7 terminally delightful movies to stream

It’s closing time, the cashier is tapping their feet and the security shutters are rolling down at the great Life supermarket. What do you want to grab from the shelves before it’s too late? There are no right answers, but end-of-life movies like Gat in die Muur and The Bucket List play out some of the options. For those who’ve had to live carefully or face the consequences, it’s a chance to reach out for all the fun stuff they’re denied themselves. For those who’ve found love, it’s time for final acts of care to ensure that those left behind won’t lose life to mourning. And for those who’ve pranced through life one step ahead of the consequences, it might be time to make amends, or make new friends.

Because if these films have one thing in common, it’s showing us the pleasure of having a hand to hold at the end of the world. And for an impulse buy on the way to the tills, we’ve picked out an item from each film to set up the ultimate bucket list.  

1. Gat in die Muur

Rian (André Odendaal), a rich, self-indulgent rebel without a cause in his 50s who’s dying with cancer, makes one last (or first) attempt to connect with his estranged son, Ben (Nicholas Campbell). Equipped with an oxygen tank and a trusty packet of cigarettes, Rian hires Ava (Tinarie van Wyk Loots, who won the 2021 SAFTA for Best Actress in a Feature Film for the role) to act as his caretaker, and as a driver for himself and Ben on a road trip. It’s a slow, scenic journey through the Eastern Cape to see Hole in the Wall on the Transkei Wild Coast, before they head for a KZN coffee farm where Rian is planning to live out his final days. Rian is determined to encourage Ben to live fearlessly, but since he’s spent a lifetime treating himself as the Main Character in everyone’s story, Rian might need to lean on both Ava’s kindness and the impact of his looming death for the emotional nuance needed to reach Ben.  

Best bucket list item: Fill all your senses to overflowing. Breathe in the country air, feel the sea surrounding your body, see something beautiful, and taste a meal with good company. 

Watch Gat in die Muur now »

2. Suiderkruis

When 20-something Lana (Inge Pohl Culbert) finds out that her cancer has returned, she asks her childhood friends Karin (Mia-Anne O’Kennedy), Mieke (Carien Botha) and Juan (Eddie de Jager) to join her for one last road trip around South Africa. Where are they headed? They’re literally throwing darts at a map because the plan doesn’t matter. Pack the snacks and a polaroid camera, and let’s go see whatever! The four friends (with Kiara Kleynhands, Megan Voster, Cara Meiring, and Roelof van Jaarsveld as the young Lana, Kerin, Mieke and Juan respectively) rediscover simple, youthful favourites, like a bicycle ride and an ice cream, along with more mature enjoyments, like getting drunk enough to enjoy off-key karaoke, and learning to surf. 

Best bucket list item: Meet new people, from intimidating landladies to hospitable farm families who can show you the land at its best. 

Watch Suiderkruis now »

3. Me Before You 

This romantic drama based on Jojo Moyes’ 2012 novel of the same name centres on tetraplegic Will Traynor (Sam Clafin) and his new caretaker and companion, Lou Clark (Emilia Clarke, Daenerys in Game of Thrones S1-8). Will has agreed to spend six last months with his family before he goes to the Dignitas organisation in Switzerland to end his life on his own terms. While Lou sets about showing Will how much he can still experience and enjoy – including catching the sun and midnight storms at a wheelchair-friendly beach resort in Mauritius – the film also respects Will’s deeply considered choices.  

Best bucket list item: go to the races with the Mother of Dragons and bet on an extremely confused horse.  

Watch Me Before You now »

4. The Bucket List 

Terminally ill millionaire Edward (Jack Nicholson) offers to help Carter (Morgan Freeman) the mechanic – who’s also been given just six months to live – to tick off the list of things that he wants to do before he kicks the bucket (this film coined the term bucket list). Edward will sponsor their world tour, using his private jet, because it’s an ambitious list. It takes in everything from flying over the North Pole, going on safari (Edward wants to kill a lion), and seeing Mount Everest, to visiting the seven wonders of the world. Along with the big ticket item are life experiences like “laugh until I cry”, and “help a complete stranger”. Yes, it would take an improbable amount of energy from two dying people in their 70s, but embrace the Hollywood magic for this buddy comedy. 

