A third film of the Before Trilogy, Before Midnight, was released in 2013. Richard Linklater directed a screenplay written by himself and stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The film is set in Greece, nine years after the events of Before Sunset. Jesse and Celine are coming to the end of their summer stay in the villa of fellow author Patrick. Accompanying them are their twin daughters as well as Jesse's son Hank, whom Jesse walks to his stateside flight at the beginning of the movie. The movie follows the two as they converse with each other as well as with friends, trading stories and observations about life and love, and remembering events from the first films as well as from their lives since then.
Before Midnight contains examples of the following tropes:
- Belated Happy Ending: Jesse does manage to get together with Celine, and even start a family, but it's not without consequences.
- Bumbling Dad: Jesse comes across like this a little bit when saying goodbye to his son, but it is partly because he is trying so hard to make up for all the time he could not be there for him.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If they had taken time out to talk to each other more often and been more honest and upfront with each other in general, they might have avoided collecting so many unspoken resentments and regrets over the years of their relationship.
- Disappeared Dad: Jesse is wracked with guilt over not being able to see his 13-year-old son, who lives in the US, often enough. He pines to return to Chicago, but his wife Celine has a new job opportunity in Paris, and doesn't want her or their two daughters to live in the US anyway. This becomes a major point of contention in their big fight at the hotel.
- Happily Married: Played With and explored throughout the movie. They still do have plenty of happy times, as shown at the beginning where they enjoy their holiday with kids and friends to the fullest and still flirt with each other. On the other hand, they both had to make sacrifices (like Jesse living in the U.S. and being there for his son, and Celine having more of a career and more time for herself) and also have had less and less opportunities to spend quality time with each other, which lead to all kinds of unspoken resentments and regrets that are brought into the open in their night at the hotel.
- Hypocrite: Despite both characters being cheaters themselves, they both angrily accuse of the other of cheating.
- The Oner: The drive back from the airport is one continuous shot, save for a brief cutaway. The walk to the hotel is another.
- Parents as People: Jesse and Celine are shown as flawed parents who try very hard and love their kids to bits but ultimately are flawed and imperfect at being parents. Celine later confesses how ashamed she was of being clueless as the mom of their daughters and making mistakes and how she felt she was supposed to be instinctual and a natural at this parenting thing. Also, Jesse totally steals a half-eaten apple from his sleeping daughter!
- Real Time: The film is basically four, five long scenes of conversation in Real Time, with some time passing between those scenes.
- Scenery Porn: Plenty of beautiful Greek houses, nature, and ocean.
- True Love Is Boring: The routines of parenthood and domestic life have worn them both down noticeably.
- Truth-Telling Session: The big fight at the hotel where previously unsaid things are brought out into the open, mostly in a very confrontational and hurtful way due to how long their resentments and regrets have festered over the years. In this fight they alternate between driving each other away and talking cautious steps towards each other. Celine runs out three times, comes back two times and Jesse goes after her in the end where they decide to give it another try in the hotel.
- Walk and Talk: When they walk to the hotel, and talk just the two of them for the first time in ages, they mention how much they have missed doing this.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Both throw a lot of this at each other in their huge fight in the hotel. Neither really comes off as more or less flawed than the other, though.
