Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023): In recent years, movie and TV show adaptations of video games have been receiving more critical and commercial success than ever before. This marks a significant change from the past when such adaptations were often met with disappointment from fans and critics alike.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, based on the D&D tabletop game, is the latest in this growing list of good video game adaptations. While it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, the movie has more than enough mass appeal to potentially birth a new, exciting, and funny fantasy franchise.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023) Movie Synopsis & Plot Summary:
Edgin Darvis, a bard who was formerly a member of the Harpers, a group of peacekeepers and also spies, had his life turned upside down when the disciples of a Red Wizard, whom he had apprehended, murdered his wife. After this tragic incident, Edgin, along with the barbarian Holga Kilgore, decided to start afresh by resorting to thievery. Together with Simon Aumar, an amateur and seemingly mediocre sorcerer, conman Forge Fitzwilliam, and Sofina, a mysterious sorcerer and acquaintance of Forge, they formed a team to support themselves and Edgin’s daughter, Kira.
All of this is narrated in Revel’s End, a prison in a frozen area, by Edgin to The Absolution Council, who determine whether or not he and Holga are to be granted pardons or not. Initially reluctant to carry out a certain heist as it involves robbing a Harper stronghold, which he has now abandoned, Edgin is convinced by Forge to do so once he reveals that it contains the Tablet of Reawakening, which he can use to resurrect his dead wife. However, he keeps this from his daughter Kira so as to not get her hopes high and has her sit out the heist as well, to her disappointment.
The heist goes awry because of Sofina, who betrays them using magic that freezes time in an area. Only Forge escapes, and he is charged with looking after Kira by Edgin. Edgin and Holga spend two years in Revel’s End before breaking out during their hearing with The Absolution Council, who would have granted them a pardon anyway.
Having fled to the city of Neverwinter, the duo discovers that Forge has ascended to the position of Lord following the unexplained incapacitation of the previous lord. They also learn that Forge has been looking after Kira and has been feeding her false information, blaming Edgin’s greed for his imprisonment instead of wanting to bring back his wife and Kira’s mother. As events unfold, Sofina’s true identity is exposed as a Red Wizard. It becomes evident that both she and Forge had intentionally arranged for their own apprehension, which Forge even admits to.
In an attempt to eliminate Edgin and Holga, Sofina orders them executed, but the pair manages to escape before they can be killed. They then hatch a plan to raid Forge’s vault during the upcoming High Sun Games and bring Kira back home. To prove their innocence to Kira and also resurrect Edgin’s wife, they need to obtain the Tablet of Reawakening. Forge had reinstated the gladiatorial games, which had been prohibited previously, promising that it would increase tourism and generate revenue for Neverwinter.
Edgin and Holga reunite with a struggling Simon, who reluctantly agrees to join them, and he suggests drafting in a druid to strengthen their team; he even recommends Doric, a druid he is familiar with. Doric, despite being mistrustful of humans, also agrees to join them as her people, the residents of the forest, are at war with Forge, who is cutting down their forest.
Doric, using her shapeshifting powers, sneaks into Forge’s castle but discovers that the vault is protected by magical defenses that are beyond Simon’s power to disable. Simon suggests that they need a magic artifact, the Helm of Disjunction, to disable the defenses. However, he privately admits to Edgin that he cannot attune with it, without which he can’t use the artifact. Edgin, however, keeps this from the others so as not to damage morale.
All of them then embark on a journey to an old graveyard to seek advice from Holga’s ancestors on where to locate the helm. Before that, though, Holga briefly meets up with her ex–husband whom she once loved but was expelled from her tribe for marrying him, which caused her to be depressed and unable to have a proper relationship with him. Despite that, the two-part here are on good terms, Holga even taking what she assumes is an old walking stick from him.
Using a talisman, Simon manages to revive the dead temporarily, allowing them to answer a limited number of questions. The corpses disclose that the helm was given to Xenk Yandar, a paladin who fled his homeland, Thay after the Red Wizards transformed his people into an undead army. One of the corpses is left reanimated as they haven’t asked it all its questions.
They track down Xenk, and he guides them to The Helm, which is in the Underdark, a dangerous underground network of tunnels and caverns. However, he only does so after Edgin swears on a Harper book to distribute all the loot from Forge’s vault amongst the common people of Neverwinter.
