Clouds: A Heart-Wrenching Movie

Clouds isn’t just another cheesy Disney film, but rather an emotional film based off the life and struggles of Zach Sobiech.

Ashley Wandling

The movie Clouds is available to view on Disney Plus.

By Ashley Wandling, Staff Writer

The hit Disney Plus movie Clouds is based on a true story about a teenager named Zach Sobiech who is battling more than just the struggles of high school. When his cancer goes terminal, he must learn to live what little of his life he has left.

The movie opens with a monologue by Zach Sobiech, expressing humor despite being diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. We are introduced to characters Sammy Brown, played by Sabrina Carpenter, and Amy Adamle, played by Madison Iseman.

Zach performs on stage, in place of his best friend Sammy, a remix version of “Sexy and I Know It.” While singing this song and cracking jokes about his baldness, this scene expresses Zach’s comedic personality.

After discovering that Zach’s cancer has become terminal, his mom becomes desperate to not lose her son. She goes as far as traveling across the country to Lourdes, France to step foot in the healing waters, partly hoping something miraculous might happen.

During this, the bond between Zach and Amy begins to develop. At the same time, Sammy and Zach decide to write a couple of songs together to fulfill Zach’s dream: singing in front of a crowd. One of the songs Zach writes is “Clouds,” written as a farewell to the world before he dies.

Aside from the main storyline, Clouds was intricately crafted in order to tell Zach’s story accurately. From the acting to the intricate set designs, the movie was well thought out and planned. The movie was under the direction of Justin Baldoni, also director of the movie Five Feet Apart, a movie about teenage lovers with Cystic Fibrosis.

With his past experiences directing a movie about characters with physical sicknesses, Baldoni knew how to be able to capture every emotional moment of this story.

Each bedroom on set was replicated as closely as possible to the real thing. They even had actor Fin Argus use Zach’s real clothes and crutches to fully get into character.

For the other roles, both Sabrina Carpenter and Madison Isemen spent time with the real Sammy and Amy that went to high school with Zach in an effort to understand their characters more. Actor Tom Everett Scott and actress Neve Campbell, the father and mother of Zach, worked together with Laura Sobiech and Rob Sobiech on important parts of the script in order to match the movie with real-life events.

The amount of collaboration that the movie took to create it is admirable. There was a huge amount of effort that was put into the creation of Clouds to make sure Zach’s story was told with as much accuracy as possible with no details left out. The final production of the movie beautifully portrayed the life of Zach Sobiech.

Overall, Clouds is a movie filled with romance, complicated friendships, a mother who cares for her son, and a father who can’t wrap his mind around his son’s sickness. I would recommend this movie for people who are into romance and heartfelt movies. If you want a good cry, this movie is sure to bring you to tears.