Lightning Over Water 1980 Director Nicholas Ray is eager to complete a final film before his imminent death from cancer Wim Wenders is working on his own film Hammett 1982 in Hollywood, but flies to New York to help Ray realize his final wish Rays original intent is to make a fiction film about a dying painter who sails to China to find a cure for his disease He and Wenders discuss this idea, but it is obviously unrealistic given Rays state of health