The story of The Shawshank Redemption begins in a 1947 courtroom, where Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) stands trial after being suspected of murdering his wife and her lover. Although he initially insisted that he only made threats without actually killing them, evidence at the crime scene pointed to Andy as the perpetrator. Unable to prove his innocence, Andy is sentenced to two life sentences and sent to a maximum-security prison called Shawshank.
The film continues from the perspective of Red (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving his own life sentence. Inside the prison, Red maintains a profession as a smuggler of contraband items for inmates’ needs, such as cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. Andy, who is initially quiet as a new inmate, eventually finds himself compatible with Red, developing both a friendship and business relationship with him.
Andy asks Red to get him a rock hammer. He tells Red about his interest in rocks, explaining that before becoming a banker, he was a rock collector. After getting his hammer, Andy uses it to carve chess pieces from stones and to engrave his name on his cell wall. Additionally, Red offers to bring Andy some books to help pass his lonely time.
In 1949, several inmates including Red and Andy are assigned to repair the Shawshank rooftop. While working, Andy overhears a conversation between Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), a brutally cruel prison guard. Byron tells his fellow guard about his intention to buy a luxury car. However, due to the strict tax regulations at the time, Byron decides to abandon his plan to purchase the expensive car.
Given his background as a banker, Andy boldly offers to help Hadley navigate the tax issues he’s complaining about. From then on, Andy is able to leverage his position as someone who helped Byron. For instance, when he becomes a victim of bullying by a gay trio in prison led by Bogs Diamond (Mark Rolston) and ends up in the hospital, Byron retaliates by beating Bogs until he’s paralyzed and then has him transferred to another prison.
The other inmates plan a welcome back celebration when Andy returns from the hospital. They collect rocks for Andy, while Red also fulfills his earlier request by giving him a free poster of movie star Rita Hayworth. That poster is then hung on Andy’s cell wall, and by the end of the story, the main reason why Andy had originally asked Red for a large Rita Hayworth poster would be revealed.
Shortly after the poster was hung, Andy’s cell was searched for contraband. During the inspection led directly by Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), the prison warden, Andy was terrified that his hammer would be discovered. Andy survived; the inspection was apparently just Norton’s strategy to understand the prisoner’s character. As it turned out, Norton wanted to employ Andy in the prison’s old library.
Andy accepted the offer and immediately began working alongside Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), an elderly inmate who had been assigned to work in the library since 1912. The library work led Andy to start helping other prison staff by becoming their impromptu financial and tax consultant. He became so busy that Norton even permitted him to take on a personal assistant, Red.
In 1954, Shawshank’s inhabitants were shocked by Brooks’s brutal attempt to attack another inmate. Brooks took this action after learning he had been granted parole following his approximately 50-year sentence. Brooks was trying to get punished again so he could remain in Shawshank Prison, the place he had come to consider home.
Brooks’s attempt failed, and he was finally released to live his daily life outside Shawshank. Instead of living happily on the outside, Brooks found himself unable to adapt to life beyond prison walls, as people continued to view him as just an elderly ex-convict. Brooks had no friends outside prison, which led him into depression. This ultimately drove him to commit suicide.
In 1963, Norton began exploiting prison labor for work outside the prison. Cunningly, Norton skimmed the inmates’ wages and accepted bribes from this arrangement. Norton also began money laundering with Andy’s help, who used the alias Randall Stephens. Andy assisted Norton under this alias to avoid potential criminal charges of money laundering if they were ever caught. CopyRetry
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In 1965, Shawshank receives a new inmate, a teenager named Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows). Despite his young age, he is a repeat offender who has frequently moved from one prison to another. One day, Red tells him about Andy’s case regarding his wife’s murder. Red’s story leaves Tommy stunned as he recalls meeting someone in another prison who was accused of a similar case.
The inmate from another prison that Tommy mentions turns out to be the actual killer of Andy’s wife and her lover. Andy then confronts Norton and informs him about this new evidence. However, Norton shows no interest in what Andy has revealed. Even though Andy emphasizes that if he were freed from prison, he wouldn’t expose the events inside the prison, including the money laundering operation.
Norton orders the guards to move Andy to solitary confinement. Afterward, he requests Tommy to meet him outside the prison. Shortly after, Hadley shoots Tommy dead. Norton informs Andy about Tommy’s death. It becomes clear that Norton deliberately arranged to meet Tommy outside the prison to use it as a pretext, claiming that Tommy was shot while attempting to escape.
Norton tells Andy to forget about his dreams of appealing his conviction since there are no witnesses left after Tommy’s death. Andy loses hope, but there remains one mysterious hope that causes Andy to start behaving strangely. Andy asks Red to buy him a rope. Andy also tells Red about his dream that when he’s free from prison, he’ll live in Zihuatanejo, a coastal town in Mexico.
Andy also tells Red about a special location in Buxton. He asks Red, if he ever gets out of prison, to retrieve a package that Andy buried there. Red senses something odd about Andy’s mental state, but he still fulfills the rope request. From this point on, Red becomes worried that Andy will follow Brooks’ path and commit suicide, which is why he thinks Andy asked for the rope in prison.
On a night in 1966, Red keeps thinking about what Andy has done, making it difficult for him to sleep. The next day, prison officers inspect each inmate’s cell one by one. Sure enough, Andy doesn’t appear from his cell. Red becomes very worried and afraid that Andy might have committed suicide like Brooks did. The officers then inspect his cell only to find that Andy has vanished like a ghost.
Every side and corner of the cell is examined; nothing is damaged, everything is neat, nothing is out of place. This leaves the guards completely bewildered about what actually happened in Andy’s cell. Norton accuses there must be a conspiracy that could involve Red since he was very close to Andy. An angry Norton picks up Andy’s rock collection that he left behind and throws them at Red and the prison officers.
One of the thrown rocks hits the Rita Hayworth poster, making a hole that reveals the mystery behind it – a small tunnel that served as Andy’s escape route. During his 20 years in prison, Andy had apparently been digging this tunnel bit by bit. Just before escaping from prison, Andy managed to take all the evidence of Norton’s prison crimes along with the deposit letters he managed under the name Randall Stephens.
Andy wraps all these items in plastic and ties them to his leg. Then, with great difficulty, Andy crawls through the small tunnel he had made. Andy eventually reaches the prison’s sewage disposal pipe, and breaks it open with a rock, the sound masked by the thunderous rainstorm that night. Andy finally makes it to a river far from Shawshank prison.
The next day, Andy visits the bank to withdraw the deposits under the name of Randall Stephens, which actually belonged to Norton. This is the moment when Andy Dufresne officially disappears from the face of the earth, transforming into Randall Stephens. With his new identity as Randall Stephens, Andy succeeds in realizing his dream of living freely in Zihuatanejo. Not forgetting his final act of justice, Andy also sends all the evidence of Norton’s prison crimes to the newspaper.
It doesn’t take long for the police to process Norton’s case, from corruption to various murders of inmates there. Realizing he won’t be able to escape all the legal charges, Norton chooses to end his life by suicide. The following year, Red finally gets the opportunity he has been waiting for - parole after being imprisoned in Shawshank for more than 40 years.
Unfortunately, Red initially experiences the same fate as Brooks, not knowing his purpose in life after leaving prison. When he contemplates suicide, Red remembers his promise to Andy to go to Buxton. Sure enough, there Red finds a message from Andy containing an invitation to Zihuatanejo. Red finds Andy on a beach in Zihuatanejo, busy working on his small boat. As if not surprised, Andy welcomes the arrival of his old friend.
