The Shawshank Redemption · written by Frank Darabont · 1994

Andy teaches Tommy to write a sentence and begins his coursework.

Scene 151 of 249 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:16 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 151

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 148
Tommy and Andy discuss a book as Tommy begins to make progress.
Scene 149
Tommy reads aloud, laboring through the words.
Scene 150
Tommy reads at the wood-shop line until work pulls him away from the book.
Scene 151
This scene

151INT -- LIBRARY -- DAY (1965)

Tommy writes a sentence on the blackboard. Andy steps in, shows him how to reconstruct it.

RED (V.O.)

Before long, Andy started him on

his course requirements. He really

liked the kid, that was part of it.

Gave him a thrill to help a

youngster crawl off the shitheap.

But that wasn't the only reason...