E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
is the immensely popular magical fantasy movie myth. Its estimated budget of $10 million was easily recouped when it became one of the box-office champion films of all time. Steven Spielberg's very personal, heartwarming sci-fi masterpiece (with special effects produced by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic Company) was warmly accepted by film audiences for its portrayal of the love between a young, fatherless suburban boy and a lost, benevolent and homesick visitor (presumably an adult) from another planet who is mistakenly left stranded and orphaned on Earth - three million light years from home. The film's themes include discovery, rescue, and escape, much like the Peter Pan myth (included in the film). The John Alvin poster for the film with E.T.'s glowing, heavenly fingertip also presents a religious theme, recalling Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam' painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And the story of death and resurrection displayed parallels with the Biblical story. One of the film's earliest working titles was A Boy's Life.
Much of the film was deliberately shot from a lower camera angle - from a child's point-of-view to manipulatively encourage younger viewers to identify with the characters, to simulate how overwhelming and threatening adults look to children (from the waist or knees down), and to force adult viewers to relive their own childhood. It was also shot in sequence, so that E.T.'s departure scene at its conclusion would contain genuine emotion.
Spielberg was working simultaneously on these two suburban-based stories: E.T. (as director) and Poltergeist (1982) (as producer) - but while one was a fantasy story, the other was a nightmarish horror story. This story of a beloved alien creature was the flip-side opposite of a later Spielberg film, War of the Worlds (2005), with destructive alien invaders.
[Its twenty year anniversary in 2002 was celebrated with the film's restoration and re-release - a slightly longer version with additional scenes deleted out of the original (i.e., the bathtub scene), sound re-mastering and digital effects to enhance E.T.'s facial reactions, the spaceship, E.T.'s flight from faceless men through the forest, and the two bike-flight sequences. Guns used by the agents in the 1982 were excised or digitally replaced with walkie-talkies, as was the line: "No guns - they're children." A reference to a "terrorist" was also changed to the word "hippie". These modifications followed the trend of the times - to alter films slightly upon their re-release, as was also done with The Exorcist (1973) and The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen (2000), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), and Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars: The Special Edition (1997).]
Out of its nine Academy Awards nominations, it received four Oscars: Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Score (John Williams), and Best Sound. The film lost in the categories of: Best Picture (it lost to Gandhi), Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Screenplay (Melissa Mathison, who was later married to star Harrison Ford - their scene in the film as the School Principal and Nurse was cut). This film, sometimes criticized as over-rated, was Spielberg's biggest blockbuster up to that time.
While the film was regarded by some as a religious allegory or parable, the film more clearly identifies with many childhood experiences: a troubled, broken family with a single parent and no positive role-models, a lonely, disenfranchised boy lacking emotional fulfillment, a boy's fierce caring for an equally-lost, stray creature or pet (also 'broken away' from his family), the need for friendship, the malevolent world of grown-ups and the perils of childhood, miraculous healing, wish-fulfillment, courage, transcendence, and homesickness. The tale is a variation of The Wizard of Oz (1939) for in this story, three young children assist a space creature to return to his home. It's also been considered a 'kids-version' of Spielberg's own Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977), with an alien who is instantly established as a sympathetic creature. The film's award-winning musical score by John Williams (who wrote the scores for Spielberg's four previous films) enhanced the soaring, sentimental emotions of the film.
The First Night:
After the credits (purple letters against a black background), the camera pans down from a starry night sky into the lush darkness of a forest near the flat brightness of a suburban community in northern California. An illuminated, round alien ship (glowing like a Christmas tree in the dark) and a crew of elf-like extraterrestrials are on a mission. An alien's hand with an elongated index finger and a shorter middle finger pulls some branches down. The interior of the space ship appears to be an immense greenhouse, with cone-shaped growths and other plants, and the sound of water dripping is heard. The aliens (botanists) appear to be exploring Earth's plant life and collecting samples. When a owl hoots, a red heartlight glows in the aliens' translucent chests, signifying that they sense danger.
One of their crew members, a little, misshapen-headed alien creature collecting vegetation (a redwoods tree sprout or sapling) reaches his two fingers out toward the green plant. A rabbit watches intently as the plant is dug up, uprooted, and carried amidst the surrounding towering redwoods that reach into the sky. [This scene recalls the pastoral sights in Disney's Bambi (1942).] The small creature stops on the hillside and is curiously entranced by a wide expanse of city streets and yellowish lights far in the distance. Suddenly, he groans when a menacing pickup truck with blaring, blinding headlights shines its beam through the foggy air. The landing of the spaceship has been detected by government radar. Other large, noisy vehicles advance and circle around the creature, who has now become separated from the mother ship.
Exhaust from a tailpipe emits foul smoke. From the point-of-view of the creature, men's legs walk by and step into a mud puddle. In the dark, government and scientific officials look at a map placed on a truck hood with their flashlights. One of the faceless agents is heard with jangling 'keys' - later his name is identified as Keys. [The agents are always portrayed by menacing, black silhouettes of advancing figures wearing heavy boots, with flashlights beaming]. When the crew of extraterrestrials realize that there are intruders around them, one of the aliens at the spaceship's gangplank hatchway sends out a communications-homing signal from his heart, signalling danger and alerting the others to immediately return to the ship.
In dire fear, the lone alien pulsates its red heartlight from its chest to communicate with its own kind. The reverberating sounds of the alien creature and shaking bushes attract the attention of the men. The man with the keys (and the others) swing around and shine their flashlights toward the direction of the sounds, forcing the squealing alien to attempt to rush back toward the alien spacecraft with the men in quick pursuit. The hatch closes and the outer lights of the spaceship are dimmed in preparation for departure. The crew of aliens are forced to desert and abandon one of their members or risk being captured themselves. They quickly take off in their space vehicle to avoid detection, although their lights attract the attention of the eight men as they lift off. The extra-terrestrial moans - he has been abandoned, lost and stranded on an alien, hostile planet, Earth. The men try to locate the creature, but it appears that it has descended down the hillside's slope toward the suburban area below.
In one of the neighborhood's homes, ten-year-old outsider and loner Elliott (10 year old Henry Thomas) is first introduced as he fails to join a ritualized game of Dungeons and Dragons that his older brother Michael (14 year old Robert MacNaughton) and friends Steve (Sean Frye), Greg (K. C. Martel) and Tyler (Tom Howell) are playing. Viewed as a pesky younger brother, Elliott is separated and excluded from the circle that the older boys form around the kitchen table, as he sits behind the counter from them:
Elliott: I'm ready to play now, you guys.
One of the boys: We're in the middle, Elliott. You can't just join any universe in the middle. Michael suggests that Elliott ask permission of Steve, the Game's Dungeon Master who has "absolute power." To get rid of him for the time being, Elliott - feeling powerless - must first stand outside in the driveway of their suburban home and wait/pay for a pizza that one of the boys has ordered by phone. Elliott leaves the room with his baseball and glove and walks down the slick driveway in the rain and mist.
As Elliott walks slowly back up the driveway to the house with the pizza, he hears sounds coming from near their home's backyard toolshed. He calls out his dog's name - "Harvey, is that you, boy?" Elliott's mother Mary (Dee Wallace-Stone), wearing an orange kimono, is working in the kitchen. When she bends down to place dishes in the dishwasher, one of Mike's friends extends his finger toward her rear - Mike yells for him to stop.
Elliott walks by a ping-pong table when he hears more sounds, so he approaches closer to the shed to investigate - walking under a crescent moon above him in the sky. [Is it just a coincidence that the alien is discovered in a stable, and Elliott's mother is named Mary - similar to the Biblical stories?] Laying the pizza on the ground, Elliott casually tosses his softball into the shed - it is playfully thrown back out to him. Chillingly terrified, Elliott turns and runs, slipping on the pizza box on the lawn and rushing into the kitchen where he breathlessly tells his mother:
Mom, mom, there's somethin' out there...It's in the toolshed. He threw out the ball at me...(To the other boys who are ignoring him) (Yelling) Quiet! (In a hushed voice) Nobody go out there. Members of his own family don't really believe him, but to play along, mock and ridicule him, the boys jump up from the table, grab kitchen knives and a flashlight and approach the outdoor toolshed with Elliott's Mom. One of the boys hums a few notes of eerie Twilight Zone music. Mary observes: "There's nothing in here." Although they find a few odd-shaped tracks in the dirt, Michael believes they are only the tracks of coyotes that have returned to the neighborhood ("the coyote's come back again, Mom"). As they return to the house and notice the squashed pizza, Elliott has to explain that it was an accident. Then, Elliott angers one of Mike's friends by reporting to his mother that one of the boys had disobediently ordered the pizza. Long alien fingers slowly wrap around the side of the shed door as the creature pants heavily.
At 2 am in Elliott's bedroom, the family dog (sleeping on a lower bunk) awakens when it senses something stirring outside. On the upper bunk, Elliott hasn't even gone to sleep. With Harvey, he returns to the backyard with his flashlight. In the adjoining cornfield next to the house, Elliott sees the strange tracks again and moves some stalks aside. When he shines his light on the creature, they both shriek at each other on first viewing - both equally and identically scared. [This is the first of many instances when their characters merge and are linked - mentally.] The alien runs away through the cornfield as Elliott also screams and runs back to his backyard. Behind the house, the playground swings move back and forth and garbage pails fall over in the wake of the alien's flight.
The Second Day:
The next day while riding his bicycle into the woods high up above his house, Elliott scatters bits of Hershey's Reese's Pieces (like small, round, and colorful pills) on the forest ground, possibly to locate, feed and befriend the creature or to lead the hungry creature to his home with the sweet path of chocolates. [Although Spielberg wanted the bits of candy to be M & M's, the company - Mars, Inc. - refused, and lost out on the tremendous potential of product placement.] In the distance, Elliott notices a man [later identified as Keys] also looking for something in the same area of the woods. As Elliott rides back home, the alien's fingers move down the side of a tree - Elliott was being watched.
At the dinner table that evening, Elliott is depressed and pouts because no one in his family has believed him when he claims: "It was real, I swear." Depressed, he has decided to pass up Halloween this year, although Mike suggests he go as a goblin. He is isolated from close companionship and support within his own family - his brother has older friends, and his five year old sister Gertie (6 year old Drew Barrymore, a descendant of the legendary Barrymore family) is much younger with different interests. His mother is still suffering the traumatic effects of separation from her husband. Elliott unwittingly widens the rifts in the already broken family (his father left for Mexico with another woman) and weakens the bonds that hold them together during their conversation:
Mom: It's not that we don't believe you, honey.
Elliott: Well, it was real, I swear...
Michael: Maybe it was an iguana.
Elliott: It was no iguana.
Michael: Maybe a, a, you know how they say there are alligators in the sewers.
Gertie (repeating the phrase of her older brother as a way of showing she can talk like the bigger kids): 'Alligators in the sewers.'
Mom: All we're trying to say is, 'Maybe you just probably imagined it.'
Elliott: I couldn't have imagined it.
Michael: Maybe it was a pervert, a deformed kid or something?
Gertie (again repeating her older brother's words): 'A deformed kid.'
Michael: Maybe an elf or a leprechaun?
Elliott: It was nothing like that, penis breath. [A controversial line of dialogue!]
Mom: Elliott! Sit down.
Elliott: Dad would believe me.
Mom: Maybe you ought to call your father and tell him about it?
Elliott: I can't. He's in Mexico with Sally.
Gertie: Where's Mexico?
Mom (hurt): Excuse me. (She leaves the table and walks to the window.)
Michael (softly to Elliott): I'm gonna kill you.
Mom: If you ever see it again, whatever it is, don't touch it. Just call me and we'll have somebody come and take it away.
Gertie: Like the dogcatcher?
Elliott: They'll give it a lobotomy or do experiments on it or something. The children argue over who has to do the dishes. Their recently-separated mother (with her back to the table's conversation), still numb from the loss of the separation and abandonment, turns toward the table, emerges into the light with tears in her eyes and sighs: "He hates Mexico." She has been left with the tremendous responsibility of raising the children. Michael bangs his fist on the table at his younger brother: "Dammit, why don't you grow up - think how other people feel for a change." As Elliott rinses his dishes out under hot water at the sink, he looks through the rising steam, longingly gazing out through the window at the sky. Elliott is a young boy desperately in need of a friend.
Again under a crescent moon, Elliott sleeps that night in a sleeping bag on a patio chair with his flashlight ready to catch a glimpse of the alien. Hearing scuffling noises in the direction of the shed, he is awakened and sees the short creature backlit from the light of the toolshed. Speechless and frozen in fear, Elliott with enormous eyes calls out in a stuttering whisper: "Mom, Mom, Mom, Michael, Michael, Mom." It is a terrifying, spellbinding moment for Elliott as the alien moves forward and then inches closer and closer to touch him with two elongated fingers. Rather than touching or harming him, the alien returns some Reese's Pieces on Elliott's blanket as an offering of friendship - or it's a request for more.
To quietly lure the alien into the house, Elliott leaves more clumps of Reese's Pieces as bait - spaced apart on a path up the stairs, down the hallway, and into his bedroom. After succeeding in getting the alien to follow the trail into his room (with a sign on the door saying "ENTER"), the creature knocks a can filled with pens onto the floor, causing a loud noise and forcing Elliott to quickly close the door. In full view for the first time, the alien has a rough, brown Naugahyde skin surface, a wide bulbous baby head, huge blue eyes, an extendable neck, elongated fingers, a pear-shaped body, and large webbed feet. And the creature had the sad look of a lost toddler. [E.T.'s face was reportedly based upon the facial features of scientist Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, poet Carl Sandburg, and a pug.]
After some tension and anxiety dissipate, Elliott wipes his nose, and the creature copies him. Noticing that he is being mimicked, Elliott gestures with other hand movements in an attempt to communicate. The wide-eyed alien imitates Elliott - the two characters are exact images of each other (not mirror images). The alien even mimics Elliott's yawn and tiredness by purring when the sleepy boy collapses in a chair in his room.
Meanwhile, government officials [including Keys] scour the alien ship's landing area, discovering Reese's Pieces hidden there by the creature. Seen only at hip level, one of the men [Keys] reaches down and carefully picks up one of the strange colored "eggs" with his thumb and index finger and lifts it out of the frame to examine it. A crunching noise is heard on the soundtrack when the man eats the candy.
The Third Day:
Wearing longjohns, Elliott feigns illness (with the old boyhood tricks of heating up the thermometer under a lamp and putting a blue heating pad over his face) to remain home from school, using the excuse that he caught a cold sitting outside waiting for the creature. When his mother fetches a folded-up sleeping bag from the closet (with a louvered door) and unrolls it, Elliott watches her closely and is relieved when the creature doesn't fall out onto the floor. Mary accepts his excuse to stay home, but asks him not to watch TV. When she has left (she's a working mother forced to work to support her family), with help from practicing-driver Mike in backing the car down the driveway (and partially onto the lawn), Elliott wants to communicate with his new friend. After gesturing for the alien to come out of the closet, it emerges wearing his robe. Elliott introduces himself:
Do you talk, you know, talk? Me human. Boy. Elliott. Ell-i-ott. Elliott. In a profoundly simple scene, Elliott uses objects in his bedroom to introduce his 'alien' world and culture to the creature, a world of materialism and violence. He starts with a Coke can with a rubberized artificial spill, followed by little plastic men (war toys) and space creatures (with numerous George Lucas product placement endorsements for his action figures), a goldfish in a bowl, a plastic shark's head on a stick (reminiscent of Spielberg's earlier film Jaws (1975)), a PEZ candy dispenser, a large peanut-shaped coin bank, money, and a miniature toy car. In the process, he describes how the food chain works (fish eat fish food, sharks eat fish, and nothing eats the shark):
Coke. You see, we drink it. It's a, it's a drink. You know, food. These are toys, these are little men. This is Greedo [from Lucas' Star Wars (1977)], and then this is Hammerhead, see this is Walrus Man, and this is Snaggle Tooth and this is Lando Calrissian [from The Empire Strikes Back (1980)] see, ...and look, they can even have wars. Look at this. Th-th-th-th-th-th. Uuuuuuuugh. (He play-acts with two characters who both shoot and kill each other.) Look fish. The fish eat the fish food, and the shark [a toy shark with moveable jaws on the end of a rod that he puts into the fish bowl] eats the fish, and nobody eats the shark. See, this is PEZ, candy. See you eat it. You put the candy in here and then when you lift up the head, the candy comes out and you can eat it. You want some? This is a peanut [a giant size replica of a peanut]. You eat it, but you can't eat this one, 'cause this is fake. This is money. You see. You put the money in the peanut. You see? It's a bank. See? And then, this is a car. This is what we get around in. You see? Car. (The alien takes the car - and like a typical child who sees a plaything - puts it in his mouth to eat it.) Hey, hey wait a second. No. You don't eat 'em. Are you hungry? I'm hungry. Stay. Stay. I'll be right here. OK? I'll be right here. Elliott deduces that the alien is still hungry - the first evidence that they have communicated and empathized with each other. (Their kinship strengthens as they build a variety of experiences together.) The family dog barks and threatens the little creature, scaring him as Elliott leaves the room. While Elliott is loading up on food from the refrigerator (Skippy peanut butter, cheese and tomatoes, a carton of milk), he is startled by the alien's scream. The alien is having trouble in Earth's modern-day world - he has inspected other objects in the room - a tennis racket and an easy-open umbrella. When it unexpectedly pops open, he screeches and scurries to hide. Elliott drops the milk carton on the kitchen floor and clutches his chest as they simultaneously experience surprise and fright. While carrying a plate of food back to the alien, Elliott finds the creature in his closet full of stuffed animals, terrified and shaking nervously: "Too much excitement, huh?"
When football-uniformed Michael returns after school, he finds "nuthin' but health s--t" in the refrigerator. Elliott calls his brother to his room, where he is accused of being a faker. Elliott reveals his secret stray friend, the "goblin," to his disbelieving brother. [Both boys are wearing clothes with white and blue colors.] But before the revelation is made, Elliott insists that his secret must be kept (vindicating himself by using the words "absolute power" from the Dungeon and Dragons game where he had been left out):
Elliott: Michael, he came back...
Michael: He came back? He came back? Oh my god! (He chokes himself and pulls back.)
Elliott: (persistently) One thing. I have absolute power. Say it. Say it!...
Michael: What have you got? Is it the coyote?
Elliott: No. Look. OK. Now. Swear it. The most excellent promise you can make. Swear as my only brother on our lives.
Michael: Don't get so heavy. I swear. Michael is ordered to stand in the middle of the room and close his eyes. When Elliott brings the alien out from his hiding place in the closet for an introduction, Michael turns around and is dumbfounded at the sight. At that instant, Gertie rushes into the room with a picture she has drawn for Elliott at school: "Elliott, look what I made for you." The impish blonde-haired girl is startled to see the strange-looking creature - her first view of it face-to-face. The creature cranes its neck up in fear (possibly having learned that this is an appropriate way to greet a stranger from his first meeting with Elliott.) She emits a loud-pitched scream - the alien reacts by belching out a horrifying moan in imitation. Elliott screams back at his sister to stop, as Mike backs up into a wall bookcase and knocks it down. Elliott grabs Gertie and covers her mouth as they hear their mother arrive home.
is the immensely popular magical fantasy movie myth. Its estimated budget of $10 million was easily recouped when it became one of the box-office champion films of all time. Steven Spielberg's very personal, heartwarming sci-fi masterpiece (with special effects produced by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic Company) was warmly accepted by film audiences for its portrayal of the love between a young, fatherless suburban boy and a lost, benevolent and homesick visitor (presumably an adult) from another planet who is mistakenly left stranded and orphaned on Earth - three million light years from home. The film's themes include discovery, rescue, and escape, much like the Peter Pan myth (included in the film). The John Alvin poster for the film with E.T.'s glowing, heavenly fingertip also presents a religious theme, recalling Michelangelo's 'Creation of Adam' painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And the story of death and resurrection displayed parallels with the Biblical story. One of the film's earliest working titles was A Boy's Life.
Much of the film was deliberately shot from a lower camera angle - from a child's point-of-view to manipulatively encourage younger viewers to identify with the characters, to simulate how overwhelming and threatening adults look to children (from the waist or knees down), and to force adult viewers to relive their own childhood. It was also shot in sequence, so that E.T.'s departure scene at its conclusion would contain genuine emotion.
Spielberg was working simultaneously on these two suburban-based stories: E.T. (as director) and Poltergeist (1982) (as producer) - but while one was a fantasy story, the other was a nightmarish horror story. This story of a beloved alien creature was the flip-side opposite of a later Spielberg film, War of the Worlds (2005), with destructive alien invaders.
[Its twenty year anniversary in 2002 was celebrated with the film's restoration and re-release - a slightly longer version with additional scenes deleted out of the original (i.e., the bathtub scene), sound re-mastering and digital effects to enhance E.T.'s facial reactions, the spaceship, E.T.'s flight from faceless men through the forest, and the two bike-flight sequences. Guns used by the agents in the 1982 were excised or digitally replaced with walkie-talkies, as was the line: "No guns - they're children." A reference to a "terrorist" was also changed to the word "hippie". These modifications followed the trend of the times - to alter films slightly upon their re-release, as was also done with The Exorcist (1973) and The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen (2000), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Apocalypse Now Redux (2001), and Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars: The Special Edition (1997).]
Out of its nine Academy Awards nominations, it received four Oscars: Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Score (John Williams), and Best Sound. The film lost in the categories of: Best Picture (it lost to Gandhi), Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Screenplay (Melissa Mathison, who was later married to star Harrison Ford - their scene in the film as the School Principal and Nurse was cut). This film, sometimes criticized as over-rated, was Spielberg's biggest blockbuster up to that time.
While the film was regarded by some as a religious allegory or parable, the film more clearly identifies with many childhood experiences: a troubled, broken family with a single parent and no positive role-models, a lonely, disenfranchised boy lacking emotional fulfillment, a boy's fierce caring for an equally-lost, stray creature or pet (also 'broken away' from his family), the need for friendship, the malevolent world of grown-ups and the perils of childhood, miraculous healing, wish-fulfillment, courage, transcendence, and homesickness. The tale is a variation of The Wizard of Oz (1939) for in this story, three young children assist a space creature to return to his home. It's also been considered a 'kids-version' of Spielberg's own Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977), with an alien who is instantly established as a sympathetic creature. The film's award-winning musical score by John Williams (who wrote the scores for Spielberg's four previous films) enhanced the soaring, sentimental emotions of the film.
The First Night:
After the credits (purple letters against a black background), the camera pans down from a starry night sky into the lush darkness of a forest near the flat brightness of a suburban community in northern California. An illuminated, round alien ship (glowing like a Christmas tree in the dark) and a crew of elf-like extraterrestrials are on a mission. An alien's hand with an elongated index finger and a shorter middle finger pulls some branches down. The interior of the space ship appears to be an immense greenhouse, with cone-shaped growths and other plants, and the sound of water dripping is heard. The aliens (botanists) appear to be exploring Earth's plant life and collecting samples. When a owl hoots, a red heartlight glows in the aliens' translucent chests, signifying that they sense danger.
One of their crew members, a little, misshapen-headed alien creature collecting vegetation (a redwoods tree sprout or sapling) reaches his two fingers out toward the green plant. A rabbit watches intently as the plant is dug up, uprooted, and carried amidst the surrounding towering redwoods that reach into the sky. [This scene recalls the pastoral sights in Disney's Bambi (1942).] The small creature stops on the hillside and is curiously entranced by a wide expanse of city streets and yellowish lights far in the distance. Suddenly, he groans when a menacing pickup truck with blaring, blinding headlights shines its beam through the foggy air. The landing of the spaceship has been detected by government radar. Other large, noisy vehicles advance and circle around the creature, who has now become separated from the mother ship.
Exhaust from a tailpipe emits foul smoke. From the point-of-view of the creature, men's legs walk by and step into a mud puddle. In the dark, government and scientific officials look at a map placed on a truck hood with their flashlights. One of the faceless agents is heard with jangling 'keys' - later his name is identified as Keys. [The agents are always portrayed by menacing, black silhouettes of advancing figures wearing heavy boots, with flashlights beaming]. When the crew of extraterrestrials realize that there are intruders around them, one of the aliens at the spaceship's gangplank hatchway sends out a communications-homing signal from his heart, signalling danger and alerting the others to immediately return to the ship.
In dire fear, the lone alien pulsates its red heartlight from its chest to communicate with its own kind. The reverberating sounds of the alien creature and shaking bushes attract the attention of the men. The man with the keys (and the others) swing around and shine their flashlights toward the direction of the sounds, forcing the squealing alien to attempt to rush back toward the alien spacecraft with the men in quick pursuit. The hatch closes and the outer lights of the spaceship are dimmed in preparation for departure. The crew of aliens are forced to desert and abandon one of their members or risk being captured themselves. They quickly take off in their space vehicle to avoid detection, although their lights attract the attention of the eight men as they lift off. The extra-terrestrial moans - he has been abandoned, lost and stranded on an alien, hostile planet, Earth. The men try to locate the creature, but it appears that it has descended down the hillside's slope toward the suburban area below.
In one of the neighborhood's homes, ten-year-old outsider and loner Elliott (10 year old Henry Thomas) is first introduced as he fails to join a ritualized game of Dungeons and Dragons that his older brother Michael (14 year old Robert MacNaughton) and friends Steve (Sean Frye), Greg (K. C. Martel) and Tyler (Tom Howell) are playing. Viewed as a pesky younger brother, Elliott is separated and excluded from the circle that the older boys form around the kitchen table, as he sits behind the counter from them:
Elliott: I'm ready to play now, you guys.
One of the boys: We're in the middle, Elliott. You can't just join any universe in the middle. Michael suggests that Elliott ask permission of Steve, the Game's Dungeon Master who has "absolute power." To get rid of him for the time being, Elliott - feeling powerless - must first stand outside in the driveway of their suburban home and wait/pay for a pizza that one of the boys has ordered by phone. Elliott leaves the room with his baseball and glove and walks down the slick driveway in the rain and mist.
As Elliott walks slowly back up the driveway to the house with the pizza, he hears sounds coming from near their home's backyard toolshed. He calls out his dog's name - "Harvey, is that you, boy?" Elliott's mother Mary (Dee Wallace-Stone), wearing an orange kimono, is working in the kitchen. When she bends down to place dishes in the dishwasher, one of Mike's friends extends his finger toward her rear - Mike yells for him to stop.
Elliott walks by a ping-pong table when he hears more sounds, so he approaches closer to the shed to investigate - walking under a crescent moon above him in the sky. [Is it just a coincidence that the alien is discovered in a stable, and Elliott's mother is named Mary - similar to the Biblical stories?] Laying the pizza on the ground, Elliott casually tosses his softball into the shed - it is playfully thrown back out to him. Chillingly terrified, Elliott turns and runs, slipping on the pizza box on the lawn and rushing into the kitchen where he breathlessly tells his mother:
Mom, mom, there's somethin' out there...It's in the toolshed. He threw out the ball at me...(To the other boys who are ignoring him) (Yelling) Quiet! (In a hushed voice) Nobody go out there. Members of his own family don't really believe him, but to play along, mock and ridicule him, the boys jump up from the table, grab kitchen knives and a flashlight and approach the outdoor toolshed with Elliott's Mom. One of the boys hums a few notes of eerie Twilight Zone music. Mary observes: "There's nothing in here." Although they find a few odd-shaped tracks in the dirt, Michael believes they are only the tracks of coyotes that have returned to the neighborhood ("the coyote's come back again, Mom"). As they return to the house and notice the squashed pizza, Elliott has to explain that it was an accident. Then, Elliott angers one of Mike's friends by reporting to his mother that one of the boys had disobediently ordered the pizza. Long alien fingers slowly wrap around the side of the shed door as the creature pants heavily.
At 2 am in Elliott's bedroom, the family dog (sleeping on a lower bunk) awakens when it senses something stirring outside. On the upper bunk, Elliott hasn't even gone to sleep. With Harvey, he returns to the backyard with his flashlight. In the adjoining cornfield next to the house, Elliott sees the strange tracks again and moves some stalks aside. When he shines his light on the creature, they both shriek at each other on first viewing - both equally and identically scared. [This is the first of many instances when their characters merge and are linked - mentally.] The alien runs away through the cornfield as Elliott also screams and runs back to his backyard. Behind the house, the playground swings move back and forth and garbage pails fall over in the wake of the alien's flight.
The Second Day:
The next day while riding his bicycle into the woods high up above his house, Elliott scatters bits of Hershey's Reese's Pieces (like small, round, and colorful pills) on the forest ground, possibly to locate, feed and befriend the creature or to lead the hungry creature to his home with the sweet path of chocolates. [Although Spielberg wanted the bits of candy to be M & M's, the company - Mars, Inc. - refused, and lost out on the tremendous potential of product placement.] In the distance, Elliott notices a man [later identified as Keys] also looking for something in the same area of the woods. As Elliott rides back home, the alien's fingers move down the side of a tree - Elliott was being watched.
At the dinner table that evening, Elliott is depressed and pouts because no one in his family has believed him when he claims: "It was real, I swear." Depressed, he has decided to pass up Halloween this year, although Mike suggests he go as a goblin. He is isolated from close companionship and support within his own family - his brother has older friends, and his five year old sister Gertie (6 year old Drew Barrymore, a descendant of the legendary Barrymore family) is much younger with different interests. His mother is still suffering the traumatic effects of separation from her husband. Elliott unwittingly widens the rifts in the already broken family (his father left for Mexico with another woman) and weakens the bonds that hold them together during their conversation:
Mom: It's not that we don't believe you, honey.
Elliott: Well, it was real, I swear...
Michael: Maybe it was an iguana.
Elliott: It was no iguana.
Michael: Maybe a, a, you know how they say there are alligators in the sewers.
Gertie (repeating the phrase of her older brother as a way of showing she can talk like the bigger kids): 'Alligators in the sewers.'
Mom: All we're trying to say is, 'Maybe you just probably imagined it.'
Elliott: I couldn't have imagined it.
Michael: Maybe it was a pervert, a deformed kid or something?
Gertie (again repeating her older brother's words): 'A deformed kid.'
Michael: Maybe an elf or a leprechaun?
Elliott: It was nothing like that, penis breath. [A controversial line of dialogue!]
Mom: Elliott! Sit down.
Elliott: Dad would believe me.
Mom: Maybe you ought to call your father and tell him about it?
Elliott: I can't. He's in Mexico with Sally.
Gertie: Where's Mexico?
Mom (hurt): Excuse me. (She leaves the table and walks to the window.)
Michael (softly to Elliott): I'm gonna kill you.
Mom: If you ever see it again, whatever it is, don't touch it. Just call me and we'll have somebody come and take it away.
Gertie: Like the dogcatcher?
Elliott: They'll give it a lobotomy or do experiments on it or something. The children argue over who has to do the dishes. Their recently-separated mother (with her back to the table's conversation), still numb from the loss of the separation and abandonment, turns toward the table, emerges into the light with tears in her eyes and sighs: "He hates Mexico." She has been left with the tremendous responsibility of raising the children. Michael bangs his fist on the table at his younger brother: "Dammit, why don't you grow up - think how other people feel for a change." As Elliott rinses his dishes out under hot water at the sink, he looks through the rising steam, longingly gazing out through the window at the sky. Elliott is a young boy desperately in need of a friend.
Again under a crescent moon, Elliott sleeps that night in a sleeping bag on a patio chair with his flashlight ready to catch a glimpse of the alien. Hearing scuffling noises in the direction of the shed, he is awakened and sees the short creature backlit from the light of the toolshed. Speechless and frozen in fear, Elliott with enormous eyes calls out in a stuttering whisper: "Mom, Mom, Mom, Michael, Michael, Mom." It is a terrifying, spellbinding moment for Elliott as the alien moves forward and then inches closer and closer to touch him with two elongated fingers. Rather than touching or harming him, the alien returns some Reese's Pieces on Elliott's blanket as an offering of friendship - or it's a request for more.
To quietly lure the alien into the house, Elliott leaves more clumps of Reese's Pieces as bait - spaced apart on a path up the stairs, down the hallway, and into his bedroom. After succeeding in getting the alien to follow the trail into his room (with a sign on the door saying "ENTER"), the creature knocks a can filled with pens onto the floor, causing a loud noise and forcing Elliott to quickly close the door. In full view for the first time, the alien has a rough, brown Naugahyde skin surface, a wide bulbous baby head, huge blue eyes, an extendable neck, elongated fingers, a pear-shaped body, and large webbed feet. And the creature had the sad look of a lost toddler. [E.T.'s face was reportedly based upon the facial features of scientist Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, poet Carl Sandburg, and a pug.]
