniel leaves.
During the tram ride, he has a lot to think about, so as soon as he makes it to the hotel,
Daniel calls Julia. Her hotel's receptionist picks up and tells him Julia has put up a "do
not disturb" sign, which means she can't be sent any calls, so Daniel leaves her a simple message:
he loves her more than life itself, he never met anyone like her, and he'll miss her forever.
The next day is the final examination. Bob presents a memory of Daniel in his thirties
after his divorce, taking an impulse decision for the sake of his own happiness: instead of
cashing in the ticket from a canceled trip with his wife, he decided to go anyway. Not only that,
he decided to use one-third of his life savings to change it to first class. Bob thinks this takes a
lot of guts and tells the judges Daniel is ready to pass on his next lifetime. Lena doesn't argue
against any of this, but she does present her final memory, which has been taken here
in Judgment City: it's from last night, showing Daniel turning down Julia because he was scared.
Feeling bad about it, Daniel admits he had been afraid, but Bob comes to the rescue and explains
it had been thoughtfulness, a way of caring for Julia's feelings. Daniel agrees with this and
promises he'll work as hard as he can in his next life if they grant it to him. The examination is
done, so thirty minutes later, Bob and Daniel go to Bob's office to see what the final judgment is:
sadly, Daniel must return to Earth. Bob reminds him that going back doesn't mean they're right,
and Daniel won't remember anything of this when he goes back, so he won't be upset for long: he just
needs to follow his heart and take opportunities when he can. Moments later, Daniel is on the tram
that will take him back to Earth and sees Julia in a different car that is taking her to her new
lifetime. Remembering Bob's words, Daniel takes a risk and force-opens the doors of the tram to jump
out of it and go after the love of his life. After dodging a few vehicles, Daniel jumps on Julia's
tram, screaming that he loves her while repeatedly being electrocuted by the tram's security system
but still holding on. All this is being watched by the judges, Lena and Bob, who convinces them this
is proof enough that Daniel is brave. The judges change their opinion and send an order to open
the tram, which allows Daniel to get in and join Julia in traveling to a new lifetime together.