The Shawshank Redemption · written by Frank Darabont · 1994

The finished library opens, stocked with books and plants, honoring Brooks.

Scene 126 of 249 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:06 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 126

After a banker is wrongly imprisoned for murder, he uses patience, expertise, and friendship to survive Shawshank and build a path to freedom.

Scenes 1–8
Andy’s former life and conviction frame a banker whose apparent control has vanished.
Scenes 9–10
Inside prison, Andy needs a way to survive without surrendering the inner self he is trying to protect.
Scenes 11–30
Andy enters Shawshank and confronts its violence, hierarchy, and rules.
Scene 31
Andy and Red begin the friendship that will carry the film’s argument about hope and connection.
Scene 51
Andy tells Red that prisoners retain an inner life and hope, though Red warns hope can be dangerous.
Scene 112
Andy broadcasts Mozart; the whole prison experiences a brief freedom of mind, revealing what hope can still do.
Just before
Scene 123
Construction begins on the expanded library funded by Andy’s letters.
Scene 124
Red and the men unpack the new books Andy found through book clubs and donations.
Scene 125
Red carves the sign for the Brooks Hatlen Memorial Library.
Scene 126
This scene

126INT -- PRISON LIBRARY -- DAY (1963)

-- the varnished wood sign over the archway: "Brooks Hatlen Memorial Library." TILT DOWN to reveal the library in all its completed glory: shelves lined with books, tables and chairs, even a few potted plants. Heywood is wearing headphones, listening to Hank Williams on the record player.

RED (V.O.)

By the year Kennedy was shot, Andy

had transformed a broom closet

smelling of turpentine into the

best prison library in New England.