The Shawshank Redemption spoilers explained

What is the main twist in The Shawshank Redemption?

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is not the murderer of his wife and her lover; the actual killer is Elmo Blatch, a fellow inmate who bragged about the crime. Andy has been secretly digging a tunnel behind a poster of Rita Hayworth (later Raquel Welch) for nearly 20 years, using a small rock hammer. He escapes through the tunnel and a sewage pipe, emerging outside the prison walls.

What happens in The Shawshank Redemption?

In 1947, Andy Dufresne, a successful banker, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. He is sentenced to two consecutive life terms at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Upon arrival, he is silent and withdrawn. The prison is run by the cruel Warden Samuel Norton and the violent Captain Byron Hadley. Andy befriends Ellis Boyd Redding, known as Red, a longtime inmate who can procure contraband. Red bets that Andy will not survive the first night, but Andy remains stoic. Over time, Andy uses his financial skills to gain favor with the guards, preparing tax returns and offering advice. He eventually becomes the warden’s personal money launderer, running a fake identity named Peter Stevens through which he hides the illegal funds.

Andy also improves the prison library, teaching inmates to read and playing opera over the loudspeaker. He spends a month in solitary for playing the duet from The Marriage of Figaro. In 1965, new inmate Tommy Williams arrives and reveals that a man named Elmo Blatch in another prison bragged about committing the murders Andy was convicted of. Andy approaches Warden Norton with this information, hoping to get a retrial, but Norton refuses, fearing Andy will expose his corruption. Norton has Hadley murder Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy is devastated and becomes more withdrawn.

Secretly, Andy has been digging a tunnel in his cell for nearly two decades, using a small rock hammer hidden in a Bible. He covers the hole with a poster of Raquel Welch. On a stormy night in 1966, Andy escapes through the tunnel, crawls through a 500-yard sewage pipe, and emerges in a creek, free. He adopts the identity of Peter Stevens, withdraws the laundered money from several banks, and sends evidence of the warden’s crimes to the local newspaper. The police raid Shawshank; Warden Norton kills himself in his office, and Captain Hadley is arrested. Andy then travels to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, a place he once described to Red on the beach.

Red, after serving 40 years, is finally paroled. He struggles with the outside world but remembers Andy’s words about hope. He follows the clue Andy left for him: a letter in a hayfield near a stone wall with money and instructions. Red travels to Zihuatanejo, and on the beach, he finds Andy working on a boat. The two friends embrace, finally free and reunited.

Quick, non-spoiler context

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.