Harry Potter's summer is ruined when a frantic house-elf named Dobby warns him that returning to Hogwarts will mean certain death. Undeterred, Harry flies back to school in an enchanted car, only to find the castle gripped by fear. Mysterious whispers echo through the corridors, and students are found petrified as a dark force reopens the legendary Chamber of Secrets. With the school under threat of closure, Harry must uncover the truth about the Heir of Slytherin and face a terror that lurks deep beneath the castle.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United Kingdom United States |
Premiere date |
November 15, 2002 |
Running time |
161 minutes |
Genre |
Fantasy Adventure Mystery Family |
Budget |
$100,000,000 |
Box Office |
$879,793,867 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Chris Columbus |
Produced by |
David Heyman |
Written by |
Steve Kloves |
Music by |
John Williams |
Cinematography |
Roger Pratt |
Edited by |
Peter Honess |
Production Co. |
Warner Bros. Pictures Heyday Films |
Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #02 in Harry Potter Collection
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The Plot
The House-Elf's Warning
In 1992, shortly after concluding his first year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter finds himself trapped in a miserable summer at the Dursleys' home. Forbidden from using magic and cut off from the wizarding world, Harry is isolated; his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have even padlocked his owl, Hedwig, inside her cage. To make matters worse, Harry has not received a single letter from his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. On the evening of his twelfth birthday, July 31st, Harry discovers the source of this silence: a house-elf named Dobby appears in his bedroom. Dobby warns Harry of a mortal danger waiting for him at Hogwarts and admits to intercepting Harry’s mail to make him feel abandoned, hoping this would discourage him from returning to school.
Despite the house-elf’s desperate pleas, Harry refuses to promise he will stay away. Realizing words are failing, Dobby resorts to force to get Harry expelled. He sneaks downstairs where the Dursleys are hosting a critical dinner party for Mr. and Mrs. Mason, potential clients for Vernon’s drill company, Grunnings. Using a Hover Charm, Dobby levitates a massive cake Petunia has baked and drops it squarely on Mrs. Mason’s head. The disaster ruins the dinner and Vernon's chance at a major career breakthrough. Furious, Vernon blames Harry and imprisons him, fitting metal bars onto his bedroom window to ensure he never returns to Hogwarts.
Escape to the Burrow
The imprisonment does not last long. The following night, Ron Weasley, accompanied by his older twin brothers Fred and George, arrives outside Harry’s barred window in an enchanted, flying Ford Anglia belonging to their father, Arthur Weasley. They rip the bars from the wall and whisk Harry away to The Burrow, the Weasley family home. There, Harry meets Arthur, who works for the Ministry of Magic's Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and enjoys a warm, pleasant stay unlike anything he experienced at Privet Drive.
Eventually, the family travels via the Floo Network to Diagon Alley to purchase school supplies for the upcoming year, including items for Ron’s younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who is starting her first year. At Flourish and Blotts, they attend a chaotic book signing for Gilderoy Lockhart, a flamboyant celebrity author recently appointed as Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. The event turns tense when the group encounters their rival, Draco Malfoy, and his father, Lucius Malfoy. Lucius, a chief Hogwarts governor, mocks Mr. Weasley regarding his recent Muggle Protection Act. Amidst the confrontation, Lucius slips a battered black diary into Ginny’s cauldron unnoticed before leaving.
The Flying Car and the Whomping Willow
On September 1st, the group heads to King's Cross Station. However, when Harry and Ron attempt to cross the barrier to Platform 9¾, they find it inexplicably sealed, causing them to crash into the wall and miss the Hogwarts Express. Suspecting no other option, they fly the enchanted Ford Anglia to Scotland. The journey is perilous; the car's Invisibility Booster fails due to fuel exhaustion, exposing the flying vehicle to numerous Muggles. Upon arriving at Hogwarts, the car loses power and crashes violently into the Whomping Willow. The tree attacks them, damaging the car and snapping Ron’s wand in half. The semi-sentient vehicle ejects the boys and their luggage before driving itself wild into the Forbidden Forest.
