Spoilers! Part 2

It's 4:30am where I'm at....Happy Halloween everyone!

SPOILER BLOG PART 2

EDIT: I forgot to add this funny moment from before they head to the pub! Right after Rapunzel has first ventured from the tower, she hears a rustling sound coming from the bushes, and clings to Flynn’s back with her arms and legs, terrified. A cute little bunny rabbit hops out, and Flynn deadpans: “Careful. It can probably smell fear.” Hysterical! Anyway--

Meanwhile, Max is still doggedly searching for Flynn. He hears someone approaching, hides behind a rock & pulls a branch over to cover his head (the rock & branch form a horse-shaped silhouette, funny enough!). Gothel is the one he hears—she’s on her way to get the paint Rapunzel requested for her birthday. Thinking she’s Flynn Max leaps out and scares Gothel, but backs off, disappointed. Gothel notices the royal emblem on his harness and says “but where’s your rider…? Rapunzel!” Thinking the kingdom guards have discovered the tower, she makes a mad dash back as Max looks on, bemused.

            Gothel reaches the base of the tower and calls for Rapunzel: nothing. Frantic, she digs out the stones covering a secret door, then shifts a floor tile up and away into the main room of the tower, which is dark. She calls and calls for Rapunzel, and tears the curtain from the window for light: no one’s home. She notices one of the wooden steps on the staircase is not aligned properly, and underneath she finds the satchel with the wanted poster and crown. She leaves to find Rapunzel, but not before grabbing a knife/dagger from a drawer. Uh-oh…

            Back to our main couple, Flynn is chatting up the ‘restaurant’ that he’s taking Rapunzel to, acting like it’s a nice, upscale joint. When they see the sign for the Snuggly Duckling, Rapunzel says something like “Oh, I love ducklings!” and Flynn mocks her (the “Yay!” moment from some of the featurettes, haha). He fling open the door—“Garcon! Your finest table please!” and Rapunzel is horrified to find herself in a den of thugs and ruffians. Flynn pushes her inside, but soon it’s him who’s scared—the thugs have one of the wanted posters of him. They hold it in his face and ask, “Is this you?” The picture has the biggest, ugliest nose yet, and Flynn says “Oh now they’re just being mean!” The thugs grab Flynn and send a messenger off to find the royal guards so they can collect the reward for his capture. Rapunzel breaks up the brawl, telling the thugs that Flynn is her guide and she’s been dreaming about the lights her entire life: “Haven’t any of you ever had a dream?!” So the ‘I’ve Got a Dream (Pub Song)’ begins. This tune is so funny! At one point they all look to Flynn, but he says “I don’t sing,” and is immediately surrounded by knives/swords…next thing you know, he’s up on the bar dancing and singing about his dream—a private island and “piles of money!” It turns out Hookhand is a talented pianist, Atilla makes cupcakes, the biggest thug collects ceramic unicorns and the ugliest is a romantic, etc (Note: Flynn uses one of the little unicorns whilst describing his materialistic dream, haha!) Meanwhile, Gothel has tracked them and watches from the window; her jaw drops when she hears Rapunzel sing “I’m so glad I left my tower!”…

            The royal guards break up the party, and Rapunzel and Flynn hide behind the bar as they come in with the arrested Stabbington Brothers in tow (remember, Flynn left them to their fate earlier and escaped himself—and they’re not happy about it). Hookhand reveals a secret passage, marked with the Snuggly Duckling symbol, that leads into an underground tunnel, and the pair escapes while the other thugs distract the guards (the shortest/oldest thug holds out his wrists, saying “Ya got me!”) Max arrives on the scene and immediately sniffs out the secret passage, so all but the skinniest/weakest-looking guard follow Max’s lead to chase after the escaped duo. Not a good idea, as the Stabbingtons easily overpower the weak guard and cut off their bonds, now free to hunt for Flynn themselves…the smallest thug spots Gothel by the window and says “Well somebody get me a glass, ‘cause I just found me a tall drink of water!” Gothel acts coy: “Oh stop it, you big lug…” and suddenly whips out the dagger, sticking it in his face and demanding “Where’s that passage lead?!”

