Forum:Honor Among Thieves trailer breakdown

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

July 22, 2022 official trailer
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 Yendar, a paladin
 * Jason Wong: Dralas, a Thayan knight
 * Daisy Head: Sofina, a Red Wizard of Thay

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
 * This city was later reported to be Dolblunde. So the golden helmet is found here.
 * 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.)
 * Most likely the Uthgardt Elk tribe, as shown by the Holga toy declaring her to be a member of the Elk tribe and the elk antlers on the standard being a match for the Elk totem of Uthgar (though are not themselves a sure thing).
 * 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 (correctly!), 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 (later found to be Sofina). She 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?

December 5, 2022 'An Epic Journey'
This breakdown tackles the new clips seen in the behind-the-scenes featurette, An Epic Journey. The clips seen in the trailer are skipped to avoid repetition. The timestamps are in reference to the video shown on YouTube.


 * 00:03 - The symbols of Neverwinter can be seen on the banners in the background.
 * 00:05–0.07 - This shot of the black dragon attacking the barbarian army is mirror-reversed from what was in the original trailer, so maybe the effects and editing are still being revised.
 * 00:16 - Themberchaud makes his appearance.
 * 00:17–0.18 - New shot of the Red Wizard. The sun-symbol banners are for the Highsun Games, so this is likely set outside the arena. There's an intriguing mosaic on a figure in black on the wall in the background.
 * 00:25–0.26 - Holga catches her axe and Edgin is hard on his lute; Elaine Cunningham can tell you that's bad.
 * 00:30–0.33 - Holga pulls an axe out of molten metal. Is it her old axe all melted or does she get a new +1 flaming battleaxe?
 * 00:39–0.40 - Edgin walks with a Red Wizard past some treasures and pinches some gold. Too chunky to be coins, these are possibly trade bars.
 * 00:12, 00:41–00.43 - More riding through the red forest, no new clues.
 * 00:52 - Xenk's sword is glowing: maybe its an enchantment or perhaps it's a smite.
 * 00:59 - Doric in Neverwinter passes a man who appears to be holding a khopesh, which would an uncommon weapon in that area. Perhaps a gladiator?
 * 01:01–01.12 - More on that golden helm, though still no clue what it is.
 * 01:18 - Hugh Grant confirms the obvious, namely that the big baddies are indeed the Red Wizards.
 * 01:18 - A new spell! Unclear which it is. This appears to be more fighting outside the arena (note the foot of one of the big statues on the right).
 * 01:19-01:20 - Forge Fitzwilliam self-identifies as a con man. This may be the scene in which he betrays the heroes, either near the start of the movie or in a flashback (the woman behind him could be the Red Wizard woman in her blue robes as seen in the first trailer).
 * 01:21–01.22 - More of the fight scene with the Red Wizard outside the arena.
 * 01:28 - Model of a gold dragon head.
 * Confirmed to be Palarandusk by this Nerf gun.
 * 01:28 - They've caught a fish monster in a net. Not sure what this could be. Seems too weird to be a knucklehead trout or quipper, and too big and animal-like to be a locathah, kuo-toa, or sahuagin.
 * 01:30–01.31 - The eagle-headed bird man is likely an aarakocra in the 5e style, instead of the more crow-like kenku. This seems to be a mage or something important, given the robes.
 * 01:31–01.32 - Scarred ugly guy in the snow. Most likely an orc, but could be bugbear or hobgoblin, and probably too big to be a goblin. This seems to be set in the Revel's End prison, so he could be a prisoner or a guard.
 * 01:32–01.33 - A snake person with cobra head, arms, and tail is most likely a yuan-ti abomination. Being behind bars, this is most likely a prisoner of Revel's End.
 * 01:50 - Chloe Coleman's character and Michelle Rodriguez's Holga riding in a wagon through the Irish countryside. We still don't have a name for the girl.
 * 01:52 - Simon and Doric. This is set on the dragon-headed boat seen during production at Carrickfergus Castle, and is where all the actors were first seen having fun together.
 * 02:04 - Just the credits, but these confirm the story dates back to the earliest Paramount iteration by Chris McKay and Michael Gilio, while the Warner Bros. story is not credited at all and is presumably lost.

