Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Plot Description

The movie opens with voice-over narration by Jack Frost describing his first memory. Jack, a boyish man, floated up from a frigid lake and cracked through a thin layer of ice. His first sight was the full moon. Jack Frost says the moon had placed him on the Earth and had told him his name, but nothing more.

Jack journeys into a town, which looks like a pre-Industrial Revolution village. There he uses his walking stick--which channels his power--to create frost and ice bridges, a la the X-Men's Iceman. He can also use cold wind to fly. However, Jack discovers to his horror that no one can see or hear him, and even walk through him like he isn't there.

Over three hundred years pass. Jack is living a care-free lifestyle bringing snowstorms that cancel school and bring joy to the children. He overhears children talking about how excited they are for Easter, which is only three days away. One of the boy's mother calls out to him to put on his hat lest Jack Frost's icicles hurt him. The boy asks who Jack Frost is, to which the mother replies "No one...It's just an expression." Angry, Jack throws a snowball at the boy, named Jamie. The snowball cheers him up immensely and he starts a snowball fight with his friends. Jack cannot actively participate, but by hurling snowballs he continues it and is able to somewhat partake in the fun. Jamie loses an already loose tooth in the fray, and then eagerly comments that he can't wait to leave it under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy to pick up. Furious that he is the only mythical creature unable to be seen or appreciated, Jack storms off, complaining bitterly that the moon never gave him his purpose.

Meanwhile, Santa Claus (aka "North") is working in his shop with all his elves and yettis. A giant globe he has that shows lights wherever children believe in him is suddenly enveloped by a fearsome black apparition. Santa announces that the Boogeyman (aka "Pitch") has returned. He instantly alerts his friends as fellow Guardians of Childhood--Sandman (aka "Sandy"), a mute imp who forms whisps of sand that go into people's heads and let them dream (and can also be turned into powerful apparitions like airplanes and, more frequently, Balrog-whips); Tooth Fairy (aka "Tooth"), who commands an armada of tiny, mute, hummingbird-esque fairies (different from herself) that collect each child's tooth and replaces it with money; and the Easter Bunny (aka "Bunnymund"), who does exactly what you think he does, but also wields lethal boomerangs. Most children are able to see the Guardians since they believe in them. North's equipment alerts him that the moon is sending them the image of the next guardian. Bunnymund and Sandman hypothesize that it is the St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun or the Groundhog's Day bunny, but when the blue, ghostly vision appears it is actually the image of Jack Frost. North sends two yettis and the Easter Bunny to go bring him to the North Pole. Bunnymund is reluctant since he has had a long rivalry stemming from a blizzard Jack Frost caused on Easter Sunday of '68.

Bunnymund and the yettis find Jack and stuff him in a sack. They return to the North pole--the yettis and Jack in a wormhole activated by one of North's magical snowglobes; Bunnymund by means of a wormhole activated by thumping his feet rhythmically and jumping down a burrow.

At the North pole, the Guardians (minus Bunnymund) congratulate Jack on being chosen by the moon to be their newest member and begin a ceremony (it is implied Jack has met all four of them before). Jack refuses the honor, saying that the moon has left him on the Earth with no memories, no mission, and no friends for centuries and it is far too late for him to be satisfied. North explains that the Guardians of Childhood are a collection of (not) mythical beings that not only bring joy to children around the world, but also protect dreams and hope. Jack still refuses so North takes him into his study privately and tells him that everyone has a special child on the inside that can inspire everyone, as demonstrated with nesting dolls (North's inner child is wide-eyed with wonder). Jack still says he neither wants nor has the ability to be a Guardian.

Meanwhile, the Boogeyman finds one of Sandman's dreams and pollutes it, turning it into a nightmare. Boogeyman then goes to Tooth's palace (location unspecified, but most likely in India) and attacks it. His sends out scores of black, fiendish apparitions that swallow up all of Tooth's fairies. North hears of the disaster and uses his sled and snowglobe wormholes to transport him, Bunnymund, Sandy, and Jack to Tooth's palace. Jack is able to save one fairy, named Baby Tooth, but the fiends run off with all the rest. The Boogeyman, or Pitch Black, then confronts everyone and says that he ruled in the Dark Ages but the Guardians overthrew him and he fled into hiding. However he says he has managed to duplicate Sandman's ability to create apparitions that can go into dreams, but his are corrupted and live off fear. He gains power with every nightmare he puts in a child's mind. Pitch then vanishes.

