Confused by The Greatest Hits movie on Hulu? Read this breakdown of The Greatest Hits plot summary and ending explained, including what the missing song is.
The Greatest Hits on Hulu—which began streaming today— is a movie with a fascinating concept. Many of us have experienced a pang of nostalgia or been reminded of a memory when we hear a certain song. The Greatest Hits takes that a step further. What if certain songs could literally pull you back into the past?
That’s the conundrum faced by the protagonist of The Greatest Hits, a woman who finds herself time-traveling into her past to visit her now-dead boyfriend. Written and directed by Ned Benson (The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby), the movie stars American-English actor Lucy Boynton, who you may know from her roles in 2016’s Sing Street and 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
But though the initial concept of The Greatest Hits is fascinating, the actual execution of the plot is a bit murky. Time travel plots are notoriously confusing, after all. If you got lost along the way, don’t worry: Decider is here to help. Read on for an analysis of The Greatest Hits plot summary and The Greatest Hits ending explained, including what the missing song in The Greatest Hits movie is.
We meet Harriet (Lucy Boynton) on the two-year anniversary of the death of her boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet). Harriet loves music and worked as a music producer before Max died in a fatal car crash. Since Max’s death, Harriet has discovered that certain songs cause her to literally time travel back to a time in her relationship with Max when they first heard the song together. But no matter how many times Harriet puts on the song that was playing on the day of the car crash, and travels back to that moment, she can’t convince Max to pull over the car to prevent the crash.
Because Harriet can’t control when she might hear a song that pulls her into the past, she wears earplugs and headphones when she’s out in public. She’s also searching for a specific “missing song” that she can’t remember the name of, but she believes it will take her back to the exact right time to prevent the car crash and save Max. Her best friend Morris (Austin Crute) urges her to let go of the past and live in the present, but Harriet can’t… until she meets a new guy named David (Justin H.
