I absolutely loved DUNGEONS & DRAGONS | First time watching!

[@IceMetalPunk]

At 18:30, there's a hilarious blooper where instead of saying "he's a son of a bitch", she accidentally says "he's an asshole". Which, of course, makes Xenk's next line not work, so he ad-libbed, and instead of saying "so you blame his mother for his corruption?" he says, "So you blame his rectum for his corruption?" 😂

[@NessOnett8]

"Jarnathan deserved better" is basically the slogan of this movie

[@caramelcandys]

Its always that one npc

[@explorer47422]

Flying him out the window to escape prison is literally a baller move my party would've come up with which I wouldn't have anticipated, and after they were successful, me as DM then telling them that their pardon would've been approved anyway is me sarcastically saying there were easier ways to get out and they just got lucky this time.

[@Xcandescet]

#JusticeForJarnathan

[@incantrix1337]

The most D&D about this movie is how the main characters doesn't even notice the main plot until it is almost over.

[@DamnQuilty]

True that 😂😂

[@Ncyphen]

The true villain was not the villain of the movie, they weren't "heroes on an adventure," it was very casual. The casualness of the film is what made it good. If it was mainstream Hollywood, the MCs would have been facing off the big bad instead of one of his minions, and everything that made the film good would have been non-existent.

[@erikbjelke4411]

I see it more as the DM setting up a campaign about war with Thay, with the Red Wizards' foothold in Neverwinter being the crux of it. The party was escaping with everything they wanted, then the DM does a "Wait, what?" when the players announce that they're going to turn around and put a stop to it. And the DM looks at the epic-level Wizard character sheet for Sophina, and says "Well. . . okay. . ."

[@impartialthrone2097]

So true, there's a whole thing about the Red Wizards turning the entire city's populace into undead, but the party is just like "Dude, lets get the bard's daughter back and also rob that asshole" XD

[@DeathStarKitty]

This movie really captures what a game of D&D is like. Goofy solutions that work because of a lucky dice roll, overly dramatic NPCs that are dropped in to guide the party. They could have ended this with a group of teens sitting around a table covered in stat sheets and miniatures to show it was all from the imagination of the players but anyone that's played already understood that's what was happening.

[@LordVolkov]

Also GM interference - when the party ruins the carefully explained bridge trap they are given a convenient portal staff (which they use as often as possible, as parties do with ridiculously powerful items dropped in their lap) so they can continue the campaign 🤣🤣🤣

[@agp11001]

21:06 is probably the default GM facial expression. Dumbfounded, frustrated staring XD Also, jumping into a Gelationous Cube to get away from a Displacer beast? Classic D&D party behaviour.

[@lee32476]

It’s crazy to me how accurate the movie is to the actual game experience. Wild shots in the dark that save a campaign is such a perfect representation of the experience. Sometimes a tank needs to totally be a tank, and sometimes a wild nat20 saves everyone’s skin. Movie’s fun and dumb, no notes.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

No, honestly that would have ruined it, because it would in an instant destroyed these characters. If you want that, watch _The Gamers_ and _The Gamers 2._

[@adaddinsane]

I think it's more how we like to *think* it's really like 🤣

[@alexspindler1]

This NEEDS to be a franchise. They nailed the tone, had casting that i thought might but work but actually worked beautifully, and wrote it to be accessible to non-DnD nerds. It's great!

[@dereknolin5986]

Hear, hear! I really hope they make a sequel soon!

[@najhoant]

Paramount+ are apparently making a spinoff TV series

[@alexspindler1]

That's wonderful to hear!

[@dereknolin5986]

@@najhoant Apparently it's a completely different creative team, though, working on the TV series. All it has in common is the D&D IP.

[@Ncyphen]

@@najhoant Actually, I like that. I think a TV series would be a much better format than a sequel.

[@Trikeboy2]

This movie is proof that box office does not mean a movie is good or not. It didn't perform well but it is such a damn good movie. It really captures the feel of a D&D game.

[@Ironoclasty]

Unfortunately, corporate America never looks beyond the numbers.

[@davidareeves]

@@Ironoclasty Now if they were an investment like Bonds instead of short term loan for $

[@malcolmrowe9003]

Box office was partly impacted by Hasbro/WotC (the owners of the Dungeons and Dragons brand) alienating the core target audience at the start of 2023.

[@davidareeves]

Never changes, the corp bigwig$ have no clue, they just want a number$ on their investment. Marketing targets what the bigwig$ dream of. @@malcolmrowe9003 They aim for the biggest market share regardless if the movie suits it or not.

[@SkepticalCaveman]

Movie was boycotted, even though the movie had nothing to do with the controversy.

[@sailiealquadacil1284]

Edgin is a bard, and they are mostly supporting party members. One thing they do is give other party members Inspiration (a buff, basically), so him cheering Holga on as she's fighting is very much on point.

[@weldonwin]

Also, Bards have a reputation for trying to F@ck anything that moves

[@generalmortars7557]

If you pay close attention, I don't think Edgin fails one charisma check throughout the movie, he must have invested all his stats on that one ability. Cheering up Holga, convincing the judges to let them go, inspiring his party...

[@sailiealquadacil1284]

@@generalmortars7557 Right, he just keeps messing up all his other checks XD

[@AraumC]

@@sailiealquadacil1284 Like when he's trying to saw off his ropes while Holga fights, you can practically see the low rolls

[@sailiealquadacil1284]

@@AraumC Yup ^^

[@The_Other_Dan]

I like how earlier he admitted to Kira (Sofina) that he lied by saying he was trying to bring back her mother when in reality he was really trying to bring back his wife. Then in the end he really did use the spell to bring back Kiras mother rather than his wife.

