Hook (film)

Hook is a 1991 American fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg[3] and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Mr. Smee and Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy. It acts as a sequel to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy focusing on an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten all about his childhood. In his new life, he is known as Peter Banning, a successful but unimaginative and workaholic corporate lawyer with a wife (Wendy's granddaughter) and two children. However, when Captain Hook, the enemy of his past, kidnaps his children, he returns to Neverland in order to save them. Along the journey, he reclaims the memories of his past and becomes a better person.

Spielberg began developing the film in the early 1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the storyline seen in the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated Disney film. It entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. It was shot almost entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Released on December 11, 1991, Hook received unfavorable reviews from critics, and while it was a commercial success, its box office take was lower than expected. It has gained a strong cult following since its release.[4] It was nominated in five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures, and comic book adaptations.

Plot
Peter Banning is a successful corporate lawyer in San Francisco. Though he loves his family, his workaholic lifestyle strains his relationships with his wife, Moira, and children, 12-year-old Jack and 7-year-old Maggie, and leads him to miss Jack's Little League Baseball game. The family flies to London to visit Moira's grandmother, Wendy Darling, who is revealed to be ostensibly the creator of the Peter Pan stories. She allowed her childhood neighbor, J. M. Barrie, to transcribe the tales, making her the Wendy of classic Peter Pan lore. After Peter yells at Jack and Maggie for disturbing a business call, Moira throws his cell phone out the window and angrily confronts him for his neglect of his family.

Peter, Moira, and Wendy return from a charity dinner honoring Wendy's lifelong service to orphans to find the house ransacked and the children abducted, with a cryptic ransom note signed Captain James Hook. Later on, Wendy confesses to Peter that her family's stories that were turned into Barrie's tales are in fact true events and that Peter himself is Peter Pan, having lost his childhood memories when he fell in love with Moira. In disbelief, Peter gets drunk in the playroom, until Tinker Bell appears and takes him to Neverland to rescue his children from Hook and his pirates.

Hook, eager to face his old nemesis, is frustrated to realize Peter does not remember their past adventures, and makes a deal with Tinker Bell that Peter will regain his former self in three days for a climactic battle. Peter meets the new generation of Lost Boys, led by Rufio, who refuses to believe Peter is the real Pan. It is explained that Rufio was originally placed in charge of the Lost Boys when Peter left to live in the real world and be with Moira and was given the title of "The Pan" at that time. The Lost Boys help Peter train, and he regains his imagination and lost youth. One of the Lost boys, Thud Butt, gives him marbles left by Tootles, now an old man living with Wendy.

Bereft of adventure, Hook contemplates suicide, but Smee persuades him to manipulate Jack and Maggie into loving Hook to break Peter's will. While Maggie refuses to be taken in, Jack becomes receptive to Hook's "fathering" and slowly starts to forget about his life back home. Maggie is kept away from Jack and Hook arranges a makeshift baseball game for Jack, where Peter is horrified to see them treat one another as father and son.

Soon thereafter, Peter's reanimated shadow leads him to the Lost Boys’ old tree-house. Once inside the tree and met by Tinker Bell, Peter discovers that the interior was destroyed by Hook when Peter left Neverland. Peter then remembers time spent inside the tree with Wendy and her brothers when they were young children, also remembering his early childhood and mother, how he ended up in Neverland, and why he left. He finally gains the happy thought necessary for him to fly again in Neverland and flies out of the tree, restored to a fully costumed Peter Pan. He flies to the Lost Boys' home and his sword and leadership are returned to him from Rufio.

Now child-minded, Peter finds Tinker Bell, who grows human-sized, kisses him, and confesses her unrequited love. Peter, however, remembers his love for Moira and his children and leaves to prepare for the next day.

