This Legendary Horse Becomes A Hero By Ending A 30-Year War

John Lee

Transcript

00:00Hi, Mystery Recapped here. Today, I'm going to explain a war drama movie called War Horse.

00:07Spoilers ahead. Watch out and take care.

00:13In 1914, a local boy from Devon named Albert Narricot watches his neighbor's horse give

00:20birth to a foal. He is left completely mesmerized as the recently born animal struggles to get up

00:25to its feet, mesmerized and scarred for life. As time passes by, Albert grows up and so does his

00:31fascination with the foal. He regularly visits his neighbor Mooney's farm and tries to form a bond

00:37with it. However, in a matter of a few years, the foal grows into a healthy Bay Irish colt,

00:42a breed mostly used in show jumping. Mooney takes several of his animals, including the horses,

00:47to the local open-air market. He enlists the colt in an auction, hoping to make some money for his

00:52family. Meanwhile, Albert's alcoholic father, Ted, also attends the auction with several of his

00:58friends. He is currently looking for a farming horse that can plow the stony sections of his land.

01:03But when he sees Mooney's colt, he is instantly enamored by it. His friends remind him that he

01:08needs a workhorse and not a show animal. Nonetheless, when the auction starts, Ted immediately bids for

01:13the Bay Irish colt. His landlord, Mr. Lyons, is also present there with his son, David, and has his eyes

01:19set on the same horse. The landlord then enters the auction and soon a bidding war breaks out. Ted,

01:25who is an extremely proud man, refuses to back down and keeps upping the bid. He eventually ends

01:30up buying the colt for 30 guineas, an extremely high price for that era. Guinea pigs were expensive

01:37after all. This leaves him with very little money to continue his livelihood. Meanwhile, Mr. Lyons is

01:42enraged that he ended up on the losing side, so he reminds Ted that his rent is due in a few weeks' time.

01:48Following this, Ted arrives home with the lean and gorgeous-looking horse. His wife, Rosie,

01:53is disappointed knowing that they needed an animal for farm work instead of a young colt. Ted tells

01:58her everything that happened at the auction and how he outbid their landlord. But this makes Rosie

02:04even angrier, and she questions how they will pay the rent now. On the other hand, their son,

02:08Albert, is more than thrilled to see the animal. This is the same horse that he had been fascinated

02:12with since childhood. He begs his mother to let them keep it, and even promises that he will train

02:17the horse to help in the farm. After much insistence, Rosie eventually allows him to keep it,

02:23hoping that her son can undo the damage his father has done. In the following weeks,

02:27Albert remains steadfast in his decision to train the colt. He names it Joey, and spends several

02:32hours each day working with it. Albert and his best friend Andrew even teach the horse to rush

02:37towards them when they hoot like an owl. The horse has been trained to kill owls, but the boys don't

02:42know that. However, things begin to go bad when Mr. Lyons arrives at the Narricot household a few

02:48days later. It is revealed that Ted had previously taken a loan from Lyons, and is currently short on

02:53money. Ted assures that he will repay the full amount once they plow their land and finish harvesting

02:58their crops. But Lyons laughs at this suggestion, saying that the fancy horse he bought is useless on

03:04farmland. To humiliate the Narricots further, he proposes a deal. If they can get the horse to plow their

03:10fields, he will give them an extension for their loan repayment. But if the full debt is not paid

03:14by October, he will take their house, farms, as well as the horse. Following this, a desperate Ted gets

03:21to the barn and tries to put a collar on Joey. He struggles to do so, and the horse pushes him off

03:26in irritation. Albert also arrives in the barn and quickly calms his horse down. The young boy promises

03:31his father that he'll teach Joey how to plow their land. As the days pass by, Albert manages to gain

03:37Joey's trust and successfully puts a collar on him. He regularly takes Joey to the fields,

03:42trying to teach the animal how to plow. One such afternoon, Mr. Lyons and several villagers arrive

03:47to watch Albert's progress. The young boy, feeling the pressure, grabs a whip and hits the ground in a

03:53desperate attempt to get his horse moving. But this scares the animal, and it bolts forward, dragging the

03:58youngster along the ground. Albert remains steadfast and keeps up his hard work, but to no avail.

04:04Soon, the rain starts pouring, and Mr. Lyons gleefully announces that Ted has lost the deal.

04:10Albert, however, notices that the rain has made the ground softer, and encourages his horse to

04:15continue. He finally manages to start plowing the field, and the gathered villagers cheer for him.