[@jimhowe2624]

This film was way better than i ever thought it would be!

[@neighborlyfiend1484]

I have played D&D for over 25 years and I can tell you this movie feels like a group of my friends stumbling through an adventure, cracking jokes and failing over and over LOL

[@dusk78]

I know it's played for laughs when Ed and Holga were about to be decapitated and she ends up fighting off the guards while Edgin looks like he's doing nothing but in game terms two things may have happened. 1, he botched his escape dice roll so he couldn't free himself and 2, when he said "we got them now", that was a bit of Bard magic called Bardic inspiration. It's a subtle spell that allows his allies extra benefits for combat. So while it looks like he's doing nothing he was actually making her fight better.

[@spamfilter32]

One could say he was also doing the same thing, using his bardic i spiration on Simon when he was trying to master the helm.

[@hawkname1234]

Lay people don't want to hear about D&D mechanics, man. It can just be a funny line.

[@wolfkniteX]

The part where Christ Pine's character give his daughter mittens becomes funnier when you realize the lore about the city it takes place in. In D&D Lore, the city of Neverwinter was built downstream of a river that passes by a Volcano just North East of the city. The Volcano in question is home to Fire Elementals (Primordial Entities of nature that take on traits of natural elements, fire, earth air, water and more) which heat up the river which flows to the city and carries it's supernatural warmthm thus keeping the river and Naverwinter's harbor from freezing and giving the city a permanent warm climate.

[@agp11001]

Well yeah, it's not called "Neverwinter" just because it's a fancy name.

[@OhThatRobin]

Omg I’ve watched this movie like 30 times and I was like aware of that lore but never put that together that makes Kira’s reaction so much funnier xDDD

[@malcolmrowe9003]

I didn't know all that lore but I knew that the name was fairly literal. I can't remember if I made the association first time round

[@oscarpoullard9920]

@@agp11001the fun and weird thing is that they then later (during late 2nd edition iirc) retroactively made Neverwinter named after the elven lord that founded it, Halueth Never. So it is in fact just a fancy name that coincides with the fact that you never feel winter there ^^ lore be odd sometimes

[@ladycordelia17]

I always thought that if Kira takes up an apprenticeship (as a professional cook, glassworker, or some stripe of smithy), she could use the mittens to protect her hands from the HEAT, since Neverwinter has little to no cold weather to worry about.

[@InternetShis]

It really does feel like a dnd campaign brought to life. The cool powerful NPC the DM made to exposit to the party and guide them to the next objective/magic item, the DM awakening a magic item they just so happened to have to get past a puzzle the players broke, combat always playing out in initiative order and always in intervals of 6 seconds for a full round of combat, the whole 9 yards. If this came out after Baldur's Gate 3, this would have done gangbusters in the box office.

[@mbpoblet]

The intellect devourers ignoring them because all their classes have intelligence as a dump stat...

[@THG-3141]

​@@mbpobletthis is probably the biggest players only Easter egg. They're wise, strong, and charismatic. But not exactly bright

[@jasonondik6003]

​@thathighguy6980 Actually, the biggest and most overlooked nod to D&D fans is the inclusion of the characters from the 80s cartoon show being in the Neverwinter Games, also. When I saw people dressed as those characters, I had a massive "fan boy" moment. Almost no one understands the reference.

[@THG-3141]

@@jasonondik6003 that's not players only. And most players never even saw that show. However, as I said, players (all if not most) know the primary stats for the base classes. You AcTuAlLy'd all the way to the wrong subject. "Almost no one understands the reference" Because almost no one watched the show

[@generalmortars7557]

LOL, I spent the whole time laughing over Xenk, the paladin, he is SO obviously the DM's self-inserted character. Pristine, perfect, pretty, powerful, distributing nuggets of wisdom left and right, the whole VILLAGE swoons over him.

[@phtevenj]

Fun Fact : When they are in the maze theres a group that is dressed up like the kids from the 80s D&D cartoon

[@jdspartan117]

Bradley Cooper is a Mini Cooper in this.

[@chriscarpenter1920]

I think CinemaWins already made that joke 😆

[@paulonius42]

​@chriscarpenter1920 Everyone has already made that joke, and they will continue to make that joke forever. Oh well, good jokes are hard to kill! 😂

[@chriscarpenter1920]

@@paulonius42 It is a pretty good joke 🙂

[@GMmaster99]

I found this movie to have a similar plot to the 2003 Italian Job

[@paulonius42]

@GMmaster99 That's an odd thing to post as a reply to a joke about Bradley Cooper.

[@formergoat]

My D&D group went to the theater and watched this. The scene with accidentally asking questions to the corpse actually happened to our group and seeing the same thing happen in the movie was hilarious. We were falling out of our seats laughing at it.

[@artboymoy]

This movie was far better than we deserved. A surprising amount of heart and humor in this. It's like a campaign with your friends, sitting around the table and playing it out. Man, when Pine poured his heart out to his daughter and she turned out to be the wizard... oof. Great reaction Addie!

[@canadian__ninja]

This was peak D&D tbh with a lot more attention to detail with lore and mechanics than I ever would have expected.

[@jurodriguez1590]

Me and my friend constantly say “jarnathan!” All the time and it brings a smile to our face.

[@zissoulander]

It's such an off-the-cuff NPC named made by a DM who wasnt expecting to name all the inconsequential characters.

[@alexkramerblogs]

"She's throwing potatoes!~" is forever stuck in my head and I use it a lot

[@GamersIntel]

"NOT ALL OF THE CHESTS ARE GOOD!" Pretty much the tag line for D&D really XD

[@patrickwaldeck6681]

The fight in the blacksmith's is one of the only one's i've ever seen where the female charachter puts on MORE armor the longer the fight goes on.