After some tension and anxiety dissipate, Elliott wipes his nose, and the creature copies him. Noticing that he is being mimicked, Elliott gestures with other hand movements in an attempt to communicate. The wide-eyed alien imitates Elliott - the two characters are exact images of each other (not mirror images). The alien even mimics Elliott's yawn and tiredness by purring when the sleepy boy collapses in a chair in his room.
Meanwhile, government officials [including Keys] scour the alien ship's landing area, discovering Reese's Pieces hidden there by the creature. Seen only at hip level, one of the men [Keys] reaches down and carefully picks up one of the strange colored "eggs" with his thumb and index finger and lifts it out of the frame to examine it. A crunching noise is heard on the soundtrack when the man eats the candy.
The Third Day:
Wearing longjohns, Elliott feigns illness (with the old boyhood tricks of heating up the thermometer under a lamp and putting a blue heating pad over his face) to remain home from school, using the excuse that he caught a cold sitting outside waiting for the creature. When his mother fetches a folded-up sleeping bag from the closet (with a louvered door) and unrolls it, Elliott watches her closely and is relieved when the creature doesn't fall out onto the floor. Mary accepts his excuse to stay home, but asks him not to watch TV. When she has left (she's a working mother forced to work to support her family), with help from practicing-driver Mike in backing the car down the driveway (and partially onto the lawn), Elliott wants to communicate with his new friend. After gesturing for the alien to come out of the closet, it emerges wearing his robe. Elliott introduces himself:
Do you talk, you know, talk? Me human. Boy. Elliott. Ell-i-ott. Elliott. In a profoundly simple scene, Elliott uses objects in his bedroom to introduce his 'alien' world and culture to the creature, a world of materialism and violence. He starts with a Coke can with a rubberized artificial spill, followed by little plastic men (war toys) and space creatures (with numerous George Lucas product placement endorsements for his action figures), a goldfish in a bowl, a plastic shark's head on a stick (reminiscent of Spielberg's earlier film Jaws (1975)), a PEZ candy dispenser, a large peanut-shaped coin bank, money, and a miniature toy car. In the process, he describes how the food chain works (fish eat fish food, sharks eat fish, and nothing eats the shark):
Coke. You see, we drink it. It's a, it's a drink. You know, food. These are toys, these are little men. This is Greedo [from Lucas' Star Wars (1977)], and then this is Hammerhead, see this is Walrus Man, and this is Snaggle Tooth and this is Lando Calrissian [from The Empire Strikes Back (1980)] see, ...and look, they can even have wars. Look at this. Th-th-th-th-th-th. Uuuuuuuugh. (He play-acts with two characters who both shoot and kill each other.) Look fish. The fish eat the fish food, and the shark [a toy shark with moveable jaws on the end of a rod that he puts into the fish bowl] eats the fish, and nobody eats the shark. See, this is PEZ, candy. See you eat it. You put the candy in here and then when you lift up the head, the candy comes out and you can eat it. You want some? This is a peanut [a giant size replica of a peanut]. You eat it, but you can't eat this one, 'cause this is fake. This is money. You see. You put the money in the peanut. You see? It's a bank. See? And then, this is a car. This is what we get around in. You see? Car. (The alien takes the car - and like a typical child who sees a plaything - puts it in his mouth to eat it.) Hey, hey wait a second. No. You don't eat 'em. Are you hungry? I'm hungry. Stay. Stay. I'll be right here. OK? I'll be right here. Elliott deduces that the alien is still hungry - the first evidence that they have communicated and empathized with each other. (Their kinship strengthens as they build a variety of experiences together.) The family dog barks and threatens the little creature, scaring him as Elliott leaves the room. While Elliott is loading up on food from the refrigerator (Skippy peanut butter, cheese and tomatoes, a carton of milk), he is startled by the alien's scream. The alien is having trouble in Earth's modern-day world - he has inspected other objects in the room - a tennis racket and an easy-open umbrella. When it unexpectedly pops open, he screeches and scurries to hide. Elliott drops the milk carton on the kitchen floor and clutches his chest as they simultaneously experience surprise and fright. While carrying a plate of food back to the alien, Elliott finds the creature in his closet full of stuffed animals, terrified and shaking nervously: "Too much excitement, huh?"
When football-uniformed Michael returns after school, he finds "nuthin' but health s--t" in the refrigerator. Elliott calls his brother to his room, where he is accused of being a faker. Elliott reveals his secret stray friend, the "goblin," to his disbelieving brother. [Both boys are wearing clothes with white and blue colors.] But before the revelation is made, Elliott insists that his secret must be kept (vindicating himself by using the words "absolute power" from the Dungeon and Dragons game where he had been left out):
Elliott: Michael, he came back...
Michael: He came back? He came back? Oh my god! (He chokes himself and pulls back.)
Elliott: (persistently) One thing. I have absolute power. Say it. Say it!...
Michael: What have you got? Is it the coyote?
Elliott: No. Look. OK. Now. Swear it. The most excellent promise you can make. Swear as my only brother on our lives.
Michael: Don't get so heavy. I swear. Michael is ordered to stand in the middle of the room and close his eyes. When Elliott brings the alien out from his hiding place in the closet for an introduction, Michael turns around and is dumbfounded at the sight. At that instant, Gertie rushes into the room with a picture she has drawn for Elliott at school: "Elliott, look what I made for you." The impish blonde-haired girl is startled to see the strange-looking creature - her first view of it face-to-face. The creature cranes its neck up in fear (possibly having learned that this is an appropriate way to greet a stranger from his first meeting with Elliott.) She emits a loud-pitched scream - the alien reacts by belching out a horrifying moan in imitation. Elliott screams back at his sister to stop, as Mike backs up into a wall bookcase and knocks it down. Elliott grabs Gertie and covers her mouth as they hear their mother arrive home.
AVATAR(2009 FILM)
Enter the World
Year: 2009
Country: United StatesGenres: Action / Science Fiction / Thriller
Share:Share10
Download "Avatar" on iTunes
Directed by James Cameron
Written by James Cameron
Producer Jon Landau
and James Cameron
Co-producer Brooke Breton
and Josh McLaglen
Executive producer Colin Wilson
Associate producer Janace Tashjian
Line producerPeter M. Tobyansen
«Avatar» is a 2009 Action/Science Fiction/Thriller film directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, and Giovanni Ribisi.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the year 2154, the RDA Corporation is mining a valuable mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is inhabited by the non-technological Na'vi, ten-foot-tall (3 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids who live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa.
To learn about the Na'vi and Pandora's biosphere, scientists use Na'vi-human hybrid bodies called avatars that are operated via mental link by genetically matching humans. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former Marine, replaces his twin brother, a scientist trained as an avatar operator who was murdered in a robbery. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement and assigns him as a bodyguard. As Grace, scientist Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), and Jake collect biological samples and data in the forest in their avatar forms, a thanator (predator) appears and attacks Jake. He flees for his life, eventually surviving the attack, but becomes separated from the others. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na'vi, reluctantly rescues Jake. Seeing portents from Eywa, she takes him to her clan's dwelling, Hometree; there, Jake meets Neytiri's father, clan chief Eytukan (Wes Studi). Neytiri's mother Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to teach the "warrior dreamwalker" their ways.
The head of Sec-Ops, the RDA's private security force, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), promises Jake the expensive cure for his paraplegia in exchange for intelligence about the Na'vi. Hometree is on top of the richest deposits of unobtanium for hundreds of miles. When Grace learns that Jake is passing information to Quaritch, she relocates herself, Jake, and Norm to a remote outpost. Over three months, Jake grows close to Neytiri and her people. After Jake is initiated into the tribe, he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Jake reveals his change of allegiance when he attempts to disable a bulldozer. When Quaritch shows Administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), the leader of the RDA colony, one of Jake's video diary entries, in which Jake admits that the Na'vi will never abandon Hometree, Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed.
Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree could affect the bio-botanical neural network to which Pandoran organisms are connected, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate. When Jake reveals his original mission, Neytiri accuses him of betrayal, and Jake and Grace's avatars are tied up. Quaritch's forces destroy Hometree, killing Neytiri's father, as well as many others. Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are unplugged and imprisoned. Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez), a pilot disgusted with Quaritch's brutal methods, breaks them out and flies them to an avatar link outpost. During the escape, Quaritch shoots and seriously wounds Grace.
The Na'vi are able to link mentally with some animals. To regain the Na'vi's trust, Jake takes a dangerous gamble and links with a Toruk, a powerful flying predator that has been tamed only five times in Na'vi history. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Mo'at to heal Grace. The clan attempts to transfer Grace from her human body into her avatar with the aid of the Tree, but she succumbs to her injuries before it can be completed.
Supported by the new Omaticaya chief, Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), Jake recruits thousands of warriors from neighboring clans. On the eve of battle, Jake prays to Eywa, via a neural connection to the Tree of Souls, to intercede on behalf of the Na'vi. Quaritch detects the mobilization of the Na'vi and convinces Selfridge to authorize a preemptive strike against the Tree of Souls, reckoning that its destruction will demoralize the natives.
The Na'vi fight back but suffer heavy casualties; Tsu'tey and Trudy are killed. Just when all seems lost, Pandoran wildlife suddenly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. Jake destroys a shuttle converted into a makeshift bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls. Just as his own ship is also been destroyed by Jake, Quaritch makes a narrow escape, donning an AMP suit. He stumbles upon and breaches the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing Jake to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. Neytiri kills Quaritch and gets to Jake in time to save him. They reaffirm their love as she sees his human body for the first time.
With the exception of Jake, Norm, Max, and several other scientists, all humans are expelled from Pandora (including Selfridge). Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya leader. The clan performs the ritual dedicated to Eywa that permanently transfers Jake from his human body into his avatar.
Avatar
Theatrical release poster Directed by James Cameron Produced by
December 18, 2009 (2009-12-18) (United States) Running time 162 minutes[1]
171 minutes (Re-release)[2] Country United States Language English Budget $237 million[3]
$9 million+ (Re-release)[2] Gross revenue $2,780,969,137[4][5]
Film Movie Film to DVD Avatar Movies Write Film Script
Year: 2009
Country: United StatesGenres: Action / Science Fiction / Thriller
Share:Share10
Download "Avatar" on iTunes
Directed by James Cameron
Written by James Cameron
Producer Jon Landau
and James Cameron
Co-producer Brooke Breton
and Josh McLaglen
Executive producer Colin Wilson
Associate producer Janace Tashjian
Line producerPeter M. Tobyansen
«Avatar» is a 2009 Action/Science Fiction/Thriller film directed by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, and Giovanni Ribisi.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the year 2154, the RDA Corporation is mining a valuable mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is inhabited by the non-technological Na'vi, ten-foot-tall (3 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids who live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa.
To learn about the Na'vi and Pandora's biosphere, scientists use Na'vi-human hybrid bodies called avatars that are operated via mental link by genetically matching humans. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic former Marine, replaces his twin brother, a scientist trained as an avatar operator who was murdered in a robbery. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement and assigns him as a bodyguard. As Grace, scientist Norm Spellman (Joel Moore), and Jake collect biological samples and data in the forest in their avatar forms, a thanator (predator) appears and attacks Jake. He flees for his life, eventually surviving the attack, but becomes separated from the others. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a female Na'vi, reluctantly rescues Jake. Seeing portents from Eywa, she takes him to her clan's dwelling, Hometree; there, Jake meets Neytiri's father, clan chief Eytukan (Wes Studi). Neytiri's mother Mo'at (C. C. H. Pounder), the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to teach the "warrior dreamwalker" their ways.
The head of Sec-Ops, the RDA's private security force, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), promises Jake the expensive cure for his paraplegia in exchange for intelligence about the Na'vi. Hometree is on top of the richest deposits of unobtanium for hundreds of miles. When Grace learns that Jake is passing information to Quaritch, she relocates herself, Jake, and Norm to a remote outpost. Over three months, Jake grows close to Neytiri and her people. After Jake is initiated into the tribe, he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Jake reveals his change of allegiance when he attempts to disable a bulldozer. When Quaritch shows Administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), the leader of the RDA colony, one of Jake's video diary entries, in which Jake admits that the Na'vi will never abandon Hometree, Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed.
Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree could affect the bio-botanical neural network to which Pandoran organisms are connected, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate. When Jake reveals his original mission, Neytiri accuses him of betrayal, and Jake and Grace's avatars are tied up. Quaritch's forces destroy Hometree, killing Neytiri's father, as well as many others. Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are unplugged and imprisoned. Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez), a pilot disgusted with Quaritch's brutal methods, breaks them out and flies them to an avatar link outpost. During the escape, Quaritch shoots and seriously wounds Grace.
The Na'vi are able to link mentally with some animals. To regain the Na'vi's trust, Jake takes a dangerous gamble and links with a Toruk, a powerful flying predator that has been tamed only five times in Na'vi history. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Mo'at to heal Grace. The clan attempts to transfer Grace from her human body into her avatar with the aid of the Tree, but she succumbs to her injuries before it can be completed.
Supported by the new Omaticaya chief, Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), Jake recruits thousands of warriors from neighboring clans. On the eve of battle, Jake prays to Eywa, via a neural connection to the Tree of Souls, to intercede on behalf of the Na'vi. Quaritch detects the mobilization of the Na'vi and convinces Selfridge to authorize a preemptive strike against the Tree of Souls, reckoning that its destruction will demoralize the natives.
The Na'vi fight back but suffer heavy casualties; Tsu'tey and Trudy are killed. Just when all seems lost, Pandoran wildlife suddenly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa answering Jake's prayer. Jake destroys a shuttle converted into a makeshift bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls. Just as his own ship is also been destroyed by Jake, Quaritch makes a narrow escape, donning an AMP suit. He stumbles upon and breaches the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing Jake to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. Neytiri kills Quaritch and gets to Jake in time to save him. They reaffirm their love as she sees his human body for the first time.
With the exception of Jake, Norm, Max, and several other scientists, all humans are expelled from Pandora (including Selfridge). Jake is seen wearing the insignia of the Omaticaya leader. The clan performs the ritual dedicated to Eywa that permanently transfers Jake from his human body into his avatar.
Avatar
Theatrical release poster Directed by James Cameron Produced by
- James Cameron
- Jon Landau
- Sam Worthington
- Zoe Saldana
- Stephen Lang
- Michelle Rodriguez
- Joel David Moore
- Giovanni Ribisi
- Sigourney Weaver
- James Cameron
- John Refoua
- Stephen E. Rivkin
- Lightstorm Entertainment
- Dune Entertainment
- Ingenious Film Partners
December 18, 2009 (2009-12-18) (United States) Running time 162 minutes[1]
171 minutes (Re-release)[2] Country United States Language English Budget $237 million[3]
$9 million+ (Re-release)[2] Gross revenue $2,780,969,137[4][5]
Film Movie Film to DVD Avatar Movies Write Film Script
HP1
This article is about the book. For other uses, see information about the film and video game. Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Thomas Taylor (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 30 June 1997 (UK)
1 September 1998 (US) Book no. One Sales Unknown Story timeline 31 October 1981
22 June 1991–5 June 1992 Chapters 17 Pages 223 (UK)
309 (US) ISBN 0747532699 Followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring Harry Potter, a young wizard. It describes how Harry discovers he is a wizard, makes close friends and a few enemies at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and with the help of his friends thwarts an attempted comeback by the evil wizard Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents when Harry was one year old.
The book was published on 30 June 1997 by Bloomsbury in London, while in 1998 Scholastic Corporation published an edition for the United States market under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The novel won most of the UK book awards that were judged by children, and other awards in the USA. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999, and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into several other languages and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name.
Most reviews were very favourable, commenting on Rowling's imagination, humour, simple, direct style and clever plot construction, although a few complained that the final chapters looked rushed. The writing has been compared to that of Jane Austen, one of Rowling's favourite authors, of Roald Dahl, whose works dominated children's stories before the appearance of Harry Potter, and of the Ancient Greek story-teller Homer. While some commentators thought the book looked backwards to Victorian and Edwardian boarding school stories, others thought it placed the genre firmly in the modern world by featuring contemporary ethical and social issues.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , along with the rest of the Harry Potter series, has been attacked by several religious groups and banned in some countries because of accusations that the novels promote witchcraft. However, some Christian commentators have written that the book exemplifies important Christian viewpoints, including the power of self-sacrifice and the ways in which people's decisions shape their personalities. Educators regard Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and its sequels as an important aid in improving literacy because of the books' popularity. The series has also been used as a source of object lessons in educational techniques, sociological analysis and marketing.
Contents [hide]
- 1 Synopsis
- 2 Development, publication and reception
- 3 Religious controversy
- 4 Style and themes
- 5 Uses in education and business
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 External links
For ten years, they and their son Dudley bully Harry. Shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday, a series of letters addressed to Harry arrive, but Vernon destroys them before Harry can read them. To get away from the letters, Vernon takes the family to a lonely island. As they are settling in, Hagrid bursts through the door to tell Harry what the Dursleys have kept him from finding out: Harry is a wizard and has been accepted at Hogwarts.
Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, a magically-concealed shopping precinct in London, where Harry is bewildered to discover how famous he is among wizards as "the boy who lived." He also finds that he is quite wealthy, since a bequest from his parents has remained on deposit at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Guided by Hagrid, he buys the books and equipment he needs for Hogwarts. At the wand shop, he finds that the only wand that works well for him is the twin of Voldemort's - both wands contain feathers from the same Phoenix.
A month later, Harry leaves the Dursleys' home to catch the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross railway station. There he meets the Weasley family, who show him how to pass through the magical wall to Platform 9¾, where the train is waiting. While on the train Harry makes friends with Ron Weasley, who tells him that someone tried to rob a vault at Gringotts. Another new pupil, Draco Malfoy, accompanied by his sidekicks Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, offers to advise Harry, but Harry dislikes Draco's arrogance and prejudice.
Before the term's first dinner in the school's Great Hall, the new pupils are allocated to houses by the magical Sorting Hat. When it is Harry's turn to be sorted, the Hat wonders whether he should be in Slytherin, but when Harry objects, the Hat sends him to join the Weasleys in Gryffindor. While Harry is eating, Professor Snape catches his eye and Harry feels a sudden stab of pain in the scar Voldemort left on his forehead.
After a horrible first Potions lesson with Snape, Harry and Ron visit Hagrid, who lives in a rustic house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There they learn that the attempted robbery at Gringotts happened the day Harry withdrew money. Harry remembers that Hagrid had removed a small package from the vault that was broken into and searched.
During the new pupils' first broom-flying lesson, Neville Longbottom breaks his wrist, and Draco takes advantage to throw the forgetful Neville's fragile Remembrall high in the air. Harry gives chase on his broomstick, catching the Remembrall inches from the ground. Professor McGonagall dashes out and appoints him as the new Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.[1]
When Draco tricks Ron and Harry, accompanied by Neville and the bossy Hermione Granger, into a midnight excursion, they accidentally enter a forbidden corridor and find a huge three-headed dog. The group hastily retreats, and Hermione notices that the dog is standing over a trap-door. Harry concludes that the monster is guarding the package Hagrid retrieved from Gringotts.
After Ron criticizes Hermione's ostentatious proficiency in Charms, she hides in tears in the girls' toilet. Professor Quirrell reports that a troll has entered the dungeons. While everyone else returns to their dormitories, Harry and Ron rush to warn Hermione. The troll corners Hermione in the toilet but when Harry sticks his wand up one of its nostrils, Ron uses the levitation spell to knock out the troll with its own club. Afterwards, several professors arrive and Hermione takes the blame for the battle and becomes a firm friend of the two boys.
The evening before Harry's first Quidditch match, he sees Snape receiving medical attention from Filch for a bite on his leg by the three-headed dog. During the game, Harry's broomstick goes out of control, endangering his life, and Hermione notices that Snape is staring at Harry and muttering. She dashes over to the Professors' stand, knocking over Professor Quirrel in her haste, and sets fire to Snape's robe. Harry regains control of his broomstick and catches the Golden Snitch, winning the game for Gryffindor. Hagrid refuses to believe that Snape was responsible for Harry's danger, but lets slip that he bought the three-headed dog, and that the monster is guarding a secret that belongs to Professor Dumbledore and someone called Nicolas Flamel.
Harry and the Weasleys stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, and one of Harry's presents, from an anonymous donor, is an Invisibility Cloak. Harry uses the Cloak to search the library's Restricted Section for information about the mysterious Flamel, has to evade Snape and Filch after an enchanted book shrieks an alarm, and slips into a room containing the Mirror of Erised, which shows his parents and several of their ancestors. Harry becomes addicted to the Mirror's visions and is rescued by Professor Dumbledore, who explains that it shows what the viewer most desperately longs for.
When the rest of the pupils return for the next term, Draco plays a prank on Neville, and Harry consoles Neville with a sweet. The collectible card wrapped with the sweet identifies Flamel as an alchemist. Hermione soon finds that he is a 665-year-old man who possesses the only known Philosopher's stone, from which can be extracted an elixir of life. A few days later Harry notices Snape sneaking towards the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. There he half-hears a furtive conversation about the Philosopher's Stone, in which Snape asks Professor Quirrell if he has found a way past the three-headed dog and menacingly tells Quirrell to decide whose side he is on. Harry concludes that Snape is trying to steal the Stone and Quirrell has prepared a series of defences for it.
The three friends discover that Hagrid is raising a baby dragon, which is against wizard law, and arrange to smuggle it out of the country around midnight. Draco arrives, hoping to raise the alarm and get them into trouble, and Neville comes to warn them of Draco's mischief. Although Ron is bitten by the dragon and is sent to the infirmary, Harry and Hermione spirit the dragon safely away. However, they are caught, and Harry loses the Invisibility Cloak. As part of their punishment, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Neville are compelled to help Hagrid to rescue a badly-injured unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. They split into two parties, and Harry and Draco find the unicorn dead, surrounded by its blood. A hooded figure crawls to the corpse and drinks the blood, while Draco screams and flees. The hooded figure moves towards Harry, who is knocked out by an agonising pain spreading from his scar. When Harry regains consciousness, the hooded figure has gone and a centaur, Firenze, offers to give him a ride back to the school. The centaur tells Harry that drinking a unicorn's blood will save the life of a mortally injured person, but leave them only barely alive. Firenze suggests Voldemort drank the unicorn's blood to gain enough strength to make the elixir of life from the Philosopher's Stone, and regain full health by drinking that. On his return, Harry finds that someone has slipped the Invisibility Cloak under his sheets.
A few weeks later, while relaxing after the end-of-session examinations, Harry suddenly wonders how something as illegal as a dragon's egg came into Hagrid's possession. The gamekeeper says he was given it by a hooded stranger who bought him several drinks and asked him how to get past the three-headed dog, which Hagrid admits is easy – music sends it to sleep. Realising that one of the Philosopher's Stone's defences is no longer secure, Harry goes to inform Professor Dumbledore, only to find that the headmaster has just left for an important meeting. Harry concludes that Snape faked the message that called Dumbledore away and will try to steal the Stone that night.
place the one year-old orphan in the care of his Voldemort on the back of Professor Quirrell's head at the climax of the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.[2] Covered by the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and his two friends go to the three-headed dog's chamber, where Harry sends the beast to sleep by playing a flute. After lifting the trap-door, they encounter a series of obstacles, each of which requires special skills possessed by one of the three, and one of which requires Ron to sacrifice himself. In the final room Harry, now alone, finds Quirrell rather than Snape. Quirrell admits that he let in the troll that tried to kill Hermione in the toilet, and that he tried to kill Harry during the first Quidditch match but was knocked over by Hermione. Snape had been trying to protect Harry and suspected Quirrell. Quirrell serves Voldemort and, after failing to steal the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts, allowed his master to possess him in order to improve their chances of success. However the only other object in the room is the Mirror of Erised, and Quirrell can see no sign of the Stone. At Voldemort's bidding, Quirrel forces Harry to stand in front of the Mirror. Harry feels the Stone drop into his pocket and tries to stall. Quirrell removes his turban, revealing the face of Voldemort on the back of his head. Voldemort/Quirrell tries to grab the Stone from Harry, but simply touching Harry causes Quirrell's flesh to burn. After further struggles Harry passes out.
He awakes in the school hospital, where Professor Dumbledore tells him that he survived because his mother sacrificed her life to protect him, and Voldemort could not understand the power of such love. Voldemort left Quirrell to die, and is likely to return by some other means. Dumbledore had foreseen that the Mirror would show Voldemort/Quirrell only themselves making the elixir of life, as they wanted to use the Philosopher's Stone; Harry was able to see the Stone in the Mirror because he wanted to find it but not to use it. The Stone has now been destroyed.
Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer holiday, but does not tell them that under-age wizards are forbidden to use magic outside Hogwarts.
After ten years, Harry became an eleven year-old boy. The Dursleys have kept the truth about Harry's parents from him, but it is revealed in the form of Rubeus Hagrid, who tells Harry that he is a wizard and has been accepted at Hogwarts for the autumn term. Harry takes the train to Hogwarts from King's Cross Station. On the train, Harry sits with and quickly befriends Ron Weasley; the two are also briefly visited by Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger. Later on in the journey, Malfoy comes into Harry and Ron's compartment with his friends Crabbe and Goyle and introduces himself. After Ron laughs at Draco's name, Draco offers to help Harry distinguish the wrong sort of wizards, but Harry declines.
Upon arrival, the Sorting Hat places Harry, Hermione, Neville and Ron into Gryffindor House, one of the school's four houses, while Draco and his cronies are placed in Slytherin. After a broom-mounted game to save Neville's Remembrall, Harry joins Gryffindor's Quidditch team as their youngest Seeker in over a century.
Shortly after school begins, Harry and his friends hear that someone broke into a previously emptied vault at the wizarding bank, Gringotts. The mystery deepens when they discover a monstrous three-headed dog, Fluffy, who guards a trapdoor in the forbidden third floor passageway. On Halloween, a trollMcGonagall. Hermione defends the boys and takes the blame, which results in the three becoming close friends.
Harry's broom becomes jinxed during his first Quidditch match, nearly resulting in Harry falling from a great height. Hermione believes that Professor Snape has cursed the broom and distracts him by setting his robes on fire, allowing Harry to catch the Golden Snitch and win the game for Gryffindor.
At Christmas, Harry receives his father's Invisibility Cloak from an unknown source. Later, he discovers the Mirror of Erised, a strange mirror that shows Harry surrounded by his parents and the extended family he never knew. Later, Harry learns that Nicolas Flamel is the maker of the Sorcerer's Stone, a stone that gives the owner eternal life.
Harry sees Professor Snape interrogating Professor Quirrell about getting past Fluffy, seemingly confirming the suspicion that Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone in order to restore Lord Voldemort to power. The trio discover that Hagrid is hiding a dragon egg, which hatches; since dragon breeding is illegal, they convince Hagrid to send the dragon to live with others of its kind. Harry and Hermione are caught returning to their dormitories after sending Norbert off and are forced to serve detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest. In the forest, Harry sees a hooded figure drink the blood of an injured unicorn. Firenze, a centaur, tells Harry that the hooded figure is Voldemort.
Hagrid accidentally tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione how to get past Fluffy; and they rush to tell the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, what they know, only to find that he has been called away from the school. Convinced that Dumbledore's summons was a red herring to take him away while the Philosopher's Stone is stolen, the trio set out to reach the Stone first. They navigate a series of complex magical challenges set up by the school's faculty, and at the end of these challenges, Harry enters the inner chamber alone, only to find that it is the timid Professor Quirrell, not Snape, who is after the Stone. The final challenge protecting the Stone is the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell forces Harry to look into the mirror to discover where the Stone is hidden; and Harry successfully resists, and the Stone drops into his own pocket. Lord Voldemort reveals himself: he has possessed Quirrell and appears as a ghastly face on the back of Quirrell's head. Quirrell tries to attack Harry, but merely touching Harry proves to be agony for him. Voldemort flees and Quirrell dies as Dumbledore arrives back in time to save Harry.
As Harry recovers, Dumbledore confirms that Lily had died while trying to protect Harry as an infant. Her pure, loving sacrifice provides her son with an ancient magical protection against Voldemort's lethal spells. Dumbledore also explains that the Philosopher's Stone has been destroyed to prevent Voldemort from ever using it. He then tells Harry that only those who wanted to find the Stone, but not use it, would be able to retrieve it from the mirror, which is why Harry could acquire it. When Harry asks Dumbledore why Voldemort attempted to kill him when he was an infant, Dumbledore promises to tell Harry when he is older.
At the end-of-year feast, where Harry is welcomed as a hero. Dumbledore gives a few last-minute additions, granting enough points to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville for Gryffindor to win the House Cup, ending Slytherin's six-year reign as house champions.
[edit] Main characters Harry Potter is an orphan whom Rowling imagined as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard."[3] She developed the series' story and characters, including Voldemort, to explain how Harry came to be in this situation and how his life unfolded from there.[4] Apart from the first chapter, the events of this book take place just before and in the year following Harry's eleventh birthday. Voldemort's attack left a lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead,[4] which produces stabbing pains when Voldemort or a close associate of the dark wizard feels any strong emotion. Harry has prodigious natural talent for Quidditch and the ability to persuade friends by passionate speeches.
enters the castle and traps Hermione in one of the girls' lavatories. Harry and Ron rescue her, but are caught by Professor Petunia Dursley, the sister of Harry's mother Lily, is a thin woman with a long neck that she uses for spying on the neighbours. She regards her magical sister as a freak and tries to pretend that she never existed. Her husband Vernon is a heavily-built man whose irascible bluster covers a narrow mind and a fear of anything unusual. Their son Dudley is an overweight, spoilt bully.
Despite being the school's jokers, identical twins Fred and George Weasley get good marks in examinations and are excellent Quidditch players. Their younger brother Ron is Harry's age and Rowling describes him as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him."[5] Ron lacks confidence in his prospects of matching his three oldest brothers' achievements or the popularity of Fred and George, but his skill and bravery in a magical chess game where lives are at stake help Harry past one of the obstacles on the path to the Philosopher's Stone.
Hermione Granger , the daughter of an all-Muggle family, is a bossy girl who has apparently memorised most of the textbooks before the start of term. Rowling described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character[6] with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness".[6] Despite her nagging efforts to keep Harry and Ron out of trouble, she becomes a close friend of the two boys, and her magical and analytical skills play a vital part in finding the Philosopher's Stone.
Draco Malfoy is a slim, pale boy who speaks in a bored drawl. He is arrogant about his skill in Quidditch, and despises anyone who is not a pure blood wizard – and wizards who do not share his views. His parents had supported Voldemort, but changed sides after the dark wizard's disappearance. Draco avoids direct confrontations, and tries to get Harry and his friends into trouble.
Neville Longbottom is a plump, diffident boy, so forgetful that his grandmother gives him a Remembrall. Neville's magical abilities are weak and appeared just in time to save his life when he was eight. Despite his timidity, Neville will fight anyone after some encouragement or if he thinks it is right and important.
Dumbledore as portrayed by the late Richard Harris in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.[2] Professor Dumbledore, a tall, thin man who wears half-moon spectacles and has silver hair and a beard that tucks into his belt, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, and thought to be the only wizard Voldemort fears. Dumbledore, while renowned for his achievements in magic, finds it difficult to resist sweets and has a whimsical sense of humour. Although he shrugs off praise, he is aware of his own brilliance. Rowling described him as the "epitome of goodness".[7]
Professor McGonagall , a tall, severe-looking woman with black hair tied in a tight bun, teaches Transfiguration, and sometimes transforms herself into a cat. She is in charge of Gryffindor House and, unlike Professor Snape, shows no favouritism towards pupils in her House, but seizes any opportunity to help Gryffindor by fair means. According to the author, "under that gruff exterior" is "a bit of an old softy".[8]
Twitching, stammering Professor Quirrell teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. Reputedly he was a brilliant scholar, but his nerve was shattered by an encounter with vampires. Quirrell wears a turban to conceal the fact that he is voluntarily possessed by Voldemort, whose face appears on the back of Quirrel's head.
