| Director | Clint Eastwood |
|---|---|
| Budget | $50 million |
| Box office | $107 million |
On assignment in Thailand, French television journalist Marie Lelay is caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Onlookers find her lifeless in the water and presume her dead, but she gasps back to life having glimpsed the afterlife. Didier, her producer and lover, reunites with Marie and they return to Paris, but the experience interfered with her work and Didier gives her a leave of absence. Marie travels to Switzerland to meet a hospice director, a former skeptic now convinced the afterlife exists. She persuades Marie to write a book on her experience, in hopes the scientific community will accept the reality of life beyond death.
In San Francisco, George Lonegan is asked by his brother Billy to perform a psychic reading for a wealthy client, Christos. Formerly a professional medium, as he is able to communicate with the dead after a childhood near-death experience, George eventually quit due to the emotional impact and the feelings of isolation. During the reading, George identifies the name "June", who Christos later admits was the name of his late wife's nurse with whom he was in love. George attends a cooking class where he meets and hits it off with Melanie, who eventually learns of his psychic ability. She asks George to perform a reading for her, and he speaks with her dead father, who asks for forgiveness for what he did to her as a child. Hearing this, Melanie becomes emotional and George never sees or hears from her again.
In London, 12-year-old twins Jason and Marcus try to prevent their alcoholic, heroin-addicted mother Jackie from losing them to social services. Jackie finally decides to get clean and sends Jason to the chemist to pick up her detox prescription; in doing so Jason is hit by a van and killed. Marcus is placed in a foster home and desperate to reunite with his brother; he steals money from the foster family to seek help in contacting Jason, but only encounters frauds. As Marcus attempts to board the London Underground at Charing Cross, Jason's cap is blown from his head and in trying to find it he misses the train, which subsequently explodes.
Having been in talks with a publisher about a biography of François Mitterrand, Marie instead submits a new manuscript: Hereafter: A Conspiracy of Silence. The publisher rejects the work, but steers her toward another in London. She also learns Didier does not intend to give back her job, as her reputation has been damaged from her fascination in the hereafter, and he is sleeping with another woman. George is laid off from his factory job and persuaded by Billy to revive his psychic practice, but instead he impulsively travels to London, visiting the Charles Dickens Museum and attending Derek Jacobi's live reading at the London Book Fair. Marie is also there reading her newly published book, Hereafter, which she signs for George; as she hands it to him, he sees a vision of her near-drowning.
Marcus also attends the event with the foster family and he spots George, who he has read about online. He is brushed off when he asks George to perform a reading, but follows George to his hotel, where he eventually relents. Through George, Jason tells Marcus he is happy in the afterlife, that he had knocked off his cap to save Marcus at the train station, and not to fear being alone. With this closure, Marcus visits his mother, who is improving in a rehab center. Marcus finds out the hotel where Marie is staying and informs George, who leaves a note inviting her to meet with him. Marie meets with George the next day, where he has a vision of them kissing, and the two immediately connect through their shared glimpses of the hereafter having made them better appreciate life.