[@ariesrcn]

My wife loved the dragon so much I got her a stuffed one for her Birthday

[@LordMorbannaon]

Best thing about it is that Themberchaud is an actual canonical dragon in the Forgotten Realms setting, not just something made up for laughs :)

[@mbpoblet]

Fun fact: Themberchaud is actually an established character in the lore. Legend is he was created when a fat cat jumped on the table during one of Gary Gygax's games and started playing with the miniatures. Not so fun fact: he's so fat because a civilization of underdark dwarves keep him captive to power their furnaces, and overfeed him so he literally won't be able to fit through the tunnels to escape; and he's not the first dragon they've kept captive, they usually kill them when they get too big and dangerous as soon as they can get their hands on a dragon egg so they can raise a new one.

[@nightflame69]

I have the stuffed dragon from buildabear!

[@IceMetalPunk]

As a collector of dragons, I'm jealous of your wife 😂

[@daverhoden445]

You left out the important part. WHERE did you get it?

[@Prowl76]

In the intellect devourer scene, there's a multilayered joke. Sure, it poked fun at their intelligence. But those that are familiar with the game may have noticed that for each of their character classes, bard, sorcerer, druid, barbarian, and paladin, intelligence is what is called a dump stat meaning that players usually do not put much if anything into improving their intelligence as those classes don't usually benefit much from that ability.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

Exactly. Wizards are the "bookworms", the only core class that relies heavily on Intelligence as main spellcasting stat. Bard and Sorcerer use Charisma as their main spellcasting stat. Paladin, Cleric and Druid use Wisdom as spellcasting stat, with the Paladin also needing high Charisma to boost his saving throws and sacred damage. Barbarians need Strength and Constitution. Rogues need high Dexterity and Constitution if they're specialized being the sneaky thief/assassin type, or high DEX and WIS (for perception skill) if the Rogue specialises in lockpicking and finding/disarming traps, or if the Rogue is the "face" of the group instead of the Bard he needs DEX and CHA (for persuasion, deception, seduction, performance skills) and a better-than-average INT (for insight skill into people to catch lies).

[@AnonEyeMouse]

This is why I hate the modern take on D&D. People focus on stats more than character, leveling more than story. Bards with INT as a dump stat rather than STR or CON? Back when the game was more tuned to role-playing I had a fighter with an 18 INT. He was a scholar, raised by a jaded wizard who refused to teach magic and instead taught ABOUT magic and how it ruins everything. My character was a blacksmith, forging weapons to be enchanted by the wizard and learning swordplay from caravan guards who came by. He studied Arcana, History, Religion, Languages modern and ancient and military tactics. He was a practiced rider and even dabbled in herbalism and medicine. A fantastic character to play and yes, he could fight but everyone in the party could fight. His knowledge was his greatest weapon. You tell a modern style player that your 12th level fight has 12 STR, CON and 18 INT and they'll roast you for a bad build.

[@mathsalot8099]

​@AnonEyeMouse depends on the group you are playing with. There are plenty of players that started with 5e that put character over stats, and there are plenty of "old school" gamers who mock you for sub-par stats. I was basically kicked out of a group in 3e for using a shortbow when I could have used a longbow, but that was "only" 20 years ago. Power gaming is far older than that. Try telling Gary Gygax and his Competition games at GenCon that OG gaming wasn't power gaming and only new groups suffer from that.

[@merenwen4495]

@@AnonEyeMousebecause it is a bad build that will make your fighter absolutely worthless in battle. Meaning you’re team has to do all the work while you’re fumbling most of your rolls.

[@meewec2091]

@@merenwen4495 at least one 5e fighter subclass uses int and it's also nice on bards for skills

[@davidbergfors6820]

this is a movie that I think gets better the more you know. even if you don't know anything about the world or the game of Dungeons and Dragons, you can enjoy it. but when you know more about the world and rules, it gets increasingly enjoyable, all the small inside jokes that might fly by an "uninitiated" just heightens the enjoyability.

[@KthulhuXxx]

It's also kind of focused on modern editions and the Forgotten Realms. Some people (like me) might know a lot about D&D, but not really like more modern editions or the Forgotten Realms, in which case it's...OK, but not really representative of the "D&D" that we prefer.

[@ralphwiggum6385]

​​@@KthulhuXxxI still have my old books from 30 years ago 🤫 ...aaand just realized that they are technically Palladium, but similar enough

[@THG-3141]

​@@KthulhuXxxyes, the modern DND movie was based on the current edition. Why, do you think, it should be based on a system that hasn't been played in about 20 years? Especially considering it's massive popularity in tabletop and connected media didn't happen until after that. And no, I'm not taking about being popular in the extremely shunned social group we frequented. I'm talking about popular with the popular kids who made admitting you liked DnD hazardous to your health 30-40 years ago. Why would they make a movie based on a far less popular and far less known version of the game?

[@KthulhuXxx]

@@THG-3141 I'm not arguing that it shouldn't have been based on anything but the current edition. I'm saying that "knowing more about D&D" doesn't necessarily equate to "liking the film more" in the way that @davidberfgors6820 implied it would. The "dungeons and dragons" that I like is a much more sword & sorcery type of a game than the current "superheroes with fantasy trappings" game that D&D has become. Luckily the OSR is alive and well, and provides support for the style of "d&d" that I prefer. My prefered way to play "dungeons and dragons" these days is a game called Swords & Wizardry, a retro-clone of the original 1974 game, along with all of it's supplements.

