Forum:Honor Among Thieves trailer breakdown

In this post, the Forgotten Realms Wiki team will break down the Honor Among Thieves trailer and provide details on what you see!

The timestamps are with reference to the trailers posted on Twitter and Youtube.



Characters

 * Chris Pine: The bard Edgin Darvis
 * Michelle Rodriguez: a barbarian named Holga Kilgor
 * Justice Smith: a half-elf sorcerer named Simon
 * Sophia Lillis: a tiefling druid named Doric
 * Hugh Grant: Forge Fitzwilliam, new Lord of Neverwinter
 * Regé-Jean Page: Xenk, a paladin
 * Jason Wong: Dralas

Scenes

 * 00:07 - Neverwinter! There's Castle Never in the middle and a new coliseum opposite.
 * 00:09 - Then a nice plaza in Neverwinter. Note the blue banners with three snowflakes, which is Neverwinter's symbol. Also note the red and yellow banners for the "Highsun Games" based on some on-set Thorass that we previously translated.
 * 00:11-00:17 - The party finds a magic helmet in an underground chamber surrounded by statues, maybe of gray dwarves or deep gnomes. The mechanical chest holding the helmet is covered in Dethek runes that appear to explain how to open the box (handy!). Using our Decipher Script skill, "The plate marked left. Right thrice --- --eck again turn" "ides right, left only twice up", "turn the plate marked right thrice eck again turn". Not great security, but we're amazed they got the actors to learn to read Dethek. :D
 * I still have not found a candidate for this helmet. Press calls it the Helmet/Helm of Destruction, mentioned in the clip of the heroes interrogating corpses to locate it.
 * 00:19 - Not to nitpick too much, but Castle Never appears to be on the wrong side of the Neverwinter River. We should be looking west to the Sea of Swords, which means the castle should be on the right (north of the river).
 * 00:21-00:30 - The battle with the black dragon has many unknowns as there isn't too much to go off of for the identifies of the armies. The riders with the dragon have helmets with dragon motifs, so the Cult of the Dragon naturally springs to mind. They seem to be fighting a more ragtag or barbarian army. The barbarians' elk antlers on their banners suggest they're either Icewind Dale's Tribe of the Elk or the Uthgardt's Elk Tribe. (Yes, we have two, sure to cause no end of confusion.)
 * The black dragon seems to be vomiting black goop rather than acid. Is it undead, a dracolich, or an unfinished effect?
 * 00:37 - As Chris Pine explains how they got into this mess in a flashback, we see him dressed in armor with a Harper pin, so he's definitely an ex-Harper.
 * The three run through a door with a Harper symbol inscribed on it, suggesting it could be a Harper safehouse. Are they hiding in it, or robbing it?
 * 00:38 - Is that an alchemy jug next to the macguffin? Mmm, endless mayonnaise, maybe they could've used that.
 * 00:41-00:45 - We see a Red Wizard (who is also likely a lich) using the macguffin. Other Red Wizards prevent the crowd from leaving (perhaps with wall of force spells?). It's reminiscent of the Dread Rings from Unholy, the 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting and the Neverwinter MMO. Need to research this further. A Red Wizard lich, of course, makes us think of Szass Tam, who is a decent candidate for "the greatest evil the world has ever seen".
 * People in the crowd seem to be holding sun-like emblems. Could these be the same as those hanging around Neverwinterr?
 * 00:46-00:48 - It's a shield spell? It's a time stop spell!
 * We see Hugh Grant's character beside Pine's and the lady spellcaster, suggesting they're still allies at this point.
 * 00:49 - A red forest with some kind of giant spider. Not sure what the red is about.
 * 00:50-00:51 - The rattling bones include a horned skull, maybe a tiefling.
 * 00:52-00:55 - Chris Perkins has said that Revel's End was introduced in Rime of the Frostmaiden specifically to set it up for the movie. If that's the case, this snowy village is likely in Icewind Dale. The trees in the shot would then suggest that this is Lonelywood, which is also the closest of the Ten Towns to Revel’s End.
