Starring: Meg Ryan, David Duchovny
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Romantic comedy directed and co-written by Meg Ryan. What Happens Later (2023) follows two ex lovers, Bill (David Duchovny) and Willa (Meg Ryan), who get snowed in at a regional airport overnight. Indefinitely delayed, Willa, a magical thinker, and Bill, a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past, and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted.
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Best Quotes
Willa: I’m looking for my connection. We were rerouted through wherever it is we are. And then, the other thing I could use, I could use a little power. I’m all out of that.
Bill: Well, if it isn’t the one and only W. Davis.
Willa: If it isn’t the only other one and only W. Davis.
Bill: What are the chances?
Willa: Of us having the same name?
Bill: No.
Willa: No? What then?
Bill: Of us running into each other like this.
Willa: Oh. Those chances were really good, actually.
Bill: How do you figure that?
Willa: Because it is Leap Day, and it is a magical day, and things like that happen.
Willa: Hello, Wilhelmina.
Bill: Hello, William.
Bill: [to Willa] You look good. You look the same. You look like you. More like you than you used to.
Willa: Do you hear us right now?
Bill: I think so.
Willa: Yeah. We’re making conversation.
Bill: It’s small talk. I mean, small talk is handy.
Willa: No. No. We never used to have to do that, Bill.
Bill: We didn’t?
Willa: No.
Bill: What’s the alternative?
Willa: Large talk. Truthful discourse.
Bill: Saying what we really think. Bad idea.
Willa: Good point. That’s a good point.
Willa: Are you on a trip or on a journey?
Bill: You got to remind me of the difference again.
Willa: Okay. So a trip is when you try to reach a destination. And a journey is when you’re trying to reach a goal. Like serenity, or like mindful awareness.
Bill: Mine is definitely a trip.
Willa: I’ve been forty-nine forever and ever and ever.
Bill: Wow. Lucky you. I feel like I’ve been in my fifites since my twenties.
Willa: Oh, my God. That is so true!
Bill: What? You don’t have to agree with me.
Willa: I never thought of it that way. That’s exactly right. You’ve been in your fifties since you were twenties.
Bill: [mocking his boss] “Bill, though we honor your truth, we feel it best to table your concerns at the moment. But please know that we are curating a safe space for you.” F*** you.
Willa: What does that even mean?
Bill: It means no. It means they can’t say no.
Willa: All that means no.
Bill: “Young Kevin, I invite you to say no, because your trying not to offend me offends me.”
Bill: I was diagnosed with anticipatory anxiety.
Willa: Is that a real thing?
Bill: Yeah, it’s a real thing.
Willa: Oh, it sounds like a pretend thing.
Bill: I got real meds for it.
'If you do what you always do, you get what you always get.' - Bill (What Happens Later) Share on X
Bill: I worry about everything. I worry about what’s going to happen. I worry about what’s not going to happen.
Willa: Oh, like what will happen if your flight doesn’t get out?
Bill: Yes.
Willa: What if you’re stuck here talking to me for hours and hours?
Bill: Worried about that most of all.
Willa: Wait. Pets have lawyers now?
Bill: Yeah. Yeah. The world’s kind of mad, Bill.
Bill: Nothing’s funnier than explaining a joke.
Bill: Tension is good for business.
Willa: That is my line. You just said my line.
Bill: Really? Why?
Willa: Yeah. “Tension is good for business” is my line, because I’m a masseuse.
Bill: I got to get out. I got a meeting. Infant Kevin is just dying for a reason to fire me.
Bill: See, this behavior right here, this behavior? This is exactly why I loved you.
Willa: No, it’s not.
Bill: It is. It’s also why we broke up.
'When people break up, there's the thing that they tell each other. There's that thing they tell their friends. And then there's the truth.' - Willa (What Happens Later) Share on X
Bill: If you do what you always do, you get what you always get.
Willa: Well, okay. Well, that’s pretty wise actually.
Bill: It’s Tony Robbins. From Tony Robbins, the self-help guy.
Willa: You ever been to Austin?
Bill: I have not.
Willa: Well, be careful down there, Bill. It’s full of people with my stinky personality.
Willa: I still can’t forget anything. Not a single thing.
Bill: I would have thought you’d forgotten everything about us, Willa.
Willa: Oh, no. I remember everything. Everything.
'Everybody knows somebody, that person in their lives who has the answer to everybody else's problems. But whose own life is a total f***ing mess.' - Bill (What Happens Later) Share on X
Willa: You left. You let go.