The boys are immediately caught by the caretaker, Argus Filch, and brought before Professor Severus Snape. Snape shows them the Evening Prophet, which details sightings of the flying car, and threatens them with expulsion. However, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall intervene. Instead of expulsion, the boys are given detention. Harry soon finds he is the center of unwanted attention from three sources: the fame-hungry Professor Lockhart, an enthusiastic first-year named Colin Creevey who constantly takes his picture, and Ginny, who has developed a crush on him.
The Chamber of Secrets Opened
During his detention with Lockhart on Halloween night, Harry hears a chilling, disembodied voice speaking of killing. Moments later, he stumbles upon a grim scene in a corridor: Argus Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, is hanging from a torch bracket, stiff and petrified. Scrawled on the wall near her in blood is a terrifying message: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware." While the students panic, it is revealed that a monster is stalking the castle. During a Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall explains the legend: one of the school's founders, Salazar Slytherin, built a secret chamber housing a monster intended to purge the school of "unworthy" students—specifically, Muggle-borns. Only Slytherin’s true heir can control the beast.
Suspicions and Parseltongue
As attacks continue, Harry and Ron suspect Draco Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin. Hermione devises a plan to use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Slytherins to interrogate him. They set up a makeshift laboratory in a disused girls' bathroom haunted by the ghost of a former student, Moaning Myrtle. Meanwhile, during a Dueling Club session hosted by Lockhart and Snape, Malfoy conjures a live cobra to attack Hufflepuff student Justin Finch-Fletchley. Harry instinctively speaks to the snake to stop it, inadvertently revealing to the whole school that he is a Parselmouth—someone who can speak to snakes. Since Salazar Slytherin possessed this rare gift, the school population turns on Harry, convinced he is the Heir.
The Polyjuice Potion
On Christmas Day, the Polyjuice Potion is ready. Harry and Ron disguise themselves as Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, while Hermione’s attempt goes wrong; she mistook a cat hair for Millicent Bulstrode’s hair, resulting in a partial feline transformation that confines her to the hospital wing. Inside the Slytherin common room, the disguised boys question Malfoy. They discover he is not the Heir and knows nothing about who opened the Chamber this time. However, he unwittingly provides a crucial clue: his father told him the last time the Chamber was opened fifty years ago, a student died.
Tom Riddle’s Diary
After Hermione recovers, Harry discovers a discarded diary in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. It belongs to Tom Marvolo Riddle, a student from fifty years prior. The enchanted book pulls Harry into a flashback of 1943. Harry witnesses Riddle accusing a young Rubeus Hagrid of opening the Chamber and unleashing a monster—a giant spider named Aragog. This accusation led to Hagrid’s expulsion. Believing he has solved the mystery, Harry assumes Hagrid accidentally endangered the school.
Follow the Spiders
The situation at Hogwarts deteriorates as more students are petrified, including Hermione. Harry and Ron rush to Hagrid’s hut for answers but are interrupted by the arrival of Dumbledore, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy. Hagrid is arrested and taken to Azkaban prison as a precaution, while Lucius serves Dumbledore an order of suspension, removing him from the school. Before being led away, Hagrid leaves the boys a cryptic instruction: "Follow the spiders."
Harry and Ron, accompanied by Hagrid’s dog Fang, trail a line of spiders into the Forbidden Forest. They encounter the colossal Acromantula, Aragog. The ancient spider reveals that Hagrid is innocent and that the creature in the castle is an ancient enemy of spiders, one they fear to even name. Aragog also confirms that the girl who died fifty years ago was discovered in a bathroom. Although Aragog provides the information, his carnivorous instincts take over, and he orders his colony to eat the boys. They are saved at the last second by the now-feral Ford Anglia, which charges through the forest and drives them to safety.
