What Goes Up (2009) — AI Story Visualization

Plot Analysis Summary

A reporter investigating a teacher's death discovers that stories, grief, and personal identity can obscure rather than simplify the truth.

Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases

The Reporter’s Burden

Campbell introduces the professional rules that shaped his reporting. His memories of Angela reveal that he has already violated his own emotional boundary.

Key Events

• Reporter’s Professional Rules — Campbell states that reporters should tell the truth and avoid emotional involvement with subjects. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: Campbell's recollection
• Angela’s Story Recalled — Campbell recalls renaming a murder witness Angela and writing an article about her. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: Campbell's memory
• Love Breaks the Boundary — Campbell admits that he loved Angela despite the professional boundary he was supposed to maintain. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: Campbell's memory
• Arrival in New Hampshire — Campbell travels to a New Hampshire town to cover a teacher's death. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: New Hampshire town

A Teacher Remembered

Campbell arrives in New Hampshire to investigate a teacher's death. The students resist being turned into material and insist that the teacher helped them trust one another.

Key Events

• Arrival in New Hampshire — Campbell travels to a New Hampshire town to cover a teacher's death. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: New Hampshire town
• Teacher’s Death Investigated — Campbell begins investigating the death and the legacy left among the teacher's students. Characters: Campbell Babbitt Location: New Hampshire town
• Outcast Students Remember — The students say the teacher cared for them and helped them trust one another. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Students Resist the Article — The students distrust Campbell and reject his attempt to reduce their experiences to a newspaper story. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Campbell Explains His Purpose — Campbell says he wants to understand the teacher's legacy rather than simply produce a routine article. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School

Stories and Redemption

Campbell shares the story of Angela and explains why stories may offer redemption. The students question his feelings and force him to examine his own motives.

Key Events

• Campbell Explains His Purpose — Campbell says he wants to understand the teacher's legacy rather than simply produce a routine article. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Angela’s Influence Revisited — Campbell tells the students how his writing about Angela affected other people. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Questions About Love — The students question Campbell about his feelings for Angela and the cost of emotional involvement. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Stories Might Redeem — Campbell recalls being told to keep telling stories because stories might help people find redemption. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Campbell Meets Lucy — Lucy grows close to Campbell while grieving the teacher and draws him into the students' complicated world. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School

Grief and Suspicion

Lucy grows close to Campbell and seeks intimacy, while a suspension letter suggests an inappropriate relationship involving the teacher. Campbell begins to doubt the students' idealized version of events.

Key Events

• Campbell Meets Lucy — Lucy grows close to Campbell while grieving the teacher and draws him into the students' complicated world. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School
• Lucy Seeks Intimacy — Lucy tries to begin an intimate relationship, but Campbell refuses to confuse their identities with those of the dead. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School
• Suspension Letter Surfaces — A letter announces the teacher's immediate suspension for an inappropriate relationship with a student. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School
• Lucy Claims a Love Affair — Lucy and others interpret the letter as evidence that she and the teacher were in love. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School
• Tess Faces Pregnancy — Campbell learns Tess is pregnant and accompanies her while she ends the pregnancy. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Tess Sullivan Location: Clinic

Conflicting Testimonies

Campbell supports Tess through her pregnancy, provoking Lucy's anger. Their confrontation produces incompatible explanations about the teacher, the report, and the necklace.

Key Events

• Tess Faces Pregnancy — Campbell learns Tess is pregnant and accompanies her while she ends the pregnancy. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Tess Sullivan Location: Clinic
• Lucy Resents Campbell — Lucy is hurt that Campbell went with Tess and connects Tess's report to the teacher's relationship with her. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Lucy Denies Sex — Lucy denies having sex with the teacher and says the necklace came from the entire student group. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond Location: School
• Competing Truths Collide — Campbell confronts incompatible accounts of the teacher's conduct, Lucy's grief, and Tess's role in the report. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: School
• Truth Remains Complicated — Campbell is left to reconcile the students' conflicting versions of the teacher and his death. Characters: Campbell Babbitt, Lucy Diamond, Tess Sullivan Location: New Hampshire town

Story Breakdown

• Reporter’s Moral Code — Campbell begins with professional rules that conflict with his emotional memories.
  • Truth and Detachment — Campbell says reporters must tell the truth and avoid emotional involvement.
  • Angela’s Lasting Impact — His article about Angela affected others, while her death left him admitting that he loved her.
• Arrival After Death — Campbell travels to New Hampshire to investigate a teacher's death and its meaning for the students.
  • New Hampshire Assignment — Campbell arrives in a town where the teacher's death has drawn attention.
  • Legacy Investigation — He seeks to understand what the teacher meant to the students.
• Students Resist Simplification — The students challenge Campbell's authority and refuse to become a simple newspaper story.
  • Outcast Community — The students describe themselves as outsiders who were helped to trust one another.
  • Refusing The Article — They warn Campbell not to reduce their experiences or the teacher to a written narrative.
• Stories And Redemption — Campbell's past reporting becomes a way for the students to question his motives and emotional boundaries.
  • Questions About Angela — The students press Campbell about whether he loved the witness he wrote about.
  • Redemptive Storytelling — Campbell recalls the idea that stories can help people find redemption.
• Grief And Intimacy — Lucy draws Campbell into a personal conflict over grief, attraction, and the identity of the dead.
  • Lucy Seeks Closeness — Lucy grows close to Campbell and attempts to turn grief into an intimate relationship.
  • Campbell Refuses Replacement — Campbell refuses to confuse their identities with those of the dead.
• Competing Accounts — Evidence and personal accusations fracture the students' shared image of the teacher.
  • Suspension Letter — A letter alleges an inappropriate relationship between the teacher and a student.
  • Tess And The Pregnancy — Campbell supports Tess through her pregnancy, increasing Lucy's anger and suspicion.
  • Necklace Dispute — Lucy denies sex with the teacher and says the necklace came from the entire group.

Directed by

Jonathan Glatzer

Key Cast

• Steve Coogan — Campbell Babbitt
• Hilary Duff — Lucy Diamond
• Olivia Thirlby — Tess Sullivan
• Josh Peck — Jim Lement
• Molly Shannon — Penelope Little