Spirited follows the Spirits of Christmas as they take on Clint Briggs, the ruthless CEO of Briggs Media Group, as their next target for soul redemption. The movie is a comedic musical adaptation of Charles Dicken’s 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.
Spirited stars Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Tracy Morgan, Sunita Mani, Octavia Spencer, Aimee Carrero, Joe Tippett, Marlow Barkley, Maximillian Lee Piazza, and Jen Tullock. Directed by Sean Anders and written by Sean Anders and John Morris, Spirited is an American Christmas-themed musical comedy film.
Spirited Story Summary
The Spirits of Christmas is a supernatural organization that redeems the souls of people who commit wrongs by haunting them. The Ghost of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani), Present (Will Ferrell), and Yet-to-come (voiced by Tracy Morgan) haunt the people so that they change for the better of society.
One day, when looking for a new soul as their next target, Present comes across the CEO of the Briggs Media Group, Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). He is persuasive and influential but there is a problem – he is classified as ‘unredeemable’ in his file.
The chances for an unredeemable soul to be redeemed are next to impossible, but Present sees Clint as a fitting opportunity to create a ripple effect that can cause a lot of good to happen. So, the Spirits of Christmas get to work and collect all possible information on Clint Briggs to begin their annual haunting.
The operation begins with Marley (Patrick Page), the team leader of the Spirits of Christmas, but soon everything goes downhill as Clint interrupts Marley in the middle of his haunting by asking too many questions and manages to seduce Past, forcing Present to take over the rest of the mission. Right when Present thought nothing else could go wrong, Kimberly (Octavia Spencer), the assistant of Clint unexpectedly sees Present which throws him off guard as no mortal is supposed to be able to see them.
Present soon realizes that Clint is dismissive of him and resists his past memories, making the whole haunting ordeal even more difficult. He moves off-script against Marley’s orders and takes Clint into his past.
Present reveals to Clint that he was Ebenezer Scrooge, the only other unredeemable soul to have gone through the program and that Present understands the burden that Clint feels. But Clint causes trouble in the stimulation of Present’s past, ending up infuriating Marley.
Having been forced by Marley, Present sticks to the script but Clint is not happy with it. He still has questions about Present that he needs the answer to, but Present dismisses his questions and takes him to see Nora, his ex-girlfriend. Clint still stuck up on Present, deduces that Present might be projecting what he wants with Kimberly onto Clint’s stimulation and he might be able to help him achieve it.
Spirited Ending Explained
Dismissing Clint’s deduction, Present shows Clint his niece, Wren, posting the video that Clint had advised her to use to destroy her classmate’s reputation for the student council elections. This creates turmoil with Clint. Present uses this to his advantage and shows Clint his past, where he denies his sister’s dying request to raise Wren as he is afraid of the responsibility.
Just as Present prepares to leave Clint as his part of the haunt is over, Clint forces Present to confront the question of his own redeemability. This triggers Present, and he agrees to take retirement and return to Earth as a mortal.
The two wake up in Clint’s apartment and Present experiences all the joys of being a mortal. Clint then convinces Present to ask Kimberly out on a date. Just as Clint watches Present and Kimberly, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come (voiced by Tracy Morgan), interrupts Clint and takes him to see the future, where Wren’s classmate commits suicide. A shaken Clint runs away from the stimulation but is interrupted by Past and Yet-to-Come who take him back to his apartment.
Was Clint Redeemed?
After Clint wakes up in his apartment, he and Present rush to stop Wren from posting the video about her classmate that would lead to her classmate’s death. But they are stopped by Kimberly, who tells them that she talked to Wren and advised her to not post it. Kimberly then tells Clint that she has quit working for him. Present being positive that Clint had been redeemed, waits for him to get his final redemption but to his surprise, Clint doesn’t receive his finale.
Clint tells Present that all he did was right one of his wrongs and that he hasn’t changed. He offers to Present his friendship, but Present being convinced that he is unredeemable tries to jump in front of a bus to return to the afterlife and have his old job back.
Clint pushes Present out of the way and just as the bus was about to hit Clint, time stops. The Spirits of Christmas give Clint his finale, proving that he is redeemed. When the time unfreezes, the bus hits Clint and he dies. In the afterlife, Clint is reunited with his sister, Carrie, but he does not want to leave Present behind, so he strikes a deal with Marley.
A year later, Clint is promoted to the position of Ghost of Christmas Present and he is dating Past. He often visits Present, who now goes by the name Roberto, and Kimberly as they raise their kids on Earth. Present helps Clint with difficult missions as they work together on redeeming souls.
Spirited is now streaming on Apple TV+.
