Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a thriller film from 2015, titled The BFG.
Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care. Our story begins late at night in an orphanage
in London. The matron comes to the front door to lock it up, but she gets distracted by a magazine
that was slipped under the door with the mail. She grabs the magazine and leaves without taking
care of the door, which frustrates the little girl hiding under a blanket on the stairs:
that's Sophie, our ten-year-old protagonist. Wearing the blanket around her shoulders, she
goes to the door and locks it up herself before moving to the pendulum clock nearby and pushing
the hand to make it 3am. While she picks up the mail and turns off the lights, she tells us that
unlike other people who choose 00am or 1am, Sophie thinks 3am is the witching hour, the time when
only she is left awake. She goes to the matron's desk and puts the mail on the corresponding tray,
only to get distracted by some noises coming from outside. She goes to the window, opens it
and looks out to find four drunk men causing a ruckus. Sophie scolds them, reminding them
there are children sleeping, and threatens them with calling the cops if they don't cut it out.
As she turns off the street light and closes the window, the men decide not to risk it and leave.
A strange moving shadow is seen on the window as Sophie leaves it behind to go back to the room
she shares with other orphans. Once she's back in bed, she covers herself with her blanket,
puts on her glasses and turns on a flashlight to continue reading her book.
When the matron comes by to check on the kids, she turns off the light and hides under the covers,
only to turn it on again as soon as the matron is gone. Not much reading is achieved
afterward because Sophie soon hears a noise outside and decides to check it out.
She slowly approaches the windows as she repeats the rules: never get out of bed,
never go to the window, and never look behind the curtain. She breaks all three and goes to
the balcony, where she sees it was a bunch of cats that made the noise - or so she thinks. Suddenly,
a giant hand appears around a house and picks up the trashcan the cats pushed off. The hand
is quickly followed by a big face and a huge body belonging to a giant man that is shocked to find
out he's been seen by Sophie. She runs back to her bed to hide under the blanket when she sees him
run towards her, but this isn't enough to stop the giant: he just sticks his hand through the window
and picks her up, blanket and book included. The giant starts running through London then. Her
blanket has been folded into something like a bag so she can be carried, and from her spot there,
Sophie can see how the giant pulls different tricks go unnoticed in the city, like pretending
to be a wall, covering the street lights, pretending to be cargo on a truck or even a tree.
Once they make it out of London, the giant continues to get away by taking big leaps
through the countryside and then the sea until they reach a thick accumulation of clouds.
The giant easily crosses it before running through a new area filled with random human objects and
rocky formations, he doesn't stop until they enter a furnished cave: this is his home. He hangs the
blanket with Sophie on a tree branch then goes to his table to chop a weird-looking vegetable.
Sophie takes the opportunity to escape by climbing out of the blanket and onto the tree she's been
left at. By following its branches, she makes it to the window, which she manages to open after
having to push very hard. She accidentally ends up pushing some objects to the floor too though,
gaining the giant's attention. He comes closer and tells her there's nowhere to go if she doesn't
have wings, then he pushes the window which in turn pushes Sophie onto the pan he's holding.
He goes back to the table and after leaving the pan on it, he keeps on chopping the vegetable.
Sophie asks him where they are, he replies it's Giant Country, which Sophie points out doesn't
exist. Suddenly, a nose from outside freaks her out. The giant looks through the window
and confirms it's the other giants, who all have names like Childchewer and Maidmasher.
Scared, Sophie begs him not to eat her, but the giant laughs at the idea of him eating
humans - his way of talking's got grammar mistakes and weird sounding words. When Sophie reminds him
he's snatched her, he admits that's true and that he can't help thinking about her parents, but she
points out she's an orphan and hated living in the orphanage, where they had lots of rules and
punishment. The giant insults the matron for it, as he gives Sophie back her glasses and she asks
him if the other giants are also nice. He replies while filling his bowl with weird vegetable stew
that no, the other giants do eat humans and also consider the nice giant a runt. Sophie doesn't
understand why she's been brought here then, the giant explains he did it because he can't have her
telling everyone about giants, that would cause the humans to come and lock them up like animals.
