Edward Scissorhands(1990)
20th Century Fox Dec 7, 1990
The solitary life of an artificial man with scissors for hands is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family.
Release Details
Original Release | Dec 7, 1990 | Wide
Box Office Results
Results
$159,622
$56,362,352
$29,661,653
$86,024,005
Current Showtimes
orround
- Thu Sep 3
- Fri Sep 4
- Sat Sep 5
- Sun Sep 6
- Mon Sep 7
- Tue Sep 8
- Wed Sep 9
Technical Specifications
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- One evening, an elderly woman tells her granddaughter a bedtime story of where snow comes from, by telling her the story of a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who has scissors for hands.Edward is the man-made creation of an old Inventor (Vincent Price). The Inventor lived in a gothic mansion on top of a hill, overlooking a small town. The mansion looked very scary and spooky and nobody ever went there. The Inventor's final result was a human-like young boy who had everything (a heart, a brain and all the organs) except for hands. The Inventor suffered a heart attack and died while in the act of giving a pair of real hands to Edward leaving him "unfinished" forever.Many years after Edward was created, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) not having any luck in her own neighborhood, tries to sell at the decrepit Gothic mansion where Edward lives. The creation of an old inventor, Edward is an ageless humanoid. There, she finds Edward alone. Upon realizing he is virtually harmless, she decides to take him to her home. Edward becomes friends with Peg's young son Kevin (Robert Oliveri) and her husband Bill (Alan Arkin). He later falls in love with the Boggs' beautiful teenage daughter Kim (Winona Ryder) despite her initial fear of him.As their neighbors are curious about the new house-guest, the Boggs throw a neighborhood barbecue welcoming him. Most of the neighbors are fascinated by Edward and befriend him, except for the eccentric religious fanatic named Esmeralda (O-Lan Jones) and Kim's supercilious boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall). Edward repays the neighborhood for their kindness by trimming their hedges into topiary's, progressing to grooming dogs and later styling the hair of the neighborhood women.Joyce, one of the housewives in the neighborhood (Kathy Baker), an aging seductress, suggests that Edward open a hair-cutting salon with her. While examining a proposed site, she attempts to seduce him in the back room, causing Edward to leave in a state of panic.Jealous of Kim's attraction to Edward, Jim takes advantage of his naivety by asking him to pick the lock on his parents' home so he can steal his father's electronic goods and sell them to buy a van. Edward agrees, but when he picks the lock and enters the house, a burglar alarm is triggered and walls come down, trapping Edward inside. Jim flees and Edward is arrested. The police determine that a lifetime of isolation has left Edward without any common sense or morality. Thus, he cannot be criminally charged. Edward nevertheless takes responsibility for the robbery, telling Kim that he did it because she asked him to. Consequently, he is shunned by the entire neighborhood except for the Boggs family.Meanwhile, infuriated by Edward's rejection, Joyce exacts revenge by claiming that he tried to "sexually assault" her. This, added to the "break-in", causes many of the neighbors to question his personality and ruin his popular reputation. Edward's dream of opening the salon is ruined when the bank refuses him a loan on the grounds that he has no assessment and collateral and is not legally a human. During the Christmas season, Edward is feared and cast out by almost everyone around him except the Boggs family, resulting in the family becoming outcasts as well.While the family is setting up Christmas decorations, Edward creates an angel ice sculpture. The shavings create an effect of falling snow, which Kim dances under. Jim arrives suddenly, calling out to Edward, surprising him and causing him to accidentally cut Kim's hand. Jim accuses Edward of intentionally harming her, but Kim, disgusted and fed up with Jim's jealous behavior towards Edward, breaks up with him. Meanwhile, Edward flees in a rage, destroying one of his works and scaring Esmeralda until he is calmed by a wandering dog.Kim, fed up with Jim's behavior towards Edward, breaks up with him and he goes to his friend's van to get drunk. Kim's parents go out to find Edward while she stays behind in case he returns. Edward returns, finding Kim there. She asks him to hold her, but Edward hesitates, afraid of hurting her. Kim arranges Edward's scissor hands so they can embrace. When Kevin is almost run over by Jim's drunk friend, Edward pushes him out of the way, but cuts his arm causing witnesses to think he was attacking him. When the police arrive, Edward flees to his hilltop mansion and the vengeful neighbors follow.Kim runs to the mansion and reunites with Edward. Jim obtains a gun, follows her, and shoots at Edward before grabbing a fire poker and beating him. Edward refuses to fight back until he sees Jim strike Kim as she attempts to intervene. Edward stabs Jim in the stomach and pushes him out a window to his death. Kim confesses her love for Edward and shares a kiss with him as they say goodbye as they accept that their love can never be fulfilled.Returning downstairs, Kim lies to the townspeople saying that Edward and Jim fought each other to the death. She tells them that the roof caved in on them and holding up an extra hand of blades she grabbed from a display case in the mansion as proof. The neighbors return home, with Joyce having a guilty look on her face and feeling responsible for Edward's death and for being the one who framed him in the eyes of the whole neighborhood.The elderly woman (who is actually revealed to be Kim in her old age) finishes telling her granddaughter the story, saying that she never saw Edward again. She chose not to visit him because she wanted him to remember her the way she was in her youth. She also mentions that Edward is still alive, seemingly immortal since he is artificial and can never age, and he "creates snow" from his ice sculptures which falls upon the neighborhood below, which has never had snow before. She tells her granddaughter that "Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it." While Edward creates more ice sculptures, a flashback of a young Kim is shown dancing under the snow falling from the angel ice sculpture above her.
Storyline
- In a castle high on top of a hill lives an inventor's greatest creation - Edward, a near-complete person. The creator died before he could finish Edward's hands; instead, he is left with metal scissors for hands. Since then, he has lived alone, until a kind lady called Peg discovers him and welcomes him into her home. At first, everyone welcomes him into the community, but soon things begin to take a change for the worse. — FilmFanUK Edward has all the essential ingredients for today's standard body, with the exception of a pair of hands. For what is initially thought to be a temporary period, he is fitted with long, scissor-like extremities that, while able to trim a mean hedge, are hardly conducive to day-to-day life. When the kindly inventor dies, however, Edward is left lonely and cursed with some very heavy metal for hands. He is eventually taken in by Peg Boggs (Dianne Weist), an Avon lady who takes pity on him after seeing his bleak existence. Edward, in spite of his inherent ability to slay anyone he comes across, is a gentle soul whose only wish is to be loved. His impromptu family has, at best, a limited understanding of Edward, but he finds himself drawn to Peg's weary but sympathetic daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder), who is dating Jim (Anthony Michael Hall), the neighborhood bully. Meanwhile, Edward finds himself a local celebrity after the town realizes that his talents include creative hedge trimming and an unrivaled ability to cut hair. His so-called friends are proven fair-weather when Edward is accused of a crime, after which his only supporters are Peg and Kim. — ahmetkozan A middle-aged male who was created different is taken in by a small family who live in a small suburb. With the whole suburb getting to know him, he learns and understands more about the truths and lessons of life and adventure that is out there. — RECB3 A modern day fairy tale which tells the story of Edward, a man created by an inventor who died before finishing him and left him with scissors where he should have hands. One day when the local Avon representative calls at the historic mansion where he has been living alone, she takes him home to stay with her family. He has to adapt to the new life and environment that he isn't used to. Soon he shows a talent in cutting hair and hedges and wins every body's heart. But life isn't always so sweet. — Sami Al-Taher
