Things You May Have Missed In The Polar Express

The hobo is a mysterious and fascinating character in the film. He helps and terrifies the boy at different points in the story. When the boy first encounters the hobo on the roof of the train, it startles the boy to find him there. They have a conversation about Santa Claus where the hobo mocks Santa, saying he doesn't exist. Interestingly enough, the Santa hat the hobo wears while pretending to be an animatronic Santa has a bell instead of a ball, and the boy hears its chime. When they leave the hobo's campfire to look for the girl, the hobo asks the boy, "Do you believe in ghosts?" When the boy says no, the hobo responds, "interesting," later telling the boy that seeing is believing.

Later, when the boy watches the hobo vanish before his eyes, it is clear the hobo is a ghost. Seeing is believing — a simple statement acknowledging how people determine what to believe. Modernity and adulthood require an acceptance of rational thinking, and most people leave behind the magical thinking of childhood. As a science-based culture, what people think of as real is the tangible things their senses can confirm as truth. If we can see it, touch it, hear it, taste it, or smell it, then it must be real. Witnessing the hobo vanish after distorts the boy's sense of reality. This is when we understand the boy is experiencing a crisis in faith, a theme we revisit later in the film.