When his mother falls gravely ill, a brave young boy risks everything to find a legendary figure said to have healing powers. Everyone tells him it’s just a myth but he refuses to give up hope.

‘SPOILER ALERT’

A boy named Gunner sneaks into a cemetery to watch the funeral of someone he doesn’t know. After he heads home, he continues working on his graphic novel about a detective who wants to solve his own murder. As he hears his mom, Mary, walking toward his room, he finds a place to hide so that he can scare her.

Interestingly, Mary already knows what her son is up to, and she catches him just as he’s about to scare her. After this, she spends some time playing with her son before they head down for dinner just as Gunner’s dad, Amos, arrives home from work. While at the table, Amos talks about how the town they just moved to is weird.

However, Mary says it just feels that way because it’s different from what they’re used to. As she asks for Gunner’s opinion, he appears to be focused on the book he’s reading. When he doesn’t respond to Mary, Amos calls his attention and tells him that he’s not supposed to read at the table.

Mary then mentions that Gunner has been exploring the town, and he even has a new friend, Bakemeyer, who owns a nearby bookstore. Gunner confirms this and adds that he went to a funeral earlier in the day. His parents are shocked to hear this, and Amos asks why he went there.

Gunner says it was for research, but Amos still doesn’t believe that his son really went to a stranger’s funeral. After dinner, Gunner’s parents talk about what happened, and Mary accuses Amos of making Gunner feel weird. Amos says it’s weird that Gunner is researching funerals when he knows that his mom is sick, but Mary defends him and says that it’s for his graphic novel.

After a while, Mary enters Gunner’s room and tells him that she knows how hard moving to a new town has been for him and Amos. Gunner says he doesn’t understand why his dad is always mad at him. He adds that he preferred when Amos was in Japan with the Navy.

Mary tells Gunner not to say that, but he mentions that it’s the truth. Mary then says that Amos loves Gunner a lot, but he has just been stressed out because of her sickness. After this, Gunner asks where people go when they die, but Mary says that no one knows for sure.

She adds that she believes there’s a special place where every soul goes, but no one will be able to understand it until they’re already there. Gunner asks if it’s like heaven, and Mary says it is. Gunner still asks if everyone goes there, but Mary says she doesn’t know. She then mentions that she knows they still have enough time together, and they have to spend it loving each other every day. After this, Mary hugs Gunner and sings to him while Amos stays outside and thinks about what happened.

The next morning, Amos heads to Gunner’s room and wakes him up so they can go outside to play football. Gunner looks surprised because it’s still very early in the morning, but Amos says it doesn’t matter. As Amos taps Gunner to get up, he accidentally spills paint on Gunner’s drawing book.

This gets Gunner pissed, and he walks out of the room while Amos looks disappointed because he was only trying to be nice to his son. Later that day, Gunner hears Mary coughing loudly, so he goes to check up on her. Mary says she’s just nauseous, and she closes the door to the bathroom before he comes in. Almost immediately, Amos arrives home, and Gunner tells him that Mary is sick again. Amos then runs to the bathroom to check up on his wife.

Almost immediately, Gunner goes to check his mom’s medication to see what they’re for. The next day, Gunner leaves the house and heads to Bakemeyer’s bookstore. When he gets there, Gunner returns all the books he borrowed earlier, and this leaves Bakemeyer shocked. As she asks if he’s done with the research for his graphic novel, Gunner says he’s already working on something different. He then asks Bakemeyer if he can borrow all the books she has on leukemia.

Bakemeyer is shocked by this, but she gives him the books he wants. When Gunner gets home, he starts reading the books and learning some new things about his mom’s condition. After a while, he meets with one of his mom’s nurses and tells her that he thinks the drugs Mary is currently taking are the wrong ones.

As he suggests new ones, the nurse says it’s not her call to change Mary’s medication. Days later, while Gunner is moving around the town, he sees a group of kids sitting in an abandoned building while a girl named Jo tells them the story of a local legend called the Water Man. Interestingly, Jo claims to have seen the Water Man before, and she says that she has a scar to prove it.

As the kids seem interested in the story, Jo mentions that she always thought the Water Man wasn’t real until she met him. She adds that he lives out in the woods by a lake called Wild Horse, and the forest has turned weird because of his powers. She also mentions that no one knows where to find the Water man except her.

