WARNING: The following obviously features a lot of SPOILERS for “Last Christmas,” the truly bonkers rom-com from director Paul Feig that stars Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding and is very heavily based on the lyrics of George Michael’s pop song. So if you have not seen “Last Christmas” yet then you should proceed very, very cautiously. That is unless, you want the film to be ruined for you. If so, then feel free to read on.
When the first trailer for “Last Christmas” debuted back in August, speculation immediately started to swirl about the plot twist that the film was obviously trying to tease a little bit, but mostly hide.
It was obvious that the rom-com was going to revolve around Emilia Clarke’s Kate, a 20-something, down on her luck Londoner working in a Christmas store, increasingly falling in love with Henry Golding’s mysterious Tom. Still something just seemed a little off.
Some people even predicted that the film was going to interpret the song’s opening lyrics, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart,” quite literally and use it as a plot point.
It turns out, they were right, because after showing Kate fall in love with the seemingly too good to be true Tom, it is revealed that she was the recipient of Tom’s heart after he died in a bike accident the previous Christmas.
You see, another key element of “Last Christmas” is that Clarke’s character had previously been suffering from a life-threatening illness for several years before the transplant, which was then cured by the use of Tom’s heart.
George Michael fans concerned that the singer might be rolling in his grave over “Last Christmas’” use of his song don’t need to fret, though. That’s because screenwriter Emma Thompson, who also stars in the film as Clarke’s mother, previously ran the idea for the film by the legendary performer before he sadly passed away at the age of just 53 on Christmas Day, 2016.
“Emma had met with him before he passed away, and he had read the treatment that she had written up for the movie,” Feig recently told Vulture. “He was very aware of it, and really liked what she was doing.”
