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What Dreams May Come
While vacationing in Switzerland, pediatrician Chris Nielsen meets artist Annie Collins. They marry and have two children, Ian and Marie. Their idyllic life ends when the children die in a car crash. Four years later, Chris is also killed in a car crash. Unaware that he is dead, and confused that no one will interact with him, Chris lingers on Earth as a ghost.
Chris sees Annie's attempts to cope with his loss and attempts to communicate with her, despite advice from a presence that this will cause her only more pain. When his attempts indeed cause more sorrow, he decides to move on. Chris awakens in a Heaven that he has created with his imagination; his surroundings are mountainous landscapes that resemble a painting created by his wife and are similar to a place where the two desired to spend their old age.
Chris is accompanied in Heaven by Albert Lewis, his friend and mentor from his medical residency, and Leona, a stewardess whom Chris had once admired in the presence of his daughter; he later comes to recognize Leona as his daughter Marie. Meanwhile, Annie is wracked with guilt for the deaths of Chris and their children and dies by suicide. Chris, who is initially relieved that her suffering is over, grows angry when he learns that those who die by suicide go to Hell. It is not the result of a judgment made against them, but rather their own tendency to create nightmare afterlife worlds based on their pain.
Chris is adamant that he will rescue Annie from Hell, despite Albert's insistence that no one has ever succeeded in doing so with someone who died by suicide. Aided by a "tracker", Chris and Albert descend into Hell. On the journey there, Chris realizes that Albert is actually Ian and parts ways with him before his search for Annie.
Chris and the tracker arrive at a dark and twisted version of Chris and Annie's house. The tracker reveals himself as the real Albert and warns Chris that if he stays with Annie for more than a few minutes, he may be permanently trapped in Hell, advising that all Chris can reasonably expect is an opportunity for a final farewell to Annie. Chris enters their horrific-looking home to find Annie suffering from amnesia, unable to remember her suicide and visibly tortured by her decrepit surroundings. Unable to stir her memories, the tracker sees Chris give up his quest to save Annie from Hell.
Instead of returning to Heaven, Chris chooses to join Annie forever in Hell. As he declares to Annie his intent to stay, his words parallel something that he had said to her as he left her in an institution following the children's deaths, and she regains her memories while Chris is making her nightmare his. Annie ascends to Heaven, taking Chris with her. Chris and Annie are reunited with their children in Heaven, and all appearances are restored. Chris proposes reincarnation so that he and Annie can experience life together again. Chris and Annie meet again as young children in a situation that parallels their first meeting.
In an alternate ending found on the DVD, their children explain that because Annie died by suicide, she must return to Earth and complete her next life naturally. Chris offers to go with her, and the two meet again as children.