04:20As a result, Mr. Lyons is forced to accept his loss, and begrudgingly agrees to give the

04:26Narricots further time to repay the debt. Following this, Rosie and Albert have a conversation in the

04:31barn, where the latter expresses his frustrations towards his dad. He blames his father's short

04:36temper and alcohol addiction for landing them in this mess. Hearing this, Rosie tells her son about

04:41Ted's past, a subject that he rarely discusses. She says that Ted doesn't limp because he is mostly

04:47drunk, rather because he has a wartime injury. Rosie then shows Albert his father's medals from the

04:53Second Boer War in South Africa, where he served as a sergeant with the Imperial Yeomanry. He was severely

04:59wounded in action, and received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for Bravery Under Fire. Giving Albert

05:04his father's regimental pennant, Rosie adds that Ted is not proud of what he did during the war. He

05:10later threw the flag and medals away, though Rosie saved them and kept them hidden. After learning all

05:15of this, Albert comes out of the barn with a newfound respect for his father. He keeps the pennant,

05:20and watches on as Ted plants seeds in the freshly plowed land. However, things take a turn for the worse,

05:26as a few weeks later, a heavy storm arrives over Devon. Ted wakes up the next morning,

05:31only to find that their crops have been utterly destroyed by the rain. He now has no option but to

05:36sell Joey and repay Lyons with the money. The following day, Albert is in the village's market,

05:41when a soldier arrives on a motorbike. He stops his vehicle in the middle of the market square,

05:46and asks everyone to gather around. The soldier then announces that the government

05:50has declared war against Germany. Shortly afterwards, Albert rushes home with this news,

05:55only to find his mother sobbing in the kitchen. He asks where his father is, but Rosie doesn't utter

06:00a word. The youngster then rushes to the barn and finds that Joey is nowhere to be seen. Following this,

06:06he runs back to the market and discovers that his father has sold Joey to Captain James Nichols of the

06:12British Army. Albert desperately tries to enlist in the army so he can be near his horse, but is rejected

06:17for being too young. Albert then follows Joey and ties his father's pennant around the horse's bridle.

06:23He promises to find Joey and bring it back home. Meanwhile, the horse is taken to the military

06:28stable and kept alongside Topthorn, a majestic black horse that belongs to a high-ranking official,

06:34Major Jamie. Joey is trained alongside Topthorn for his military role, and the two horses become

06:40close friends. Captain Nichols, meanwhile, draws several sketches of Joey and mails them to Albert,

06:45hoping to ease the young boy's worries. As the First World War rolls in, the two horses are deployed

06:51to France under the command of Major Jamie. The English soldiers maneuver towards the battlefield,

06:56hoping to catch the German force in a surprise attack. All the soldiers, including Captain Nichols,

07:01charge into battle on their horses. Things work out for the British Army initially, as they do catch the

07:06enemy off guard, but the Germans soon turn the tide by deploying machine guns that they had hidden in the

07:12nearby forest. This surprise ambush overwhelms the British, leaving only a handful of survivors.

07:18Captain Nichols and Major Jamie are also killed, but their horses, Joey and Topthorn, survive.

07:24After the battle, a 14-year-old German soldier named Michael is given the responsibility to use the

07:29two horses as ambulance wagons for injured soldiers. Joey and Topthorn are then made to relentlessly carry

07:35wounded soldiers to a nearby infirmary. After some time, Michael is assigned to the battlefront,

07:40while his elder brother Gunther is commanded to stay with the horses for quick assistance. But

07:45the latter is extremely worried that his little brother will perish on the front line. The next

07:50day, as the German troops start marching, Gunther rides Joey and gives his brother Topthorn, but the

07:56two don't head towards their assigned posts and instead run away from the camp. Their goal is to

08:01ride to Italy, but they stop for the night to hide in a farm's windmill. This is when their luck runs out,

08:06as they are quickly discovered by two German soldiers. They are then executed outside the

08:11windmill for deserting the army. The following morning, a young orphaned French girl named Emily

08:17finds the two horses inside the windmill. She also finds Joey's pennant nearby and takes it for herself.

08:23It is then revealed that Emily lives at a nearby farm with her grandfather. One afternoon, German soldiers

08:28arrive at the farm and confiscate all food and supplies from their property. Emily quickly hides in

08:34her bedroom along with the horses. How do you hide horses in a bedroom? Her grandfather is able to

08:39talk them out of trouble and the soldiers leave without checking the bedroom. Shortly after,

08:44Emily has a conversation with her grandfather. Through it, it is revealed that she suffers from

08:48a disease that makes her bones fragile and thus she is not allowed to ride the horses for fear of falling.

08:55Nonetheless, Emily's birthday arrives and the grandfather allows her to ride Joey. She is extremely excited

09:01and gallops the horse up the hill adjacent to their farm. This proves to be a dreadful mistake as she

09:06accidentally runs into the German soldiers who ransacked their farm earlier. The old man is thus

09:13forced to offer the two horses as a payment for his granddaughter's life, but he does manage to keep

09:18Joey's pennant secretly. Following this, Joey and Topthorn, along with other horses, are forced into

09:24pulling German heavy artillery. The animals are pushed to their limits and many of them collapse from

09:29exhaustion. They serve in this brutal task under care of the German private Friedrich Hegelmann,

09:34who loves horses and tries to help them survive. But the captain of the German camp shows no mercy

09:40and shoots down the weaker ones. By the year 1918, Albert and his friend Andrew have enlisted in the

09:45English army. They are currently embroiled in the Second Battle of the Somme under the command of Mr.

