I am pretty sure most of you have heard of the character called Willy Wonka from Roald Dahl’s classic novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. In the 2006 film adaptation of the novel, Johnny Depp portrayed Wonka rather skillfully and was lauded by critics and audiences alike. The character became iconic in the world of cinema after the film’s release and you how today’s cinema is like. If something’s iconic, it’s going to be used and re-used until it stops being iconic. However, that might not be the case with the latest film Wonka directed by Paul King as it serves as a prequel to the 2006 film and features Timothée Chalamet in the titular role. As it happens, the film has opened to positive reviews and is currently winning the hearts of many fans as we write.
Wonka Movie Story Summary and Recap With Spoilers
Well, as it is clear by the title, the following section of the article contains the full plot summary of Wonka. So read at your own risk!
The film begins as aspiring inventor and chocolatier Willy Wonka arrives by boat in an unnamed European city to fulfil his dream of opening his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. He decides to stay at a laundromat owned by the devious Scrubbit and her henchman Bleacher. Despite warnings from Noodle, an orphan who stays at Scrubbit’s, the illiterate Wonka willingly signs her contract, which forces him to pay excessive charges during his stay. A confident Willy goes to the Galeries Gourmet to sell his “hover chocs” which make those who eat them fly. The Galeries’ three main chocolatiers – Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber – mock Wonka and his chocolates and call the Chief of Police to confiscate his earnings for the day.
Unable to pay his room’s rent, Scrubbit forces Wonka down to the launderette to work 10,000 days to repay his debt. He works with others trapped by Scrubbit: Noodle, accountant Abacus, plumber Piper, comedian Larry, and telephone operator Lottie. Abacus informs him that Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber are dubbed the “Chocolate Cartel” who are in cahoots to eliminate their competition. The Chocolate Cartel has a base of operations located under a parish run by the corrupt Father Julius and his “chocoholic” monks where they store a large reserve of chocolate. Wonka hatches a plan to manipulate Bleacher and Scrubbit into falling in love with each other, enabling him and Noodle to secretly leave the laundromat and begin selling his chocolates.
The Chocolate Cartel exploits the Chief’s love of chocolates to threaten Wonka into leaving town. Willy tells Noodle that his love of chocolate came from his deceased mother, who gave him one last chocolate bar before her passing. Noodle teaches Wonka how to read. During one run, Wonka realizes his chocolates have been stolen by a mysterious orange man who had been stalking him for years, and he and Noodle travel to the local zoo to milk its giraffe Abigail and bond. Wonka and Noodle recruit Abacus, Piper, Larry, and Lottie to help him sell chocolates to pay their debts and increase their popularity while evading Scrubbit and the Chief. Meanwhile, Wonka catches the man who had been stealing his chocolates, an Oompa Loompa named Lofty.
Years before, Wonka had taken precious cocoa beans from the Oompa Loompas under Lofty’s watch, banishing Lofty to hunt down Wonka to repay his debts. Lofty fools Wonka into escaping. Wonka’s group earns enough money to open his dream chocolate store to an excited crowd. However, the Chief and the Chocolate Cartel had caught wind of Wonka’s operations. They rat them out to Scrubbit, who taints his chocolates with yeti sweat, making the customers’ hair grow excessively and their skin discolor. The angry crowd ransacks and destroys Wonka’s store in retaliation. As the team returns to the launderette, the Cartel reveals themselves as the masterminds to Wonka and offers to pay off everyone’s debts if he leaves town and stops making chocolate forever.
Willy accepts the offer and leaves by boat that night. Lofty joins Wonka aboard the boat and motivates him to return and fight back against the Cartel before the two abandon ship upon realizing it is set to explode. With their debts paid, Abacus, Piper, Larry, and Lottie are released from the launderette, but Slugworth pays Scrubbit to keep Noodle inside forever. Wonka and the group rescue Noodle, and Wonka tells her that he has deduced that she is the daughter of Slugworth’s deceased brother. After Noodle was left by her birth mother to Slugworth, he realized she could challenge his claim to the family fortune. Slugworth disposed of his niece to Scrubbit and lied to her mother that she had died.
Willy and the group decide to form an elaborate plan to expose the Cartel through an accounts book Abacus had previously spotted when he worked for Slugworth. Using a distraction caused by Abigail, Wonka, and Noodle enter the base but are cornered by the Cartel, who force them into their reserves of chocolate to drown them. Wonka tells them to give a jar of hoverchocs to Lofty to repay his debts, but the Cartel and Julius eat the chocolates, making Lofty knock out Julius and rescue the two. Confronting the Cartel and the Chief outside, Wonka and Noodle expose their actions to the police and the public through their account book, and release their chocolate reserve laced with Wonka’s ingredients through a fountain.
The Cartel uncontrollably levitates due to the hover chocs, while the Chief of Police is arrested. The crowd celebrates by tasting Wonka’s chocolate fountain. Wonka unwraps his mother’s chocolate bar, where he sees a golden ticket with a last message from his mother telling him that chocolate is best shared. Wonka shares his mother’s chocolate with his friends. Wonka helps Noodle meet her birth mother. He then purchases an abandoned castle and begins building his factory, hiring Lofty to become his chief taste tester. Lofty then narrates through song that Abacus reunited with his family, Piper rejoined her friends, Lottie returned to her job, Larry resumed his comedy career and wooed back his ex-wife and Scrubbit and Bleacher was apprehended after being disfigured and discolored from drinking Wonka’s potions.
Wonka is playing in theatres near you.
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