Scene 1
- Uh-oh. Guy in a car with a handgun and a bottle of liquor. Maybe it's just us, but this doesn't seem like the intro to a lighthearted comedy.
Scene 2
- Apparently what we were looking at was a flashback, because that fella from the car is now on trial for murder. He claims he wasn't the one who killed his wife and her lover, but isn't that what they all say?
- The judge doesn't seem to be buying it, and orders this man—Andy Dufresne—to serve two life sentences in prison. On the bright side, he should be eligible for parole about the time he turns 140 or so. Just in time to meet his great-great-great-great-grandkids.
Scene 3
- A prison inmate—Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding—enters a room and faces a panel of stern looking folks. He's probably not here to audition for The Voice.
- The people sitting behind a table ask him if he's been rehabilitated, and he says he has been, but then we see his file get stamped "Rejected." Ouch. First Peggy Marie Johnson in the second grade, and now this.
Scene 4
- Out in the prison yard, Red chats it up with some of the other inmates. All of a sudden, some narration kicks in. Ooh…looks like Red's going to be our guide on this little journey. Not that it should come as a shock. Why would you put Morgan Freeman in your movie and not make him the narrator?
- Red tells us that he's the guy who can get stuff for people inside the big house. Everything except a decent lawyer, apparently.
- A bus pulls into the prison and Andy and some others hop out. The inmates start placing bets on which newbie is going to bust into tears first. Hey, you gotta find ways to entertain yourself in those places. There aren't a lot of sports bars inside Cell Block D.
Scene 5
- Inside the prison, the newcomers meet Captain Hadley, the captain of the guards, and Mr. Norton, the warden. Norton seems nice enough. Which means he's probably a reeeeal baddie. This ain't our first rodeo.