After this, she tells everyone to pay her before she continues her story, and Gunner eventually leaves. When he gets home, he draws an image of Jo in his book because he finds her interesting. Later that night, while Gunner is reading a book on human anatomy, he sees some notes about the Water Man, who is believed to be immortal.

Gunner then remembers Jo’s story and wonders if the Water Man is real. After finding out who the original owner of the book is, Gunner decides to pay him a visit. The next day, Gunner goes to the house of a man named Jim. As Gunner shows him the Anatomy book and says that he’s there to ask about the Water man, Jim looks shocked. He then says that he got rid of the book a while ago, but Gunner mentions that he saw some of Jim’s notes inside.

Jim still looks shocked and asks if Gunner is trying to prank him, but he says he’s not. He adds that he’s new in town, and he only wanted to find out if the water man is real. Jim says he is, and Gunner mentions that he’s really hoping to get more information on the water man from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Jim then asks again if it’s a prank, but Gunner says it’s not. Following this, Jim invites him into the house and asks why he wants to know about the Water man. Gunner says there was a note in the book which suggested that the water man is immortal, and he just wants to know more about it.

Jim then shows Gunner a photo of the Water man and says that his real name was Edward. He adds that Edward and his wife moved to Wild Horse many years ago when it was a local town. One day, while he was working in the mines, Edward saw a small shiny rock which had a mesmerizing glow.

Later that night, the Wild Horse Dam broke and caused a serious flood. Unfortunately, Edward and his wife couldn’t escape, and they got swallowed up by the water. Jim says that his dad was still a boy at the time, and his grandfather was the one who examined all the dead bodies after the flood was gone.

He adds that after his grandfather declared them all deceased, Edward miraculously woke up, and since then, he has been referred to as the Water Man. Jim also mentions that even though Wild Horse had been washed away, Edward moved back there to look for his wife because he believed that he could save her if he found her body. After a while, Edward hung black stones around the forest to mark the places where he had searched.

Many people thought he had lost his mind, but Jim’s father and a few others didn’t think so because they claimed to have seen something strange in the woods. Interestingly, Edward was able to bring dead animals and plants to life, and Jim’s father believed it was proof that the Water Man’s power was real. As Gunner keeps listening to him, Jim mentions that people still believe the Water Man is living by the lake, searching the woods and the waters for his wife’s body so he can bring her back to life.

Gunner then asks how the water man got his powers, and Jim says that many people believed it was blood magic. However, Jim adds that his dad swore that it had something to do with the rock Edward found. Jim also mentions that when his dad died, he tried to go up to the lake to find the stone and confirm the story, but he realized that there was something strange about the forest.

Jim says he thought finding the Water man would help him see his father again, but his plan never worked out. As Gunner sees a map of the woods, he remembers what Jo said about being the only person who knows where to find the Water man. He then asks Jim if he has a copy of the map he can borrow.

However, Jim says he can keep the copy with him, and Gunner heads home. After looking at the map for a while, Gunner goes to bed, but he ends up having a nightmare in which he sees people drowning in a lake while Edward keeps calling for his wife. As Gunner wakes up, he heads out of his room to ensure that his mom is okay.

Interestingly, she doesn’t happen to be in the room with Amos, but as Gunner checks the bathroom, he sees her bald head and looks scared. Amos then leaves the room to see what’s wrong, and Mary says she thinks she scared Gunner. As she looks sad, Amos tells Gunner to stop freaking out because he’s upsetting his mom.

Gunner doesn’t listen to him, but Amos shouts at him to stop. This makes Gunner calm, but he just goes to meet Mary, who cannot believe that Amos really shouted at their son. The next morning, Gunner takes some of his saved money and packs his bag before leaving the house with his dad’s samurai sword.

He then goes to the abandoned building where Jo meets with the kids she tells her stories to. When he gets there, Jo sees him and asks if he’s actually holding a sword. Gunner confirms this, but he mentions that he has a question about the Water man. Jo asks if he has any money, and Gunner says he does. Jo then asks for his name, and as he tells her, she also introduces herself to him.