January 23, 2023 Trailer
The timestamps are in reference to the video shown on YouTube.


 * 0:08–0:29 - Extended version of the same fight scene from the first trailer. Seems to definitely show that this is in Neverwinter rather than in Revel's End, as some have speculated. The guy who tries to behead Holga is holding her axe.
 * 0:33 - The red-colored forest from the first trailer, which will appear later.
 * 0:34 - The heist scene (will check back for any Easter eggs on the table)
 * 0:35–0:36 - The evil macguffin and Daisy Head's Red Wizard (the "wrong person", we assume), now known to be Sofina.
 * 0:37–0:39 - A clear shot of the lich from the first trailer (Szass Tam? Someone else?) holding the MacGuffin with red smoke around him. The Chaos Curse from RA Salvatore's Canticle novels is an unlikely good match for this.
 * This is indeed Szass Tam.
 * 0:39–0:40 - What appears to be an aerial view of his ritual. It doesn't look like the Dread Ring from this angle. It could be somewhere in Thay, maybe the Citadel?
 * 0:40 - Xenk confirms that the threat is an army of undead, which honestly is pretty typical for the Red Wizards, so we'll have to wait and see what makes this undead army special.
 * 0:42–0:44 - Sofina using the macguffin to unleash the red smoke in the Neverwinter arena. It looks like this is the capstone to the scenes in which the heroes are trapped in the labyrinth fighting classic monsters, probably part of the finale.
 * 0:44–0:46 - People fleeing from the red smoke, likely from the earlier ritual scene, and are stopped by a line of Red Wizards. The little girl standing still could be a character connected to our heroes? She might be Chloe Coleman.
 * 0:56 - Establishing shot of a village on a river with people gathered on the dock. Nothing gives its identity away just yet, but at a guess, Leilon? Whatever it is, this movie will take in a lot of Realms locales.
 * 0:57–0:59 - Edgin and Holga ride away from Neverwinter. Presumably this is just after escaping their execution attempt and now they need to gather the party.
 * 0:59 - Xenk in the woods.
 * 1:00 - Simon casting a spell on a boat (the dragon-head ship?).
 * 1:01–1:03 - Doric using a portal as seen in the last trailer, although now we have a clearer shot of the vault or room she appears in.
 * 1:04–1:13 - The party descends through an "orifice". If this is the way that they descend into the Underdark, where they ultimately arrive at (we believe) Gracklstugh, then this reddish forest may be part of the Evermoors.
 * Confirmed to be a passage to the Underdark.
 * 1:14 - Establishing shot of the Neverwinter arena next to Castle Never, with the statue of Nasher Alagondar front and center.
 * 1:15 - Holga likes her axe. The reaction may be confirmation that this is her same axe, just dipped in molten metal.
 * 1:16–1:19 - Combat outside the arena.
 * 1:20–1:29 - The dragon (likely copper) we’ve seen them fighting in the trailers is the statue from the very start of the first trailer, just animated. Holga's axe looks like it has undergone its melting experience, and is used to jam the statue's jaws.
 * 1:20–1:29 - Establishing shot of a tower on a tundra. It might be meant to evoke fond memories from the Crystal Shard or the Accursed Tower, but it's probably meant to be Revel's End. While it has the right tower shape, it is missing the walls and dramatic clifftop location of that prison as seen in Rime of the Frostmaiden.
 * 1:31–1:37 - The arena combat scene we saw in the first trailer (plus a shot of the party fleeing through one of the corridors) intercut with Edgin and Simon talking about the fear of death.
 * 1:38–1:43 - More scenes of combat. Xenk vs Dralas, Holga vs a mimic, and Doric in owlbear form vs Sofina.
 * 1:44–1:45 - We see a shot of Edgin and his "everything": a thatched house and (we assume) his wife and child. How exactly he lost them remains unspecified, but we have a clear sense that he's motivated by revenge for more than just having been betrayed during a past heist.
 * 1:45–1:46 - Simon seeming to have a bizarre mental encounter with a mysterious mage while wearing the helmet that was the focus of the first trailer. Anyone recognize the staff?
 * It could be Elminster, especially as Elminster is already confirmed to be Simon's ancestor. But El has changed his classic wizard's pointy hat if so.
 * Beard: check. Red robes: check. Red hat with flopped-over peak: check. Staff with orb and feathers: check. This is most likely Elminster.
 * 1:46–1:48 - Edgin is blasted by a spell and retreats from the animated statue.
 * 1:48–1:52 - Edgin and Forge face-to-face. Unclear what these blue tentacles may be. A creature? A trap? A spell?
 * Said to be Evard's black tentacles in the interview.
 * 1:52–1:53 - It looks like a grotesque or undead Bigby's hand, intercepted by Simon's Maximilian's earthen grasp.
 * Though mage hand was mentioned in the accompanying interview, this is only a utility cantrip, so it's highly unlikely.
 * 1:54 - The party is perhaps beneath the arena here (note the dropping blocks and the gelatinous cube from earlier). This is likely how they escape.
 * 1:55 - Doric in owlbear form regards a captive tied to a tree, whom we briefly saw from the front in the prior trailer, who is most likely the character listed as 'Wood Elf Prisoner' on IMDB played by Natali Servat, so likely this is Doric's ally she's rescuing.
 * 1:56 - Finger of death?
 * 1:57 - Sofina looks quite undead. Either that or she's just very badly burned or her undead form is decaying. Or maybe she looked like this all along?
 * 1:57–2:00 - An extended fight sequence from the first trailer. We see some kind of magical disarming spell plus what looks like shield.
 * 2:00–2:05 - Themberchaud appears and penguin slides through a pile of bones to chomp on one of the baddies (who may be Thayan knights). The rows of statues appear in the background of the shot of the heroes in the bonepile.
 * 2:11–2:27 - Establishing shot of an Underdark city suspended over magma, said to Dolblunde in the IGN interview. Simon triggers an ancient trap and drops a bridge (showing why the party needs a Rogue).

