SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Joe Bell walks from La Grande, Ore., to New York City to pay tribute to his son, Jadin, a gay teen who committed suicide after being bullied.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Joe Bell Plot Summary and Synopsis
Joe Bell goes to a high school, where he gives a presentation to the students about tolerance and bullying and how harmful it is. His son Jadin watches from the back of the auditorium. Afterward, Joe and Jadin set up a campsite along the highway to sleep for the night. Jadin criticizes him for his speech being a lie.
Nine months earlier in La Grande, Oregon, Jadin tells his dad that he is being bullied in school because he’s gay. Joe tells him that he should know how to defend himself and to let nature take its course and it will work itself out. His wife Lola disagrees and assures Jadin that they love him.
Joe and Lola let Jadin join the cheer leading squad. But Joe is embarrassed about it and Jadin realizes it. Later, Joe tells Jadin that he loves him and would try to be better person.
In the present, Joe and Jadin walk the highway in Idaho and then stop at a diner to eat. In the diner, the news on the TV mentions same-sex marriage, and one individual insults it. Joe goes to him and tells him that he’s on a walk for his son Jadin and gives him a card for his walk for inclusion.
Jadin tells Joe that its not going to change those men. Jadin says the people at his talks aren’t the issue, it’s men like that and their kids. Jadin says Joe told him he needed to fight but Joe is just handing out cards and walking away.
In the flashback. Jadin is bullied by the football players. At the football game, Jadin performs with the cheerleading squad, but he is mocked and harassed by some of the members of the crowd. Joe, embarrassed, takes Lola and leaves the stands. Later, Jadin receives harassing and bullying comments on social media. His little brother Joseph comforts him.
Back at present, Joe tells Jadin that he was supportive of him and Jadin points out that Joe only came to one game and walked away during it. Joe and Jadin arrive in Salt Lake City. Joe goes to a gay bar without Jadin where he meets with some patrons telling them that he is walking across the country to promote anti-bullying in support of his son.
When asked, why he didn’t bring his son, and Joe tells them that his son is dead. All this time, Jadin on the walk has been a figment of Joe’s mind.
Lola and Joseph come to visit Joe on the journey. We also realize that Joe feels hatred against those who bullied his son Jadin. But Lola tells him to figure out if he’s walking for celebrity or walking for Jadin and if he is really walking for Jadin, Jadin will let him know when it’s time to come home.
Lola leaves with Joseph and Joe continues his walk, giving speeches and talks and interviews on various news programs. Later, Lola calls Joe and tells Joe that she found an essay that Jadin wrote.
She reads it to Joe, and it is all about feeling different and bullied and how badly he wants it to be over.
In flashbacks, Jadin is grabbed and assaulted by a group of boys in the locker room. He and his parents meet with a school administrator, who advises Jadin to perhaps transfer schools or go to therapy.
She counsels them not to file charges against the boys who did this. The boys continue to harass Jadin across social media. Lola finds Jadin’s suicide note as a jogger comes across Jadin’s body, having hung himself. Sad and distraught, Joe tells Lola he’s decided to walk across America to New York City.
He says he wants to tell everyone about bullying and about what happened, and that he’s doing it for Jadin.
In the present, Sheriff Westin pulls over to investigate the man on the road, and Joe explains his story to him. Gary brings Joe in for a hot meal and sets up a speaking engagement at the high school for him. Westin tells Joe that his son is gay, and they share their experiences with their sons.
Westin tells him he didn’t consider until now that his son might have considered taking his own life, and that he doesn’t think he could have gone on if he had. Joe tells him he never let Jadin know it was okay and he has to live with that, and urges Westin not to make the same mistake.
Joe continues walking and once again sees Jadin. Joe tells Jadin how sorry he is, and Jadin tells him he always knew that Joe loved him, he was just in a lot of pain. Jadin tells Joe he loves him, and Joe cries and says he knows.
Joe calls Lola and leaves a message telling them he loves them and thanking them for putting up with him. He says he’s learned a lot on the road and promises to be better about staying in touch.
Joe Bell Ending
Westin gets a call about an accident and arrives at the scene where a truck whose driver had fallen asleep, hit the pedestrian Joe, killing him.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).