Gunner asks if she lives in the abandoned building, and she says she’s only staying there until she’s able to save enough money to get her own place. She adds that she has a few more stories that cost more than a dollar, but they’re totally worth it. Gunner says he’s ready to pay, but that he’ll still need some money to buy supplies. Jo asks what he needs supplies for, and Gunner says he’s going to find the Water man. Jo finds this interesting, and she tells him to enter her office, which happens to be a small tent inside the building.

After he goes in, Jo asks if he has been inside the woods alone before, but Gunner says he hasn’t. Jo then shows him her scar and tells him to pay her some money to get more information about the water man. After Gunner gives it to her, she says she’ll take him to find the Water man if he gives up all his money. Gunner says he still needs to buy supplies, and Jo mentions that she’ll take whatever is left after he does that. Gunner agrees to the deal, but Jo warns him that the woods can be really scary, and she’ll keep his money if he eventually backs out.

Gunner doesn’t seem to care about this, and he says he’s ready. Elsewhere, Amos notices that his sword is missing, and as he looks around the house, he sees that Gunner left a note for Mary on the table beside her bed. Mary still happens to be asleep, but after Amos reads the note, he just leaves the room.

Meanwhile, Gunner and Jo head to a nearby store to buy the supplies they need for their quest. As they start shopping, Gunner sees Jo stealing something, and he tells her to return it. However, Jo doesn’t listen to him, and she threatens to kill him if he tells the store owner about what she did.

After this, Gunner takes everything he needs and heads to the front to pay. The store owner, Chuck, then sees Gunner’s sword and asks if it’s a weapon. As Jo tells Chuck to mind his business, he finds it suspicious that the kids are buying things alone at the store. Before he tries to call the cops, Gunner tells him that the sword belongs to his dad. He adds that it’s an antique samurai sword, which his dad picked up when he was in Japan with the Navy.

He also mentions that they’re only buying things for a picnic, and Chuck allows them to leave. Elsewhere, Amos goes to the Sheriff’s office to report that his son is missing. The Sheriff, Goodwin, asks when his son went missing, but Amos says he doesn’t know.

Shortly after, Goodwin asks Amos a few questions about Gunner and if there’s a reason he might have run away. Amos then talks about how his family has been affected by Mary’s sickness. He also mentions that he raised his voice at Gunner the previous night.

Before Goodwin says anything, Amos shows her the note Gunner left for Mary. As Goodwin reads the note, it turns out that Gunner actually wrote that he knows how to make her better. Goodwin asks if Amos knows what it means, but he says he doesn’t. Shortly after, Gunner and Jo venture into the woods to begin their search for the Water man. After a while, they stop to rest, and Jo says she’s hungry.

Gunner then remembers that he didn’t bring a can opener, but Jo suggests using the sword. Gunner thinks it’s a bad idea, but Jo still uses it to open their can of food. Unfortunately, the contents of the can splash on her clothes, and Gunner laughs at her.

Meanwhile, Amos arrives home and checks Gunner’s room for clues on where he might have gone. Suddenly, he hears Mary calling Gunner’s name, so he heads to the room to check up on her. When he gets to the room, Mary asks about Gunner, and Amos tells her that he’s playing outside. Mary then says that Amos was really hard on Gunner the previous day, and he says that he’s sorry. However, Mary says that she’s not the one he should be apologizing to.

Shortly after, Amos leaves the house and asks some kids if they’ve seen Gunner. The boys say they haven’t seen Gunner, but one of them jokes that maybe the Water man has captured him. As the boys leave, Amos asks who the water man is, and one of them says it’s just a weird ghost story.

Elsewhere, Gunner and Jo light a fire in the woods to stay warm. Jo then asks if Gunner’s dad just let him take the sword out of the house. As Gunner doesn’t respond to this, Jo realizes that he ran away from home. Gunner says he left a note, but Jo thinks he shouldn’t have done that if he really wanted to run away. She then asks if Amos hits him, but Gunner says he doesn’t.

Jo seems confused by this, but Gunner says that he’s never good enough for his dad. He adds that Amos is probably happy that he’s gone. After this, he asks about Jo’s parents and if they’re going to come out to look for her. Jo says she doesn’t need anyone looking out for her because she can take care of herself. Just then, they hear an animal howling in the woods, and they wonder if it’s a coyote.