            Rapunzel and Flynn are walking together through the tunnel, and Rapunzel tries to ask where Flynn is from. He says “I don’t do backstory.” Suddenly Max and the royal guards come up from behind, and the pair runs ahead into an open area with a dam held up by support beams. Rapunzel uses her hair like a grappling hook and swings to safety, leaving Flynn to fight off the guards with her frying pan, which is incredibly effective. Max is next, and a much tougher opponent, but Rapunzel hooks her hair on Flynn’s hand and pulls him away as Max watches, dumbfounded. The Stabbingtons are there too, and nearly grab Flynn as he swings above their heads, but Rapunzel pulls him up just in time. Max kicks out one of the beams supporting the dam to make himself a bridge to reach Rapunzel’s position—and the entire dam breaks! Everyone is washed away by the torrent, but since Rapunzel and Flynn had a head start the manage to run into a little cavern before a huge pillar falls and blocks the entrance—enough to trap them inside, but not enough to keep the water out, and the cavern is rapidly filling up. Rapunzel panics and Flynn dives repeatedly to try and find an exit—nothing, it’s too dark to see. He cuts his hand on a sharp rock, and Rapunzel frets that the entire situation is all her fault. She tries to dive and look herself, but Flynn grabs her shoulders and stops her: “It’s no use!” The mood is somber as both think they’re going to drown, and when Rapunzel says something like “I’m so sorry, Flynn,” he tells her “Eugene. My real name’s Eugene Fitzherbert. I just thought someone should know.” Rapunzel, thinking it’s only fair to offer a confession for a confession, admits “I have magic hair that glows when I sing,” which makes Flynn look at her like she’s nuts, haha!

            Inspiration hits, and Rapunzel sings to make her hair light up: this gives them a chance to see a spot in some loose rocks near the bottom of the nearly-full cave where water is draining. The two dive and frantically dig, and just in time they break through and are spit out into a stream in the woods. Flynn is weirded out by Rapunzel’s powers, and just an aside: he looks very, very good with wet hair haha! Meanwhile, Gothel is standing near a hollow tree with a panel with the Snuggly Duckling symbol on it: this is the true exit from the secret passage. She’s obviously lying in wait for Flynn, dagger at the ready—but it’s the Stabbington Bothers that emerge. She hides and hears them saying they want to kill Flynn, and gets an idea. She steps forward and offers the Brothers the satchel and crown, but then hints at a much greater treasure they can have if they help her—Rapunzel’s magic hair, AND revenge on Flynn…

            The two are now sitting around a campfire, and Rapunzel is wrapping her hair around Flynn’s wounded hand as he watches, obviously thinking the entire thing is utterly bizarre. Rapunzel starts to sing the Incantation, and her hair begins to glow; Flynn’s eyes grow huge, and he glances at Pascal, who hold up one of his feet and points at it like ‘check it out!’ with a smirk, haha! Flynn sees his hand is completely healed, and begins to get a little hysterical as Rapunzel pleads “don’t freak out, don’t freak out!” I also found this very interesting: never are Rapunzel’s powers made out to be anything other than rare and unnatural, and I imagine that Flynn having such a reaction would only encourage Rapunzel to believe all of Gothel’s attempts at harming the girl’s self-confidence. She probably sees herself as almost freakish. Flynn chokes back his hysteria and asks about the magic; Rapunzel tells him about how she’s been told there are bad people who would want to use her hair for evil, and reveals to him that once her hair is cut it loses its power: she shifts the golden mass and reveals a tiny, short piece of hair that’s brown, the very same section Gothel cut when Rapunzel was a baby. It seems that not only does the hair lose its power when cut, but it never grows back either. This, she explains, is why she could never leave her tower. Flynn then tells her a bit about his past that he wasn’t willing to reveal before: he’s an orphan. Saying something like “I’ll spare you the tale of poor little orphan Eugene Fitzherbert…it’s kind of a downer,” he tells Rapunzel about reading a storybook to “the other kids” about a fictional hero called Flynnegan Rider, which is where he got his new name. Rapunzel innocently asks “Was he a thief, too?” and Flynn looks a little ashamed: “Well, no.” Of note: My theory about the prologue and epilogue being narrated by Flynn stems back to this: just as he once read to the other orphan children, it’s like he’s ‘reading’ to the audience when he narrates the beginning and ending of the film. Anyway…

            The two are sitting close together and gazing into each other’s eyes softly; Flynn shakes himself visibly and gets up, saying a little gruffly/embarrassed that he’s going to get more firewood. Rapunzel calls: “For the record, I like Eugene Fitzherbert much more than Flynn Rider.”