Professor Snape , who has a hooked nose, sallow complexion and greasy black hair, teaches Potions, but is eager to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Snape praises pupils in Slytherin, his own House, but seizes every opportunity to humiliate others, especially Harry. Several incidents, beginning with the shooting pain in Harry's scar near the end of the first dinner, lead Harry and his friends to think Snape is a follower of Voldemort.
Hagrid , a half-giant nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, with tangled black hair and beard, was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand was broken, but Professor Dumbledore let him stay on as the school's gamekeeper, a job which enables him to lavish affection and pet names on even the most dangerous of magical creatures. Hagrid is fiercely loyal to Dumbledore and quickly becomes a close friend of Harry, Ron and later Hermione, but his carelessness makes him unreliable.
The school's caretaker, Filch, knows the school's secret passages better than anyone else except possibly the Weasley twins. His cat, Mrs. Norris, aids his hunts for misbehaving pupils. Other members of Hogwarts staff include: the dumpy Herbology teacher Professor Sprout; Professor Flitwick, the tiny and excitable Charms teacher, who is discreetly friendly towards Harry; the soporific History of Magic teacher, Professor Binns, a ghost who does not seem to have noticed his own death; and Madam Hooch, the Quidditch coach, who is strict but a considerate, methodical teacher. The poltergeist Peeves wanders around the buildings causing trouble for whomever he can.
In the book, Rowling introduced an eclectic cast of characters. The first character to be introduced is Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle. Most of the actions centre on the eponymous hero Harry Potter, an orphan who escapes his miserable childhood with the Dursley family. Rowling imagined him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard",[3] and says she transferred part of her pain about losing her mother to him.[9] During the book, Harry makes two close friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron is described by Rowling as the ultimate best friend, "always there when you need him".[5] Rowling has described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character[6] with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness".[6]
Rowling also imagined a supporting cast of adults. Headmaster of Hogwarts is powerful but kind wizard Albus Dumbledore, who becomes Harry's confidant; Rowling described him as "epitome of goodness".[7] His right hand is severe Minerva McGonagall, who according to the author "under that gruff exterior" is "a bit of an old softy",[8] the friendly half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, who saved Harry from the Dursley family and the sinister Severus Snape.[10] Professor Quirrell is also featured in the novel.
The main antagonists are Draco Malfoy, an elitist, bullying classmate[11] and Lord Voldemort, the most powerful evil wizard who becomes disembodied when he tries to kill baby Harry. According to a 1999 interview with Rowling, the character of Voldemort was created as a literary foil for Harry, and his backstory was intentionally not fleshed-out at first:
The basic idea... Harry, I saw Harry very very very clearly. Very vividly. And I knew he didn't know he was a wizard. [...] And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. [...] When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. [...] And—so—but for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since.[12] [edit] Development, publication and reception [edit] Development In 1990 Jo Rowling, as she preferred to be known,[13] wanted to move with her boyfriend to a flat in Manchester and in her words, "One weekend after flat hunting, I took the train back to London on my own and the idea for Harry Potter fell into my head... A scrawny, little, black-haired, bespectacled boy became more and more of a wizard to me... I began to write Philosopher's Stone that very evening. Although, the first couple of pages look nothing like the finished product."[9] Then Rowling's mother died and, to cope with her pain, Rowling transferred her own anguish to the orphan Harry.[9] Rowling spent six years working on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and in 1996 obtained a grant of £4,000 from the Scottish Arts Council, which enabled her to finish the book and plan the sequels.[14] She sent the book to an agent and a publisher, and then the second agent she approached spent a year trying to sell the book to publishers, most of whom thought it was too long at about 90,000 words. Barry Cunningham, who was building a portfolio of distinctive fantasies by new authors for Bloomsbury Children's Books, recommended accepting the book,[14] and the eight-year-old daughter of Bloomsbury's chief executive said it was "so much better than anything else".[15]
[edit] UK publication and reception Imitation of the fictional Platform 9¾ at the real King's Cross railway station, with a luggage trolley apparently half-way through the magical wall Bloomsbury accepted the book, paying Rowling a £2,500 advance,[16] and Cunningham sent proof copies to carefully-chosen authors, critics and booksellers in order to obtain comments that could be quoted when the book was launched.[14] He was less concerned about the book's length than about its author's name, as the title sounded like a boys' book and boys prefer books by male authors. Rowling therefore adopted the nom de plume J.K. Rowling just before publication.[14] In June 1997, Bloomsbury published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries.[17] The short initial print run was standard for first novels, and Cunningham hoped booksellers would read the book and recommend it to customers.[14] Examples from this initial print run have become quite valuable, selling for as much as USD$33,460 in a 2007 Heritage Auction.[18]
Lindsey Fraser, who had supplied one of the blurb comments,[14] wrote what is thought to be the first published review, in The Scotsman on 28 June 1997. She described Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as "a hugely entertaining thriller" and Rowling as "a first-rate writer for children".[14][19] Another early review, in The Herald, said, "I have yet to find a child who can put it down." Newspapers outside Scotland started to notice the book, with glowing reviews in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Mail on Sunday, and in September 1997 Books for Keeps, a magazine that specialised in children's books, gave the novel four stars out of five.[14] In 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9 to 11 year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[20] The Smarties award, which is voted for by children, made the book well-known within six months of publication, while most children's books have to wait for years.[14]
The following year, Philosopher's Stone won almost all the other major UK awards that were decided by children.[14][21] It was also shortlisted for children's books awards adjudicated by adults,[22] but did not win. Sandra Beckett comments that books which were popular with children were regarded as undemanding and as not of the highest literary standards – for example the literary establishment disdained the works of Roald Dahl, an overwhelming favourite of children before the appearance of Rowling's books.[23]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won two publishing industry awards given for sales rather than literary merit, the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year and the Booksellers' Association / Bookseller Author of the Year.[14] By March 1999 UK editions had sold just over 300,000 copies,[24][25] A Braille edition was published in May 1998 by the Scottish Braille Press.[26]
and the story was still the UK's best-selling title in December 2001. Platform 9¾, from which the Hogwarts Express left London, was commemorated in the real-life King's Cross railway station with a sign between tracks 9 and 10 and a trolley apparently passing through the wall.[27]
[edit] U.S. publication and reception UK to American translation examples[28][29] UK American mum, mam mom sherbet lemon lemon drop motorbike motorcycle chips fries crisp chip jelly Jell-O jacket potato baked potato jumper sweater Scholastic Corporation bought the U.S. rights at the Bologna Book Fair in April 1997 for US$105,000, an unusually high sum for a children's book.[14] They thought that a child would not want to read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title and,[30] after some discussion, the American edition was published in October 1998 under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.[14][31] Rowling claimed that she regretted this change and would have fought it if she had been in a stronger position at the time.[32] Philip Nel has pointed out that the change lost the connection with alchemy, and the meaning of some other terms changed in translation, for example from UK English "crumpets" to US English "muffin". While Rowling accepted the change from both standard UK English "mum" and Seamus Finnegan's Irish variant "mam" to "mom" in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, she vetoed this change in the later books. However Nel considered that Scholastic's translations were considerably more sensitive than most of those imposed on UK English books of the time, and that some other changes could be regarded as useful copyedits.[28] Since the UK editions of early titles in the series were published a few months earlier than the American versions, some American readers became familiar with the British English versions after buying them via the Internet.[33]
At first the most prestigious reviewers ignored the book, leaving it to book trade and library publications such as Kirkus Reviews and Booklist, which examined it only by the entertainment-oriented criteria of children's fiction. However, more penetrating specialist reviews (such as one by Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, which pointed out the complexity, depth and consistency of the world Rowling had built) attracted the attention of reviewers in major newspapers.[34] Although The Boston Globe and Michael Winerip in The New York Times complained that the final chapters were the weakest part of the book[19][35] they and most other American reviewers gave glowing praise.[14][19] A year later the US edition was selected as an American Library Association Notable Book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998, and a New York Public Library 1998 Best Book of the Year, and won Parenting Magazine's Book of the Year Award for 1998,[20] the School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.[14]
In August 1999 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone topped the New York Times list of best-selling fiction,[36] and stayed near the top of the list for much of 1999 and 2000, until the New York Times split its list into children's and adult sections under pressure from other publishers who were eager to see their books given higher placings.[23][34] Publishers Weekly's report in December 2001 on cumulative sales of children's fiction placed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 19th among hardbacks (over 5 million copies) and 7th among paperbacks (over 6.6 million copies).[37]
In May 2008, Scholastic announced the creation of a 10th Anniversary Edition of the book that was released in September 2008 to mark the tenth anniversary of the original American release.[38]
[edit] Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation By mid-2008 official translations of the book were published in 67 languages.[39][40] Bloomsbury have published translations in Latin and in Ancient Greek,[41][42] and the latter was described as "one of the most important pieces of Ancient Greek prose written in many centuries".[43]
[edit] Sequels The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[44][45] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[44][45] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[46] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[47] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[48] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005, and sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[49][50] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[51] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[52]
[edit] Film version Main article: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film) European & American posters for the film In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900).[53] Rowling demanded that the principal cast be kept strictly British, but allowed for the casting of Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and of foreign actors as characters of the same nationalities in later books.[54] After extensive casting,[55] filming began in October 2000 at Leavesden Film Studios and in London, with production ending in July 2001.[56] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in London on 14 November 2001.[2][57] Reviewers' comments were positive, as reflected by a 78% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[58] and by a score of 64% at Metacritic representing "generally favourable reviews".[59]
[edit] Video games Main article: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) Video games loosely based on the book were released between 2001 and 2003, generally under the American title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Most were published by Electronic Arts but produced by different developers:
HP2
This article is about the book. For other uses, see information about the film and video game. "HP2" redirects here. For the BMW motorcycle, see BMW GS. For the Ilford photographic film, see Ilford HP. Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Cliff Wright (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 2 July 1998 (UK)
2 June 1999 (US) Book no. Two Sales Unknown Story timeline 13 June 1943
31 July 1992- 29 May 1993 Chapters 18 Pages 251 (UK)
341 (US) ISBN 0747538492 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, during which a series of messages on the walls on the school's corridors warn that the "Chamber of Secrets" has been opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" will kill all pupils who do not come from all-magical families. These threats are followed by attacks which leave residents of the school "petrified" (that is, frozen). Throughout the year, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger investigate the attacks, and Harry is confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is attempting to regain full power.
The book was published in the United Kingdom on 2 July 1998 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 2 June 1999 by Scholastic Inc. Although Rowling found it difficult to finish the book, it won high praise and awards from critics, young readers and the book industry, although some critics thought the story was perhaps too frightening for younger children. Some religious authorities have condemned its use of magical themes, while others have praised its emphasis on self-sacrifice and on the way in which a person's character is the result of the person's choices.
Several commentators have noted that personal identity is a strong theme in the book, and that it addresses issues of racism through the treatment of non-magical, non-human and non-living characters. Some commentators regard the diary as a warning against uncritical acceptance of information from sources whose motives and reliability cannot be checked. Institutional authority is portrayed as self-serving and incompetent.
The film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, released in 2002, became the third film to exceed $600 million in international box office sales and received generally favourable reviews. However, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won the Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.
Contents [hide] // [edit] Plot In the first book in the series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of eleven and is enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron WeasleyHermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power.
Soon after the start of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, messages on the walls of the corridors say that the mythical Chamber of Secrets has been re-opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" will kill all pupils whose parents are both Muggles. Over the next few months, various inhabitants of the school are found petrified in corridors. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who was killed the last time the Chamber was opened and now haunts the girls' toilet in which she died. Myrtle shows Harry a diary bearing the name Tom Marvolo Riddle. Although its pages are blank, it responds when Harry writes in it. Eventually the book shows him Hogwarts as it was fifty years ago. There he sees Tom Riddle, Head Boy at the time, blame Rubeus Hagrid, who was then thirteen years old and already kept dangerous creatures as pets, for opening the Chamber.
Four months later the diary is stolen, and shortly afterward Hermione is petrified. However, she holds a note explaining that the culprit is a basilisk, a huge serpent whose gaze kills those who look into its eyes directly but only petrifies those who see their reflection. Hermione concluded that the monster travels through the school's pipes and emerges through the toilet Myrtle haunts. As the attacks continue, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, holds Hagrid in the wizards' prison as a precaution. Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father and a former supporter of Voldemort who claims to have reformed, announces that the school's governors have suspended Dumbledore from the position of headmaster.
After Ron's younger sister, Ginny, is taken into the Chamber, the staff insist that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, should handle the situation. However, when Harry and Ron go to his office to tell him what they have discovered about the basilisk, Lockhart reveals that he is a fraud who took credit for the accomplishments of others and attempts to erase the boys' memories. Disarming Lockhart, they march him to Moaning Myrtle's toilet, where Harry opens the passage to the Chamber of Secrets. In the sewers under the school, Lockhart grabs Ron's wand and tries again to wipe the boys' memories, but since Ron's wand had been damaged, the spell backfires, inflicting total amnesia on Lockhart, collapsing part of the tunnel, and separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.
While Ron attempts to tunnel through the rubble, Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets, where Ginny lies beside the diary. As he examines her, Tom Riddle appears, looking exactly as he did fifty years ago, and explains that he is a memory stored in the diary. Ginny wrote in it about her adolescent hopes and fears, and Riddle won her confidence by appearing sympathetic, possessed her, and used her to open the Chamber. Riddle also reveals that he is Voldemort as a boy. He further explains that he learned from Ginny who Harry was and about his own deeds as Voldemort. When Ginny realised that she had been responsible for the attacks, she attempted to throw the diary away, which is how it came into Harry's possession. Riddle then releases the basilisk to kill Harry. Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, brings a magnificent sword wrapped in the Sorting Hat. Harry uses the sword to kill the basilisk, but only after being bitten by the creature's venomous fangs, one of which breaks off. As Riddle gloats over the dying Harry, Fawkes cries on Harry's wound to cure it. Harry stabs the diary with the broken fang, and Riddle vanishes.[1] Ginny revives and they return to Ron, who is still watching over the amnesic Lockhart. Fawkes carries all four out of the tunnels.
Harry recounts the whole story to Dumbledore, who has been reinstated. When Harry mentions his fears that he is similar to Tom Riddle, Dumbledore says that Harry chose Gryffindor House, and only a true member of that House could have used Godric Gryffindor's sword to kill the basilisk. Lucius Malfoy bursts in, and Harry accuses him of slipping the diary into one of Ginny's books while the pupils were shopping for school books. Finally, the basilisk's petrified victims are revived by a potion, the preparation of which has taken several months.
[edit] Publication and reception [edit] Development Rowling found it difficult to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because she was afraid it would not live up to the expectations raised by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. After delivering the manuscript to Bloomsbury on schedule, she took it back for six weeks of revision.[2]
In early drafts of the book, the ghost Nearly Headless Nick sang a self-composed song explaining his condition and the circumstances of his death. This was cut as the book's editor did not care for the poem, which has been subsequently published as an extra on J. K. Rowling's official website.[3] The family background of Dean Thomas was removed because Rowling and her publishers considered it an "unnecessary digression", and she considered Neville Longbottom's own journey of discovery "more important to the central plot".[4]
[edit] Publication Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[5][6] It immediately took first place in UK bestseller lists, displacing popular authors such as John Grisham, Tom Clancy,[2] and Terry Pratchett,[7] and making Rowling the first author to win the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for two years in succession.[8] In June 1999 it went straight to the top of three US bestseller lists,[9] including The New York Times'.[10]
First edition printings had several errors, which were fixed in subsequent reprints.[11] Initially Dumbledore said that Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, instead of his descendant.[11] Gilderoy Lockhart's book on werewolves is entitled Weekends with Werewolves at one point and Wanderings with Werewolves later in the book.[12]
[edit] Critical response "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was met with near universal acclaim. In The Times, Deborah Loudon described Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a children's book that would be "re-read into adulthood" and highlighted its "strong plots, engaging characters, excellent jokes and a moral message which flows naturally from the story".[13] Fantasy author Charles de Lint agreed, and considered the second Harry Potter book as good as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a rare achievement among series of books.[14] Thomas Wagner regarded the plot as very similar to that of the first book, based on searching for a secret hidden under the school. However, he enjoyed the parody of celebrities and their fans that centres round Gilderoy Lockhart, and approved of the book's handling of racism.[15] Tammy Nezol found the book more disturbing than its predecessor, particularly in the rash behaviour of Harry and his friends after Harry withholds information from Dumbledore, and in the human-like behaviour of the mandrakes used to make a potion that cures petrification. Nevertheless she considered the second story as enjoyable as the first.[16]
Mary Stuart thought the final conflict with Tom Riddle in the Chamber was almost as scary as in some of Stephen King's works, and perhaps too strong for young or timid children. She commented that "there are enough surprises and imaginative details thrown in as would normally fill five lesser books." Like other reviewers, she thought the book would give pleasure to both children and adult readers.[17] According to Philip Nel, the early reviews gave unalloyed praise while the later ones included some criticisms, although they still agreed that the book was outstanding.[18]
Writing after all seven books had been published, Graeme Davis regarded Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the weakest of the series, and agreed that the plot structure is much the same as in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He described Fawkes's appearance to arm Harry and then to heal him as a deus ex machina: the book does not explain how Fawkes knew where to find Harry; and Fawkes's timing had to be very precise, as arriving earlier would probably have prevented the battle with the basilisk, while arriving later would have been fatal to Harry and Ginny.[19]
Dave Kopel describes the climactic scene in which Harry saves Ginny from Riddle's diary and the basilisk as Pilgrim's Progress for a new audience: "Harry descends to a deep underworld, is confronted by two Satanic minions (Voldemort and a giant serpent), is saved from certain death by his faith in Dumbledore (the bearded God the Father/Ancient of Days), rescues the virgin (Ginerva [sic] Weasley), and ascends in triumph."[20]
[edit] Awards and honours Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the recipient of several awards.[21] The American Library Association[22] as well as its Best Books for Young Adults.[23] In 1999, Booklist named Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as one of its Editors' Choices,[24] and as one of its Top Ten Fantasy Novels for Youth.[21] The Cooperative Children's Book center made the novel a CCBC Choice of 2000 in the "Fiction for Children" category.[25] The novel also won Children's Book of the Year British Book Award,[26][21]
and listed the novel among its 2000 Notable Children's Books, and was shortlisted for the 1998 Guardian Children's Award and the 1998 Carnegie Award. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1998 Gold Medal in the 9–11 years division.[26] Rowling also won two other Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Scottish Arts Council awarded their first ever Children’s Book Award to the novel in 1999,[27] and it was also awarded Whitaker's Platinum Book Award in 2001.[21][28]
[edit] Religious response Main article: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series Religious controversy surrounding Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secrets and the other books in the Harry Potter series mainly deal with claims that the novel contains occult or Satanic subtexts. Religious response to the series has not been exclusively negative, however, and several religious groups have spoken in defense of the moralistic themes found in the book. The American Library Association even placed the series atop the "most challenged books" list for 1999–2001.[29]
The Orthodox churches of Greece and Bulgaria have campaigned against the series,[30][31] and in the United States, calls for the book to be banned from schools have led to legal challenges. Most of these are held on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the novels to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state.[32][33][34]
Some religious responses have been positive. Emily Griesinger wrote that fantasy literature helps children to survive reality for long enough to learn how to deal with it, described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She noted that the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother, which protected the boy in the first book and throughout the series, was the most powerful of the "deeper magics" that transcend the magical "technology" of the wizards, and one which the power-hungry Voldemort fails to understand.[35] Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from", the Harry Potter books represent "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice".[36] "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view", commented Rowling, "[the books] have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths".[37]
[edit] Themes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets continues the examination of what makes a person who he or she is, which began in the first book. As well as maintaining that Harry's identity is shaped by his decisions rather than any aspect of his birth,[16][38]Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets[16] Riddle also complicates Harry's struggle to understand himself by pointing out the similarities between the two: "both half-bloods, orphans raised by Muggles, probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin."[39]
Opposition to class, prejudice, and racism is a constant theme of the series. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry's consideration and respect for others extends to the lowly, non-human Dobby and the ghost Nearly Headless Nick.[29] According to Marguerite Krause, achievements in the novel depend more on ingenuity and hard work than on natural talents.[40]
Edward Duffy, an associate professor at Marquette University, says that one of the central characters of Chamber of Secrets is a book, Tom Riddle's enchanted diary, which takes control of Ginny Weasley – just as Riddle planned. Duffy suggests that Rowling intended this as a warning against passively consuming information from sources that have their own agendas.[41] Although Bronwyn Williams and Amy Zenger regard the diary as more like an instant messaging or chat room system, they agree about the dangers of relying too much on the written word, which can camouflage the author, and they highlight a comical example, Lockhart's self-promoting books.[42]
Immorality and the portrayal of authority as negative are significant themes in the novel. Marguerite Krause states that there are few absolute moral rules in Harry Potter's world, for example Harry prefers to tell the truth, but lies whenever he considers it necessary – very like his enemy Draco Malfoy.[40] At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore retracts his promise to punish Harry, Ron, and Hermione if they break any more school rules – after Professor McGonagall estimates that they have broken over 100 – and lavishly rewards them for ending the threat from the Chamber of Secrets.[43][40] William MacNeil of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia states that the Minister for Magic is presented as a mediocrity.[44] In his article "Harry Potter And The Secular City", Ken Jacobson suggests that the Ministry as a whole is portrayed as a tangle of bureaucratic empires, saying that "Ministry officials busy themselves with minutiae (e.g. standardising cauldron thicknesses) and coin politically correct euphemisms like 'non-magical community' (for Muggles) and 'memory modification' (for magical brainwashing)."[38]
This novel implies that it begins in 1992: the cake for Nearly-Headless Nick's 500th deathday party bears the words "Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington died 31 October 1492".[45][46]
[edit] Connection to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chamber of Secrets has many links with the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, Half-Blood Prince was the working title of Chamber of Secrets and Rowling says she originally intended to present some "crucial pieces of information" in the second book, but ultimately felt that "this information's proper home was book six".[47] Some objects that play significant roles in Half-Blood Prince first appear in Chamber of Secrets: the Hand of Glory and the opal necklace that are on sale in Borgin and Burkes; a Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts that is damaged by Peeves the Poltergeist; and Tom Riddle's diary, which is later shown to be a Horcrux.[48]
[edit] Behind the Scenes Interestingly, the description of the basilisk's origin (how one is created) provided by Rowling in the novel actually concerns the cockatrice. A cockatrice was said to be born when a cockerel's egg was hatched by either a toad or snake while a basilisk was born from the egg of a snake being hatched by a cockerel.
[edit] Adaptations [edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) The film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released in 2002.[49] Chris Columbus directed the film,[50] and the screenplay was written by Steve Kloves. It became the third film to exceed $600 million in international box office sales, preceded by Titanic, released in 1997, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in 2001.[51] The film was nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film,[51] but The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers took the prize.[52] According to Metacritic, the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets received "generally favourable reviews" with an average score of 63%,[53] and another aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, gave it a score of 82%.[50]
[edit] Video game Main article: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) provides contrasting characters who try to conceal their true personalities: as Tammy Nezol puts it, Gilderoy Lockhart "lacks any real identity" because he is nothing more than a charming liar. Krause further states that authority figures and political institutions receive little respect from Rowling.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Cliff Wright (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 2 July 1998 (UK)
2 June 1999 (US) Book no. Two Sales Unknown Story timeline 13 June 1943
31 July 1992- 29 May 1993 Chapters 18 Pages 251 (UK)
341 (US) ISBN 0747538492 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, during which a series of messages on the walls on the school's corridors warn that the "Chamber of Secrets" has been opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" will kill all pupils who do not come from all-magical families. These threats are followed by attacks which leave residents of the school "petrified" (that is, frozen). Throughout the year, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger investigate the attacks, and Harry is confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is attempting to regain full power.
The book was published in the United Kingdom on 2 July 1998 by Bloomsbury and in the United States on 2 June 1999 by Scholastic Inc. Although Rowling found it difficult to finish the book, it won high praise and awards from critics, young readers and the book industry, although some critics thought the story was perhaps too frightening for younger children. Some religious authorities have condemned its use of magical themes, while others have praised its emphasis on self-sacrifice and on the way in which a person's character is the result of the person's choices.
Several commentators have noted that personal identity is a strong theme in the book, and that it addresses issues of racism through the treatment of non-magical, non-human and non-living characters. Some commentators regard the diary as a warning against uncritical acceptance of information from sources whose motives and reliability cannot be checked. Institutional authority is portrayed as self-serving and incompetent.
The film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, released in 2002, became the third film to exceed $600 million in international box office sales and received generally favourable reviews. However, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won the Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film. Video games loosely based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were also released for several platforms, and most obtained favourable reviews.
Contents [hide] // [edit] Plot In the first book in the series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of eleven and is enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron WeasleyHermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power.
Soon after the start of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, messages on the walls of the corridors say that the mythical Chamber of Secrets has been re-opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" will kill all pupils whose parents are both Muggles. Over the next few months, various inhabitants of the school are found petrified in corridors. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who was killed the last time the Chamber was opened and now haunts the girls' toilet in which she died. Myrtle shows Harry a diary bearing the name Tom Marvolo Riddle. Although its pages are blank, it responds when Harry writes in it. Eventually the book shows him Hogwarts as it was fifty years ago. There he sees Tom Riddle, Head Boy at the time, blame Rubeus Hagrid, who was then thirteen years old and already kept dangerous creatures as pets, for opening the Chamber.
Four months later the diary is stolen, and shortly afterward Hermione is petrified. However, she holds a note explaining that the culprit is a basilisk, a huge serpent whose gaze kills those who look into its eyes directly but only petrifies those who see their reflection. Hermione concluded that the monster travels through the school's pipes and emerges through the toilet Myrtle haunts. As the attacks continue, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, holds Hagrid in the wizards' prison as a precaution. Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father and a former supporter of Voldemort who claims to have reformed, announces that the school's governors have suspended Dumbledore from the position of headmaster.
After Ron's younger sister, Ginny, is taken into the Chamber, the staff insist that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, should handle the situation. However, when Harry and Ron go to his office to tell him what they have discovered about the basilisk, Lockhart reveals that he is a fraud who took credit for the accomplishments of others and attempts to erase the boys' memories. Disarming Lockhart, they march him to Moaning Myrtle's toilet, where Harry opens the passage to the Chamber of Secrets. In the sewers under the school, Lockhart grabs Ron's wand and tries again to wipe the boys' memories, but since Ron's wand had been damaged, the spell backfires, inflicting total amnesia on Lockhart, collapsing part of the tunnel, and separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.
While Ron attempts to tunnel through the rubble, Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets, where Ginny lies beside the diary. As he examines her, Tom Riddle appears, looking exactly as he did fifty years ago, and explains that he is a memory stored in the diary. Ginny wrote in it about her adolescent hopes and fears, and Riddle won her confidence by appearing sympathetic, possessed her, and used her to open the Chamber. Riddle also reveals that he is Voldemort as a boy. He further explains that he learned from Ginny who Harry was and about his own deeds as Voldemort. When Ginny realised that she had been responsible for the attacks, she attempted to throw the diary away, which is how it came into Harry's possession. Riddle then releases the basilisk to kill Harry. Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, brings a magnificent sword wrapped in the Sorting Hat. Harry uses the sword to kill the basilisk, but only after being bitten by the creature's venomous fangs, one of which breaks off. As Riddle gloats over the dying Harry, Fawkes cries on Harry's wound to cure it. Harry stabs the diary with the broken fang, and Riddle vanishes.[1] Ginny revives and they return to Ron, who is still watching over the amnesic Lockhart. Fawkes carries all four out of the tunnels.
Harry recounts the whole story to Dumbledore, who has been reinstated. When Harry mentions his fears that he is similar to Tom Riddle, Dumbledore says that Harry chose Gryffindor House, and only a true member of that House could have used Godric Gryffindor's sword to kill the basilisk. Lucius Malfoy bursts in, and Harry accuses him of slipping the diary into one of Ginny's books while the pupils were shopping for school books. Finally, the basilisk's petrified victims are revived by a potion, the preparation of which has taken several months.
[edit] Publication and reception [edit] Development Rowling found it difficult to finish Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because she was afraid it would not live up to the expectations raised by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. After delivering the manuscript to Bloomsbury on schedule, she took it back for six weeks of revision.[2]
In early drafts of the book, the ghost Nearly Headless Nick sang a self-composed song explaining his condition and the circumstances of his death. This was cut as the book's editor did not care for the poem, which has been subsequently published as an extra on J. K. Rowling's official website.[3] The family background of Dean Thomas was removed because Rowling and her publishers considered it an "unnecessary digression", and she considered Neville Longbottom's own journey of discovery "more important to the central plot".[4]
[edit] Publication Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[5][6] It immediately took first place in UK bestseller lists, displacing popular authors such as John Grisham, Tom Clancy,[2] and Terry Pratchett,[7] and making Rowling the first author to win the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for two years in succession.[8] In June 1999 it went straight to the top of three US bestseller lists,[9] including The New York Times'.[10]
First edition printings had several errors, which were fixed in subsequent reprints.[11] Initially Dumbledore said that Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, instead of his descendant.[11] Gilderoy Lockhart's book on werewolves is entitled Weekends with Werewolves at one point and Wanderings with Werewolves later in the book.[12]
[edit] Critical response "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" was met with near universal acclaim. In The Times, Deborah Loudon described Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a children's book that would be "re-read into adulthood" and highlighted its "strong plots, engaging characters, excellent jokes and a moral message which flows naturally from the story".[13] Fantasy author Charles de Lint agreed, and considered the second Harry Potter book as good as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a rare achievement among series of books.[14] Thomas Wagner regarded the plot as very similar to that of the first book, based on searching for a secret hidden under the school. However, he enjoyed the parody of celebrities and their fans that centres round Gilderoy Lockhart, and approved of the book's handling of racism.[15] Tammy Nezol found the book more disturbing than its predecessor, particularly in the rash behaviour of Harry and his friends after Harry withholds information from Dumbledore, and in the human-like behaviour of the mandrakes used to make a potion that cures petrification. Nevertheless she considered the second story as enjoyable as the first.[16]
Mary Stuart thought the final conflict with Tom Riddle in the Chamber was almost as scary as in some of Stephen King's works, and perhaps too strong for young or timid children. She commented that "there are enough surprises and imaginative details thrown in as would normally fill five lesser books." Like other reviewers, she thought the book would give pleasure to both children and adult readers.[17] According to Philip Nel, the early reviews gave unalloyed praise while the later ones included some criticisms, although they still agreed that the book was outstanding.[18]
Writing after all seven books had been published, Graeme Davis regarded Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the weakest of the series, and agreed that the plot structure is much the same as in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He described Fawkes's appearance to arm Harry and then to heal him as a deus ex machina: the book does not explain how Fawkes knew where to find Harry; and Fawkes's timing had to be very precise, as arriving earlier would probably have prevented the battle with the basilisk, while arriving later would have been fatal to Harry and Ginny.[19]
Dave Kopel describes the climactic scene in which Harry saves Ginny from Riddle's diary and the basilisk as Pilgrim's Progress for a new audience: "Harry descends to a deep underworld, is confronted by two Satanic minions (Voldemort and a giant serpent), is saved from certain death by his faith in Dumbledore (the bearded God the Father/Ancient of Days), rescues the virgin (Ginerva [sic] Weasley), and ascends in triumph."[20]
[edit] Awards and honours Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the recipient of several awards.[21] The American Library Association[22] as well as its Best Books for Young Adults.[23] In 1999, Booklist named Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as one of its Editors' Choices,[24] and as one of its Top Ten Fantasy Novels for Youth.[21] The Cooperative Children's Book center made the novel a CCBC Choice of 2000 in the "Fiction for Children" category.[25] The novel also won Children's Book of the Year British Book Award,[26][21]
and listed the novel among its 2000 Notable Children's Books, and was shortlisted for the 1998 Guardian Children's Award and the 1998 Carnegie Award. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1998 Gold Medal in the 9–11 years division.[26] Rowling also won two other Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Scottish Arts Council awarded their first ever Children’s Book Award to the novel in 1999,[27] and it was also awarded Whitaker's Platinum Book Award in 2001.[21][28]
[edit] Religious response Main article: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series Religious controversy surrounding Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secrets and the other books in the Harry Potter series mainly deal with claims that the novel contains occult or Satanic subtexts. Religious response to the series has not been exclusively negative, however, and several religious groups have spoken in defense of the moralistic themes found in the book. The American Library Association even placed the series atop the "most challenged books" list for 1999–2001.[29]
The Orthodox churches of Greece and Bulgaria have campaigned against the series,[30][31] and in the United States, calls for the book to be banned from schools have led to legal challenges. Most of these are held on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the novels to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state.[32][33][34]
Some religious responses have been positive. Emily Griesinger wrote that fantasy literature helps children to survive reality for long enough to learn how to deal with it, described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She noted that the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother, which protected the boy in the first book and throughout the series, was the most powerful of the "deeper magics" that transcend the magical "technology" of the wizards, and one which the power-hungry Voldemort fails to understand.[35] Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from", the Harry Potter books represent "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice".[36] "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view", commented Rowling, "[the books] have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths".[37]
[edit] Themes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets continues the examination of what makes a person who he or she is, which began in the first book. As well as maintaining that Harry's identity is shaped by his decisions rather than any aspect of his birth,[16][38]Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets[16] Riddle also complicates Harry's struggle to understand himself by pointing out the similarities between the two: "both half-bloods, orphans raised by Muggles, probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin."[39]
Opposition to class, prejudice, and racism is a constant theme of the series. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry's consideration and respect for others extends to the lowly, non-human Dobby and the ghost Nearly Headless Nick.[29] According to Marguerite Krause, achievements in the novel depend more on ingenuity and hard work than on natural talents.[40]
Edward Duffy, an associate professor at Marquette University, says that one of the central characters of Chamber of Secrets is a book, Tom Riddle's enchanted diary, which takes control of Ginny Weasley – just as Riddle planned. Duffy suggests that Rowling intended this as a warning against passively consuming information from sources that have their own agendas.[41] Although Bronwyn Williams and Amy Zenger regard the diary as more like an instant messaging or chat room system, they agree about the dangers of relying too much on the written word, which can camouflage the author, and they highlight a comical example, Lockhart's self-promoting books.[42]
Immorality and the portrayal of authority as negative are significant themes in the novel. Marguerite Krause states that there are few absolute moral rules in Harry Potter's world, for example Harry prefers to tell the truth, but lies whenever he considers it necessary – very like his enemy Draco Malfoy.[40] At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore retracts his promise to punish Harry, Ron, and Hermione if they break any more school rules – after Professor McGonagall estimates that they have broken over 100 – and lavishly rewards them for ending the threat from the Chamber of Secrets.[43][40] William MacNeil of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia states that the Minister for Magic is presented as a mediocrity.[44] In his article "Harry Potter And The Secular City", Ken Jacobson suggests that the Ministry as a whole is portrayed as a tangle of bureaucratic empires, saying that "Ministry officials busy themselves with minutiae (e.g. standardising cauldron thicknesses) and coin politically correct euphemisms like 'non-magical community' (for Muggles) and 'memory modification' (for magical brainwashing)."[38]
This novel implies that it begins in 1992: the cake for Nearly-Headless Nick's 500th deathday party bears the words "Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington died 31 October 1492".[45][46]
[edit] Connection to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Chamber of Secrets has many links with the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, Half-Blood Prince was the working title of Chamber of Secrets and Rowling says she originally intended to present some "crucial pieces of information" in the second book, but ultimately felt that "this information's proper home was book six".[47] Some objects that play significant roles in Half-Blood Prince first appear in Chamber of Secrets: the Hand of Glory and the opal necklace that are on sale in Borgin and Burkes; a Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts that is damaged by Peeves the Poltergeist; and Tom Riddle's diary, which is later shown to be a Horcrux.[48]
[edit] Behind the Scenes Interestingly, the description of the basilisk's origin (how one is created) provided by Rowling in the novel actually concerns the cockatrice. A cockatrice was said to be born when a cockerel's egg was hatched by either a toad or snake while a basilisk was born from the egg of a snake being hatched by a cockerel.
