Imagination is a drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by my friend James Jacobs.
Rated PG for mild threat, scary and emotionally intense scenes.
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins ( 118 mins )
Plot:
12 year-old Jack lives with his mother. Both are struggling to cope because Jack's father died in a jeep accident 3 years prior. One day when Jack comes home from school, he sees a mysterious old man working in a shed next door. Jack's Mother says he is crazy and makes him promise to not go near him. Jack promises.
The next day, while his mother is at work, Jack decides to investigate the strange man's shed. Curious, he goes inside.
Jack then meets the old man face to face, his name is Professor Wolfgang Bond and he's an inventor. Professor Bond tells Jack that he has invented numerous machines but has failed to show them to the world. Jack then leaves & promises to come back the next day.
Jack goes home & finds his mother waiting for him. He lies that he was having a cycle with his friends. Jack then goes to bed.
The next day, Jack visits Professor Bond's shed & he pulls him inside.
Professor Bond shows Jack his latest invention: a dream transferring reality source machine, which can make all his dreams come true. Jack & Professor Bond then decide to test the machine.
Jack then wakes up in an alternate universe and screams for help.
Jack then falls asleep & wakes up in another alternate universe where he finds his mother happy & goes back into the machine.
When Jack comes back, he lashes out at Professor Bond for turning his dream into an nightmare and vows to get him arrested.
Jack runs to his mother and says she was right about Professor Bond all along. They then go down to the police station.
Later, the police arrive and Professor Bond is arrested. His shed is then put up for foreclosure. Jack then watches with a guilty look. Jack and his mother then have an intense but emotional argument.
At school, Jack realises the mistake he has made. When he gets home, he convinces his mother to visit Professor Bond in prison.
At the police station, Jack visits Professor Bond in his cell & apologises to him, saying that he didn't mean to get him arrested & that he just wanted to make his mother happy again since his dad died. Professor Bond then tearfully admits that he lost his wife to brain cancer 5 years prior and is too struggling to cope. And because they never had any children, he looked up to Jack as his own son. They reconcile and Professor Bond is released.
That evening, Professor Bond prepares to present his dream machine to the world, with Jack as a volunteer. He gets a standing ovation & Professor Bond thanks Jack for helping him.
Cast:
Tom Holland as Jack
Bryan Cranston as Professor Wolfgang Bond
Julianne Moore as Jack's Mother
Reception:
Imagination received critical acclaim but was a box office bomb.
It got 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Logos:
Sony / TriStar Pictures / Film4