Heart-Shaped Box

Jude goes to the barn housing his two dogs—Angus and Bon—and gets into his Mustang. Because he bought and refurbished the Mustang around the same time Florida came into his life, he reminisces about their relationship. He then realizes that his car is running and that Craddock’s ghost is in the back seat. Georgia pulls Jude out, and he realizes that the ghost tried to lull him into suicide by inhaling car exhaust. He catches his breath while Angus and Bon bark at the ghost.

Jude and Georgia head back into the house. Before Jude gets into bed, he sees Craddock’s ghost swinging his razor near Georgia but feels powerless to warn her. He falls asleep and dreams of Craddock’s service in the Vietnam War: Craddock hypnotizes a Viet Cong captive into cutting off his own fingers. The dream then incorporates Jude’s father’s criticism of his clothes. When Jude wakes, he realizes that he needs to sell Craddock’s suit to someone else, but when he goes downstairs, Georgia has set the suit on fire.

Jude decides to remove Georgia from the house and cut contact for her safety. They talk about whether or not he intended to die by car exhaust and the one time she tried to die by suicide when she was younger. The conversation turns to Florida, and he sees his opening to push Georgia away: Jude claims that all of his relationships typically end within a year and that their own probably won’t end happily. However, Georgia is determined to banish Craddock’s ghost.

Jude wakes in the middle of the night and notices that Georgia isn’t in bed. He receives a call from a drunken Danny, who says he is lost (on the “nightroad”); this strikes Jude as odd because Danny is typically self-reliant. He hangs up and finds Georgia downstairs in front of the television, watching his snuff film. Danny calls again, and Jude picks up the phone while watching Georgia. Danny says he remembers how he got lost: He hanged himself a few hours ago. He warns Jude that Craddock’s ghost will kill him. Jude hangs up and goes to Georgia, who is masturbating with a gun in her mouth. He becomes aroused and fantasizes about having oral sex with her while holding the gun to her head. Suddenly, he sees the ghost beside him in a window reflection, and he stops himself from killing Georgia.

Suddenly, a news segment describes how Jude would have killed Georgia. He insists that he would never hurt her but finds that Craddock’s voice is already in his mind. Craddock tells him to kill Georgia, and as much as he tries to resist, Jude finds himself restraining her. However, he frees himself from the ghost’s spell by skewering his hand on a kitchen knife, shifting his focus to pain.

Jude runs into Danny’s office, where radio noises trigger a childhood memory of his father, Martin, injuring his hand. He focuses on Angus and Bon barking outside, which pulls him back to reality. He goes to his dogs and finds a ghostly pickup truck that he assumes belongs to Craddock. Jude realizes that the ghost followed him outside, but he remembers an occult book describing familiars (helpful animal spirits). He unleashes Angus and Bon on the ghost, and they manifest dog-like shadows that banish him and his truck.

In the morning, Jude decides to take Georgia and the dogs on a road trip south.

When Jude sees Craddock tailing them in his ghost truck, he pulls off the road to get a hotel room for the night. He, Georgia, and the dogs cram into a room and discuss their plan to find Jessica Price. The conversation turns to Jude’s relationship with Florida. Georgia suggests they see her grandmother, Bammy, in Georgia—to use her Ouija board to contact Florida for help.

Jude reflects on his relationship with Florida, who had bipolar disorder. During manic episodes, she was extremely perceptive; she noticed that Jude blamed himself for the deaths of his bandmates and that his hand was injured by his abusive father. He revealed that Martin crushed his child self’s guitar hand in a door when he took money to fund his dream of becoming a musician. Jude also reflects on Florida’s depressive episodes, which she tried to stop by pricking herself with a pin.