The Princess Bride

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Cary Elwes ... Westley
Mandy Patinkin ... Inigo Montoya
Robin Wright Penn ... Buttercup
Chris Sarandon ... Prince Humperdinck
Christopher Guest ... Count Tyrone Rugen
Wallace Shawn ... Vizzini
André the Giant ... Fezzik
Fred Savage ... The Grandson
Peter Falk ... The Grandfather / Narrator
Peter Cook ... The Impressive Clergyman
Mel Smith ... The Albino
Carol Kane ... Valerie
Billy Crystal ... Miracle Max
Anne Dyson ... The Queen
Willoughby Gray ... The King
Margery Mason ... The Ancient Booer
Malcolm Storry ... Yellin

The movie starts with a Grandfather reading a book to a boy, sick in bed. The movie unfolds as the book is read, with a few strategically placed interruptions by comments from the boy or grandfather.

A beautiful girl, Buttercup, lives on a farm in the fictional country of Florin. Buttercup seems to relish ordering around the farmhand, Westley, whom she calls "farmboy". Westley, having fallen in love with Buttercup, only answers with "as you wish". Soon, Buttercup realizes that she loves Westley in return, and when he answered with "as you wish", he was really saying, "I love you".

Westley (Farmboy), leaves to seek his fortune with intentions to marry Buttercup on his grand return. Five years later, when Buttercup hears of his capture by pirates who are notorious for leaving no prisoner alive, she believes Westley is dead and relunctantly agrees to marry the Prince.

Before Buttercup's Wedding to the King, she is kidnapped by the self proclaimed criminal genius, Vizzini, the fencing master, Inigo Montoya, who is on a personal quest to find the six-fingered man who killed his father, and a giant of a man, Fezzik. They soon find they are being followed by a man dressed in black, and Inigo prepares to take care of this menace by way of a fencing duel.

The masked man eventually defeats the three outlaws. Inigo gets knocked out, Fezzik is strangled until he loses consciousness, and he tricks Vizzini into drinking poison. Buttercup, however, pushes the masked man into a deep gorge after he tells her he is Roberts, the dread Pirate who murdered Westley. As he falls, he yells out "AS YOU WISH"!

Buttercup learns that Westley took Dread Pirate Roberts name after Roberts' retirement.

Buttercup tells Westley that Prince Humperdinck was sending a rescue party for her, and the two plan to escape the king's 'rescue'. They travel through the fire swamps, braving lightning-sand, flame spurts, and the rodents of unusual size. Thinking that the rescue party will surely not find them, they exit the swamps only to be captured by the Prince and his thugs. Buttercup begs for Westley's release, and it is granted as long as she agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck.

Instead of letting Westley go free, he is taken to Rugen's torture chamber. Inigo Montoya learns how the Masked Man in Black was taken to Rugen's and plans to rescue him, hoping that his wits will get them inside the castle. Westley is tortured until "mostly dead", and is rescued by Fezzik and Inigo.

After Inigo Montoya and Fezzik rescue the Masked Man (Westley), they take him to the eccentric Mirale Max, hoping Max can bring the Masked Man back to life. Though reluctant, Miracle Max revives Westley, but only because he dislikes Humperdinck.

The three heroes make their way into the castle. Inigo then finds the Vizier, Count Tyrone Rugen, who has six-fingers on his right hand. Here Inigo speaks his famous line:
"Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die."

Inigo makes good his promise, while Westley searches for Buttercup.

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Westley finds Buttercup, who had decided to take her own life, and stops her. Westley offers the Title of Dread Pirate Roberts to Inigo, who needs a new quest since he has avenged his father.




Of course, Fezzik just happens to find two white horses, so Westley and Buttercup ride off into the sunset.

At the closing of the movie, the boy asks his granfather to read the story to him again tomorrow, and the grandfather answers..."As You Wish".

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Before being taken to Rugen's torture chambers, Westley is knocked out by Rugen. Cary Elwes (Westley) wanted the scent to look as real as possible, so he asked Christopher Guest (Rugen) to hit him for real. Christopher hits him so hard that Cary had to be taken to the hospital.

Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin learned to fence (both left- and right-handed) for the movie. Stunt doubles were only used for the somersaults.

André the Giant had bad problems and could not support any weight for the scene where Cary Elwes was hanging on Andrés back. For close-up scenes, Cary was walking on ramps, and for wide shots, an André stunt double was used. (If you look closely, you can tell it's not André).

Because of André the Giants back problems, Robin Wright (Buttercup) was attached to wires in the scene where she had to jump into André's arms.

Rob Reiner, the directer, had to leave the set during Billy Crystal's (Miracle Max) scenes because he couldn't stop laughing.

While rehearsing for the film, André the Giant's thick accent prevented many from understanding his lines. To remedy this, actor Mandy Patinkin slapped André in the face to get him to concentrate more.

The two fictional kingdoms in the movie are Florin and Guilder. These are the names of two former Dutch currencies, the Florijn and Gulden.

When William Goldman was trying to get the movie made in the early 70's, the little known Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to play the part of Fezzik. When the movie was actually made 12 years later, they couldn't afford the famous Arnold, so they got André the Giant, which was actually William's first choice, he just couldn't get André to read the part 12 years earlier.

The giant rats were actors inside rat suits. On the day they were shooting the scene where Westley fights the giant rat, the giant rat actor was arrested for speeding, and had to be bailed out of jail for the shoot.

During the filming of The Princess Bride, some of the days were so cold that Robin Wright (Buttercup) would be freezing. Chivalrous André would put his large hand on top of her head to help provide heat. His hand was so large that it would cover most of her head.

The Cliffs of Insanity are the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland and King Humperdinck's Castle is Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, England.