After recently rewatching Up on a particularly emotional flight home (I slept through the meal service), I had severe flashbacks to the first time I saw it at the movies and cried my teenage eyes out.
This flashback occurred around the same time I attempted to touch arms with the person next to me just for some human contact. It’s not my fault though, the first ten-or-so minutes are absolutely gutwrenching – anyone would’ve done the same thing in my position (I think).
Let me paint you a little picture: we meet Carl and Ellie as two young kiddlings who become mates through their mutual love for travel. So far, so good.
Their mateship blossoms into a full-blown love story and we see a montage of them morph into adults, get hitched and live the loved-up life few of us could dream of. Again, so far, so good.
This is when it gets tissue-worthy. I won’t spoil the entire montage for anyone who hasn’t seen it (what is wrong with you?) but let’s just say that old age plays a pretty crucial factor in the unravelling of this particular love story.
I…I think I spoiled it. Subtlety was never my strong suit.
I’ll try not to ruin any more of it while I tell you my case for Up being the most emotional movie of the 00’s.
1. YOU IMMEDIATELY GET ATTACHED
I personally invested my entire emotional savings into this journey. The whole shebang – I didn’t even set aside a small amount for real-life relationships.
It didn’t help that within eight minutes of the movie starting, I had resigned myself to the fact that I’d never find anyone that would be so perfect as Carl was for Ellie, and vice versa.
So, when the montage wraps, you have a whole therapy session worth of emotional healing to do.
2. IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANY OF US
This sounds like a good thing, right? Meeting your ride-or-die and living until your both old and toothless? That’s the dream.
The only minor flaw in that life plan is that eventually it ends, so I mean, would it be less heartbreaking to just live your entire life, single and alone? That’s up for debate.
3. IT’S OH-SO RELATABLE
Not that I personally have married the love of my life, nor have I had to deal with all of those speedbumps that come with couple life, but you don’t have to have lived the experience to relate to it.
One specific scene really hits home, too – when Carl and Ellie have to keep digging into their savings to fund general life shenanigans, I felt that. Granted, I usually have to dip into my savings to fund my poor, very easily avoidable life choices but still. Same-same.
4. YOU SEE THE RAMIFICATIONS OF <REDACTED>
I can’t tell you how difficult it is to discuss this without giving too much away because mates, it’s a struggle.
But after that situation (smooth), you see how quickly it transforms Carl. He’s still lovable, and you empathise with him for everything that’s happened but yes, Carl gets a touch of the lemon, lime and bitters.
In saying that, I’m personally quite excited to hit the age where I can just fly around on my mobility scooter, nipping the ankles of anyone who’s younger than me and just being a general pest.
Bring it on.
5. THEIR LOVE IS SO PURE
Okay, Carl sells balloons for a living and Ellie is a zookeeper. Are they not the most wholesome jobs in the world? Granted, I struggle to see how selling balloons could buy you a house but I am not here to poke holes.
But honestly, not only can you see how much the pair love each other, they have wholesome jobs and live in a wholesome house and just go about being their wholesome selves for their entire wholesome lives.
If they were any more wholesome I’d physically morph into a turtledove.
I can’t stress this enough: I’ve watched Up a total of 12 times now and each time I’m guaranteed to a) cry, b) laugh, c) cry-laugh, d) laugh-cry and e) immediately sign up to all the dating sites to find my own Carl.
The rest of the movie follows now-old Carl and his new mates – an adorable little boy scout named Russell, an even more adorable golden retriever called Dug and a bonkers bird named Kevin – as they set off on a helium balloon-fuelled trip to Paradise Falls, the place that Carl and Ellie had agreed to go to before…well…that situation happens.
Perhaps I’m overly emotional, but I also can’t look at Dug without getting all sorts of clucky.
LOOK AT HIM.
Alright, stop what you’re doing – yes, even surgeons – and watch Up immediately.
The heart transplants can wait.