            Gothel arrives on the scene and sings a reprise of ‘Mother Knows Best,’ trying to convince Rapunzel to come back with her: “Don’t be a dummy, come with Mummy!”. Rapunzel will have none of it, telling Gothel she’s “met somebody” and “I think he likes me!” Gothel snarks and sings again: “Rapunzel knows best! Rapunzel’s so mature now!” and says things like how could you ever think he’d want you as she gestures at Rapunzel as though she were some lowly creature, and tells Rapunzel ‘when you see that he’s been lying/don’t come crying [to me]!’. She shows Rapunzel the satchel and crown and says that’s all Flynn wants from her, and “see how fast he leaves you” once he gets it back; Rapunzel insists he wouldn’t do such a thing, but she’s unsure herself. Gothel dares Rapunzel to give Flynn the satchel and see who’s right, and Rapunzel takes it and says she will. Gothel fades back into the shadows, and Rapunzel stands holding the bag with her back to the fire, troubled…

            Flynn comes back, saying something like “Hey, am I gonna get, like, super powers now? Or will I just have one really strong hand? Because that would be kinda strange…” The audience loved this, and apparently Zac Levi ad-libbed it during recording and they kept it! Rapunzel doesn’t seem to hear him at first, and he asks if she’s okay: she whirls around, apologizing and saying she was just deep in thought. The bag is nowhere to be seen…until the camera shifts, and we see Rapunzel has hidden it in a tree stump. She’s not quite ready to test Flynn’s loyalty…

            Morning at the campsite, and everyone is asleep. Rapunzel and Pascal on one side of the fire, in a nest of hair coils, and Flynn on the other using a rock like a pillow. He’s woken by something wet dripping on his face: it’s Max, soaking wet and leaning over him, angry. Flynn just glances at him and says: “Well I hope you’re here to apologize,” haha! Max is furious and tries to drag Flynn away by the leg, but Rapunzel stops him. As Flynn watches she tames the ferocious Max, who wags when she pets him like a dog as Flynn, off-screen, can be heard saying “Are you kidding me?!” and “Oh come on!” Rapunzel asks Max to not arrest Flynn until after she’s seen the lights, and when he looks skeptical she adds “It’s also my birthday…just thought I’d mention,” haha! This gets Max to cave, and he and Flynn shake hand and hoof on their uneasy truce. Rapunzel, satisfied, walks ahead, and as soon as she’s not looking Max kicks Flynn in the gut!

            The group heads for the kingdom and when they arrive at last, Rapunzel is amazed by all the sights and sounds and people; Flynn and Max are too busy shoving each other like bickering brothers to notice, haha! But her hair is a problem, as passers-by are stepping on it. Flynn helps her gather it up, spots four little red-headed girls braiding each other’s hair by a fountain. He whistles at them and they light up when they see all of Rapunzel’s gorgeous hair and come running! It takes all of them, holding a section of hair each, to braid it all, and Flynn watches with a smile on his face as Max waggles his eyebrows at him suggestively, hahaha! This is also the beginning of the ‘Kingdom Dance’ montage, which I loved. It goes a little like this: Rapunzel starts dancing in the middle of a square filled with people celebrating the lost princess’ birthday out of sheer joy, and she pulls strangers in to the dance with her. Interspersed with shots of the dance are other scenes: the braiding, the group dodging the royal guards, Flynn buying Rapunzel a souvenir purple flag with the symbol of the kingdom, a golden sun, and Rapunzel seeing the memorial of the King and Queen holding their lost baby girl. Flynn is standing on the sidelines of the dance watching, and when Rapunzel waves at him to come join in, he demurs—so Max hip-checks him, like ‘get in there!’ The two keep trying to dance together, but are constantly pulled away by other partners…at the very end of the song/montage, they finally come together, chest-to-chest, breathing hard and smiling as they stare into each other’s eyes. Loved this! From off-screen, a man’s voice says “To the boats!”

            Flynn, Rapunzel, and Pascal climb into a boat; Max is too big, and stays behind on the dock. Flynn tosses him a bag of apples, and says “Don’t worry, I paid for them!” When Max begins to eat he adds “Well, most of them, anyway!” which got a big laugh from the audience. Flynn rows them pretty far out, and theirs is the only boat around in the growing darkness. Rapunzel is idly setting some of the flowers from her braid afloat on the water to pass the time, and Flynn helps by holding a handful of them for her to pick from…awww. Rapunzel worries about the lights being everything she’s dreamed of: what if they’re not? And if they are, what then? Flynn tells her she get to get a new dream…

