Summary
Time literally stops, and Edward walks through a large stationary circus, through hoops and a cluster of popcorn suspended in the air, towards Sandra. Suddenly, time catches up to him and Sandra disappears in a crowd as the circus ends. Edward runs outside, but she's gone. Karl goes and introduces himself to Amos, the ringleader, who immediately gets Karl to sign an "unconscionable contract" to perform with the circus.
Amos tells Edward that Karl joined the circus and introduces him to his attorney, Mr. Soggybottom, a very short clown. When Amos notices Edward looking depressed, he asks him what's wrong, and Edward tells him that he just lost the woman he knows he's meant to marry. Incidentally enough, Amos knows who Edward is talking about, a "friend of the family," but warns Edward not to waste his time, since she's clearly out of his league. "You were a big fish in a small pond, but this here's the ocean, and you're drowning," says Amos. Edward speaks back to this, insisting that he's going to marry Sandra, asking Amos to offer him a job, and declaring that he has more determination "than any man you're likely to meet." When Amos refuses him a job, Edward tries another tactic, telling him that he will work "night and day" for him without pay, if he only tells him that girl's name.
"Every month you work for me, I'll tell you one thing about her," Amos tells him, and they make a deal. Edward begins working for Amos, doing everything he asks; we see him putting his head in a lion's mouth at the circus, and running a ride at a carnival before suddenly getting knocked into a nearby field by one of the cars. One day, he tells Amos that it's been a month, and Amos tells him that Sandra's favorite flowers are daffodils, much to Edward's delight.
The next month, Amos tells Edward that Sandra is going to college, the next month that she likes music. One day, after many months, Edward goes to confront Amos and learn Sandra's name and where he can find her. He walks towards Amos' trailer, and when he knocks on the door a ravenous wolf jumps on him. Amos' assistant walks towards Edward with a gun, and with a tear streaming down his face, shoots Edward, but doesn't hurt him badly. Edward throws a stick for the wolf and the wolf runs to get it as we hear his older self narrate, "It was that night that I learned that things we consider wicked or evil are simply lonely and lacking social niceties."
The next day, Edward sees Amos emerge from the woods, naked and with a stick in his mouth. "Didn't kill anything did I?" he asks. Amos tells Edward that the girl's name is Sandra Templeton, and that she goes to Auburn. Edward runs off to find Sandra at Auburn that afternoon. He walks up to a sorority house and knocks on the door. When she answers, he introduces himself and tells her that he loves her, having spent the last three years working to find out who she is. When she tells him she's engaged, Edward's face falls. She tells him that she knows who he is, and that he's from Ashton. "See I'm actually engaged to a boy from Ashton, Don Price," she tells him, and we realize that she's talking about Edward's rival from home. Handing her the flowers, Edward walks away, but suddenly has a change of heart and yells back, "Sandra Templeton: I love you and I will marry you!"
We see Sandra in class, when suddenly, the projections that the professor is using becomes a drawing that Edward has done saying "I love Sandra Templeton." We next see her walking with her girlfriends, when one of them points at skywriting that reads "I love Sandra." Then, one day, she wakes up and sees that Edward has planted a large field of daffodils outside her window. She goes out and thanks him, when suddenly Don appears. Sandra begs Edward not to fight him, and Edward agrees. When Don punches Edward in the face, Edward stays true to his word to Sandra and doesn't fight back, as Don pummels him. As Don beats Edward, Sandra interrupts to tell Don that she prefers Edward, and hands him back her engagement ring.
Suddenly, we are transported to the future and we see Don having a heart attack on the toilet, dying, and we realize that he is one of the boys who saw his death prophesied by the witch as a child in Ashton.
Back in the present, Josephine gives old Edward some water and asks him if his medicine is making him thirsty. "Truth is, I've been thirsty my whole life. Never really known why," he replies. Will hears his father talking to Josephine and sits in the hall to listen in on their conversation. Edward continues his story and we are transported back into the past.
Edward goes to the hospital after Don beats him up, and while there, he receives a letter ordering him to serve in the army. He explains that he had to serve for three years, but couldn't stand being away from Sandra, so "took every hazardous assignment in hopes of getting my time down to less than a year." Young Edward jumps out of a plane in order to steal plans for a Chinese power plant. We see him landing backstage at a performance of some kind. Edward fights with Chinese soldiers backstage as conjoined twin sisters sing a song onstage.
Edward fights some men in a tent, before stealing the plans that he has been commissioned to steal. Backstage, the conjoined twins find Edward crouching behind a row of clothes. He tells them about his love for Sandra and they help him plan his escape, and eventually end up escaping with him. We see Sandra receiving word from the army that Edward is dead and collapsing on the ground in front of her house.
One day, Edward appears out of nowhere behind the laundry Sandra is putting on the line, and they kiss, reunited.
Analysis
It is not only the narrative content of the film that is fantastical and otherworldly, but also, at times, the way the film is shot. For instance, when Edward sees Sandra for the first time at the circus, the screenplay calls the complete suspension of a raucous carnival act. Thrown hoops and flying popcorn stop midair, and Edward climbs around all of it towards the woman with whom he has fallen instantly in love. Thus, we see Edward's rendering of the story represented by film magic, and Tim Burton represents the feeling of falling in love at first sight through impressive visual cues.
In this section, we are introduced to yet another interpretation of the metaphor of fish. When Edward tells Amos that he is in love with Sandra, Amos points out that she's out of his league, that Edward doesn't have a job or any prospects, comparing him to a small fish, drowning in an ocean. The "big fish" of the title, thus, also refers to Edward's status back in his hometown, as a "big man on campus," in a place with lower standards. Now that he is in the world, Edward finds that his bravery and boldness do not go quite as far as he might have expected. Being a "small fish" here refers to Edward coming into the responsibilities and difficulties of adulthood.
In Big Fish, every leg of Edward Bloom's coming of age includes some bit of fantasy or magic. When he joins the circus, he soon discovers that his boss, Amos Calloway, turns into a werewolf at night. Things are never quite as they seem, and even the least elegant or mysterious people often have magical secrets. Magic is not something that suddenly surprises the characters, but a reality of everyday life, a force that many people have to deal with and which is somewhat normalized.
Edward Bloom's defining characteristic is his unfailing and dogged pursuit of his desires. Yes, he is exceedingly competent, handsome, and skilled in certain ways, but more than that, his strength lies in the fact that he is not willing to give up easily and he fights hard for the things he desires. This is exemplified in his working for so long for Amos in order to find out more about Sandra, and then in his bright-eyed pursuit of her even once he knows she is engaged.
It is through Josephine's investment in his father's story that Will is able to remember his respect and love for Edward. She sits at Edward's bedside and asks him curiously and non-judgmentally about his adventures, and when Will hears this interaction, he decides to sit in the hall, unseen, but curious himself. Will's falling out with his father was over his father's unusual relationship and interpretation of the past, but now he is able to see the beauty and value of his father's unusual account secondhand.
