Fact1: family man never rose above status as mechanic, Fact2: Carter and Edward During time in find common ground ward, Fact3: Edward finds it offering to finance trip for both of them, Fact4: Edward 's Kopi Luwak coffee is grown in Sumatra before being harvested because of special aroma of gastric juices, Fact5: Matthew crosses off last item on bucket list
Output: Two men, bluecollar mechanic Carter Chambers Freeman and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole Nicholson meet for the first time in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Carter is a gifted amateur historian and family man who wanted to become a history professor in his youth but never rose above his status as a mechanic. Edward is a fourtime divorced healthcare tycoon and cultured loner who enjoys tormenting his personal valetservant, Thomas Hayes, who later reveals his name is actually Matthew. Edward enjoys drinking Kopi Luwak, one of the most expensive coffees in the world. During their time in the ward, Carter and Edward find common ground. Carter begins writing a bucket list, or things to do before he kicks the bucket. After hearing he has less than a year, Carter discards the list. Edward finds it the next morning and urges Carter to do everything on the list, offering to finance the trip for both of them. Carter agrees and despite the protests of his wife, Virginia Todd, Edward and Carter begin their aroundtheworld vacation. They go skydiving, drive a Shelby Mustang, fly over the North Pole, eat dinner at Chevre dor in France, visit and praise the beauty and history of Taj Mahal, India, ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, attend a lion safari in Tanzania, and visit the base of Mt. Everest in Nepal. Atop the Great Pyramid, looking out over the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure, they confide about faith and family, revealing that Carter has long been feeling less in love with his wife and that Edward is deeply hurt by his estrangement from his only daughter, who disowned him after he drove away her abusive husband. In Hong Kong, Edward hires a prostitute for Carter, who has never been with any woman but his wife. Carter declines and realizing that he loves his wife, asks to return home. On the drive back, Carter reciprocates by trying to reunite Edward with his daughter. Believing it is a breach of trust, Edward angrily storms off. Carter returns home to his family while Edward stays home alone. However, the family reunion is shortlived: Carter suffers a seizure and is rushed to the hospital, the cancer having spread to his brain. Edward, who is now in remission, visits him and they share a few moments, wherein Carter reveals how Edwards Kopi Luwak coffee is grown in Sumatra and then fed to and defecated by a jungle cat before being harvested because of the special aroma of the gastric juices. Carter crosses off laugh till I cry from his bucket list and insists Edward finish the list without him. Carter goes into surgery and dies on the operating table. As news of Carters death is given to his wife and family, Edward attempts to reconcile with his daughter. She accepts him back into her life and introduces him to the granddaughter he never knew he had. After greeting the little girl with a kiss on the cheek, Edward crosses kiss the most beautiful girl in the world off the list. Edward delivers a eulogy at the funeral, explaining that the last three months of Carters life were the best three months of his life. He crosses off help a complete stranger for the good from the list. The epilogue reveals that Edward lived until age 81, and his ashes were then taken to the summit of a peak in the Himalayas by his assistant Matthew. As Matthew places a Chock full oNuts coffee can alongside another can, he crosses off the last item on the bucket list witness something truly majestic and places it between the cans. Carters narration reveals that the two cans contain their ashes and that Edward would have loved this, because he was buried on the mountain and that was against the law.