[edit] Adaptations [edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) The film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released in 2002.[49] Chris Columbus directed the film,[50] and the screenplay was written by Steve Kloves. It became the third film to exceed $600 million in international box office sales, preceded by Titanic, released in 1997, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in 2001.[51] The film was nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Fantasy Film,[51] but The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers took the prize.[52] According to Metacritic, the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets received "generally favourable reviews" with an average score of 63%,[53] and another aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, gave it a score of 82%.[50]
[edit] Video game Main article: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) provides contrasting characters who try to conceal their true personalities: as Tammy Nezol puts it, Gilderoy Lockhart "lacks any real identity" because he is nothing more than a charming liar. Krause further states that authority figures and political institutions receive little respect from Rowling.
HP3
"HP3" redirects here. For the Ilford photographic film, see Ilford HP. This article is about the book. For other uses, see information about the film and video game. Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Cliff Wright (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 8 July 1999 (UK)
8 September 1999 (US) Book no. Three Sales ~180 million (Worldwide)[citation needed] Story timeline 31 July 1993- 12 June 1994 Chapters 22 Pages 317 (UK)
435 (US) ISBN 0747542155 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published on 8 July 1999. The novel won the 1999 Whitbread Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the 2000 Locus Award,[1] and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.[1] This placed the novel among the most-honoured works of fantasy in recent history.[2] A film based on the novel was released on 31 May 2004, in the United Kingdom and 4 June 2004 in the U.S. and many other countries. This is the only novel in the series that does not feature Lord Voldemort in some form.
Contents [hide]
Harry is depressed to learn he will not be allowed to visit Hogsmeade, the local village, because Uncle Vernon refused to sign Harry's form. He is also angry with Draco Malfoy for ruining Hagrid's first lesson as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Malfoy causes himself to be attacked by Buckbeak, Hagrid's beloved Hippogriff, and his father ensures that Buckbeak is sentenced to be executed in the course of the year, Hermione uses a Time-TurnerFred and George Weasley show Harry a secret passageway to Hogsmeade and give him the Scabbers, his rat, has disappeared and believes he has been eaten by Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, causing a falling-out between him and Hermione. Hermione later finds Scabbers in Hagrid's hut when the three of them visit him before Buckbeak's execution. On their way back from the hut, Ron is suddenly attacked by a large black dog and dragged into a passage beneath the Whomping Willow, a magical tree. Harry and Hermione receive a brutal beating from the Whomping Willow before entering the passageway.
Harry and Hermione follow the sounds of Ron's screams and find themselves in an old, boarded-up shack known as the Shrieking Shack. They also discover that the dog is Sirius Black, who is an Animagus. Harry attempts to attack Black when Lupin arrives. Hermione confronts Lupin about habits she has observed during her classes with him. She says she figured out that Professor Lupin was a werewolf after completing one of Professor Snape's essays, and the characteristics are similar to Lupin's. Lupin then admits to being a werewolf. Lupin explains that he, Black, Pettigrew, and James Potter, Harry's father, were great friends and wrote the Marauder's Map. To make Lupin's transformations more enjoyable, his friends all became Animagi, humans who can turn into animals at will. The Marauders remained friends after growing up, and when they learned Voldemort was after the Potters, Black became their Secret-Keeper. However, Black then reveals that he had secretly switched this duty with Pettigrew in order to serve as a decoy. Black states Pettigrew is the betrayer and, rather than being murdered by Black, is actually Scabbers. Professor Snape suddenly barges in on the scene and threatens Lupin and Black with his wand, and taunts Black with threats of turning him over to the Dementors. However, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all attack Professor Snape with the same spell, thus knocking Snape out.This allowed Lupin and Black to take Scabbers from Ron and revert him back into Pettigrew.
Pettigrew admits to the story, but Harry stops Black and Lupin from killing him and becoming murderers themselves. Instead, Harry persuades them to take Pettigrew back to Hogwarts in order to clear Sirius's name. However, as they return to the castle, the full moon emerges and Lupin transforms into a werewolf. Pettigrew transforms back into a rat and escapes while Lupin loses control in his wolf form. Black is knocked out by Lupin, who is about to kill Harry when a strange howl alerts Lupin and lures him away from Harry. Harry finds an unconscious Sirius lying by a pond, where Dementors suddenly descend on the pair and nearly kill them. They are saved at the last minute by a strange figure using the Patronus Charm, which Harry believes to have been cast by his father. Harry then passes out.
Harry awakes in the castle to learn that Black has been captured. To save him, Harry and Hermione use the Time-Turner to travel back in time and prevent his capture. Harry and Hermione rescue Buckbeak and re-watch the scenes of the night, until they see the Dementors cornering Harry and Sirius. Harry is determined to see who sent the Patronus, only to realize that it was himself. Sirius is rescued and flees on Buckbeak; Lupin, outed as a werewolf, resigns. Harry stated that Professor Lupin was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he ever had. Harry is worried that Pettigrew may help Voldemort to return, but Dumbledore says Harry may be grateful that he helped save Pettigrew's life.
teacher, tells Harry he is more vulnerable to the Dementors because he has seen genuine horrors in his past. He agrees to teach Harry the to travel in time and attend classes held at the same time. Black manages to break into the castle twice, but is unable to reach Harry.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Cliff Wright (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 8 July 1999 (UK)
8 September 1999 (US) Book no. Three Sales ~180 million (Worldwide)[citation needed] Story timeline 31 July 1993- 12 June 1994 Chapters 22 Pages 317 (UK)
435 (US) ISBN 0747542155 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published on 8 July 1999. The novel won the 1999 Whitbread Book Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the 2000 Locus Award,[1] and was short-listed for other awards, including the Hugo.[1] This placed the novel among the most-honoured works of fantasy in recent history.[2] A film based on the novel was released on 31 May 2004, in the United Kingdom and 4 June 2004 in the U.S. and many other countries. This is the only novel in the series that does not feature Lord Voldemort in some form.
Contents [hide]
- 1 Plot
- 2 Pre-release history
- 3 Critical reception
- 4 Film adaptation
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 External links
Harry is depressed to learn he will not be allowed to visit Hogsmeade, the local village, because Uncle Vernon refused to sign Harry's form. He is also angry with Draco Malfoy for ruining Hagrid's first lesson as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Malfoy causes himself to be attacked by Buckbeak, Hagrid's beloved Hippogriff, and his father ensures that Buckbeak is sentenced to be executed in the course of the year, Hermione uses a Time-TurnerFred and George Weasley show Harry a secret passageway to Hogsmeade and give him the Scabbers, his rat, has disappeared and believes he has been eaten by Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, causing a falling-out between him and Hermione. Hermione later finds Scabbers in Hagrid's hut when the three of them visit him before Buckbeak's execution. On their way back from the hut, Ron is suddenly attacked by a large black dog and dragged into a passage beneath the Whomping Willow, a magical tree. Harry and Hermione receive a brutal beating from the Whomping Willow before entering the passageway.
Harry and Hermione follow the sounds of Ron's screams and find themselves in an old, boarded-up shack known as the Shrieking Shack. They also discover that the dog is Sirius Black, who is an Animagus. Harry attempts to attack Black when Lupin arrives. Hermione confronts Lupin about habits she has observed during her classes with him. She says she figured out that Professor Lupin was a werewolf after completing one of Professor Snape's essays, and the characteristics are similar to Lupin's. Lupin then admits to being a werewolf. Lupin explains that he, Black, Pettigrew, and James Potter, Harry's father, were great friends and wrote the Marauder's Map. To make Lupin's transformations more enjoyable, his friends all became Animagi, humans who can turn into animals at will. The Marauders remained friends after growing up, and when they learned Voldemort was after the Potters, Black became their Secret-Keeper. However, Black then reveals that he had secretly switched this duty with Pettigrew in order to serve as a decoy. Black states Pettigrew is the betrayer and, rather than being murdered by Black, is actually Scabbers. Professor Snape suddenly barges in on the scene and threatens Lupin and Black with his wand, and taunts Black with threats of turning him over to the Dementors. However, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all attack Professor Snape with the same spell, thus knocking Snape out.This allowed Lupin and Black to take Scabbers from Ron and revert him back into Pettigrew.
Pettigrew admits to the story, but Harry stops Black and Lupin from killing him and becoming murderers themselves. Instead, Harry persuades them to take Pettigrew back to Hogwarts in order to clear Sirius's name. However, as they return to the castle, the full moon emerges and Lupin transforms into a werewolf. Pettigrew transforms back into a rat and escapes while Lupin loses control in his wolf form. Black is knocked out by Lupin, who is about to kill Harry when a strange howl alerts Lupin and lures him away from Harry. Harry finds an unconscious Sirius lying by a pond, where Dementors suddenly descend on the pair and nearly kill them. They are saved at the last minute by a strange figure using the Patronus Charm, which Harry believes to have been cast by his father. Harry then passes out.
Harry awakes in the castle to learn that Black has been captured. To save him, Harry and Hermione use the Time-Turner to travel back in time and prevent his capture. Harry and Hermione rescue Buckbeak and re-watch the scenes of the night, until they see the Dementors cornering Harry and Sirius. Harry is determined to see who sent the Patronus, only to realize that it was himself. Sirius is rescued and flees on Buckbeak; Lupin, outed as a werewolf, resigns. Harry stated that Professor Lupin was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he ever had. Harry is worried that Pettigrew may help Voldemort to return, but Dumbledore says Harry may be grateful that he helped save Pettigrew's life.
teacher, tells Harry he is more vulnerable to the Dementors because he has seen genuine horrors in his past. He agrees to teach Harry the to travel in time and attend classes held at the same time. Black manages to break into the castle twice, but is unable to reach Harry.
HP4
"HP4" redirects here. For the postal district for Berkhamsted, see HP postcode area. Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Giles Greenfield (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 8 July 2000 Book no. Fourth Sales ~ 66 million (worldwide)[citation needed] Story timeline 1942
4 August 1994–25 June 1995 Chapters 37
I Pages 636 (UK)
734 (US) ISBN 074754624X Preceded by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Followed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, published on 8 July 2000. The book attracted additional attention because of a pre-publication warning from J. K. Rowling that one of the characters would be murdered in the book.[citation needed] 3 million copies of the book were sold over the first weekend in the US alone.[1]
The novel won a Hugo Award in 2001;[2] it was the only Harry Potter novel to do so. The book was made into a film, which was released worldwide on 18 November 2005.
Contents [hide] // [edit] Synopsis [edit] Plot introduction Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties that come with growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who have a son named Dudley Dursley.
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. In Harry's first year he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers in Hogwarts. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learned that it was Sirius's and James Potter's friend Peter Pettigrew who actually betrayed his parents.
[edit] Plot summary The book opens with Harry Potter having a dream about Frank Bryce, the ex-caretaker at the Riddle family mansion, who is caught eavesdropping on a deformed Lord Voldemort and his servant, Peter Pettigrew. In Harry's dream, Bryce is killed by Voldemort. Later in the summer, Harry, Hermione Granger, and the Weasley family take a trip to the Quidditch World Cup. While there, Death Eaters, Voldemort's servants, storm the grounds, harass some muggles, and run away when they see the Dark Mark in the sky.
Albus Dumbledore announces during the welcoming feast that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, an inter-school competition. One student from each of three magical schools will be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete. The other two magical institutions, Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute, arrive at Hogwarts two months into the school term. The champions chosen by the goblet were Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. Mysteriously, Harry is also chosen, even though he did not submit his name. Ron Weasley
The new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a former Auror and Dumbledore's friend. In class, he illegally talks about and demonstrates the three Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, which forces the victim to do the caster's bidding; the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that tortures its victim; and the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. Harry learns he is the only known person to have survived the Killing Curse, cast against him by Voldemort when he was a baby.
In the first of the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions are to collect a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Harry completes the task with hints from Rubeus Hagrid and Moody. Following the first task, Ron and Harry mend their broken friendship. The second task requires retrieving something important that was taken from each champion and hidden in the Hogwarts lake. Ten minutes before the task, Harry is given gillyweed by Dobby so he can breathe underwater. Harry finds the four "important objects" of the tournament's contestants: Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Fleur’s little sister, Gabrielle Delacour. He is forced to rescue Gabrielle along with Ron when Fleur does not come, so he loses the challenge but gains points for 'moral fibre.'
One night, Harry and Krum are startled when a dishevelled Barty Crouch, Sr. emerges from the forest, mumbling nonsense and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. Harry learns more about the Crouches when he sees one of Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, a memory-storing tool. The memory shows Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, sentenced to Azkaban by his father for helping Bellatrix Lestrange torture Frank and Alice Longbottom, Neville's parents, into insanity.
The third and final tournament task involves navigating a labyrinth filled with magical obstacles. Harry and Cedric successfully help each other navigate the maze. They reach the Triwizard cup and agree to take hold of it simultaneously, making both of them winners. The Cup turns out to be a portkey that transports them to an old graveyard in Little Hangleton, where they see Pettigrew and a deformed Lord Voldemort. Pettigrew kills Cedric and ties Harry to the Riddle tombstone. He then uses a bone from Voldemort's father's grave, some of Harry's blood, and his own cut-off hand in a magical ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to a new body.
Voldemort summons the Death Eaters and reveals that a servant of his at Hogwarts ensured that Harry would participate in the tournament, win it, and thus be brought to the graveyard. Harry tries to disarm Voldemort with the Expelliarmus spell at exactly the same time that Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. Since the wands are twins, the two spells meet and interlock, causing a bond between the wands that displays the "echoes" of Voldemort's most recent victims, including Frank Bryce, Cedric, Bertha Jorkins, James Potter, and Lily Potter. The echoes provide protection to Harry, allowing him to escape with Cedric's body and leave Voldemort behind in a rage.
Harry, carrying Cedric's body, returns to the school grounds by using the portkey. Moody rushes Harry to his office, where he reveals that he was Voldemort's servant and attempts to kill Harry himself. Moody is stopped by Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore feeds Moody Veritaserum, and they discover that "Moody" is actually Barty Crouch, Jr., who was smuggled out of Azkaban and was using a Polyjuice PotionCornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, arrives at Hogwarts but refuses to believe Dumbledore's and Harry's word that Voldemort is back.
Harry is crowned Triwizard Champion and awarded with 1,000 galleons. Days later, Dumbledore makes an announcement at the gloomy Leaving Feast, telling everybody about Voldemort. While leaving the Hogwarts Express on King's Cross Station, Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George so they can start a joke shop.
[edit] Rita Skeeter subplot Rita Skeeter, a writer for the Daily Prophet, spends much of the story writing lies about Harry (about the time his scar hurt after a strange dream in Divination), Hagrid (about the time he told Madame Maxime about his mother), and Hermione (in love with Viktor Krum). Skeeter carries out secret interviews with Slytherin students to get the fodder for some of her stories, but the sources for others are inexplicable. Initially, Harry suspects that she has an Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione knows that "Mad-Eye" Moody would have been able to see through the cloak with his magical eye. Next, Harry thinks that she may have had areas of the school bugged. However, Hermione tells them that electronic devices do not work in Hogwarts because of the magic in the air. Near the end of the book, Hermione finally realises how Skeeter was doing this: she is an unregistered Animagus and can turn into a beetle. Harry and Ron realize that there was a beetle on the statue near Hagrid's hut, and later in Hermione's hair after the second task, and on the window of Divination class when Harry's scar hurt, and that the Slytherins knew about it all along. Hermione eventually traps Skeeter, in beetle form, in a jar and does not release her until the train reaches London (but threatens to inform the authorities if Skeeter writes any more stories).
[edit] is instantly infuriated, thinking Harry submitted himself, and their friendship suffers. to impersonate the real Alastor Moody.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Giles Greenfield (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 8 July 2000 Book no. Fourth Sales ~ 66 million (worldwide)[citation needed] Story timeline 1942
4 August 1994–25 June 1995 Chapters 37
I Pages 636 (UK)
734 (US) ISBN 074754624X Preceded by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Followed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, published on 8 July 2000. The book attracted additional attention because of a pre-publication warning from J. K. Rowling that one of the characters would be murdered in the book.[citation needed] 3 million copies of the book were sold over the first weekend in the US alone.[1]
The novel won a Hugo Award in 2001;[2] it was the only Harry Potter novel to do so. The book was made into a film, which was released worldwide on 18 November 2005.
Contents [hide] // [edit] Synopsis [edit] Plot introduction Throughout the three previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties that come with growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after unsuccessfully trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who have a son named Dudley Dursley.
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. In Harry's first year he has to protect the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort and one of his faithful followers in Hogwarts. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. He also learned that it was Sirius's and James Potter's friend Peter Pettigrew who actually betrayed his parents.
[edit] Plot summary The book opens with Harry Potter having a dream about Frank Bryce, the ex-caretaker at the Riddle family mansion, who is caught eavesdropping on a deformed Lord Voldemort and his servant, Peter Pettigrew. In Harry's dream, Bryce is killed by Voldemort. Later in the summer, Harry, Hermione Granger, and the Weasley family take a trip to the Quidditch World Cup. While there, Death Eaters, Voldemort's servants, storm the grounds, harass some muggles, and run away when they see the Dark Mark in the sky.
Albus Dumbledore announces during the welcoming feast that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, an inter-school competition. One student from each of three magical schools will be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete. The other two magical institutions, Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute, arrive at Hogwarts two months into the school term. The champions chosen by the goblet were Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. Mysteriously, Harry is also chosen, even though he did not submit his name. Ron Weasley
The new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a former Auror and Dumbledore's friend. In class, he illegally talks about and demonstrates the three Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, which forces the victim to do the caster's bidding; the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that tortures its victim; and the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. Harry learns he is the only known person to have survived the Killing Curse, cast against him by Voldemort when he was a baby.
In the first of the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions are to collect a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Harry completes the task with hints from Rubeus Hagrid and Moody. Following the first task, Ron and Harry mend their broken friendship. The second task requires retrieving something important that was taken from each champion and hidden in the Hogwarts lake. Ten minutes before the task, Harry is given gillyweed by Dobby so he can breathe underwater. Harry finds the four "important objects" of the tournament's contestants: Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Fleur’s little sister, Gabrielle Delacour. He is forced to rescue Gabrielle along with Ron when Fleur does not come, so he loses the challenge but gains points for 'moral fibre.'
One night, Harry and Krum are startled when a dishevelled Barty Crouch, Sr. emerges from the forest, mumbling nonsense and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. Harry learns more about the Crouches when he sees one of Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, a memory-storing tool. The memory shows Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, sentenced to Azkaban by his father for helping Bellatrix Lestrange torture Frank and Alice Longbottom, Neville's parents, into insanity.
The third and final tournament task involves navigating a labyrinth filled with magical obstacles. Harry and Cedric successfully help each other navigate the maze. They reach the Triwizard cup and agree to take hold of it simultaneously, making both of them winners. The Cup turns out to be a portkey that transports them to an old graveyard in Little Hangleton, where they see Pettigrew and a deformed Lord Voldemort. Pettigrew kills Cedric and ties Harry to the Riddle tombstone. He then uses a bone from Voldemort's father's grave, some of Harry's blood, and his own cut-off hand in a magical ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to a new body.
Voldemort summons the Death Eaters and reveals that a servant of his at Hogwarts ensured that Harry would participate in the tournament, win it, and thus be brought to the graveyard. Harry tries to disarm Voldemort with the Expelliarmus spell at exactly the same time that Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. Since the wands are twins, the two spells meet and interlock, causing a bond between the wands that displays the "echoes" of Voldemort's most recent victims, including Frank Bryce, Cedric, Bertha Jorkins, James Potter, and Lily Potter. The echoes provide protection to Harry, allowing him to escape with Cedric's body and leave Voldemort behind in a rage.
Harry, carrying Cedric's body, returns to the school grounds by using the portkey. Moody rushes Harry to his office, where he reveals that he was Voldemort's servant and attempts to kill Harry himself. Moody is stopped by Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore feeds Moody Veritaserum, and they discover that "Moody" is actually Barty Crouch, Jr., who was smuggled out of Azkaban and was using a Polyjuice PotionCornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, arrives at Hogwarts but refuses to believe Dumbledore's and Harry's word that Voldemort is back.
Harry is crowned Triwizard Champion and awarded with 1,000 galleons. Days later, Dumbledore makes an announcement at the gloomy Leaving Feast, telling everybody about Voldemort. While leaving the Hogwarts Express on King's Cross Station, Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George so they can start a joke shop.
[edit] Rita Skeeter subplot Rita Skeeter, a writer for the Daily Prophet, spends much of the story writing lies about Harry (about the time his scar hurt after a strange dream in Divination), Hagrid (about the time he told Madame Maxime about his mother), and Hermione (in love with Viktor Krum). Skeeter carries out secret interviews with Slytherin students to get the fodder for some of her stories, but the sources for others are inexplicable. Initially, Harry suspects that she has an Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione knows that "Mad-Eye" Moody would have been able to see through the cloak with his magical eye. Next, Harry thinks that she may have had areas of the school bugged. However, Hermione tells them that electronic devices do not work in Hogwarts because of the magic in the air. Near the end of the book, Hermione finally realises how Skeeter was doing this: she is an unregistered Animagus and can turn into a beetle. Harry and Ron realize that there was a beetle on the statue near Hagrid's hut, and later in Hermione's hair after the second task, and on the window of Divination class when Harry's scar hurt, and that the Slytherins knew about it all along. Hermione eventually traps Skeeter, in beetle form, in a jar and does not release her until the train reaches London (but threatens to inform the authorities if Skeeter writes any more stories).
[edit] is instantly infuriated, thinking Harry submitted himself, and their friendship suffers. to impersonate the real Alastor Moody.
HP5
"HP5" redirects here. For the postal district for Chesham, see HP postcode area. "OotP" redirects here. For the baseball simulator, see Out of the Park Baseball. This article is about the book. For the film, see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film). For the video game, see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game). For other uses, see Order of the Phoenix (disambiguation). Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 21 June 2003 Book no. Five Sales Unknown Story timeline 2 August 1995–June 17, 1996
870 (US) ISBN 0747551006 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. Five million copies were sold in the first 24 hours after release.[1]
The novel features Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has won several awards, including being named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. The book has also been made into a film, which was released in 2007, and into several video games by Electronic Arts.
Contents [hide] Chapters 38 Pages 766 (UK)
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. Harry's fourth year sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength.
[edit] Plot summary This novel begins when Harry and his cousin, Dudley Dursley, are attacked by dementors. Harry uses magic to fight them off and must attend a disciplinary hearing for underage magic. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore has re-activated the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect his targets. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.[2]
In an attempt to enforce its version of the school curriculum, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a quasi-dictatorial regime and refuses to teach the students to defend themselves against dark magic.[2]secret study group and teach his classmates the higher-level skills he has learned. He also meets Luna Lovegood, an airy yet good hearted young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories.[3] He also discovers that he and Voldemort have a telepathic connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions.
In the novel's climax, Voldemort lures Harry into the Ministry of Magic in a plot to steal a record of a prophecy which concerns Harry and Voldemort. Harry and his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters in a battle, during which the prophecy is smashed. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives, but Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, is killed in battle by Bellatrix Lestrange. In the entrance hall, Harry comes face to face with Voldemort for the fourth time in his life, but is saved by Dumbledore who engages with the Dark Lord in a ferocious duel. In the end, most Death Eaters are captured, and the return of Voldemort is confirmed within the magical world.[2]
In the aftermath of the battle, Dumbledore explains to Harry that just before his birth, a prophecy was made saying that a child was being born with the power to defeat Voldemort. The prophecy could have referred to Harry or Neville Longbottom, but it was Harry that Voldemort chose to hunt down. Since his return, Voldemort has been determined to find out the rest of the Self-fulfilling prophecy, which Dumbledore reveals to Harry: firstly, "the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal", and that "neither can live as the other survives" - ultimately, either Harry or Voldemort will kill the other.
[edit] Development, publication, and reception [edit] Development In an interview with BBC News, Rowling suggested the death of a principal character which made her sad.[4] She added that although her husband suggested she undo the character's death to stop her sadness, she needed to be "a ruthless killer."[4] However, Rowling revealed in a 2007 interview that she had originally planned to kill off Arthur Weasley in this book, but ultimately could not bear to do it.[5] In another interview, when asked if there was anything she would go back and change about the seven novels, Rowling replied that she would have edited Phoenix more, as she feels it is too long. While all the other books in the series are set at 12 point Garamond font, Phoenix is set at 11.5. Had it been set at 12 point font like the rest of the books, it would have been nearly 1,000 pages long.[6]
[edit] Publication and release Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books.[7][8] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[9] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queuing outside book stores on 20 June 2003 to secure their copy at midnight.[9] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from an Earlestown, Merseyside warehouse on 15 June 2003.[10]
[edit] Critical response Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was met with generally good reviews, and received several awards. The book was named as a Best Book for Young Adults and as a Notable Book by the American Library Association in 2004.[11][12] It also received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio 2004 Gold Medal along with several other awards.[13]
The novel was also received generally well by critics. Rowling was praised for her imagination by USA Today writer Deirdre Donahue.[14] Most of the negative reviewers were concerned with the violence contained in the novel and with morality issues occurring throughout the book.[15] There has also been a strong religious response to the publishing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
New York Times writer John Leonard praised the novel, saying "The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion....As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better."[16] However, he also criticizes "the one-note Draco Malfoy" and the predictable Lord Voldemort.[16] Another review by Julie Smithouser, of the Christian-right group Focus on the Family, said the book was, "Likely to be considered the weakest book in the series, Phoenix does feel less oppressive than the two most previous novels."[15] Smithouser's main criticism was that the book was not moral. Harry lies to authority to escape punishment, and that, at times, the violence is too "gruesome and graphic."[15]
Several Christian groups have expressed concerns that the book, and the rest of the Harry Potter series, contain references to witchcraft or occultism. Despite these views, several religious groups have also expressed their support for the series. Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from", this does not represent the Potter books, which have "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice".[17]
[edit] Prequels and sequels Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter Series.[7] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries.[18] By the end of 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9 to 11 year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[19] The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[20][21] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[20][21] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 simultaneously by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[22]
After the publishing of Order of the Phoenix, the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published on 16 July 2005, and sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[1][23] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[24] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[23]
[edit] Adaptations [edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) In 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in film version directed by David Yates, produced by David Heyman's company Heyday Films, and written by Michael Goldenberg. The film's budget was reportedly between £75 and 100 million ($150–200 million),[25][26] and it became the unadjusted tenth-highest grossing film of all time, and a critical and commercial success.[27] The film opened to a worldwide 5-day opening of $333 million, third all-time, and grossed $939 million total, the second to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the greatest total of 2007.[28][29]
[edit] Video games Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) A video game adaptation of the book and film versions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was made for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advance and Mac OS X.[30] It was released on 25 June 2007 in the U.S., 28 June 2007 in Australia and 29 June 2007 in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows and the 3 July 2007 for most other platforms.[31] The games were published by Electronic Arts.[32]
[edit] Religious response Main article: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series Religious controversy surrounding Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the other books in the Harry Potter series mainly deal with the claims that novel contains occult or Satanic subtexts. Religious response to the series has not been exclusively negative. "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view", notes Rowling, "[the books] have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths".[33]
[edit] Opposition to the series In the United States, calls for the book to be banned from schools have led occasionally to widely publicised legal challenges, usually on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the novels to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state.[7][34][35] The series was at the top of the American Library Association's "most challenged books" list for 1999–2001.[19]
Religious opposition to the series has also occurred in other nations. The Orthodox churches of Greece and Bulgaria have campaigned against the series.[36][37] The books have been banned from private schools in the United Arab Emirates and criticised in the Iranian state-run press.[38][39]
Roman Catholic opinion over the series is divided. In 2003 Catholic World Report criticised Harry's disrespect for rules and authority, and regarded the series' mixing of the magical and mundane worlds as "a fundamental rejection of the divine order in creation."[40] In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope later that year but was at the time Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, described the series as "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly,"[41] and gave permission for publication of the letter that expressed this opinion.[42] However, a spokesman for the Archbishop of Westminster said that Cardinal Ratzinger's words were not binding as they were not an official pronouncement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[41]
[edit] Positive response Some religious responses have been positive. Emily Griesinger wrote that fantasy literature helps children to survive reality for long enough to learn how to deal with it, described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She noted that the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother, which protected the boy in the first book and throughout the series, was the most powerful of the "deeper magics" that transcend the magical "technology" of the wizards, and one which the power-hungry Voldemort fails to understand.[43]
There is some positive Roman Catholic opinion on the books. In 2003, Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, a member of a Church working party on New AgeHarry Potter stories "are not bad or a banner for anti-Christian theology. They help children understand the difference between good and evil," that Rowling's approach was Christian, and that the stories illustrated the need to make sacrifices to defeat evil.[41][44]
[edit] Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation The first official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July 2003, when the first of twenty-two installments was released. The first official European translation appeared in Serbia and Montenegro in Serbian, by the official publisher Narodna Knjiga, in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later, e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German. The English language version has topped the best seller list in France, while in Germany and the Netherlands an unofficial distributed translation process has been started on the internet.[45]
[edit] See also She is later installed as a school inspector, and finally as Headmistress after Dumbledore is forced to flee. Harry's friends Ron and Hermione persuade him to form a phenomena, said that the
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 21 June 2003 Book no. Five Sales Unknown Story timeline 2 August 1995–June 17, 1996
870 (US) ISBN 0747551006 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada. Five million copies were sold in the first 24 hours after release.[1]
The novel features Harry Potter's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the surreptitious return of Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort, O.W.L. exams, and an obstructive Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has won several awards, including being named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. The book has also been made into a film, which was released in 2007, and into several video games by Electronic Arts.
