Salvatore has obeyed Alfredo, but he returns home to attend the funeral. Though the town has changed greatly, he now understands why Alfredo thought it was important that he leave. Alfredo's widow tells him that the old man followed Salvatore's successes with pride, and he left him something — an unlabeled film reel and the old stool that Salvatore once stood on to operate the projector. Salvatore learns that Cinema Paradiso is to be demolished to make way for a parking lot. At the funeral, he recognizes the faces of many people who attended the cinema when he was the projectionist.
Salvatore returns to Rome. He watches Alfredo's reel and discovers that it comprises a very special montage. It contains all of the romantic scenes the priest had ordered cut from movies; Alfredo had spliced the sequences together to form a single film. Salvatore has made peace with his past.