Film / IF (2024)

IF is a 2024 hybrid live-action/animated fantasy comedy film written and directed by John Krasinski. It stars Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski, Alan Kim, Bobby Moynihan, and Fiona Shaw, with the voices of Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Krasinski, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Jon Stewart, Awkwafina, Christopher Meloni, Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Richard Jenkins, Blake Lively, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Matthew Rhys, Brad Pitt, and Louis Gossett Jr.^note In a posthumous role.

The story follows a young girl named Bea who discovers she can see the imaginary friends of others and joins with a man named Cal who has a similar power to help "IFs" abandoned by the children who outgrew them. The film premiered on May 17, 2024. Not to be confused with the 1968 British film or the 2020 webcomic based around imaginary friends of the same name. Or both movies called Imaginary and The Imaginary for that matter, although both are under a similar premise with this movie.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer

IF includes examples of the following:

• A Dog Named "Cat": In an extraordinarily confusing example, one of the IFs is supposedly a violin, is named "Viola", and looks more like a double bass or a cello than a violin or viola.
• A Lizard Named "Liz":
  • Ally is a plush alligator.
  • Uni is a plush unicorn.
• Actor Allusion: Brad Pitt seemingly "reprises" his role as Vanisher from Deadpool 2 as the Invisible IF, Keith.
• And Starring:
  • Steve Carell gets the "and" credit in the trailer.
  • Parodied in the film's credits for the IF voice actors, which read "...and introducing Brad Pitt as Keith." Note that Keith is silent and invisible in the film.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Quite a few of the IFs are these; there's Ice the glass of ice water, Viola (a stringed instrument), and a nameless marshmallow, just for starters.
• Asian and Nerdy: Benjamin, the little kid Bea meets in the hospital, is a precocious Asian boy who introduces himself to Bea by asking her to play chess and checkers with him.
• Big Applesauce: The film is set in New York City, with the IF retirement community located in a Coney Island amusement park.
• Big "OMG!": Blossom says "Oh God" several times throughout the film.
• Black Comedy: During the interviews, Cal, Bea and Lewis have an awkward interview with a flaming, melting marshmallow IF and are struggling not to look him in his eye... which promptly falls off his face.
• Busby Berkeley Number: As Bea begins to play around with the dimensions of the retirement home, Blossom gets a synchronized swimming sequence with dopplegangers of herself.
• Casting Gag:
  • This isn't Emily Blunt's first time voicing a unicorn character.
  • Brad Pitt is credited as Keith, the invisible IF, making this (allegedly) his second role as an invisible character in a Ryan Reynolds film.
  • In the Latin America dub, Lewis, a teddy bear-based IF, is voiced by Humberto Vélez, who is known for dubbing a certain honey-loving teddy bear.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Each of the IFs looks vastly different and distinctive from one another, ranging from realistic-looking toys like Lewis, friendly-looking monsters like Blue, anthropomorphic inanimate objects, cartoon figures have stylized designs of cartoon eras such as Blossom, and even a seemingly normal live action actor who initially seems to be a human, such as Calvin.
• Character Catchphrase: Cosmo, the trenchcoat IF, frequently yells "Cloak and dagger!" when he makes an exit.
• Character Narrator: Bea narrates at the beginning and end of the film.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Bea leaves Benjamin a little clay dragon, and he's later seen playing with it. The end of the film shows him with a new IF who resembles that dragon.
  • Blue's kid, Jeremy, lived above a bakery owned by his parents, and loved to eat croissants with Blue. Bea helps trigger Jeremy's memories and reconnect him to Blue by bringing croissants into his office.
• Chekhov's Skill: Cosmo insists he can track down anybody, a skill Bea and Cal employ to find Jeremy and the other former IFs' kids.
• The Chosen One: Invoked but subverted. When Bea asks how she's able to see the IFs, Blue says she's the chosen one, only for Cal to tell him not to give her a complex.
• Connected All Along: Not only is Cal revealed to be Bea's IF and Blossom her grandmother's IF, the mid-credits scenes reveal that nearly every minor character in the movie is the former owner of some of the more prominent IFs — Cosmo belongs to the worker at the convenience store where Bea bought a cable, Uni belongs to the receptionist at the office where Jeremy works, Ally belongs to the receptionist at the hospital, and Keith belongs to Bea's dad.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: One IF, Cosmo, is a short character in a trench coat and fedora leaving his features in darkness save his eyes. True to the archetype, he's a detective who can find anyone anywhere.
• Credits Gag: Brad Pitt is given an "introducing" credit for playing Keith, the invisible IF.
• Demoted to Extra: Blossom and Blue receive less screen time after reuniting with their creators.
• Double-Meaning Title: “IF” is stated to be the preferred term for the imaginary friends, but as Blue mentions at one point, “if” can refer to “what if imaginary friends were real?”
• Foreshadowing: There are some hints early on to Cal's true identity as Bea's IF.