[@lyrebirb83]

​​@@KthulhuXxx yeah ok. But older dnd would just be a fantasy band of brothers, except no one knows each other or gives a shit. Bodies dropped faster than beats at a club. Even 3.5 characters dropped like flies. Oops hope your wizard didn't deepthroat an arrow before 5th level.

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

It's so accurate to the game. Like even with the Johnathan thing I knew when I saw he was an Aarakocra that dude was gonna do that. This is a player finding an actual escape from a prison that the DM did not expect the party to escape from, hence why he was gonna let them out anyway. Players never wait for the story to unfold as planned. They always do hatch some hairbrained scheme that leaves the DM flying by the seat of his pants the rest of the session.

[@IceMetalPunk]

I don't know *what* you're talking about.... ...I say, being the paladin of vengeance in my party that, a few sessions ago, spontaneously tackled, paralyzed, and yeeted a traitorous gnome into a bay, then dove in after him to ensure I held him under and pushed him as deep as he could go... ...he only survived by passing the wisdom check against Hold Person in time to Dimension Door us both to the surface... and now I hate Dimension Door 😂

[@ariesrcn]

Cartoon D&D characters are in the arena. I used to love that cartoon.

[@vinnycordeiro]

That's one reference that many reactors miss by not being old enough to have watched that cartoon. I loved it back in the day.

[@LordVolkov]

No baby unicorn ☹, but I love that their little blonde barbarian has a mustache 🤣🤣🤣

[@ariesrcn]

@@LordVolkov Next movie should be about them.

[@wolfey141]

I think a television serious would be perfect. An over-arching plot with each episode getting distracted by side quests and shinies

[@Kasino80]

Basically a good old fashioned 80s action series. Like A-Team.

[@MantleAkita]

Season 5, Episode 3 the party finally makes it to the first major city of the story, only to be side tracked once again!

[@Wonderpalm1979]

Very glad this movie was so well done. They've failed so hard in previous attempts... Now we need even bigger sequels ✌️✌️✌️

[@hellomark1]

They definitely nailed the tone, if there's another movie or tv series, I *really* hope they get the same writers/director!

[@LordVolkov]

Between the 'speak with dead' sequence, the failed concentration check on Major Illusion, and everything Michelle Rodriguez does, Honor Among Thieves is a lot of fun. I hope they do some more in this style, even if it's with a different party.

[@IceMetalPunk]

Sorcerer: "I cast Major Image!" DM: "I could have you roll a deception check, but instead... roll a dex save." Sorcerer: "...a what?" DM: "...and then a concentration check."

[@alexkramerblogs]

Different party, but some of the same actors would be hilarious

[@pravusprime]

For someone who doesn't play D&D, you sure had a reaction like a D&D player. You'd be a natural.

[@agp11001]

Addie is a natural born bard. First instinct when cornered by a Displacer Beast "do they like songs?"

[@marpj6138]

I love the Intellect Devourer scene because its an amazing easter egg for the game. In D&D there is 6 main stats one which is "Intelligence", and each class has one or two main status and none of the characters on the scene have classes that would need good intelligence (Druid is Wisdom while Bard, Sorcerer and Paladin uses Charisma, last Barbarian is Strength/Constitution)

[@acrefray]

I think you'd enjoy knowing about Themberchaud - the pudgy dragon. He laments being stuck in the Underdark, and wrote a lament for it: "And now, I am far too large to ever leave. Even if I tore the entire place down around me, I could not claw my way to the surface from here. Instead, I remain buried in a prison of my parents' making, far beneath a sky I've never seen"

[@mathsalot8099]

Rumor has it, he was created when the DMs cat jumped up on the game table and refused to leave. 😂

[@OneVoiceMore]

Only knowing AD&D for about its first fifteen years or so, I didn't know that lore. All the dragons in the basic and advanced editions were very traditional. I literally exclaimed, "That's no dragon! It's a Blubberwocky!"

[@besupaaa]

BUT THAT'S SO SAD 🥺🥺🥺

[@snorpenbass4196]

The catpeople are called Tabaxi, the birdpeople are Aarakocra (Ah-rah-koe-crah), the druid girl is a tiefling (she has demonic heritage - doesn't make her automatically evil! But people have prejudices towards them). Most others are humans, elves or half-elves (and a few halflings, like Mini Cooper). There's at least one dwarf in the arena scene, and a bunch of dragonborn (the dragon-like humanoids) among the gambling nobles.

[@alacy52]

Until now I totally missed that she's a tiefling. I just assumed the horns were to make her resemble Keyleth as another CR easter egg.

[@TF2CrunchyFrog]

@@alacy52 No, she also has a tail.

[@weldonwin]

The Gelatinous Cube, the thing they jump into in the arena is both one of the most mocked and most horrifying monsters in the game. They are literally just a cube of jelly, that can't move and are more of a trap than an actual monster, since players have to actually blunder into it... And it also slowly digests victims alive, while they are held in the gel, suffocating them, so it's like all the nightmares at once.

[@AnxietyRat]

​@@alacy52 Her appearance absolutely IS a nod towards Keyleth and the actress who plays Doric loves CR... But yeah Doric is a tiefling and has always been. She's just one of the regular skin-toned ones(the original description for tieflings is that they have regular skin tones or potentially red skin. It's really a D&D community fandom thing for tieflings to have funky colored skin. Which I LOVE. But it is NOT in the original description of the race) In the advertisement for this movie they told everyone's class and race. She's always been a tiefling and we knew about it since before the movie came out.

[@JnEricsonx]

@@AnxietyRatMighty Nein FTW!

