| Stand By Me
| |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Rob Reiner |
| Produced by | Bruce A. Evans |
|
Based On |
Andrew Scheinman Raynold Gideon Bruce A. Evans |
| Starring |
Wil Wheaton |
| Music by | Jack Nitzsche |
| Cinematography | Thomas Del Ruth |
| Editing by | Robert Leighton |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release |
August 8th, 1986 (Limited) August 22nd, 1986 (Wide) |
| Running time | 88 Minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 Million |
| Gross revenue | $52,287,414 |
Misery is the film based on a novel with the same name by Stephen King. It is a 1990 American psychological horror film. Fans often regard the film as one of the best Stephen King adaption, praising the acting of Kathy Bates and James Caan.
Plot
Famed novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is the author of a successful series of romance novels involving a character called Misery Chastain. But Paul wants to branch out to other genres, and has just finished the manuscript of a new unrelated novel. His agent, Marcia Sindell, believes that it was a bad idea to kill off Misery, but Sheldon argues that it was an important career move, as he does not want to be typecast as a romance writer. He departs from Silver Creek, Colorado to head west but is caught in a blizzard and his car goes off the road. He is rescued by a former nurse, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), and brought to her remote home. Both of Paul's legs are broken and he has a dislocated shoulder, so he is bedridden and incapacitated. Annie claims she is his 'number one fan' and talks a lot about him and his novels. She is happy when Paul lets her read his new novel, but later admits she disliked the excessive swearing. While feeding him, she is angered and spills soup on him but regains control and apologizes. She buys a copy of Paul's latest book, Misery's Child, but after learning that he has "killed off" Misery, Annie flies into a rage, almost smashing a table on Paul's head. She reveals that nobody knows where he is (contradicting what she had earlier told him). Annie leaves and Paul tries to escape from his room, but she has locked the door. Sheldon realizes that she has destroyed the phones and continues to overdose him on painkillers and uses various methods to keep him locked up.
Annie burns the manuscript, and forces him to write a sequel to the book, where Misery is brought back to life. Sheldon endures months of Wilkes, where he writes on her typewriter. He escapes from his room one day to arm himself with a kitchen knife and stumbles upon her "scrapbook", where he discovers that Wilkes was murdering infants and elderly patients. Sheldon's legs are both broken with a sledgehammer by Wilkes when she discovers he was out. (In the book, she cuts off a foot with an axe and cauterizes it with a blowtorch) She steals the knife and he saves up his sleeping pills to put Wilkes to sleep so he can escape, but this fails. A local police officer comes by, but he is shot and killed by Wilkes. (In the book, he is impaled on a piece of wood and killed with a riding lawnmower.) He finishes the book and burns it in front of Wilkes, who was planning a murder-suicide. He beats her to death with her typewriter and escapes, where he keeps the manuscript he was writing, as he burned a bunch of spare paper instead. Paul goes back to New York with a limp and a cane. (In the book, it is a prosthetic foot.) Sheldon has released a new book, and it is a hit. His agent wants him to write a non-fiction book on his experiences, but Sheldon refuses, as he is obviously suffering some kind of psychological trauma from his experiences, and often suffers nightmares and hallucinations of Annie coming to get him for revenge.
Cast
- Paul Sheldon - James Caan
- Annie Wilkes - Kathy Bates
- Buster - Richard Farnsworth
- Virginia - Frances Sternhagen
- Marcia Sindell - Lauren Bacall