Summary
Clarence suddenly conjures a world in which George was never born, and the wind blows the door open. "You've never been born, you don't exist, you haven't a care in the world," Clarence says. Suddenly, George realizes that he can hear out of his deaf ear. His lip has stopped bleeding and his clothes are dry also.
As they walk towards town, George notices that his car is gone from where he "parked" it and Clarence tells him he doesn't have a car. The man whose tree he crashed into walks by him and tells him that the tree is one of the oldest trees in "Pottersville." They then go to Martini's and sit at the bar, but when George asks for Mr. Martini, he is nowhere to be found. Clarence first orders a flaming rum punch, but then changes his mind to mulled wine. Nick, the bartender, yells at Clarence for being eccentric, and George notes that it is uncharacteristic of him.
As a bell rings on the cash register, Clarence tells George that every time a bell rings, that signifies that an angel has earned its wings. George asks Clarence how old he is, and Clarence tells him he's 293. Suddenly, Mr. Gower walks into the bar asking for money. He is old and disheveled, and when George talks to him, Gower doesn't recognize him. Nick tells George that Gower spent 20 years in jail for poisoning a kid. A bouncer throws them out of the bar, which is now called "Nick's."
Outside, George goes into his pockets looking for his identification cards as well as the petals from Zuzu's flower, but they are not there. Angrily, George walks home, but finds that the town is completely transformed. Jazz is playing and there are a number of clubs and bars all along the central strip, as well as a large neon sign that reads, "Pottersville." George runs up to a police officer and asks about the Bailey Building and Loan, and the officer tells him it went out of business years ago.
George then sees Violet, who is screaming as she gets harassed by a group of cops. Confused, he jumps into a cab that Ernie is driving and asks to be taken home. He talks to Ernie about living in Bailey Park with his wife and kid, but Ernie insists that he lives in a shack in Potter's Field and his wife ran away with his kid a few years ago. As they drive, Ernie motions to a cop to follow them.
They arrive at the address George gave him and Ernie tells him that the house hasn't been inhabited in 20 years. George walks into the dilapidated house and searches for Mary, but it's empty. Suddenly, Clarence appears, as Bert ushers them outside the house. Clarence bites Bert's hand as he tries to arrest George and George makes a run for it.
George goes to Ma Bailey's house, which is now a boarding house. When she opens the door, she is dour and does not recognize him. When George tries to prove that he knows her, saying he recently saw Uncle Billy, she insists that Billy has been in an insane asylum ever since the business closed, before shutting the door in his face.
Clarence stands at the bottom of the walkway and says, "Strange isn't it? Each man's life touches so many lives." George decides to go to Bailey Park to visit Martini. When he arrives there, however, Bailey Park is now a cemetery. George sees his brother Harry's grave; Harry died falling through the ice. "You see George, you really had a wonderful life," Clarence says.
George asks Clarence where Mary is, and Clarence tells him that she's an old maid, just about to close up the library. George runs to the library and sees Mary closing the doors of the library; she does not recognize him. He chases her down the street and grabs her, which makes her scream, as some passersby call the police. When Bert tries to arrest George, he punches the cop in the face and runs, as Bert pulls out a gun and shoots at him.
Running to the bridge where he tried to commit suicide, George begs Clarence to send him back to his old life. "Please God, let me live again," he says, crying, as Bert pulls up in his cop car. George is back in his real life, and Bert now recognizes him, asking if he's alright. George becomes filled with joy as he realizes that his mouth is bleeding and Zuzu's petals are in his pocket. He runs off, wishing Bert a merry Christmas.
George is ecstatic as he sees his car and a sign in town identifying it as Bedford Falls. He bangs on Potter's office window and wishes him a "Merry Christmas." As he arrives home, the bank examiner and some officials are waiting for him, but he is completely unfazed. He greets his children with exuberance as Mary runs in and embraces him.
Suddenly, Uncle Billy runs in with a basketful of money. Mary had the idea to collect money from friends and they raised enough to keep the Building and Loan going. Townspeople gather in the living room and empty their money onto the table. "I've been saving this money for a divorce, if I ever get a husband," Annie says, running in with her own money. Someone comes in and reads a telegram from Sam Wainwright stating that he's sending $25,000.
Janie starts playing the piano, and Harry comes into the house. He raises a glass to his brother, "the richest man in town." George picks up Clarence's copy of Tom Sawyer, which has a note in the beginning: "Remember no man is a failure who has friends." A bell begins ringing on the Christmas tree, as Zuzu tells George that her teacher says an angel gets his wings, every time a bell rings.
Analysis
As a way of showing George just how valuable he is to the community in Bedford Falls, Clarence creates a hypothetical world in which George never existed. He takes George's suicidal desire, to have never been born, and renders it in the world in order to show him what kind of influence he has had on his community. Within minutes of witnessing the town without him, George sees that the fate of the town would have been far different had he not been such an influential part of the community and protected its central values.
Without George's influence and his care in keeping Bedford Falls a beautiful and serene place to live, the town falls completely under Potter's influence, and becomes a much bleaker place. The main street is filled with seedy nightclubs, low-income citizens are forced to live in poverty and degradation, and policemen fill the streets. Pottersville starts to look more like a tawdry city than a sweet unassuming town, and George quickly realizes that he has done a lot to make everyone's life happier and better.
The central moral of the film is the idea that, even if one feels beaten down by the world and irrelevant, one is always important in the lives of others and these effects on others' lives change the course of history forever. This is summed up in Clarence's line in the cemetery, when he says to George, "Strange isn't it? Each man's life touches so many lives." The film contends that people often do not take into consideration what a huge impact their existence and deeds have on the lives of those around them, and that if they did, they could see, just like George Bailey, that life is indeed "wonderful."
When George returns to his real life, he is still riddled with debt, but no longer cares, because he is just excited to see the people close to him. It turns out, the debt problem isn't even an issue, however, as members of the community have stepped up to help him, donating their own savings to his cause. Because of the generosity of spirit and good will that George has created in the very social fabric of the town, his fellow citizens of Bedford Falls are all too happy to help him when he finds himself in a bind. The film shows the ways that human kindness, compassion, and generosity reproduces itself.
The film ends on a joyful, sentimental note. George finds himself rich in both money and friendship and Clarence gets his wings. His home is flooded with visitors, who sing a Christmas carol and congratulate him and his brother on their success in the world. It is no wonder that Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life has become such a consummate Christmas classic. Its story, that of an ordinary man discovering the joys of Christmas and the fruits of his own selfless compassion in small-town America, is markedly life-affirming.