The Monster Revealed
Harry and Ron visit the petrified Hermione and find a torn page tightly clutched in her hand. The page describes the Basilisk, a giant serpent whose direct gaze kills instantly, while an indirect reflection causes petrification. This explains the victims' survival: Colin saw it through his camera, Justin through the ghost of Nearly Headless Nick (who took the full blast), Mrs. Norris through a puddle, and Hermione through a mirror. They realize the monster has been using the plumbing to move around the school. Furthermore, they deduce that Moaning Myrtle was the student killed fifty years ago.
Horror strikes again when a new message appears on the wall: "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever." Ginny Weasley has been taken. The teachers, in a desperate bid, task Lockhart with saving her. Harry and Ron go to Lockhart’s office to offer what they know, only to find him packing to flee. Lockhart admits he is a fraud who built his career by erasing the memories of heroic wizards and claiming their deeds. The boys disarm him and force him at wand-point to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Harry finds a tiny snake engraved on one of the taps and speaks in Parseltongue to open the entrance: the sinks separate to reveal a wide, dark pipe leading underground.
Into the Chamber
The trio slides down the pipe into the cavernous depths beneath the school. They find a shed Basilisk skin, massive and green. Lockhart feigns fainting to steal Ron’s broken wand and attempts to cast a Memory Charm on the boys to bury his secret. However, the spell backfires due to the damaged wand, blasting Lockhart backward, obliterating his own memory, and causing a massive rockfall. Harry is separated from Ron and Lockhart. Leaving Ron to clear the debris, Harry proceeds alone to the heart of the mystery.
He enters the Chamber of Secrets, a vast hall lined with serpentine statues. At the far end lies the unconscious body of Ginny Weasley. As Harry rushes to her, he encounters the physical manifestation of Tom Riddle, appearing as his 16-year-old self. Riddle reveals he is a preserved memory from the diary. He admits to manipulating Ginny into opening the Chamber and writing the messages on the walls. He then reveals his true identity: he rearranges the letters of his name, "Tom Marvolo Riddle," to spell "I am Lord Voldemort." Riddle confirms he is the true Heir of Slytherin and intends to finish his ancestor's work of purging the school.
The Heir of Slytherin
Riddle summons the Basilisk from the mouth of a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin to kill Harry. Just as all hope seems lost, Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, arrives carrying the Sorting Hat. Fawkes attacks the Basilisk, clawing out its eyes and blinding it, neutralizing its fatal gaze. Riddle commands the blinded snake to hunt Harry by sound. Harry scrambles away, eventually pulling the sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat—a weapon that only a true Gryffindor could summon.
Harry climbs the statue and faces the lunging Basilisk. He drives the sword upward, impaling the creature through the roof of its mouth and killing it. However, in its death throes, one of the Basilisk’s poisonous fangs pierces Harry’s arm. Riddle mocks the dying Harry as the poison spreads. Weakening, Harry takes the fang he pulled from his arm and stabs the diary. Ink bleeds from the book like blood, and the memory of Riddle screams in agony before exploding into light and vanishing. Ginny immediately wakes up, fully restored.
Dobby’s Freedom
Fawkes heals Harry’s wound with his tears, and the group flies out of the Chamber. In the aftermath, the petrified victims are revived, and Dumbledore returns to his post. In Dumbledore's office, Harry accuses Lucius Malfoy of planting the diary on Ginny at Flourish and Blotts. Although Lucius denies it, Dobby, who is revealed to be the Malfoys' abused servant, signals that Harry is correct. To save Dobby, Harry places one of his slimy socks inside the destroyed diary and hands it back to Lucius. Lucius, disgusted, tosses the diary—and the sock—to Dobby. By giving Dobby clothes, Lucius has inadvertently freed him. Enraged, Lucius attempts to cast a Killing Curse ("Avada...") on Harry, but Dobby blasts him backward with powerful elf magic. Lucius retreats in disgrace.
Harry worries that his ability to speak Parseltongue means he belongs in Slytherin, but Dumbledore assures him that "it is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." At the end-of-year feast, Hagrid returns from Azkaban to a standing ovation. In a post-credits scene, a confused Gilderoy Lockhart is seen in a straitjacket on the cover of his new book, Who Am I?.
