Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his second year despite warnings from a mysterious house-elf, only to find the school plagued by attacks that leave students petrified and a bloody message declaring that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened.
Synopsis
After a miserable summer with the Dursleys and a frantic escape in a flying car with Ron Weasley, Harry returns to Hogwarts only to face a terrifying mystery. A dark force is attacking the castle, petrifying Muggle-born students and whispering threats that only Harry can hear. As suspicion falls on him due to his ability to speak Parseltongue, Harry, Ron, and Hermione must uncover the truth about a secret chamber hidden within the school by one of its founders, Slytherin, and the monster lurking inside before the school is forced to close forever.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United Kingdom
United States |
Premiere date |
November 15, 2002 |
Running time |
161 minutes |
Genre |
Adventure
Fantasy |
Budget |
$100,000,000 |
Box Office |
$879,600,000 |
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. |
Heyday Films 1492 Pictures |
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 finishing his first year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter spends a miserable summer at the Dursleys' home. His Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have forbidden him from using magic and have locked his owl, Hedwig, in her cage. Harry feels isolated, having received no letters from his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. On the evening of his twelfth birthday, July 31st, Harry discovers a house-elf named Dobby jumping on his bed. Dobby reveals that he has been intercepting Harry's mail to make him feel abandoned, hoping to dissuade him from returning to school. The elf warns Harry of a mortal danger awaiting him at Hogwarts this year.
When Harry refuses to heed the warning, determined to return to the only place he calls home, Dobby resorts to force. He heads downstairs where the Dursleys are hosting a critical dinner party for Mr. Mason and his wife; a dinner Vernon hopes will secure a major order for his drill company, Grunnings. Dobby uses a Hover Charm to levitate a massive cake Petunia baked, dropping it directly onto Mrs. Mason's head. The deal is ruined, and Vernon, blaming Harry, installs bars on Harry’s bedroom window to imprison him, vowing he will never return to Hogwarts.
Escape to The Burrow
The following night, Ron Weasley, accompanied by his 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 off the window and rescue Harry, whisking him away to the Weasley family home, The Burrow. There, Harry meets Ron's parents and his younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who is preparing for her first year at Hogwarts.
The family travels to Diagon Alley via the Floo Network to purchase school supplies. While there, they reunite with Hermione and the school gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid. The group visits Flourish and Blotts to attend a book signing by Gilderoy Lockhart, a flamboyant celebrity author who has recently been appointed as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. During the event, the group encounters their rival Draco Malfoy and his father, Lucius Malfoy. A tense argument ensues between Lucius and Arthur Weasley regarding Arthur’s proposed Muggle Protection Act. Amidst the confrontation, Lucius slips a small, black diary into Ginny’s cauldron unnoticed.
The Crash and The Writing on the Wall
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 by Dobby, causing them to miss the Hogwarts Express. Desperate to reach school, the boys take the flying Ford Anglia. The car’s Invisibility Booster fails during the trip, exposing them to Muggles, and upon arrival, they crash violently into the Whomping Willow. Ron’s wand is snapped in the chaos, and the battered car ejects them and their luggage before driving itself into the Forbidden Forest.
Though they narrowly avoid expulsion thanks to the intervention of Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, they are given detention. Harry soon finds himself the center of unwanted attention from the fame-obsessed Lockhart, a camera-wielding first-year named Colin Creevey, and a star-struck Ginny. During detention on Hallowe'en, Harry hears strange, disembodied voices in the walls. He follows the sound and discovers the petrified body of Argus Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, hanging from a torch bracket. Scrawled on the wall in blood is a chilling message: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware."
The Heir of Slytherin
Panic spreads through the castle. Professor McGonagall explains the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, built by one of the school’s founders, Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin supposedly hid a monster within the Chamber that only his true heir could control, intended to purge the school of students he deemed unworthy—specifically, Muggle-borns. As attacks continue, Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect Draco Malfoy is the Heir. They concoct a plan to use Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Slytherins and interrogate him. They set up a makeshift laboratory in a disused girls' bathroom haunted by the ghost of a former student, Moaning Myrtle.
During a Duelling Club meeting hosted by Snape and Lockhart, Malfoy conjures a live cobra. When the snake threatens a Hufflepuff student named Justin Finch-Fletchley, Harry instinctively speaks to it to stop the attack. However, he speaks in Parseltongue (snake language), a rare ability associated with Dark Wizards and Salazar Slytherin himself. The school immediately turns on Harry, suspecting him to be the Heir. Shortly after, Justin and the ghostly Nearly Headless Nick are found petrified.
The Polyjuice Potion and the Diary
On Christmas Day, the trio enacts their plan. Harry and Ron successfully transform into Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, but Hermione’s potion goes wrong; she accidentally used cat hair from Millicent Bulstrode’s uniform, leaving her partially transformed into a feline and forcing her into the hospital wing. disguised, Harry and Ron enter the Slytherin common room. They learn that Malfoy is not the Heir and does not know who is, but he reveals that the last time the Chamber was opened fifty years ago, a student died.
