Movie poster for Dragonfly Dragonfly is a 2002 movie directed by Tom Shadyac. The story is about a grieving doctor being contacted by his late wife through his patients' near-death experience.
Tagline: When someone you love dies... are they gone forever?
Plot
Dr. Joe Darrow (played by Kevin Costner) and wife Dr. Emily Darrow (Susanna Thompson) work at a well-known hospital in Chicago. While she specialises in pediatric oncology, he is the head chief medical doctor in the emergency room. Occassionaly, Emily takes trips to Africa to help those who are unable to afford healthcare. At nearly nine months pregnant, she was needed by the people in Africa. Joe dissapproves of her going and insists she stay home in case she delivers the baby.
In spite of how her husband feels, she heads to Africa without him. The weather turns for worst where she is located and the entire village is evacuated. In the midst of evacuation, the bus in which Dr. Emily and the people were on rolls off the cliff and plunges into the river below. A native village nearby attempts to rescue, but they are only able to free Emily. Although they are unable to save her, they save the unborn child.
Joe tries his best to function as normal, but he does not take time to grieve his wife's death. He returns to work as if nothing has happened. Before his wife passes away, they have promised one another to look after their patients if something were to happen to either one of them. One night, he falls asleep on the pediatric oncology floor. One of his wife's patients is being brought in by the medical staff unconscious. The staff is trying to revive him, and they are having no success. He hears the child calling his name over and over. "Joe, Joe can't you hear me, Joe." Naturally, he follows the staff to confirm if what he is hearing were real. All the monitors on the child show flat lines, no heart beat. Finally, the child responds to their treatment, and his heart begins beating.
The following afternoon, he returns to the child and questions him. The child asks him if he is Emily's husband and tells him she sent him back to tell Joe something. All over the room are drawings of a curvy cross. No one knows the meaning. In another child's room, he sees the same drawing and still no one can understand. When he arrives at home, his parrot goes into a rage. The parrot knocks out the light, and when Joe goes to the window, he sees a dragonfly flying. There is no light around, yet it still flies. His wife always had a passion for dragonfly. She has a birthmark on her back which reminds her of a dragonfly.
Days pass by, and Joe still does not know what is taking over his life. His neighbour and long time friend, Mrs. Belmont (Kathy Bates), tries to bring him back into reality, to no avail. The breaking point in his life occurs at the hospital. He is alone with a clinically dead patient awaiting for a brain transplant, and he believes his wife spoke through the patient. Joe tries to stop the surgical procedure, and security is called to arrest him. Mrs. Belmont bails him out of jail on special conditions. He decides to sell the home and go on vacation. While packing away his wife's belongings, the light in the room burns out. When he returns, all the belongings packed away are back in its original place. He believes he is losing his grip on life, and in desperation he pleas for help.
He takes trip to the African village where his wife spent her last days. Somehow, he believes if he could find out where the accident took place, he might get closure. Joe finds the accident location and jumps into the river where the bus remained. He enters the bus, and the bus moves further down the river. Water is building higher and higher until it reaches the top. Then, a bright light appears, and his wife is visible. She reaches her hand out, and the connect. The events of her final hours flash before him. He is rescued out of the bus, and at that moment closure began.
When he returns back to the village, a woman walks up to him and begins speaking in an unknown language to him. The gentleman which brings him to the village translates. She leads him into one of the huts, and inside is an infant unclothed. The child his wife was caring for survived the accident. Immediately tear begins to flow from his eyes. The woman shows him a birthmark on the child. It is in the shape of a dragonfly on the inside of her lower leg. As he embraced the infant, he begins to think of the memories of his wife.
In the end, Joe returns back to United States to rebuild a life for both himself and his child.
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