The Shawshank Redemption is effortlessly one of the most magnificent pieces of work ever created in the history of cinema. Starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in the lead as Andy Dufresne and Ellis Boyd Redding, the film is widely considered a true masterpiece by critics and general audiences. However, even this masterpiece had a seeming plothole that puzzled a lot of fans.
Well, at least that’s what Freeman liked to call the scene during the end of the movie in a recent interview at the TCM Classic Film Festival, where the movie celebrated 30 years of existence. But according to Robbins, what his co-star claims to be a plothole isn’t really a plothole, but rather, an extraordinarily simple thing that makes even calling it a “plothole” sound incredibly dumb!
Tim Robbins Explains One Seeming Plothole from The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption tells the tale of Robbins’ Andy Dufresne, who gets wrongly sentenced to two life sentences in jail over false accusations of shooting down his wife and her lover. But after suffering for a long time in the prison alongside Freeman’s Ellis Boyd Redding, Andy eventually ends up escaping from the Shawshank prison.
But as satisfying as that end was, quite a few fans deemed that this ending held a glaring plothole in it: As those who have seen the film must already know, while escaping the prison, Andy had a poster of Raquel Welch on the wall, under which he crawled through to make his epic escape before securing the poster right back on.
Now this part is what left those fans confused: How did Andy manage to secure the poster on the wall after crawling through the hole in the wall? That’s exactly what the Seven actor asked when the pair reunited at the TCM Classic Film Festival for the movie’s 30th anniversary. He asked Robbins:
“How did Andy get that poster back in place after he got into that?”
To this, Robbins had the most epically simple response that made Morgan Freeman‘s question seem like the dumbest question ever asked. The Mystic River star said while acting the entire situation out:
“So easy. This is so easy. Pinned up here. Pull up here. Go underneath, go in,” Robbins explained.
As it turns out, Andy didn’t really secure the entire poster back on after leaving. All he did was pin the top half of the poster before crawling out of the wall from underneath it and leaving it be. This way, the poster was only partially attached to the wall, enough only to hide the hole beneath it. Now that’s some clever thinking from Tim Robbins‘ Andy!
“This movie touched something in people,” Says Tim Robbins about The Shawshank Redemption
While the seeming plothole about Andy’s escape was one thing, Robbins also revealed how he feels the 1994 crime/thriller masterpiece in its entirety touched something in the people who watched it. He also claimed that people’s ability to relate to it transformed the movie into a massive favorite among audiences over the years.
As per what Robbins said:
“This movie touched something in people. And I guess a lot of movies don’t. […] I have a feeling it has to do with the idea that there’s a great friendship and love that happens in the film, and I don’t think we see a lot of films like that. […] This is a genuine friendship and adult love for each other.”
Continuing, he further expressed how, perhaps, this very thing was what “people need(ed) to see,” because,
“Maybe there’s something about the idea that we all, no matter whether we’re in prison or not, we all have things that put us in prison, or whether it’s a sh-t job, or bad relationship, or whatever. And maybe we all want to believe that there’s a Zihuatanejo ahead for us regardless of our circumstances.”
Perhaps that was exactly what lured people in to watch the movie and make it one of the best films ever created after the movie’s title became a bit too impossible to pronounce for a considerable amount of people. (Shim Sham Reduction?!)
You can watch The Shawshank Redemption on Netflix.
