Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Plot Summary

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The movie opens with Harry's cousin Dudley taunting him at a playground. Soon, however Dudley has problems of his own: Dementors from Azkaban attack the pair and only Harry's magic can save them. For the offense of underage performing of magic (and in the presence of a non-magic person), Harry is put on trial and only narrowly escapes. Early in the movie, three opposing groups are defined: Voldemort, the evil wizard and his followers; Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, who oppose Voldemort; and the Ministry of Magic, personified by Cornelius Fudge and Dolores Umbridge, who claim that Voldemort doesn't exist and that talk of his return is simply a façade Dumbledore has contrived to conceal his own attempt to seize power. Umbridge arrives at Hogwarts at the beginning of the term and quickly rises from Dark Arts Master to High Inquisitor to Headmaster, while Harry and his friends suffer under her increasingly strict rules. Harry and his friends organize "Dumbledore's Army," sort of a student auxiliary of the Order of the Phoenix, so they can actually learn how to perform spells to combat dark magic, rather than simply reading about them in books. Harry has seen Voldemort attacking Phoenix members in a series of visions, and when he finally sees an attack on Sirius Black, he gathers several friends for the journey to the Ministry of Magic. There, they confront Voldemort and his followers in a final climactic battle. This is where we learn of the prophecy that neither Harry nor Voldemort can survive while the other lives. As the movie closes, Voldemort fails in his attempt to possess Harry, and the world is temporarily safe again.