Brighter Days Ahead

“	When we're young, sometimes we want to erase certain things, or rewrite certain things that seem painful to us in the moment, but when we grow older, we would do anything to relive those moments, and we're so grateful for them and for how they made us who we are and helped us become who we are today.	”
–Ariana on the premise of the film.

This article is about the short film. For the associated album, see Eternal Sunshine (album).

Brighter Days Ahead
The film's poster
General information
Director	Christian Breslauer Ariana Grande
Producer	Brandon Bonfiglio Michael Breslauer Ariana Grande Andrew Lerios Nicholas Pistone Nicholas Podesta Alexandra Randall
Release date	March 28, 2025
Starring	Ariana Grande
Running time	26:10

Brighter Days Ahead is a short film directed by Ariana Grande and Christian Breslauer, released to accompany the deluxe edition of Eternal Sunshine, which is also subtitled "Brighter Days Ahead". The short film "expand[s] upon the themes explored in the album's music videos" and picks up where "We Can't Be Friends" left off, further unraveling the complexities of love, loss, and the delicate balance between holding on and letting go.

Synopsis

A short film accompanying the deluxe edition of Eternal Sunshine, marking Ariana Grande’s directorial debut. Peaches, now elderly, revisits Brighter Days Inc. to relive idealized versions of her memories before they are destroyed forever. The short film is inspired by the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and is a sequel to the “We Can’t Be Friends” music video.

Plot

Seventy years after the events of "We Can't Be Friends", Peaches finds herself in the waiting room of Brighter Days Inc., signing an electronic consent form. A nurse then escorts her to a specialised room to let her relive four of her most cherished memories one final time. Her journey begins with old video footage from her childhood, capturing moments with her family ("Intro (End of the World)").

Each memory is permanently erased after being experienced. Peaches moves on to her second memory, which centres on her career as a singer ("Eternal Sunshine" / "Dandelion"). In the third, she wakes up in a flooded and wrecked home. As she surveys the damage, she finds two significant objects: a teddy bear and a necklace ("Twilight Zone"). Stepping outside, she discovers that her entire neighbourhood has been destroyed. She slowly walks towards a UFO and is taken aboard ("Supernatural").

The final memory shifts to the perspective of Peaches' father, the founder of Brighter Days. Devastated by his daughter's tragic fate, he revisits key moments from their past—one being the moment he gave her the necklace. Gathering Peaches’ heart from a London pub and her brain from a pile of debris, he places them into a synthetic body sculpted in her likeness. It takes multiple attempts, but he finally revives her using music and electricity ("Hampstead"). The pair are then seen playing the piano together.

In the closing scene, a younger Peaches remembers someone once telling her to live each day as if it were her last. An acoustic version of "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)", recorded at Jungle City Studios, plays over the end credits.

Release and promotion

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Eternal Sunshine’s release, Grande introduced a pre-save link for the deluxe edition and shared a teaser trailer, featuring a box containing items from the "We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)" video being set alight, followed by a quick cut to those items scattered on the floor.

On March 10, 2025, Grande officially revealed the reissued deluxe edition of Eternal Sunshine, titled Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead, scheduled for release on March 28, 2025. Two days later, on March 12, she announced that the album would be accompanied by a short film titled Brighter Days Ahead through an Instagram post. This trailer featured a voice saying, "Welcome back, Peaches," before transitioning through various shots of Grande. The film’s poster was shared via the @BrighterDays Instagram account soon thereafter.

Two additional teasers for the short film were released on March 25 and March 27, 2025. The first shows a locket featuring a younger photo of Grande being held in someone's hand. The second teaser presents a futuristic version of the Brighter Days clinic, as seen in the "We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)" video, followed by quick flashes of an older version of Grande's character,

The film premiered on March 28, 2025, just 10 hours following the release of its accompanying album. According to the film's YouTube description, it signifies the conclusion of the Eternal Sunshine era. The film received acclaim from both fans and critics, with reviewers praising its "astounding production quality" and noting that, "at the end of my first watch, I took a pause before welling up in tears."

