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 is a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn’t quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz – and he’s good. But when he travels to another realm to help someone find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have a soul.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Soul Video Summary
Soul Plot Summary and Synopsis
Joe Gardner, a middle school music teacher from New York City, dreams of playing jazz, even though his mother Libba insists he makes his current job full time, fearing for his financial security. One day, Joe learns of an opening in the band of jazz legend Dorothea Williams and auditions at a music club. Impressed with Joe’s piano playing, Dorothea agrees for him to perform later that night. As Joe heads off, his excitement distracts him, and he falls down a manhole.
Joe finds himself as a soul heading into the “Great Beyond“. Unwilling to die, he tries to escape but ends up in the “Great Before”, where counselors — all named Jerry — prepare unborn souls for life with the help of mentor souls. Each soul has a badge in which, once filled out with traits, grants passage to Earth. Mistaken for a mentor, Joe is assigned to train 22, a cynical soul who has always lived in the Great Before and desires avoiding Earth.
Discovering that Joe is in a coma at a hospital, 22 agrees for Joe to find her “spark” to complete her badge and then take it so that he can return home. After Joe fails to find 22 a passion, they head for “the zone“, where souls enter when their passions create a euphoric trance, and where obsessed lost souls arrive. They come across Moonwind, the captain of a galleon bearing a troupe of hippie mystics, and they help Joe by having him sense his body until he discovers his surroundings.
Joe hops back to Earth but accidentally carries 22, resulting in 22 entering his body and Joe entering Mr. Mittens, a therapy cat. They find Moonwind (at his day job as a sign twirler), who agrees to meet them later at the music club to restore Joe to his body. In the meantime, 22 settles into Joe’s body and enjoys small moments while interacting with Joe’s peers.
She holds poignant conversations with Connie, a student who planned to quit the band but changes her mind after performing a trombone solo; Dez, who wanted to become a veterinarian but now enjoys being a barber; and Libba, who accepts Joe’s passion for music. Meanwhile, Terry, an obsessive accountant who counts souls headed to the Great Beyond, discovers that Joe is missing, and heads to Earth in order to send him to the Great Beyond and restore the count.
As the day ends, Joe and 22 rendezvous with Moonwind, but after Joe tells 22 that her experiences were not purposes, 22 flees with Joe tailing behind to find her spark. Terry notices them running into a subway station, and brings both back to the Great Before. 22 realizes her badge is filled out, yet Joe insists it was because of his traits, and that she didn’t actually get her spark.
22 angrily tosses the badge at him and disappears into the zone. A Jerry informs Joe that instead of a purpose, a spark means that a soul is ready to live, but he refuses to believe this and uses the badge to return to Earth.
Joe has a successful performance with Dorothea but is not as satisfied as he desired, and realizes that his dream wasn’t different from where he started. After noticing objects 22 collected in his body, and recalling the moments that they both enjoyed in life, Joe figures out these experiences were what gave 22 her spark. Deciding to return 22 the badge, Joe plays the piano to enter the zone and looks for 22, only to discover that she has become a lost soul.
After chasing her down, Joe uses a maple seed 22 had kept to transport them to a memory of their time on Earth, and Joe convinces her that she is ready to live, returning her to normal. With her badge back, Joe guides 22 out of the Great Before, and she finally enters Earth.
Soul Ending
As he prepares to head into the Great Beyond, Joe is stopped by a Jerry, who offers him another chance at life for inspiring 22 to live. Joe returns to his body on Earth and starts the next day committed to enjoying his entire life.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).