Assisted by a teleportation staff, which was previously thought to be an old walking stick that they acquired from Holga’s former husband, the group manages to locate the magic artifact. However, they are ambushed by Thayan assassins, who Sofina sent. During the attack, Xenk, who is very powerful and intelligent, intervenes and repels the assassins, also allowing the team to flee from Themberchaud, a fat red dragon, before making their escape from the Underdark.
Despite their efforts, Simon is unable to attune to the Helmet of Disjunction, leaving their mission in jeopardy. Feeling defeated, Doric and Simon are ready to abandon their mission and blame Edgin for lying to them when Edgin gives an inspiring speech, revealing that his wife died due to a selfish, greedy mistake years ago and urging them to keep trying. The team devises a new plan to infiltrate Forge’s fortress using the teleportation staff.
After a lot of last-minute yet clever strategies, the team manages to infiltrate the heavily fortified castle. Subsequently, Simon finally manages to attune to the helmet after overcoming his crippling self–doubt issues.
Once inside, Edgin locates Kira and asks her to leave with him, apologizing for all of his shortcomings as a father. However, it turns out that Sofina was masquerading as Kira all along, using her powerful magic. Forge appears, and Edgin pleads with him to spare their lives by allowing them to participate in the High Sun Games rather than die at Sofina’s hand. After some deliberation, Forge and Sofina agree to the proposal.
All four of them find themselves trapped in a pit beneath the arena, with magical restraints canceling out Doric and Simon’s abilities. Suddenly, the floor rises, signaling the start of the game. A panther-like creature pursues them, but they manage to make their way to the center of the maze, where a secure cage awaits them.
Despite the safety it offers, they choose to follow Doric’s intuition and head toward an acid block. Just before the game ends, they jump onto the block and descend into the ground. Doric shapeshifts into a snake and leads them out before the acid can dissolve their flesh.
Edgin discovers a key to unlock Simon’s bracelet underneath the arena, where they currently are, and they locate the Tablet of Reawakening and other treasures on Forge’s escape boat. They lay in wait for Forge and Kira to arrive and ambush them. However, Forge takes Kira hostage at knife-point, forcing the group to abandon the boat. Fortunately, Holga comes to the rescue by pelting Forge with a potato, causing him to release Kira.
With Kira now with them and having reconciled with Edgin, they sail away, but as they glance back, they notice dark clouds and black tendrils forming over the city. The clouds soon start to poison people on contact, turning them into undead soldiers, so the group rushes back to help. Simon uses the transportation staff to send Forge’s treasures to a nearby hot air balloon, where the loot spills out and attracts citizens away from the poisonous clouds.
Having saved the citizens, the group confronts Sofina in battle, eventually defeating her with the help of Kira, who uses an invisibility pendant gifted to her by her parents. At the same time, Simon undoes her time-freeze spell from earlier. However, they discover Holga at death’s door, having received a fatal stab wound in the stomach.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)
Movie Ending, Explained:
Who is resurrected with the Tablet of Reawakening?
Surrounded by the group, Holga is about to die, and Simon cannot help her, despite his new advanced magic, as wounds caused by a Red Wizard like Sofina are irreversible. Edgin had planned to use the magic of the Tablet of Reawakening to bring his deceased wife back to life, hoping to repair the family that had been torn apart due to his selfish mistake years ago.
As he struggles with this dilemma, a flashback reminds him that he already has a family, albeit not the one he had envisioned having. Holga has been a significant part of his family and helped raise Kira since his wife passed away, providing unwavering support during his difficult times. Holga has saved him multiple times, and although it is painful, Edgin realizes that he must let go of the past and move on. This is symbolized by a dragonfly landing on his shoulder, which was part of a memory he shared with his wife where she had said he doesn’t need to capture the dragonfly; he just needs to let it go. It’s a direct parallel for him to let go of his guilt and move forward in his life.
Edgin ultimately realizes that it is not worth sacrificing his relationship with Holga, with whom he has been through so much. When he uses the magic to revive Holga instead, with Kira’s blessing, she is surprised to be alive again. Although she feels the magic could have been better used elsewhere, she still happily embraces the opportunity to reunite with the rest of the group.
In the aftermath, Forge is captured by Xenk and sent to Revel’s End, where he tries to escape in the same manner as Edgin and Holga but fails. Meanwhile, the old lord of Neverwinter recovers from the illness that Sofina had cast on him and proclaims the group heroes. Doric agrees to be courted by Simon, having previously rejected him before the events of the movie, presumably because he no longer have self–esteem issues.
In a post-credit scene, the skeleton from the graveyard is still waiting to be asked a question.