  • When Bea first wakes in Cal's apartment, he, Blue, and Blossom all act as though she had been there before.
  • During their talk with Benjamin for an IF placement, Cal directs Bea to ask the questions for him.
  • Lewis says that Cal used to be "a real clown" - Bea is seen interacting with a clown when she was younger and her dad has a bookmark made by Bea with a clown.
  • Bea is shown to be intimidated by Cal's neighbor, an elderly woman. Cal himself refers to her as a "witch".
  • Despite appearing to be seemingly a normal human, other people do not notice him when next to Bea, or mention his presence, even without Bea there, and he is only seen interacting with Bea and the other IFs, hinting he's not another human working with them, but is actually one of them.
  • At one point, Bea is rooting around in her closet and the camera shows a volume of Calvin and Hobbes, with the first word of the title being particularly prominent. It was earlier established that Cal is short for Calvin.
• Free-Range Children: Bea travels around New York City on her own, usually to visit her father in the hospital or when helping the IFs. Justified due to the fact that living there in the past means that she knows her way around the city.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze: While trying to get his own placement, Blue lets out a massive, echoing sneeze while with Cal in the room of a sleeping child.
• Imaginary Friend: Or IF for short. As the trailer shows, the film centers around the abandoned IFs of children who have outgrown them.
• Inkblot Cartoon Style: Blossom, a female butterfly IF who looks like a character from the Silent Age of animation. This foreshadows that she's the IF of Bea's grandmother.
• Insistent Terminology: IFs prefer to be called the abbreviation rather than "imaginary friend."
• Invisible to Normals: IFs are invisible and silent to anyone other than the child who imagined them unless that child doesn't need them anymore; Cal and Bea have the rare ability to see multiple imaginary friends. They can also show up in photos to people who can see them, as seeing Blossom in an old photo of her grandmother is what makes Bea realize Blossom was her grandmother's IF. Averted with Keith, an IF who's invisible to everybody, including Cal and Bea.
  Cal: What kinda kid creates an invisible IF?!
• Jitter Cam: The opening prologue of the film has shaky camera work, most likely to reflect the "home movie" vibe.
• Logo Joke: The Paramount logo is presented in the style of one of Bea's childhood paintings.
• Memory Trigger: Bea uses these to get Blossom and Blue's original children, now grown-up, to remember them.
• Missing Mom: Bea's mother died from cancer when she was very young.
• Monsters Anonymous: When Bea first visits the retirement home for IFs, she passes a support group meeting for IFs missing their kids.
• No Antagonist: The film's main conflict is Bea coping with her father undergoing heart surgery and the possibility of losing him the same way she lost her mother to cancer, which is what prompts her to see the IFs again.
• Non-Indicative Name: Blue isn't actually blue; he's purple. He explains that his kid was colorblind.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Among the cartoony and fantastical IFs, Cal looks just like a normal human.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: IFs can have tangible effects on the world in some cases, such as Blue's sneezes actually being heard and occasionally knocking people over.
• The Reveal: Cal himself is an IF. Specifically, he's Bea's IF.
• Running Gag: Various other characters tripping over Keith the invisible IF.
• Species Title: IF is stated to be short for "Imaginary Friend", with the titular creatures given major focus in the film.
• Shout-Out: At one point Bea is rooting through her closet and a volume of Calvin and Hobbes, another piece of media involving a child and their (possibly) imaginary friend, can be seen. This is also a clue that Cal is actually Bea's IF.
• The Stinger:
  • After the main-on-end title, there is a montage of Cal reuniting IFs with their kids, now grown up and able to see them. It's also revealed that Bea's dad was the one who created Keith, the invisible IF.
  • The second stinger is a three-clip of Lewis and a dedication to his voice actor Louis Gossett Jr..
• Trademark Favorite Food: Blue loves croissants because they remind him of Jeremy's family's bakery. He repeats "Croissants and coffee" to himself to calm down, is seen baking some in Bea's revamped retirement home, and brings croissants to Jeremy's office to jog his memory and reconnect with him, which almost works.
• Tulpa: The IFs are essentially this, being imagined by a child and given life and free will. They continue to exist long after their child stops believing in them even if that child can no longer see or hear them, though, according to Blue, there is a danger of them disappearing.
• Unnamed Parent: Bea's dad and grandmother are simply credited as "Dad" and "Grandmother."
• Wham Shot: Near the end of the film, as Bea packs up to go, her box of paintings from her childhood falls over. As she puts them away, she comes across a painting of her and her parents... then unfolds it to reveal a clown named Calvin, revealing Cal was Bea's IF all along.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: With her imagination, Bea is able to transform the IF retirement home into a much more lively place, with each IF's room being personalized to their preferences, as well as go back in time to the early days of the amusement park.