← All Movies

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote poster

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

2018 · 132 min · movie
⭐ 6.3 (23,915 votes)

Toby Grummett, a director, is in rural Spain, struggling with the production of a commercial featuring Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. After an unsuccessful day of shooting, Toby's superior, the Boss, introduces him to a Romani street merchant who sells him an old DVD of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a film he wrote and directed ten years earlier as a student. Toby watches the film while in bed with the Boss's wife, Jacqui. When the Boss returns to the hotel room, Toby barely escapes without being recognized.

A flashback shows student Toby casting elderly cobbler Javier Sanchez as Don Quixote. Javier initially falters in his characterization, but upon rushing to defend teenage waitress Angelica when a member of Toby's crew plays a prank on her, succeeds in embodying that "I am Don Quixote".

Toby realizes that his current shoot is near the shooting location of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Taking a motorbike to Los Sueños, he learns that Angelica has moved away from her father Raul. Toby meets Javier, now working as a tourist attraction. He discovers that Javier has become convinced that he is the real Don Quixote, and that Toby is his squire, Sancho Panza. Quixote accidentally causes a fire that spreads through the town, as Toby escapes on the motorbike.

On the set, police are investigating the "break in" of Jacqui's room. The police notice that Toby's bike was the one spotted in Los Sueños and take him in for questioning. En route, they encounter Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante, who demands that the officers release Toby. When they dismiss him, Quixote attacks, culminating in one of the officers being shot and the Romani man stealing the police car. Quixote supplies Toby with a donkey and clothes from the set, and they set off for adventures.

Quixote notices a windmill and believes it is a giant attacking a woman. Receiving a head wound after being knocked by one of the windmill's blades, Quixote and Toby are led by the woman to a decrepit ruin occupied by impoverished people. The leader, Barbero, welcomes them warmly but locks them in an attic. That night, Toby comes to suspect that they are secretly terrorists, but soon finds that the ruin has transformed into a 17th-century village and its inhabitants are Moriscos hiding their Muslim faith from the Spanish Inquisition. Toby manages to evade the inquisitors, then awakens the next morning, the night's events having seemingly been a dream, and learns that the residents are not terrorists but fearful undocumented immigrants. Quixote, having experienced Toby's "dream", is regaling them with a tale of it.

Moving on with Quixote, Toby finds a bag of old Spanish gold and attempts to hide it, but accidentally falls down a ravine into a cave. There he re-encounters Angelica, who tells him that she works as an escort. She mounts a horse and rides off, with Toby chasing her.

Quixote finds Toby, and joins him on a quest to find Angelica, but soon enters a jousting match with the "Knight of Mirrors", revealed to be Raul. He and several Los Sueños townspeople had been disguising themselves in an attempt to get Javier to come home. After Quixote rides off, Raul punches Toby for indirectly causing his daughter to become an escort.

Waking up, Toby finds Quixote whipping himself with thorns to prove his love to Dulcinea del Toboso. Healing his wounds by a river, Toby is found by Jacqui on horseback, dressed for a costume party thrown by Alexei Miiskin, a Russian vodka company owner entering a business deal with the Boss. Arriving at Miiskin's castle, Toby learns that Angelica is Miiskin's "property" and sees him behave cruelly towards Angelica and Quixote. Toby tries to convince both of them to leave but Quixote refuses and Angelica is captured. Toby rescues Angelica, but finds it is Jacqui wearing a mask, who reveals that Angelica is being burned alive by Miiskin as part of his entertainment. Toby accidentally knocks Quixote out of a window; dying on the ground, Quixote regains his sanity, asserting he is shoemaker Javier Sanchez and gives Toby his sword, telling him that he never truly saw him as lowly. Angelica's burning is shown to be a special effect and Quixote dies while Toby recalls Quixote's claim of immortality.

The next morning, Toby and Angelica are returning Javier's body to his village for burial. Toby, now Quixote, attacks three windmills, believing them to be giants, with Angelica at his side. The two agree to call her Sancho Panza and they ride into the sunset.

Directed by

Terry Gilliam

Starring

Stellan Skarsgård
Adam Driver
Jordi Molla
Olga Kurylenko
Óscar Jaenada
Jonathan Pryce
Joana Ribeiro
Jason Watkins
Ratings provided by IMDB. Information courtesy of IMDb. Used with permission. Wikidata Licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0