Plot Summary of the Story of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

Based on the same-named Stephen King short story, this new movie is about a young boy named Craig and his friendship with Mr. Harrigan, an old billionaire who hires Craig to read for him.

Craig is happy to read to Harrigan because he enjoys being with the old man, but their relationship ends a few years later when the old man dies.

Craig is sad about his friend’s death, which is understandable. To stay in touch with him, he sends messages to Harrigan’s phone, which is buried with him.

The grieving teen doesn’t expect to hear back from Harrigan—dead, he’s after all—but when he starts getting strange texts from Harrigan’s phone, he realizes that the old man is trying to contact him from beyond the grave. Not only that, but Harrigan’s ghost starts to get back at Craig’s enemies after this.

Craig needs to let go of his phone to stop being linked to the spirit. But can he still hang up on his old friend, even though their relationship has changed? Let’s look at the movie in more depth:

How does Craig meet Harrigan?

After Harrigan hears Craig read at their church, they decide to meet. Because his eyesight is getting worse, the old man hires Craig to come to his house and read him three books a week. The boy agrees gladly because Harrigan says he will pay him for his help. But as time goes on, their relationship gets stronger, and Craig keeps going to see Harrigan, not because of the money, but because of the bond they’ve made.

Over the next five years, Craig keeps reading to Harrigan. Craig’s dad, who is now single, gives him an iPhone for his birthday, and Harrigan gives him a lottery ticket. This isn’t the first time Craig’s grandfather has bought him a lottery ticket, but this time Craig wins $3,000. As a way to say thanks for the gift, he buys Harrigan a phone with some of the money he won.

Does Harrigan want the phone?

At first, no. He doesn’t see why he needs a smartphone and is afraid that if he gets one, it will take over his life.

But when Craig shows Harrigan how to use the phone to get to the stock market, he changes his mind. During Craig’s later visits, it’s clear that Harrigan’s phone has taken over, just as the old man said it would, because he spends more time scrolling through the internet than listening to Craig read to him.

Not long after that, tragedy strikes when Craig goes back to Harrigan’s house for another reading session and finds the man dead in his chair.

You might think that they are no longer friends, but they can still talk to each other through their phones.

How can Craig and Harrigan talk?

Craig puts Harrigan’s phone in the pocket of the dead man while he is in his coffin. He does this so he can stay in touch with Harrigan, even though he doesn’t expect to hear back from the man when he messages him as a way to deal with his sadness.

But Harrigan does reply, and he sends Craig some messages that are hard to understand. One message says “C C C sT,” but we are never told what this means. Still, Craig’s biggest problem isn’t the messages.

Craig gets into a fight with the school bully Kenny at the school dance, and Kenny knocks Craig to the ground. Later, Craig leaves a message on Harrigan’s phone about what he did. Not long after that, Kenny dies in an accident that was not his fault. Strangely, his body is found in the same position as Craig’s after the bully beat him up.

Craig thinks Mr. Harrigan’s ghost killed Kenny, and when he finds out that Mr. Harrigan had a bad side, he starts to think he was right.

Does Harrigan kill again?

Craig doesn’t want to delete Harrigan’s number, even though there was a fight after he left a voicemail. But he gets a new phone and puts the old one in a shoebox.

Years go by, and no one else dies because Craig hasn’t been able to talk to Harrigan on the old phone.

But while Craig is in journalism school, he finds out that his favorite Biology teacher, Ms. Hart, has died in a terrible way. She died in a car accident caused by Deane Whitmore, who was driving drunk.

When Deane goes to court, the judge lets him off easy. This makes Craig angry, so he goes home to get his old phone. He sends another voicemail to Harrigan, asking the dead man’s ghost to kill Deane. Soon after that, Deane’s body is found in the shower of the rehab center where he was supposed to stay. He choked to death on half a bar of soap, which turned out to be the soap that Ms. Hart liked to use when she was still alive.

Even though Craig was technically involved in Deane’s death, he freaks out when he hears about it. Because he feels bad about what he did, he decides it’s time to say goodbye to Harrigan for good.

Does Craig hang up on Harrigan?

Craig goes to Harrigan’s grave to say sorry for asking him to kill people. He then runs to a nearby lake and throws away his old phone, breaking the link between himself and the spirit of the dead man.

He stops for a moment and thinks about getting rid of his current phone as well. But, like many of us, he has trouble letting go of the device that has taken over his life, so he keeps it.

What does “CCC sT” stand for?

As I said before, this was never made clear. But the letters could stand for “Craig, stop!”

What’s the meaning? Well, Harrigan may have been telling Craig to stop making requests of him while he was trying to rest peacefully in his grave. Or, he could have been telling Craig that getting revenge wasn’t the way to solve his problems. He could also have been telling Craig to stop being so dependent on his phone.

No matter what happens, let’s just hope that Craig never gets the phone back and uses it to wake up Harrigan’s ghost again. Stephen King once said, “Sometimes it’s better to be dead.”