Hereafter
On assignment in Thailand, French television journalist Marie Lelay (Cécile de France) becomes a victim of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami. Pulled lifeless from the water, she is resuscitated by rescuers, but not before having a near-death experience and a vision of human figures inhabiting a realm of light. Marie and her lover, Didier (Thierry Neuvic), are reunited following the disaster, and the two return to Paris. Marie's experience, however, interferes with her work performance to the point that Didier (who is also her producer) orders her to take a leave of absence.
In London, England, 12-year-old twins Marcus and Jason (Frankie and George McLaren) try desperately to prevent their alcoholic, heroin-addicted mother, Jackie (Lyndsey Marshal), from losing them to child protective services. After evading the authorities yet again, the boys' mother sends Jason to the chemist (pharmacist) to pick up her prescription. On the way home, Jason is attacked by street thugs, and while trying to escape, he is hit by a van and killed. No longer able to protect his mother, and barely able to cope with life without the brother he idolizes, Marcus is sent to a foster home.
In San Francisco, former professional psychic George Lonnegan (Matt Damon) is persuaded against his wishes to perform a reading for his brother's, Billy (Jay Mohr), wealthy client, Christos (Richard Kind). A genuine clairvoyant with a gift for communicating with the dead, George abandoned his old career because he was unable to deal with the emotional impact of the reunions and the often disturbingly intimate family secrets revealed. While doing the reading, George hears the name June. Christos at first denies that it means anything, but privately reveals to Billy that June was the name of his late wife's nurse, who eventually became his lover.
Unemployed and with plenty of time to contemplate her near-death experience, Marie travels to Switzerland to meet a renowned specialist in the field. As the director of a hospice who has seen her share of dying patients, the doctor describes herself as a former skeptic who was convinced by the evidence that the afterlife exists and that people like Marie have had a genuine view of it. She persuades Marie to write a book on her experience in the hope that the scientific community will ultimately accept the reality of life beyond death.
Desperate for one last reunion with his twin brother, Marcus steals money from his foster parents (Niamh Cusack and George Costigan) and travels around London in search of someone who can help him reach Jason. He encounters nothing but frauds and pretenders, however. While he is trying to board the underground at Charing Cross, Marcus's (or rather Jason's) cap falls off and while trying to find it, Marcus misses his train - which explodes in the 2005 London Bombings.
George enrolls in a cooking class taught by one of San Francisco's leading chefs. The students are assigned a partner to work with, and George is paired with a young woman named Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard). The two hit it off immediately, and over the weeks they develop the beginning of a relationship. In lieu of a first date, they decide to put their new culinary skills to use by preparing an Italian dinner for themselves at George's place. The evening goes well until an ill-timed phone call from his brother forces George to reveal his past as a psychic to Melanie. She is naturally curious, and presses George to do a reading for her. George explains his reluctance, but goes through with it. They contact the spirit of Melanie's father, who ends the session by asking her forgiveness for "what he did to" her as a child. Melanie flees George's home in tears, and she never returns to the cooking class.
Having been in talks with a publisher before her trip to Thailand about a biography of François Mitterand, Marie now stuns them with her new manuscript entitled "Hereafter: A Conspiracy of Silence". The publisher (Jean-Yves Berteloot) rejects the manuscript, but steers her toward other publishers who might be interested. The most promising of these proves to be in London.
George is laid off from his factory job and, still heartbroken over the fiasco with Melanie, rejects his brother's proposal of reviving the psychic business and impulsively leaves San Francisco to find a new start somewhere else. He travels to London, where, being a great admirer of Charles Dickens (he listens every night to audiobooks of Dickens' works), he visits the Dickens Museum and is directed to a live reading of Dickens by Derek Jacobi at the London Book Fair that same day. At the fair, one of the presenters turns out to be Marie, who has been published and her book is titled Hereafter. As she hands George a signed copy of her book, their hands touch and George has a psychic flash of Marie's experience, confirming the truth of her story.
Marcus and his foster parents head to the London Book Fair to meet up with their former foster child, now grown and successful. Marcus looks around the fair and spots George, of whom he has read online. Marcus tries to stop George, but George brushes him off and heads back to his hotel. Marcus follows him and stands resolutely outside the hotel until nightfall, waiting for George to come out. Eventually George lets him in and agrees to help him contact Jason.
After telling Marcus how happy he is and that the afterlife is more wonderful than he can imagine, Jason gives him a sterner message. Through George, he tells Marcus that he cannot look after him anymore and that it is time Marcus started looking after himself. He does not need to fear being alone, "because he never will be alone'. George begins to lose contact and Marcus tearfully pleads for Jason to stay. Jason returns and tells Marcus that he wants him to stop wearing the cap, as it was his, not Marcus'. In the train station, Jason knocked the cap off of Marcus's head to keep him from getting on the doomed train, but that's the last time he will look after him. George loses contact again and Marcus again begs Jason to return, but to no avail. As Marcus leaves George's room, he tells George he is sorry about "the French woman" as he could tell that "you like her." The last we see of Marcus, he is visiting his mother in the rehab center.
Marie, having discovered that Didier has no interest in having her back at work and is in fact having an affair with the woman who replaced her on the news program, accepts an invitation from a reader of her book who knows her story is true and would like to meet her over lunch. The reader turns out to be George. Their shared glimpses of the hereafter having made them appreciate this life all the more, they walk off hand in hand as the story ends.
