The Shack(2017)

Plot Summary

• A 13-year-old boy named Mackenzie "Mack" Phillips disembarks from a school bus and runs home. He is a farm boy in the Midwest USA. When he gets home, he sees his father abusing his mother. When Mack tries to defend her, his father turns on him. Mack's father is a church deacon and a closeted alcoholic. Mack walks past the house of a woman who offers him milk and cookies. She advises him to talk to God and tells Mack that he's done nothing wrong.That Sunday at church, he gains the courage to go up to the alter and ask for prayer. He confesses to the elder that he is sorry for not being able to protect his mother. Later that night at home, Mack's drunk father beats him during a rainstorm, making him recite Bible verses. We see Mack contemplating poisoning his father by pouring strychnine into his alcoholic drink. It is not made clear how this was resolved or if Mack went through with the plan, though a lack of any subsequent guilt ascribed to it implies that he did not.We flash forward and see an adult Mack having a fulfilling life with his wife and children. It is winter and Mack is shoveling the snow. He receives an unstamped and typewritten letter in his mailbox signed by "Papa," which is his wife's nickname for God, telling him he misses him and inviting him to the shack.Mack slips on the ice and has a flashback to he, his wife Nan, and their three children (Kate, Josh and Missy) going on a camping trip. Mack tells his children, especially Missy, his youngest daughter, a story about a princess sacrificing herself to help save the people of her land. The waterfall they look at, Multnomah Falls, are the tears of the princess's father.As they sing around the campfire with another group that evening, Missy runs and tells Mack that he has to say his prayers to Papa. He goes to pray with her, even though it's not his thing. She asks many profound questions about God. Next day, Missy draws the princess while Kate and Josh paddle in a canoe. After Kate stands up, the canoe tips over and Josh is trapped underneath. Mack dives into the lake to save Josh, and other campers help Mack pull Josh to safety. Josh survives after CPR is administered, but when Mack returns, he finds that Missy has disappeared.After a search of the campsite proves to be unsuccessful, the police are called to the scene. They tell Mack that there is a man the FBI has been after for years who abducts young girls and may be responsible. The town is put on alert with the FBI and community members gathered in the school gym preparing to search. Mack blames himself but Nan keeps telling him it's not his fault. The Feds tell him they found a truck in the woods and they have to go, with Mack going with them. They arrive at a shack and Missy's clothes are there with blood.Flash forward: Mack wakes up on the ice and accuses his best friend Willie (Tim McGraw) of sending the letter. He goes to the post office, but there isn't any information. In his car, he thinks about Missy's funeral. He meets with Willie and talks to him more about the note. Willie asks Mack if he's prayed about it. Mack thinks it's a bad idea because it could be the killer trying to get him out there. Willie says maybe it's God and insists on going with him. Meanwhile, Nan decides to take Kate to see her family as she has become withdrawn. Nan is afraid of losing Mack.Mack and Willie are all ready to go. The car is packed, with a gun included just in case... Mack sends Willie to fetch his tackle box then drives off in Willie's own car, leaving Willie behind. On the way, he hears the voices of his friends and family and almost gets into an accident with a semi-trailer after hearing Missy's voice. On his arrival at the shack he enters, gun in hand, ready to shoot in case the murderer is there. He starts talking to him, as if he was there, yelling about how he didn't even have her body to bury, and then starts running around the shack yelling and slamming things. Again he is ready to shoot when he hears a noise, but it is just a deer on the porch. He ventures outside and sees a man. The man is very friendly, even with Mack's gun pointed at him, and invites him inside to warm himself up by the fire. He tells Mack he has someone there that would love to see him. As they walk, the snow disappears and suddenly the path and woods are beautiful and warm, the sun shines, and the wilderness looks more like summer than winter.Mack approaches the shack and enters what is a large beautiful home. The woman is there, looking exactly the same as she did when Mack was a child. She is "Papa" (God the Father), the man Mack followed is her son Jesus, and the other woman there, named Sarayu, is the Holy Spirit. Mack leaves, thinking he is crazy, but Jesus approaches him telling him he dropped his invitation (the letter from Papa). He goes back inside and Papa tells him how much she loves him. He is surprised as she is a woman. She tells Mack that she took on the appearance of a woman because he couldn't handle a father right now. He asks her why she forsook him, and where she has been.Over dinner he tells them that his son Josh is doing well and has a girlfriend, but his daughter Kate not so much. They talk to him about how much they love him and want to get to know him, even though they already do. While he sleeps, he has visions of his daughter being kidnapped. In the morning, he talks to Papa over breakfast about how she punishes people. She tells him she doesn't punish people, because their sin is punishment enough, and everything she does works together for good. He accuses her of lying, due to all the pain and suffering in the world; however, she tells him the reality is that he doesn't see the whole picture. He doesn't believe she is good but he has to learn to trust her. He says there is nothing that she could say that would justify Missy's death. He gets up and leaves into the woods, but Sarayu approaches him with directions to his truck and the keys. She tells him they aren't justifying anything but are there to help heal it. She tells him she needs help in the garden preparing for the next day. She tells him that the poisonous plant (representing evil in the world), when combined with the right plant, creates healing powers. After a long conversation with her, Jesus tells Mack he can take the boat out if he wants.Jesus sends Mack out on the lake to see something on the other side. As Mack has flashbacks of the tragic day, the boat ruptures and starts to sink. From shore, Jesus tells him not to panic and "just keep your eyes on me." Jesus walks on water to meet him, and the boat returns to its intact state. Jesus tells Mack to get out of the boat and walk with him, but Mack insists he will sink. Jesus assures Mack that he won't if he just trusts him.After walking across the lake, they get back on land, Jesus points out a path for Mack to follow and will wait for him there. The path leads Mack to the stone face of a mountain. He passdes through and meets Sophia, who introduces herself as Wisdom. They talk about judgment and she tells Mack that HE is the one who judges every one based on their clothes, appearance, etc. She tells him he has to judge people and sits him down. He sees visions on the wall of his mother and himself getting beaten by his father and then sees a vision of his father as a little boy getting beaten. Cut to him seeing the visions again of his little girl being taken away. She asks him if God is to blame and he says yes.Wisdom says that if it is so easy for Mack to judge God, than he must choose one of his surviving children to go to Heaven and the other to Hell, since that's what he believes God does. She gives him reasons why he could pick either one. He tries to leave saying it isn't fair and he can't choose, but she keeps saying he must. He says that he will go (to Hell) instead of them and take their place. She tells him that's what Papa goes through. There's no such thing as a pain-free life. As long as there is free will, evil will be invited in. The cave wall opens to the back of a waterfall, through which he sees Missy playing with other children. Sensing her father's presence, Missy runs to the waterfall and blows him a kiss. He asks if Missy forgives him for not saving her. Sophia tells him that Missy never felt that way.Back at the beach, Mack and Jesus run through the water. That evening, Papa, Jesus and Sarayu take Mack to the top of a hill. Sarayu covers Mack's eyes, and when he opens them he sees people glowing as the others see people in color and light. One is walking towards them, and it's Mack's father. He apologizes to Mack and says he was blind and couldn't see anyone. Mack says he was scared and they forgive one another.In the morning, Papa comes to Mack, now as an American Indian man. Papa brings Mack to the woods and wants him to forgive Missy's killer. Mack says he wants to hurt him, and he wants God to hurt him also. God tells him that the killer is also his son, and he wants to redeem him. Mack says the man should burn in Hell, but Papa reminds him that he is not the judge. He guides him into forgiveness, and tells him that it's OK that he is still mad, and it will get easier in time. Papa leads Mack to Missy's body, which he wraps and carries back to the shack. Mack asks Jesus to take her as he can't, and they put her in a coffin and bring it to the garden for burial. Beautiful flowers grow above the grave, along with a rapidly growing tree that attracts butterflies. Mack is ready to go home. Papa, Jesus and Sarayu, however, tell him that he needs to talk to Kate, as she blames herself for Missy's death. Given the choice to stay with the trinity forever or return home (they'll always be with him either way), Mack tells them that he still wants them in his life but decides to return home.Suddenly, it is winter again. On Mack's way home, he is hit by the semi-trailer at the same intersection and winds up in the hospital. Willie is there and tells him that he never made it to the shack and was hit by the semi that night on the way there. His family comes into the room and he tells Nan that he saw Missy and she's beautiful. He talks to Kate, who tells him that she feels Missy's death was her fault because she stood up on the boat causing it to tip over in the first place. He tells her nothing is her fault and she doesn't have to go through grieving alone. His life turns around and the family are all able to have a happy life once again.

