If the purpose of life is to be recognized by others, to be significant and celebrated by an adoring public, then Walter Mitty is a total failure. He works in a confining warehouse without windows, he cannot express his feelings well, he fears confrontation, and he resorts to internet dating to form relationships. These are odd mannerisms for a person who admires the corporate motto of his employer, Life magazine: “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel.” Walter admires this motto, not because he lives it, but because he desires it.
There was a time when Walter was attempting to live this motto. Possessing a backpack filled with gear for a pilgrimage to Italy and other sacred sites in Europe, a younger Walter was ready “to see the world”, to venture bravely into foreign lands and “to see behind walls” of unknown territories. But then his dad died unexpectedly, leaving Walter as the only man to care for his mom and sister, thus requiring him to abandon this expedition for an early career at Papa Johns. In his meticulously kept checkbook, seen in the opening scene, Walter has five recorded expenses, four of which are for his mom and sister. Thus, even as an adult, his sense of duty to them has never left and, like all that Walter does, he carries out this duty regardless of the cost to himself. Despite all his behavioral oddities, Walter is a faithful and heroic man.
There is one person in the film who sees all this good within Walter, even at the beginning of the film. This is the photographer Sean O’Connel (Sean Penn), who has taken a picture of Walter which, in Sean’s opinion, reveals “the quintessence of life.” This photograph shows Walter working alongside a reflecting pool, inspecting negatives for Life magazine with great intensity and interest. It is a wonderful image, one in which Walter’s gifts, and not his shortcomings, are revealed most clearly. It is the image of a person who is faithful, professional, simple, and interested in the world. It is the image of a man who thinks that the details matter, that skipping a day of work is equivalent to letting down your friends, and that life is about what you give to others and not just about what you accumulate. From the start of the film to the end, there are secrets to Walter Mitty that effuse the world with life.
Although Walter is a great man at the beginning of the film (as this picture from Sean predates all events depicted in the film itself), even Sean knows that Walter has some growing up to do. Such an opportunity for growth presents itself when, due to a mistaken interpretation of a thank-you note from Sean, Walter is sent on an international quest to locate a lost negative which is supposed be used for the final cover of Life magazine. Like other homebodies, Walter has a long list of reasons why he should not go on this quest, but when external pressures increase (in the form of corporate layoffs at the magazine’s headquarters, combined with the insistent and weasel-like intrusions of his new boss), Walter snaps into another gear, thrusting him beyond the walls of his little world. In a fitting twist of irony, it is because of the new leadership at Life that Walter gets up the courage to start living out the motto of his employer.
The best clue indicates that Sean might be in Greenland, so Walter flys there. But this flight is only the beginning of a very strange journey.
After a naive investigation at the local bar/helipad, Walter is led to a cargo ship which is just off the coast of Greenland, which leads him to an open-sea swim with sharks and meeting Chilean deckhands who love American music, which leads him to Iceland, which leads him to a volcanic eruption and a new skateboard, which leads him to a Papa Johns and then a flight home. After tying up some loose-ends in the city and yet still missing the crucial negative for the cover of Life, Walter must follow more clues to Sean’s whereabouts, which lead him to remote Afghani warlords, which lead him to a sherpa-led trek into the depths of the Himalaya, which finally leads him to Sean O’Connel, who explains that the negative was in a wallet that Walter left behind at home.
Without dismissing its relevance to the overarching story, the real highlights of this international odyssey are all the spectacular landscapes, memorable moments, and strange people Walter meets along the way. These travel sequences are a feast for the eyes, mesmerizing the viewer with the limitless horizons of vast oceans near Greenland, the rolling sunlit hills of Iceland, and primitive backroads of Afghanistan. They are also a feast for the heart, enclosing Walter within a growing web of unique and intimate relationships: Walter is privileged to spend time with a drunken musician who also flies a helicopter to remote cargo ships on dangerous arctic waters; he meets an Icelandic hotel-owner who saves his life and remote warlords who spare his life; he spends days with courageous Afghan sherpas who do not speak his language but who lead him to Sean, all while playing their hand-made flutes. And after realizing that it was “pointless” to go on this journey in the first place (because the negative was in Walter’s wallet all this time), Walter and Sean play a pickup game of soccer with sherpas at the base of the Himalayas while the sun sets on the horizon.
This soccer game is a microcosm of the film itself, as the relevance of this moment is not found in the technical details of this soccer game (the score, how much time is left, who is winning, etc.) but rather in the playful camaraderie that is happening underneath the foothills of remote mountain passes. It is the jaw-dropping beauty of the surrounding landscape, combined with the unforgettably unique people within it, that is the real story of this soccer game, and it is the real story of the whole film. One wonders if the director thinks it is the real story of all our lives.
When Walter returns home after this “pointless” odyssey, he is transformed. He is more rugged in appearance, confrontationally assertive at work, and more open to relationship with others. He can admit his mistakes, he is better able to express his feelings, and he has an impressive well of courage which allows him to speak truly. This courage allows him to be fearless in finding a new job (he does not fall into despair when Life magazine finally closes its doors), and most importantly, he finally gets up the courage to ask the girl of his dreams (literally) to go with him on a date. She says yes, Walter takes her hand, and in this closing scene of the film, they are both walking down a street with big smiles, finally able to “draw closer” to one another and ready for “things dangerous to come to.” Although Walter was led on an international scavenger hunt for Sean because of stress at work, the journey itself leads him to heart of Life.
As the title of the film states, this film is not about the public life of Walter Mitty but rather about his secret life. Walter is, in the words of Sean O’Connel, “a ghost cat,” a beautiful yet elusive object whose splendor is often hidden from others, including himself (he says at the beginning of the film that he hasn’t done anything “noteworthy or mentionable”). This film celebrates, not so much the transformation of Walter, but rather the transformation of his hidden goodness to publicly-seen goodness. At the beginning of the film, people do not know Walter by name, but at the end of the film, Walter is on the front page of Life magazine and an icon for its most lofty goals. And one must remember: this goodness is seen in a photograph that was taken before any of Walter’s memorable travels throughout the film. Walter is a great man with a beautiful soul, not because he has traveled the world, but because of something much deeper and much less visible to the viewer. In fact, it takes the whole film to realize the full story of Walter’s life, his broken dreams and family tragedies that have been faced with courage but unnoticed by many, including his own family (his sister never seems to understand how much her older brother is doing for her). But “beautiful things do not ask for attention,” and in a delightfully paradoxical way, this film makes a closing argument that says, “the person you just watched over the course of this film was, in actuality, an admirable hero at the beginning of the film.” In some sense, the motto of Life magazine is in conflict with what Sean considers the quintessence of life, which has nothing to do with bold adventures and world travels but rather fidelity to small duties which make a large impact on perhaps only a few. If “all the world’s a stage, and we, actors in it”, then every part is significant, even those parts that are hidden from view.
But in this film, the hidden life of Walter comes into fuller view, and it is the camera which is most responsible for exposing the grandeur of Walter’s role on the world’s stage, for although the beauty of Walter’s life does not ask for attention, a peak through the lens reveals a ghost cat walking across the screen. It is no wonder, then, that Walter himself has spent his life studying and categorizing negatives, which reveal both his love for images and for the secrets that they contain. Similar to Sean, this film chooses to take a two-hour moving picture of Walter and says, “here, in this person, is the quintessence of life.” Such a message provokes one to wonder what other ghost cats are out in this lonely world, not clamoring for attention but secretly carrying out a mission that is hidden from many. According to Sean O’Connel, these are the people who are the best and most important contributors to Life.