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THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Andy Dufresne, the main character in The Shawshank Redemption, finds out that his wife is having an affair 
and we see snippets of Andy loading a gun. Andy is caught by the police and charged with the murder of his wife and her lover. He is taken to court, found guilty and sentenced to two life sentences. The Judge, in his verdict, says that he finds Andy to be a cold hearted man with no remorse.
and we see snippets of Andy loading a gun. Andy is caught by the police and charged with the murder of his wife and her lover. He is taken to court, found guilty and sentenced to two life sentences. The Judge, in his verdict, says that he finds Andy to be a cold hearted man with no remorse. Andy is taken to Shawshank Prison one of the top security prisons in the country, where he befriends Red, who is known as the man who can get things. When Red queries Andy as to why he is in the prison, Andy says that he is innocent and Red comments that every man in Shawshank is innocent. Many of the men at Shawshank prison find Andy to be snobbish because of the way he acts and therefore becomes a target of the gay group within the gaol, who regularly assault him. One of his requests to Red, is for Red to obtain Andy a small rock hammer. Red comments at the time that "It would take a man about six hundred years to tunnel under the wall with one of these."
Andy overhears a conversation that one of the guards, Captain Hadley, was having and due to Andy's knowledge of the banking system, offers to help Captain Hadley to save thousands of dollars. Banking for the guards becomes a regular occurrence for Andy and soon Warden Norton promotes Andy to his personal secretary. The Warden begins a scam which is covered up as by labeling the slave labor as community service. Through this, huge amounts of dirty money is funneled through the prison, to Warden Norton, where it reaches Andy, who launders it into false bank accounts.
Andy is promoted from a laundry worker to the assistant librarian, where he slowly takes over the main position from the previous librarian, Brookes. Every week a letter is posted to the State Senate requesting funds for the expansion of the library. After six years of weekly letters the request was met when boxes of books, records and other "charitable donations" were received at the prison along with a cheque for two hundred dollars. One of the guards congratulates Andy and momentarily leaves the room. Andy takes this opportunity to lock all the doors and play a record he had received over the phonograph player in the library. The music is broadcasted over the P.A. system throughout the entire prison. Guards and prisoners alike are stunned and hypnotized by the music as it floats from the loudspeakers over them and breaks the routine of prison life.
Once the library was set up Andy began to teach the uneducated prisoners and help them get an education. One of the new prisoners, Billy asks Andy to help him get his high school diploma. Billy passes the exam in the end, after thinking that he was stupid and couldn't do it. Billy finds out what Andy has been charged with and tells Red and Andy how, in one of the previous prisons he spent time in, his cellmate had bragged about killing a woman and her lover but was never caught, as the judge convicted her banker husband. Andy rushes to tell the warden about Billy's testimony but the warden, liking how much money Andy is creating for him, is very reluctant to pursue another trial for Andy. Andy, in retaliation calls the warden "obtuse" Red and finds himself facing a month in solitary confinement.
During this time Billy is asked if he would testify for Andy in court. When he says that he would warden gives the signal to Captain Hadley who shoots Billy, killing him instantly. Andy finds out about this from Norton who gives Andy another month in solitary confinement to "think about it". When Andy finally gets out of solitary confinement he makes Red promise that he will find Andy's special box that he has buried under a tree. He finishes the conversation with Red by telling him of a decision that he must make, to get busy living or to get busy dying. He leaves Red with the impression that he is going mad and will soon kill himself.
The next morning, when the men are called from their cells, Andy is found to have 'disappeared'. Through anger, the warden throws Andy's rock carvings at the poster on the wall (of Rita Hayworth) and finds that they pass right through it and echo down a tunnel. Through Andy's desperation and innocence he escapes through half a mile of sewage and collects the money he had been saving for Norton's super fund and leaves for his pacific island.
When Red is next considered for parole after forty years of prison life, he tells the officials what he really thinks of their questions and that he no longer cares about being in prison. He gets parole and after being lost in the rush of the city decides to live up to his promise and find the box. He uncovers the box and in it finds a letter from Andy along with some cash. Andy asks Red to join him on his pacific island. Red follows Andy's directions and is reunited with Andy on the beach. After telling Andy how dangerous hope is the last words we hear from Red are:
'I hope I make it across the border. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been
in my dreams. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope ...'
Red and Andy in the prison yard