The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016) - Plot Summary Poster


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  • Devastated by a cruel and terrible betrayal, the evil sorceress Queen Ravenna's once-kind younger sister, Freya, renounces love and sees her dormant magical powers emerge. Transformed into an all-powerful Ice-Witch with a frozen heart, Freya retreats to her new kingdom in the North, devoting all her energy to raising a large and invincible army of orphans from the conquered lands: her mighty Huntsmen. However, in this icy realm where love is a sin, two dauntless warriors--Eric and Sara--dare to defy the queen's decree and fall for each other, only to face the disastrous consequences. Now, more and more, the sinister black magic that imbues wicked Ravenna's gold Magic Mirror becomes stronger. Is there a way to stop the advent of the indefatigable dark adversary?


The synopsis below may give away important plot points.


  • Narrator asks "What does the Mirror show you", we are then shown snippets of the first film with a basic recap of Ravenna's defeat. This film is a prequel and also a sequel...

    Now we see Ravenna (Charlize Theron) with her new husband the king on their wedding night and they are playing chess, she kills him and then goes to the Mirror. Then we are at the Funeral where we see Ravenna and her sister Freya (Emily Blunt), she is making eyes with the Duke of Blackwood (Colin Morgan); of course Ravenna sees this. The sisters are playing chess and discussing this romance, the Duke is promised to another and Freya says he does not love her, only Freya. Ravenna then mentions that all of the women of their line are gifted and Freya has not found hers yet and also tells Freya that she is with child; Freya is surprised but happy and finds out she will have a daughter.

    Months later Freya has her daughter, she is a few weeks old now, she receives a letter from the Duke; he wants to elope and run away with her and their child. As she goes to meet him, she notices in her room that flames are everywhere -- she runs to her child. It is too late, the room is charred and it seems that her lover the Duke has killed their daughter and he said he had no choice. Freya destroyed by the loss freezes him and he shatters, she's found her gift. She now leaves and strikes out on her own to the North.

    Freya becomes the most feared Queen of the North which is now a frozen land, she conquers many surrounding lands with her Huntsmen. We see how the Huntsmen kill all of the adults and take only the children, who are now to be trained to be Huntsmen. Since she cannot raise her own child she raises armies. We see a new batch of children and she tells them "How lucky they are to know no suffering again"; she sees a young boy crying and she tells him "Love is a lie" and emphatically tells all of the children "DO NOT LOVE". It is the law and she demands LOYALTY. We then see the children are being rigorously trained with blade and arrow, Freya watches the training by using a frozen owl as her spy.

    The two best are Eric and Sara, she says that she never misses with her arrow, confidently. Now they are older Eric (now Chris Hemsworth) and Sara (Jessica Chastain) ;a new batch of children are being brought in and Tull (Sope Dirisu, the young boy the Queen talked to) is being rude to them. Eric sees a young girl hiding in the wagon and asks her what's wrong, she reveals she's terrified of the Queen, he asks her to make a mean face and she does; he then reveals to keep making her "war face" and then the Queen will never know what you are thinking.

    Later we see Eric is in the castle and Sara grabs him as they are in love, later they are in the hot springs. Sara then takes off her necklace and places it on Eric, as it is her most prized treasure from her mother; now they are married. They then make plans to run away and agree to meet in the courtyard. When they arrive, all of the Huntsmen are there and the Queen as well, she used her owl to spy, of course. Freya is disgusted at their betrayal and tells them to go to each other IF they can, each must fight off many other of the Huntsmen. It appears they are about to win and go to each other, then Freya puts up an Ice Wall between them. Then we see Tull kill Sara and Eric tries desperately to punch the wall and get to her busting up his hands, then he gets knocked out, the Queen says to get rid of him and Tull throws him into the River...

    Narrator tells us that Freya's Empire grew while Ravenna's fell, it is now seven years later. We see Eric is putting wild flowers at a memorial for Sara. William (Sam Claflin) shows up telling Eric that the Queen, Snow White is going insane from the Mirror as it was whispering to her. They sent the Mirror to the Sanctuary, they must get it to the Sanctuary since the Mirror is still powerful, Eric grabs his Ax and throws it at the frozen owl was watching them and destroys it, but Freya knows... Eric then tells William to make haste and get the Mirror to safety. We see that Freya is in her Throne room and many frozen figures are there, she then makes plans to get the Mirror.