[@hellomark1]

For me, the most heartbreaking line was Holga saying "You wasted it on me??" 😢

[@IgnorantCrayon]

There's nothing quite like a tavern brawler with improvised weapon!

[@austingillum4807]

The crazy thing about that ‘extended walk’ scene from Xenk? That was reportedly unscripted. The actor who plays Xenk had just begun walking away in character for the scene when the director happened to call CUT…only for the actor to not hear the director and just keep on walking, at which point Chris Pine improvised appropriate in character dialogue from there.

[@maddwitch]

I read that they didn't say cut just to see what he would do and he walked until he hit water.

[@alexkramerblogs]

I don't think the Chris line was as recording day of, but definitely fits the scene!

[@JnEricsonx]

@@alexkramerblogsEven crazier when you see who the original char was supposed to be in place of Xenk? I would have screamed in the theater-in a good way.

[@bendon82]

One of my favorite little Easter Eggs was Simon's character. In D&D sorcerers use Charisma as their main stat, so the fact that he has no self esteem or confidence is why he's not a good sorcerer. That changes when he gains confidence.

[@Icypenguigo]

I LOVE this movie!!! It wonderfully captures the feeling of a homemade D&D campaign!! I adore that Chris Pine's character is a Bard! Bards don't get a lot of respect, but they are useful and helpful party members! If you've never played D&D, then you should! You could have an experience like this movie every time you play! :D

[@zenbyo]

30:25 that other party running behind them look just like the 80's "Dungeon's and Dragon's" cartoon characters.

[@kennyjames4679]

This movie nailed what D&D is all about.

[@kathyice9100]

If it's any consolation, the Speak With Dead spell has a duration. Dude will go back to being dead once the spell wears off.

[@mathsalot8099]

He'll be fine in a minute or ten. 😂

[@Zamrod]

He should...but the joke was that it'll never wear off. This is true mainly because the movie does not follow the rules at all. Nearly every spell cast in the movie broke the rules in some fairly major way.

[@daverhoden445]

They didn't cast the spell. They used an item. Potentially different rules apply.

[@alexkramerblogs]

I think showing him after the credits leaves a really good opening for the next movie to have some mysterious hooded figure come ask a question about one of the party members and then when they go for a follow up the corpse falls back down.

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

35:47 that scene just is this movie's version of the 2012 Avengers movie when Hulk throws Loki around then walks away and goes "puni god" lmao

[@HalNordmann]

The filmmakers even admitted so

[@fortunatus1]

Such a great movie! I wish more people went to see it in the theater so there would be sequels.

[@nightflame69]

There are rumors of a possible sequel. Which I would love to see!

[@iiKahuna]

OMG I’m so glad you reacted to this movie! It was a sleeper pick, not a lot of people saw it but I absolutely LOVED IT!!!

[@formergoat]

"Oh Jarnathan!"

[@kaojinn]

Reflecting on this movie, I think the thing I love most about it was that during the journey of each of our main party members, they all had a character arc and found something they werent even looking for. Edgin redeemed himself, Holga found the family she was missing, Simon found his confidence, and Doric found a reason to have faith in people again. The movie was never heavy handed with this message though. It respected the viewer enough to come to its own conclusions. Its something that doesnt feel all that common in modern media...

[@jerrychubb6168]

I really glad that you liked this movie, Addie. I have been rolling dice for D&D (and other games) for over 30 years, and this movie, as opposed to others that came before it, really captured the essence of what a really adventure campaign is. There were also so many Easter Eggs for long-time gamers that made it even better for most of us who know the old lore of the setting they were in while keeping it great for those new to the realm of Dungeons & Dragons. I was fortunate to see this in theaters and it's just plain awesome. Thank you for reacting!

[@TheRealRonMoses]

Five years from now this will be considered a classic of genre cinema. Mark my words. I SAID MARK THEM!!!

[@RJay207]

The nice thing about this movie is that it's D&D! There doesn't have to be actual sequels. Faerûn is vast with tons of locations, characters, lore, creatures... "Honor Amongst Thieves" can be a complete one-shot, but more stories can be told. ♥️

[@DavidNSweeney]

"Do they like song?" Wonderful!

[@rdevries3852]

Not in the last place because one of the classic DnD tropes is the Bard just charming the pants off of everything and everyone. Being attacked by a dragon? The Bard seduces it!

[@MarkCMG]

Thanks for the video! As a lifelong D&Der, I am so glad this movie was made. Much better than any of the previous attempts. John Francis Daley who was in Freaks and Geeks is also a D&D lover from way back. Check out a KZbin clip from that show called "Carlos the Dwarf." Daley's first love letter to D&D!

[@Miroku2235]

Rumor has it that Xenk walked a straight line from the beach to where he captured Forge 😂

[@thatepicwizardguy]

This was kind of a perfect D&D movie. It hit for fans, it's fun for people who know nothing about it, and it's just a fun fantasy adventure. They pretty much just nailed it across the board.

[@erikbjelke4411]

There is SO MUCH in this film that requires zero understanding of DnD, but makes much more sense if you do. Simon's issues with magic, he has low self-confidence and Sorcerers use Charisma for their spellcasting, he fails Concentration checks, and he has Wild Magic so things rarely go according to plan. Holga definitely has the Tavern Brawler feat. Edgin uses Bardic Inspiration to keep the team together and functioning at their best. Themberchaud has trouble with his fire breath because the DM had lousy rolls for recharging it. 12:37: "That's so dramatic! Why?!" Because if the DM can't ham it up when playing the Big Bad, why even play?

[@alexkramerblogs]

Watched this with my DnD group (mostly family and work friends), and we all loved it! Afterward our Druid character was asking our DM "can I wildshape into an owlbear, too!?" (Usually a creature like owlbear isn't on the approved list of potential animals) so our DM gave a hint there may be an item that would help in this regard.

