Plot

In the aftermath of tragedy, two grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child.

If Anything Happens I Love You is a beautifully illustrated animated short film that takes us on an extraordinary emotional journey of two parents struggling to overcome the hurt left by a tragic event that leaves their family changed forever. The film is a stunning tale that juxtaposes the excruciating pain one can feel as well as the resilience of the human spirit. If Anything Happens I Love You is a touching experience for anyone who has ever loved and lost.

Lost in thought, a silent couple eats dinner sitting at opposite ends of a table. And unable, or unwilling, to communicate, the morose husband and wife seem to have a cloud of sadness hanging over them. Now, after all these years, alienation and grief taint their once-happy existence, and sorrow prevails. Could these be signs of a dying marriage?—Nick Riganas

The short starts with the two parents eating on parallel sides of the dinner table. Their shadows, which represent their emotions, are shown arguing. The parents won't talk to each other, possibly because of the growing line between them after their daughter has died in a school shooting. The dad goes outside, and encounters a tear on the wall painted with blue. He walks away as his shadow embraces it. Meanwhile, the mom is just about to enter the daughter's bedroom, but hesitates. Their cat enters instead.

The mother is picking up clothes from the washing machine, only to pick up a blue shirt, context showing it's their daughter's. She breaks down, and while her shadow tries to comfort her, a soccerball falls down from the washing machine, rolls all the way to the daughter's room, and starts up a record player that plays the song "1950". This motivates the mother to enter the daughter's room. Her shadow looks around the photos on the wall of her daughter and her creations, and ends up meeting the dad's shadow, as the dad has entered the room too. As they silently sit on the bed, a shadow resembling the daughter plays with the cat and leads the parents into flashbacks.

The first flashback is them going on a road trip, as the shadows sit on top of the moving car. Inside the car is a photo of the daughter's birth, which becomes the next flashback, before going further back to the time the parents fell in love. The chronology reverses, now going forward. First it starts with their daughter playing soccer, and ending up causing the tear at the wall, painted blue by her. The scene transitions into her taking a selfie with her parents, as their shadows turn into balloons to represent the next flashback, which is the daughter's 10th birthday. A friend of hers offers a present, before their first kiss starts, which embarrasses the daughter's shadow into blocking the scene from her parents'.

The last flashback is the daughter's last day, the day she went to school. The shadows of the parents do anything they can to prevent the daughter from coming to school, but fails. Inside the school, gunshots and screams of children are heard, and sirens blare as the daughter texts her parents "If anything happens I love you", before the last gunshot ends the shooting and the daughter's life.

As the parents mourn, the daughter's shadow try to bring them together, thus bringing the parents' shadows together and making their present selves embrace about the memories they had with their daughter, including the daughter's shirt sitting behind them. The short ends with the daughter's shadow becoming a bright light between the parents' embracing shadows.