Tooth (who might have a crush on Jack Frost) laments the loss of her fairies and all of her collected teeth. Jack asks why the teeth are important and Tooth says it is because they keep the child's memories. Tooth remarks that she even has Jack's. Jack demands to see him. The Guardians are genuinely shocked when he says he does not remember he had a life before he was Jack Frost. Tooth tells Jack the only way to get the teeth back is to take them from Pitch, so Jack agrees to ally with the Guardians until this is done.

Tooth's beautiful palace (reminiscent of the Taj Mahal) begins to wither and decay. North explains this is because just as Guardians give children hope and dreams, the lack of belief from children causes them to fade away. Since Tooth's fairies are gone she is unable to collect teeth and will thus fade away. Jack and the Guardians vow not to let this happen and decide to assist Tooth in taking all the teeth and replacing them with money.

The five have an exciting competition amongst themselves of who is the best tooth fairy and manage to deliver all the teeth. While doing this, Tooth and Jack team up. Tooth remarks that she used to actually take the teeth instead of commanding fairies and she didn't realize how much she missed it. The two share a touching moment where they hover over a sleeping child's bed and watch his joy and hope at the miracle he will find next morning when his tooth is gone but replaced with a coin.

The Guardians and Jack end up all in Jamie's room when they each arrive to take his tooth. Jamie wakes up and marvels at seeing all of the Guardians, but is unable to see Jack Frost. North tells Sandman to use sleeping sand on the boy, but just then Jamie's dog attacks them all. Sandman accidentally throws the sand in the wrong direction and through a series of mishaps everyone except Sandy and Jack are sent to sleep. Just then, Jack sees one of Pitch's nightmares at the window and rushes off to see it. Sandman tries to stop him, but when Jack ignores him decides he in danger and follows. With no one awake in the room, Jamie's little toddler sister uses one Santa's snowglobes to teleport herself to the North Pole.

Jack follows the apparition to Pitch, who tells him he hates the Guardians because since people no longer fear him he is invisible to them and not believed in. Sandman arrives and the two attack the Boogeyman. Santa, Tooth, and Bunnymund arrive on North's sleigh, but even then they aren't able to stop Pitch. Pitch uses his ghostly apparitions to crush and blot out all of Sandman's creations and the Guardians is smothered away. Pitch then turns on the rest of them but Jack, moved by the loss of his newfound friend, is able to cause an explosion of ice and freezing wind that blasts Pitch to the ground and enables the Guardians and Frost to escape. At the North Pole, the Guardians hold a funeral for Sandy. North then says that Pitch is planning to do everything in his power to stop the Guardians from full-filling their missions and that since Easter is the next day that holiday will be next. Jack, Tooth, and North pledge to help Bunnymund hide all the eggs and battle off Pitch.

The four (along with a few yettis, elves, and Baby Tooth) use Bunnymund's wormhole burrows to arrive in the Easter Bunny's gorgeous home. Bunnymund is able to give the eggs feet so they can go and hide themselves, and is aided in their protection by giant, moss-covered, stone, sentient Easter Eggs that resemble the Easter Island statues. They decorate eggs and plan out the next day's festivities; Bunnymund and Jack begin to reconcile.

Then they discover that Jamie's sister had climbed in Santa's bag and is traipsing around Bunnymund's burrow. Jack, charmed by her innocence and love of the holidays, agrees to take her back to her house (even though the girl can't see or feel him). The others offer to help, but he says most of them should guard the eggs. He promises to be back within the hour.

Jack (along with Baby Tooth) safely delivers the girl to her home and tucks her into bed, but on his return trip (using Santa's wormholes and the wind) he hears someone calling out his name. Jack follows the voice and ends up in Pitch's lair. Cages adorn the ceiling filled with the fairies. Pitch confronts Jack and tells him they are very much alike. Both of them are invisible, but Pitch has discovered that through fear and intimidation he can be noticed. Pitch tells Jack that by combining their darkness and cold they will be unstoppable. Pitch then holds up Jack's teeth, that he had stolen from Tooth. Jack foolishly attacks Pitch as vengeance for what happened to Sandman. Pitch, in his own home, easily defeats Jack and breaks his staff, absorbing some of its energy. He then throws the depowered Jack in a deep pit with the broken staff and Baby Tooth. As he departs, Pitch tosses down the teeth.

Depressed, Jack sits glumly. He tells the moon that he can't believe he was never told his purpose or why he is a Guardian or why he is invisible. He begs to be shown a message. Tooth prods the teeth, now put in a gold case, towards Jack. Jack, using the case (and probably celestial guidance from the moon), is able to activate the memories.

