Spirited follows the story of the Ghost of Christmas Present, who vows to reform a dark soul considered to be unredeemable by the other ghosts. The movie is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Every Christmas, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come, and the Ghost of Christmas Present choose one dark soul that should change for good.
These ghosts are part of a bigger establishment that works hard day and night to collect information on the souls that they are targeting.
The souls selected must make more ripples, which means they should bring a more positive change to the people around them upon changing.
This year, while the establishment celebrates its victory after redeeming another dark soul, the Ghost of Christmas Present is wondering if he should retire and live the rest of his life in human form.
The group soon begins targeting their next dark soul. During that hunt, Present crosses paths with Clint Briggs, owner of a company that specializes in creating conflict and controversy for the benefit of their client.
Present sees Clint as the perfect soul that should be redeemed, but Jacob, the head of the establishment, doesn’t agree. He refers to Clint as one of those souls that are unredeemable, and the ghosts around him agree.
Present wants to take a chance on him as he was also once unredeemable. He threatens to retire if Jacob won’t let him target Clint.
Jacob knows Present gets nervous when it comes to retirement and anyway allows him to choose Clint.
They observe Clint as he tries to guide his niece, Wren, on her journey to become the class president. He asks her to post an embarrassing video of the other candidate to kick him out of the race.
The three ghosts began their plan and took Clint through his dark memories that would encourage him to change. The memory that triggers Clint is the one where he abandoned his sister’s wishes of taking care of Wren.
A confrontational Clint argues and forces Present to talk about his own past. Jacob steps in and instructs Present to follow the rules.
By this time, Clint learns a lot about Present. He wonders why he is retiring and where ghosts go once they retire. He also finds out that Present is in love with Kimberly, a human.
Clint follows the instructions of Present and confronts his dark memories, but in turn, he also urges Present to face his own fears.
Present hesitated to retire as he always questioned whether he is redeemed or not. With the help of Clint, Present musters up the courage to retire and comes back as a human. He even goes on a date with Kimberly.
Clint, on the other hand, is yet to face the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come and what his actions will look like in the future.
Spirited ending explained in detail:
What does Clint see in his future?
The Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come shows how Clint’s advice to Wren will result in the death of the other kid who is standing up against her to be the class president.
The embarrassing video that Wren posts will push him to commit suicide. The dark memory will stay with Wren forever.
A terrified Clint opens the other doors around him and sees himself dying out of a heart attack in his office. He realizes that he gave his niece the wrong advice and doesn’t want that kid to die.
Does Clint die?
Clint and Present run toward Wren, hoping to stop her from posting a video against her opposition. They fail to make it in time, but luckily, Wren reveals that she didn’t post it.
Kimberly, who was frustrated with Clint, wasn’t ready to see Wren become like him. She gave her some hard lessons, and Wren decided not to do anything that will hurt others.
At this point, Present thought that he had succeeded in helping Clint redeem himself, but the ghosts don’t arrive to celebrate their victory.
Clint claims that they didn’t come because he will never change. He will always be selfish, and this guilt he just felt will only stay with him for around two weeks.
Present somewhere knows he has changed Clint for good and tries to kill himself in front of an oncoming vehicle. Clint jumps in to save Present, and that’s when time stops and ghosts appear to announce that Clint has redeemed himself.
Clint and Present rejoice, but this move came at a cost. Clint’s jump killed him in real life, and he became a ghost, much like how Present once was.
Regardless of that, Clint reunites with his sister, who is now proud of who he is.
Where do Clint and Present end up?
Clint replaces Present at the establishment. He modernizes and expands the whole system there to target more souls.
He also visits Present from time to time for advice. Present now has a beautiful family with Kimberly and their two kids, who are able to see Clint as he has grown to love more people around him.
Clint and Present discuss this new perpetrator they are targeting and figure out that even though this dark soul is tough, she was definitely in love once.
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