Limbo is a 1999 drama film written, produced, edited, and directed by American independent filmmaker John Sayles. The drama features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn, Vanessa Martinez and Kris Kristofferson.

The film is set in fictional Port Henry, Alaska, a town undergoing stress as the local economy switches from an industrial one based around the canning and paper industries towards a tourism and leisure based model. Joe Gastineaux (David Strathairn) is a former high school basketball star and fisherman who quit fishing after some undisclosed tragedy. He now works as a handyman, particularly for Frannie and Lou, a lesbian couple who own the local resort hotel. Joe is friends with teenager Noelle De Angelo (Vanessa Martinez) who also works for Frankie and Lou. At an event which they are working, Noelle's mother Donna (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a lounge singer, breaks up with her live in boyfriend and asks Joe for help in moving. The two of them become close and eventually begin a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Joe gets the chance to return to fishing when Frankie and Lou ask him to work a fishing boat which they have acquired as collateral from local fisherman Harmon. Donna has a strained relationship with her daughter Noelle, due mainly to Noelle's disapproval of her mother's peripatetic bohemian lifestyle. This is exacerbated when Donna begins dating Joe, who Noelle had had a crush on. At a bar Donna overhears the story of why Joe quit fishing: he had been involved in a deadly sinking which claimed the lives of all of his boatmates, including the brother of local bush pilot and small time criminal "Smilin Jack" Johannson (Kris Kristofferson).

In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo (Latin limbus, edge or boundary, referring to the "edge" of Hell) is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in Original Sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other Christian denomination. Medieval theologians, in western Europe, described the underworld ("hell", "hades", "infernum") as divided into four distinct parts: Hell of the Damned (which some call Gehenna), Purgatory, Limbo of the Fathers or Patriarchs, and Limbo of the Infants.

The "Limbo of the Patriarchs" or "Limbo of the Fathers" (Latin limbus patrum) is seen as the temporary state of those who, in spite of the personal sins they may have committed, died in the friendship of God, but could not enter Heaven until redemption by Jesus Christ made it possible. The term "Limbo of the Fathers" was a medieval name for the part of the underworld (Hades) where the patriarchs of the Old Testament were believed to be kept until Christ's soul descended into it by his death through crucifixion and freed them (see Harrowing of Hell). The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes Christ's descent into "hell" as meaning primarily that "the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead." It adds: "But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there." It does not use the word "Limbo".

The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep Canvas-pioneering Tarzan, Best Picture-winner American Beauty, critically acclaimed animated works The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2 and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's breakout film Being John Malkovich, M. Night Shyamalan's breakout hit The Sixth Sense, the controversial Fight Club, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and the first installment of George Lucas's Star Wars prequel trilogy were released this year.

These are the top grossing films that were first released in 1999; because they may have made most of their income in a later year, they may not be the top-grossing films for calendar year. The top ten films of 1999 as of January 26, 2006 (U.S. and Canada), January 26, 2006 (UK) and January 26, 2006 (Australia) are as follows:

1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year that started on a Friday (link will display full calendar). In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1999th year of Anno Domini; the 999th year of the 2nd millennium; and the 99th year of the 20th century. It was also the 10th and last year of the 1990s. The year 1999 was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.