Saagar Kote
‘Wish Upon’ follows the experiences of Clare Shannon, a seventeen-year-old girl who leads a difficult life. She is made fun of at school, and her father, Jonathan, is a dumpster diver trying to make ends meet. Living in a dilapidated house, she only has her friends Meredith and June to rely on for emotional support. The seemingly monotonous life of the teenager is upended when her father, during a dumpster dive, finds a mysterious wooden box with Chinese markings on it. He gives it to Clare as a present, hoping it will make her happy. The teenager discovers that the wooden box is no ordinary object, but a “magic” box that can grant seven wishes.
Tempted by the possibilities, Clare begins to make her wishes. But she may come to realize that every wish comes with a cost. As her obsession with the box grows, so does the haunting mystery of the magical artifact. Towards the narrative’s conclusion, Clare is haunted by difficult questions that test her morality. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Wish Upon Plot Synopsis
Clare, a young girl, witnesses the suicide of her mother Johanna at the family house. As she grows up to be a teenager, she is haunted by the past tragedy that still causes nightmares. She lives in a dilapidated house with her father, Jonathan, who works as a dumpster diver to survive. Clare is bullied at school by a group of entitled and “popular” fellow schoolmates. During a routine dive, Jonathan comes across a musical wooden box with Chinese engravings and gives it to his daughter as a present. Due to her knowledge of the Mandarin language, she deduces that the box grants seven wishes. She casually makes a wish for her school bully, Darcie, to rot. She is surprised to see that Darcie, the school, has developed a rare skin condition. Without her realizing it, the box makes her wish for Darcie’s rotting to come true.
However, Clare’s pet dog, Max, dies a brutal death. Clare continues to test the box and makes a second wish, wherein she wants a handsome schoolmate named Paul to be obsessively in love with her. This instantly leads Paul to break up with his girlfriend and pursue her obsessively. After granting the wish, the music-magic box mysteriously opens up and plays music, which coincides with the death of Clare’s uncle, named August. Her uncle’s death leaves his mansion without an owner. Clare makes a third wish, to be part of the dead man’s will for the mansion, which is granted by the box. However, this leads to the box opening again, playing music, and causing the death of Mrs. Deluca, Clare’s beloved neighbor. The protagonist doesn’t find out about Mrs. Deluca’s death and doesn’t realize that the deaths are related to her wishes.
Since her wishes are being granted, she asks a schoolmate named Ryan for help to decipher the rest of the engravings on the box. Ryan leads her to his cousin, Gina, who tells her that the box will grant wishes, but they will come at a price. With Gina and Ryan’s help, Clare also finds out that the box is a magical one that was previously owned by a Chinese woman named Lu Mei in the 20th century. The woman used it to exact revenge on her enemies in the past and then killed herself. Later, Clare makes a fourth wish, to somehow prevent her father from being a dumpster diver. The box grants the wish, making Jonathan pursue music again. However, this leads to Gina’s brutal death. It is revealed that Gina discovered the true meaning of the engravings, which state that every wish comes at a “blood price.”
She dies before she can pass on this knowledge. When Clare wishes to be the most popular girl in school, her wish is granted. When she talks to June and Meredith about the box, they tell her to throw it away and stop risking the lives of others. Ryan also warns her about the terrible price after finding Gina’s dead body. She realizes that the deaths are connected after finding Mrs. Deluca’s body. Due to her obsession, the protagonist is not able to part with the box, and it leads to the horrifying death of Meredith. It is revealed that if the owner of the box throws it away or loses it, then all the previous wishes would be undone. Paul grows increasingly obsessed with her and stalks her, causing her to break up with him, which leads him to attempt suicide.
Clare learns from Ryan that the Yaoguai, the mysterious entity behind the box, will claim the soul once all the wishes are fulfilled. She and Ryan unsuccessfully try to destroy the box. When June steals the box to stop the tragic events, Clare’s life begins to go back to the way it was before she found the box. Overwhelmed by sadness, she makes her sixth wish and prays that her mother had never killed herself in the past.
Wish Upon Ending: Is Clare Dead? Why?
As Clare makes her sixth wish, she begins a chain of events with violent consequences. Her dead mother, Johanna, magically comes to life. Not only does she come back to life, but the whole timeline resets. Clare’s whole life changes as she is suddenly transported to a happy house with a happily married father and mother. In this altered timeline, she also has two younger siblings, who are twin sisters. The sixth makes the impossible come true and gives Clare the one thing she truly ever wanted. The protagonist stops worrying about the magic box and adjusts to her new reality. However, things take a turn for the worse when she sees her mother’s paintings. One of the paintings is of the magical box.
