The new Fountain of Youth movie, now streaming on Apple TV+, is a throwback to the adventure treasure hunt movies that don’t often get made anymore. But when it comes to the story, Fountain of Youth fails to deliver a compelling narrative.
Directed by Guy Ritchie, with a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, Fountain of Youth stars John Krasinski as Luke, an adventure-seeking man determined to carry out his father’s legacy of, well, adventuring. His younger sister, Charlotte (played by Academy Award-winner Natalie Portman) is out of the game, in favor of a more legal lifestyle as an art curator. But her brother sucks her back into the world of adventure when a wealthy client (Domhnall Gleeson) hires him for a new quest, to find the Fountain of Youth.
It’s very much like National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code, but unlike those movies, the plot of this treasure hunt movie doesn’t really make sense. If you found Fountain of Youth to be confusing, you’re not the only one. Don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a thorough breakdown of the Fountain of Youth movie plot summary and the Fountain of Youth movie ending explained.
The movie opens with a high-speed scooter chase in Bangkok. Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) is fleeing from a guy named Kasem (Steve Tram), from whom Luke has just stolen a priceless painting. With the help of his team, Murphy (Laz Alonso) and Deb (Carmen Ejogo), Luke gets away.
Luke pays a visit to his estranged younger sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman), who works at an art museum. But his visit has an ulterior motive: Luke steals yet another priceless painting. Charlotte pursues him, and Luke convinces her to join him in his getaway car, insisting that she has missed the adventure lifestyle. He drives them back to his team, and it’s revealed Murphy and Deb are the same team that Luke and Charlotte’s late father worked with. The movie doesn’t clarify what, exactly, Luke and Charlotte’s father did, only that he was some sort of vague treasure-hunter who went on adventures, and told his children that “the journey is more important than the prize.”
Luke doesn’t find what he’s looking for on the stolen painting, so he returns both the painting and Charlotte. Charlotte, now considered an accessory to the art heist, loses her job at the museum. She’s also facing a threat from her soon-to-be ex-husband that she is going to lose custody of their son, Thomas (Benjamin Chivers).
Charlotte goes to yell at Luke for ruining her life, and discovers that Luke has been hired by a rich benefactor, Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson), to search for the Fountain of Youth. Owen is dying of liver cancer, believes the fabled Fountain of Youth is real, and that if he can drink from it, his cancer will be cured. Luke insists this will be the most important archeological discovery in history, and that he wants his family name to get credit for that discovery. Through their research, Owen and Luke believe that the location of the Fountain has been passed down through generations, via people called “Protectors of the Path,” who protect the secret location of the Fountain. Luke believes that he was attacked by one of the protectors, Esme (Eiza González), while escaping Bangkok on a train.
In the 1600s, six artists—Caravaggio, Ruben, Wilden, Velásquez, El Greco, and Rembrandt— made a pact to reveal the location of the Fountain, by hiding a clue in their paintings. Invisible ink on the paintings inscribes the phrase “six in one,” in Latin. Each painting also has a mark of a different letter: D, C, K, I, E. What could that mean? They don’t have the last letter, because the Rembrandt stolen from Charlotte’s museum was a copy. Charlotte agrees to help Luke track down the correct Rembrandt, in exchange for Owen using his powerful lawyers to win her back custody of her son.
Luke and Charlotte find the Rembrandt in a shipwreck off the coast of Ireland, where a wealthy buyer had kept the painting in a safe, before his ship sunk. After another scuffle with Esme, they get the painting. It reveals the letter “V,” so now the letters are D, C, K, I, E, V. But as Charlotte points out, “V” is “W” in Latin. When rearranged, the letters spell out WICKED. That’s not, in fact, a reference to the hit Broadway musical, but a reference to the “Wicked Bible,” aka the misprint of the King James Bible that was published in 1631 containing the Commandment, “Thou shalt commit adultery,” rather than “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
Meanwhile, Owen gets Charlotte her son back by transferring her ex-husband to a job in Japan. So the young Thomas joins the adventure, and they all head to the Austrian National Library to find a copy of the Wicked Bible. After yet another tussle with Esme the protector, they get the Bible. They find a clue in the gilding on the pages, a repeating pattern of numbers using the digits one through seven. Thomas, a young musical prodigy, realizes they are not numbers, but musical notes.
