Here's my sequel.....
Annie, still weeping from time to time, drives back to NYC and arrives 3 days later. She first drops Pilgrim off at the stable and the vets give Annie a welcome hug home. Grace is there and hugs both Pilgrim and Annie. Robert is not there; he's back in NYC.
Annie and Grace stay for another day, then head back to NYC. Grace is getting ready to start high school and is once again enjoying having her mom back. Grace asks if Tom is all right with Annie leaving and Annie's eyes fill with tears, but she says yes.
Once they enter the city, Annie hugs Grace and promises she'll be there for her more since Annie rather feels that she hadn't been a great mom and is feeling guilty.
They come home to their NYC apartment and Robert kind of doesn't look too happy to see Annie. Turns out Robert was secretly hoping Annie would stay out in Montana and also secretly despises Tom, despite his polite exterior.
"So, where's your cowboy lover?" Robert asks sarcastically.
"Robert...please...can we see someone...a counselor?" Annie asks.
Despite Robert dragging his feet, they do see a counselor that summer.
Grace starts high school and for a while, things between Annie and Robert seem to be improving. But by late September, things are growing distant between them again.
Also, Annie is getting started on being a writer; she's written several short stories for magazines and things are starting to take off for her.
Grace makes several new friends at her new high school and she has gotten used to her artificial leg. She's also growing up; Annie helps her shop for a bra.
In early October, Grace invites three friends over to the upstate NY house, but two of them don't get along, so they leave and Grace just decided to have the one friend from NYC stay over.
More and more, now it's Annie and Grace coming up to upstate NY. Annie sometimes rides with Grace; other times, Grace rides by herself or with her upstate NY friend. Grace still misses Judith, but has been healing from that and besides, is busy with high school.
In late October, Robert finally does come up for one weekend since a bunch of families are going on a fall hayride and Robert wants to keep up the united family front. It's kind of the calm before the storm.
In late November, some of Annie's relatives, including her mom come over as well as a brother of Robert's. It's a dramatic Thanksgiving as it's revealed that while Annie was driving back from NYC, Robert had a full-blown affair to retaliate against Annie's "affair."
Annie goes for a walk with her mom, then bursts into tears and tells her mom about it...the miserable marriage to Robert and her own temptation with Tom.
Turns out that it's the end of the marriage since Robert really has no intention of dropping the affair nor does he feel any remorse at all since he justifies it as "getting even" for Annie's "affair." Robert leaves and moves into another apartment in the city.
Meanwhile, back in Montana, the Bookers have their share of drama...Ellen Booker has been keeping in touch with Annie. It turns out that Diane, long ago, had a full-blown affair with Tom and that the oldest son, Joe is actually Tom's child (I notice how in the film, Joe does look like Tom right down to the blond hair).
Diane and her husband have a huge blow-up, also over the holidays and poor Joe is devastated. Ellen dresses both Tom and Diane down. Tom's brother nearly kills Tom, but Ellen holds them back. Turns out that Ellen always suspected, but now it's been confirmed.
Diane, despite her marriage being damaged, decides to stay with her husband because being small-towners, they don't want to be the subject of small-town gossip, esp. since they live in a rather conservative community.
Joe runs away at one point and swiping money from Tom's wallet, buys himself a plane ticket and flies up to NYC and sees Annie and Grace, who are staying in upstate NY again for the Christmas holidays.
At first, Joe tells them that he has permission to come, so Annie and Grace let him stay. Joe confides in them and is crying at this point over his mom and uncle's treachery. Grace hugs him.
Diane eventually finds out that Joe is in NYC and two days before X-mas, calls Annie and is ready to blast and blame her for Joe's being there, but Ellen gets on and stops Diane's rant. Annie apologizes, says she didn't know, then asks what's going on there. Ellen says she'll fly there to pick up Joe, that she'll explain then.
Ellen does and talks Joe into coming back home. Joe does go back to Montana; Annie and Grace hug him goodbye and wish him good luck.
"Wow...and we thought our family had problems," Grace tells Annie once Joe is gone. That night, X-mas eve, Grace, Annie, her siblings, her mom and aunt are sitting around the fire and exchange gifts and eat and talk a little about the holidays and the messy Booker situation.
"So...did Joe kiss you?" a friend of Grace asks.
Grace shrugs, then says something like, "He was kind of mixed up and upset, so I really didn't pay that any mind..."
"Funny how family messes can conjure up weird revealings," Annie's brother says. "Like you actually having that fling with the rancher." They kind of laugh some; even Annie manages a weak smile since her own heart is still healing from the divorce.
Annie's very, very glad now that she's not in the middle of that Booker mess since she's had enough drama in her own life this past year.
Later in the year, Tom dies after a fight with his brother and Diane. Annie and Grace fly out that spring to the funeral and Annie definitely comes to a closure in her stay out there. She and Grace come back to NYC, where Annie finalizes her divorce from Robert, who re-marries soon after.
Annie also has published her first book, which becomes a bestseller. She writes more books until she realizes her dream of being a writer. Grace finishes high school, graduates with honors, and becomes a veterinarian and lives just outside the city. She and Grace share a wonderful mom-daughter bond that the trip to the ranch actually solidified.
It's later, when Grace is in her early twenties, that Annie meets John Clasky (from Spanglish, for those who've seen that film), who is divorced, is a successful chef, his two kids, and has moved back to NYC from LA. John had just gone thru a messy divorce from the awful Deborah (who reminds me of Robert), so John and Annie take things slowly.