[@JnEricsonx]

::points to BG3::: Owlbear from the top rope!

[@Unam-et-Solum]

It's a great type of movie to make more with different actors in different parties, or keep it the same guys - it all works. Captures the nuances of D&D so well.

[@charleshartley9597]

Long time DnD player here. I agree 100% Addie, this is so much fun, I enjoyed this so much. Yeah, the writing is solid, the way you write a fun story. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@akashharripersaud2386]

This movie has become my comfort film! The graveyard scene is genuinely hilarious!

[@dematar]

I've watched several reactions to this movie, and they all say the same thing, that it was a great movie. That said, I saw this in theaters, and I was the only person in the entire theater. I loved it. This is one of those movies you can watch over and over.

[@ChaoticRad]

I also want more. I think a lot of people do, but unfortunately it came out at a weird time and I don't think it got the box office it deserved. So fun, and one of my favorites from the year.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

As wierd as it may sound, not only is the lore in the movie accurate to the lore of the Forgotten Realms setting, but everything works in accordance to the rules (With some Rule of Cool exceptions).

[@urborg74]

This movie is great fun for those who don't know any of the backstory or setting. For those who know it's pure genius.

[@-EchoesIntoEternity-]

Addie was not expecting that mini cooper

[@dereknolin5986]

Ba dum tss!

[@bridgethaines7127]

This movie was so absolutely a D&D game brought to life. I loved every moment of it and I hope they make another.

[@StephenRichmond89]

It's been a looooong time since I've played D&D but I *think* I'm right in saying that every spell/ability/location/organisation/item is a real thing from D&D, even the chunky dragon, and despite not remotely remembering D&D lore I think that's why it works so much better than we might expect. Attention to detail sort of bleeds over into the film's ethos. It's like how in Lord of the Rings they painted the skirting boards at Edoras and that behind the scenes tid bit always stuck with me because it's not that you see the skirting boards really, it's just that when you take on that mentality it somehow seems to magically come across in the film itself! Even when it is a very silly/fun movie like this. It really is a little triumph and I hope the people who made it know how good a job they did.

[@cardsfanboy]

There were a few rules violations, and the writers acknowledge that they went with the rule of cool (meaning if it's cool, they bent the rules for it, most notably two scenes with Doric (Owlbear is not a potential shapeshift character for a Druid, and she exceeded the limits of her shapeshifting in the escape sequence) But for the most part they followed the rules and kept everything genuine.

[@StephenRichmond89]

@@cardsfanboy to be fair to them though you could very easily argue that plenty of DMs would do exactly the same.

[@THG-3141]

​@@StephenRichmond89I know in games I've played if a thing was substantially cool enough... To quote Todd Howard, it just works.

[@kaojinn]

Hell, no doubt this movie was the reason Owlbear was added to Baldur's Gate 3 as a shapeshift option. Technically an Owlbear is considered a monstrosity type creature, but a quick fudge to consider it a beast, and that makes it a cool shapeshift option :)

[@StephenRichmond89]

@kaojinn I'm 50/50 on whether you're correct or whether BG and the movie were both in production around the same time and may have coordinated but they're both drawing on the Geek and Sundry content making owl bears something of "a thing" in the last few years?

[@MadcapMatt]

It's sad we probably won't get a sequel for this movie. It was very well done and highly reviewed by critics and fans but didn't make more than its budget at the box office.

[@hawkname1234]

It made a lot more than it's budget when factoring in international and post-release revenue. It was one of the top streamed movies all year.

[@donkeyteethbites]

There’s been some talk lately and it sounds like there’s at least a possibility of a sequel. I hope so because this is one of my favorite movies in a long time especially as a dnd nerd

[@POLESTAR757]

loved this movie, they filmed the end harbour bit in the town i grew up in (northern ireland)

[@williamozier918]

As a D&D nerd they nailed it. And the way they presented Atunement in this movie was so much better than how it's presented in the game. My only nitpick is that for the main character being a bard, I didn't feel the bard was bardy enough, and I always imagined Harpers as the James Bonds of the D&D world; so I liked Ed, I think they just didn't go hard enough on him for him being a Bard and a Harper.

[@Fluffykeith]

I love so much that this had Themberchaud in it. He's my favourite thing in the Out Of The Abyss campaign....gotta love the pudgy dragon....

[@blackdragon227]

The bit with using the tablet always gets my eyes wet. Such a heartwarming scene.

[@jinchoung]

i was really surprised how good it was. lol, "barbie, oppenheimer is right up there but dungeons and dragons-" i'm sure they will be very very pleased to hear that!

[@tribaltalker1608]

I went with my teenage daughter to watch this at our local cinema. She's not a D&D player but loved it anyway, as did I. It is one of the very few good D&D related movies. Such a shame it was so heavily out-promoted by other movies at launch. I suspect that it will be considered a "classic movie" in the future.

[@MarcoMM1]

Awsome reaction like always, the "fat" dragon its called Themberchaud and he appears for the first time in D&D in Drizz't Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark in 1999 which was a 2nd Edition supplement for the Forgotten Realms setting, but in 2015 an adventure called "Out of the Abyss" came out and it was where he got well knowned in D&D in general. And he was basically raised as a living furnace, sitting in place using his breath to heat up metal while being given endless food. That's why he's a lazy chonker! It was really cool seeing him on screen. And a fun-fact that Themberchaud was first conceptualized when Gary Gygax (Co-creator of D&D) was running a game and a cat jumped onto the table during the session and started knocking things over, he improvised and used the cat as a fat dragon, who later had their lore expanded to become Themberchaud. God i grew up playing D&D and i love this movie hope it gets a sequel. Keep up the amazing work.

