(old) Paul Edgecomb (Dabbs Creer) began to cry while watching a movie. Paul went out of the room, and suddenly his friend Elaine came after him. When she asked why he was crying, he started to tell about John Coffey:

Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) was a superindentent on Block E on the Death Row. The block E was known as ‘’The Green Mile’’ and had an electric chair with the name ‘’old sparky’’. One day, John Coffey, a giant, dark-skinned American was brought into The Green Mile, by many police officers. John Coffey was convicted of raping and murdering two white girls who were 9 years old. It turned out that John was not a violent man, he was actually afraid of the dark and he started to cry in many situations.

Later in the movie, it was revealed that John had supernatural powers after he healed Paul's urinary tract infection and revived the mouse Mr. Jingles. Later, John also healed the incurable wife of Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell) who suffered from a large brain tumor. At the same time Percy Wetmore, a prisoner officer (Doug Hutchison) arrived. Percy was a mean and unpopular officer. Percy knew that the rest of the officers disliked him strongly and he took advantage of it. He told Paul that if he did lead the next execution and everything had gone as planned, he would leave Block E, and let himself be transferred to a higher position at Briar Ridge Mental Hospital.

During the execution of Eduard ‘’Del’’ Delacroix (Michael Jeter), Percy broke the agreement and instead of making the sponge wet that would lead electricity through the body, Percy let the sponge be dry. This meant that it started to burn and stink of the poor ''Del'' that had to suffer. People who sat and watched the execution began to leave the room because of all the smell and smoke. Shortly before the execution to ''Del'' a violent prisoner named "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell) arrived. He should be executed because he had killed several people during a robbery. At one point he took hold of John’s arm and then it emerged that John also could read people's thoughts and memories. When John did see that it actually was Wharton who had killed the two girls John was convicted of killing, John transferred the disease Hal's wife had to Percy who shot Wharton who died. Percy himself could not control himself and was placed on Briar Ridge Mental Hospital as a patient. Paul looked surprised at John, so John gave ‘’a part of himself’’ to Paul so that he could see what really happened with the girls.

Having realized that John was innocent, Paul began to ask John what he wanted him to do. If he should open the door and let him go, and then John said no, he said he was ready to die because there was too much pain in the world. When Paul asked if John had a last wish, and then he said that he had never seen a movie before and that he wanted to do it. (It was the movie Paul saw when he began to cry).

When John was put on the electric chair, he asked Paul not to put the traditional black hood over his head because he was afraid of the dark. Paul agreed and after Paul shaken his hand, John was executed. Paul finished his story.

He told Elaine that he is 108 years old now and he was 44 years old at that time, and he is still in excellent health and that this is apparently a side-effect of John when he gave a part of himself to Paul. Del’s mouse, Mr.Jingles that was revived by John is 66 years old and still alive. Paul believes his outliving all of his relatives and friends to be a punishment from God for having John executed.