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.
 * If you look really closely and squint, the balloon over the arena has Hugh Grant's grinning face on it.
 * Under a lot of CGI, this is a shot of the real life Carrickfergus Castle in Northern Ireland.
 * 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.
 * Note the statue of a dragon on the right as it will be making another appearance later!
 * 00:11-00:17 - The party finds a magic helmet in a lava-filled underground chamber surrounded by treasure and 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, apparently named in the exclusive SDCC clip of the heroes interrogating corpses with speak with dead to locate it. Described in detail here, supposedly it was lost for ages after a famous old battle, and the characters question various slain soldiers to learn its fate. There's a flashback to a chaotic battle between two armies as a dragon flies overhead – this sounds like the same battle shown in the trailer.
 * 00:19 - Not to nitpick too much, but Castle Never appears to be on the wrong side of the Neverwinter River. We're 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 because there isn't too much to go off of for the identities 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?
 * This battle was shown as a flashback during the speak with dead scene, suggesting it's a historical event and not closely connected to the present-day plot of the movie.
 * 00:35 - These islands are sea stacks. We see a mound (similar to a barrow tomb) and a shipwreck. This might be the Red Rocks, a set of sea stacks on the Sword Coast.
 * This is a CGIed shot of the Dún Briste sea stack and the cliffs of Downpatrick Head, Northern Ireland.
 * 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?). 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".
 * It's reminiscent of the Dread Rings from Unholy, the 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting, and the Neverwinter MMO. Need to research this further.
 * People in the crowd seem to be holding sun-like emblems. Could these be the same as those hanging around Neverwinter?
 * 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.
 * The red ground and tree trunks could be meant to be the blood-soaked ground around the Dread Ring in the Neverwinter Wood, though I'd expect old blood to be brown.
 * 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 likely to be Icewind Dale. The broken statue's head looks possibly dwarven, although the legs are too long and skinny to be dwarf architecture (most likely a human king?).
 * 00:59-01:00 - Pine and Rodriguez's characters have been arrested by the Neverwinter guards (note their blue helmets and armor) and their hands are bound. This seems to be in Neverwinter because the stone walls are the same as in other shots around Neverwinter.
 * Confusingly, there are two different groups of guards in Neverwinter, so these guys could alternatively be members of the Wintershield Watchmen.
 * Could this instead be the prison of Revel's End? Likely not as it seems to precede the following fight scene in an alleyway (see below).
 * 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 in Neverwinter (note the walls, the laundry, and other set dressings).
 * Rodriguez begins the fight with her hands bound, as in the preceding stairwell shot, and Pine can be seen trying to free himself in the background by rubbing his rope bindings against a step.
 * 01:06 - We don't known if Page's 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 Lillis's 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 (does the druid fight for the trees?), and peasants seeming threatened.
 * The 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 might be Mount Hotenow.
 * This is the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, which had conveniently begun erupting a few weeks before so filming it was a likely spur of the moment thing. It may be more of a nice landscape shot than plot-relevant, but the subterranean lava scenes suggest a closer relation.
 * 01:25 - The dragon statue from the second shot of the trailer comes to life. Probably meant to look like a gold dragon? In D&D terms, maybe we'd be more likely call this thing a gargoyle.
 * 01:26-01:27 - Lillis uses a portal or spell to travel from a forest to a treasure-filled room (perhaps a vault). Her tiefling tail is very visible here.
 * 01:29 - We then get an establishing shot of an Underdark city. We think this is likely Gracklstugh, the gray dwarf city (note the big gorge down the middle and 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 tattooed heads 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 our editor Artie swears that Page's tattoo is the eye of Neverwinter, and will die on that hill.
 * 01:37 - The woman from the flashback casts lightning bolt, or perhaps shocking grasp.
 * 01:37-01:38 - We see a Red Wizard atop Neverwinter’s arena, possibly the lich from before using the macguffin. He seems to have cast either fireball or possibly meteor swarm, and Smith has countered with a shield or perhaps a globe of invulnerability. 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 of Neverwinter symbol on his belt. That's a nice touch.
 * 01:39-01:41 - This arena and the Highsun Games (note those red banners again) are new, so there’s not much to say about the coliseum fight from a lore perspective. There are also some green banners that we can't quite make out.
 * What do those boxes and platforms do? Maybe they're used to make "dungeons".
 * More of this battle was shown in the SDCC exclusive clips. Described here, it creates a maze for a traditional dungeon crawl with various monsters and multiple adventuring parties, one being our heroes, another a homage to the cartoon characters. A dwarf is killed by a displacer beast, Doric finds a sword in a treasure chest, so Holga tries a chest that turns out to be...
 * 01:43 - A mimic!
 * 01:44-01:45 - Pine is still a Harper in this shot and Grant and Smith are 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 a female Red Wizard (possibly the same woman who got a hold of the horn macguffin earlier) in the Neverwinter plaza from the start of the trailer. 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.
 * Given the lava in the background, we might conclude that the treasure and helmet from much earlier in the trailer are part of Themberchaud's hoard. Perhaps this would also suggest that those earlier statues are meant to depict members of the Keepers of the Flame.
 * 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 it a mandolin?

Locations
This map allows you to filter based on locations that we can confirm appeared in the trailer, locations that have been confirmed via other media sources or by creators of the movie, and locations that we can confidently speculate have been either shown in the trailer or hinted at in other media. This is, of course, just a fraction of the Forgotten Realms, and you can see a bigger map of this same region here.