Shazam!Save

Upstate New York, 1974. A station wagon drives through a winter snowstorm at night. Inside: a young Thaddeus Sivana (Ethan Pugiotto), age ten, in the backseat next to his older brother Sid. Their father Mr. Sivana, in his sixties, is driving and angry. The Sivanas have always been a violent, dysfunctional family. Mid-drive, Thaddeus is suddenly teleported out of the car into a vast underground temple — the Rock of Eternity, a cosmic-magical interdimensional sanctuary inhabited by the ancient wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou, in white-bearded robes). The Wizard explains he has been searching for centuries for a champion pure of heart who can wield his ancient magic. He had selected one human before — Black Adam — who had been corrupted and become a destructive god-king. The Wizard's job is to find someone better. He needs Thaddeus's permission, and a passing-of-the-Sevens-Sins test, to grant his powers. Thaddeus is offered the gift. Then the Wizard's Seven Deadly Sins — seven gargoyle-like stone statues lining the chamber walls — start whispering temptations into Thaddeus's young mind. Thaddeus listens. The Wizard sees that Thaddeus is not pure of heart and sends him back to the car. Mid-teleport, Thaddeus accidentally distracts Mr. Sivana's driving. The station wagon crashes. Mr. Sivana is permanently paralyzed. Sid blames Thaddeus. The young boy's resentment of the Wizard, of his family, and of the Seven Deadly Sins begins.

Present day. Adult Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) is now a fifty-five-year-old corporate executive and Yale-educated researcher. He has spent forty-five years trying to find his way back to the Rock of Eternity. He has finally cracked the cosmic-magical-doorway code. He returns to the Rock. The Wizard, ancient and dying, is the only being in the chamber. Sivana confronts him. He activates the Seven Deadly Sins, freeing them from their stone-statue prisons. The Sins enter Sivana's body — one in his right eye, replacing his organic eyeball with a glowing orange-orb of pure evil energy. Sivana, fully corrupted, kills the dying Wizard. He then murders his father and brother at a family dinner that same evening using his new demonic powers. Sivana is now a Seven-Deadly-Sins-empowered mass murderer hunting for the Wizard's chosen successor.

Philadelphia. Billy Batson (Asher Angel), age fourteen, is a foster child currently in his thirteenth foster placement in five years. He has run away from every previous placement. He's been searching for his biological mother — they were separated at a Philadelphia carnival when he was three. Billy has been hacking into NYPD missing-person databases for clues about her location. The social services department has just placed him with the Vasquez foster family — Victor and Rosa Vasquez (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans), both former foster children themselves, who run a small group home in West Philly. The Vasquez household includes five other foster siblings: Mary Bromfield (Grace Fulton), the older sister and ringleader; Eugene Choi (Ian Chen), a video-game-obsessed Asian-American kid; Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand), a quiet, sensitive Latino kid; Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman), a five-year-old African-American girl with infinite cheerfulness; and Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a disabled Latino kid with a crutch who is obsessed with superheroes. Billy is forced to share a bedroom with Freddy.

The subway. Billy, walking home from a Vasquez family dinner that night, gets cornered by school bullies on a Philadelphia subway platform. He runs into a subway car. The subway car suddenly transforms its passengers into ghosts and Billy is transported to the Rock of Eternity — the same temple Thaddeus had visited as a child in 1974. The dying Wizard is on his throne. He has been hunting for a champion ever since Sivana attacked. Billy is a foster kid who has never been chosen for anything by anyone. The Wizard chooses him. He grants Billy his magical powers by having Billy speak his name aloud. Billy says "Shazam!" Lightning shoots through the temple and Billy's adolescent body is replaced by an adult superhero body — the same height and proportions as the Wizard himself, in a crimson red-white-and-gold lightning-bolt-emblazoned costume with a white cape. Billy can now transform between his human-fourteen-year-old form and his adult Shazam superhero form by speaking the magic word.

Power discovery. Billy returns to the Vasquez foster home. He tells Freddy (the superhero-obsessed foster sibling) about the magical transformation. They start experimenting in the Vasquez basement and in alleyways across Philadelphia. Billy's full power-set: superhuman strength, near-invulnerability, super-speed, electrokinesis (he can shoot lightning from his hands), flight, and the wisdom of Solomon (which Freddy uses to look up his English homework). They make YouTube videos of Shazam's powers — Shazam dropping a Mercedes onto its roof, Shazam catching a falling skyscraper window-washer, Shazam absorbing a tank shell. Freddy becomes Shazam's social-media manager. The videos go viral. Shazam becomes Philadelphia's accidental hometown hero.

