The Other Way

The Other Way
Short film by Joe Hawley
Length:	20:06
Genre:	Drama
Language:	English, English (reversed)

The Other Way is a short film written and directed primarily by Joe Hawley for his senior thesis at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The score was written by Andrew Horowitz.

The Other Way was uploaded to tallyhall.com for a while until the site was replaced with their MySpace page. Since then the video was mostly unavaliable until Scotty Eckenthal uploaded it to Vimeo. The video was removed from Vimeo sometime in early 2020 but was archived by others.

Plot

Hank (Joe Hawley) receives a speeding ticket on the way to Bell's Pizza, where he is set to reunite with his former girlfriend, Chelsea (Elizabeth Hoyt) a year after their separation. Upon arriving, Hank sits with Chelsea and after some icebreaking, asks about her grandfather, who has been sick. Chelsea says that her grandfather died that morning and wishes she could have spoken to him before his death.

After some awkward banter surrounding themes of death, Chelsea asks Hank if he wants to know about a cardboard box that has been sitting on the table. Hank asks what's inside, and Chelsea procures a black bundle and informs Hank that it is her newborn baby, Fabian, and that Hank is the father. Hank expresses that he doesn't want a baby and that he wants to go to grad school instead. Chelsea, ignoring his complaints and protests, coos that Fabian was born yesterday evening, at exactly 5:29 PM, and that Hank has to come with them to the pool since it's Family Day. Hank says he doesn't know how to swim, and Chelsea responds by saying, "Your father should have taught you when you were a baby!" and hands Fabian to him. Seconds later, Fabian farts in Hank's face. Hank drives them all to the pool as Chelsea smokes in the passenger seat and Fabian cries as he has been placed upon a stack of textbooks in the back.

At the pool, Hank observes his surroundings. He first sees a father (Kioto Patterson) and his teenage son (Corey Antonishen) walking along the pool. The son slaps his father's nachos out of his hands and gloats as his father cleans up the mess. Hank shakes his head, then turns to watch a man as he relaxes in the jacuzzi. Moments later, the man's three kids begin to harass him by beating him with pool noodles, splashing him, and dunking a bucket of cold water on his head, to Hank's dismay. Hank starts to internalize the problems of the respective fathers, walking along the side of the pool as his resentments and protests to Chelsea echo and overlap. Becoming overwhelmed with the stress, Hank attempts to commit suicide by drowning in the pool.

After floating catatonically underwater, Hank emerges from the pool in reverse. Upon glancing at the overhead clock, he discovers that time is moving backwards. (From here on out, the entire film is told through subtitles, with all music, dialogue, and scenes being played in proper order, but with reversed audio.)

Hank returns to the table Chelsea and Fabian were sitting at. Though Fabian is still there, Chelsea is not. Hank calls out for Chelsea but does not see her. Hank drives back to Bell's Pizza to see if she has gone there, but upon arriving sees that she is not at their booth (though the cardboard box Fabian was in remains). Hank approaches two nerdy students (Rob Cantor, Shamil Kotecha) eating at the restaurant and ask if they know what is happening. One of the nerds explains that "Hubble was wrong" and that "the cosmological constant was, in fact, negative," which is what resulted in "space-time continuum hilarity." When Hank asks why this is occurring, the nerd responds with an unhelpful answer. Hank heads to the front of the store, feeling around his throat uncomfortably as the pizza he just ate with Chelsea begins to reform in his mouth.

As he chews, Hank calls Chelsea. She picks up, and Hank asks where she is. Chelsea taunts him, calling him "Abandonment McJones" as she paints her toenails. Hank pleads for Chelsea to not leave Fabian with him, and Chelsea promises she won't, saying she would never do that to Fabian. She tells Hank that she'll be back in a couple of days, but Hank points out that Fabian is supposed to be "unborn" yesterday, at 5:29 PM as Chelsea said. Chelsea says that she knows, and that her plan is to stay away from Fabian so he won't be unborn and, by default, killed. Hank argues against this, insisting he be "put back." Chelsea calls him a murderer, and says that she loves Fabian too much to let him be unborn, vowing that even if Hank finds out where she is, she won't let Fabian "back in." She theorizes that Fabian would be able to live forever in the past. Chelsea hangs up the phone as Hank protests, and watches as her grandfather comes back to life.

By this point, Hank's pizza slice has fully reformed. He gives the slice to the clerk (Bora Karaca) at the counter, who comedically returns Hank's money.

Hank travels to Chelsea's house which she shares with her roommates Kate (Lauren Safran), Jess (Rebecca Schultz), and Heather (Jiwon Lee). The three refuse to tell Hank where Chelsea is as they berate him for wanting to kill Fabian. Hank insists they tell him, but Kate says they don't have time to deal with him as Jess only has a couple of years left before her breasts undevelop. They slam the door in his face thereafter.

Hank frantically travels on foot through the city in search of the hospital, to little success. He eventually grows exhausted and collapses as he sobs. Eventually, Hank wakes up yesterday evening in front of the hospital. He jumps for joy at his luck, and quickly goes to find Chelsea's grandfather (Phillip Kerr).

Hank arrives at Chelsea's grandfather's bed and deduces that Chelsea had already visited him, but has left. The grandfather responds that his memory "hasn't returned," and advises Hank to visit him in a couple of weeks. Hank insists he cannot come back, as he only has four minutes until Fabian has to be unborn. As Hank panics, Chelsea's grandfather cuts him off and beckons him closer. As Hank leans in, the grandfather explains the thesis of the film, "The only circumstances you can count on are life and death. Whatever happens in between doesn't matter, but those two things gotta' happen." The grandfather goes on to explain that because time is moving backwards, he has "his entire life ahead of him," and nonsensically babbles as he smokes. Hank, realizing the old man won't say where Chelsea is, leaves.

Hank places Fabian in a gurney in the corridor. Suddenly, he turns to see Chelsea being brought down on a separate gurney by two nurses (Jeff Richardson; Latesia Collies) as she protests. The nurses tell Hank to move out of the way. Chelsea sees him and calls him a bastard; Hank responds with a smug wave. The doctor (Hank Greenspan) frantically asks Hank if he knows where the baby is, to which Hank points to the other gurney. The doctor "yoinks" Fabian, who cries loudly.

In the delivery room, Hank chides Chelsea about Fabian's fate as Chelsea cries and screams at him. Fabian's umbilical chord is uncut before the doctor pushes him back into Chelsea, whose stomach grows once again. Chelsea breaks into pained sobs as the scene fades to black.

Fading in, Hank is driving on the highway, supposedly back home. He sings triumphantly to the song playing on the radio, and his speedometer shows he is going 100 mph. Sirens sound, and Hank sees the same cop (Jim Kote) who gave him a speeding ticket that same day. Instead of giving him a ticket, the cop lets Hank off with a warning. Hanks looks at his drivers license that the cop gave back as he remembers what Chelsea's grandfather had said about counting on birth and death. He stares at his birthday, and with dismay realizes that eventually he will have to be unborn too.

Fun Facts

• "Ruler of Everything" is the song Hank listens to as he drives home after Fabian is unborn, though it is played in reverse.
• "Baby Baby," the song that plays while Hank, Chelsea, and Fabian are driving to the pool, is attributed to the fictional artist "MC MC", who appears as a cameo in the Good Day music video and is played by Rob.
• The film's cast includes Bora Karaca as "Pizza Clerk", and Rob Cantor as "Calculator Nerd".