Disney’s ‘Clouds’ Tells True Story of Catholic Teen with Terminal Cancer
Fin Argus as Zach Sobiech in “Clouds.” Photo courtesy of Disney.
(REVIEW) How do you come to terms with the loss of a loved one? Why do bad things happen to good people? How should you live your life if you know you’re going to die?
All these questions and more are the subject matter of “Clouds,” a Disney+ original that was released to the platform on Oct. 16.
“Clouds” follows the story of Zach Sobiech, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma when he was 14. He battled this for the last three years of his life. Before his death in May 2013, he formed the band A Firm Handshake with his friend Sammy and recorded several songs they wrote.
The most popular of these songs, “Clouds,” went viral at the time; it has over 16 million views on YouTube today.
The movie is based on a book Zach’s mom Laura wrote, entitled “Fly a Little Higher: How God Answered a Mom's Small Prayer in a Big Way.” When Zach was diagnosed with cancer, she began a blog to share her family’s journey and struggles through the process. This book is the resulting compilation of that journey.
A devout Catholic family, the Sobiechs fully relied on God.
“It was difficult. And the only way we got through it was through God's grace,” she told the Christian Post of the years they spent battling Zach’s cancer.
This faith is portrayed in the movie in a refreshing and genuine way — it shows the lives of believers without being incomprehensible to non-faith audiences and avoids being preachy.
Zach tells his mom when they’re talking about planning his funeral that he doesn’t want them to read Psalm 23 because it’s “overdone.” Instead, he requests bagpipes. And sure enough, bagpipes play “Amazing Grace” at his funeral.
Often, early on, Zach’s morning routine involves taking several medications and smiling at himself in the mirror to lift his spirits in the face of everything he’s suffering through. On one of these mornings, the scene is backed by famous, early Gospel group The Soul Stirrers singing “Jesus Be A Fence Around Me.” He tries his hardest to smile, but eventually breaks into tears.
After doctors tell Zach that he’s terminal and the chemo is no longer working, they decide to stop treatment. But in a move of faith, they visit the baths in Lourdes, France — a popular Catholic pilgrimage destination where the water is said to bring occasional healing.
The night before he enters the baths, he asks just once why he’s been given this cancer: “Did I piss off God somehow?”
It’s the teenager’s version of the age-old question, one that even religion has a hard time answering.
There isn’t an answer that “Clouds” proclaims to know, either. By all indicators, the movie shouldn’t be one that leaves the viewer hopeful.
Part of this is because it’s such an accurate portrayal of what it’s like to take care of and lose someone with cancer — from the way Zach’s physical condition deteriorates to the way his family struggles to stay together.
But not this, nor the physical end of Zach’s story, are things that diminish the hope the movie depicts.
In the most chill-inducing scene of the movie, Zach and Laura enter the baths together, into separate rooms. In French, Catholic hymn “Immaculate Mary” is sung behind them. Zach, stumbling, is lowered into the water by attendants. Laura, desperate for her son’s healing, begins to sob as she’s lowered into the water.
Obviously, the waters of Lourdes completed no miraculous healing of Zach’s cancer, but this is never addressed; the experience isn’t made to feel cheapened because it doesn’t bring physical healing. Instead, it’s left as a beautiful, transcendent experience.
And the way Zach lives the last months of his life suggest an abundance of faith and hope. It’s inspiring — and, truthfully, impressive — that he continues to pursue music even as the tumor in him grows and leaves him unable to do most things.
It’s something that Zach himself realized, too, and the choice to pursue music is something that was a conscious decision. As he says at the movie’s end, his advice to others is “that you don’t have to find out you’re dying to start living.”
“Clouds” is streaming now on Disney+.
Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and Evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.