Cast

• Ariana Grande as Peaches, an elderly and non-verbal woman who undergoes a memory restoration procedure.
• Edward Butera as Peaches' father, a mad scientist and founder of Brighter Days Inc.
• Charlotte Sanchez as young Peaches
• Rashawn Ross as the trumpet player
• Allen Marsh as the hologram doctor
• Jessica Jang as the hologram nurse
• Trell Isaac as a hologram patient
• Kimberly Kim as a hologram patient
• Stewart Jewett as the doctor
• Lauren DeShane as the nurse
• Fida Varela as the exam room nurse
• Brittany Carel as the exam room patient
• Shane Antolak, R. Ray Barnes, and Tiana Bes as waiting room background
• Veronica Mannion, Amanda Boe, Dylan Reece, Kais Boukthir, Skip Howland, Vivian Day, Lee John Gilligan, Josh Cruse, Sam Russell, Cassandra Rucker, Russell Fear, and Veronica Hart as tavern background

Screenings

On March 23, 2025, Grande posted a link on her Instagram account to sign up for screenings of the film. These screenings took place on March 30, 2025 in Boca Raton, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The fans who attended these screenings expressed overwhelmingly positive reactions, and Grande shared photos of the fans at the screenings on her Instagram story.

Videos

Ariana Grande - brighter days ahead

Trivia

• Brighter Days Ahead marks Grande's directional debut.
• The short film contains several references to Grande's past work and other movies.
  • The memory room - X-Men, Inside Out
  • Performance of "Eternal Sunshine" and "Dandelion" - Sweetener World Tour, "7 Rings", Vevo's Official Live Performance.
  • Duration of "Hampstead" - "34+35", Frankenstein, Harry Potter
  • Duration of "Twilight Zone" - "We Can't Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)"
• The "Supernatural" segment during memory number three was shot on Universal Studio's "War of the Worlds" set.
• Day 1 of the shoot for the film finished at 4:56AM on August 9, 2024 The filming was wrapped on September 22, 2024 at 1:23AM.

Gallery

“did i dream the whole thing?” To view the Brighter Days Ahead gallery, click here.

Crew

Writers Christian Breslauer Ariana Grande Production Brandon Bonfiglio (executive producer) Micheal Bredlauer (producer) Ariana Grande (executive producer) Sandy Haddad (executive producer) Matthew Kauth (executive producer) Andrew Lerios (executive producer / producer) Nicholas Pistone (co-producer) Luga Podesta (executive producer / producer) Alexandra Randall (co-producer) Composer Ariana Grande Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth Editor Luis Caraza Casting Director Sarah-May Levy Production Designer Alex Delgado Art Director Zachary Friedman Set Decorators Christian Corio Veronica Gutierrez Costume Designer Mimi Cuttrell Sound Department Susie Boyajan (sound executive producer) Michael Nicastro (sound recordist) Collin Gerald Thomas (re-recording mixer / sound designer) Cassie Underwood (sound producer) Special effects Ben Graham (special effects)

Makeup Department Ozzy Alvarez (key prosthetic makeup artist) Michael Anthony (makeup artist) Carley Cooper (special effects makeup fabrication) Bernhard Eichholz (special effects makeup) Michael Ezell (special effects makeup project coordinator) Pamela Goldammer (hair stylist) Steve Kuzela (special effects makeup fabrication) Manny Lemus (silicone appliances) Alyx Liu (hair stylist) Kate Loftis (hair stylist) Liz Mendoza (prosthetic makeup artist) Sam Polin (special effects makeup fabrication) Justin Raleigh (special effects makeup and prosthetics designer) Todd Rex (special effects makeup sculpting) Olga Tarnovetska (makeup artist) Brian Wade (special effects makeup sculpting) Emilia Werynska (assistant makeup artist) Michael B. Williams (special effects makeup mold maker) Kodai Yoshizawa (special effects makeup sculpting) Edward James Zarate (specail effects makeup mold maker) Second Unit Directors Sara Fredricks (second second assistant director) Damon Limbrick (second assistant director) Daved Olivencia (second second assistant director) Art Department Arin Ajamian (sett dresser) Victor Camarillo (set dresser) Phoenix Lopez Daal (set dresser) Nick Delgado (assistant art director) Robbie Duncan (property master) Jordo Edelman (gangboss) Dan Engwall (assistant art director) Christopher Greer (on-set dresser) Jonathan Hanrahan (set dresser) Chris Newell (leadman) Duy Nguyen (set dresser) Logan Noh (shopper) Brandon Parker (assistant props) Jacob Pilot (shopper) Danielle Ramos (set dresser) Felipe Restrepo (set dresser) Spencer Rochfort (set dresser) Greg Schultz (set dresser) Brian Selke (art department production assistant) Jenny Situ (on-set dresser) Chad Tomlinson (set dresser) Luke Wheeler (set dresser) Evan Yarbrough (storyboard artist)