Storyline

• After the abduction and presumed death of Mackenzie Allen Phillips' youngest daughter, Missy, Mack receives a letter and suspects it is from God, asking him to return to The Shack where Missy may have been murdered. After contemplating it, he leaves his home to go to The Shack for the first time since Missy's abduction and an encounter that will change his life forever. What would have been a fun weekend of camping for a man and his three children turns into a horrid nightmare that will forever change them all. Some time later, he receives a note inviting him to the same shack where the nightmare began. This invitation will bring him face to face with God, where God's manifestations appear in the most nontraditional forms. — Edgard Martinez When he was a 13-year-old boy, Mack killed his abusive and alcoholic father with strychnine in his booze. Years later, Mack Phillips is happily married with Nan and they have three children -- Kate, Josh and the girl Missy Phillips. While on a camping weekend with his family, Missy is criminally abducted and killed, destroying Mack's life. One day, he receives a note from God, whom his dead daughter called Papa, asking him to visit the shack where his daughter was killed. He meets Jesus, Sarayu and Sophia and has an experience of discoveries and redemption. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Mack Phillips is happily married with three children. When a family tragedy shatters their carefree existence, Mack becomes bitter and depressed and the family starts to drift apart. Out of the blue, he receives an invitation to return to where the tragedy took place, a deserted cabin known simply as The Shack. The thing is -- the invitation is from God. — grantss 2 more All