No matter how much Sophie swears she won't tell and asks to be taken back, the giant refuses and
tells her she'll stay there for the rest of their lives. After finishing his stew, which he doesn't
like, the giant covers Sophie with her blanket to shut her up, but she says she'll run away anyway.
The giant picks her up and scolds her for it, reminding her that running away would equal being
caught by the man-eating giants, then he takes her to his ship bed and puts her inside the crow's
nest, where she snaps and corrects the words he's saying wrong. The giant is hurt by this,
saying he can't help the way he speaks, so Sophie apologizes. She watches him pick up his bag and
take out a glowing jar, he explains there are dreams inside. When she mentions she doesn't dream
because she has insomnia, he picks up her book and starts reading it to her, making her falls asleep.
Now she can't see him anymore, the giant grabs his bag and goes to the back of the cave,
where he pulls a lever that opens a hidden door behind a waterfall.
Behind the door there's his lab, filled with thousands of jars with dreams.
The giant sits at his desk and starts mixing dream ingredients to make a nightmare for Sophie.
A few hours later, Sophie wakes up and sees the giant sleeping on the ship bed. She decides to use
this chance to escape: she pushes the rocking ship mast through the window and jumps off,
making it outside. She doesn't go very far though, when a giant wakes up and snatches her.
The gentle giant sees this but ignores her pleads of help, so Sophie is eaten by the bad giant.
This turns out to be the nightmare the giant made for her, Sophie discovers as
she wakes up for real in the morning. As he takes her from the bed to the table,
the giant explains he did what he had to do to keep her safe. He sits down to have breakfast,
and Sophie notices a bottle with a liquid that fizzes down instead of up. The giant tells him
it's frobscottle, the only thing giants drink, and takes a sip, which causes him to pass some gas.
They're suddenly interrupted by the leader of the man-eating giants, Fleshlumpeater, who wants
the gentle giant to heal his "boo-boo". While Sophie hides behind the objects on the table,
the gentle giant tells him they can do it later, but Fleshlumpeater demands it happen right now.
The gentle giant grabs a bucket of water, which scares Fleshlumpeater,
and some cloth that he uses to start taking care of the wound. While he's busy with that,
Fleshlumpeater sniffs the air and asks the giant if he's acquired a new human,
because he can smell one. The giant denies it as Sophie hides inside the weird vegetable,
a snozzcumber, but Fleshlumpeater says he's hungry and keeps searching.
He finds the snozzcumber and the giant encourages him to eat it as a distraction. Fleshlumpeater is
about to bite it when the giant notices Sophie is hiding inside, so he stops him by reminding him
he hates vegetables. This makes Fleshlumpeater drop the snozzcumber, so he grabs the bottle of
frobscottle instead and leaves after telling the gentle giant that he's an insult to giant people.
The giant puts the snozzcumber back on the table, allowing Sophie to come out all dirty. He offers
her his hand to ride, which she climbs after some hesitation. She's taken to the dream lab, where
the giant has a water tank that he opens for her to wash, then she's put in front of the boiler,
which she finds too hot. After putting her on the table, the giant gives her a box of human clothes,
so she changes under a sheet while the giant puts her things in a hole on the tree for her to sleep
in. When he turns around, Sophie is wearing a dress and a jacket that makes him look gloomy.
He picks her up and takes her to the tree hole since he needs to leave for work,
when Sophie asks what his job is, the giant says it's a secret, but admits it's about catching
dreams when Sophie points out she can't tell anybody. Sophie wants to go with him but the giant
refuses. She tries asking again after turning around her jacket and coming out of the tree,
begging and pleading over and over until the giant gives in and accepts.
With Sophie riding his shoulder, the giant leaves the cave and shows her how the other
giants sleep on the field during the day. He carefully and silently sneaks around them to
make it through the cliff, but Fleshlumpeater suddenly wakes up and catches him by his leg.
Sophie falls and runs to hide in a nearby car, dropping her blanket behind her, while the bad
giants throw the gentle giant around as if he was a football. They get an idea for a game then:
the giant that has Sophie's friend grabs a car and takes them to one side of the hill, another
giant picks up two other cars, including the one that has Sophie, and takes them to the other side.