Contents [hide] Chapters 38 Pages 766 (UK)
- 1 Synopsis
- 2 Development, publication, and reception
- 3 Adaptations
- 4 Religious response
- 5 Translations
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of 11, enrolling in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power. After returning to the school after summer break, students at Hogwarts are attacked after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating another attempt by Lord Voldemort to return to full strength. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling, and Harry learns that Black was framed and is actually Harry's godfather. Harry's fourth year sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength.
[edit] Plot summary This novel begins when Harry and his cousin, Dudley Dursley, are attacked by dementors. Harry uses magic to fight them off and must attend a disciplinary hearing for underage magic. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore has re-activated the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect his targets. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.[2]
In an attempt to enforce its version of the school curriculum, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a quasi-dictatorial regime and refuses to teach the students to defend themselves against dark magic.[2]secret study group and teach his classmates the higher-level skills he has learned. He also meets Luna Lovegood, an airy yet good hearted young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories.[3] He also discovers that he and Voldemort have a telepathic connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions.
In the novel's climax, Voldemort lures Harry into the Ministry of Magic in a plot to steal a record of a prophecy which concerns Harry and Voldemort. Harry and his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters in a battle, during which the prophecy is smashed. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives, but Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, is killed in battle by Bellatrix Lestrange. In the entrance hall, Harry comes face to face with Voldemort for the fourth time in his life, but is saved by Dumbledore who engages with the Dark Lord in a ferocious duel. In the end, most Death Eaters are captured, and the return of Voldemort is confirmed within the magical world.[2]
In the aftermath of the battle, Dumbledore explains to Harry that just before his birth, a prophecy was made saying that a child was being born with the power to defeat Voldemort. The prophecy could have referred to Harry or Neville Longbottom, but it was Harry that Voldemort chose to hunt down. Since his return, Voldemort has been determined to find out the rest of the Self-fulfilling prophecy, which Dumbledore reveals to Harry: firstly, "the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal", and that "neither can live as the other survives" - ultimately, either Harry or Voldemort will kill the other.
[edit] Development, publication, and reception [edit] Development In an interview with BBC News, Rowling suggested the death of a principal character which made her sad.[4] She added that although her husband suggested she undo the character's death to stop her sadness, she needed to be "a ruthless killer."[4] However, Rowling revealed in a 2007 interview that she had originally planned to kill off Arthur Weasley in this book, but ultimately could not bear to do it.[5] In another interview, when asked if there was anything she would go back and change about the seven novels, Rowling replied that she would have edited Phoenix more, as she feels it is too long. While all the other books in the series are set at 12 point Garamond font, Phoenix is set at 11.5. Had it been set at 12 point font like the rest of the books, it would have been nearly 1,000 pages long.[6]
[edit] Publication and release Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books.[7][8] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[9] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queuing outside book stores on 20 June 2003 to secure their copy at midnight.[9] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from an Earlestown, Merseyside warehouse on 15 June 2003.[10]
[edit] Critical response Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was met with generally good reviews, and received several awards. The book was named as a Best Book for Young Adults and as a Notable Book by the American Library Association in 2004.[11][12] It also received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio 2004 Gold Medal along with several other awards.[13]
The novel was also received generally well by critics. Rowling was praised for her imagination by USA Today writer Deirdre Donahue.[14] Most of the negative reviewers were concerned with the violence contained in the novel and with morality issues occurring throughout the book.[15] There has also been a strong religious response to the publishing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
New York Times writer John Leonard praised the novel, saying "The Order of the Phoenix starts slow, gathers speed and then skateboards, with somersaults, to its furious conclusion....As Harry gets older, Rowling gets better."[16] However, he also criticizes "the one-note Draco Malfoy" and the predictable Lord Voldemort.[16] Another review by Julie Smithouser, of the Christian-right group Focus on the Family, said the book was, "Likely to be considered the weakest book in the series, Phoenix does feel less oppressive than the two most previous novels."[15] Smithouser's main criticism was that the book was not moral. Harry lies to authority to escape punishment, and that, at times, the violence is too "gruesome and graphic."[15]
Several Christian groups have expressed concerns that the book, and the rest of the Harry Potter series, contain references to witchcraft or occultism. Despite these views, several religious groups have also expressed their support for the series. Christianity Today published an editorial in favour of the books in January 2000, calling the series a "Book of Virtues" and averring that although "modern witchcraft is indeed an ensnaring, seductive false religion that we must protect our children from", this does not represent the Potter books, which have "wonderful examples of compassion, loyalty, courage, friendship, and even self-sacrifice".[17]
[edit] Prequels and sequels Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter Series.[7] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, three hundred of which were distributed to libraries.[18] By the end of 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9 to 11 year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[19] The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[20][21] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[20][21] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 simultaneously by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[22]
After the publishing of Order of the Phoenix, the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was published on 16 July 2005, and sold 9 million copies in the first 24 hours of its worldwide release.[1][23] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published 21 July 2007.[24] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[23]
[edit] Adaptations [edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) In 2007, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in film version directed by David Yates, produced by David Heyman's company Heyday Films, and written by Michael Goldenberg. The film's budget was reportedly between £75 and 100 million ($150–200 million),[25][26] and it became the unadjusted tenth-highest grossing film of all time, and a critical and commercial success.[27] The film opened to a worldwide 5-day opening of $333 million, third all-time, and grossed $939 million total, the second to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the greatest total of 2007.[28][29]
[edit] Video games Main article: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) A video game adaptation of the book and film versions of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was made for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advance and Mac OS X.[30] It was released on 25 June 2007 in the U.S., 28 June 2007 in Australia and 29 June 2007 in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows and the 3 July 2007 for most other platforms.[31] The games were published by Electronic Arts.[32]
[edit] Religious response Main article: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series Religious controversy surrounding Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the other books in the Harry Potter series mainly deal with the claims that novel contains occult or Satanic subtexts. Religious response to the series has not been exclusively negative. "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view", notes Rowling, "[the books] have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths".[33]
[edit] Opposition to the series In the United States, calls for the book to be banned from schools have led occasionally to widely publicised legal challenges, usually on the grounds that witchcraft is a government-recognised religion and that to allow the novels to be held in public schools violates the separation of church and state.[7][34][35] The series was at the top of the American Library Association's "most challenged books" list for 1999–2001.[19]
Religious opposition to the series has also occurred in other nations. The Orthodox churches of Greece and Bulgaria have campaigned against the series.[36][37] The books have been banned from private schools in the United Arab Emirates and criticised in the Iranian state-run press.[38][39]
Roman Catholic opinion over the series is divided. In 2003 Catholic World Report criticised Harry's disrespect for rules and authority, and regarded the series' mixing of the magical and mundane worlds as "a fundamental rejection of the divine order in creation."[40] In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope later that year but was at the time Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, described the series as "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly,"[41] and gave permission for publication of the letter that expressed this opinion.[42] However, a spokesman for the Archbishop of Westminster said that Cardinal Ratzinger's words were not binding as they were not an official pronouncement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[41]
[edit] Positive response Some religious responses have been positive. Emily Griesinger wrote that fantasy literature helps children to survive reality for long enough to learn how to deal with it, described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9¾ as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes. She noted that the self-sacrifice of Harry's mother, which protected the boy in the first book and throughout the series, was the most powerful of the "deeper magics" that transcend the magical "technology" of the wizards, and one which the power-hungry Voldemort fails to understand.[43]
There is some positive Roman Catholic opinion on the books. In 2003, Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, a member of a Church working party on New AgeHarry Potter stories "are not bad or a banner for anti-Christian theology. They help children understand the difference between good and evil," that Rowling's approach was Christian, and that the stories illustrated the need to make sacrifices to defeat evil.[41][44]
[edit] Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation The first official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July 2003, when the first of twenty-two installments was released. The first official European translation appeared in Serbia and Montenegro in Serbian, by the official publisher Narodna Knjiga, in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later, e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German. The English language version has topped the best seller list in France, while in Germany and the Netherlands an unofficial distributed translation process has been started on the internet.[45]
[edit] See also She is later installed as a school inspector, and finally as Headmistress after Dumbledore is forced to flee. Harry's friends Ron and Hermione persuade him to form a phenomena, said that the
HP6
This article is about the novel. For the film, see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film). For the video game, see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game). Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 16 July 2005 Book no. Six Sales ~65 million[citation needed] Story timeline 1 August 1996-June 10, 1997 Chapters 30 Pages 607 (UK)
652 (US) ISBN 0747581088 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on 16 July 2005, is the sixth of seven novels from British author J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.
The book sold nine million copies in the first 24 hours after its release, a record at the time which was eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.[1]
Contents [hide] // [edit] Plot Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their sixth year of magical education. It is announced that Severus Snape has become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor, while Horace SlughornPotions teacher. Harry discovers that the previous owner of his Potions textbook, the "Half-Blood Prince", has annotated the book with refinements that allow Harry to excel in class and become a favourite of Slughorn's. Slughorn is also intrigued by the rumour that Harry is the "Chosen One" who will finally kill the evil Lord Voldemort, who has recently regained power and is set on conquering the wizarding world.
Harry recognises his attraction to Ginny Weasley, but fears that acting on it will harm his friendship with Ron, her overprotective older brother. Ron begins dating Lavender Brown, causing a rift between him and Hermione, who secretly harbours feelings for him. The rift heals only when Ron is nearly killed by poisoned mead intended for Hogwarts' headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry suspects that his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, has become one of Voldemort's supporters and believes he was behind both the mead and a previous failed attack on Dumbledore's life. However, no one seems to believe him.
During private meetings held throughout the year, Dumbledore uses his Pensieve to show Harry memories of Voldemort's past. A memory Harry procures from Slughorn confirms Dumbledore's suspicion that Voldemort splintered his soul into seven fragments in order to achieve near immortality. Six of these fragments are contained in magical objects called Horcruxes, which must be destroyed before Voldemort can be killed. Two Horcruxes have already been destroyed: Voldemort's grandfather's ring, which Dumbledore destroyed during the summer. Dumbledore suspects that the remaining Horcruxes are Voldemort's pet snake Nagini and objects formerly owned by Hogwarts' founders: Salazar Slytherin's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and an unidentified object of Rowena Ravenclaw's.
After Snape sees Harry cast a curse from the Half-Blood Prince's book and attempts to confiscate the book, Harry hides it in the Room of Requirement. Harry's Hogwarts House, Gryffindor, wins the school's Quidditch championship; euphoric, Harry spontaneously kisses Ginny, and with Ron's diffident approval, they start dating.
Dumbledore locates a Horcrux and asks Harry for help destroying it. They travel to a cave and retrieve what they believe to be Salazar's locket, but Dumbledore is severely weakened after drinking the magical potion that protects the Horcrux. They return to Hogwarts and see Voldemort's symboldisapparating.
Harry recovers the locket from Dumbledore's body, only to discover that it is a fake left by someone with the initials R. A. B., who stole the real Horcrux and left a note declaring his opposition to Voldemort. The school year ends with Dumbledore's funeral; he and his wand are buried in a tomb beside the lake on Hogwarts' grounds. After the funeral, Harry breaks up with Ginny, fearing that Voldemort will target her if they continue to see each other. He, Ron, and Hermione decide not to return to school the following year, but to hunt for the remaining Horcruxes instead.
[edit] Development Potter fans wait in lines outside a Borders in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of the book [edit] Franchise Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series.[2] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries.[3] By the end of 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[4] The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[5][6] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[5][6] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[7] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the longest novel in the Harry Potter series, was released 21 June 2003.[8] After the publishing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released 21 July 2007.[9] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[1]
[edit] Pre-release controversy The record-breaking publication of Half-Blood Prince was accompanied by controversy. In May 2005 bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where, it was believed, the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened.[10] Other controversies included the right to read Potter books inadvertently sold before the release date, environmental concerns over the source of the paper used in the printing of millions of books, and fan reactions to the plot developments and revelations of the novel.
[edit] Right to read controversy In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or from discussing the contents.[11] Purchasers were offered a Harry Potter T-shirt and an autographed copy of the book if they returned their copies before 16 July.
On 15 July, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the trade secret injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles alleging that the injunction had restricted fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist[12] Richard Stallman called for a boycott, requesting that the publisher issue an apology.[13] The Globe and Mail[14][15]
[edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) The film based on the sixth book was originally scheduled to be released on 21 November 2008, but was changed to 15 July 2009.[16][17] The screenplay was written by Steve Kloves and David Yates directed the film.[18] The film is 153 minutes long, making it the third longest Harry Potter film of the series.[19] It is also the only entry of the series to gain an Academy AwardBest Cinematography.
[edit] Translations Along with the rest of the books in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was translated into 67 languages.[20] A translation into Scots Gaelic was released by Bloomsbury in July 2010.[21]
[edit] Textual changes As with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the United States version of the novel has slightly changed text from the British version. One particular section has been remarked upon, where the alteration makes the nature of Dumbledore's offer to Draco Malfoy before Snape kills Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince explicit. The reason for the editing of the following text has not been explained on the author's webpage, but the British edition is more ambiguous. The text can be found in Chapter 27, "The Lightning-Struck Tower". The U.S. text was changed to match the UK version with the publication of the paperback edition.[22] The parts added in the hardcover United States version have been highlighted in bold, below:
"[...] He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."
"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me — forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother — it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban [...]"
—(U.S. Edition p. 591)(CND Edition p. 552), [HP6] [edit] See also has taken Snape's place as hovering over Hogwarts's Astronomy Tower. At the top of the tower, Dumbledore is confronted by Draco. Draco admits that he was behind the attacks on Dumbledore's life, as Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him and would kill Draco if he failed, but he cannot bring himself to kill Dumbledore on the spot. However, Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore. Enraged, Harry pursues Snape, who fends off Harry's attacks and reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince shortly before posted commentary on his blog; published a review from two UK-based writers in its 16 July edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9:00 that morning. Commentary was also provided on the Raincoast website. nomination for
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (UK)
Mary GrandPré (US) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 16 July 2005 Book no. Six Sales ~65 million[citation needed] Story timeline 1 August 1996-June 10, 1997 Chapters 30 Pages 607 (UK)
652 (US) ISBN 0747581088 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on 16 July 2005, is the sixth of seven novels from British author J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.
The book sold nine million copies in the first 24 hours after its release, a record at the time which was eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.[1]
Contents [hide] // [edit] Plot Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their sixth year of magical education. It is announced that Severus Snape has become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor, while Horace SlughornPotions teacher. Harry discovers that the previous owner of his Potions textbook, the "Half-Blood Prince", has annotated the book with refinements that allow Harry to excel in class and become a favourite of Slughorn's. Slughorn is also intrigued by the rumour that Harry is the "Chosen One" who will finally kill the evil Lord Voldemort, who has recently regained power and is set on conquering the wizarding world.
Harry recognises his attraction to Ginny Weasley, but fears that acting on it will harm his friendship with Ron, her overprotective older brother. Ron begins dating Lavender Brown, causing a rift between him and Hermione, who secretly harbours feelings for him. The rift heals only when Ron is nearly killed by poisoned mead intended for Hogwarts' headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry suspects that his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, has become one of Voldemort's supporters and believes he was behind both the mead and a previous failed attack on Dumbledore's life. However, no one seems to believe him.
During private meetings held throughout the year, Dumbledore uses his Pensieve to show Harry memories of Voldemort's past. A memory Harry procures from Slughorn confirms Dumbledore's suspicion that Voldemort splintered his soul into seven fragments in order to achieve near immortality. Six of these fragments are contained in magical objects called Horcruxes, which must be destroyed before Voldemort can be killed. Two Horcruxes have already been destroyed: Voldemort's grandfather's ring, which Dumbledore destroyed during the summer. Dumbledore suspects that the remaining Horcruxes are Voldemort's pet snake Nagini and objects formerly owned by Hogwarts' founders: Salazar Slytherin's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and an unidentified object of Rowena Ravenclaw's.
After Snape sees Harry cast a curse from the Half-Blood Prince's book and attempts to confiscate the book, Harry hides it in the Room of Requirement. Harry's Hogwarts House, Gryffindor, wins the school's Quidditch championship; euphoric, Harry spontaneously kisses Ginny, and with Ron's diffident approval, they start dating.
Dumbledore locates a Horcrux and asks Harry for help destroying it. They travel to a cave and retrieve what they believe to be Salazar's locket, but Dumbledore is severely weakened after drinking the magical potion that protects the Horcrux. They return to Hogwarts and see Voldemort's symboldisapparating.
Harry recovers the locket from Dumbledore's body, only to discover that it is a fake left by someone with the initials R. A. B., who stole the real Horcrux and left a note declaring his opposition to Voldemort. The school year ends with Dumbledore's funeral; he and his wand are buried in a tomb beside the lake on Hogwarts' grounds. After the funeral, Harry breaks up with Ginny, fearing that Voldemort will target her if they continue to see each other. He, Ron, and Hermione decide not to return to school the following year, but to hunt for the remaining Horcruxes instead.
[edit] Development Potter fans wait in lines outside a Borders in Newark, Delaware for the midnight release of the book [edit] Franchise Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series.[2] The first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was first published by Bloomsbury in 1997 with an initial print-run of 500 copies in hardback, 300 of which were distributed to libraries.[3] By the end of 1997 the UK edition won a National Book Award and a gold medal in the 9- to 11-year-olds category of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.[4] The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.[5][6] Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was then published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[5][6] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[7] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the longest novel in the Harry Potter series, was released 21 June 2003.[8] After the publishing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released 21 July 2007.[9] The book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[1]
[edit] Pre-release controversy The record-breaking publication of Half-Blood Prince was accompanied by controversy. In May 2005 bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where, it was believed, the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened.[10] Other controversies included the right to read Potter books inadvertently sold before the release date, environmental concerns over the source of the paper used in the printing of millions of books, and fan reactions to the plot developments and revelations of the novel.
[edit] Right to read controversy In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or from discussing the contents.[11] Purchasers were offered a Harry Potter T-shirt and an autographed copy of the book if they returned their copies before 16 July.
On 15 July, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the trade secret injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles alleging that the injunction had restricted fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist[12] Richard Stallman called for a boycott, requesting that the publisher issue an apology.[13] The Globe and Mail[14][15]
[edit] Film Main article: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) The film based on the sixth book was originally scheduled to be released on 21 November 2008, but was changed to 15 July 2009.[16][17] The screenplay was written by Steve Kloves and David Yates directed the film.[18] The film is 153 minutes long, making it the third longest Harry Potter film of the series.[19] It is also the only entry of the series to gain an Academy AwardBest Cinematography.
[edit] Translations Along with the rest of the books in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was translated into 67 languages.[20] A translation into Scots Gaelic was released by Bloomsbury in July 2010.[21]
[edit] Textual changes As with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the United States version of the novel has slightly changed text from the British version. One particular section has been remarked upon, where the alteration makes the nature of Dumbledore's offer to Draco Malfoy before Snape kills Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince explicit. The reason for the editing of the following text has not been explained on the author's webpage, but the British edition is more ambiguous. The text can be found in Chapter 27, "The Lightning-Struck Tower". The U.S. text was changed to match the UK version with the publication of the paperback edition.[22] The parts added in the hardcover United States version have been highlighted in bold, below:
"[...] He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."
"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me — forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother — it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban [...]"
—(U.S. Edition p. 591)(CND Edition p. 552), [HP6] [edit] See also has taken Snape's place as hovering over Hogwarts's Astronomy Tower. At the top of the tower, Dumbledore is confronted by Draco. Draco admits that he was behind the attacks on Dumbledore's life, as Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him and would kill Draco if he failed, but he cannot bring himself to kill Dumbledore on the spot. However, Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore. Enraged, Harry pursues Snape, who fends off Harry's attacks and reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince shortly before posted commentary on his blog; published a review from two UK-based writers in its 16 July edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9:00 that morning. Commentary was also provided on the Raincoast website. nomination for
HP7
"Deathly Hallows" redirects here. For other uses, see Deathly Hallows (disambiguation). "HP7" redirects here. For the postal district for Amersham, see HP postcode area. For the film based on the novel, see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film). Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (Bloomsbury)
Mary GrandPré (Scholastic) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 21 July 2007 Book no. Seven Sales 44 million (worldwide)[1] Story timeline 26 July 1997 – 2 May 1998 and 1 September 2017 Chapters 36 chapters and an epilogue Pages 607 (UK)
759 (US) ISBN 0545010225 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever. It sold 15 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release,[1] including more than 11 million in the U.S. and U.K. alone. The previous record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[2] The novel has also been translated into numerous languages, including Ukrainian,[3] Swedish,[4] Polish[5] and Hindi.[6]
Several awards were given to the novel, including the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and it was listed as a "Best Book for Young Adults" by the American Library Association.[7] Reception to the book was generally positive, although some reviewers found the characters to be repetitive or unchanging. The film is in two parts shot back-to-back: the first part was released in November, 2010, and the second part is to be released in July, 2011.
Contents [hide]
Dedication All the books in the Harry Potter series have dedications. On the dedication page for this book, the unusual layout resembles the shape of Harry's scar.
Plot introduction Throughout the six previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the inherent difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after attempting to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame, and his being placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11, enrolling in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, makes an ally in the school's headmaster, Dumbledore and grows to respect and fear the talented misfit, his nemesis, schoolmaster Severus Snape. Presently Harry is confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain physical incarnation. Returning to school after summer break, there are several attacks on students after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is thought to be opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating Lord Voldemort's "memory" stored in an enchanted diary. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling and Harry learns that Black was framed and is his godfather. Harry's fourth year of school sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength. When the next school year begins, the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In Harry's sixth year of school, he learns that Voldemort has been using Horcruxes to become immortal. Horcruxes are fragments of the soul that are placed within an object so that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can be regenerated or resurrected.[8] However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form.[9] When returning from a mission to discover a Horcrux, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school and Harry's mentor, is murdered by Severus Snape, a teacher at the school with whom Harry is consistently at odds and who Harry has suspected of being a Death Eater. At the conclusion of the book, Harry pledges not to return to school the following year and to search for Horcruxes instead.
Plot summary Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure their friends and families' safety. They have little knowledge about the remaining Horcruxes except the possibility that two are objects once belonging to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and the third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. As they search for the Horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.
The trio recover the first Horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. They then find Sword of Godric Gryffindor, among the few objects able to destroy Horcruxes (having absorbed Basilisk venom), and they use it to destroy the locket. The trio continually encounter a strange symbol, which an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood (father of Luna) tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are revealed to be three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, a stone with the power to summon the dead to the living world; the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the Hallows and their significance. The trio determine that finding Voldemort's Horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows. They break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts to recover another Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Harry learns that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school and find the Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and also successfully destroy the cup and the diadem.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their many allies, and various magical creatures, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle. Harry discovers that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a Horcrux when he attacked him as a baby, and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts the Killing Curse at him, sending Harry to Limbo-like state between life and death. There, Harry sees Voldemort's destroyed soul shard, then meets Dumbledore who explains that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort harming him; the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Harry returns, the battle resumes, and after the last remaining Horcrux (Nagini) is destroyed, Voldemort is defeated.
Epilogue The novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set nineteen years later, in which Harry and Ginny Weasley are a married couple with three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron and Hermione married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Bill and Fleur Weasley's daughter Victoire in a train carriage. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife (revealed on Rowling's website behind the door as Astoria Greengrass) with their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts HerbologySorting Hat takes one's choice into account, like it did for Harry. The book ends with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."
Rowling's commentary and supplement In an interview,[10] online chat,[11][12][13] the Wizard of the Month section of her website, and during her 2007 U.S. Open Book Tour, Rowling revealed additional character information that she chose not to include in the book. The first bits of information were about the trio and their families, starting with Harry.
Rowling stated that Harry became an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and was later appointed head of the department. He also kept Sirius Black's motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after the destruction of Voldemort's soul fragment within him. She revealed that Ginny Weasley played for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, leaving to establish a family with Harry. She later became the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Ron Weasley worked at George's store for a time, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves. She later moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and assisted in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. She was also the only member of the trio to go back and complete her seventh year at Hogwarts. Rowling also said that Dumbledore's relationship with Gellert Grindelwald extended beyond mere friendship, that "Dumbledore is gay, actually",[14] and harboured romantic feelings for Grindelwald.[15] Voldemort, she said, was forced to exist in the stunted form Harry witnessed in the King's Cross limbo
Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters. George Weasley continued his successful joke shop and married fellow Quidditch player Angelina Johnson. The couple had two children: a son named Fred, in memory of his late twin brother, and a daughter, Roxanne. Luna Lovegood searched the world for odd and unique creatures, eventually marrying Rolf, a grandson of the famed naturalist Newt Scamander,[13] writer of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. The couple had twins called Lorcan and Lysander. Her father's publication, The Quibbler, returned to its usual condition of "advanced lunacy" and is "appreciated for its unintentional humour."
Other character histories revealed by Rowling included that of Draco Malfoy, who married Astoria Greengrass and had a son named Scorpius. Percy Weasley married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters, named Molly and Lucy. Firenze was welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledged the virtue of his pro-human leanings. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns. Cho Chang went on to marry a Muggle.[16] Neville Longbottom became professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and married Hannah Abbott, who became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.[17] Bill and Fleur Weasley had a total of three children, a younger son named Louis, and two daughters, named Dominique and Victoire.
In the wider wizarding world other changes included: Kingsley Shacklebolt became the permanent Minister of Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, was the removal of Dementors from the wizard prison Azkaban. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also instrumental in reforming the Ministry.[11] At Hogwarts, Slytherin House became more diluted and no longer held the title as the pure-blood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingered.[11] Voldemort's jinx on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position was broken with his death, and there was a permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher appointed. Harry also is said to come to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class to lecture several times a year.[10] Lastly, Rowling revealed that a portrait of Severus Snape, who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, had not appeared in the headmaster's office, as he had abandoned his post. Harry later ensured the addition of Snape's portrait, and publicly revealed Snape's true allegiance to Dumbledore.[11]
Background Choice of title Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three titles for the book.[11][18] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling's website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers.[19] Asked during a live chat as to the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.[11]
Rowling on finishing the book Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007".[20] In a statement on her website, she said, "I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She compared her mixed feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield, "a two-years' imaginative task." "To which," she added, "I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles..." She ended her message, "Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."[21]
When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted. "These books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now, that they're all leading a certain direction. So, I really can't."[22] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel."[23] She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the series.[24]
Release For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom. Marketing and promotion Jacket art of Scholastic (US) edition. The launch was celebrated by an all-night book signing and reading at the Natural History Museum in London, which Rowling attended along with 1700 guests chosen by ballot.[25] Rowling toured the US in October 2007, where another event was held at Carnegie Hall in New York with tickets allocated by sweepstake.[26]
Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, launched a multi-million dollar "There will soon be 7" marketing campaign with a 'Knight Bus' travelling to forty libraries across the United States, online fan discussions and competitions, collectible bookmarks, tattoos, and the staged release of seven Deathly Hallows questions most debated by fans.[27] In the build-up to the book's release, Scholastic released seven questions that fans would find answered in the final book:[28]
professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he had ever met. He adds that the after his death, as his crimes were too severe for him to become a ghost.
J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing British child Madeleine McCann to be made available to book sellers when Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July 2007 and said that she hoped that the posters would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.[30]
Spoiler embargo Rowling made a public request that anyone with information about the content of the last book should keep it to themselves, in order to avoid spoiling the experience for other readers.[31] To this end, Bloomsbury invested GB£10 million in an attempt to keep the book's contents secure until the 21 July release date.[32] Arthur Levine, U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series, denied distributing any copies of Deathly Hallows in advance for press review, but two U.S. papers published early reviews anyway.[33] There was speculation that some shops would break the embargo and distribute copies of the book early, as the penalty imposed for previous instalments—that the distributor would not be supplied with any further copies of the series—would no longer be a deterrent.[34]
Online leaks and early delivery In the week before its release, a number of texts purporting to be genuine leaks appeared in various forms. On 16 July, a set of photographs representing all 759 pages of the U.S. edition was leaked and was fully transcribed prior to the official release date.[35][36][37][38]peer-to-peer networks, leading Scholastic to seek a subpoena in order to identify one source.[39] This represented the most serious security breach in the Harry Potter series' history.[40] Rowling and her lawyer confirmed that there were genuine online leaks.[41] Reviews published in both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times on 18 July 2007 corroborated many of the plot elements from this leak, and about one day prior to release, The New York Times confirmed that the main circulating leak was real.[40]
Scholastic announced that approximately one-ten-thousandth (0.0001) of the U.S. supply had been shipped early — interpreted to mean about 1,200 copies. One reader in Maryland received a copy of the book in the mail from DeepDiscount.com four days before it was launched, which evoked incredulous responses from both Scholastic and DeepDiscount. Scholastic initially reported that they were satisfied it had been a "human error" and would not discuss possible penalties;[42] however, the following day Scholastic announced that it would be launching legal action against DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment.[43] Scholastic filed for damages in Chicago's Circuit Court of Cook County, claiming that DeepDiscount engaged in a "complete and flagrant violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully constructed release of this eagerly awaited book."[44] Some of the early release books soon appeared on eBay, in one case being sold to Publishers Weekly for US$250 from an initial price of US$18.[45]
In Nurmes, Finland, a supermarket sold copies of the English edition as early as 19 July, apparently owing to a misunderstanding on the part of an employee.
Price wars and other controversies Asda,[46][47] along with several other UK supermarkets, having already taken pre-orders for the book at a heavily discounted price, sparked a price war two days before the book's launch by announcing they would sell it for just GB£5 a copy (about US$8). Other retail chains then also offered the book at discounted prices. At these prices the book became a loss leader. This caused uproar from traditional UK booksellers who argued they had no hope of competing in those conditions. Independent shops protested loudest, but even Waterstone's, the UK's largest dedicated chain bookstore, could not compete with the supermarket price. Some small bookstores hit back by buying their stock from the supermarkets rather than their wholesalers. Asda attempted to counter this by imposing a limit of two copies per customer to prevent bulk purchases. Philip Wicks, a spokesman for the UK Booksellers Association, said, "It is a war we can't even participate in. We think it's a crying shame that the supermarkets have decided to treat it as a loss-leader, like a can of baked beans." Michael Norris, an analyst at Simba Information, said: "You are not only lowering the price of the book. At this point, you are lowering the value of reading."[48]
In Malaysia, a similar price war caused controversy regarding sales of the book.[49] Four of the biggest bookstore chains in Malaysia, MPH Bookstores, Popular Bookstores, Times and Harris, decided to pull Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off their shelves as a protest against Tesco and CarrefourMYR 109.90 (about GB£16), while the hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour sold the book at MYR 69.90 (about GB£10). The move by the bookstores was seen as an attempt to pressure the distributor Penguin Books to remove the books from the hypermarkets. However, as of 24 July 2007, the price war has ended, with the four bookstores involved resuming selling the books in their stores with discount. Penguin Books has also confirmed that Tesco and Carrefour are selling the book at a loss, urging them to practice good business sense and fair trade.[50]
The book's early Saturday morning release in Israel was criticised for violating Shabbat. Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai commented "It is forbidden, according to Jewish values and Jewish culture, that a thing like this should take place at 2 a.m. on Saturday. Let them do it on another day."[51] Yishai indicated that he would issue indictments and fines based on the Hours of Work and Rest Law.[52]
Publication and reception Critical response The Baltimore Sun's critic, Mary Carole McCauley, praised the series as "a classic bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tale." She noted that the book was more serious than the previous novels in the series and had more straightforward prose.[53]The Times writes that "Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable." Fordham concludes, "We have been a long way together, and neither Rowling nor Harry let us down in the end."[54] New York Times writer Michiko Kakutani agrees, praising Rowling's ability to make Harry both a hero and a character that can be related to.[55]
Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #8, and praising Rowling for proving that books can still be a global mass medium. Grossman compared the novel to the earlier books in the series thus: "This isn't the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling's abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death."[56][57] Novelist Elizabeth Hand agreed that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows caps off the series, but also made the criticism that "...the spectacularly complex interplay of narrative and character often reads as though an entire trilogy's worth of summing-up has been crammed into one volume."[58]
In contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor says that, "There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from its brilliantly realised magical world to its multilayered narrative," however, "A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not just inevitable, but hollow."[59] In the 12 August 2007 New York Times, Christopher Hitchens compared the series to World War Two-era English boarding school stories, and while he wrote that "Rowling has won imperishable renown" for the series as a whole, he also stated that he disliked Rowling's use of deus ex machina, that the mid-book camping chapters are "abysmally long", and that Voldemort "becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain."[60]
Stephen King criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.[61] He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book, but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the writing style disappointing, he felt it had matured and improved. He acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult, and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.