Jack then sees himself as a peasant with brown hair (his hair is now a snowy white). Jack is taking his little sister out to a nearby pond for ice skating. Suddenly, the ice around the sister begins to cracks. The girl begins to panic and thus endangers herself even further. Jack manages to keep her calm by telling jokes and sliding on the ice like it's a game. He is able to reach her and toss her to safety, but then the ice collapses and he drowns.

The moonbeams, shining through the ice, find Jack and turns him into Jack Frost. His hair turns white, his staff activates, and he slowly floats to the surface.

Jack awakens back in the pit he was left in. He declares that he now knows that he was able to use his jokes and laughter--and joy--to save his sister and he now knows why he is a Guardian. Jack then meditates and is able to repair his broken staff, thereby returning his powers. He then rushes back to the Easter bunny's burrow along with Baby Tooth.

When Jack arrives, he sees all the eggs smashed and the place in complete disarray. North, Tooth, and Bunnymund confront him on why he didn't return. Jack answers truthfully that he followed a voice and entered Pitch's lair, which is exactly what he promised not to do. The Guardians are furious and inform him that a more-powerful-than-ever Pitch just attacked. Without their help, they were easily defeated and thus Easter was prevented from happening. They tell Jack to leave.

Bunnymund runs to the Easter egg hunt in Jamie's town. There he sees all the children distraught that Easter didn't happen. Jaimie tells everyone he saw the Easter Bunny the night before and knows he is real, but everyone else tells him it was a dream, and they don't have any dreams anymore. Bunnymund tries to comfort them, but is horrified to see that he is now invisible to them like Jack Frost, because they no longer believe.

Jack goes to Jaimie's house. Jaimie is talking to a stuffed bunny as if it is Bunnymund. He says yesterday he was so sure he was real, but now he is beginning to doubt. He asks for one sign, no matter how tiny, so he can still believe. Jack Frost looks in the window, invisible to the boy and crying. Suddenly he has an idea: He creates frost on the window pane and then draws a bunny in it. He is unsure if Jaimie will be able to see this. Jaimie looks at the window and sees the bunny. Excited he opens the window. Jack Frost then enables it to snow. Jaimie dances around excitedly, then looks directly at Jack Frost. Jack realizes Jaimie can now see him! The two converse and Jack tells Jaimie that the problem is no one believes in the Guardians anymore and thus they will fade away.

Meanwhile, Pitch attacks his final target: The North Pole. He destroys the toys and easily overpowers North. He then jumps on the globe and shows all the little lights where people believe flickering out. Soon there is only one left: Jamie! Pitch then charges to Jamie's house to extinguish that belief, possibly by killing the child.

Jack Frost is still in Jaimie's town when Pitch attacks. He grabs Jaimie and tries to flee, but Pitch and his nightmares begin to close in. The Guardians arrive and try to stop him, but have lost their abilities and are dying. Tooth can barely fly, North can barely walk, and Bunnymund has turned into a tiny baby bunny (though he retains his voice and personality). Jack looks at Jaimie and then tells North he knows what is on the inside of him and that he can restore the children's faith. He then gets a burst on energy from Jaimie's renewed hope and thus zooms off with his friends. He zooms past every house in the neighborhood and freezes the ground around it. A large group of children are jolted awake and look outside and believe.

A colossal battle ensues between the children and the Guardians and Pitch. Pitch takes the upper hand until the renewed belief in the guardians causes a one of his nightmares to crumble and from its remains Sandman to reform. With their friend back, the Guardians are able to defeat Pitch and knock him unconcious. Jack then tells Jaimie that for Guardians to be able to help children they must have belief and faith like him. Therefore, Jack reasons, Jaimie is sort-of a Guardian himself.

Pitch awakes and storms past the children. The children tell him they see him and believe in him, they just aren't afraid. Pitch runs up to the Guardians. A group of nightmares surround the bunch. Pitch tells them that with that number of nightmares he can destroy them. North reminds him that the nightmare are attracted to those that fear them and are powerless against those that don't. The Guardians then declare that none of them is afraid. Santa them says that the person who is afraid is Pitch. The nightmares then charge in drag the Boogeyman into an abyss of his own terror and evil. It is implied that this could be hell.

Jack then takes his vows to permanently join the Guardians. Faith is restored and the five noble superheroes dedicate their life to protecting dreams.