Bill: Me?
Willa: You.
Bill: Me?
Willa: Why do you say it like that?
Bill: Ooh! They’re saying this could be bad. Unbelievably bad. The storm of the century.
Willa: Yeah. We’re barely into this century.
Bill: So?
Willa: So what, you think we’re going to blow a whole century’s worth of snow in one night?
Bill: It’s possible. Any catastrophic weather event is possible these days. Where you been?
Bill: Willa, I can’t hear this lightweight, new-age bulls**t right now.
Willa: Oh, come on, W. Davis. We got to do the work. You have to do the work. Otherwise, nothing changes.
Bill: There’s not enough time to revisit the past.
Willa: Not enough time.
Bill: There’s never enough time.
'Maybe this is what getting old is. You realize that the world is no longer built for you. I mean, just when you reach the age, when you have something significant, or insightful to say about anything, really.' - Bill Share on X
Airport Announcer: Attention, passengers holding tickets on Boston flight 394 and Austin flight 279, due to weather conditions, those two flights have been delayed until further notice.
Willa: Just those two flights?
Bill: Just us?
Airport Announcer: Yes.
Willa, Bill: That’s unbelievable.
Bill: I always liked your mom.
Willa: Somebody had to.
Bill: Rock and roll was church. It was rhythm, not algorithm. It used to have blood running through it. Now it’s just a f***ing T-shirt.
Willa: It’s a sad, sad, bloody T-shirt.
Bill: Yeah. That happened on our watch, Willa. That happened while we were not paying attention.
'If we could see our memories in advance, would we do anything different?' - Willa (What Happens Later) Share on X
Willa: You know, looking back, W. Davis, I don’t know how good you were at sharing.
Bill: Oh, I can’t believe you said that.
Willa: Why? What? Why?
Bill: I had to share you.
Willa: Remember you, W. Davis? Back when you weren’t worried.
Bill: I see why you’re still so bad with numbers.
Willa: Why?
Bill: You keep them in your shoe.
Willa: Just the ones I have to remember.
Bill: We have phones now, Willa.
Willa: Yeah, but it’s just so much better than a phone.
Bill: How is a wallet better than a phone?
Willa: You can’t erase the search history.
Willa: [to Bill] I don’t know how you do this. You always take such incredible driver’s license pictures, and I always look like I just went camping.
'I never again met anybody that made me feel the way you do.' - Bill (What Happens Later) Share on X
Bill: I can’t believe there are no kids here, you know?
Willa: Yeah, well, I’m part of a lot of families, Bill.
Bill: But your own. I know how badly you wanted that.
Willa: Right. But it just wasn’t in the cards, so.
Willa: Wow. It really wasn’t what you said.
Bill: What’s that?
Willa: That we wanted different things, because all I wanted to do was live in the woods with you and have babies with you. And you said that wasn’t the life you wanted. And here it is, it’s right here in your wallet.
Willa: [to Bill] The truth is, you didn’t want that life with me, because of my personality, it turns out. That’s the truth. That’s what you never said.
Willa: We worked, you know. We worked so beautifully.
Bill: We did not.
Willa: You had the answers. You steadied the ship. You were ballast.
Bill: Ballast. Yeah. The ballast keeps the hot air balloon from floating too high or floating away. Ballast.
Willa: You held the compass. That’s how we were. That’s how we worked.
Bill: Well, then we remember it differently. We don’t have the same highlight reels.
Willa: We had a life together, Bill. We shared everything.
Bill: Oh. Yeah. Yeah, we did. We shared everything, didn’t we?
Willa: My connection’s all messed up, and I don’t want to take my flight anymore. I just don’t want to take my flight anymore. I just want to go home.
Willa: Did a quick cost-benefit analysis about spending time with me and my stinky personality?
Bill: If that makes you feel better, blaming me for everything, and turning me into a caricature, please, by all means, do it.
Bill: [to Willa] I should have known we were all wrong for each other once we opened up the relationship. Once you wanted to open up the relationship.
Willa: I was breaking gender stereotypes.
Bill: You were exploring your sexuality, right? Well, gussy it up all you want. The truth as much simpler.
Willa: Oh, yeah? What’s the truth?
Bill: You wanted to f*** other people.
Bill: I lied to myself because I was in love with you, Willa. And, you know, I just found that I couldn’t turn that on and off like a switch.
Willa: I know.
Bill: It was unsustainable. Anybody could have seen that. And you can make believe you didn’t hear that too.