[@KthulhuXxx]

Gygax had little to nothing to do with any Forgotten Realms products, and by the time of Themberchaud's first appearance in 1999, he had been gone from the company for 13 years.

[@krashd]

@@KthulhuXxx Marco never said Gary had anything to do with Forgotten Realms, they simply said he created a concept.

[@travisanderson77]

This movie is great for those who don't play D&D and even better for those who do :) There are so many little jokes and inside references! The classes of the main party (and Zenk) in the game of D&D don't really have much use for the Intelligence stat. That's why the Intellect Devourers walked right past them lol

[@SeanBlader]

Daley and Goldstein who are the writers and directors, got the cast together to do a one-shot of D&D so they had an idea of what they were getting into.

[@eckce]

Went in with low expectations with me and some friends, we were the only people in the theater and we all had an absolute blast! It was easily one of my favorite movies of the year and my expectations were blown away!

[@SnarkyRogue]

A lot of people seem to miss the joke that Edgin makes/brings Kira mittens as a gift when they first reunite... but now she's living in Neverwinter. Another nod that he's sort of not on her wavelength.

[@dereknolin5986]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think every spell in this movie is basically a version or modified version of a spell from the game! It was so fun for me who has played various spellcasters over the years to name in my head the spells as they appeared on the screen!

[@daverhoden445]

The only thing missing was someone throwing fireball in a space that's really really too small for a fireball spell.

[@OneVoiceMore]

The World of Greyhawk? I was an adventurer there once, like these guys. Then, I took an arrow to the knee...

[@dmmmitry8450]

That ending in prison is everything.

[@garrickkthegreat5762]

I hope they make this a franchise, they could easily do it by just having the cast play a game of dnd and write down what happens and make that into the movie.

[@OneVoiceMore]

I played D&D long before it started to catch on in the late '70s, and for a decade after. There is no such thing as 'explaining' D&D. You play it, you wing it and you learn it by doing. You either hate it or love it. That's how it was with a tabletop full of miniatures, dice, paper and pencils, and the best imaginations you could gather on some nights. This movie's monsters are incredibly faithfully represented, and I see references from across the generations and incarnations of the Adam of all fantasy RPGs. Displacer beasts, an owlbear, etc, and of course the namesake Dragon--- with a glandular condition... okay, I chuckled, but dragons were no laughing matter. D&D was about learning to ACT, as a gaming skill. To step into roles that I'm sure thousands of people will remember their entire lives. You made a character from the ground up, no instant spawn, and you put thought into it. That's why the genre has endured. That's why this movie works. Likeable characters from the onset you'd feel comfortable hanging around with for an adventure, compelling villains, and a world where the extraordinary is ordinary, and the spectacular is awe-inspiring. The horrors are real, too. But this movie remembered to have fun. In a sense, it's a little self-parodying, or subtle meta, as much of the dialog is what some players would call "out of character"--- the remarks you make that go across the tabletop, but don't actually come out of your character's mouth. "Pass the chips" for instance, or some of the modern, grounding vernacular used in the movie's dialog. Cell phone stones must be a new magic item. I'm still stuck on the OG treasure lists--- so there were surprises for the old veterans and the contemporary players alike. Yes. Franchise.

[@dereknolin5986]

How "long before" are you talking? Because it only came out in 1974, only a few years before what I would consider the "late '70s."

[@OneVoiceMore]

@olin5986 Sounds like a bit of a pedantic observation, which doesn't even contradict what I said, but I'll bite: Clear back to when its origins were in a Gygax game called "Chain Mail". It was largely a tabletop fantasy war game--- mostly medieval military, represented by pewter miniatures. That was the early '70s when I became aware of it. It wasn't precisely roleplaying, but a later edition included Heroes, Wizards, Halflings, etc, and when D&D came out, we already had the dice and miniatures. What caught on most at its peak was AD&D, which is really what swept the nation.70 In what MOST would consider the late '70s (77-79) the game sales spiked so much it outsold MONOPOLY for its first half-decade. So, you can work out whatever math makes it worth it to move onto the bulk of what I said/

[@dereknolin5986]

@@OneVoiceMore Ok, I wasn't sure if you were there since the Chainmail days or not. And then before Chainmail there was Arneson's Blackmoor and David Wesley's Braunstein's game, and at some point it becomes difficult to say what was really "the first" role-playing game. I might have been overly splitting hairs there--I suppose time is subjective. Three or four years doesn't seem that long to me. By the way, the "cell phone stones" are called "speaking stones" from the Eberron campaign setting and so have been around about twenty years, which is either a long time or not that long, depending on your perspective.

[@sterlinggecko3269]

for a franchise to truly capture Dungeons and Dragons, they need to have the same actors play wildly different characters, and have one or more die in the middle and a new character played by the same actor shows up immediately.

[@TabbyQ.9563]

Lots of Easter eggs for DND players. They did pretty well with the spells. I love how they used Mage Hand. But there is no way a druid can Wild Shape that many times in a single day.

[@AnxietyRat]

Yeah the writers are very clearly stated that they ABSOLUTELY use the rule of cool in this movie. So yeah, she shape-shifted significantly more often than she should have been able to but it was a cool sequence so they let it slide. 🤷‍♀️ She also shouldn't have been able to wildshape into an owlbear but again... rule of cool.

[@ThePonderer]

One of my favorites of last year.

[@lsaria5998]

*sees two angry displacer beasts* "Do they like songs?" Never have I wanted to play DnD with someone more than at this moment...

