Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is autistic and lives in New York City with his parents Linda and Thomas Schell. He is close to his father, who stimulates him with missions to hunt for clues to New York City's "lost Sixth Borough". The tasks he is given force him to explore his surroundings and communicate with others, which is not easy for him. On September 11, 2001, schools close early, so Oskar arrives home alone to find six answering machine messages left by his father from the World Trade Center. He hides under his bed, where his grandmother finds him and stays until Linda returns. Oskar is angry at his father's funeral, especially as the casket is empty, unable to make sense of his death. A year later, Oskar has a secret hiding place with memories of his father, including the answering machine with its messages. In his father's room, he accidentally shatters a vase, and inside finds a key in an envelope with the word "Black" on it. He becomes obsessed with finding the lock the key fits, believing it a clue from his father. Oskar finds 472 Blacks in the New York phone book, so plans to visit each one. He lies to his mother, with whom he is becoming increasingly distant, about his outings. He first meets Abby Black, who is in the starting process of a divorce, but she tells Oskar she did not know his father. Further encounters continue to be fruitless, but he meets a variety of people, photographing and recording notes on each one in a scrapbook. One day, Oskar ventures into his grandmother's apartment, but instead of finding her there, encounters the reclusive elderly renter that has been living there, whom his grandmother had warned him to avoid. The renter does not speak, communicating instead with the words "yes" and "no" tattooed on his hands and a writing pad. Oskar confides in him, and the man offers to accompany Oskar on his outings. As they explore the city together, Oskar learns to face his fears, such as those of public transport and bridges. Eventually, he concludes that the stranger is his grandfather. Oskar plays the increasingly desperate answering machine recordings for him, but the man becomes agitated. He refuses to listen to the final one, and tells Oskar to stop his search. Later, Oskar sees him arguing with his grandmother and packing to leave, so he angrily tries to confront him as his taxi pulls away, saying he knows he is his long-estranged grandfather. Oskar then notices a phone number for an estate sale circled on the back of a newspaper clipping of his father's. When he dials the number, he reaches a surprised Abby, who takes Oskar to meet her ex-husband William. William realizes that Oskar's key is the one he has been looking for, which had been left to him in the vase by his own now deceased father. William had not known the key was in the vase when he had sold the vase to Oskar's father at the estate sale. Oskar confides to William that on the day of the attacks, he was home when the phone rang a sixth time, but was too afraid to answer. After witnessing the tower collapse on TV as the phone call cut off, he bought a replacement answering machine so his mother would never find out. He leaves the key with William, but runs away from Abby, distraught. Back in his room, Oskar proceeds to destroy the material from his search, until his mother reveals to him that she had been aware of all his outings, and had gone ahead of him to meet all the Blacks to prepare them for his visit. Finally realizing how much his mother cares about him, he accepts his father's death and writes letters to all the people he met to thank them for their kindness. This includes his grandfather, who he asks to return home, which he does, to live with his grandmother. Oskar gives his mother his scrapbook from his adventures filled with pop-ups and pull tabs, titled "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". Soon after, Oskar visits a spot in Central Park he and his father frequented, and looking underneath his father's favorite swing, finds a message from his father. He congratulates him for finishing what would have been their final expedition, giving Oskar the closure he desperately needed.

Plot from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (film)CC BY-SA 4.0