Bill: You mad at me? Are you giving me the silent treatment?
Willa: Yeah.
Bill: Even your silent treatment is noisy.
Willa: How about relax, man? You’re already living out your worst case scenario.
Bill: What, being stuck here with you?
Willa: Yeah.
Bill: You make a good point.
Willa: Making memories as we speak.
Bill: Not going to make the highlight reel.
Willa: Nope. No. Flush this one right down the hourglass.
Bill: You know, I’ve been meaning to point out that Leap Day was invented to reconcile the calendar every four years. It’s not magic. It’s math.
Willa: That’s mean. That’s mean.
Bill: We never used to have bomb cyclones.
Willa: No, they seem new.
Bill: We had bombs and we had cyclones, but not together.
Bill: You have a disturbing appetite for chaos, W. Davis.
Willa: I mean, things have really gotten out of hand, W. Davis. Does every generation feel like it’s failed the next?
Bill: Ah-ha!
Willa: Ah-ha?
Bill: Admit you think the present is a big fail.
Willa: Are you cheating?
Bill: I don’t cheat, Willa.
Willa: Oh, that’s right. I cheat.
Bill: Yeah. I play the hand that I am dealt.
Bill: If you don’t mind, I’ve got a very important Wordle streak I’m trying to maintain.
Willa: Well, the whole thing was really perfect for me because if you ever want to be absolutely sure, you’re not the center of somebody’s universe, date a musician.
Bill: I don’t want to hear this fifth chakra bulls**t right now. Whatever chakra. Fifth chakra. Fourth chakra. F*** you chakra.
Willa: I admit that I’m not exactly riding high on the old woo-woo cash cow.
Willa: I admit I’m a product poller, okay? I am the phone call that nobody wants.
Bill: When Rosie was little, we’d sometimes have this thing she called “A bad bye”. I’d drop her off at preschool, and I’d say, “Goodbye, Rosie. Say goodbye.” But she didn’t want me to leave. So she’d say, “It’s not a goodbye, Daddy. It’s a bad bye. It’s a bad bye.”
Willa: Are you happy?
Bill: Of course not.
Bill: [to Willa] I have a good life all in all, but I don’t have this. And I have thought about running into you, about seeing you again.
Willa: Have you ever wondered what if?
Bill: “What if” what?
Willa: What if you hadn’t left? And what if we hadn’t lost the baby?
Willa: I remember you singing to my big belly and we thought we saw her smile on the sonogram? Remember? Your smile on another little face. And then when they said we lost her, and that the life we made would not be born. God, I still remember that feeling. I was overwhelmed with love for you, W. Davis. I knew you were out there in the lobby as solid as a rock. And as sad as I was, I thought my heart would close forever, but instead it opened even bigger for you.
Willa: [after revealing she had another baby that she gave up to adoption] The really good news is that I found the perfect parents for her. Or they found me, or they found my little girl. I don’t know how the universe works that out, but it does.
Bill: Do you know where she is now?
Willa: No.
Bill: Today you looked a little lost.
Willa: Well, you know, I’m always lost.
Bill: I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong about you before, plenty of times.
Bill: Complimentary shuttle.
Willa: Is that what it says?
Bill: Yes, it’s a shuttle that compliments you. You get on and it says, “Have you lost weight? I barely felt you get on.”
Bill: There’s a catch to everything these days, huh? Maybe this is what getting old is. You realize that the world is no longer built for you.
Willa: That’s kind of a buzzkill, Bill.
Bill: I mean, just when you reach the age, when you have something significant, or insightful to say about anything, really.
Willa: Who cares what old people have on their minds?
Bill: No one. Not even old people.
Willa: That’s how it ends. We’re old, and we’re mute, and we’re savaged by the pharmaceutical giants. I don’t accept that.
Bill: Yeah, this could be the window where they can get some planes out.
Willa: Did I detect optimism?
Bill: I said maybe.
Willa: You weren’t going to tell me your marriage was over?
Bill: Nothing to tell, really. She’s tired of me. And I don’t blame her. I’m tired of myself too.
Willa: And you’re just going to let her go?
Willa: Just for once in your life, just don’t think about it. Just get on the plane.
Bill: Will you just listen to yourself, with your slogans, and your magical thinking. You don’t know anything about commitment. Everybody knows somebody like you, Willa. That person in their lives who has the answer to everybody else’s problems. But whose own life is a total f***ing mess.
Bill: They’re expecting you.
Willa: And I’ll disappoint them. It’s happened before. Everybody’s used to it.
