After drugging him and strapping him to his bed, she calmly tells Paul about the practice of “hobbling,” once used in African diamond mines on workers who tried to run off with the goods. The iconic ankle-smashing scene (watch it below) arrives when Annie realizes that Paul is plotting an escape. Annie holds Paul hostage in her isolated home, forcing him to write a new novel in which the heroine survives. However, things take a turn once Annie discovers that Paul has killed off his character Misery - and Paul discovers, in turn, that his caretaker has a very dark past.

During a blizzard, Paul crashes his car and is rescued by a cheerful loner named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who calls herself his “biggest fan” and sets about nursing him back to health. īased on King’s 1987 novel of the same name, Misery tells the story of a successful but disgruntled romance novelist, Paul Sheldon (James Caan), who has just written the final book in his series about a heroine named Misery Chastain and plans to leave the romance genre behind. Based on existing reporting and new interviews, here’s an in-depth look at how Misery’s scariest moment came to be, complete with rare behind-the-scenes photos.

It’s the most memorable and disturbing moment of the 1990 film, based on a Stephen King novel - and yet, from the moment Misery went into production, the hobbling scene was incredibly divisive, costing the film a director and several potential stars. If you’ve seen the horror film Misery, which opened 25 years ago this November, chances are one scene is burned into your brain: the moment when Annie Wilkes breaks the ankles of bedridden novelist Paul Sheldon with a sledgehammer. Kathy Bates prepares to break James Caan’s ankles in the 1990 film ‘Misery’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

Paul sheldon misery books