Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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There are more people alive now

than have died in all of human history.

But the number of dead people

is increasing.

One day, there isn't going to be any room

to bury anyone anymore.

So, what about skyscrapers

for dead people that were built down?

They could be underneath the skyscrapers

for living people that are built up.

You could bury people

...and a whole dead world

could be underneath the living one.

--father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us all with the gift of....

Doesn't anybody know

there isn't anybody in the coffin?

We should've filled it with his shoes

or something.

It's like a pretend funeral.

For a goldfish or something.

This is just what it is, Oskar.

It doesn't make sense.

What if you could ride an elevator

down to visit your dead relatives...

...just like you take the bridge

to see your friends in Brooklyn...

...or the ferry to Staten Island?

Dad once told me that New York

used to have a Sixth Borough...

...right next to Manhattan.

But you can't visit that anymore...

...because it floated away

and no one knows where it is.

Okay, you think you're so smart?

Let's find the Sixth Borough.

Okay.

And? What?

"And what" what?

What am I supposed to find?

What are the clues?

Mm.

He shrugged his shoulders like he had

no idea what I was talking about.

I loved that.

This was my favorite game

Dad and I would play.

We called it

"Reconnaissance Expedition. "

I found something from every decade

in the 20th Century.

You rock.

He rocks!

The search for the Sixth Borough

was the greatest expedition ever.

All right, I've got

amateur entomologist, Francophile...

...amateur archeologist,

computer consultant.

Why "amateur" everything?

It's a compliment.

Amateur pacifist?

"Pacifist."

-Amateur inventor.

Inventor. Good one.

Okay, you're all set.

Dad designed my expeditions

so I would have to talk to people...

...which he knew

I had a hard time doing.

What do you want?

What do you think?

Could be useful.

Can't you even tell me

if I'm on the right track?

But if you don't tell me,

how can I ever be right?

Well, another way of looking at it is...

...how can you ever be wrong?

Mm?

There you go. Thank you very much.

Central Park didn't use to be

where it is now.

Dad said it used to rest

in the center of the Sixth Borough.

Enormous hooks were driven

deep into the ground...

...and the park was pulled by

all the people of New York...

...like a rug across the floor,

from the Sixth Borough into Manhattan.

I found something. Over!

What area, Oskar? Over!

Zone E-3. Over!

Dad said it's only because

of the clues in Central Park...

...that we know

the Sixth Borough existed at all.

Where's this from?

Oh, that was my father's.

Grandma gave it to me when I was little.

Never had much use for it.

What's this?

Oh. Grandma's old home movies.

Haven't seen these in years.

Do you know what your father

Booked like?

Nope, not a clue.

Here's what I do know:

He was from Dresden,

which was in Germany...

...went through some really bad stuff...

...and decided he wasn't up

to having a family.

That's it?

-That's it.

Did you always want to be a jeweler?

I might have liked

to have been a scientist.

I'll never know.

Why is that?

Because I'm a jeweler.

Strawberry Fields.

Belvedere Castle.

What's he looking for?

Well, when he finds it, let him tell you.

Gonna send him all over the park...

...and he'll have to talk to

every single person he meets.

It'll be the greatest

Reconnaissance Expedition.

Don't make it so hard on him.

If it was easy,

this wouldn't be worth finding.

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