 * 00:56-00:58 - Shots of the various places that could be anywhere. The scenes in the snow seem to be Icewind Dale. Broken statue, possibly dwarven?
 * 00:59-01:00 - Pine and Rodriguez's characters have been arrested by Neverwinter guards (note their blue helmets and armor, and this seems to be in Neverwinter because the stone walls are the same as in other shots around Neverwinter). Or is this Revel's End?
 * 00:59-01:03 - Rodriguez gets free and kicks the crap out of the guards, as barbarians are wont to do. This seems to be in an alley, probably later in Neverwinter.
 * 01:06 - We don't known if his detachable projectile sword is an existing magic item or device, of if maybe it's just broken.
 * 01:07-01:09 - Smith’s sorcerer uses the helmet retrieved at the start to launch a wave of force at some guards. The door behind him has a magic ward on it. The cut to an exterior implies this wave of force continues outside, although it's not clear what the continuity may actually be in the film. There are some floating orbs: maybe driftglobes?
 * In the moment before the wave hits the first globe outside, it depowers and drops. Could this be a wave of antimagic?
 * 01:10-01:23 - We're then introduced to the druid, who begins in the shape of a horse before transforming into a snowy owlbear to beat up some Neverwinter guards. There also seems to be one of the black-clad warriors, so perhaps they are in cahoots with someone in Neverwinter.
 * There is a lot of cleared forest in the background, and peasants seeming threatened
 * Prisoner tied to the tree is likely Natali Servat, listed as 'Wood Elf Prisoner' on IMDB.
 * 01:20 - Smith's satchel appears to have the pattern of a bag of holding.
 * 01:24 - We see a volcano that's likely Mount Hotenow.
 * 01:25 - The dragon statue from the second shot of the trailer comes to life. Likely meant to be a gold dragon? Or more likely a gargoyle?
 * 01:26-01:27 - The tiefling druid uses a portal or spell to travel from a forest to a treasure-filled room (perhaps a vault).
 * 01:29 - We then get an establishing shot of an Underdark city. We think this is likely Gracklstugh, the gray dwarf city (note the blue flames on the towers, as in the image on the wiki page).
 * 01:31 - The guy with the green-flame blade is Dralas, played by Jason Wong. Early, and suspiciously removed, news reports said he's undead, and now we can believe them.
 * 01:33 - The party faces off against black-clad warriors with shaved and tattooed heads. These look similar to the Red Wizards, so maybe these are Thayan knights. Page's paladin has a similar tattoo, so could he be an ex-bad guy?
 * Let it be known that Artie swears it's the eye of Neverwinter, and will die on that hill.
 * 01:36-01:37 - After the fighting with the Thayans, we see a Red Wizard atop Neverwinter’s arena, possibly the lich from before using the macguffin. The statue on the right is Lord Nasher Alagondar—the design is clearly inspired directly from Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2, right down to the eye symbol on his belt. That's a nice touch.
 * 01:39-01:41 - The arena and Highsun Games are new, so there’s not much to say about the coliseum fight from a lore perspective. What do those boxes and platforms do? Maybe they're used to make "dungeons".
 * 01:43 - A mimic.
 * 01:44-01:45 - Pine is still a Harper, Grant and Smith is in the background, so this is the earlier team. They meet Chloe Coleman.
 * 01:45 - A displacer beast and a gelatinous cube.
 * 01:46-01:47 - We then see the party fighting the Red Wizard in the plaza from the start. The Red Wizard disarms Rodriguez with a spell and Smith’s sorcerer appears to cast magic missile. That’s likely misty step used by the Red Wizard in the next shot.
 * 01:48 - If that underground city is indeed Gracklstugh, then the very chubby red dragon breathing fire at the party is almost certainly Themberchaud.
 * 02:05 - It looks like there is an elk or a stag on Michelle Rodriguez’s chest, suggesting she might be a member of one of the Elk tribes (either Uthgardt or Reghedmen).
 * She has a different axe, suggesting she switches at some point to the fiery one she picked up earlier in the trailer.
 * 02:11 - The lute. Or is a mandolin?