In the movie, What Dreams May Come, Doctor Chris Nielson meets his true soulmate Annie, marries her and has two children. Each would risk their own lives to be with the other, they would go to any costs to be with the other. Either dead or alive, the two of them saw the same thing and felt what the other was feeling. The two of them are twinned souls that are tuned into each other through life and death. Chris and Annies children died tragically in a car accident, and both of them find continuing their lives filled with difficulties, especially for Annie.
She blames herself for the death of her two children and starts falling apart emotionally as a person. Chris stands by her in her fight to stop blaming herself and tells her to fight to become a stronger person through this tragedy. She takes up painting which lets her getaway and imagine herself in her paintings. Four years later, in his secret love for painting, Chris dies on his way to pick up paintings for his wife. He died for her, she looks at it that if she didnt ask him to go get the paintings, he would still be alive and blames herself again for his death.
When Chris dies and goes to Heaven he meets Albert, his guardian angel, and discovers that Heaven is even more wondrous than anything he could have imagined. His Heaven is the canvas that Annie was currently working on, it was their place. It was where they would retire and live, everything that the both of them loved, the mountains, the water, the fields, the house, and the beautiful colors. It wasnt done yet but as she added things, he still saw them, they were so in touch with each other that they still felt hat the other felt and could feel the others presence when one was in Heaven and the other on Earth.
When she added something to the canvas, Chris could still see it. When she added in the purple tree, Chris saw it and he also saw what his death did to her through the tree. It ruined her, killed her. Chris’s death was the last straw for Annie and in her madness, she commits suicide and journeys to a place very different from Chris. But when he finds what his wife has done, he desperately searches for her, journeying through Heaven and into Hell along the way. Albert tells Chris that its impossible to see his wife again because suicides go somewhere else and cant be taken to heaven.
Chris doesnt want to hear it and will not give up. Chris can not go on without his wife, he will find her and nothing can stop him. Hell go to great extremes to get her back. On discovering Annie’s misfortune, Chris forces Albert to enlist the help of The Tracker and together they journey into the depths of despair to discover the destiny of Annie’s soul and attempt to rescue her from her madness. Even though she was in Hell and he went to Heaven, they were still so tuned into each other that he could find her so quickly in Hell.
In looking for Annie, he discovers that Albert really wasnt Albert, that he is actually his son. He realized this by something Chris had said in a conversation with his son while still on Earth. That if anyone was to guide him through Hell, he would want it to be him. Chris leaves his son there in Hell and says that he is going to bring back his mother. Chris decides to risk eternity in Hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven. When he finds his wife, Chris is told that she will not recognize him, and that he can see her and tell her what he has to say but then he must go.
He will not live with just saying what he has to say. Chris proves them wrong and starts talking and gets his wife to come back to reality, she starts to remember things and then realizes that Chris is her husband. When she still didnt realize it was him, he was going to give up his whole eternity in Heaven and life with his children to stay with his wife. He would rather live in darkness with his wife then in Heaven without. That truly shows that he cared about her very much and would go to any great length to be with her.
He would go through different worlds to be with her. Chris and Annie were meant to be with each other. They were true soul mates, nothing could tear them apart, no great length could keep them apart, and they would go to any length to be with each other. On Earth, in Heaven or in Hell, the both of them were tuned into each other, physically and mentally. They saw what the other saw, felt what the other felt, and hurt when the other hurt. Now these two soul mates are the perfect definition of the words true love.