She remembers her mother putting something in the trash before killing herself in the past, and deduces that the magic box was responsible for the suicide. Clare enters a state of panic and realizes that the magic box will extract a price again and is not with her. Seeing her father working under a tree with his friend Carl, she suspects that he is in danger. Carl is sewing the branch of a tree in the yard, and Jonathan is helping him out. Just before Clare can warn her dad, Carl mistakenly brings down the chainsaw, causing Jonathan’s brutal death, right in front of the protagonist. Clare is overwhelmed beyond her limits, and desperation causes her to make the seventh and final wish. In order to make everything right again, she wishes to be taken back in time to the point before she found the box in the first place.
Her wish is granted, and Clare goes back to the day she was given the box. She goes dumpster diving with her father and Carl, and then retrieves the box from the trash section of a dilapidated mansion. She immediately goes to school and finds out that Meredith is still alive. Her time travel works perfectly, and she asks Ryan to bury the box forever. She even asks him out and kisses him, making a new choice. However, her joy is short-lived as the box comes back to extract the heaviest price. As she turns back to walk to the other side of the school, she is accidentally hit by a car, driven by Darcie. The collision instantly leads to Clare’s death.
As she lies on the broken windshield of the car, she looks up at the sky in her final moments, realizing that the box and the Yoaguai spirits have established a hold over her soul. Despite her attempts to set things right, she pays the ultimate price. In conclusion, the others are back to their normal states of existence, but Clare had to inadvertently sacrifice her own life for this to be accomplished. The box represents more than just wishes or consequences, and is a deeper reflection on the nature and vulnerability of human beings.
Is Jonathan Alive? Is Johanna Alive?
The complex realities associated with the magic box lead to confusing scenarios of life and death. Clare’s sixth wish changes everything and leads to chaotic happenings in the timeline. Firstly, when she wishes for her mother to come back to life, the box grants her wishes. Johanna is very much alive and now a mother to two other kids. When Jonathan does as a result of the sixth wish, Clare uses her final wish to go back in time to the day when she first found the box. This changes things for both Jonathan and Johanna. In the first altered timeline, Johanna was alive and a happy mother to three kids. Her suicide in the past is negated by the magic box, keeping her alive and well. However, Clare’s decision to reset the timeline again leads to tragic consequences for Johanna.
In the second altered timeline, where Clare has yet to find the box, Johanna stays dead. Her past is adjusted to the act of suicide, and she never gives birth to the twins. Since this is the timeline established by Clare before her death in the car accident, it is safe to assume that Johanna will stay dead. There seems to be no possible way for her to resurrect in this case. However, things work in reverse for Jonathan. In the first altered timeline, he dies due to the accident caused by Carl during the sewing of the tree. Had Clare stayed in that reality, he would’ve stayed dead. But, since she chose to travel back in time, he comes back to life. In the second altered timeline, which is the established and final reality of the narrative, he is very much alive.
In this reality, he hasn’t found the box and continues to be a dumpster diver. The poignant message here is that Clare can never have two parents living together in the same timeline. She has to choose between her mother and father. When she tries to mess with reality, it messes back and makes her suffer the consequences. In the final established reality, Jonathan will have to continue his life as a man who lost both his wife and his daughter. Ultimately, Jonathan and Johanna’s lives run in mysterious circles, where fate and desire play major roles.
Does Ryan Bury the Magic Box in the Mid-credits Scene? Why?
Ryan faces a difficult connection with Clare in the story. He is attracted to her, but shows nervousness when talking to her. He has a vital role in the story, as his knowledge about the true nature of the magic box could be crucial for others. Towards the end of the film, he promises Clare that he will bury the magic box for good. It is interesting to note that in the second altered timeline, he doesn’t know about the reality of the box. In the mid-credits scene, Ryan faces a difficult choice as he stands by a lake, holding the box. Now that Clare is dead, he is the only one who knows about the box in the second altered timeline. He could realize the true dangers of the box and possibly destroy it. However, he might hesitate to do so.
As far as what is shown in the narrative, it can be strongly presumed that Ryan will not destroy the box, which will lead to more violence. One of the major reasons behind this is the fact that he doesn’t know about the reality of the musical object. Had Clare not traveled back in time, Ryan would have been aware of the box, but in the final reality, he has no clue. He looks at the engravings and deduces that the box will grant seven wishes. He appears to be tempted by the prospect. Although the narrative doesn’t reveal his actions after this point, it is more likely that he, too, like others before him, will be tempted by the magic of the box.
Since the movie is a commentary on human insecurity, the most logical thing for Ryan’s character arc would be the continuation of the wishes. The box creates an enigmatic, inescapable cycle of destruction, which no human has ever overcome. Thus, Ryan will presumably face the same challenges as Clare and Johanna and will eventually understand the true nature of the magical artifact.
Read More: The Elixir Ending Explained