    Now Eric is tracking the party taking the Mirror and finds all of the Snow Whites soldiers are dead and seemingly killed each other, but one has a arrow made out of gold and diamonds. Now Eric has two dwarfs with him Nion (Nick Frost) and Gryff (Rob Brydon) and advises them they need to get off the road. Now they are in a Tavern and Eric is trying to find out information about the soldiers, meanwhile Nion hits on a Bar Wench and is not successful. Eric asks why the dwarfs do not date female dwarfs, they both say that the females are ugly and Eric wonders where the baby dwarfs come from, the "boys" say only if they got drunk. Some men approach Eric and Nion makes big talk of Eric as "The" Huntsman, these men reveal themselves as Huntsmen as well. So, of course a fight ensues, as the fight is now outside it looks like Eric is about to lose. Then an arrow shoots through the hand of the Huntsman about to kill him, the hooded figure fights off all of the Huntsmen and it is revealed to be Sara. Eric is shocked to see her and she slugs him, she has the two dwarfs and Eric tied up. It turns out that Eric saw a false image by the Queen and Sara saw Eric turn tail and run and not even fight for her. Sara was put in the dungeon for seven years, she is bitter, of course, and it looks like she is gonna kill him. Eric then says if he is going to die by her hand but gets to see her face then he is happy, she then kicks him in the groin.

    The four now continue on the quest, and they are then captured by two female dwarfs in a net trap. The first female is called Mrs. Bromwyn (Sheridan Smith) and the second one Doreena (Alexandra Roach) who is a little dim but sweet. Mrs. Bromwyn seems to be sweet on Eric, but really wants to kill Nion and Gryff, Eric gives the Arrow made of gold and diamonds to her and she relents, since Eric says he is fond of the 'boys'. She then tells everyone that the arrow comes from the Goblins, who are master thieves and very greedy and that is where they are headed to next. The 'girls' of course want all of the loot that they can carry as payment, no problem for the others. When they get to the Goblins territory, they can see that the Mirror has already made them kill each other as well and they can tell that their blood is made of tar. They find the Mirror and Eric tells the dwarfs to cover it up and not look into it, then a Goblin comes after them, the two Huntsmen fight and kill him. Sara softens somewhat when she sees that Eric still has the necklace, he informs her that he has never taken it off. As they go to leave a horde of Goblins attack them, Eric tells Sara to go as he'll fight them off. He cuts a rope bridge that crosses some caustic water and fights on, Sara decides to shoot them with a flaming arrow since their blood is made of tar, they all explode. Somehow, Eric has made it across the water, perhaps the explosion propelled him over. Eric asks if Sara was crying, he smirks.

    The six of them decide to wait until morning to go to the Sanctuary. At night Sara and Eric are talking, she tells him she's done unforgivable things, he says they all have and they embrace and make love. In the morning an ill wind seems to be coming and the Mirror is slightly uncovered and whispers to Eric, he pulls his blade as Sara has awoken, he ask her "Have you been true?". Frost suddenly appears everywhere and the Queen and her Hunstmen arrive, it is revealed that Sara has been working for Freya all along. Doreen and Nion make a stand and tell Freya she cannot have the Mirror and she freezes them, then her men take the Mirror and the two frozen dwarfs. Freya then orders Sara to kill Eric and she then takes her arrow and shoots him. As the Queen makes her exit, Gryff and Mrs. Bromwyn go to Eric as he obviously is dead... Then he bolts upright and says how much that hurt, he realizes that Sara shot him in the pendant of the necklace and he knows, she never misses.

    Freya asks the Mirror who is the fairest, then suddenly Ravenna morphs out of it, who is not dead, nor alive. She then informs Freya that her army will help her retake Snow's kingdom in the South as Freya owes her anyway. Eric sends the two dwarfs in and they are caught, however they handle the one guard easily. Eric scales the mountain and slides down the roofs nearly falling to his death, however, his ax saves him. He then tells himself this was a stupid plan. He is intent on killing Freya, who is now telling her "children" about the dangerous mission on taking on Snow White. Her heart is not in as she tells them of this plan, she has doubts about Ravenna. Now Eric takes his shot, all of the sudden Ravenna appears and catches it then tells Eric how much she's missed him. Freya cannot believe that she has been betrayed by love again, she stammers in how to punish them, Ravenna makes her save face by putting them to death.

    The other Huntsmen call Eric and Sara traitors, Eric tells them that Freya is the one by taking them all from their families. Tull seems swayed by Eric, as they are about to be killed; Eric tells Sara "Stand or fall together". They both grasp each others hand, then Tull who is to execute them frees them instead. As Ravenna is about kill them all, Freya protects her children by putting up an Ice wall once again. Freya wants to know how she owes her sister, Ravenna then reveals she made the Duke kill their daughter. We then see that Mirror revealed to Ravenna that Freya's daughter will be far more beautiful than her... Freya then tells her that she loved her daughter so much they then fight, Freya is wounded. Ravenna then attacks the Huntsmen, Freya goes to embrace her sister then tries to freeze her, Ravenna then wounds her sister again. Ravenna tries to kill Eric and Freya (who is mortally wounded) then touches the ground to freeze the wall where the Mirror is, Eric then sees his chance to strike it with his Ax and Ravenna then crumbles to the ground.

    As Eric and Sara embrace Freya says "How lucky you are" and dies. Many of the people who were frozen are released and everyone is joyous. The Narrator then tells us "Even after buried under snow and ice, Love survives." The End. .

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