The gentle friend is put on top of the car and pushed downhill while at the same time, the other
giant comes down from the other side standing on both cars. Seeing as crashing is imminent, Sophie
grabs the steering wheel and pushes until she manages to turn the car, making the giant open his
legs and hit his crotch against the gentle friend. The giants find all this very amusing, and they're
ready to do more bullying when suddenly it starts raining. Since they're all afraid of water, they
run to find cover while the gentle giant picks up Sophie and her glasses and gets away. Meanwhile,
the bad giants find Sophie's blanket and sniff it: they're sure there's a human around now.
After a long walk, the giant crosses another thick accumulation of clouds and they make it to
Dream Country, where is already nighttime. The giant tells Sophie he can hear what the stars,
animals and trees say to each other before putting her down on the ground. She walks
towards a lake that reflects a giant tree with lights that don't appear on the actual tree.
The giant admits then that he used to be called Big Friendly Giant before jumping into the lake,
Sophie follows him and lands on the reflected land, which is the place where the giant catches
all the dreams that are poured out from the tree's leaves. There's a particularly energetic dream
that the giant has trouble catching, so Sophie guides him through it. He manages to catch it when
it's approaching the girl and, after putting it in a jar, the dream draws Sophie's face. The giant
encourages Sophie to chase some dreams, which she does after a moment of hesitation. After running
after some different lights, she catches a red one, which makes the giant quickly take it away
from her hands and lock it in a jar for being a nightmare. He explains that it says "look at what
you has done and there be no forgiveness". The giant suddenly disappears then, so Sophie calls
out for him, worried. But it turns out he's just left the lake, and he's now pulling her out as
well. As they make their way back, Sophie decides she'll shorten his name and start calling him BFG.
A few hours later, they arrive at London, where BFG uses his dream-trumpet to spread dreams
among sleeping children. While working, he tells Sophie he's as old as Earth itself and that he
can hear children's hearts, including hers. After watching a kid dream about the American president,
they leave London, but suddenly have to stop and hide when they hear the man-eating giants
return from the city as well - they had been snatching and eating humans. After they're gone,
BFG asks Sophie about her blanket, and she says she left it on Giant Country, which worries BFG.
We suddenly cut to a sleeping Sophie, who wakes up in front of the orphanage. She thinks she's
dreaming, but she isn't: BFG appears at the end of the street and explains the other giants will know
about her because she dropped her blanket, so he must leave her there. Sophie won't accept it, so
BFG tells her about a boy that used to live with him and he couldn't save from the giants' hunger.
This doesn't scare Sophie, but BFG leaves anyway. Sophie goes back to her bed in the orphanage and
remembers BFG told her he can hear everything, so she goes out to the balcony and jumps,
knowing he's still around. She's correct, BFG saves her before she reaches the ground
and decides to take her with him. Fleshlumpeater sees them when they make it back to Giant Country.
Once inside the dream lab, they're trying to think of a plan when suddenly the bad giants
barge in and start destroying everything as they hunt for Sophie, who is hiding in her tree hole.
The giants' noses take them to her spot though, so she must leave the tree and sneak around the lab
to escape them. After a failed attempt at entering BFG's bag, she enters a different tree hole,
where she finds the previous boy's room filled with furniture and drawings. Fleshlumpeater is
about to find her there, so BFG finally gains some bravery and starts driving the giants off,
first hitting them with a hot iron and afterward threatening them with a bucket of water.
Meanwhile, Sophie finds a portrait of the Queen in the tree hole, and that gives her an idea.
She goes out and after telling BFG she thinks he speaks beautifully,
she tells him she has a plan: they'll go ask the Queen for help. For this,
they're going to need a very special nightmare, so they move to BFG's desk to prepare it.
They mix the sparks of kids, giants eating children, the army, Sophie and the BFG with
a nightmare and put it in a jar, the plan is to make the Queen dream this to scare her, and she'll
wake up to see Sophie and BFG at her window. BFG refuses to be seen by more people though.