Sivana on the hunt. Sivana — still possessing the Sins, still scarred from his 1974 trauma — has been tracking news of unexplained-power events. He sees Freddy's YouTube videos. He identifies Shazam's Philadelphia base. He arrives at Billy's school and confronts him in front of the entire student body. The Seven Deadly Sins emerge from Sivana's body as gargoyle creatures and attack students. Billy, in Shazam form, is overwhelmed — he has eight months of experience using his powers; Sivana has been corrupted by demonic gods for months. Billy escapes only by accidentally discovering he can fly when panicked. He flees the school.

Billy's biological mother. Billy, having located his biological mother's apartment through the Vasquez foster placement records, finally visits her. He's hoping for a tearful reunion. Instead, she explains in two minutes that she had not lost him at the carnival — she had intentionally walked away from him because she was a sixteen-year-old single mother who couldn't afford him and didn't want him. She had a new life now. She apologized but said she did not want him back in her life. Billy is shattered. He walks out of her apartment alone. The foster family that has been trying to bond with him is the only family he was ever going to have.

Family kidnapped. Sivana, knowing Billy's emotional vulnerability, has kidnapped the entire Vasquez foster family from their West Philly home. He brings them to a Christmas Day carnival outside Philadelphia that Sivana has specifically chosen because it's where Billy first lost his mother eleven years earlier. He plans to use the family as bait. Billy arrives at the carnival in Shazam form, the Wizard's magical staff in hand. The Vasquez kids are tied to a carnival ride high above the ground.

The carnival climax. Billy decides not to keep the Shazam powers for himself. He uses the Wizard's staff to grant Shazam powers to his five foster siblings simultaneously. Each one transforms into an adult superhero form: Mary (Michelle Borth), Eugene (Ross Butler), Pedro (DJ Cotrona), Darla (Meagan Good), and Freddy (Adam Brody) all become Shazam-Family superheroes in matching but uniquely-colored costumes. The Shazam Family is the DCEU's first multi-character superhero team. They engage Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins in carnival combat across the entire fairground — Shazam Family running through Ferris wheels and tilt-a-whirl rides battling gargoyle demons.

Defeating Sivana. Billy, in his Shazam adult form, confronts Sivana directly on a carnival ride at the top of the fairground. Sivana is overconfident — he's spent forty-five years preparing for this moment. Billy realizes Sivana is only powerful while the Seven Deadly Sins inhabit his body simultaneously. He provokes Envy out of Sivana's body using clever taunts about Billy's superior family ties. Envy emerges. Then Pride emerges. Then the others, one by one. Once Sivana is empty, Billy and the Shazam Family physically destroy his orange-orb eye in a coordinated assault. Sivana's powers vanish. He's now just a frail middle-aged man crying on a carnival platform. The Shazam Family captures the Seven Deadly Sins back inside their stone prisons.

Family. Billy returns the Sins to the Rock of Eternity, restored to their proper containment. Mary, Eugene, Pedro, Darla, and Freddy retain their Shazam-Family transformations as permanent abilities. The Vasquez household gains six new superheroes in one Christmas Day. The Rock of Eternity becomes the family's secret headquarters. Billy moves his belongings permanently into the Vasquez foster home — accepting the household as his real family for the first time in his life. The family eats Christmas dinner together. Billy hugs Rosa Vasquez and calls her "Mom" for the first time. The film closes on the Vasquez family at the dinner table — the kids playing cards, the foster parents laughing, the home full.

School cafeteria coda. Billy and Freddy are eating lunch at their middle school cafeteria. The school bullies approach to taunt them. Billy says "Shazam!" and transforms into his adult Shazam form right in front of them. Then Freddy says "Shazam!" and also transforms. The bullies run. Billy and Freddy fist-bump each other in their adult superhero forms. Then a man in a Superman cape sits down at their lunch table with a tray of cafeteria food — Superman has come to lunch with the kids. (Henry Cavill's body double, with Cavill's face left off-frame to maintain mystery.) The Shazam family is part of the DC superhero community. End of film.

Mid-credits. Sivana, imprisoned at Arkham Asylum in a high-security cell, is alone in solitary confinement. He has been there for weeks scrawling Latin glyphs in chalk on the walls trying to relocate the Rock of Eternity. A small computerized voice calls his name from his cell window. Sivana turns. A small green caterpillar with computer glasses crawls along the windowsill. The caterpillar identifies itself as Mister Mind, a sentient alien with telepathic abilities. "Doctor Sivana. I believe we have much in common. Let's chat." Mister Mind is one of the comics' major Shazam Family villains — a small worm-creature with reality-warping powers. The mid-credits scene sets up the sequel.