The meaning of the movie “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” and the explanation of the ending. 2003 small town, Maine. Young and Craig lives with his father, who has been unable to recover for two years after the death of his beloved wife. The two go to church every Sunday, where the boy often reads the Bible. For the rest of the parishioners, the withdrawn billionaire hermit John Harrington draws the attention of Craig and offers the boy a simple job. Craig is surprised that he was chosen.
However, he agrees to read books aloud for a rich man for a small fee, as his eyesight is getting worse and worse every year. The Oregon Mansion is located on the outskirts of the city. Craig comes there three times a week, and in between readings, the two drink tea brought by Eda’s maid. Some books are difficult for the boy to understand, but over time he understands them better. Craig loves to inspect the luxurious mansion, except for one room where he is forbidden to look, because, according to the owner, it is full of terrible secrets. Harrison, in addition to books, reads news from financial newspapers every morning. Craig wants to know more about his employer’s past and reads on the Internet that John was a very self-serving and ruthless businessman in the past. People didn’t really like the rich man.
He never married and has no children. And with a few relatives, the old man almost does not communicate. Craig for some unknown reason feels guilty about the death of his mother. Because of this, he becomes strongly attached to Harry Gen. The rich man sends the boy several lottery tickets for every holiday, but he never wins. Five years pass. Craig still visits Harry Gan three times a week, rarely missing his reading sessions.
There is no high school in their town, so the guy, along with several neighbors, has to go to study in the nearest city. Gates. Craig is surprised that almost every one of the local schoolchildren has a mobile phone, and he also dreams of a phone. On the first day, Craig is run over by the bully Kenny, who demands that the newcomer polish his shoes with cream. The boy refuses and nearly gets hit on the head for it. But, fortunately, the teacher Miss Hart appears in time, and Craig does not hand over the bully to her. Nevertheless, Kenny continues to threaten the guy. At home, Craig asks Dad to buy him a cell phone, but is refused.
While visiting Harrison, Craig starts talking about the enemies of the rich man, to which he replies that he severely punished each of them. For Christmas, the guy gets two wonderful gifts. His father gives him a mobile phone, and the lottery ticket finally turns out to be the winning one and brings the kid $3,000 in prize money. Craig thanks Harrison and shows off his cool new phone to his friends at school. The rich man asks why the guy still keeps coming to him and wasting his life on him? Craig sincerely replies that he enjoys spending time with John, and this makes the old man shed a tear.
The guy decides to introduce the ferret to modern technologies and buys for him with the money won in the lottery. Same phone as mine. At first, the old man is afraid of becoming addicted to the gadget, but he really likes the ability to quickly read the news of the financial market. Craig sets up an answering machine for John and gives him the nickname King of the Pirates, as reporters often called businessmen, and puts the old man’s favorite song on the ringtone. Harrington quickly gets used to the new gadget and constantly reads his favorite financial news in it.
However, the health of the old man is deteriorating every year. He admits that he moved to this small town so that others would not demand anything from him. Craig responds by sharing that he wants to be a screenwriter. John does not approve of the boy’s choice and insistently asks him to cruelly and coldly get rid of any enemies that stand in his way. Craig nods, not betraying these words of great importance. The guy realizes that the rich man has almost no friends, as he noticed he has a large pile of lottery tickets that there is no one to give. One day, Craig comes to John’s house, but no one opens the door.
The guy goes inside and realizes with horror that the old man has died. Craig notices that at the time of Harrington’s death, he was just about to call him, and this greatly frightens the young man. With trembling hands, Craig calls his father, who immediately calls an ambulance. Only after returning home, the guy realizes that because of the excitement, he took the old man’s phone with him. Craig sends a farewell message to John, acknowledging that he will miss his days together. On the day of the funeral, Craig reads a passage from the Bible and then puts Harrington’s phone in the inside pocket of his jacket. The old man is buried near the grave of Craig’s mother.
Suddenly, John’s lawyer approaches the guy with his father and gives an envelope with a will, according to which Craig receives $ 80,000 from Harrington to pay for college and prepare for the job that he dreams of. At the end of the will, John writes that he will miss the days spent together, and Craig is surprised to realize that this is the text from his farewell message. At night, the guy calls the phone. Regina thanks him in a voicemail for the generous gift and confesses that he would give anything to bring him back to life.
