An elderly lady tells a bedtime story to her granddaughter about Avon saleslady Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), who found an artificial man with scissors for hands, living as a recluse in a decrepit old castle. Peg kindly adopted Edward (Johnny Depp) into her home and introduced him into polite society. Edward's scissorhands became an asset when he showed how he could prune bushes and cut hair. Edward fell in love with Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder), but Kim's friends conspired in a way that put the gentle Edward against the law.
The idea for the movie was inspired by director Tim Burton when, as a child, he reportedly felt what it was like to be isolated and unable to communicate with people around him. He expressed his feelings in a drawing, then wrote a story. American screenwriter Caroline Thompson worked the story into a screenplay. Burton says that he originally wanted to make the movie into a musical but later dropped the idea.
The pastel colors, house furnishings, women's fashions and hairstyles, pill hats, starburst wall clocks and pastel-colored rotary dial telephones are all reminiscent of the early 1960s. However, the VCRs and aerobics classes came to be in the 1980s or thereabout. So there is no real time when the movie "took place."
Once upon a time, there was an Inventor (Vincent Price) who ran a cookie-making assembly line in which robot-like contraptions with cookie cutters for feet and eggbeaters for hands mixed and cut the cookies. One day, while looking over a fresh batch, the Inventor picked up a heart-shaped cookie and came up with the idea of creating a robot "with heart." Thus the idea for the scissor-handed robot, Edward, was born. Over time, the Inventor improved upon Edward's metallic core, making him look more and more human while training him in the arts of etiquette and literature. The last step was to exchange Edward's scissorhands for human-looking hands. Unfortunately, the Inventor died of a heart attack just as he was about to replace them, leaving Edward to go through life with scissors for hands.
Kim follows Edward back to the castle. She assures him that Kevin (Robert Oliveri) is okay and tells him how afraid she was. Suddenly, Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) appears, brandishing a gun. Kim steps between them, attempting to stop Jim, but he kicks Kim aside and begins beating on Edward. Kim picks up a board and whacks Jim with it. When he falls to the floor, she thrusts one of Edward's scissors under his chin and vows to kill him herself if he doesn't stop. Once again, Jim pushes her aside and goes after Edward until, in self-defense, Edward stabs him with a scissor blade. Jim falls through a window, killing him when he hits the ground. As the neighbors reach the castle, Edward says goodbye to Kim, and she tells him that she loves him. She then rushes outside, grabbing an old scissorhand on the way out, and tells the crowd that Jim and Edward are both dead, having killed each other. She shows them the scissorhand as proof. In an epilogue, Grandma Kim tells her granddaughter that she never saw Edward again. When her granddaughter says that she could still go up to the castle and see him, Kim says that she would rather he remember her as she was. The girl asks how Kim knows that he's still alive, and she admits that she doesn't know for sure but explains that, before Edward came down from the castle, it never snowed like it does now. A look outside her window shows that it's snowing. "Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it," she smiles. In the final scene, Edward (looking just like he did years ago) is sculpting away at a block of ice, sending billows of snow out the castle window. A flashback of a young Kim is shown dancing in the snow.
Although Edward Scissorhands is a fantasy movie, viewers are divided on whether they think Kim is telling a fairy tale to her granddaughter or relating a story about something that really happened to her. There is no correct answer, so it's up to each viewer to decide which view they want to hold.
No. Tim Burton considers Edward Scissorhands to be his most personal project and has stated that he would never create a sequel, as he believes it would only rob the film of its purity.
Edward Scissorhands was the first movie in which Burton and Depp collaborated. Thereafter followed: Ed Wood (1994) (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999) (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) (2005), Corpse Bride (2005) (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010) (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012) (2012).