[@KthulhuXxx]

I think the implication was that it was ONE displacer beast.

[@AnxietyRat]

​@@KthulhuXxxyeah it was only one. They can project an illusion of themselves to trick whoever they're hunting.

[@JnEricsonx]

@@AnxietyRatMy first actual D&D game after the prologue fight, last week. Im on watch, roll a 26 in Perception(19+7 FTW), and yeah...I see a displacer beast coming to munch on some sleeping adventurers. Me: Uh..Clover? (Our Tabaxi barbarian) You got any relatives or something?

[@thegeekoutgirl]

I really loved this movie too and I hated how underrated it was.

[@Caseytify]

An old AD&D (1st Edition) veteran here. It was nice to see things like a Gelatinous Cube and an Owlbear come to life. Chris Pine has had an extensive career of good movies, including Just My Luck and Blind Dating, both 2006.

[@wynnyx7071]

This movie was supposed to come out at the same time as Baldur's Gate the video game. The game won Game of the Year for 2023, and still winning awards now. 10/10 would love to watch you play that.

[@ShotokanRed]

Few people realize there's a mini-cooper in the movie 😂

[@Melancthon7332]

Everyone who watches this movie loves it, even though not that many went to see it in theaters. It deserves to live a long life as a beloved movie that was underappreciated in its time but grew to become a classic.

[@deyvplays]

36:33 "I did not expect to feel emotional..." Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons

[@davidtrainor9569]

it took me a second viewing to realize he made his daughter mittens and she lives in a place called NEVERWINTER.

[@LightStreak567]

Not many new D&D fans know this, but this is the first Dungeons & Dragons movie that is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The first three D&D movies are set in unknown D&D worlds. The Forgotten Realms is the D&D setting where the Baldur's Gate games are set in (In universe, this movie is set in the same decade (and possibly the same year) as Baldur's Gate 3), and R.A. Salvatore's novels about the drow ranger hero Drizzt Do'Urden. 23:21 Themberchaud is an interesting dragon. The reason why he is so fat is because the duergar (Underdark dwelling dwarves) that raised him in Gracklstugh used him for decades ever since he was a baby dragon to keep their forges burning hot and fed him anybody to keep him happy. I know Addie is going to feel worse about him when she reads this, but Themberchaud once lamented that the Underdark has become his prison, that he has grown too fat to leave the Underdark, and that he has never seen the sky before. Make no mistake, even though he lives a sad life, he will still try to eat you even if you show him kindness. There was this one time I played the Out of The Abyss adventure with my friends, and when we encountered Themberchaud, one of my companions told him that the Keepers of the Flame plan on killing him and replacing him with a newborn red dragon because he is getting too strong to control (This would explain why he left Gracklstugh to find a new den in this movie), and though Themberchaud thanked us for the information, he also said that he will give us a ten second head start to running before he tries to eat us. Yeah. Fortunately we managed to get away. Never trust a red dragon to show you gratitude.

[@JnEricsonx]

Xenk was originally almost Drizzt, so I read. I'd have FREAKED. Fan since 1989, ::holds up childhood 1st edition Crystal Shard, signed by the man himself:::

[@LightStreak567]

I dunno if you've been keeping up with the Drizzt novels since The Crystal Shard, but he has been through a lot.

[@JnEricsonx]

@@LightStreak567I know. I lost track around the 1 Thousand Orcs book. :(

[@LightStreak567]

@@JnEricsonx Ah, you're in The Hunter's Blades Trilogy. Part of me wants to tell you what happens after The Thousand Orcs, but I'm holding my fingers away from the keyboard.

[@JnEricsonx]

@@LightStreak567Yeah, I know he goes through some shit, thats all I know. I had to apologize to the man for not being up to date.

[@peterireland4344]

When I first saw this, I couldn't believe they dared with the smell of fresh cut grass joke. But I'm glad they did.

[@seanwalters1977]

This movie was way better than I thought it would be. Love it!

[@spacesergeant101]

Put a bit more simply, when Edgin gives the homemade mittens to Kiara she's confused about what they even are, of course implying that Edgin's knitting is pretty bad. But also Kiara's been living a good chunk of her life now in Neverwinter, and what do you think the weather is like in Neverwinter? She neither has a use for mittens nor is very familiar with them. - Also, if you like Chris Pine there's a weird movie I love with him in it called Smokin' Aces.

[@oslafoirausuebutuoy5457]

There is also a Dungeons & Dragons film from 2000 with Jeremy Irons.

[@nyghtmoon]

That was an abomination

[@SilverScribe85]

The "fresh cut grass" line Simon said is actually a reference to Critical Role

[@AnxietyRat]

I mean that's actually slightly debatable. Because when the script for this movie was being written... c3 had not actually started yet... So Sam JOKES that it's a reference to his character but it's kind of unknown if it actually is or not bc of the timing.🤷‍♀️ It could have potentially been a VERY last minute addition to the script...maybe. but Doric is absolutely a reference to Keyleth and the actress who plays Doric loves CR.

[@riolkin]

They bricked up a whole window instead of just giving poor Jarnathan a transfer. When I saw the trailer for the movie I was pretty pessimistic. I thought we would get a B-rated fantasy that somehow managed to score a good cast. Went to see it in theaters anyway because a friend wanted to go, and was so freaking surprised at how much fun it is. There is a lot of easter eggs for fans of DND and Forgotten Realms, but otherwise it doesn't feel the need to lore dump or become the next "Lord of the Rings" styled epic. It just drops you in the middle of a story following a ridiculous group of assholes who somehow fumble their way into being heroes through teamwork, kind of like the Guardians of the Galaxy.