Waking up in the morning, Craig is horrified to see a message on the phone from John, which is a few letters in random order. The guy shouts to his father that the old man was buried alive. However. The man explains that this is impossible, as the doctors have checked the autopsies on Harrington’s body. The father thinks someone hacked into his son’s phone or stole John’s number. Craig decides to check everything in person. He runs to the cemetery, calls John’s phone next to his grave, and is horrified to hear a familiar ringtone from underground. Although the phone should be completely destroyed. Craig goes to the house of the deceased rich man, where Edwina agrees to talk to him over a cup of tea.
The maid admits that many of Harrington’s enemies were overtaken by a terrible punishment and mentions the previous gardener who stole money from him. However, she refuses to give details. After a while, Craig forgets about what happened and goes headlong into his studies. Craig often communicates with Miss Hart, who turned out to be a very kind and wise teacher. Kenny can’t get enough of the guy anymore, as he got expelled for selling weed near the school. Although the bully is sure that it was Craig who snitched on him. After the end of the school year, Craig goes to a dance ball with a beautiful classmate.
However, a wonderful evening is spoiled by the sudden appearance of Kenny, who beats the guy, considering him guilty of his expulsion from school. Ms. Hart helps tend to Craig’s wounds, who never admits to being attacked by Kenny. Craig refuses to tell his father about what happened, but he feels the need to share with someone close to him. The guy calls Harrington’s phone and in his hearts leaves a voice message in which he wishes the death of the evil bully. In the morning, Craig is horrified to learn that Kenny broke his neck and died accidentally falling from the second floor.
The guy feels guilty about what happened, especially when he sees the unsuccessful parents of the bully. Craig wants to share his feelings with someone and brings up the subject of the afterlife with Ms. Hart. And the teacher explains that you need to be careful with ghosts, as there are very evil ones among them. The guy goes home to the former gardener Harrington, where he learns from neighbors that he choked on exhaust fumes and died right in his car. Craig examines the sinister car, sees a familiar lottery ticket inside, and realizes that Harrington is involved in this death. In the evening, Craig receives another call and another meaningless message from the phone of the deceased rich man. The guy decides to consult with the local priest and tells him about everything. However, the Father also believes that Craig’s phone was hacked.
The priest is sure that Kenny broke his neck in the fall, as he was very drunk. But the man does not realize that the poor fellow’s mouth was filled with love cream. Craig goes to the store and changes his phone to a new model, and the seller transfers all contacts from the old mobile phone to it. The guy calls from the new phone to the number. The ferret hears that the subscriber is unavailable and sighs with relief, confident that everything is over. Back at home, Craig hides the old phone in a memorabilia box. The guy successfully completes his studies at school and leaves for Boston, where he enters college for journalism. Craig studies hard, not wanting to let his father and the late Mr. Harrington down, but one night, his dad gives him terrible news about drunk driver Dean Whitmore. Miss Hart is dead. Devastated, the guy goes to the funeral of his beloved teacher, and also comes to court, where the culprit of the accident is given only four years of probation.
Plus rehab. Despite being caught drunk driving on numerous occasions, this infuriates Craig. He hurries to his father’s house, takes out his old phone and immediately calls him to leave a message asking him to kill Dean. Returning to the university, Craig realizes that he made a big mistake and naively hopes that everything will work out. A few days later, the guy learns from the news that Dean has died. Craig arrives at the rehab center, where he bribes one of the employees to find out the circumstances of Dean’s death. He says that the man committed suicide.
At the same time, he swallowed half a bar of soap, which Miss Hart adored, and a note was found next to his body with a line from Harrington’s favorite song. Craig realizes with horror that this death is entirely on his conscience. Returning home, the young man discovers another meaningless message from Harrington. Craig recalls how, after the death of a rich man, he looked into his secret room and found out that he simply kept his memorabilia there. The rich man’s mother, like Craig’s mother, died when he was very young. The guy realized that John, despite all his wealth, felt as alone as he did. Craig hurries to Harrington’s grave, where he realizes that his strange messages urged him to stop.
The guy says goodbye to John, asks for forgiveness for everything he did on his mother’s grave and runs to a high cliff, intending to take his own life. Fortunately, Craig thinks in time and throws his old phone into the water, allowing Harrington’s soul to finally find peace.