Jo says it could also be the howling wild horses that are always in the woods, but Gunner seems confused because he has never heard about them. Jo says they travel in packs, and that it’s best to take turns keeping watch. After she tells Gunner to take the first watch, she goes to sleep, and he stares at his dad’s sword. Much later, he hears a strange sound in the woods and walks toward it. Someone then runs past him a few times, but Gunner doesn’t see anything.

As he keeps looking around, he sees a hanging black rock and realizes that he and Jo are on the right track. Elsewhere, Mary asks about Gunner again, and Amos mentions that their son is sleeping. Mary then notices that Amos is worried about something. As she asks him about it, he says that he’s just concerned that Gunner doesn’t want him around. Mary then says that Gunner actually needs him, even though he doesn’t act like it.

The next morning, Amos and Goodwin start going around the town to ask if anyone has seen Gunner. They also hand out posters for people to display at their shops. Shortly after, Amos visits Bakemeyer, who looks shocked when she hears that Gunner is missing. She then collects Amos’ number so she can call him if she sees Gunner.

Elsewhere, Jo offers Gunner some of the candy she stole, but he says he’s not interested. He then mentions that stealing is bad, but Jo thinks he’s exaggerating because she’s sure he has stolen something before. Gunner says he has never done that, and Jo jokes that she’s sure his mom is proud of him.

Gunner doesn’t like her tone, and he tells her not to talk about his mom. As they fight about this, they see the wild horses running toward them, and they quickly find a place to hide. After a while, they stop at a spot where snow is falling. As Gunner talks about it, Jo says it’s not supposed to snow because they’re in July. However, Gunner thinks it’s a sign that they’re on the right track.

Meanwhile, Amos goes to Chuck’s store to leave a poster. As Chuck sees Gunner on the poster, he asks if Amos is in the Navy, and he says he is. After this, Goodwin enters the store, and Chuck tells them what happened the other day. He also mentions that Gunner was with a girl who had a fresh scar on her neck. Shortly after, Bakemeyer calls the house landline, and Mary answers the phone.

As Bakemeyer says she still hasn’t seen Gunner, Mary realizes that her son is missing. When Amos gets home, she accuses him of lying to her. She then mentions that Gunner sent her a text from a strange number the previous night. In the text, Gunner said he was fine, and that he’s actually doing something to help his mom. Mary then says she has tried to call the number a few times, but it hasn’t been going through.

As she feels sad about this, Amos apologizes for lying to her, and he says he’ll do whatever he can to find Gunner. Back in the forest, it turns out that Jo’s phone has no signal, and since they can’t use a digital map to find Wild Horse Lake, Gunner checks the one Jim gave him. After a while, Jo asks where he learned to read a map, and Gunner says his dad taught him.

As he then looks at the scar on her neck, he says it must hurt a lot, but Jo just covers it. Later that night, they get attacked by bugs while they’re sleeping, but they quickly run away before they get hurt. Unfortunately, Gunner forgets his bag there, but Jo doesn’t think it’s a good idea to go back to get it.

In the morning, Jo complains that she’s starving, and Gunner says they’ll go home if they don’t find the water man by night. Meanwhile, Goodwin calls Amos and Mary to inform them that she just saw Gunner’s scooter in an abandoned building near the forest. She says she’s particularly concerned because there’s a wildfire growing in the forest, and she has to help evacuate people from the nearby areas.

Amos and Mary ask about Gunner, but Goodwin says she’ll have to hand over the case to one of her deputies. Amos and Mary are disappointed because Gunner could be in real danger, and no one might really be interested in finding him. Shortly after, Amos tells Mary that he’s going to the forest because he needs to find Gunner.

Mary looks scared, but Amos says he has to try. As he’s about to leave, Jim walks to the house and says that he knows where Gunner went. He then shows Amos the map of the forest and tells him that Gunner went to Wild Horse to find the Water man. Amos asks why his son would do that, and Jim mentions that Gunner seemed quite interested in learning how the water man cheated death. Amos then thanks Jim for the information and heads to the forest.

