Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.
Acting
Nicholson and Freeman's chemistry carries the entire film.
Writing
Carter's trivia monologues that somehow work.
Director
Rob Reiner
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Taj Mahal scene was filmed on location, but Nicholson's gout flare-up meant he couldn't walk the full distance—hence the wheelchair.
The film popularized the term 'bucket list' into mainstream vocabulary, though the phrase existed in hospice circles since at least 1999.
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