Jim and Kim wanted to get a van with a mattress in the back, so they could be by themselves whenever they wanted to. However, Jim's affluent father refused to loan Jim the money to pay for the van. So, Jim came to the conclusion that the only way he and Kim could get the money to pay for the van was to break inside of his home, steal his father's valuables, and re-sell them to a guy he knew who would pay for the valuables in cash. Jim wasn't worried about causing his parents any financial damage because they were well insured. The only problem was that his father kept the room where the valuables were stored locked. His father also kept the key to the room on his person all the time, therefore making it impossible for Jim to steal it when he was sleeping (as Kim had originally suggested.) Jim was aware that Edward had a special ability to pick locks without leaving a scratch after he assisted Jim and Kim by getting into Kim's house by picking the lock. And naturally, he knew Edward would be the perfect person to help him get into his father's house, undetected, without leaving any evidence that he was around. Jim wanted Kim to ask Edward to participate in the break-in because he knew that Edward would say yes because Edward had a crush on Kim. Much to Jim's frustration, Kim felt reluctant to ask because she didn't think it was fair to take advantage of Edward. To appease her boyfriend, Kim eventually asked Edward, however she didn't tell him who's house they were breaking into or why they were doing it. Edward agreed, just as Jim had predicted.
Jim later, lied to Edward by telling him they were breaking into the house of somebody who stole from him. However, Edward secretly knew that it was Jim's house all along and later revealed to Kim that the only reason why he went along with it was because she asked him to. It also explained why Edward didn't snitch on Kim or Jim, not wanting Kim to get into trouble.
When an unexpected alarm is tripped, locking Edward into the room with the stored valuables, everyone flees. Kim didn't want to abandon Edward, not wanting him to be involved in the first place. Jim forced Kim to leave because he knew that his father would prosecute against him, but not against Edward whom Jim had gotten off the hook by lying to his father and telling him that Edward was mentally incompetent and could not understand what he was doing. This is corroborated by the psychiatric evaluation on Edward after a psychiatrist discloses to Edward's arresting officer, Officer Allen, that Edward cannot differentiate between right and wrong, so Edward was ultimately released from jail, but would've stayed in longer, had Jim not said anything. Jim couldn't have cared less about Edward and his predicament, as he had threatened to kill Edward if he told, but got him off, in order to placate Kim.
Jim later, lied to Edward by telling him they were breaking into the house of somebody who stole from him. However, Edward secretly knew that it was Jim's house all along and later revealed to Kim that the only reason why he went along with it was because she asked him to. It also explained why Edward didn't snitch on Kim or Jim, not wanting Kim to get into trouble.
When an unexpected alarm is tripped, locking Edward into the room with the stored valuables, everyone flees. Kim didn't want to abandon Edward, not wanting him to be involved in the first place. Jim forced Kim to leave because he knew that his father would prosecute against him, but not against Edward whom Jim had gotten off the hook by lying to his father and telling him that Edward was mentally incompetent and could not understand what he was doing. This is corroborated by the psychiatric evaluation on Edward after a psychiatrist discloses to Edward's arresting officer, Officer Allen, that Edward cannot differentiate between right and wrong, so Edward was ultimately released from jail, but would've stayed in longer, had Jim not said anything. Jim couldn't have cared less about Edward and his predicament, as he had threatened to kill Edward if he told, but got him off, in order to placate Kim.
Powered by Alexa
- How long is Edward Scissorhands?1 hour and 45 minutes
- When was Edward Scissorhands released?December 14, 1990
- What is the IMDb rating of Edward Scissorhands?7.9 out of 10
- Who stars in Edward Scissorhands?
- Who wrote Edward Scissorhands?
- Who directed Edward Scissorhands?
- Who was the composer for Edward Scissorhands?
- Who was the producer of Edward Scissorhands?
- Who was the executive producer of Edward Scissorhands?
- Who was the cinematographer for Edward Scissorhands?
- Who was the editor of Edward Scissorhands?
- Who are the characters in Edward Scissorhands?Edward Scissorhands, Kim Boggs, Peg Boggs, Jim, Joyce, Kevin, Helen, Marge, Officer Allen, Esmeralda, and others
- What is the plot of Edward Scissorhands?The solitary life of an artificial man - who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands - is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family.
- What was the budget for Edward Scissorhands?$20 million
- How much did Edward Scissorhands earn at the worldwide box office?$86 million
- How much did Edward Scissorhands earn at the US box office?$56.4 million
- What is Edward Scissorhands rated?TV-PG
- What genre is Edward Scissorhands?Drama, Fantasy, and Romance
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content