Plot Summary (The Princess Bride) The Princess Bride (1987)

A grandfather visits a sick boy and opens a book

A boy in pajamas plays a baseball video game in his bedroom. His mother brings soup and announces that his grandfather is here. The boy (Fred Savage) groans about cheek-pinching. The grandfather (Peter Falk) walks in, calls him "the sickie," and produces a present wrapped in brown paper: a book.^b1 Asked if it has any sports, the grandfather answers in a single breath — fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles. The boy promises to try and stay awake.

On a farm in Florin, "as you wish" turns out to mean "I love you"

Inside the book the grandfather reads. Buttercup (Robin Wright) orders the farm boy Westley (Cary Elwes) through the chores, and to each command he answers, "As you wish." She realizes the words have been I love you all along.^b2 Westley sails for the New World to make his fortune; his ship is reported attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who never leaves captives alive. Buttercup, told he is dead, vows never to love again.^b4

Five years pass. Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) presents Buttercup from the parade balcony as the woman he will marry on the country's 500th anniversary.^b5

The kidnap team takes Buttercup to start a war

Out riding alone, Buttercup is stopped by a small Sicilian, an enormous giant, and a Spaniard with a thin mustache. Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) explains the operation to Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (André the Giant): a strip of Guilder-army uniform tied to her saddle and a body left on the frontier — a false-flag killing to start a war Humperdinck wants.^b6 At sea a sail closes from behind. Buttercup throws herself overboard; the shrieking eels close in; Fezzik fishes her out.^b7

The boat reaches the Cliffs of Insanity. Fezzik climbs all four of them up a single rope. At the summit Vizzini saws the rope through. The man in black does not fall — he hangs by one hand, swings to a foothold, and starts climbing the chalk by hand.^b8b9

The man in black defeats three world-class specialists

Inigo lowers him a rope on his sworn word. At the top, the duel runs through the European masters — Bonetti, Capo Ferro, Thibault, Agrippa — until the stranger reveals he is not actually left-handed, reverses the fight, and knocks Inigo unconscious with the sword pommel.^b12 In the boulder field he wrestles Fezzik, applies a sleeper hold, and tells him to dream of large women.^b13 At a picnic table laid for two he proposes a battle of wits with a poisoned cup. Vizzini cycles through his reasoning, switches glasses, drinks — and falls dead. Both glasses were poisoned; the man in black has spent years building immunity to iocane powder.^b14

On the hillside he provokes Buttercup until she pushes him down a ravine. From the bottom of the slope, rolling, comes the answer — "As you wish." She throws herself after him.^b15

The Fire Swamp, the surrender, and the Pit of Despair

Westley and Buttercup flee Humperdinck's hunting party into the Fire Swamp. Westley names the three terrors — flame spurts, lightning sand, Rodents of Unusual Size — and they survive each.^b17b18 They emerge to find Humperdinck, Count Rugen (Christopher Guest), and four armed men. Westley reads the math, surrenders, and is led away to the Pit of Despair.^b19 Rugen describes the Machine he has built — half a lifetime's work, a suction pump for life — and runs it on Westley at the lowest setting.^b24

Buttercup, told to choose between marriage and death, agrees to send four ships in search of Westley. The deal is a trap: Humperdinck has already told Rugen he intends to strangle her on their wedding night and blame Guilder.^b22b23

Coalition forms in the Thieves' Forest

Humperdinck orders the Thieves' Forest emptied. In the cleared crowd Fezzik — now drafted into the Brute Squad — finds Inigo passed out at the wine fountain, waiting for Vizzini.^b26 Fezzik sobers him under the spout and reports Vizzini's death and the existence of the six-fingered man Inigo has hunted for twenty years. Inigo cannot defeat the thirty guards at the gate alone; he needs the man in black to plan the assault.^b27

Buttercup, in her wedding chamber, catches Humperdinck in the four-ships lie and names him a coward. He strides into the Pit of Despair white with fury and cranks the Machine's dial to fifty. Westley screams his life out.^b29b30

Miracle Max revives a man who is only mostly dead

Inigo and Fezzik hear the scream, follow it to the grove that hides the Pit's secret entrance, and find Westley's body laid out. They haul it to a hut at the edge of town belonging to Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), who used to work for the king before Humperdinck fired him. Max examines the body and reports that Westley is only "mostly dead" — there is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.^b33 He bargains with the trio, tests Westley's reason for living (true love), and produces a chocolate-coated miracle pill. Have fun storming the castle.

The team storms the castle on a bluff

Outside the gate, Inigo and Fezzik force-feed Westley the pill in a wheelbarrow. He wakes paralyzed. He cannot move his arms. From the wheelbarrow he designs the bluff: Fezzik in the Holocaust Cloak from Max's, Inigo lighting it, Westley needing a sword he cannot lift.^b34 Fezzik booms through the gate that he is the Dread Pirate Roberts and there will be no survivors. The guards flee. Inside, Yellin produces "this gate key" once Inigo offers Fezzik the opportunity to tear his arms off.^b35b36

Rugen comes around a corner and Inigo, advancing, recites the line for the first time as a real address: Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Rugen runs, throws a dagger backward into Inigo's gut, and is pursued through corridors. In the bedroom Westley has dragged himself to the bed and intercepts Buttercup's suicide; Humperdinck arrives and accepts the duel with what he believes is a risen man with a sword. Westley bluffs the entire confrontation from the bed — "to the pain" — and Humperdinck drops his sword.^b38 Inigo, slumped against the wall, forces himself upright and recites the line four times escalating until Rugen is disarmed. Inigo answers Rugen's offer of money: I want my father back, you son of a bitch, and runs him through.^b38

Four white horses and a kiss rated above all the others

In the courtyard Fezzik produces four white horses he took just in case — there are four of them, after all. Westley offers Inigo the Dread Pirate Roberts mantle.^b39 They ride for freedom. The grandfather narrates a kiss rated above the five most passionate, most pure, in history. He closes the book and steps to the bedroom door. The boy calls him back: maybe you could come over and read it again to me tomorrow. The grandfather, from the doorway: as you wish.^b40