We cut then to Buckingham Palace, where we see Sophie's managed to convince BFG to come anyway.
After sneaking around the soldiers, they make it to the Queen's window, where BFG blows the
nightmare into the Queen's mind. When morning arrives, the Queen wakes up quite distressed,
and she speaks of her horrible dream to her staff, Mary and Mr. Tibbs, who have arrived to bring her
breakfast. As the Queen describes the men-eating giants, Mary opens the newspaper and sees children
have been disappearing, which matches the Queen's dream. Getting suspicious, the Queen asks Mary
to draw the curtains, which allows them to find Sophie standing on the windowsill. She
mentions her giant friend brought her there, which makes Mr. Tibbs call the soldiers to the garden.
The Queen realizes everything she's seen in her dream is true and asks Sophie to introduce them to
her friend. Sophie calls BFG out after the Queen promises she won't hurt him, but he is scared so
he doesn't come out until Sophie asks him to be brave. The soldiers surround him when steps into
the garden but the Queen is true to her word and makes Mr. Tibbs tell the soldiers to stand back.
BFG approaches the window and bows for the Queen, telling her they've come to bring her assistance.
The Queen accepts, but first, she must change. Moments later, while the Queen calls her ministers
and army leaders, Sophie is given better clothes and a makeover before they leave for breakfast.
BFG enters the palace on all fours and joins them in the dining room, where a special giant table
has been prepared for him. A colossal amount of food is brought to them then, and when BFG tries
it for the first time, he's delighted by the taste and decides he won't have snozzcumbers ever again.
He dislikes the coffee though, and spits out all over some of the butlers. He thinks a better drink
is needed, so he takes out a bottle of frobscottle from his bag and gifts it to the Queen.
The army leaders arrive then, and the Queen orders them to defeat the bad giants at Giant Country,
which they'll reach by following BFG's guidance. After pointing out his country is outside the map,
BFG pours frobscottle for everyone, even the corgis. They all toast to his name and
take a sip, which causes them to pass some gas. The Queen declares it's time to execute the plan
then. BFG runs back to Giant Country, the army follows him on their planes. When they reach the
thick clouds, the planes' radars and controls go crazy, but they manage to cross safely anyway. The
army decides to stay back and wait for the right moment while BFG and Sophie return to the dream
lab. There, they make a new nightmare for the giants using the one she caught at the lake - this
one will cause horrible despair. After the mixing is done, they take the jar outside, and BFG tells
Sophie her own dream is having a family, which she can't achieve if she stays there. BFG tells her
not to worry though, because he'll always be there for her and able to hear her with his overly big
ears. When the sun comes out, it's time to spread the nightmare to the giants, but BFG realizes
he forgot his trumpet at the palace, so Sophie grabs the jar and takes it to the giants herself.
She walks to the middle of the sleeping giants but fails to open the jar. Fleshlumpeater wakes up
then and sees her, so Sophie improvises and breaks the jar to release the nightmare, which quickly
invades the giants' minds. Fleshlumpeater catches his and crushes it, but the other giants are
affected by it, so they start running around as guilt consumes them. Getting angry, Fleshlumpeater
tries to snatch Sophie, but BFG jumps in to defend her. Fleshlumpeater picks him up and is about to
punch him when his arm is suddenly grabbed by some wire: the planes are finally here.
Sophie runs around the field to avoid being hit as the army descends on them, capturing
all the giants with wires and nets. BFG comes to pick her up to keep her safe and together they
watch the planes fly away, carrying the giants with them. They are taken to an isolated island
they can't escape, and the only food they're left with is the disgusting snozzcumber and its seeds.
Meanwhile, Sophie returns to London, where she moves to Buckingham Palace to live with Mary,
Mr. Tibbs and the Queen's corgis. The movie ends with Sophie waking up one
morning and telling us about the dream she had of BFG living happily in his country with new,
better-tasting vegetables to grow in his garden. She approaches the window and, like
she always does when she's lonely, she whispers words to the wind, knowing they'll reach BFG.
Back in Giant Country, BFG smiles when those words reach his ears.