What actually happens
A snowstorm and a very attentive nurse
Paul Sheldon is a famous novelist who makes his money writing Victorian romances about a heroine named Misery Chastain, and he is tired of her. He finishes a manuscript for a more serious book at a cabin in Silver Creek, Colorado, then sets off for New York in a blizzard and goes off an embankment in his Mustang. Annie Wilkes finds him and takes him to her isolated house. Paul wakes up in a bedroom, bedridden, with two broken legs and a shoulder out of its socket. Annie is a nurse who says she is his number one fan, and she promises to look after him until the roads clear and the phone lines come back. Her behavior gets stranger as the days go by. Then she reads the newest Misery novel, learns that Misery dies at the end, and flies into a rage. She also admits that she never told anyone she found him.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
The only copy goes in the fire
Annie makes Paul burn the only copy of the manuscript he brought from the cabin. She then buys typing paper and an old typewriter and tells him to write a new Misery book that brings the character back to life. Paul does it, because he has no better option. He finds a bobby pin, uses it to open his bedroom door while Annie is out, and goes around the house in a wheelchair. The phone doesn't work, and the outside doors need a key. He starts saving his painkillers so he can drug her, but Annie spoils it without meaning to. Later he finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings showing that Annie was once tried over the deaths of several infants at the hospital where she worked, and that the case collapsed for lack of evidence. That makes her kindness harder to enjoy.
Annie gets the sledgehammer out
This is the scene people dread most, and it comes in the middle of the movie. Annie realizes Paul has left his room. To make sure he cannot do it again, she breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer. Paul spends the rest of the story trying to get around on ruined legs. It is the worst thing Annie does to Paul before the end, so once it is over you know what she is willing to do.
Buster comes looking
The local sheriff, Buster, is looking into the novelist's disappearance and follows clues to Annie's house. He finds Paul drugged in the basement, and Annie kills him with a shotgun. She then plans to kill Paul and herself, but Paul talks her into letting him finish the novel first. Annie goes to fetch the wheelchair, and Paul slips a can of lighter fluid into his trousers, which is the only plan he has left.
The ending, explained
Paul finishes the novel that night and sends Annie to the kitchen for champagne. While she is gone he soaks the manuscript in lighter fluid. When she comes back, he teases her about how Misery ends and sets the pages on fire, so Annie will never find out. She begs him to stop, and he hits her with the typewriter. Annie goes after him anyway, and they fight. Paul takes a gunshot wound, and Annie briefly goes down after landing face first on the typewriter. The fight ends when Paul swings a heavy iron doorstop into her face, and that kills her. Eighteen months later, Paul walks with a cane and meets his literary agent at a restaurant in New York. His first book since Misery has been well reviewed and should sell well, and he says the ordeal brought back his love of writing. He turns down the agent's idea of a nonfiction book about it. A waitress comes over, and for a moment Paul sees Annie. Then the waitress says she is his number one fan, and he answers weakly that this is very sweet of her.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: No dog dies, and the pet pig is also fine.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Misery scary?
Yes, Misery is a 6 out of 10, and the dread lasts about a night. It's a claustrophobic captivity story with a few jump scares and a couple of violent scenes, and most of the fear comes from Annie being friendly one minute and dangerous the next.
How does Misery end?
Paul burns his new manuscript, fights Annie, and kills her with an iron doorstop. Eighteen months later he is writing again and walks with a cane, and a waitress briefly looks like Annie to him.
Does the dog die in Misery?
No dog dies in Misery. A pet pig appears and is unharmed.
Is there a post-credits scene in Misery?
No. Misery has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Why does Annie make Paul rewrite the book in Misery?
Annie reads the latest Misery novel, finds out that Misery dies at the end, and refuses to accept it. She makes Paul burn his new manuscript and write a book that brings Misery back.