Sales Lines at Borders at midnight to buy the book Sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were record setting. The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[62] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[63] On opening day, a record 8.3 million copies were sold in the United States (over 96 per second),[64][65] and 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom.[66] At WH Smith, sales reportedly reached a rate of 15 books sold per second.[67] By June 2008, nearly a year after it was published, worldwide sales were reportedly around 44 million.[68]
Awards and honours Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has won several awards.[7] In 2007, the book was named one New York Times 100 Notable Books,[69] and one of its Notable Children's Books.[70] Publishers Weekly also listed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows among their Best Books of 2007.[71] In 2008, the American Library Association named the novel one of its Best Books for Young Adults,[72] and also listed it as a Notable Children's Book.[73] Furthermore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows received the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award.[7]
Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation Due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' worldwide fame, it has been translated into many languages. The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on 25 September 2007 (as Гаррі Поттер і смертельні реліквії).[3] The Swedish title of the book was revealed by Rowling as Harry Potter and the Relics of Death (Harry Potter och Dödsrelikerna), following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words "Deathly Hallows" without having read the book.[4] This is also the title used for the French translation (Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort), the Spanish translation (Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte) and the Brazilian Portuguese translation (Harry Potter e as Relíquias da Morte).[74] The first Polish translation was released on 26 January 2008[5] with a new title: Harry Potter i Insygnia Śmierci - Harry Potter and the Insignia of Death.[75] The Hindi translation Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe (हैरी पॉटर और मौत के तोहफे) translated as "Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death" was released by Manjul Publication in India on 27 June 2008.[6]
Film adaptation Main article: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film) A two-part film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is directed by David Yates and written by Steve Kloves. Part 1 was released on 19 November 2010, and Part 2 on 15 July 2011.[76][77] Filming began in February 2009 and ended on 12 June 2010, marking the conclusion of ten years of filming the Harry Potter franchise.[78]
The photographs later appeared on websites and hypermarkets. The retail price of the book in Malaysia is Furthermore, reviewer Alice Fordham from
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Author J. K. Rowling Illustrators Jason Cockcroft (Bloomsbury)
Mary GrandPré (Scholastic) Genre Fantasy Publishers Bloomsbury (UK)
Arthur A. Levine /
Scholastic (US)
Raincoast (Canada) Released 21 July 2007 Book no. Seven Sales 44 million (worldwide)[1] Story timeline 26 July 1997 – 2 May 1998 and 1 September 2017 Chapters 36 chapters and an epilogue Pages 607 (UK)
759 (US) ISBN 0545010225 Preceded by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever. It sold 15 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release,[1] including more than 11 million in the U.S. and U.K. alone. The previous record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[2] The novel has also been translated into numerous languages, including Ukrainian,[3] Swedish,[4] Polish[5] and Hindi.[6]
Several awards were given to the novel, including the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award, and it was listed as a "Best Book for Young Adults" by the American Library Association.[7] Reception to the book was generally positive, although some reviewers found the characters to be repetitive or unchanging. The film is in two parts shot back-to-back: the first part was released in November, 2010, and the second part is to be released in July, 2011.
Contents [hide]
- 1 Contents
- 2 Background
- 3 Release
- 4 Publication and reception
- 5 Translations
- 6 Film adaptation
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Dedication All the books in the Harry Potter series have dedications. On the dedication page for this book, the unusual layout resembles the shape of Harry's scar.
Plot introduction Throughout the six previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the inherent difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after attempting to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame, and his being placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11, enrolling in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, makes an ally in the school's headmaster, Dumbledore and grows to respect and fear the talented misfit, his nemesis, schoolmaster Severus Snape. Presently Harry is confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain physical incarnation. Returning to school after summer break, there are several attacks on students after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is thought to be opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating Lord Voldemort's "memory" stored in an enchanted diary. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling and Harry learns that Black was framed and is his godfather. Harry's fourth year of school sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength. When the next school year begins, the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In Harry's sixth year of school, he learns that Voldemort has been using Horcruxes to become immortal. Horcruxes are fragments of the soul that are placed within an object so that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can be regenerated or resurrected.[8] However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form.[9] When returning from a mission to discover a Horcrux, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school and Harry's mentor, is murdered by Severus Snape, a teacher at the school with whom Harry is consistently at odds and who Harry has suspected of being a Death Eater. At the conclusion of the book, Harry pledges not to return to school the following year and to search for Horcruxes instead.
Plot summary Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure their friends and families' safety. They have little knowledge about the remaining Horcruxes except the possibility that two are objects once belonging to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and the third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. As they search for the Horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.
The trio recover the first Horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. They then find Sword of Godric Gryffindor, among the few objects able to destroy Horcruxes (having absorbed Basilisk venom), and they use it to destroy the locket. The trio continually encounter a strange symbol, which an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood (father of Luna) tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are revealed to be three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, a stone with the power to summon the dead to the living world; the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the Hallows and their significance. The trio determine that finding Voldemort's Horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows. They break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts to recover another Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Harry learns that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school and find the Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and also successfully destroy the cup and the diadem.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their many allies, and various magical creatures, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle. Harry discovers that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a Horcrux when he attacked him as a baby, and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts the Killing Curse at him, sending Harry to Limbo-like state between life and death. There, Harry sees Voldemort's destroyed soul shard, then meets Dumbledore who explains that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort harming him; the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Harry returns, the battle resumes, and after the last remaining Horcrux (Nagini) is destroyed, Voldemort is defeated.
Epilogue The novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set nineteen years later, in which Harry and Ginny Weasley are a married couple with three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron and Hermione married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Bill and Fleur Weasley's daughter Victoire in a train carriage. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife (revealed on Rowling's website behind the door as Astoria Greengrass) with their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts HerbologySorting Hat takes one's choice into account, like it did for Harry. The book ends with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."
Rowling's commentary and supplement In an interview,[10] online chat,[11][12][13] the Wizard of the Month section of her website, and during her 2007 U.S. Open Book Tour, Rowling revealed additional character information that she chose not to include in the book. The first bits of information were about the trio and their families, starting with Harry.
Rowling stated that Harry became an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and was later appointed head of the department. He also kept Sirius Black's motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after the destruction of Voldemort's soul fragment within him. She revealed that Ginny Weasley played for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, leaving to establish a family with Harry. She later became the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Ron Weasley worked at George's store for a time, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves. She later moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and assisted in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. She was also the only member of the trio to go back and complete her seventh year at Hogwarts. Rowling also said that Dumbledore's relationship with Gellert Grindelwald extended beyond mere friendship, that "Dumbledore is gay, actually",[14] and harboured romantic feelings for Grindelwald.[15] Voldemort, she said, was forced to exist in the stunted form Harry witnessed in the King's Cross limbo
Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters. George Weasley continued his successful joke shop and married fellow Quidditch player Angelina Johnson. The couple had two children: a son named Fred, in memory of his late twin brother, and a daughter, Roxanne. Luna Lovegood searched the world for odd and unique creatures, eventually marrying Rolf, a grandson of the famed naturalist Newt Scamander,[13] writer of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. The couple had twins called Lorcan and Lysander. Her father's publication, The Quibbler, returned to its usual condition of "advanced lunacy" and is "appreciated for its unintentional humour."
Other character histories revealed by Rowling included that of Draco Malfoy, who married Astoria Greengrass and had a son named Scorpius. Percy Weasley married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters, named Molly and Lucy. Firenze was welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledged the virtue of his pro-human leanings. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns. Cho Chang went on to marry a Muggle.[16] Neville Longbottom became professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and married Hannah Abbott, who became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.[17] Bill and Fleur Weasley had a total of three children, a younger son named Louis, and two daughters, named Dominique and Victoire.
In the wider wizarding world other changes included: Kingsley Shacklebolt became the permanent Minister of Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, was the removal of Dementors from the wizard prison Azkaban. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also instrumental in reforming the Ministry.[11] At Hogwarts, Slytherin House became more diluted and no longer held the title as the pure-blood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingered.[11] Voldemort's jinx on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position was broken with his death, and there was a permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher appointed. Harry also is said to come to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class to lecture several times a year.[10] Lastly, Rowling revealed that a portrait of Severus Snape, who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, had not appeared in the headmaster's office, as he had abandoned his post. Harry later ensured the addition of Snape's portrait, and publicly revealed Snape's true allegiance to Dumbledore.[11]
Background Choice of title Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three titles for the book.[11][18] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling's website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers.[19] Asked during a live chat as to the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.[11]
Rowling on finishing the book Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007".[20] In a statement on her website, she said, "I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She compared her mixed feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield, "a two-years' imaginative task." "To which," she added, "I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles..." She ended her message, "Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."[21]
When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted. "These books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now, that they're all leading a certain direction. So, I really can't."[22] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel."[23] She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the series.[24]
Release For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom. Marketing and promotion Jacket art of Scholastic (US) edition. The launch was celebrated by an all-night book signing and reading at the Natural History Museum in London, which Rowling attended along with 1700 guests chosen by ballot.[25] Rowling toured the US in October 2007, where another event was held at Carnegie Hall in New York with tickets allocated by sweepstake.[26]
Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, launched a multi-million dollar "There will soon be 7" marketing campaign with a 'Knight Bus' travelling to forty libraries across the United States, online fan discussions and competitions, collectible bookmarks, tattoos, and the staged release of seven Deathly Hallows questions most debated by fans.[27] In the build-up to the book's release, Scholastic released seven questions that fans would find answered in the final book:[28]
professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he had ever met. He adds that the after his death, as his crimes were too severe for him to become a ghost.
- Who will live? Who will die?
- Is Snape good or evil?
- Will Hogwarts reopen?
- Who ends up with whom?
- Where are the Horcruxes?
- Will Voldemort be defeated?
- What are the Deathly Hallows?
J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing British child Madeleine McCann to be made available to book sellers when Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July 2007 and said that she hoped that the posters would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.[30]
Spoiler embargo Rowling made a public request that anyone with information about the content of the last book should keep it to themselves, in order to avoid spoiling the experience for other readers.[31] To this end, Bloomsbury invested GB£10 million in an attempt to keep the book's contents secure until the 21 July release date.[32] Arthur Levine, U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series, denied distributing any copies of Deathly Hallows in advance for press review, but two U.S. papers published early reviews anyway.[33] There was speculation that some shops would break the embargo and distribute copies of the book early, as the penalty imposed for previous instalments—that the distributor would not be supplied with any further copies of the series—would no longer be a deterrent.[34]
Online leaks and early delivery In the week before its release, a number of texts purporting to be genuine leaks appeared in various forms. On 16 July, a set of photographs representing all 759 pages of the U.S. edition was leaked and was fully transcribed prior to the official release date.[35][36][37][38]peer-to-peer networks, leading Scholastic to seek a subpoena in order to identify one source.[39] This represented the most serious security breach in the Harry Potter series' history.[40] Rowling and her lawyer confirmed that there were genuine online leaks.[41] Reviews published in both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times on 18 July 2007 corroborated many of the plot elements from this leak, and about one day prior to release, The New York Times confirmed that the main circulating leak was real.[40]
Scholastic announced that approximately one-ten-thousandth (0.0001) of the U.S. supply had been shipped early — interpreted to mean about 1,200 copies. One reader in Maryland received a copy of the book in the mail from DeepDiscount.com four days before it was launched, which evoked incredulous responses from both Scholastic and DeepDiscount. Scholastic initially reported that they were satisfied it had been a "human error" and would not discuss possible penalties;[42] however, the following day Scholastic announced that it would be launching legal action against DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment.[43] Scholastic filed for damages in Chicago's Circuit Court of Cook County, claiming that DeepDiscount engaged in a "complete and flagrant violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully constructed release of this eagerly awaited book."[44] Some of the early release books soon appeared on eBay, in one case being sold to Publishers Weekly for US$250 from an initial price of US$18.[45]
In Nurmes, Finland, a supermarket sold copies of the English edition as early as 19 July, apparently owing to a misunderstanding on the part of an employee.
Price wars and other controversies Asda,[46][47] along with several other UK supermarkets, having already taken pre-orders for the book at a heavily discounted price, sparked a price war two days before the book's launch by announcing they would sell it for just GB£5 a copy (about US$8). Other retail chains then also offered the book at discounted prices. At these prices the book became a loss leader. This caused uproar from traditional UK booksellers who argued they had no hope of competing in those conditions. Independent shops protested loudest, but even Waterstone's, the UK's largest dedicated chain bookstore, could not compete with the supermarket price. Some small bookstores hit back by buying their stock from the supermarkets rather than their wholesalers. Asda attempted to counter this by imposing a limit of two copies per customer to prevent bulk purchases. Philip Wicks, a spokesman for the UK Booksellers Association, said, "It is a war we can't even participate in. We think it's a crying shame that the supermarkets have decided to treat it as a loss-leader, like a can of baked beans." Michael Norris, an analyst at Simba Information, said: "You are not only lowering the price of the book. At this point, you are lowering the value of reading."[48]
In Malaysia, a similar price war caused controversy regarding sales of the book.[49] Four of the biggest bookstore chains in Malaysia, MPH Bookstores, Popular Bookstores, Times and Harris, decided to pull Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off their shelves as a protest against Tesco and CarrefourMYR 109.90 (about GB£16), while the hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour sold the book at MYR 69.90 (about GB£10). The move by the bookstores was seen as an attempt to pressure the distributor Penguin Books to remove the books from the hypermarkets. However, as of 24 July 2007, the price war has ended, with the four bookstores involved resuming selling the books in their stores with discount. Penguin Books has also confirmed that Tesco and Carrefour are selling the book at a loss, urging them to practice good business sense and fair trade.[50]
The book's early Saturday morning release in Israel was criticised for violating Shabbat. Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai commented "It is forbidden, according to Jewish values and Jewish culture, that a thing like this should take place at 2 a.m. on Saturday. Let them do it on another day."[51] Yishai indicated that he would issue indictments and fines based on the Hours of Work and Rest Law.[52]
Publication and reception Critical response The Baltimore Sun's critic, Mary Carole McCauley, praised the series as "a classic bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tale." She noted that the book was more serious than the previous novels in the series and had more straightforward prose.[53]The Times writes that "Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable." Fordham concludes, "We have been a long way together, and neither Rowling nor Harry let us down in the end."[54] New York Times writer Michiko Kakutani agrees, praising Rowling's ability to make Harry both a hero and a character that can be related to.[55]
Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #8, and praising Rowling for proving that books can still be a global mass medium. Grossman compared the novel to the earlier books in the series thus: "This isn't the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling's abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death."[56][57] Novelist Elizabeth Hand agreed that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows caps off the series, but also made the criticism that "...the spectacularly complex interplay of narrative and character often reads as though an entire trilogy's worth of summing-up has been crammed into one volume."[58]
In contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor says that, "There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from its brilliantly realised magical world to its multilayered narrative," however, "A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not just inevitable, but hollow."[59] In the 12 August 2007 New York Times, Christopher Hitchens compared the series to World War Two-era English boarding school stories, and while he wrote that "Rowling has won imperishable renown" for the series as a whole, he also stated that he disliked Rowling's use of deus ex machina, that the mid-book camping chapters are "abysmally long", and that Voldemort "becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain."[60]
Stephen King criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.[61] He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book, but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the writing style disappointing, he felt it had matured and improved. He acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult, and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.
Sales Lines at Borders at midnight to buy the book Sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were record setting. The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[62] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[63] On opening day, a record 8.3 million copies were sold in the United States (over 96 per second),[64][65] and 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom.[66] At WH Smith, sales reportedly reached a rate of 15 books sold per second.[67] By June 2008, nearly a year after it was published, worldwide sales were reportedly around 44 million.[68]
Awards and honours Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has won several awards.[7] In 2007, the book was named one New York Times 100 Notable Books,[69] and one of its Notable Children's Books.[70] Publishers Weekly also listed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows among their Best Books of 2007.[71] In 2008, the American Library Association named the novel one of its Best Books for Young Adults,[72] and also listed it as a Notable Children's Book.[73] Furthermore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows received the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award.[7]
Translations Main article: Harry Potter in translation Due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' worldwide fame, it has been translated into many languages. The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on 25 September 2007 (as Гаррі Поттер і смертельні реліквії).[3] The Swedish title of the book was revealed by Rowling as Harry Potter and the Relics of Death (Harry Potter och Dödsrelikerna), following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words "Deathly Hallows" without having read the book.[4] This is also the title used for the French translation (Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort), the Spanish translation (Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte) and the Brazilian Portuguese translation (Harry Potter e as Relíquias da Morte).[74] The first Polish translation was released on 26 January 2008[5] with a new title: Harry Potter i Insygnia Śmierci - Harry Potter and the Insignia of Death.[75] The Hindi translation Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe (हैरी पॉटर और मौत के तोहफे) translated as "Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death" was released by Manjul Publication in India on 27 June 2008.[6]
Film adaptation Main article: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film) A two-part film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is directed by David Yates and written by Steve Kloves. Part 1 was released on 19 November 2010, and Part 2 on 15 July 2011.[76][77] Filming began in February 2009 and ended on 12 June 2010, marking the conclusion of ten years of filming the Harry Potter franchise.[78]
The photographs later appeared on websites and hypermarkets. The retail price of the book in Malaysia is Furthermore, reviewer Alice Fordham from
TITANIK
History of Titanic Movies 1912
ge by real movie cameras. A similar animated version of the sinking of the Lusitania produced three years later still
exists. A mostly bogus 10-minute newsreel circulated in movie theaters immediately following the disaster. Much of the footage is of the Titanic's sister ship Olympic which, having been completed a year earlier, had much more extensive photographic coverage. Unsophisticated movie audiences of the time were easily taken in by these deceptions.
1912 At least one primitive "animated" reconstruction of the disaster was released by the Sales Company's Animated Weekly to satisfy movie audiences' hunger for any kind of footage related to Titanic. It was common practice in this period to produce animated versions of news events that did not enjoy the benefit of covera
1912 The motion picture was a primitive entertainment medium in its infancy
and there were a handful of individuals connected with the film industry on
board the Titanic. Most did not survive. One who did was Dorothy Gibson, a
part-time actress who was also a 1st class passenger. Within weeks of her
rescue, her studio, Eclair Film Co., capitalized on the connection by
releasing a ten-minute feature Saved from the Titanic. In the film, Ms.
Gibson wore the same dress in which she had boarded a Titanic lifeboat. She
was actually one of the first in a lifeboat, whereas in the film the
heroine helps rescue several people and is one of the last to enter a boat.
This film no longer exists and there were undoubtedly several other silent
film versions of the Titanic disaster which did not survive. It is
estimated that almost 90 percent of films made during the silent era are lost
forever. An early German film about the disaster was assumed lost but was
recently rediscovered weeks after the release of the Cameron film.
1929 British International Pictures released Atlantic in both silent and
sound versions. The film was a then-rare example of what today has become a
television staple, the international co-production with talking versions in
English, French and German. For many European audiences, it was the first
all-talking film that they had seen and, like most early talkies, the
dialogue sequences are stultifyingly bad with most of the actors
demonstrating a profound discomfort at having to emote into a then
unfamiliar microphone.
The film was based on Ernest Raymond's play, The Berg, and was shot at
Elstree Studios in England. The shots of the lifeboats being lowered down
the side of the ship was filmed on a real liner docked in the River Thames.
The title Atlantic is also the name of the ship as the film's producers
were threatened by a lawsuit from the White Star Line, one of many attempts
by the shipping company to discourage filmmakers from dramatizing the
Titanic disaster.
1933 The Fox production Cavalcade, based on a play by Noel Coward,
featured a scene where a doomed honeymoon couple are discussing their plans
for the future on the deck of an unidentified ship. As they move away from the
railing, we see the name Titanic printed on a life ring. The film won an
Academy Award as Best Picture of 1933.
1937 History is Made at Night stars Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur
and is billed as a "romantic comedy-drama." The climax of the film takes
place on board a new luxury liner that collides with an iceberg in the North
Atlantic after the captain is instructed by the owner to ignore the ice
warnings and race for a record crossing. Other than this collision, the
connection with Titanic is flimsy at best. In the film, the ship's bulkheads
hold, the liner is saved and the passengers, who were earlier lowered
in lifeboats, are able to get back on board.
1938 Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick felt that the Titanic
story had the requisite epic historical quality that he found so attractive in
film projects. Selznick decided that a British director was needed to
handle the story properly and he imported Alfred Hitchcock, then one of
Britain's best-known film directors. Selznick's initial plan called for
purchasing the American liner Leviathan, then waiting on the scrap line in
Hoboken, New Jersey and towing it to California through the Panama Canal.
The studio would then overhaul the top decks to resemble Titanic, shooting
the movie on it, then sinking the ship off Santa Monica while the cameras
were running. There were numerous difficulties involved in preparing the
script and the expense of purchasing and overhauling Leviathan proved to be
prohibitive. Besides, by this time Selznick, was deeply involved in one of
his other projects, Gone With the Wind.
1943 During World War 2, the German film industry, firmly under the control
of the Nazis, made a propaganda version of the disaster called Titanic. It
was one of the most expensive German films made until that time. By then,
the war had turned against the Third Reich and average Germans were
experiencing many deprivations in food, gasoline and other resources. Yet,
the film was a pet project of Hitler confidant and powerful minister of
propaganda Joseph Goebbels. The fact that the real disaster highlighted
British incompetence and corruption appealed to Goebbels and there was
considerable opportunity for dramatic license.
Titanic was a flop when released. Regular bombing raids on German cities by
the combined American and British Air Forces did not whet the public's
appetite for a disaster. The Nazi censors yanked it from circulation when
they discovered that German audiences were still far too sympathetic
towards the British passengers despite the obvious propaganda quotient. The
propaganda value also backfired as the Titanic in the film could easily
have been interpreted as an allegory of the Third Reich itself. Titanic
was, however, quite successful when shown in occupied France.
Herbert Selpin was the director of Titanic and he had made several earlier
distinguished films. Selpin resisted many efforts by the Nazis to
exaggerate British cowardice even more than appeared in the final film. He
openly displayed his contempt for his Nazi masters and was murdered in his
prison cell on the orders of Goebbels, having never seen his last film.
Perhaps he was the final victim of the Titanic disaster.
The film was confiscated by the occupying American army in 1945 and
attempts in 1950 to revive a theatrical release of the film in Germany
failed as the film was still deemed by authorities to be too anti-British.
In another stroke of irony, Titanic was shown in East Germany during the
1950's as the films anti-British bias suited Communist ideology better than
it had the Nazis.
In a final touch of irony, portions of this film's special effect model
shots were included in some early American television programs and in the
British film A Night to Remember.
1953 20th Century Fox finally got around to realizing Selznick's plan of
15 years earlier and gave the Titanic story the full Hollywood treatment
that it so richly deserved and which was long overdue. Titanic was a lavish
docudrama that mixed fictional and real characters and opened in Hollywood
on April 14, exactly 41 years after the disaster. The film starred Barbara
Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, and Robert Wagner.
Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember, reported a comment once made
to him that Clifton Webb's portrayal of snobbish fashion plate Richard Sturges
was so vivid that, if he wasn't on the ship, he should have been.
The director of Titanic, Jean Negulesco, used a dramatic device that
characterized all the superior Titanic films by emphasizing the happiness
and gaiety of life on board the ship prior to the collision and contrasting
this with the chaos and despair that occurred afterwards. The sequence where
Sturges and his son meet their deaths while singing "Nearer My God to Thee"
has become a permanent part of Titanic mythology. This single scene may
have eventually resulted in creating more Titanic aficionados than any other
film in this chronology. Like most American films of the time, Titanic was entirely
a studio production made on Hollywood soundstages. The film's witty and literate
screenplay won an Oscar for the screenwriters. The model of the Titanic
used in this film has been completely restored and is on display at the
Marine Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1956 In a time referred to today as the "Golden Age," television
networks prided themselves on presenting live television dramas of high
quality and the Kraft Television Theater was one of the best. Walter Lord
had published his seminal work on the Titanic, A Night to Remember, a year
earlier and Kraft presented a dramatization of the book, broadcast live
from the NBC Studio in New York.
This "spectacular," as such shows were then known, featured 107 actors, 31
sets; some designed to tilt with the increasing listing of the ship, dump
tanks filled with water and narration by Hollywood star Claude Rains. The
production was probably the most ambitious live show ever presented on TV
and was directed by George Roy Hill who became a top movie director in the
70's with hit films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The
Sting.
1958 The enormous popularity of Lord's book and its television
dramatization convinced Irish film producer William MacQuitty that the
story deserved an even more lavish big screen treatment. As a boy,
MacQuitty had witnessed the launch of Titanic in Belfast in 1911.
The J. Arthur Rank production A Night to Remember is, without question, the
best and most authentic of all Titanic movies. Expertly directed by Roy
Baker, the film dramatically lays out the facts of the event, uncluttered
with the fictional "star" turns and the maudlin sentimentality that had
characterized the 1953 film, and to a lesser extent, the 1997 Cameron film.
The interiors were filmed mostly at Pinewood Studios near London and the
authenticity of this production included 30 interior sets constructed from
actual blueprints of Titanic and actors who looked like the people that
they portrayed. Exterior scenes were filmed on a giant outdoor set in
mid-winter and on an old Harland & Wolff liner, Asturias, which was being
scrapped at the time.
The obsession for authentic detail stands up to repeated viewings. Only
minor alterations were made to the historical record for dramatic purposes
particularly the use of "composite characters," fictional characters who
embodied the characteristics of several real people representing the three
classes on board the ship.
The gut-wrenching sequences portraying the alleged stupidity of the
Californian's officers while Titanic is sinking have probably done more to
stir up sympathy for the much-maligned Captain Stanley Lord than any other
single factor.
The most serious flaws in the film are unconvincing special effect
sequences involving the Titanic's collision with the iceberg, especially
when compared with the Fox film made five years previously. British movie
technology of the time simply couldn't compete with Hollywood in that
regard.
Despite unanimously positive reviews and a slew of various film award
nominations, A Night to Remember did mediocre business at the box office
when it was released. Perhaps the movie's strengths as a docudrama and Baker
and MacQuitty's refusal to make token dramatic concessions weakened its
box office appeal.
1964 The life of colorful real-life Titanic survivor Mrs. J.J. Brown was
turned into a Broadway musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown featuring music
by Meredith Wilson. The film adaptation starred the ebullient Debbie
Reynolds in the title role. Like most musical biographies, the film takes
considerable liberties with the protagonist's real life. The real Maggie
Brown was not nearly as attractive as the comely Ms. Reynolds, but the
outline of the plot was true to life.
Maggie was a backwoods orphan who became one of the wealthiest women in
Denver, Colorado when her husband struck it rich by discovering a silver
mine. Considered a rube and snubbed by Denver socialites, Maggie frequently
traveled to Europe and became a favorite of the titled international set.
While returning to America on Titanic, Maggie ended up in lifeboat #6 where
she took charge when the assigned crew member proved unequal to the task.
This sequence was filmed but dropped from the release version of the
Cameron film. Brown's exploits on Titanic were well publicized and she
finally found social acceptance from those who had snubbed her. Hollywood
could never ignore such an interesting and colorful personality and
practically every Titanic movie features this character in a supporting
role. Maggie was one of the key witnesses at the American inquiry and a
well-known photograph reproduced in many books about Titanic shows her
presenting a medal to Captain Rostron of the rescue ship Carpathia a few
weeks after the disaster.
1979 The ABC Sunday Night Movie presented S.O.S. Titanic, a lavish
made-for-TV movie starring David Janssen as John Jacob Astor, David Warner
(who played the evil and sadistic gun-toting Lovejoy in the Cameron film)
as Lawrence Beesley, a second class passenger, Ian Holm as J. Bruce Ismay
and Cloris Leachman portrayed Molly Brown.
Filmed off the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea; aboard the Queen Mary in Long
Beach, California; in iceberg-infested waters near Greenland and in a
gigantic "floodable" studio near London, this is an interesting version of
the disaster written by Emmy-winner James Costigan. One of the most
compelling sequences at the start of the film shows Titanic survivors,
still in shock, boarding Carpathia.
The script makes much of the class differences among the various passengers
with Beesley extolling a Marxist analysis of the disaster after being
rescued. The three hour film was later released on video in a shortened
version.
1980 The movie Raise the Titanic was based on a mediocre novel by
Clive Cussler that had enjoyed bestseller status a few years earlier. The action
takes place in contemporary times, with the U.S. Navy spending hundreds of
millions of dollars to raise the liner because, in its hold, is a rare
mineral called Byzanium necessary for a new nuclear defense system.
The film itself was a disaster and is one of the great money-losers in
movie history. It cost $40 million and the special effects alone cost more
than it did to build the Titanic itself in 1911. Raise the Titanic was
universally panned by critics and died a quick death at the box office
bringing in revenues of less than 10 percent of its cost. British movie mogul,
Lord Lew Grade, who lost his job over the debacle, is credited with the
famous line "Raise the Titanic? My God, it would be cheaper to lower the
Atlantic!"
Despite terrible acting, abominable dialogue, sloppy research and a
ridiculous premise, portions of the film are quite interesting and make it
worth renting for Titanic buffs. The underwater sequences where they try to
locate the wreck are very similar to what transpired when the Ballard
expedition found Titanic five years later.
The special effects sequences of the Titanic being raised are also quite
impressive and the film features a stirring musical score by John Barry.
The model used for this sequence was fifty-five feet long and cost $5
million. These scenes were filmed in a specially constructed ten million
gallon tank on the island of Malta built at a further cost of $3 million.
Also impressive was set designer John DeCuir's visualization of the
interior of Titanic after it was raised. From a special effects standpoint,
the sequences of Titanic being towed into New York are technically
disappointing and not very convincing.
Unfortunately, the sequences in the book showing how the Byzanium came to
be aboard Titanic in 1912 were not filmed. The film was rushed into release
because the producers were concerned that the Grimm expedition, then
searching for Titanic, would locate the actual wreck and, if the ship was
found in pieces, the movie would have no credibility. They need not have
worried.
1981 Time Bandits, a fantasy adventure produced by ex-Beatle George
Harrison and written and directed by Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam
concerned an English schoolboy and a collection of dwarves who travel in
time meeting various historical figures. They end up on the deck of Titanic
just before the collision, providing an opportunity for strained humour,
"I'll have champagne with plenty of ice."
1989 In a brief sequence in Ghostbusters II, a ghostly apparition of
Titanic arrives in New York and long-dead passengers are seen disembarking.
1996 Danielle Steeles' drugstore potboiler No Greater Love was filmed
as a TV movie in Montreal. The plucky heroine, Edwina, is a passenger on
Titanic but loses her parents and fiance in the disaster. Edwina undergoes a
lifetime of melodrama, having to raise her five siblings by herself.
1996 Titanic was a two-part TV movie filmed in Vancouver and starring
George C. Scott as Captain Smith, Marilu Henner as Molly Brown and Eva
Marie Saint and Peter Gallagher as fictional characters. The CBS movie was
clearly designed to exploit the hype swirling about the then uncompleted
Cameron film. Most viewers were appalled by a scene with Tim Curry as an
oversexed White Star steward raping a female third class passenger in the
shower. The computer-generated special effects were pathetic. The movie
was re-broadcast in May of 1998.
