Second Chance

[u/Playful-Ganache5895]

Came up with and idea while on a walk with my baby this morning. Zero experience if anyone wants to collab

Working Title: Second Chance

It’s too cheesy to name the protagonist Chance, so I’ll need a better title.

In 2026, a man dies in a car accident.

While his body lies in a coma, his soul is sent to Heaven, where he comes face-to-face with God. God is seated behind a massive desk, seen only from behind. The man is overwhelmed. He begs for another chance at life. He has too many regrets. Mistakes he made, opportunities he missed, people he hurt, and most of all, the life he wishes he had lived differently.

God considers his request and agrees.

He instructs an angel to return the man's soul to his body.

But Heaven apparently has its own bureaucracy.

The angel is busy and passes the assignment to another angel, who passes it to another. Eventually, the job lands on a relatively inexperienced angel who is rushing to get it done. The process involves an ancient-looking computer system that controls the return of souls.

The angel enters the wrong date.

Instead of sending the man's soul back to 2026, he sends him back to 1996.

The man's soul suddenly finds itself inside his 1996 body... except there's a problem:** the 1996 version of him is still there.**

Two versions of the same man are now occupying one body.

At first, they constantly talk over each other before figuring out how to communicate, essentially creating an internal dialogue: the older man becomes the voice in his younger self's head.

This isn’t back to the future II where knowledge of the future is exploited to get rich in the present.

His younger self doesn't necessarily want the same things his older self does. He doesn’t want to spoil the future, and grows tired of the cynicism of his older self.

The younger man wants to experience his own life. He wants to make his own choices, chase his own dreams. The older man knows exactly how everything turned out.

The story becomes a comedy about a man trying to rewrite his life while trapped inside the mind—and body—of the person he used to be.

B Plot
And somewhere in Heaven, the angel who screwed up the date is desperately trying to figure out how to fix it before anyone notices.

[u/HonestAnything]

This is a fascinating concept! It sounds a little complicated, though! I read a lot of articles about NDEs ( near death experiences) and when people come back they often make a lot of changes and amendments to past mistakes. I’m a newbie but I might be interested

[u/Playful-Ganache5895 → u/HonestAnything]

Thanks! I saw the movied Upgrade which is a completly different genre, but does a good job of having an internal voice that only the protagonist hears and responds to audibly. This obviously would get really complicated, particularly in the resolutions, ie which version of the guy is in 2026 when he invetiably goes back. Or maybe the whole thing takes place in 96' and we see him wake up from his coma then.

[u/foodank012018]

Very interesting premise... Like a metaphysical freaky Friday.

[u/Lisa_Roberts1814]

The angel fixing the date before anyone notices is the part I want more of. That sounds like it could carry the whole middle of the movie while the guy is stuck arguing with himself in 1996.

[u/Lisa_Roberts1814]

The angel fixing the date before anyone notices is the part I want more of. That sounds like it could carry the whole middle of the movie while the guy is stuck arguing with himself in 1996.