            The scene cuts to the King and Queen, who are preparing to go out and let the first lantern go. They both look terribly sad, and the King cries; the Queen wipes away his tears and they head outside together. This was such a beautiful moment, and I’m so glad it’s in here—these two truly miss their baby and want her back more than anything. They let the first light go, and what follows is a wave of lights, spreading all over the kingdom and leading into the song ‘I See the Light.’ This entire scene is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, and I can’t praise it enough. It literally made me, and many others in the audience, cry. The song is available for download on the internet as of the day I’m writing this.  At one point Rapunzel, who has turned to look at the lights, turns back and sees Flynn holding two lanterns: one for each of them. They let them go together, and the camera follows them as the rise into the air and swirl around together as though they were dancing. Rapunzel gives him back the satchel, but he sets it aside and takes her hands instead…so sweet and romantic. As the song ends they lean in close and nearly kiss, as Pascal turns red and covers his eyes…but just as Flynn’s eyes are sliding shut he sees a creepy green glow coming from the shore. It’s the Stabbington Brothers, and when they see they’ve gotten Flynn’s attention they melt into the darkness, obviously meaning for him to follow. Rapunzel asks “What’s wrong?” and Flynn nervously says it’s nothing, but there’s something he has to take care of real quick. Rapunzel’s face falls, and you can tell Gothel’s warnings are going through her mind: she did just give him the satchel after all…but she says okay, and he rows them to shore. He takes the satchel and disappears into the fog as Rapunzel watches, anxious.

            Flynn tries to give the crown to the Stabbingtons, but they tell him they want more and knock him out, tying him to a boat and shoving it out onto the water. Rapunzel sees a figure approaching in the darkness and says, relieved, “Oh good, I thought you took the crown and left me!” But suddenly the figure splits into two, and the Stabbington Brothers come forward and say: “He did,” and gesture at the ship they tied Flynn to. From their vantage point, it looks like he’s standing and sailing away, and Rapunzel is crushed. The Brothers muse about how much people would be willing to pay to be young and healthy forever; they know about Rapunzel’s magic hair. They try to capture her, and when she runs her braid catches on a branch. As she’s struggling, she hears a commotion from behind her, and when she turns to see she finds Gothel, holding a large stick, standing over the unconscious brothers (she apparently jumped out and ambushed them). Rapunzel runs sobbing into her arms, and the two leave together for the tower…

            The boat Flynn’s been tied to hits the dock, jarring him awake, and he immediately starts calling Rapunzel’s name, knowing she’s in danger. The guards find him, tied to the ship with the stolen crown in hand, and arrest him as Max witnesses the entire thing…

            Rapunzel is sitting on her bed back at the tower as Gothel acts sad but can’t resist saying “I did try to warn you…” She gazes at the flag Flynn gave her, and suddenly notices a similar shape in the artwork on her walls: she’s been painting the symbol of the kingdom because she subconsciously remembered it! She has a rather violent epiphany as all the pieces of the puzzle come together in her mind, and she staggers into her vanity, shaken. Gothel comes up to see what the commotion is, and Rapunzel confronts her: “Right, Mother? Or should I even call you that?!” A mirror is broken as they argue, and Rapunzel declares “I’ll never let you use my hair again!” Gothel gets a frightening look on her face, and the screen darkens as she says “You want me to be the bad guy? Fine, now I’m the bad guy…”

            Flynn is in a cell, and the guards come to collect him. He asks nervously “Where are we going…?” and the guards just sneer at him (they may say something, but I can’t recall). Flynn says “oh…” and gestures at his throat: he knows they’re taking him to die. As he’s being marched through the dungeon in cuffs, he sees the recaptured Stabbington Brothers in a cell, and he knocks out the guards walking with him and jumps over the cuffs to get his hands back in front of his body. He grabs the nearest brother and shakes him violently, demanding to know how they knew about Rapunzel: “How did you know about her?! Tell me!!” The brother says “the old lady told us!” and Flynn is grabbed by more guards and dragged away bodily. He looks out a window and sees the gallows, with one noose waiting for him: I think there was a voiceover here of someone saying ‘that thief is going to be hanged for his crimes,’ and it might have been Gothel, but I can’t recall enough to be sure. Just in time the pub thugs arrive and help him escape, and Max carries Flynn off on his back to the tower (this was a lot of action, which is great to watch but tedious to describe and read). They arrive at the tower, and Flynn calls out for Rapunzel to let down her hair…and after a pause, the hair comes down without a word. Flynn’s face lights up, and he climbs…

