Summary

• Paul Edgecomb lives to be significantly older than average human lifespan thanks to John Coffey's healing powers.
• The lifespan of Mr. Jingles hints at Paul's long life expectancy and raises questions on how the healing magic works.
• John Coffey's healing powers have differing impacts on Paul and Mr. Jingles, potentially extending their lives in unique ways.

The Green Mile hints that narrator Paul Edgecomb lives to be significantly older than the average human. Paul, played by Tom Hanks, is established to be 108-years-old in 1999. This explains how Paul’s son was already an adult when Paul worked as a prison officer in Cold Mountain Penitentiary in 1935, putting Paul at 44 years of age when John Coffey arrived. The Green Mile ending also establishes that Mr. Jingles, a garden mouse that used to roam the prison in 1935, is still alive and well in 1999, something that could not be true in any normal circumstance.

The underlying similarity between Paul and Mr. Jingles is that both were healed by death row inmate John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) in 1935. Coffey used his healing powers — the nature of which were never explained — to cure Paul’s bladder infection, which he appeared to have been suffering from for quite some time when he met Coffey. Further, Coffey brought Mr. Jingles back to life after Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchinson), one of Paul’s junior officers, crushes him with his boot. John Coffey's miraculous healing extends the lives of both Paul and Mr. Jingles — though for exactly how long isn't clear.

The Lifespan Of Mr. Jingles Provides Important Clues About Paul's Age

John Coffey Healing The Mouse Hints At Paul's Long Lifespan

The fact that Mr. Jingles is still alive when Paul is an old man in 1999 hints that Paul may still have much longer to live. When The Green Mile introduces Mr. Jingles, there is no indication of how long he's already lived before Coffey resurrects him. However, the fact that he has lived 64 years from 1935 to 1999 suggests that he has lived a minimum of 20 times longer than the average garden mouse (who typically live to a maximum of 3), even if one assumes that he was a newborn when Coffey's fellow inmate found him.

In the movie, Mr. Jingles lives right up until the credits roll, but in Stephen King's The Green Mile book, he breathes his dying breath only moments after Paul introduces him to his friend Eileen. It is important to point out here that, despite the brown-to-gray hair transformation and being significantly slower than his days at Cold Mountain, Mr. Jingles is just as lively right up until the end. This provides the reader with a definite endpoint to the results of Coffey's miracle — although this is different from the lore of The Green Mile movie.

Paul Edgecomb May Live To Be Over 600 Years Old

John Coffey's Miracle Makes Paul (Almost) Immortal

The lifespan of Mr. Jingles in The Green Mile movie allows viewers to (roughly) work out how old Paul Edgecomb lives to be. If John Coffey's healing has the same effect on humans as it does on mice, Paul will have a lifespan 20 times longer than the average person. In applying this formula to Paul, it is key to consider that he was born in 1891, when the average lifespan was 42-43 for an average American male.

Paul will be around 644 when he eventually dies.

However, by 1935, it was expected that a white American male aged around 40 would live for another 30 years (via InfoPlease), and that's before Coffey healed him. The additional 30 years, when multiplied by 20 (the same amount that Mr. Jingles' life was extended by), gives Paul 600 years left to live from 1935, or 536 years left when viewers depart from him at the end of The Green Mile, meaning Paul will be around 644 when he eventually dies. However, another aspect of the story suggests that Paul's life expectancy is even longer, although the exact amount is unknown.

John Coffey's Healing Isn't An Exact Science

Paul's Life May Not Be Extended As Much (But It Also Could Be Extended More)

Coffey altered the course of Paul and Mr. Jingles's lives differently, which could impact the way that his healing added years onto their lifespans. While Paul's infection has the potential to become life-threatening, it only causes him pain at the point when Coffey interjects. In comparison, Mr. Jingles has already ed over to death by the time Coffey heals the mouse.

Mr. Jingles is significantly smaller than Paul, making the ratio of healing powers to the size of the being skewed in favor of the mouse as well.

Between the two miracles, the power required to bring a creature back to life would presumably be more substantial than that to cure an infection, which suggests that Mr. Jingles could sur his life expectancy more than Paul would his. Moreover, Mr. Jingles is significantly smaller than Paul, making the ratio of healing powers to the size of the being skewed in favor of the mouse as well.

However, Coffey gives his own healing powers to Paul after compelling Percy Wetmore to kill Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell), who committed the murders that Coffey was charged with. This is a more direct and deliberate transfer of power, and in theory would alter the way that the magic impacts Paul's lifespan, suggesting that 600+ years is just the tip of the iceberg, and he could really live for much, much longer from the end of The Green Mile.