The notes play an ancient song called “Water in the Desert,” which honors the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. When they lay “the path from the paintings” on top of the Seven Wonders, only one Wonder doesn’t match up: The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. (The movie brushes over where this “path” from the paintings comes from, but I guess we’re just supposed to go with it.) Our heros deduce that the fountain is at the pyramids. So they go to the pyramids.
Meanwhile, in Vatican City, Esme tells her boss (Stanley Tucci, who is in this movie for one scene, perhaps only as a Conclave reference) that Luke is very close to finding the location of the fountain. Stanley Tucci encourages Esme to stop Luke from finding the fountain by any means necessary. He insists the fountain is too powerful and too tempting for humankind. He gives her a special key to help her stop the fountain’s discovery.
Luke conveniently acquires a 3D scan of the pyramids that shows secret tunnels, passageways, and chambers under the pyramids. They assume those lead to the Fountain. Once inside the pyramids, Owen grows increasingly impatient to find the fountain. He has his men destroy a wall of the pyramid to get to the tunnel, despite Charlotte’s protests. When the team gets to a room where a large cylinder “keystone” needs to be moved, Owen prepares to blow it up with explosives, despite both Charlotte and Luke’s objections.
Luckily, Thomas once again saves the day by playing that ancient “Water in the Desert” song on some ancient timpani drums. This song triggers something that makes the keystone magically float in the air into the place where it needs to be. At this point, the movie gives up on logical explanations, and fully embraces magic and mysticism.
Meanwhile, both Esme and an Interpol police officer, Inspector Jamal Abbas (Arian Moayed), fight with Owen’s security team outside the pyramids. They make their way inside, and follow Luke and Charlotte down the hidden chambers, where they do, in fact, find the Fountain of Youth.
Owen insists that Luke get into the Fountain before him. Charlotte realizes that Owen was lying about dying of cancer, and just wants the power and money that will come with the fountain. Owen shoots Luke in the arm, so Luke dutifully wades into the fountain. Luke is surrounded by the fountain’s magical water, which heals his arm. Excited, Owen shoots Luke more times, in the chest, to see if it will heal that, too. It does!
Luke gazes into the fountain and is very tempted to drink his water. But he sees a vision that shows him that if he drinks, his power will come at the expense of his sister and his nephew. Luke would remain forever young, but Charlotte and Thomas would age rapidly. So, Luke decides not to drink.
Owen eagerly comes forward for his turn at the fountain. At the same time, Esme uses her very special key that Stanley Tucci told her to use to shut the fountain down, if the wrong person drinks from it. Tucci explains that if you drink from the fountain, it will give you youthful energy by draining it from your loved ones. However, if you’re a narcissist who loves only yourself—like Owen—there will be no exchange, and you’ll get a direct connection to infinite power that will drain you of life. Owen drinks from the fountain, withers up, and dies. At the same time, Esme uses the key to shut down the fountain.
The pyramid begins to close off all the secret tunnels and chambers. Our heros scramble to escape, and with Esme’s help, they manage to get out of there. Esme commends Luke for being able to touch the fountain without drinking from it. Back outside, Charlotte convinces Inspector Abbas to let Owen take the fall for the stolen paintings, which have now been returned. Esme says goodbye to Luke with a kiss on the cheek, and warns him that if he goes back to the Fountain, she will chase him down.
Luke reflects that his father was right, in that some things were meant to stay lost. He also offers to get Charlotte a new job. But Charlotte proposes that she and Luke keep treasure hunting together, to “find something lost.” Luke asks what she has in mind, and her son Thomas replies, “I’ve got an idea.” With that, the movie ends. We don’t know what his idea is, exactly, but we assume it’ll be the sort of child-like treasure hunt this family loves to embark on.
Look, Fountain of Youth is one of those movies that would prefer its audience not think very hard about the plot. The filmmakers just want you to come along for the adventure, and not ask too many questions. In the end, it doesn’t make much sense. Kinda makes you respect National Treasure a lot more, right?