Trama

As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.

Three stories - one each from the past, present, and future - about men in pursuit of eternity with their love. A conquistador in Mayan country searches for the tree of life to free his captive queen; a medical researcher, working with various trees, looks for a cure that will save his dying wife; a space traveler, traveling with an aged tree encapsulated within a bubble, moves toward a dying star that's wrapped in a nebula; he seeks eternity with his love. The stories intersect and parallel; the quests fail and succeed.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Present-age surgeon Tom Creo is obsessed by a medical research project's unlikely side-benefit, the last hope to save his dying wife. It's based on a codes she researched, concerning conquistador Tomas, whose efforts to find the Mayan tree of life for the Spanish crow<n were countered by both Mayan defenders and grand inquisitor Silecio. In the future, the tree itself may be dying, which space-traveler Tommy is exploring.—KGF Vissers

Moving between representational stories and images, this meditation on life and death focuses on the concept of the mythical Tree of Life that is said to bestow immortality to all who drink of its sap. In one of the film's allegorical time-lines, a 16th century Spanish conquistador played by Hugh Jackman sets out to find the tree in order to save his queen (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. Another conceptual story finds Jackman centuries later, struggling with mortality as a modern-day scientist desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi. The third and most abstract concept finds Jackman as a different incarnation of the same character-idea, this time questing for eternal life within the confines of a floating sphere transporting the aged Tree of Life through the depths of space.

Born from the sacrifices of man, the legendary Tree of Life promises eternity to those who drink its sap. It is the quest for this fabled tree - or more importantly, its gift, which has consumed Tom (Jackman) over the course of 1000 years. Told in a non-linear style, The Fountain follows Tom's soul through three separate incarnations, each of whom is desperate to save the life of his soul mate Izzi (Weisz) by harnessing the power of The Tree.

Conquistador Tomás Verde (Hugh Jackman) (A 16th century Spanish conquistador set out in the deep jungles of South America to find the elixir of life that was purported to come from the Fountain of Youth springing forth from a tree atop a Mayan pyramid, where he fiercely fought a Mayan high priest) in New Spain fights a band of Mayans to gain entry into a pyramid (after his 2 companions fled after being trapped by the Mayans), where he is attacked by a Mayan priest (Tomas is captured by the Mayans and put forward in front of the priest who engages him in hand to hand combat at the top of the pyramid. The priest cuts through Tomas's stomach). Tomas was sent by Queen Isabella I of Castile (Rachel Weisz) on this quest.

The story inter-cuts to a similar looking man, tending a tall tree in a glass dome biosphere travelling through space (a man journeys through deep space in a futuristic spherical spacecraft with a tree assumed to be the one Tom Creo planted on the grave of his wife Izzi half a millennium earlier, heading toward a dying star believing its explosion will restore her), annoyed by a woman called Izzi (Rachel Weisz) (or is it the memories of Izzy?).

Finally, a third iteration, present-day surgeon Tom Creo (Hugh Jackman), is losing his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz) to a brain tumor. Tom is working on a cure using samples from a tree found through exploration in Guatemala (a scientist discovers a South American tree with promising life-extending properties in an attempt to cure his wife of brain cancer), which are being tested for medicinal use for degenerative brain diseases in his lab. His experiments in the lab are successful in reversing aging but can't avoid death (He ignores the findings of his anti-aging formula on an ape as he is so focused on curing the brain tumor). She is rapidly losing her sense of touch and hot/cold as the brain tumor expands.

Izzi has come to terms with her mortality, but Tom refuses to accept it, focused on his quest to find a cure for her. She writes a story called "The Fountain" about Queen Isabella losing her kingdom to the Inquisition (The inquisitor is using the name of the Lord to acquire property and render the Queen powerless) and a commission given by her to Tomás Verde to search for the Tree of Life in the Central American forest in Mayan territory. The Queen summons Tomas and their Father Avila (Mark Margolis) tells Tomas of the location of a lost pyramid of the Mayans which will free mankind from all tyranny. Father Avila says the Pyramid is built on the navel of the Earth, the birthplace of all life. There stands a tree of life, the fountain of immortality. Tomas is convinced when the Queen says that the bible also tells of 2 trees in the garden of Eden, Knowledge and life. when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of Knowledge, God banished them and hid the tree of Life. Tomas promises to find the tree and the Queen gives him a ring to remind him of his promise (it is the same ring as Tom's engagement ring).. The Inquisitor knows of this and wants to stop the Queen at all costs. The Inquisitor announces publicly that the Queen is a heretic for seeking immortality on Earth.

As she does not expect to finish her book, Izzi asks Tom to finish it for her. As they look up at the golden nebula of Xibalba, she imagines, as the Mayans did, that their souls will meet there after death and when the star goes supernova. Izzi explains death as an act of creation with Tom cannot understand. She dies shortly thereafter, and Tom dedicates himself to curing not only her disease but death itself (Just as Izzi dies, Tom receives news that the ape's brain tumor has started shrinking and Tom is so frustrated that he vows to defeat death itself).

His colleagues fear that this drive has made him reckless, but they support him in his scientific work and emotionally at Izzi's funeral. Tom plants a sweet-gum seed at Izzi's grave in the manner of a story she told him relating how a Mayan guide's dead father lived on in a tree nourished by the organic nutrients of the buried body.

In the Mayan jungle, Tomás finds that most of his fellow knights are exhausted and refuse to continue searching for the Tree of Life. After a failed coup and the death of their priest guide, he takes the few who remain loyal with him to a pyramid, carrying a ceremonial dagger. Once he arrives at the pyramid, the first scene repeats and Tomás engages in combat with the Mayan priest.

The space traveler (whether this character is a version of Tom, an element of Izzy's story, or Tom himself in the future is unclear. Although there are some similarities like the pen Izzi gifted her before dying and the Tattoo mark Tom drew on his finger when he lost his wedding ring to Izzi) spends much of his time performing physical or mental exercises, including a form of meditation allowing him to perceive and interact with the past.

In that past, Tomás is stabbed in the stomach but, just as the priest is about to kill him, he appears before the figurehead. The priest now believes Tomás is the "First Father" who birthed all life. Tomás kills the priest as a sacrifice and proceeds to a pool with a large tree, convinced this is the Tree of Life. Tomás applies some of its sap to his torso and is cured of his stab wound. He drinks the sap flowing from the bark. But in a reenactment of the Mayan creation myth recounted earlier, his body is turned into flowers and grass that burst forth from it and he literally gives rise to new life, killing himself in the process.

In space, the tree finally dies just before the spaceship arrives at its destination, much to the horror of the version of Tom tending it. A final vision of Izzi appears, comforting him in the face of his acceptance of death. The star goes supernova, engulfing the ship and everything within. The traveler's body, engulfed by the dying star inside of the nebula, is absorbed by the tree, causing it to flourish back to life. Izzi's apparition picks a fruit from the new tree of life and hands it to Tom, who plants it in Izzi's grave.