09:50Lyons' son, David. There is no love lost between the two, even on the battlefield. David takes every

09:56opportunity to mock Albert, teasing him about his persistent hooting like an owl. But, unbeknownst

10:02to him, Albert keeps making that noise in hopes that Joey may somehow hear it and rush back to him.

10:08I know it's for the sake of dramatic movie magic, but in what alternate universe would someone at this

10:12point actually hold out hope that their horse was just within earshot? One afternoon, a bomb explodes

10:18near the English trench, and all the soldiers take their positions to respond to possible enemy fire.

10:23David soon gives the command, and the soldiers charge forward as one single unit. In the chaos

10:28and confusion, Albert and David find themselves side by side. They forget their differences

10:33momentarily, and fight together for their country. Shortly afterwards, Albert manages to take down a

10:39German soldier, who is holed up in a pillbox with a machine gun. This allows several English soldiers,

10:45including Albert and Andrew, to successfully reach the enemy's trenches. Things, however,

10:49take a dark turn when a mustard gas bomb explodes right behind Andrew, creating unforeseen devastation.

10:57On the other hand, Private Friedrich Hagelmann watches on as German troops begin to retreat to

11:02their barracks. He has managed to keep Joey and Topthorne alive throughout several years of hard

11:07labor. But with chaos erupting everywhere, Topthorne finally succumbs to exhaustion and dies.

11:12Friedrich is then dragged away by other German soldiers, leaving Joey to face an oncoming tank.

11:18Eventually, Joey jumps over the tank and runs into No Man's Land. He gallops through the devastated

11:24town of Somme, and eventually gets entangled in the barbed wire between the English and German

11:28trenches. That night, soldiers from both sides spot the animal from their respective trenches.

11:33A British soldier named Colin soon waves a white flag and crosses into the No Man's Land. A German

11:39soldier named Pieter also comes over with wire cutters, and together, they free Joey from the

11:44barbed wire. The German wants to take the horse on their side, but Colin says,

11:48me came here first. They eventually decide to toss a coin, and Colin wins, finally bringing Joey safely

11:54to his side. Elsewhere, we get to know that Andrew has been killed by the gas attack, but Albert has

12:00survived. He is temporarily blinded and has bandages covering his eyes. Albert is recuperating at a British

12:06medical camp when he overhears talk about a miraculous horse rescued from No Man's Land. The army doctor

12:11then instructs the camp sergeant, James Fry, to put the horse down because he cannot dedicate medical

12:17efforts to an animal at this moment. But when Fry is about to shoot, Joey hears the owl call that he

12:23learned as a colt. Suddenly, the camera shifts, and we see Albert being led towards Joey. He once again

12:29sounds his owl call, and the horse hurries to meet his long-lost friend. Albert, with bandages still

12:37covering his eyes, gives an exact description of the horse's body markings. The other soldiers wash

12:42away the animal, and reveal each marking just as Albert had described. The doctor then assures Albert

12:48that they will take care of the horse. We still don't have the money to do that, and people will die

12:52because of it, but movie magic, my boy. A few months later, as both Albert and Joey get better,

12:58the armistice is declared. The First World War comes to an end, but Albert is hit with bad news.

13:03He learns that only officer's horses will be shipped home, while the rest will be sold in an auction.

13:09He desperately gathers funds from his fellow soldiers to purchase Joey, but it proves to be a

13:13difficult task. On the day of the auction, Albert finds himself losing a bidding war with none other

13:19than Emily's grandfather. The old man wants to buy Joey in memory of his granddaughter, who recently

13:24passed away. He even announces that should anyone bid against him again, he will sell his farm and

13:30increase the bid to £1,000. No other bid is placed, and the grandfather eventually takes ownership of

13:36Joey. After the auction, Albert pleads his case with Emily's grandfather, who remains unmoved, but the

13:41old man is surprised when the horse chooses to return to Albert, as if to say goodbye. This is when the

13:47old man shows Albert the military pennant that Emily had found all those years ago. Albert's quick

13:52recognition of the pennant convinces the grandfather that Joey is indeed his horse. Thus, he returns

13:59Joey to the young man and tells him to take great care of it. Unless, of course, you'd like me to adopt

14:05you as my new daughter. As the movie comes to an end, Albert returns with his beloved horse to his

14:10family's farm. He hugs his parents and returns the pennant to his father, who is proud that his son

14:15has become a man, but somehow not even a little bit surprised by that insane string of coincidences.

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