They date a few years, fall deeply in love and marry. Grace, who's always wanted siblings, is happy to have a stepsister and stepbrother, esp. close to her age and Annie, in a way, has a larger family now, since Annie had always dreamed of a large family.
It's long, I know, but that's my take on a possible sequel to this film. I've seen Spanglish and I have this idea that Annie and John Clasky would be wonderful for each other; they have quite a bit in common.
The two films are actually quite similar, so I wrote an analysis of the films here at: http://cnj1.livejournal.com/6130.html. Hope you all check this link out and hope most of you have seen Spanglish, another wonderful film.
What do you all think?
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RockGrey
15 years ago
Not bad. It actually makes a reasonable amount of sense especially if a reference to another film is made which is what a sequel is supposed to do.
Anybody want a peanut ?
- Fezzik, " The Princess Bride " ( 1987 )
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Coryraisa
14 years ago
And esp. since I suspect Joe's actually Tom's son also. Same blond hair and even similar faces. That'd make a good sequel plot also.
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Coryraisa
15 years ago
Any other sequel ideas, despite that it's unlikely in reality?
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jaystarstar
12 years ago
Frankly, that's awful -- it would make Tom Booker into the worst kind of horn-dog sleazeball, willing to bed any woman who walks in front of him -- even his brother's wife.
And it would turn Robert from basically a decent character, respectable enough if not super sympathetic, into a real tool.
Not to mention the denouement would turn the whole story into a Cain-Abel replay when Frank ends up killing Tom in a fight over his wife.
While you're at it, why don't you infect Pilgrim with equine AIDS?
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
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Coryraisa
11 years ago
Frankly, that's awful -- it would make Tom Booker into the worst kind of horn-dog sleazeball, willing to bed any woman who walks in front of him -- even his brother's wife.
And it would turn Robert from basically a decent character, respectable enough if not super sympathetic, into a real tool.
Not to mention the denouement would turn the whole story into a Cain-Abel replay when Frank ends up killing Tom in a fight over his wife.
While you're at it, why don't you infect Pilgrim with equine AIDS?
Not really...and Tom is selective about who he sleeps with. I just get the feeling he's not exactly lily-white either.
And Robert is kind of a tool; it would be like Robert to cheat on Annie to retaliate against her. Un underhanded tool, but a tool all the same.
And the Frank/Tom rivalry would be much more than about Diane...it would be about a great many things.
But naap, Pilgrim doesn't become infected with anything; he lives happily to old age.
Glad you read it, though.
What would your sequel storyline be about and what would you have all the characters do?
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jaystarstar
11 years ago
THW has been back in heavy cable rotation the last couple weeks so I thought a little more about it, so I came up with this "Where Are They Now" (The Horse Whisperer, 1998-2016):
ANNIE McLEAN: Now age 54, still married to Robert. For the last 16 years she has been a freelance book and magazine writer based in metro NY. Her 2000 novel, "Montana Resurrection," was a top-10 best seller.
ROBERT McLEAN: Now 60, senior partner in his NYC law firm. In 1999 the McLeans sold their NYC apartment and moved their primary residence to the New Jersey horse farm near Middletown.
After moving full-time to Middletown the MacLeans opened a horse boarding and training business where Annie and Grace could put their equestrian interests to use. Vet Liz Hammond (Cherry Jones, seen early in the movie) was hired full-time as the facility manager and medical consultant.
GRACE McLEAN: Now 30, she graduated from Cornell in 2010 with a degree in veterinary medicine and a specialization in equine behavior. Still participates in equestrian competitions.
TOM BOOKER: Now 68, semi-retired from 'horse whispering,' although he did experience a significant boom in clinic and consulting business in 1999-2000 after Annie McLean's long-form article in The New Yorker gave him wider nationwide exposure. Never remarried.
FRANK BOOKER: 63, still working daily at the Booker Ranch and serving in official capacity as the farm's president. (Defers to Tom in decision-making but Tom is often involved in freelance consulting so Frank runs the daily business.)
DIANE BOOKER: 58, will celebrate her 40th anniversary with Frank in 2018. The two of them took a vacation to Morocco in 2000.
JOE BOOKER: 31, Earned a veterinary science degree from Colorado State in 2008 and attended graduate school at Cornell, where he became engaged to Grace MacLean.
In 2013, Joe and Grace were married and the Booker farm in Montana and the MacLean farm in New Jersey were combined into one company providing care and rehabilitation training for injured horses nationwide as well as the cattle farming operation. Tom and Frank run the Montana location along with the younger Booker brothers, while Joe and Grace manage the New Jersey farm.
PILGRIM: Died in 2005 of normal equine aging diseases.
AND no, I wouldn't have had any brother-to-brother deathmatch vendettas, any midnight flights by Annie to Minneapolis for a hot and heavy sexy night with Tom, or any mystery Tom Booker-looking babies popping out of her either.
And I wouldn't have any decades-long smoldering affair between Annie and Tom, either.
The whole point of the ending of the movie is that Tom figured out that what they had could never be recreated and it could never last, that Robert was really a good husband and father, and Annie knew it too.
The minute Annie figured that out was the minute she jumped in the car and pulled away.
Tom knew it too -- if you watch the movie closely, as soon as he figures out that she has gone -- he gives a sad little chuckle.
By the time she got back to NY, Annie was OK with being Robert's wife again. From then on, Annie and Tom would be forever good friends, nothing more and nothing less. Robert and Annie would visit the Bookers in Montana and Tu-Bob would not suspect they were doing the nasty in the barn.
So yeah, 18-20 years later, they would have lived mostly-dull, uneventful lives, although certainly not without some interesting story possibilities.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
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