Bill: There is something about you being sad, Willa. Especially you.
Willa: You were going to storm off, and I really wish you would just do that, because we both know how good you are at leaving.
Willa: There it is. I mean, the universe has spoken. It wants you to just try.
Bill: The universe doesn’t text.
Willa: Well, maybe it is all hogwash, W. Davis.
Bill: Hogwash. Who says hogwash?
Airport Announcer: All flights are suspended until further notice. However, please do not leave the gate area since the situation could change at any time.
Willa: No. I don’t think it changes. I don’t think it changes no matter what we do.
Airport Announcer: Dear Boston passenger Davis, don’t lose heart.
Airport Announcer: Your safety is our priority. Your happiness is our priority.
Bill: Bulls**t! Oh, bulls**t. My happiness.
Willa: No rooms. No beds. No…
Bill: Sex.
Willa: I guess we were given another sign.
Bill: Oh, right. From the universe, huh?
Willa: Yeah. No shower. No rest.
Bill: Apparently, the universe would rather we were smelly and celibate.
Willa: Well, we’ve already said our goodbyes, W. Davis.
Bill: No, we didn’t. I’m sorry for what I said before. Like Rosie says, it was a bad bye.
Airport Announcer: Attention, Austin and Boston passengers Davis, due to the current weather emergency, this facility will now power down to essential functions only.
Willa: Oh, come on! No! What’s that even mean?
Bill: It’s not a thing.
Willa: Is that a thing?
Airport Announcer: Oh, it’s a thing.
Bill: What are you doing?
Willa: I’m surrendering.
Willa: Are you happy, W. Davis?
Bill: Please don’t ruin this.
Willa: I mean, isn’t that the one question we should really be asking each other? Are you happy?
Bill: I’m a leaf blower guy, not a motorcycle guy.
Willa: Well, so it seems to me you’re saying everything works out okay.
Bill: It is what it is, and that’s okay. Most of the things I worried about never happened anyway.
Willa: So you’re not disappointed?
Bill: Not really. No. You?
Willa: Teeny tiny bit.
Bill: Admit there were a lot of other guys.
Willa: No, I won’t admit it.
Bill: What? No. Hold on. Just let me get this straight. You were faithful?
Willa: Yes.
Bill: That is so f***ed up!
Bill: [to Willa, referring to their unborn baby] I’ll never forget her little smile. I loved her. And I wasn’t even sure she was mine. And you’re right. I was relieved. But not because I didn’t think you’d make a great mother. I knew you would. I was just afraid that you wouldn’t commit to a traditional life like that. To a traditional family.
Willa: You always kind of baffled me. You know that?
Bill: Well, I like that.
Willa: What?
Bill: I like baffling you.
Willa: You do?
Bill: It makes me mysterious. The baffler.
Willa: I thought you had all the answers.
Bill: I do. But I don’t know anything.
Willa: Oh, neither do I.
Bill: Nobody does.
Willa: No. We are ridiculous!
Bill: [to Willa] You know, I thought I’d leave you behind in Madison, and the next great thing would happen to me. And I would meet these people that would make me feel like you did. But I never did again. I never again met anybody that made me feel the way you do.
Bill: You know, if you talk about something, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s a possibility. And if you schedule it, it’s a reality. Tony Robbins.
Bill: The world will break your heart. And because the world breaks everybody’s heart, and no father has ever been able to stop that. But a good father, he learns how to live with that.
Bill: [after Willa admits she’s going to Boston to meet her daughter] This is not a trip you’re on. This is a journey.
Willa: Yeah. Yeah. And I’m still really scared. And so I texted her that I’m not coming.
Bill: Oh. She texted you back.
Willa: “Just try.”
Willa: I’m stuck. I can’t stick.
Willa: How did you sleep?
Bill: Poor to pi** poor. Like right in that area. How about you?
Willa: I don’t know what to call my experience.
Bill: Oh, sleep? Not the word for it?
Willa: Yeah. It wasn’t sleep.
Bill: Schlep.
Bill: I’m going to give you my card, but it’s an old card, so. I’m going to write my number on the back. And then you’re going to write that number on the inside of your shoe.
Willa: Okay.
Bill: And one last thing. You got your power back.
Bill: Goodbye, W. Davis.
Willa: Goodbye, W. Davis.
[they kiss]
Airport Announcer: Final call for flight 394 to Boston. All passengers should now be on board. The doors are really and truly closing.
[Willa reads the card Bill gave her which has the words “Just try” written on it]