Deconstructing the Titanic -Table of Contents
Introduction
Titanic: The Ship and the Disaster
History of Titanic Movies
Titanic as Popular Culture
James Cameron's Titanic
A Review of James Cameron's Titanic
by Derek Boles
A Review of James Cameron's Titanic
by Neil Andersen
Titanic Classroom Activities
Titanic Unit Resources
ge by real movie cameras. A similar animated version of the sinking of the Lusitania produced three years later still
exists. A mostly bogus 10-minute newsreel circulated in movie theaters immediately following the disaster. Much of the footage is of the Titanic's sister ship Olympic which, having been completed a year earlier, had much more extensive photographic coverage. Unsophisticated movie audiences of the time were easily taken in by these deceptions.
1912 At least one primitive "animated" reconstruction of the disaster was released by the Sales Company's Animated Weekly to satisfy movie audiences' hunger for any kind of footage related to Titanic. It was common practice in this period to produce animated versions of news events that did not enjoy the benefit of covera
1912 The motion picture was a primitive entertainment medium in its infancy
and there were a handful of individuals connected with the film industry on
board the Titanic. Most did not survive. One who did was Dorothy Gibson, a
part-time actress who was also a 1st class passenger. Within weeks of her
rescue, her studio, Eclair Film Co., capitalized on the connection by
releasing a ten-minute feature Saved from the Titanic. In the film, Ms.
Gibson wore the same dress in which she had boarded a Titanic lifeboat. She
was actually one of the first in a lifeboat, whereas in the film the
heroine helps rescue several people and is one of the last to enter a boat.
This film no longer exists and there were undoubtedly several other silent
film versions of the Titanic disaster which did not survive. It is
estimated that almost 90 percent of films made during the silent era are lost
forever. An early German film about the disaster was assumed lost but was
recently rediscovered weeks after the release of the Cameron film.
1929 British International Pictures released Atlantic in both silent and
sound versions. The film was a then-rare example of what today has become a
television staple, the international co-production with talking versions in
English, French and German. For many European audiences, it was the first
all-talking film that they had seen and, like most early talkies, the
dialogue sequences are stultifyingly bad with most of the actors
demonstrating a profound discomfort at having to emote into a then
unfamiliar microphone.
The film was based on Ernest Raymond's play, The Berg, and was shot at
Elstree Studios in England. The shots of the lifeboats being lowered down
the side of the ship was filmed on a real liner docked in the River Thames.
The title Atlantic is also the name of the ship as the film's producers
were threatened by a lawsuit from the White Star Line, one of many attempts
by the shipping company to discourage filmmakers from dramatizing the
Titanic disaster.
1933 The Fox production Cavalcade, based on a play by Noel Coward,
featured a scene where a doomed honeymoon couple are discussing their plans
for the future on the deck of an unidentified ship. As they move away from the
railing, we see the name Titanic printed on a life ring. The film won an
Academy Award as Best Picture of 1933.
1937 History is Made at Night stars Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur
and is billed as a "romantic comedy-drama." The climax of the film takes
place on board a new luxury liner that collides with an iceberg in the North
Atlantic after the captain is instructed by the owner to ignore the ice
warnings and race for a record crossing. Other than this collision, the
connection with Titanic is flimsy at best. In the film, the ship's bulkheads
hold, the liner is saved and the passengers, who were earlier lowered
in lifeboats, are able to get back on board.
1938 Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick felt that the Titanic
story had the requisite epic historical quality that he found so attractive in
film projects. Selznick decided that a British director was needed to
handle the story properly and he imported Alfred Hitchcock, then one of
Britain's best-known film directors. Selznick's initial plan called for
purchasing the American liner Leviathan, then waiting on the scrap line in
Hoboken, New Jersey and towing it to California through the Panama Canal.
The studio would then overhaul the top decks to resemble Titanic, shooting
the movie on it, then sinking the ship off Santa Monica while the cameras
were running. There were numerous difficulties involved in preparing the
script and the expense of purchasing and overhauling Leviathan proved to be
prohibitive. Besides, by this time Selznick, was deeply involved in one of
his other projects, Gone With the Wind.
1943 During World War 2, the German film industry, firmly under the control
of the Nazis, made a propaganda version of the disaster called Titanic. It
was one of the most expensive German films made until that time. By then,
the war had turned against the Third Reich and average Germans were
experiencing many deprivations in food, gasoline and other resources. Yet,
the film was a pet project of Hitler confidant and powerful minister of
propaganda Joseph Goebbels. The fact that the real disaster highlighted
British incompetence and corruption appealed to Goebbels and there was
considerable opportunity for dramatic license.
Titanic was a flop when released. Regular bombing raids on German cities by
the combined American and British Air Forces did not whet the public's
appetite for a disaster. The Nazi censors yanked it from circulation when
they discovered that German audiences were still far too sympathetic
towards the British passengers despite the obvious propaganda quotient. The
propaganda value also backfired as the Titanic in the film could easily
have been interpreted as an allegory of the Third Reich itself. Titanic
was, however, quite successful when shown in occupied France.
Herbert Selpin was the director of Titanic and he had made several earlier
distinguished films. Selpin resisted many efforts by the Nazis to
exaggerate British cowardice even more than appeared in the final film. He
openly displayed his contempt for his Nazi masters and was murdered in his
prison cell on the orders of Goebbels, having never seen his last film.
Perhaps he was the final victim of the Titanic disaster.
The film was confiscated by the occupying American army in 1945 and
attempts in 1950 to revive a theatrical release of the film in Germany
failed as the film was still deemed by authorities to be too anti-British.
In another stroke of irony, Titanic was shown in East Germany during the
1950's as the films anti-British bias suited Communist ideology better than
it had the Nazis.
In a final touch of irony, portions of this film's special effect model
shots were included in some early American television programs and in the
British film A Night to Remember.
1953 20th Century Fox finally got around to realizing Selznick's plan of
15 years earlier and gave the Titanic story the full Hollywood treatment
that it so richly deserved and which was long overdue. Titanic was a lavish
docudrama that mixed fictional and real characters and opened in Hollywood
on April 14, exactly 41 years after the disaster. The film starred Barbara
Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, and Robert Wagner.
Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember, reported a comment once made
to him that Clifton Webb's portrayal of snobbish fashion plate Richard Sturges
was so vivid that, if he wasn't on the ship, he should have been.
The director of Titanic, Jean Negulesco, used a dramatic device that
characterized all the superior Titanic films by emphasizing the happiness
and gaiety of life on board the ship prior to the collision and contrasting
this with the chaos and despair that occurred afterwards. The sequence where
Sturges and his son meet their deaths while singing "Nearer My God to Thee"
has become a permanent part of Titanic mythology. This single scene may
have eventually resulted in creating more Titanic aficionados than any other
film in this chronology. Like most American films of the time, Titanic was entirely
a studio production made on Hollywood soundstages. The film's witty and literate
screenplay won an Oscar for the screenwriters. The model of the Titanic
used in this film has been completely restored and is on display at the
Marine Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1956 In a time referred to today as the "Golden Age," television
networks prided themselves on presenting live television dramas of high
quality and the Kraft Television Theater was one of the best. Walter Lord
had published his seminal work on the Titanic, A Night to Remember, a year
earlier and Kraft presented a dramatization of the book, broadcast live
from the NBC Studio in New York.
This "spectacular," as such shows were then known, featured 107 actors, 31
sets; some designed to tilt with the increasing listing of the ship, dump
tanks filled with water and narration by Hollywood star Claude Rains. The
production was probably the most ambitious live show ever presented on TV
and was directed by George Roy Hill who became a top movie director in the
70's with hit films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The
Sting.
1958 The enormous popularity of Lord's book and its television
dramatization convinced Irish film producer William MacQuitty that the
story deserved an even more lavish big screen treatment. As a boy,
MacQuitty had witnessed the launch of Titanic in Belfast in 1911.
The J. Arthur Rank production A Night to Remember is, without question, the
best and most authentic of all Titanic movies. Expertly directed by Roy
Baker, the film dramatically lays out the facts of the event, uncluttered
with the fictional "star" turns and the maudlin sentimentality that had
characterized the 1953 film, and to a lesser extent, the 1997 Cameron film.
The interiors were filmed mostly at Pinewood Studios near London and the
authenticity of this production included 30 interior sets constructed from
actual blueprints of Titanic and actors who looked like the people that
they portrayed. Exterior scenes were filmed on a giant outdoor set in
mid-winter and on an old Harland & Wolff liner, Asturias, which was being
scrapped at the time.
The obsession for authentic detail stands up to repeated viewings. Only
minor alterations were made to the historical record for dramatic purposes
particularly the use of "composite characters," fictional characters who
embodied the characteristics of several real people representing the three
classes on board the ship.
The gut-wrenching sequences portraying the alleged stupidity of the
Californian's officers while Titanic is sinking have probably done more to
stir up sympathy for the much-maligned Captain Stanley Lord than any other
single factor.
The most serious flaws in the film are unconvincing special effect
sequences involving the Titanic's collision with the iceberg, especially
when compared with the Fox film made five years previously. British movie
technology of the time simply couldn't compete with Hollywood in that
regard.
Despite unanimously positive reviews and a slew of various film award
nominations, A Night to Remember did mediocre business at the box office
when it was released. Perhaps the movie's strengths as a docudrama and Baker
and MacQuitty's refusal to make token dramatic concessions weakened its
box office appeal.
1964 The life of colorful real-life Titanic survivor Mrs. J.J. Brown was
turned into a Broadway musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown featuring music
by Meredith Wilson. The film adaptation starred the ebullient Debbie
Reynolds in the title role. Like most musical biographies, the film takes
considerable liberties with the protagonist's real life. The real Maggie
Brown was not nearly as attractive as the comely Ms. Reynolds, but the
outline of the plot was true to life.
Maggie was a backwoods orphan who became one of the wealthiest women in
Denver, Colorado when her husband struck it rich by discovering a silver
mine. Considered a rube and snubbed by Denver socialites, Maggie frequently
traveled to Europe and became a favorite of the titled international set.
While returning to America on Titanic, Maggie ended up in lifeboat #6 where
she took charge when the assigned crew member proved unequal to the task.
This sequence was filmed but dropped from the release version of the
Cameron film. Brown's exploits on Titanic were well publicized and she
finally found social acceptance from those who had snubbed her. Hollywood
could never ignore such an interesting and colorful personality and
practically every Titanic movie features this character in a supporting
role. Maggie was one of the key witnesses at the American inquiry and a
well-known photograph reproduced in many books about Titanic shows her
presenting a medal to Captain Rostron of the rescue ship Carpathia a few
weeks after the disaster.
1979 The ABC Sunday Night Movie presented S.O.S. Titanic, a lavish
made-for-TV movie starring David Janssen as John Jacob Astor, David Warner
(who played the evil and sadistic gun-toting Lovejoy in the Cameron film)
as Lawrence Beesley, a second class passenger, Ian Holm as J. Bruce Ismay
and Cloris Leachman portrayed Molly Brown.
Filmed off the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea; aboard the Queen Mary in Long
Beach, California; in iceberg-infested waters near Greenland and in a
gigantic "floodable" studio near London, this is an interesting version of
the disaster written by Emmy-winner James Costigan. One of the most
compelling sequences at the start of the film shows Titanic survivors,
still in shock, boarding Carpathia.
The script makes much of the class differences among the various passengers
with Beesley extolling a Marxist analysis of the disaster after being
rescued. The three hour film was later released on video in a shortened
version.
1980 The movie Raise the Titanic was based on a mediocre novel by
Clive Cussler that had enjoyed bestseller status a few years earlier. The action
takes place in contemporary times, with the U.S. Navy spending hundreds of
millions of dollars to raise the liner because, in its hold, is a rare
mineral called Byzanium necessary for a new nuclear defense system.
The film itself was a disaster and is one of the great money-losers in
movie history. It cost $40 million and the special effects alone cost more
than it did to build the Titanic itself in 1911. Raise the Titanic was
universally panned by critics and died a quick death at the box office
bringing in revenues of less than 10 percent of its cost. British movie mogul,
Lord Lew Grade, who lost his job over the debacle, is credited with the
famous line "Raise the Titanic? My God, it would be cheaper to lower the
Atlantic!"
Despite terrible acting, abominable dialogue, sloppy research and a
ridiculous premise, portions of the film are quite interesting and make it
worth renting for Titanic buffs. The underwater sequences where they try to
locate the wreck are very similar to what transpired when the Ballard
expedition found Titanic five years later.
The special effects sequences of the Titanic being raised are also quite
impressive and the film features a stirring musical score by John Barry.
The model used for this sequence was fifty-five feet long and cost $5
million. These scenes were filmed in a specially constructed ten million
gallon tank on the island of Malta built at a further cost of $3 million.
Also impressive was set designer John DeCuir's visualization of the
interior of Titanic after it was raised. From a special effects standpoint,
the sequences of Titanic being towed into New York are technically
disappointing and not very convincing.
Unfortunately, the sequences in the book showing how the Byzanium came to
be aboard Titanic in 1912 were not filmed. The film was rushed into release
because the producers were concerned that the Grimm expedition, then
searching for Titanic, would locate the actual wreck and, if the ship was
found in pieces, the movie would have no credibility. They need not have
worried.
1981 Time Bandits, a fantasy adventure produced by ex-Beatle George
Harrison and written and directed by Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam
concerned an English schoolboy and a collection of dwarves who travel in
time meeting various historical figures. They end up on the deck of Titanic
just before the collision, providing an opportunity for strained humour,
"I'll have champagne with plenty of ice."
1989 In a brief sequence in Ghostbusters II, a ghostly apparition of
Titanic arrives in New York and long-dead passengers are seen disembarking.
1996 Danielle Steeles' drugstore potboiler No Greater Love was filmed
as a TV movie in Montreal. The plucky heroine, Edwina, is a passenger on
Titanic but loses her parents and fiance in the disaster. Edwina undergoes a
lifetime of melodrama, having to raise her five siblings by herself.
1996 Titanic was a two-part TV movie filmed in Vancouver and starring
George C. Scott as Captain Smith, Marilu Henner as Molly Brown and Eva
Marie Saint and Peter Gallagher as fictional characters. The CBS movie was
clearly designed to exploit the hype swirling about the then uncompleted
Cameron film. Most viewers were appalled by a scene with Tim Curry as an
oversexed White Star steward raping a female third class passenger in the
shower. The computer-generated special effects were pathetic. The movie
was re-broadcast in May of 1998.
Deconstructing the Titanic -Table of Contents
Introduction
Titanic: The Ship and the Disaster
History of Titanic Movies
Titanic as Popular Culture
James Cameron's Titanic
A Review of James Cameron's Titanic
by Derek Boles
A Review of James Cameron's Titanic
by Neil Andersen
Titanic Classroom Activities
Titanic Unit Resources
SPIDER MAN 3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search For video game based on the film, see Spider-Man 3 (video game). For the soundtrack of the film, see Spider-Man 3 (soundtrack). Spider-Man 3
International theatrical poster Directed by Sam Raimi Produced by Avi Arad
Laura Ziskin
Grant Curtis
Stan Lee
Kevin Feige
Joseph M. Caracciolo Screenplay by Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi
Alvin Sargent Story by Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi Based on The Amazing Spider-Man by
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Starring Tobey Maguire
Kirsten Dunst
James Franco
Thomas Haden Church
Topher Grace
Bryce Dallas Howard
James Cromwell Music by Christopher Young
Danny Elfman
(themes)
Deborah Lurie
(themes) Cinematography Bill Pope Editing by Bob Murawski Studio Marvel Entertainment Distributed by Columbia Pictures Release date(s) April 16, 2007 (2007-04-16) (Tokyo premiere)
May 4, 2007 (2007-05-04) (United States) Running time 139 minutes Language English Budget $258 million[1] Gross revenue $890,871,626[2] Preceded by Spider-Man 2Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 superhero film[3] written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third and final film of Sam Raimi's trilogy in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictionalMarvel Comics character Spider-Man. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons and James Cromwell.
The film begins with Peter Parker basking in his success as Spider-Man, while Mary Jane Watson continues her Broadway career. Harry Osborn still seeks vengeance for his father's death, and an escaped convict, Flint Marko, falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape-shifting sand manipulator. An extraterrestrialsymbiote crashes to Earth and bonds with Peter, influencing his behavior for the worse. When Peter abandons the symbiote, it finds refuge in Eddie Brock, a rival photographer, causing Peter to face his greatest challenge.
Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in multiple countries on May 1, 2007, and released in the United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4, 2007, by Columbia Pictures. Although the film received mixed reviews from critics, in contrast to the previous two films' highly positive reviews, it stands as the most successful film in the series worldwide, Marvel's most successful film, and Sony Pictures Entertainment's highest grossing film to date. The film has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA in the United States and 12 by the BBFC in the United Kingdom for Sequences of Intense Action Violence.
Contents [hide] [edit] Plot Peter Parker has begun to feel secure in his life and plans to propose to Mary Jane Watson, who has just recently made her Broadway musical debut. While Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a small meteorite crashes nearby, and an extraterrestrial symbiote attaches itself to Peter's moped. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a pit of a particle accelerator that fuses his body with the surrounding sand. The result allows him to shape shift at will, becoming the Sandman. Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, who seeks vengeance for his father's death, which he believes Peter caused, attacks him using new weapons adapted from the Green Goblin technology his father had left behind. During the scuffle, Harry injures his head and suffers from partial amnesia, making him forget his feud and the fact that Peter is Spider-Man.
Later, during a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Sandman attempts to rob an armored car, and overpowers Spider-Man. NYPD Captain George Stacy (Gwen's father) later informs Peter and Aunt May that Ben Parker's killer was actually Flint Marko, and that the now-deceased carjacker was merely an accomplice. A vengeful Peter waits for Marko to strike again. The symbiote bonds with his costume while he is asleep; Peter wakes up hanging from a skyscraper in central Manhattan and discovers that not only has his costume changed, but his powers have been enhanced as well. Perhaps capitalizing on Peter's current conflicted and anguished state of mind, the black suit brings out the more vengeful, selfish and arrogant side of Peter's personality. Wearing the new suit, Peter locates Marko, fights him in a cavernous underground subway tunnel and, upon discovering that water can dissolve Marko's body, rips open a large water pipe to deliver what he believes to be a lethal torrent of water, reducing the Sandman to mud.
The shift in Peter's personality alienates Mary Jane, whose career is floundering, and she finds solace with Harry. Harry recovers from his amnesia and, urged on by an apparition of his dead father, forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane leaves Peter, stating she is in love with another man, Harry meets him at a restaurant and claims to be the other man. Later, Peter confronts him at the Osborn mansion. With the help of the black suit, Peter is victorious in a brutal fight, which leaves Harry's face disfigured due to a mini-explosion of a bomb. Influenced by the suit, Peter exposes and humiliates Eddie Brock, a rival freelance photographer, who has just gained overnight star status at the Daily Bugle by submitting doctored photographs supposedly exposing Spider-Man as a criminal. J. Jonah Jameson gets wind of the photos and fires Eddie. Peter changes how he dresses and alters his hairstyle and begins to behave arrogantly. Meanwhile, the Sandman recovers from his injuries, having somehow survived Spider-Man's attack.
In an effort to make Mary Jane jealous, Peter brings Gwen to the nightclub where Mary Jane works. He gets into a fight with the club's bouncers and unintentionally shoves Mary Jane, knocking her to the floor. Peter realizes the symbiote-suit is changing him for the worse. He walks out of the nightclub and goes to a church bell tower to dispose of it. Initially, he is unable to remove the suit, but the alien eventually weakens due to the loud sounds of the bell, enabling Peter to break free. Eddie Brock, by chance, is at the same church praying for Peter's death when the symbiote falls from the tower and takes over his body. Eddie, now reincarnated as Venom, finds the Sandman and suggests joining forces to destroy Spider-Man, to which the Sandman agrees.
The pair put Mary Jane in a taxicab and hang it from a gigantic web above a construction site, filled with sand. Peter approaches Harry for help, but is turned down. However, Harry learns the truth about his father's death from his butler Bernard, and arrives in time to rescue Peter; they form an alliance against the two villains. As the fight progresses, Harry temporarily subdues a gigantic, monstrous incarnation of the Sandman, and Venom attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in the way and is fatally wounded, suffering the same fate as his father. During his fight with Venom, Peter notices that falling lengths of pipe appear to distress the symbiote, and Peter recalls how the church bell's toll weakened it, and creates a ring of several pipes around Venom to make a "fence" of sonic vibrations. The alien succumbs to so much pain that it releases Brock, and Peter pulls Eddie away from it with a string of web. Peter throws one of Harry's pumpkin bombs at the symbiote, and Eddie jumps into the ring in an instinctive attempt to rebond with it. They are both killed by the explosion.
After the battle, Marko recovers and tells Peter that he had no intention of killing Ben Parker (but rather fired his gun as an angst reaction when the crook Peter allowed to escape grabbed his arm), and that it was an accident born out of a desperate attempt to save his dying daughter's life. He claims that Ben Parker's death has haunted him for the rest of his life. Peter forgives Marko, who dissipates and floats away. Peter and Harry forgive each other before Harry dies with Mary Jane and Peter at his side. Later, Peter walks into the jazz bar where Mary Jane is singing. They embrace and begin to dance, implying that they are mending their relationship.
[edit] Cast
"Villains with a conscience have this sad realization of who they are, and the monster they've become — there's a sense of regret. So at the end of these movies there's a dramatic resonance that really stays with the audience." —Thomas Haden Church on Sandman[5]
[edit] Production [edit] Development "The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he's not above these people." — Sam Raimi[17] In March 2004, with Spider-Man 2 being released the coming June, Marvel Studios had begun developing Spider-Man 3 for a release in 2007.[18] By the release of Spider-Man 2, a release date for Spider-Man 3 had been set for May 2, 2007 before production on the sequel had begun.[19] The date was later changed to May 4, 2007. In January 2005, Sony Pictures Entertainment completed a seven-figure deal with screenwriterAlvin Sargent, who had penned Spider-Man 2, to work on Spider-Man 3 with an option to write a fourth film.[20]
Immediately after Spider-Man 2's release, Ivan Raimi wrote a treatment over two months,[4] with Sam Raimi deciding to use the film to explore Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante, and that there also can be humanity in those he considers criminals.[17]Harry Osborn was brought back as Raimi wanted to conclude his storyline.[17] Raimi felt that Harry would not follow his father's legacy, but be instead "somewhere between."[21]Sandman was introduced as an antagonist, as Raimi found him a visually fascinating character.[17] While Sandman is a petty criminal in the comics, the screenwriters created a background of the character being Uncle Ben's killer to increase Peter's guilt over his death[22] and challenge his simplistic perception of the event.[17] Overall, Raimi described the film as being about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and the Sandman,[23] with Peter's journey being one of forgiveness.[11]
Raimi wanted another villain, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play the Vulture before the character was cut.[4] Producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to include Venom, a character whose perceived "lack of humanity" had initially been criticized by Sam Raimi.[12] Venom's alter-ego, Eddie Brock, already had a minor role in the script.[24] Arad told the director that Venom had a strong fan base, so Raimi included the character to please them,[23] and even began to appreciate the character himself.[12] The film's version of the character is an amalgamation of Venom stories. Eddie Brock, Jr., the human part of Venom, serves as a mirror to Peter Parker, with both characters having similar jobs and romantic interests.[12] Brock's actions as a journalist in Spider-Man 3 also represent contemporary themes of paparazzi and tabloid journalism.[5] The producers also suggested adding rival love interestGwen Stacy, filling in an "other girl" type that Raimi already created.[23] With so many additions, Sargent soon found his script so complex that he considered splitting it into two films, but abandoned the idea when he could not create a successful intermediate climax.[4]
[edit] Filming Camera crews spent ten days from November 5, 2005 to November 18, 2005, to film sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony Pictures Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus.[25]
Principal photography for Spider-Man 3 began on January 16, 2006 and wrapped in July 2006 after over a hundred days of filming. The team filmed in Los Angeles until May 19, 2006.[25] In spring 2006, film location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland,[26] due to the Cleveland Film Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost.[27] In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Spider-Man and Sandman in the armored car.[4] Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place from May 26, 2006 until July 1, 2006.[25] Shooting placed a strain on Raimi, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture.[4] Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as the symbiote Spider-Man, Venom, and the New Goblin were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night.[28]
After August, pick-ups were conducted as Raimi sought to film more action scenes.[29] The film then wrapped in October, although in the following month, additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production.[30] At the start of 2007, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Sandman's story, amounting to four different versions.[7]
[edit] Effects Amputee boxer Baxter Humby, as Spider-Man, throws a computer-generated punch through the chest of Sandman, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church. John Dykstra, who won the Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on Spider-Man 2, declined to work on the third film as visual effects supervisor. Dykstra's colleague, Scott Stokdyk, took his place as supervisor,[31] leading two hundred programmers at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This group designed specific computer programs that did not exist when Spider-Man 3 began production, creating nine hundred visual effects shots.[32]
Concept art of the Venom suit, which possesses a webbing motif, unlike the comics, in order to show the symbiote's control and represent the character as a twisted foil to Spider-Man. In addition to the innovative visual effects for the film, Stokdyk created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1:16 scale with New Deal Studios' Ian Hunter and David Sanger. Stokdyk chose to design the miniature instead of using computer-generated imagery so damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically and timely without guesswork involving computer models.[33] In addition, to Sony Imageworks, Cafe FX provided visual effects for the crane disaster scene when Spider-Man rescues Gwen Stacy, as well as shots in the climactic battle.[34] To understand the effects of sand for the Sandman, experiments were done with twelve types of sand, such as splashing, launching it at stuntmen, and pouring it over ledges. The results were mimicked on the computer to create the visual effects for Sandman.[32] For scenes involving visual effects, Thomas Haden Church was super-imposed onto the screen, where computer-generated imagery was then applied.[6] With sand as a possible hazard in scenes that buried actors, ground-up corncobs were used as a substitute instead.[35] Because of its resemblance to the substance, sand from Arizona was used as the model for the CG sand.[32] In a fight where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, amputee martial arts expert Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, whose right hand was amputated at birth, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest.[36]
Whereas the symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back, the design was changed for the film to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it’s the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right."[37] Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body.[38] When animating the symbiote, Raimi did not want it to resemble a spider or an octopus, and to give it a sense of character. The CG model is made of many separate strands.[39] When animating Venom himself, animators observed footage of big cats such as lions and cheetahs for the character's agile movements.[40]
[edit] Music Originally, Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, did not plan to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 and could not comfortably adapt his music.[41] Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's absence.[42] In December 2006, however, producer Grant Curtis announced that Elfman had begun collaborating with Christopher Young on the music for Spider-Man 3.[43]
Young, who had composed some of the score for the second film, kept the themes for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and he composed new themes for Sandman, Venom, and the love story.[44] Sandman's theme uses "two contrabasssaxophones, two contrabassclarinets, two contrabass bassoons and eight very low French horns" to sound "low, aggressive and heavy". Young described Venom's theme as "Vicious, my instructions on that one were that he’s the devil personified. His theme is much more demonic sounding."[45] Venom's theme uses eight French horns.[46] Raimi approved the new themes during their first performance, but rejected the initial music to the birth of Sandman, finding it too monstrous and not tragic enough. Young had to recompose much of his score at a later stage, as the producers felt there weren't enough themes from the previous films.[45] Ultimately, new themes for the love story, Aunt May, and Mary Jane were dropped.[46]
[edit] Reception Tobey Maguire greets fans at the premiere in Queens, New York. Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere in Tokyo on April 16, 2007,[47] which garnered positive reaction from Japanese viewers.[48] The film held its UK premiere on April 23, 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square,[49] and the U.S. premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Queens on April 30, 2007.[50]
Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in sixteen territories on May 1, 2007.[51] The film was released in Japan on May 1, 2007, three days prior to the American commercial release, to coincide with Japan's Golden Week.[47]Spider-Man 3 was also released in China on May 3, 2007 to circumvent market growth of pirated copies of the film. The studio's release of a film in China before its domestic release was a first for Sony Pictures Releasing International.[52] By May 6, 2007, Spider-Man 3 opened in 107 countries around the world.[51]
The film was commercially released in the United States on May 4, 2007 in a North American record total of 4,253 theaters,[53] including fifty-three IMAX theaters.[54] The record number of theaters was later beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was released in 4,362 theaters in the United States—109 more than Spider-Man 3.[55] Tracking data a month before the U.S. release reflected over 90% awareness and over 20% first choice among moviegoers, statistics that estimated an opening weekend of over $100 million for Spider-Man 3.[56] Online tickets for Spider-Man 3 were reported on April 23, 2007 to have been purchased at a faster rate—three times at Movietickets.com and four times at Fandango—than online ticket sales for Spider-Man 2.[57] On May 2, 2007, Fandango reported the sales rate as six times greater than the rate for Spider-Man 2. The strong ticket sales caused theaters to add 3:00 AM showings following the May 4, 2007 midnight showing to accommodate the demand.[58]
The FX channel signed a five-year deal for the television rights to Spider-Man 3, which they began airing in 2009. The price was based on the film's box office performance, with an option for three opportunities for Sony to sell the rights to one or more other broadcast networks.[59]
[edit] Marketing Further information: Spider-Man 3 (video game) and Spider-Man 3 (soundtrack) In New York City, the hometown of Spider-Man's fictional universe, tourist attractions arranged events and exhibits on April 30, 2007 to lead up to the release of Spider-Man 3. The unique campaign include a spider exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, workshops on baby spider plants at the New York Botanical Garden, Green Goblin mask-making workshop at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and a scavenger hunt and a bug show at Central Park Zoo.[60]
Hasbro, which holds the license for Marvel characters, released several toys to tie-in with the film. They include a deluxe spinning web blaster, along with several lines of action figures aimed at both children and collectors.[61] Toys of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus from the first two films have been re-released to match the smaller scale of the new figures, as have been toys of the Lizard, the Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter, and Rhino in a style reminiscent of the films.[62][63]Techno Source created interactive toys, including a "hand-held Battle Tronics device that straps to the inside of a player's wrist and mimics Spidey's web-slinging motions".[64] Japanese Medicom Toy Corporation produced collectibles, which Sideshow Collectibles distributed in the U.S.[65]
Sony Computer Entertainment released PlayStation 3 (40GB) originally bundled with Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray.