Meanwhile, Goodwin gets to her office and is informed by one of her deputies that they’ve found the person whose phone was used to text Mary. Back in the forest, Gunner asks Jo where exactly she saw the water man, but she just ignores the question and says that she’s tired. Gunner finds this suspicious, and he wonders if Jo ever saw the water man. After a while, Goodwin goes to Jo’s house to see her dad. As she asks about Gunner, Jo’s dad says he has never seen him before.

He adds that his daughter isn’t around either. Goodwin thinks there’s something odd about him, and she asks about the scar on Jo’s neck and how she got it. Jo’s dad says he doesn’t know, but that Goodwin needs to understand that Jo is a troubled kid. Back in the forest, Gunner suggests going to where Jo saw the Water man, but she says that she doesn’t want to talk about it. Gunner doesn’t get this, and he asks if she really got the scar from the water man.

Jo then confesses that she didn’t get her scar from the water man, and she tells Gunner that they need to leave the forest. Gunner says he can’t go back because his mom is sick and he needs to find the Water man to make her better. Jo then tells him that he has to understand that the people he loves will leave him one day.

She adds that he needs to go home and be with his mom, but Gunner says he’ll continue the quest alone. Jo says she’s heading back, but after a while, she changes her mind because she doesn’t want to leave Gunner alone. However, Gunner appears to have gone far ahead, and she doesn’t see him.

As the wildfire keeps growing, Amos enters the forest and starts running around to look for his son. Meanwhile, Gunner sees an old hut near the Wild Horse Lake. As he enters the place, he doesn’t see anyone, and he wonders if he’s in the right place. Suddenly, a strange man walks toward the door, and Gunner finds a place to hide. When the man enters the hut, he says that he knows Gunner is inside.

He adds that Gunner took a big risk by coming there because the forest is dangerous. Gunner then says that he’s looking for the Water man because he wants to save his mom. The man then tells Gunner that the power he seeks comes with a heavy price.

Gunner says he’s ready to do anything, and the man reveals himself as the Water man. After talking about how he’s now immortal with no one to love, the water man mentions that the story of the rock being real gave Gunner hope that he could save his mom. He adds that hope is a powerful force because it made Gunner see what he wanted to see.

It then turns out that Jim actually told Gunner that he was the one who hung black stones around the forest. However, Gunner didn’t pay attention to it because he wanted the story to be real. Interestingly, the snow he saw earlier was also imaginary, just like the water man he was talking to.

As the hut disappears, Gunner realizes that he came to the forest for nothing, and he quickly runs to meet Jo, who is struggling to breathe well because of the wildfire. As he hugs her, Jo tells Gunner that her dad gave her the scar, and that she’s sorry for lying to him. Suddenly, they see that the wildfire is getting closer to them, and as they wonder what they’ll do, Amos shows up and runs to meet them.

Gunner looks happy to see him, and Amos tells the kids that they have to get across the lake to the other side. Gunner looks scared because he can’t swim, but Amos says he’ll help him. After this, they jump into the water and eventually make it back to Amos’ truck. Later that night, they arrive home, and Gunner goes to hug Mary. He says he’s sorry for leaving her, and that he thought he could make her better.

Mary then says it’s okay, and that it’s not his fault. The next day, Jo’s dad gets arrested, and she’s taken away from the house by social services. Days later, Amos gives Gunner a new drawing kit, but he says he’s not interested in continuing his graphic novel because he doesn’t know how the story will end.

Amos then encourages him and says that he’s sure his son will figure it out. After this, Gunner asks Amos what he would choose if he had to select between a short life with a lot of love in it or a long life with no one left to love. Amos says he’ll take a short life with Mary in it, and Gunner mentions that he would choose the same thing. Much later, Jo joins the family, and they all sit down to have dinner. As Mary says that she wants them to love each other every day, Gunner smiles at her, and they all start eating.

After refusing to accept that his mom will never get better, Gunner sets out on a quest to find a mysterious Water man who can make people immortal. Even though the quest initially seemed real to him, he eventually realized that he had unknowingly created an imaginary world where the Water man actually exists. Amos also struggled to deal with his wife’s sickness, and he ended up pushing his son away. However, when he realized that Gunner was in danger, he risked his life to ensure his son’s safety. In this story, we learned that, even though creating an imaginary world can be an easy way to escape pain, facing reality is the only way to heal and move forward.

The Water Man 2020 .