Mazes and Monsters 1982

The film opens in medias res, a tense scene where a reporter meets police inside a cavern and they reveal that a game called Mazes and Monsters has spiraled beyond anyone’s control. At the center of the story is Robbie Wheeling, Tom Hanks, who has just started college at Grant University and finds himself drawn into a close-knit circle of friends who each carry their own inner struggles. Robbie’s world already feels crowded: his alcoholic mother and strict father create constant friction at home, and the lingering ache of his missing brother gnaws at him. He also bears the weight of a family tragedy that keeps resurfacing in his dreams and his sense of identity.

With him are his friends from the gaming group: Jay-Jay Brockway, Chris Makepeace, a kid who feels marginalized by his mother, who never stops redecorating his room and who habitually sports unusual hats as a shield; Kate Finch, Wendy Crewson, a woman shaped by a string of failed relationships and the departure of her father from home; and Daniel, David Wallace, whose parents reject his dream of becoming a video game designer. Robbie’s circle also includes the memory of his brother, the mysterious figure of Hal (the brother’s name is used here in the backdrop of Robbie’s trauma), played by Lloyd Bochner. They are all fans of Mazes and Monsters, a fantasy RPG that Robbie had been expelled for once before due to his obsession. Despite initial reluctance, the group convinces him to join in again.

As they dive back into the game, Robbie and Kate grow closer and eventually begin a romantic relationship. Robbie confides in her about the nightmares that haunt him, especially the disappearance of his brother. The mood darkens when Jay-Jay, feeling left out, plans to end his life in a local cavern. He ultimately changes course, deciding that the cavern should instead host a new Mazes and Monsters campaign. He commits to killing off his own character to force his friends into this new adventure, and proposes playing inside a derelict, condemned cavern—ignoring the warnings of those around him.

During the actual spelunking, Robbie’s grip on reality begins to slip. He experiences a severe psychotic break and relives the last time he saw his brother, hallucinating that he has slain a monster named Gorvil, a creature brought to life by his fevered mind. From that moment, he believes he is his own game character, a cleric named Pardieu, and he grows obsessed with drawing maps that lead to a mysterious place he has dreamt of, the legendary Great Hall. In his dream, the Great Hall seems to whisper that he must reach the Two Towers, and then he vanishes from the group’s sight.

Robbie’s friends and the authorities suspect that he has vanished or perished. He travels to New York City, where he stabs a mugger in a moment of deluded action, imagining the attacker is another monster. He catches a glimpse of his blood-streaked clothes in a window and manages to pull himself back long enough to call Kate from a payphone. After agreeing to go to Jay-Jay’s house, a delusion drags him into the subway. Unable to locate Jay-Jay, the friends realize Robbie equates the Two Towers with the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. Believing that casting a spell will enable him to fly, he heads toward the observation deck, but his friends intervene, using the game’s rules to pull him back from a fatal jump.

In the aftermath, the group visits Robbie at his parents’ estate, hoping to reset their friendship and routines. Robbie is now in counseling, yet the film leaves a somber impression: it suggests he will spend the rest of his life trapped inside his own imagined world, living as Pardieu, with his friends as their characters and him renting a fantasy inn in his mind, paying for it with a magical coin that reappears each morning. He warns of a great evil lurking in the forest across the lake, and the trio—grappling with guilt for their roles in his breakdown—decide to keep him engaged in a new round of Mazes and Monsters, letting Robbie dictate the events to them. The film closes on Kate’s quiet, rueful observation: “And so … we played the game again … for one last time.”

And so … we played the game again … for one last time.