Best bucket list item: Stand up in a Landrover while singing songs from The Lion King as you gad about a Tanzanian game park during the great migration. 

Watch The Bucket List now »

5. Ordinary Love 

In this romantic drama, devoted retired Irish couple Joan (Lesley Manville) and Tom (Liam Neeson) expected to go bickering and bantering along into old age together. But they’re shocked out of this cosy vision when Joan gets a breast cancer diagnosis, and they enter the cold, gruelling uncertainty of surgery and chemotherapy, while Joan wrestles with her unexpected grief at losing her breasts and hair, and seeing fellow cancer patients die. Screenwriter Owen McCafferty drew on his own life, following his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis, to explore both the experience of being the person who could die, and the person who could be left behind. What Joan and Tom are determined to do to support one another, and be honest in the face of death, is as much a monument to love as the Taj Mahal is.  

Best bucket list item: Plan a small home makeover project (orange is an exciting colour for the bedroom, right?). And just watch loads of “rubbish TV” with someone you love.  

Watch Ordinary Love now »

6. The Professor 

Self absorbed English professor Richard Brown (Johnny Depp) walks right into a pond after his doctor tells him that he has just six months to live without cancer treatment, or a maximum of 18 months with treatment. But the moment he gets home in this comedy drama, his news is overshadowed by his daughter Olivia (Odessa Young) declaring that she is a lesbian, and his wife Veronica (Rosemarie DeWitt) confessing that she’s having an affair. Taken aback to find that the stage for his solo performance has been usurped, Richard decides to do as he pleases forever more. He pushes his students to drop his class, rants about “feminist or queer propaganda”, goes on a drug and alcohol bender, hooks up with students, and blackmails his way to a sabbatical with the befuddled energy of a drunk pig escaping a slaughterhouse. It’s death as the ultimate excuse for a consequence-free power trip! 

Best bucket list item: Embrace your too-cool-for-life era by wearing sunglasses everywhere. 

Watch The Professor now »

7. The Estate 

Kathleen Turner reigns over this dark comedy as Hilda, the dying matriarch of a desperate family who all have their eyes on her fortune. Nieces Macey (Toni Collette), Savannah (Anna Faris), and Beatrice (Rosemarie DeWitt), and nephew Richard (David Duchovny) all descend on her grand New Orleans mansion claiming that they’re there to keep her company in her final days. But as they court her to win her favour or melt her heart, they’re going to realise she doesn’t have either of those things. The only thing that cruel aunt Hilda seems to have cherished in her life is a grudge against her estranged sister. But dang it, they’re going to show her a good time whether she likes it or not, even if Beatrice has to convince her husband James (Ron Livingston, Rosemarie’s real-life husband) to seduce her.  

Best bucket list item: Get married for that one last fling. Till death us do part? Done and dusted. 

Watch The Estate now »

Also watch 

Don’t wait for death. Why not take time for one last hurrah before the Reaper comes knocking at your coffin? 

Going in Style: Steel workers and best friends Joe (Michael Caine), Willie (Morgan Freeman), Albert (Alan Arkin) and Milton (Christopher Lloyd) plot a bank heist after they lose their jobs and pensions during a corporate takeover. With everything on the line, including Willie’s kidney operation and Joe’s family home, they start rehearsing for the heist with a spot of shoplifting.  

Last Vegas: Four childhood friends – Billy (Michael Douglas), Sam (Kevin Kline), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Paddy (Robert De Niro) – gather in Las Vegas for Billy’s bachelor party after he proposes to his  31-year-old girlfriend, Lisa (Bre Blair), at a funeral. All sorts of nonsense ensues, from the flab four judging a beauty contest, to flirting with a new love (Mary Steenbergen) and throwing an epic party in their luxury penthouse suite.  

And look out for the following Afrikaans titles in August 2023 

• Kom Ons Praat Daaroor S4 from Thursday, 3 August 
  
• Koortjies Met Jonathan Rubain S2-3 from Monday, 7 August 

• L’at Wiel S27 from Thursday, 10 August 
  
• Oppiestoep S6-7 from Monday, 14 August 
  
• Tarzan van George from Monday, 21 August 
  
• ‘n Pad Na Oekraine from Monday, 21 August