            Flynn jumps in the window, happy—but his face falls instantly when he spots Rapunzel on the floor, chained and gagged, struggling and trying to warn him. But it’s too late: Gothel sneaks up from behind and stabs Flynn in the stomach with her dagger, and Flynn falls to the ground writhing in pain as Rapunzel screams behind the gag. Gothel tells Rapunzel “we’re going somewhere far away, where no one will ever find you again!” and tries to drag her away by the chains: Pascal tries to stop her and is kicked away. Rapunzel puts up such a mighty struggle that Gothel finally exclaims “Stop fighting me!” The gag slips enough for Rapunzel to say angrily: “I’ll never stop fighting you for my entire life…unless you let me heal him. Just let me heal him, and I’ll go with you…wherever you want. Let me heal him and I’ll stay with you forever.”

            Gothel is convinced, and unchains Rapunzel; she chains Flynn instead, saying “In case you get any ideas about following us.” Rapunzel rushes to his side, and Flynn begs her not to go through with it; and let me tell you guys, this is not some weak, “ouch a flesh-wound” death scene here: Flynn is very obviously in serious pain and it’s tough to watch (in a good way, haha). Rapunzel says as long as he’s okay, she’ll be fine, and gets ready to sing…Flynn stops her, acting as though he wants to embrace her one last time, and when she leans in…he swipes at her from behind with a broken mirror shard and cuts off all of her hair! This was EPIC. Everyone gasped! Gothel screams and gathers the cut hair, but it’s turning brown and losing its power in her arms. She instantly begins to age, and pulls the hood of her cape over her head as she cries out; Pascal trips her with some of the ‘dead’ hair, and she falls through the window. She’s dust before she hits the ground, and the empty cape lands in a heap.

            Flynn is dying, and Rapunzel desperately tries to sing the Incantation, but the magic’s gone…he tells her “You were my new dream,” and she responds “and you were mine…” He goes limp, and Rapunzel cries over his body; as she cries, she finishes singing the Incantation and a tear lands on Flynn’s cheek. Suddenly the tear is absorbed into his skin, and light glows from the wound on his stomach: the magic was inside Rapunzel all along, and this one last drop is healing Flynn! This scene was where the movie reaches Beauty and the Beast-level emotion and power: it was literally like a moving painting. It was so gorgeous it literally took my breath away, and I could hear gasps from others, too. Simply astounding, visually and emotionally. I could actually hear a little girl in the crowd sobbing very hard—she must have thought Flynn was gone for good! It was adorable.

            Flynn stirs, and quips “Did I ever tell you I have a thing for brunettes?” He’s revived! Rapunzel hugs him tight, and they kiss—and yeah, it’s a good one! I think I started really crying at this point, haha!

            Flynn has a voice-over again as he narrates the ending: Rapunzel is reunited with her parents first. Her mother approaches this newly short-haired brunette girl uncertainly, but recognizes her; the King joins them, and they embrace. Flynn is standing by watching and smiling, and the Queen sees him and hold out a hand for him to join them; he does. I loved this; Flynn’s been accepted and forgiven for his past crimes, and he has a family at last. Max now runs the royal guard, who all now use frying pans instead of swords, and in a funny shot we see a late guard run up and offer Max an apple as a bribe for forgiveness—which the horse accepts! He’s a corrupt cop, haha! The thugs are shown too: Hookhand is a pianist, the ugly one gets a cute girlfriend, and of the mime Flynn says “[He] seems happy: he never told me otherwise!” Hah! Of Pascal he says something like “He never changed,” and Pascal is shown changing colors and playing with some of the children of the kingdom happily. Rapunzel is shown, in a pretty new dress (a pale color, maybe white or ivory? I can’t recall), with her new very short brown hair. Flynn has new duds too, although I only remember that it was a black vest; he’s holding Rapunzel’s crown, and when she tries to take it he plays keep-away with it, haha! They kiss again—yes, TWO KISSES, folks!—and the voiceover says: “I know the big question remaining: did we ever get married? Well, after YEARS and YEARS of asking…I finally said yes.” This got a big, watery laugh since most of us were crying by then! Rapunzel says something like ‘Hey!’ and Flynn says “Okay, I asked her. And we’re living happily ever after.”

            And as the movie ends, a balloon-like clump of floating lanterns roll up over the screen, with the shortest thug at the end in a cherub costume. He blows a kiss and winks at the audience…and that’s all, folks.

            This is a fantastic movie that deserves all the love in the world, and if/when I remember any other details I’ll stop back to add them here. Otherwise, thanks for reading everyone!