Seven Pounds

You are warned not to red this post if you have not seen the new movie Seven Pounds starring Will Smith. Also please do not read this post if you plan to watch this movie. However if you like spoilers, go ahead. If you don’t plan to watch, go ahead and read this post and I hope you will want to watch it after reading.

You have been warned =)

I watched the movie Seven Pounds a few days ago without knowing the storyline or having read the synopsis. So basically I did not know what to expect. The movie started off with a suffering Will Smith on the phone calling 911. The conversation goes something like this.

“Hello, how can I help you?” (911)
“There has been a suicide.” (Ben Thomas)
“Who is the victim?” (911)
…
“I am…” (Ben Thomas)




And then the movie starts with a flashback. Ben Thomas is seen being an IRS agent but a really good one with a very unusual heart. He loves to help people and throughout the movie we see that he is constantly going the extra mile to make someone happy. In the beginning I did not understand what was he doing and what made him do it.

He donated part of his liver to a patient who is dying of liver failure.
He gave his whole house, a beautiful and huge house beside the beach, to a poor and unwed mother with two children.
He went for a bone marrow transplant and gave his bone marrow to a dying patient.

Somewhere in the movie we see some vivid flashback and there was an accident scene and seven people were killed in the accident. But I did not know what actually happened yet. So the movie goes on.

Ben stalked a blind man and tested him to see whether he was a nice person or not. Then he called up the blind man and made fun of his blindness over the phone, taunting him and scolding him for being blind. The blind man did not respond by scolding Ben but instead gave Ben a warm thank you and hung up. Only at the end of the movie I understood why did Ben do it.

Then Ben made friends with this girl named Posa who was a heart patient and had a failing heart. She was going to die in one month’s time if no suitable heart was found for a heart transplant. As her blood type was rare, it was even harder to find a suitable heart donor. If she does not get a new heart in one month’s time, she will die. In the movie, we see Ben befriending her and making her happy.

Towards the end of the movie, a flashback was shown and in it we see Ben driving a car with his wife in it. He got distracted and met an accident. His wife, along with six others from the other car died from the crash while Ben was the only surviving one.

Then the puzzle started to come into place one by one. Ben was living a life of regret and he felt that he should pay for what he did by giving seven people a new leash of life.

In the end, Ben filled up his rented apartment bathtub with a lot of ice and cold water. Then he threw a dangerous and poisonous box-jellyfish into the bathtub. He went into it. The jellyfish stung him and he died a slow and painful death. The dying scene before, during and after was so emotional. Seeing how he killed himself to save other people was just so touching. The ice in the bathtub could preserve his heart and body so the necessary surgeries could be done.

He had planned for his heart to be given to Posa and his pair of eyes to the blind man. Both of them had a new life. Ben died. But before he died, he gave seven different individuals a new life.

This movie teases your emotion and makes you think. How far-fetched does it sound to hear about a man laying down his own life to give other people life? How real is that in the real world where people are so selfish? Ben’s story might sound ridiculous but it is not.

2000 years ago, Jesus Christ did what Ben in the movie did. Just that Jesus wasn’t living in regret and he did not give only to seven people. Jesus laid down his life to die a painful and slow death on the cross to give life to all of us.

Watch the movie to know more. It will make you think.