Wild Speculation

 * While the fat red dragon is definitely Themberchaud, and one of the Underdark cities is a dead match for the gray dwarf city of Gracklstugh, and Themberchaud canonically lives in Gracklstugh, this is the gnome city of Dolblunde. The IGN interview describes the statues as gnomes rather than dwarves, but they seem more dwarven given how solid they are, possibly statues of the Keepers of the Flame who serve Gracklstugh. Thus it seems implied that Themberchaud is in Dolblunde now, which is a big move and a major discrepancy. There doesn't seem to be any deceptive editing, owing to the same statues behind the bone-pile that Themberchaud slides down. Alternatively, Daley and Goldstein are being deceptive with details to avoid spoilers (or to throw us off!). Given the shot of Gracklstugh connecting the two, has Themberchaud followed the party to Dolblunde?
 * Another issue is that Dolblunde is actually the lair of the dracolich Daurgothoth, who rests on a massive pile of bones and has bony spells and skeletal undead, so this tracks. The bone pile in Dolblunde is most likely Daurgothoth's, not Themberchaud's dinner scraps. So where's the Creeping Doom? And Daurgothoth is a dracolich archmage, is Challenge Rating 50, and is the greatest evil in the Forgotten Realms short of the gods, with not even Szass Tam holding a candle to him. Perhaps Daurgothoth is "the greatest evil the world has ever known"? We haven't heard of him being destroyed or trapped anywhere that he needs be unleashed.
 * That horn that releases red smoke... could it be a black dragon's horn and a lich's or dracolich's phylactery? Unfortunately Daurgothoth's phylactery is a small black opal, which we haven't seen in the trailers. Except there might just be one in the amulet around Szass Tam's neck.

Locations
This map allows you to filter based on which locations that we can confirm appeared in the trailers, locations that have been confirmed via other media sources or by the 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 the northwest corner of Faerûn, the central continent in the Forgotten Realms setting. You can see a bigger map of this same region here, but to go far enough east to see Thay, the homeland of the movie's villains, you'd need an even bigger map.