[edit] Reviews The film has received generally mixed reviews from critics. On the movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Spider-Man 3 has a 63% "fresh" approval rating based on 239 reviews, with a 40% approval rating based on 45 reviews from major news outlets.[66] On Metacritic, Spider-Man 3 has received a score of 59/100 based on 40 reviews.[67] On Yahoo! Movies, Spider-Man 3 is graded a B- among 14 film critics.[68]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times deplored the film's pacing as "mostly just plods" and a lack of humor.[69]Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film only 2 out of 4 stars, feeling, "for every slam-bang action sequence, there are far too many sluggish scenes."[70]David Edelstein of New York magazine misses the "centrifugal threat" of Alfred Molina's character, adding that "the three villains here don’t add up to one Doc Ock."[71]James Berardinelli felt director Sam Raimi "overreached his grasp" by allowing so many villains, specifically saying, "Venom is one bad guy too many."[72]Roger Ebert thought Church never expressed how Sandman felt about his new powers, something Molina, as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2, did "with a vengeance"; he claimed the film was "a mess," with too many villains, subplots, romantic misunderstandings, conversations and "street crowds looking high into the air and shouting 'oooh!' this way, then swiveling and shouting 'aaah!' that way."[73]The New Yorker'sAnthony Lane, who gave Spider-Man 2 a favorable review,[74] summarized the film as a "shambles" which "makes the rules up as it goes along."[75]
However, Roger Friedman of Fox News called the film a "4 star opera", noting that while long, there was plenty of humor and action.[76] Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources praised the film as "easily the most complex and deftly orchestrated superhero epic ever filmed [...] despite the enormous amount of characters, action and sci-fi superhero plot going on in this film, Spider-Man 3 never feels weighted down, tedious or boring."[77]Jonathan Ross, a big fan of the comic books, felt the film was the best of the trilogy.[78]Richard Corliss of Time commended the filmmakers for their ability to "dramatize feelings of angst and personal betrayal worthy of an Ingmar Bergman film, and then to dress them up in gaudy comic-book colors".[79]Wesley Morris of the The Boston Globe, who gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, wrote that it was a well made, fresh film, but would leave the viewer "overfulfilled".[80] Jonathan Dean of Total Film felt the film's complex plot helped the film's pacing, in that, "it rarely feels disjointed or loose [...] Spider-Man cements its shelf-life."[81]Entertainment Weekly named the Sandman as the eighth best computer-generated film character.[82]
John Hartl of MSNBC gave Spider-Man 3 a good review, but stated that it has some flaws such as having "too many storylines".[83] His opinion is echoed by Houston Chronicle's Amy Biancolli who complained that "the script is busy with so many supporting characters and plot detours that the series' charming idiosyncrasy is sometimes lost in the noise."[84] Jack Matthews of Daily News thought the film was too devoted to the "quiet conversations" of Peter and Mary Jane, but that fans would not be disappointed by the action.[85] Finally, Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly felt that the director "substituted scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable."[86]
[edit] Impact [edit] Box office performance On its international opening day on May 1, 2007 in 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 grossed $29.2 million, an 86% increase from the intake of Spider-Man 2 on its first day of release. In 10 of the 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 set new opening day records.[51] In Asian territories, the film surpassed the opening-day record of Spider-Man 2 in Japan and South Korea. Spider-Man 3 also set opening-day records in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Philippines.[53] In India, where the film was released in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bhojpuri, the film grossed $4.66 million over the opening weekend, breaking the record set by Casino Royale in 2006 ($3.63 million).[87] In Europe, the film broke Italy's opening-day record set by 2006's The Da Vinci Code.[88] In Germany, the film surpassed the opening day gross of Spider-Man 2. In France, Spider-Man 3 broke the opening day record set by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in 2005.[89] The film broke the opening weekend records in 29 countries, while reaching at least the number one position in all 107 countries that it opened, which brought its international total to $231 million.[90]
Spider-Man 3 set a then record $59,841,919 take for its opening day in the United States, breaking Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 's $55.8 million record. The film also took the worldwide opening day record with $117 million.[91] The U.S. opening day take includes a record $10 million in Thursday midnight showings.[92]Spider-Man 3 broke Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's all-time weekend debut by grossing $151,116,516 from an ultrawide release of 4,252 theaters (about 10,000 screens) for an average of about $35,540 per theater.[93] The film also set a new worldwide record for opening weekend, with a final total of $382 million.[90] As of December 3, 2007, the total gross in America was $336,530,303, making it the highest-grossing film of 2007 in the U.S., however that also stands as the lowest domestic tally in the franchise, while the worldwide total was $890,871,626. It is the third highest-grossing film worldwide in 2007 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[2] and 17th of all time. The film's IMAX screenings reached $20 million in 30 days, faster than any other 2D film remastered in the format.[94]
[edit] Home video Spider-Man 3 was released on Region 4 DVD in Australia on September 18, 2007.[95] For Region 2 in the United Kingdom, the film was released on October 15, 2007.[96]Spider-Man 3 was released on DVD in Region 1 territories on October 30, 2007. The film is available in one-disc and two-disc editions, on both standard and Blu-ray formats, as well as packages with the previous films and a PSP release.[97]Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis are among those who contributed to the audio commentaries.
Sony announced plans to create "one of the largest" marketing campaigns in Hollywood for the October 30, 2007 release of the DVD. Beginning with a partnership with Papa Johns, Sony printed close to 8.5 billion impressions for pizza boxes, television, radio, and online ads. Sony also worked with Pringles Potato Crisp, Blu-Tack, Jolly Time Pop Corn, and Nutella. Sony's Vice President of marketing, Jennifer Anderson, stated the studio spend approximately 15% to 25% of its marketing budget on digital ad campaigns; from this, Papa Johns sent text messages to mobile phones with ads. Anderson stated that there would be three sweepstakes held for consumers, where they would be able to win prizes from Sony and its promotional partners.[98]
In the United States, the film grossed more than $124 million on DVD sales.[99] It also grossed more than $43.76 million on DVD/Home Video Rentals in 11 weeks.[100] However, the DVD sales results of this film did not meet industry expectations.
Jump to: navigation, search For video game based on the film, see Spider-Man 3 (video game). For the soundtrack of the film, see Spider-Man 3 (soundtrack). Spider-Man 3
International theatrical poster Directed by Sam Raimi Produced by Avi Arad
Laura Ziskin
Grant Curtis
Stan Lee
Kevin Feige
Joseph M. Caracciolo Screenplay by Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi
Alvin Sargent Story by Sam Raimi
Ivan Raimi Based on The Amazing Spider-Man by
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Starring Tobey Maguire
Kirsten Dunst
James Franco
Thomas Haden Church
Topher Grace
Bryce Dallas Howard
James Cromwell Music by Christopher Young
Danny Elfman
(themes)
Deborah Lurie
(themes) Cinematography Bill Pope Editing by Bob Murawski Studio Marvel Entertainment Distributed by Columbia Pictures Release date(s) April 16, 2007 (2007-04-16) (Tokyo premiere)
May 4, 2007 (2007-05-04) (United States) Running time 139 minutes Language English Budget $258 million[1] Gross revenue $890,871,626[2] Preceded by Spider-Man 2Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 superhero film[3] written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third and final film of Sam Raimi's trilogy in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictionalMarvel Comics character Spider-Man. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons and James Cromwell.
The film begins with Peter Parker basking in his success as Spider-Man, while Mary Jane Watson continues her Broadway career. Harry Osborn still seeks vengeance for his father's death, and an escaped convict, Flint Marko, falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape-shifting sand manipulator. An extraterrestrialsymbiote crashes to Earth and bonds with Peter, influencing his behavior for the worse. When Peter abandons the symbiote, it finds refuge in Eddie Brock, a rival photographer, causing Peter to face his greatest challenge.
Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in multiple countries on May 1, 2007, and released in the United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4, 2007, by Columbia Pictures. Although the film received mixed reviews from critics, in contrast to the previous two films' highly positive reviews, it stands as the most successful film in the series worldwide, Marvel's most successful film, and Sony Pictures Entertainment's highest grossing film to date. The film has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA in the United States and 12 by the BBFC in the United Kingdom for Sequences of Intense Action Violence.
Contents [hide] [edit] Plot Peter Parker has begun to feel secure in his life and plans to propose to Mary Jane Watson, who has just recently made her Broadway musical debut. While Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a small meteorite crashes nearby, and an extraterrestrial symbiote attaches itself to Peter's moped. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a pit of a particle accelerator that fuses his body with the surrounding sand. The result allows him to shape shift at will, becoming the Sandman. Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, who seeks vengeance for his father's death, which he believes Peter caused, attacks him using new weapons adapted from the Green Goblin technology his father had left behind. During the scuffle, Harry injures his head and suffers from partial amnesia, making him forget his feud and the fact that Peter is Spider-Man.
Later, during a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Sandman attempts to rob an armored car, and overpowers Spider-Man. NYPD Captain George Stacy (Gwen's father) later informs Peter and Aunt May that Ben Parker's killer was actually Flint Marko, and that the now-deceased carjacker was merely an accomplice. A vengeful Peter waits for Marko to strike again. The symbiote bonds with his costume while he is asleep; Peter wakes up hanging from a skyscraper in central Manhattan and discovers that not only has his costume changed, but his powers have been enhanced as well. Perhaps capitalizing on Peter's current conflicted and anguished state of mind, the black suit brings out the more vengeful, selfish and arrogant side of Peter's personality. Wearing the new suit, Peter locates Marko, fights him in a cavernous underground subway tunnel and, upon discovering that water can dissolve Marko's body, rips open a large water pipe to deliver what he believes to be a lethal torrent of water, reducing the Sandman to mud.
The shift in Peter's personality alienates Mary Jane, whose career is floundering, and she finds solace with Harry. Harry recovers from his amnesia and, urged on by an apparition of his dead father, forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane leaves Peter, stating she is in love with another man, Harry meets him at a restaurant and claims to be the other man. Later, Peter confronts him at the Osborn mansion. With the help of the black suit, Peter is victorious in a brutal fight, which leaves Harry's face disfigured due to a mini-explosion of a bomb. Influenced by the suit, Peter exposes and humiliates Eddie Brock, a rival freelance photographer, who has just gained overnight star status at the Daily Bugle by submitting doctored photographs supposedly exposing Spider-Man as a criminal. J. Jonah Jameson gets wind of the photos and fires Eddie. Peter changes how he dresses and alters his hairstyle and begins to behave arrogantly. Meanwhile, the Sandman recovers from his injuries, having somehow survived Spider-Man's attack.
In an effort to make Mary Jane jealous, Peter brings Gwen to the nightclub where Mary Jane works. He gets into a fight with the club's bouncers and unintentionally shoves Mary Jane, knocking her to the floor. Peter realizes the symbiote-suit is changing him for the worse. He walks out of the nightclub and goes to a church bell tower to dispose of it. Initially, he is unable to remove the suit, but the alien eventually weakens due to the loud sounds of the bell, enabling Peter to break free. Eddie Brock, by chance, is at the same church praying for Peter's death when the symbiote falls from the tower and takes over his body. Eddie, now reincarnated as Venom, finds the Sandman and suggests joining forces to destroy Spider-Man, to which the Sandman agrees.
The pair put Mary Jane in a taxicab and hang it from a gigantic web above a construction site, filled with sand. Peter approaches Harry for help, but is turned down. However, Harry learns the truth about his father's death from his butler Bernard, and arrives in time to rescue Peter; they form an alliance against the two villains. As the fight progresses, Harry temporarily subdues a gigantic, monstrous incarnation of the Sandman, and Venom attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in the way and is fatally wounded, suffering the same fate as his father. During his fight with Venom, Peter notices that falling lengths of pipe appear to distress the symbiote, and Peter recalls how the church bell's toll weakened it, and creates a ring of several pipes around Venom to make a "fence" of sonic vibrations. The alien succumbs to so much pain that it releases Brock, and Peter pulls Eddie away from it with a string of web. Peter throws one of Harry's pumpkin bombs at the symbiote, and Eddie jumps into the ring in an instinctive attempt to rebond with it. They are both killed by the explosion.
After the battle, Marko recovers and tells Peter that he had no intention of killing Ben Parker (but rather fired his gun as an angst reaction when the crook Peter allowed to escape grabbed his arm), and that it was an accident born out of a desperate attempt to save his dying daughter's life. He claims that Ben Parker's death has haunted him for the rest of his life. Peter forgives Marko, who dissipates and floats away. Peter and Harry forgive each other before Harry dies with Mary Jane and Peter at his side. Later, Peter walks into the jazz bar where Mary Jane is singing. They embrace and begin to dance, implying that they are mending their relationship.
[edit] Cast
- Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A superhero, a brilliant physics student at Columbia University, and photographer for the Daily Bugle. As he grows arrogant with the city starting to embrace him for the first time in his career, an alien symbiote attaches itself to Peter's costume and influences his behavior for the worse. Maguire said he relished the opportunity to play a less timid Peter in this film.[4]
- Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's girlfriend and a Broadway actress, whom he has loved since childhood. Mary Jane has a string of bad luck in the film, reminiscent of Peter's misfortune in Spider-Man 2, losing her job because of bad reviews and losing her boyfriend when the symbiote takes him over.[4]
- James Franco as Harry Osborn / New Goblin: The son of Norman Osborn and Peter Parker's best friend, who believes Spider-Man murdered his father. After learning Peter is Spider-Man and that Norman was the Green Goblin, Harry becomes the New Goblin to battle his former friend directly.
- Rosemary Harris as May Parker: The aunt of Peter Parker and the widow of Ben Parker, Peter's uncle. She gives Peter her engagement ring so he can propose to Mary Jane, and gives him lessons in forgiveness.
- J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: The aggressive chief of the Daily Bugle. He has particular dislike towards Spider-Man, whom he considers a criminal.
- Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Connors: A college physics professor under whom Peter Parker studies. He examines a piece of the symbiote and tells Peter it "amplifies characteristics of its host... especially aggression."
- Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin: The hallucination of Harry Osborn's late wicked father returns to encourage his son to destroy Spider-Man.
- Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker: Peter Parker's deceased uncle.
- Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson: A longtime employee at the Daily Bugle.
- Michael Papajohn as Dennis Carradine: The carjacker who was believed to have murdered Uncle Ben.
- Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant: Receptionist at the Daily Bugle for J. Jonah Jameson.
"Villains with a conscience have this sad realization of who they are, and the monster they've become — there's a sense of regret. So at the end of these movies there's a dramatic resonance that really stays with the audience." —Thomas Haden Church on Sandman[5]
- Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko / Sandman: A small-time thug who has a wife and sick daughter, for whom he steals money to help get the treatment to cure her. He transforms into the Sandman following a freak accident, and incurs Peter's wrath when Peter learns he was his Uncle Ben's true killer. Church was approached for Sandman because of his award-winning performance in the film Sideways,[6] and accepted the role despite the lack of a script at the time. The film's Sandman possesses sympathy similarly exhibited by Lon Chaney in his portrayals of misunderstood creatures, as well as Frankenstein's monster, the Golem,[7] and Andy Serkis's portrayals of Gollum and King Kong.[5] Church worked out for sixteen months to improve his physique for the role,[8] gaining 28 pounds of muscle and losing ten pounds of fat.[9]
- Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, Jr. / Venom: Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle. He is exposed by Peter for creating a fake incriminating image of Spider-Man, and leaps at the opportunity to exact his revenge when he bonds with an extraterresrial symbiote. Grace had impressed the producers with his performance in the film In Good Company. A big comic book fan who read the first Venom stories as a boy,[8] Grace spent six months working out to prepare for the role, gaining twenty-four pounds of muscle.[10] He approached the character as someone under the influence, similar to an alcoholic or drug addict,[11] and interpreted him as having a bad childhood, which is the key difference between him and Peter.[12] Grace found his costume unpleasant, as it had to be constantly smeared to give a liquid-like feel. The costume took an hour to put on, though prosthetics took four hours to apply. Grace also wore fangs, which bruised his gums.[13]
- Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy: Peter's lab partner. He asks her out to embarrass Mary Jane when possessed by the symbiote. Howard said the challenge of playing the role was in reminding many fans of the good-natured character who was Peter's first love in the comics, yet was "the other woman" in the film. Howard strived to create a sense that Gwen could potentially be a future girlfriend for him, and that, "I was not acting like some kind of man-stealing tart."[14] Howard performed many of her stunts, unaware of the fact she was several months pregnant.[4]
- James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy: Gwen's father and a New York City Police Department Captain.
[edit] Production [edit] Development "The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he's not above these people." — Sam Raimi[17] In March 2004, with Spider-Man 2 being released the coming June, Marvel Studios had begun developing Spider-Man 3 for a release in 2007.[18] By the release of Spider-Man 2, a release date for Spider-Man 3 had been set for May 2, 2007 before production on the sequel had begun.[19] The date was later changed to May 4, 2007. In January 2005, Sony Pictures Entertainment completed a seven-figure deal with screenwriterAlvin Sargent, who had penned Spider-Man 2, to work on Spider-Man 3 with an option to write a fourth film.[20]
Immediately after Spider-Man 2's release, Ivan Raimi wrote a treatment over two months,[4] with Sam Raimi deciding to use the film to explore Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante, and that there also can be humanity in those he considers criminals.[17]Harry Osborn was brought back as Raimi wanted to conclude his storyline.[17] Raimi felt that Harry would not follow his father's legacy, but be instead "somewhere between."[21]Sandman was introduced as an antagonist, as Raimi found him a visually fascinating character.[17] While Sandman is a petty criminal in the comics, the screenwriters created a background of the character being Uncle Ben's killer to increase Peter's guilt over his death[22] and challenge his simplistic perception of the event.[17] Overall, Raimi described the film as being about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and the Sandman,[23] with Peter's journey being one of forgiveness.[11]
Raimi wanted another villain, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play the Vulture before the character was cut.[4] Producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to include Venom, a character whose perceived "lack of humanity" had initially been criticized by Sam Raimi.[12] Venom's alter-ego, Eddie Brock, already had a minor role in the script.[24] Arad told the director that Venom had a strong fan base, so Raimi included the character to please them,[23] and even began to appreciate the character himself.[12] The film's version of the character is an amalgamation of Venom stories. Eddie Brock, Jr., the human part of Venom, serves as a mirror to Peter Parker, with both characters having similar jobs and romantic interests.[12] Brock's actions as a journalist in Spider-Man 3 also represent contemporary themes of paparazzi and tabloid journalism.[5] The producers also suggested adding rival love interestGwen Stacy, filling in an "other girl" type that Raimi already created.[23] With so many additions, Sargent soon found his script so complex that he considered splitting it into two films, but abandoned the idea when he could not create a successful intermediate climax.[4]
[edit] Filming Camera crews spent ten days from November 5, 2005 to November 18, 2005, to film sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony Pictures Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus.[25]
Principal photography for Spider-Man 3 began on January 16, 2006 and wrapped in July 2006 after over a hundred days of filming. The team filmed in Los Angeles until May 19, 2006.[25] In spring 2006, film location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland,[26] due to the Cleveland Film Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost.[27] In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Spider-Man and Sandman in the armored car.[4] Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place from May 26, 2006 until July 1, 2006.[25] Shooting placed a strain on Raimi, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture.[4] Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as the symbiote Spider-Man, Venom, and the New Goblin were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night.[28]
After August, pick-ups were conducted as Raimi sought to film more action scenes.[29] The film then wrapped in October, although in the following month, additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production.[30] At the start of 2007, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Sandman's story, amounting to four different versions.[7]
[edit] Effects Amputee boxer Baxter Humby, as Spider-Man, throws a computer-generated punch through the chest of Sandman, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church. John Dykstra, who won the Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on Spider-Man 2, declined to work on the third film as visual effects supervisor. Dykstra's colleague, Scott Stokdyk, took his place as supervisor,[31] leading two hundred programmers at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This group designed specific computer programs that did not exist when Spider-Man 3 began production, creating nine hundred visual effects shots.[32]
Concept art of the Venom suit, which possesses a webbing motif, unlike the comics, in order to show the symbiote's control and represent the character as a twisted foil to Spider-Man. In addition to the innovative visual effects for the film, Stokdyk created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1:16 scale with New Deal Studios' Ian Hunter and David Sanger. Stokdyk chose to design the miniature instead of using computer-generated imagery so damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically and timely without guesswork involving computer models.[33] In addition, to Sony Imageworks, Cafe FX provided visual effects for the crane disaster scene when Spider-Man rescues Gwen Stacy, as well as shots in the climactic battle.[34] To understand the effects of sand for the Sandman, experiments were done with twelve types of sand, such as splashing, launching it at stuntmen, and pouring it over ledges. The results were mimicked on the computer to create the visual effects for Sandman.[32] For scenes involving visual effects, Thomas Haden Church was super-imposed onto the screen, where computer-generated imagery was then applied.[6] With sand as a possible hazard in scenes that buried actors, ground-up corncobs were used as a substitute instead.[35] Because of its resemblance to the substance, sand from Arizona was used as the model for the CG sand.[32] In a fight where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, amputee martial arts expert Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, whose right hand was amputated at birth, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest.[36]
Whereas the symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back, the design was changed for the film to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it’s the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right."[37] Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body.[38] When animating the symbiote, Raimi did not want it to resemble a spider or an octopus, and to give it a sense of character. The CG model is made of many separate strands.[39] When animating Venom himself, animators observed footage of big cats such as lions and cheetahs for the character's agile movements.[40]
[edit] Music Originally, Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, did not plan to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 and could not comfortably adapt his music.[41] Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's absence.[42] In December 2006, however, producer Grant Curtis announced that Elfman had begun collaborating with Christopher Young on the music for Spider-Man 3.[43]
Young, who had composed some of the score for the second film, kept the themes for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and he composed new themes for Sandman, Venom, and the love story.[44] Sandman's theme uses "two contrabasssaxophones, two contrabassclarinets, two contrabass bassoons and eight very low French horns" to sound "low, aggressive and heavy". Young described Venom's theme as "Vicious, my instructions on that one were that he’s the devil personified. His theme is much more demonic sounding."[45] Venom's theme uses eight French horns.[46] Raimi approved the new themes during their first performance, but rejected the initial music to the birth of Sandman, finding it too monstrous and not tragic enough. Young had to recompose much of his score at a later stage, as the producers felt there weren't enough themes from the previous films.[45] Ultimately, new themes for the love story, Aunt May, and Mary Jane were dropped.[46]
[edit] Reception Tobey Maguire greets fans at the premiere in Queens, New York. Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere in Tokyo on April 16, 2007,[47] which garnered positive reaction from Japanese viewers.[48] The film held its UK premiere on April 23, 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square,[49] and the U.S. premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in Queens on April 30, 2007.[50]
Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in sixteen territories on May 1, 2007.[51] The film was released in Japan on May 1, 2007, three days prior to the American commercial release, to coincide with Japan's Golden Week.[47]Spider-Man 3 was also released in China on May 3, 2007 to circumvent market growth of pirated copies of the film. The studio's release of a film in China before its domestic release was a first for Sony Pictures Releasing International.[52] By May 6, 2007, Spider-Man 3 opened in 107 countries around the world.[51]
The film was commercially released in the United States on May 4, 2007 in a North American record total of 4,253 theaters,[53] including fifty-three IMAX theaters.[54] The record number of theaters was later beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which was released in 4,362 theaters in the United States—109 more than Spider-Man 3.[55] Tracking data a month before the U.S. release reflected over 90% awareness and over 20% first choice among moviegoers, statistics that estimated an opening weekend of over $100 million for Spider-Man 3.[56] Online tickets for Spider-Man 3 were reported on April 23, 2007 to have been purchased at a faster rate—three times at Movietickets.com and four times at Fandango—than online ticket sales for Spider-Man 2.[57] On May 2, 2007, Fandango reported the sales rate as six times greater than the rate for Spider-Man 2. The strong ticket sales caused theaters to add 3:00 AM showings following the May 4, 2007 midnight showing to accommodate the demand.[58]
The FX channel signed a five-year deal for the television rights to Spider-Man 3, which they began airing in 2009. The price was based on the film's box office performance, with an option for three opportunities for Sony to sell the rights to one or more other broadcast networks.[59]
[edit] Marketing Further information: Spider-Man 3 (video game) and Spider-Man 3 (soundtrack) In New York City, the hometown of Spider-Man's fictional universe, tourist attractions arranged events and exhibits on April 30, 2007 to lead up to the release of Spider-Man 3. The unique campaign include a spider exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, workshops on baby spider plants at the New York Botanical Garden, Green Goblin mask-making workshop at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and a scavenger hunt and a bug show at Central Park Zoo.[60]
Hasbro, which holds the license for Marvel characters, released several toys to tie-in with the film. They include a deluxe spinning web blaster, along with several lines of action figures aimed at both children and collectors.[61] Toys of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus from the first two films have been re-released to match the smaller scale of the new figures, as have been toys of the Lizard, the Scorpion, Kraven the Hunter, and Rhino in a style reminiscent of the films.[62][63]Techno Source created interactive toys, including a "hand-held Battle Tronics device that straps to the inside of a player's wrist and mimics Spidey's web-slinging motions".[64] Japanese Medicom Toy Corporation produced collectibles, which Sideshow Collectibles distributed in the U.S.[65]
Sony Computer Entertainment released PlayStation 3 (40GB) originally bundled with Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray.
[edit] Reviews The film has received generally mixed reviews from critics. On the movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Spider-Man 3 has a 63% "fresh" approval rating based on 239 reviews, with a 40% approval rating based on 45 reviews from major news outlets.[66] On Metacritic, Spider-Man 3 has received a score of 59/100 based on 40 reviews.[67] On Yahoo! Movies, Spider-Man 3 is graded a B- among 14 film critics.[68]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times deplored the film's pacing as "mostly just plods" and a lack of humor.[69]Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film only 2 out of 4 stars, feeling, "for every slam-bang action sequence, there are far too many sluggish scenes."[70]David Edelstein of New York magazine misses the "centrifugal threat" of Alfred Molina's character, adding that "the three villains here don’t add up to one Doc Ock."[71]James Berardinelli felt director Sam Raimi "overreached his grasp" by allowing so many villains, specifically saying, "Venom is one bad guy too many."[72]Roger Ebert thought Church never expressed how Sandman felt about his new powers, something Molina, as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2, did "with a vengeance"; he claimed the film was "a mess," with too many villains, subplots, romantic misunderstandings, conversations and "street crowds looking high into the air and shouting 'oooh!' this way, then swiveling and shouting 'aaah!' that way."[73]The New Yorker'sAnthony Lane, who gave Spider-Man 2 a favorable review,[74] summarized the film as a "shambles" which "makes the rules up as it goes along."[75]
However, Roger Friedman of Fox News called the film a "4 star opera", noting that while long, there was plenty of humor and action.[76] Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources praised the film as "easily the most complex and deftly orchestrated superhero epic ever filmed [...] despite the enormous amount of characters, action and sci-fi superhero plot going on in this film, Spider-Man 3 never feels weighted down, tedious or boring."[77]Jonathan Ross, a big fan of the comic books, felt the film was the best of the trilogy.[78]Richard Corliss of Time commended the filmmakers for their ability to "dramatize feelings of angst and personal betrayal worthy of an Ingmar Bergman film, and then to dress them up in gaudy comic-book colors".[79]Wesley Morris of the The Boston Globe, who gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, wrote that it was a well made, fresh film, but would leave the viewer "overfulfilled".[80] Jonathan Dean of Total Film felt the film's complex plot helped the film's pacing, in that, "it rarely feels disjointed or loose [...] Spider-Man cements its shelf-life."[81]Entertainment Weekly named the Sandman as the eighth best computer-generated film character.[82]
John Hartl of MSNBC gave Spider-Man 3 a good review, but stated that it has some flaws such as having "too many storylines".[83] His opinion is echoed by Houston Chronicle's Amy Biancolli who complained that "the script is busy with so many supporting characters and plot detours that the series' charming idiosyncrasy is sometimes lost in the noise."[84] Jack Matthews of Daily News thought the film was too devoted to the "quiet conversations" of Peter and Mary Jane, but that fans would not be disappointed by the action.[85] Finally, Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly felt that the director "substituted scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable."[86]
[edit] Impact [edit] Box office performance On its international opening day on May 1, 2007 in 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 grossed $29.2 million, an 86% increase from the intake of Spider-Man 2 on its first day of release. In 10 of the 16 territories, Spider-Man 3 set new opening day records.[51] In Asian territories, the film surpassed the opening-day record of Spider-Man 2 in Japan and South Korea. Spider-Man 3 also set opening-day records in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Philippines.[53] In India, where the film was released in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bhojpuri, the film grossed $4.66 million over the opening weekend, breaking the record set by Casino Royale in 2006 ($3.63 million).[87] In Europe, the film broke Italy's opening-day record set by 2006's The Da Vinci Code.[88] In Germany, the film surpassed the opening day gross of Spider-Man 2. In France, Spider-Man 3 broke the opening day record set by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in 2005.[89] The film broke the opening weekend records in 29 countries, while reaching at least the number one position in all 107 countries that it opened, which brought its international total to $231 million.[90]
Spider-Man 3 set a then record $59,841,919 take for its opening day in the United States, breaking Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 's $55.8 million record. The film also took the worldwide opening day record with $117 million.[91] The U.S. opening day take includes a record $10 million in Thursday midnight showings.[92]Spider-Man 3 broke Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's all-time weekend debut by grossing $151,116,516 from an ultrawide release of 4,252 theaters (about 10,000 screens) for an average of about $35,540 per theater.[93] The film also set a new worldwide record for opening weekend, with a final total of $382 million.[90] As of December 3, 2007, the total gross in America was $336,530,303, making it the highest-grossing film of 2007 in the U.S., however that also stands as the lowest domestic tally in the franchise, while the worldwide total was $890,871,626. It is the third highest-grossing film worldwide in 2007 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[2] and 17th of all time. The film's IMAX screenings reached $20 million in 30 days, faster than any other 2D film remastered in the format.[94]
[edit] Home video Spider-Man 3 was released on Region 4 DVD in Australia on September 18, 2007.[95] For Region 2 in the United Kingdom, the film was released on October 15, 2007.[96]Spider-Man 3 was released on DVD in Region 1 territories on October 30, 2007. The film is available in one-disc and two-disc editions, on both standard and Blu-ray formats, as well as packages with the previous films and a PSP release.[97]Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Grant Curtis are among those who contributed to the audio commentaries.
Sony announced plans to create "one of the largest" marketing campaigns in Hollywood for the October 30, 2007 release of the DVD. Beginning with a partnership with Papa Johns, Sony printed close to 8.5 billion impressions for pizza boxes, television, radio, and online ads. Sony also worked with Pringles Potato Crisp, Blu-Tack, Jolly Time Pop Corn, and Nutella. Sony's Vice President of marketing, Jennifer Anderson, stated the studio spend approximately 15% to 25% of its marketing budget on digital ad campaigns; from this, Papa Johns sent text messages to mobile phones with ads. Anderson stated that there would be three sweepstakes held for consumers, where they would be able to win prizes from Sony and its promotional partners.[98]
In the United States, the film grossed more than $124 million on DVD sales.[99] It also grossed more than $43.76 million on DVD/Home Video Rentals in 11 weeks.[100] However, the DVD sales results of this film did not meet industry expectations.
SPIDER MAN
With great power comes great responsibility In 2002, one of the world's most popular comic book heroes made his leap to the big screen. Released in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the web-slinger's first appearance in a comic book, Spider-Man centers on an ordinary student named Peter Parker who, after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, gains superhuman strength and the spider-like ability to cling to any surface. He vows to use his abilities to fight crime.
Orphaned at an early age, Peter Parker lives in Queens, New York with his beloved Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Peter leads the life of a normal student, working as a photographer at the school paper, pining after his beautiful next-door neighbor Mary Jane Watson and hanging out with his buddy Harry Osborn.
On a school field trip where Peter and his classmates are given a science demonstration on arachnids, Peter is bitten by a genetically-altered spider. Soon after, he discovers that he has gained unusual powers - the strength and agility of a spider along with a keen, ESP-like "spider sense".
At first, Peter decides to use these powers to make money to impress Mary Jane. He appears in a wrestling match and, armed with his new spider strength, wins the match in record time. But the crooked wrestling match promoter refuses to award Peter the prize money. Moments later, the promoter is robbed and Peter has the opportunity to catch the burglar fleeing from the promoter's office, but because he wants revenge Peter refuses to stop him. Tragically, the burglar kills Peter's Uncle Ben during a carjacking as he flees the scene of the crime.
As Spider-Man, Peter apprehends the burglar but is plagued with guilt for not being a hero sooner. During his time of turmoil, Peter remembers something Uncle Ben once told him: "With great power, comes great responsibility." Peter takes this to heart and decides to use his extraordinary powers to fight crime and protect the city as Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, megalomaniacal businessman Norman Osborn, Harry's father, is undergoing some changes of his own. An experimental formula has gone awry, increasing his intelligence and strength but also driving him insane. He is now the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, who will put young Peter Parker's vow to fight crime and help innocent people to the ultimate test.
Orphaned at an early age, Peter Parker lives in Queens, New York with his beloved Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Peter leads the life of a normal student, working as a photographer at the school paper, pining after his beautiful next-door neighbor Mary Jane Watson and hanging out with his buddy Harry Osborn.
On a school field trip where Peter and his classmates are given a science demonstration on arachnids, Peter is bitten by a genetically-altered spider. Soon after, he discovers that he has gained unusual powers - the strength and agility of a spider along with a keen, ESP-like "spider sense".
At first, Peter decides to use these powers to make money to impress Mary Jane. He appears in a wrestling match and, armed with his new spider strength, wins the match in record time. But the crooked wrestling match promoter refuses to award Peter the prize money. Moments later, the promoter is robbed and Peter has the opportunity to catch the burglar fleeing from the promoter's office, but because he wants revenge Peter refuses to stop him. Tragically, the burglar kills Peter's Uncle Ben during a carjacking as he flees the scene of the crime.
As Spider-Man, Peter apprehends the burglar but is plagued with guilt for not being a hero sooner. During his time of turmoil, Peter remembers something Uncle Ben once told him: "With great power, comes great responsibility." Peter takes this to heart and decides to use his extraordinary powers to fight crime and protect the city as Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, megalomaniacal businessman Norman Osborn, Harry's father, is undergoing some changes of his own. An experimental formula has gone awry, increasing his intelligence and strength but also driving him insane. He is now the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, who will put young Peter Parker's vow to fight crime and help innocent people to the ultimate test.