Child's Play(1988)
United Artists Releasing Nov 11, 1988
A dying serial killer transfers his consciousness into a popular kids doll using voodoo. A struggling single mother gifts her six-year-old son the much sought-after doll for his birthday, and the doll slowly begins to show its true colors.
Release Details
Original Release | Nov 11, 1988 | Wide
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2026-09-26T11:49:54.030Z
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$6,583,963
$33,244,684
$10,952,000
$44,196,684
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Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- Charles Lee Ray is a serial killer chased by detective Mike Norris. Eddie Caputo is waiting for Charles in the getaway van. Mike shoots Charles in the back. An approaching police car scares Eddie into driving off, leaving Charles behind. Charles shoots off the lock and enters a toy store. Mike lands another shot on Charles. Charles realizes he is dying. Before he dies, he grabs a Good Guy Doll and does a strange chant. Dark clouds appear, lightning strikes and the toy store blows up. The only thing left for Mike to find is Charles's dead body, lying next to a Good Guy Doll.Andy sees a commercial for the Good Guy Doll on TV. Unfortunately, there is no Good Guy Doll inside the large present, just a bunch of clothes. Andy's mother Karen didn't know about the doll in time to save up for it. Maggie comes up with a solution. There is a peddler in an alley who sells a Good Guy Doll to Karen for fifty dollars. At the workplace, Karen's boss says Mrs Howe has taken sick. Karen has to work overtime and fill her place. Maggie says she will babysit Andy. Andy is filled with joy, having finally received his Good Guy Doll. The doll introduces itself: "Hi, I'm Chucky and I'm your friend 'til the end. Hidey ho, ha ha ha."Maggie says it's time for bed. Andy says that Chucky wants to watch the nine o'clock news, but Maggie says it's time for bed. Maggie finds the TV turned back on and Chucky sitting in front of it. She tucks Andy in bed with Chucky. Maggie thinks the noise coming from down the hallway is Andy. She finds a jar of spilled flour on the floor. She goes to clean it up and gets a hammer to the face. She stumbles backwards, crashes through the window and falls to her death. There are shoe prints in the flour. Mike Norris looks at the soles of Andy's shoes. They're the same design. Karen says that Andy doesn't know how the footprints got there. Mike says somebody made those footprints. If it's not Andy, then who? Andy finds that Chucky has flour on the bottom of his shoes. Mike and Karen don't believe Andy about Chucky being the killer. Karen finds Andy talking to Chucky. "His real name is Charles Lee Ray. He says that Maggie was a real bitch and got what she deserved."The next day, Andy takes Chucky to school with him. When Karen is out of sight, Andy leaves the school and walks in the other direction. He rides on a train to the house where Eddie Caputo is hiding. He puts Chucky in a chair and leaves to take a piss. Chucky in the first-person point of view enters the house, opens the oven and turns on the gas. Eddie is awoken by the noise. He approaches the kitchen door, opens the door and shoots. The house blows up. In the police station, Karen tells Andy that if he doesn't start telling the truth, they're going to take him away from her. Andy tries to get Chucky to say something. Chucky doesn't seem to say anything but Andy seems to understand him. "He told me never to tell about him or he'd kill me."Doctor Ardmore says he's seen more than enough. Maybe Andy should spend a few days with them. Back in the apartment, Karen is now wanting Chucky to say something. She picks up the box. The batteries fall out. The toy's batteries were still in the box. She opens the doll's battery compartment. It's empty. The head spins around and says "Hi, I'm Chucky. Wanna play?" She drops the doll in fright. She threatens to throw the doll in the fire if it does not talk. And it does talk: "You stupid bitch! You filthy slut! I'll teach you to fuck with me!" Chucky bites her arm. She throws him off. Chucky runs off. There is an elevator going down. Karen takes the stairs. By the time she gets to the ground floor and out the front door, Chucky is nowhere to be seen. Karen runs to Mike Norris, but even the bite mark on her arm won't convince him that Andy was telling the truth. Karen is off to find the peddler who sold her the doll. Mike says: "That isn't a good part of town to be in at this time of night."Karen finds the peddler and asks where he got the doll from. The peddler asks: "What will you give me if I tell you?" Karen hands over her money. The peddler says: "It's not enough."Karen says it's all she has. The peddler says: "You got a lot." He gets ready to get dirty with Karen. Mike arrives. He waves his gun around to scare away the other people. Some rough handling gets the peddler to talk. He found the doll at a burned down toy store at Wabash. Mike says: "Charles Lee Ray died there."Mike is inside his car. Chucky strangles Mike with a cord. Mike loses control of the car. He grabs the car's cigarette lighter and burns Chucky in the face with it. Chucky is stabbing through the back of the seat. The car is flipped upside down. Chucky says that Mike can't hurt him. When Mike lands a shot on Chucky, it actually does hurt him. The bullet wound bleeds too. Chucky visits John Bishop to find out what's going on. John explains that Chucky is turning human. The more time he spends inside this doll, the more human he becomes. Chucky asks for a way out of this. At first, John refuses, "You're an abomination. An outrage against nature. You perverted everything I've taught you and use it for evil. And you have to be stopped."Chucky thought something like this might happen. He plays with a voodoo doll of John. He breaks his arm and his leg. John says that Chucky needs to transfer his soul into the first person who he told he was alive, which happens to be Andy. Chucky thanks John and stabs the voodoo doll in the heart. Mike and Karen arrive. John stays alive long enough to tell them about Chucky's plan to transfer his soul into Andy. He says Chucky's heart is almost human. The only way to kill Chucky is through the heart. With that, John dies.Chucky arrives at the mental institution. He finds the keys and unlocks the door. He pulls off the bed covers to find a pillow underneath. Andy runs out of the room. Doctor Ardmore grabs hold of Andy and tries to inject him with something to sedate him. Chucky picks up a scalpel and stabs the doctor in the back of the leg. The doctor falls to the floor. Chucky sticks an electric band on the doctor's head and turns up the voltage. The doctor's face goes black and blood comes out of his mouth. He's dead.Andy returns home and barricades the door. He finds a baseball bat in the closet. Chucky comes down the chimney and kicks down the fireguard. Andy takes a swing at Chucky and misses. Chucky knocks Andy out with the baseball bat. He starts the chant. Mike and Karen break through Andy's barrier. Karen grabs Chucky. Mike throws Chucky off Karen. Chucky slices Mike in the back of the leg. He stabs Mike in the crotch with the baseball bat and hits him on the head with it. Karen shoots Chucky in the leg. Chucky fights with Karen. Karen cages Chucky in the fireplace. Andy lights Chucky on fire. Chucky is climbing over the sofa as he burns. Andy gets the first aid kit for Mike but Chucky has disappeared. A small foot trips Andy. A black burnt Chucky is following Andy with the knife. Karen shoots at Chucky. The doll's head, the right arm and left leg come off. Karen shoots the body twice. Mike's partner Jack Santos appears. Mike is now saying the doll is alive. Jack does not believe them. The doll's body pops out of the air vent and starts strangling Jack. Karen gets the body off Jack. Mike shoots the body in the heart. Blood splatters and Chucky is finally dead. The head finishes off with a last quote: "Hi, I'm Chucky. Wanna play..." The film ends with a freeze frame of Andy's forlorn look as he walks out the door.
Storyline
- When Charles Lee Ray needs to get a quick escape from cop Mike Norris, he takes his soul and buries it into playful, seemingly good guy doll Chucky. Little does he know a little boy by the name of Andy Barclay will be the new owner of him soon-to-come. Charles confides in Andy while he commits numerous murders and once the adults accept Andy's story as truth, it's too late. — Kris Hopson