After Hermione recovers, Harry discovers a discarded, enchanted diary that belonged to a former student named Tom Marvolo Riddle. The diary shows Harry a flashback to 1943. In the memory, Harry sees Riddle accuse a young Rubeus Hagrid of opening the Chamber and keeping a monster—a giant spider named Aragog. This accusation led to Hagrid’s expulsion.
Follow the Spiders
The attacks escalate until Hermione herself is found petrified, clutching a small mirror. With the school facing closure, authorities take action. Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge arrives to take Hagrid to Azkaban prison as a precaution. Lucius Malfoy, acting as a school governor, serves an order of suspension to Dumbledore. Before being led away, Hagrid leaves a cryptic clue for the boys: "Follow the spiders."
Harry and Ron, accompanied by Hagrid’s dog Fang, follow a trail 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—a beast so feared they will not speak its name. Aragog also confirms that the girl who died fifty years ago was found in a bathroom. Although Aragog provides the truth, he allows his colony to attack the boys. They are barely saved by the sudden arrival of the feral Ford Anglia, which drives them out of the forest to safety.
The Monster Revealed
Visiting Hermione in the hospital wing, Harry and Ron find a page torn from a library book clenched in her petrified hand. The page identifies the monster as a Basilisk, a giant serpent whose direct gaze kills instantly, while an indirect gaze merely petrifies. They deduce the victims were saved by looking through cameras, mirrors, or ghosts. They also realize the Basilisk is using the school's plumbing pipes to move around, explaining the voices Harry heard. Putting the clues together, they realize the girl who died fifty years ago is Moaning Myrtle.
Horror strikes again when a new message appears declaring that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber and that "her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever." The teachers, desperate, push the boasting Gilderoy Lockhart to save her. Harry and Ron confront Lockhart, who attempts to flee, admitting he is a fraud who built his career by erasing the memories of heroic wizards and claiming their deeds. Disarming him, the boys force Lockhart to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.
Into the Chamber
Harry finds a snake engraved on one of the bathroom sinks and opens the entrance by speaking Parseltongue. They descend into the caverns below. Down in the gloom, Lockhart feigns fainting, seizes Ron's broken wand, and attempts to cast a memory charm on the boys. The spell backfires due to the damaged wand, obliterating Lockhart’s own memory and causing a massive rockfall that separates Harry from Ron and the professor. Harry proceeds alone.
Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets, a vast hall lined with snake statues. He finds Ginny unconscious at the feet of a statue of Salazar Slytherin. As he approaches, a corporeal manifestation of 16-year-old Tom Riddle appears. Riddle reveals he is a memory preserved in the diary. He boasts about how he manipulated Ginny into opening the Chamber and writing the messages, feeding off her emotional distress to gain strength. Riddle then reveals his true identity: he rearranges the letters of his name, "Tom Marvolo Riddle," to spell "I am Lord Voldemort." He is the true Heir of Slytherin.
The Final Duel
Riddle summons the Basilisk to kill Harry. Just as hope fades, Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, arrives carrying the Sorting Hat. Fawkes gouges out the Basilisk's eyes, blinding it and removing its lethal gaze. However, the snake relies on sound and scent to hunt Harry. Harry climbs the statue of Slytherin and, in a moment of desperation, pulls the Sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat. As the Basilisk lunges, Harry drives the sword through the roof of its mouth, killing it. In its death throes, one of the Basilisk’s fangs pierces Harry’s arm, injecting him with deadly venom.
As Harry lies dying, Riddle mocks him. Thinking quickly, Harry seizes the severed Basilisk fang and stabs the heart of the diary. Ink bleeds from the book like blood, and the memory of Riddle screams as he is destroyed. Ginny immediately wakes up, fully recovered. Fawkes flies to Harry and cries on his wound; the phoenix tears, known for their healing properties, neutralize the venom and heal Harry instantly.
Dobby is Free
Harry, Ginny, Ron, and the amnesiac Lockhart are flown out of the Chamber by Fawkes. In Dumbledore's office, Harry confronts Lucius Malfoy, accusing him of slipping the diary to Ginny in Diagon Alley. Dobby is revealed to be the Malfoys' servant. Harry tricks Lucius into freeing Dobby by placing one of his own dirty socks inside the diary and handing it back to Lucius. Lucius, in disgust, tosses the diary (and the sock) to Dobby. By receiving clothes from his master, Dobby is legally freed. Enraged, Lucius attempts to cast a curse—beginning with the word "Avada"—on Harry, but Dobby blasts him backward with elf magic, protecting Harry.
At the end-of-year feast, all the petrified victims, including Hermione, are revived. Hagrid returns from Azkaban to a standing ovation. Dumbledore assures Harry that although he has traits of Slytherin, it is his choices that define him, proving he belongs in Gryffindor.
In a post-credits scene, a moving picture in the window of Flourish and Blotts displays Gilderoy Lockhart’s latest book, Who Am I?. The cover features a confused Lockhart in a straitjacket, humming to himself in a mental ward.