The following day, Peter and the Lost Boys attack the pirates as agreed, leading to a lengthy battle. Peter rescues Maggie and Jack and promises to be a better father to them both, and Rufio is mortally wounded by Hook and dies in Peter's arms. With his dying breath, Rufio tells Peter that he wishes he had had a Dad like him, causing Jack's memories to come back. The pirates are defeated, and Peter prepares to leave with Maggie and Jack. Hook, however, goads him into a final duel by threatening to never leave Peter's descendants alone. Peter disarms Hook, but his children compel him to not deliver a fatal blow. As he turns to walk away, Hook attacks Peter with a concealed blade but Tinker Bell distracts him as Peter grabs and drives his hook into the stomach of the now-taxidermied crocodile that ate Hook's hand. Somehow reanimated, the crocodile topples over, swallows Hook whole, and returns to a lifeless state. Tinker Bell flies Maggie and Jack home, and Peter gives his sword to Thud Butt, thus anointing him as the new leader of the Lost Boys. Peter flies away from Neverland, promising as he leaves to never forget the Lost Boys.

Maggie and Jack are reunited with their mother and great-grandmother and Peter wakes up in Kensington Gardens by the famous bronze statue of Peter Pan. He is greeted by a street sweeper who is clearly Smee, seemingly having also left Neverland. Peter bids a tearful farewell to Tinker Bell, who tells him that she will always love him. Entering through the window, a newly joyful Peter rejoins his family and gives Tootles his long-lost marbles. Finding the bag full of pixie dust, and with his own happy thought restored, Tootles flies out the window. Wendy wonders aloud if Peter's adventures are over, but he replies, "To live would be an awfully big adventure."

As the film's credits begin, Tootles is shown flying towards Big Ben before disappearing into the distance. In this final image, two stars are visible to the right of the clock tower. As the film fades to black, only the star furthest to the right can still be seen: the same "second star to the right" that Peter Pan used to direct Wendy and her two brothers to Neverland as children.

Cast
See also: Characters of Peter Pan In addition, a number of celebrities and family members made brief credited and uncredited cameos in the film:[5] musicians David Crosby and Jimmy Buffett, as well as Oscar-nominated actress Glenn Close and former NFL player Tony Burton, appear as members of Hook's pirate crew; two major Star Wars associates, George Lucas and Carrie Fisher, play the kissing couple sprinkled with pixie dust; two of Hoffman's children, Jacob and Rebecca, both under 10-years-old during filming, briefly appeared in scenes in the “normal” world; screenwriter Jim Hart's 11-year-old son Jake, who years earlier inspired his father with the question "What if Peter Pan grew up?", plays one of Pan's Lost Boys.
 * Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan
 * Ryan Francis as teenage Peter Pan
 * Max Hoffman as young Peter Pan
 * Matthew Van Ginkel as baby Peter Pan
 * Dustin Hoffman as Captain James Hook
 * Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell
 * Lisa Wilhoit as Tinkerbell in a flashback in which Peter is a baby
 * Bob Hoskins as Smee
 * Maggie Smith as Granny Wendy
 * Gwyneth Paltrow as teenage Wendy Darling
 * Charlie Korsmo as Jack
 * Caroline Goodall as Moira
 * Dante Basco as Rufio
 * Amber Scott as Maggie
 * Jasen Fisher as Ace
 * Laurel Cronin as Liza, Granny Wendy's maid
 * Phil Collins as Inspector Good
 * Arthur Malet as Tootles
 * Isaiah Robinson as Pockets
 * Raushan Hammond as Thud Butt
 * James Madio as Don't Ask
 * Thomas Tulak as Too Small
 * Alex Zuckerman as Latchboy
 * Ahmad Stoner as No Nap

Inspiration
Spielberg found close personal connection to the Peter Pan story from his own childhood. The troubled relationship between Peter and Jack in the sequel echoed Spielberg's relationship with his own father. Previous Spielberg films that explored a dysfunctional father-son relationship included E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Peter's "quest for success" paralleled Spielberg starting out as a film director and transforming into a Hollywood business magnate.[6] "I think a lot of people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost become incidental. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I've not seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can't give it to them because I'm working."[7] Like Peter at the beginning of the film, Spielberg has a fear of flying. He feels that Peter's "enduring quality" in the storyline is simply to fly. "Anytime anything flies, whether it's Superman, Batman, or E.T., it's got to be a tip of the hat to Peter Pan," Spielberg reflected in a 1992 interview. "Peter Pan was the first time I saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan."[7]