Metamovies (tales told inside films)

The "Real" World: A little boy is stuck in bed sick. His grandfather comes over to comfort him.

The inside story: A fairytale of love, loss, and revenge...of swashbuckling pirates, swordfighting, and happy endings.

The teller of the tale: Grandpa

A special thanks to matchbox


The "Real" World: A woman who has just discovered that she is dying writes her final novel...a tribute and an atempt at atonement to her sister and the man who's life she ruined by lying years ago. The tale comes too late, as both parties involved were killed in some way during World War II.

The inside story: A little girl's lie sends a man to prison and then to WWII, exposing him to the casualties of war and nearly destroying any chance of love that he has.

The teller of the tale: Briony Tallis

The "Real" World: A warrior had been allowed an audience with the emperor of China, who has allowed him close enough to tell the tales of how he defeated the greatest assassins in the realm.

The inside story: The stories of epic and beautiful battles with enemies and friends.

The teller of the tale: The Hero

The "Real" World: An old man tries to convince his wife, who suffers from Alzheimer's, that she is in love with him.

The inside story: A young couple who falls in love, is separated, and then finds each other once again.

The teller of the tale: Noah, the old man

The "Real" World: An old man struggles to tell a tale of his long LONG ago youth to a woman in his retirement home.

The inside story: An enormous prisoner with a hidden talent is wrongly accused of double homicide and sentence to death.

The teller of the tale: Paul, the long lived old man

The "Real" World: A little girl is trapped as a servant in a dismal boarding school after her father is lost and considered dead in World War I.

The inside story: The search and struggle of two magical Indian characters to preserve the love that they have for each other through all obstacles.

The teller of the tale: Sara, the little princess

The "Real" World: A young adult is talked out of suicide and spends his days in a mental facility suffering from delusions of being Don Juan. He convinces his therapist to enhance his own lovelife.

The inside story: The tale of how Don Juan came to be truly legendary.

The teller of the tale: the insanely beautiful Don Juan Demarco.

The "Real" World: A prodigal son comes home to be there for the death of his fanciful father.

The inside story: His father's history of befriending evil giants, beguiling beautiful women, and becoming a hero for everyone in his strange life.

The teller of the tale: his father

Special thanks to silent killer and the giraffe.


The "Real" World: Forrest sits at a bus stop waiting for the bus that will bring him to the love of his life, and tells the tale of how he got there to...well...anyone who will listen, and some that don't.

The inside story: The trials and tribulations of a "special" boy who ends up saving lives in the Vietnam War, running from coast to coast, winning the table tennis championships, meeting presidents, speaking at protests, making millions in the shrimping business, and falling hard for the girl next door.

The teller of the tale: Mr. Gump himself

The "Real" World: A young boy is forced to live with his two hermit uncles, put up with their eccentricities, and hear the tall tales of their youth.

The inside story: The two uncles' days of glory in the foreign legion and fighting for the love of one forbidden woman.

The tellers of the tales: both uncles

The "Real" Story: A paralyzed movie stuntman tells tales to a little girl to convince her to help him and to keep from going insane in his bed.

The inside story: A group of five men pursue the Spanish governor Odius around the globe to enact their desired revenges.

The teller of the tale: Roy, the paralyzed stuntman

The "Real" Story: Bastian, while escaping school bullies, finds and steals a book with a different world inside that takes him away from his own sad life for a while.

The inside story: A princess begs a local hero to begin a quest to discover what is bringing on the destruction of their world.

The teller of the tale: (While not a character, an entity all to itself) The book, "The Neverending Story."

Special thanks to christian.



The "Real" Story: A group of treasure hunters searching for a lost diamond necklace that sunk with the Titanic get a visit from one of the survivors...the owner of the locket.

The inside story: An upper class woman and a wanderer meet and fall in love on the Titanic. The boat sinks anyway.

The teller of the tale: Rose

The "Real" World: A woman spends time with her grandmother and her grandmother's friends while writing and learning how to quilt.

The inside story: The four old women as young women, growing up, falling in love, and forming the families that they have now.

The tellers of the tales: four old friends around a quilt

The "Real" World 1: A father who has promised to take his son swimming spends the last few minutes contemplating the life of a friend who has recently died

The "Real" World 2 (and the inside story 1):Four boys go on a long hike to find the dead body of a missing kid their age.

The inside story 2: The made-up tale of Davie "Lard-ass" Hogan, who rigs a pie eating contest in one of the most creative revenges out there.

The teller of both tales: Gordie LaChance, both as a father contemplating his chilhood, and as a child creating his first fictions.

The "Real" World: An unhappy hotel maintenance man tries to improve his life and fails at every corner.

The inside story: Random fairy tales that get more and more elaborate as his niece and nephew contribute, and as he realizes that they are beginning to come true.

The teller of the tale: Uncle Skeeter, the hotel handyman