“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” conjured up $38.5 million at the box office this weekend — a respectable figure given the movie was based on a tabletop role-playing game from the ’70s. And whether you’re an old-school D&D player (like this writer) or a newer fan (thanks to “Stranger Things”), “Honor Among Thieves” includes plenty of fan service.
Classic Roles With a Twist
In the tabletop game (and licensed video game adaptions), players take on different classes or jobs, the archetypes being fighter, cleric, thief and wizard. Amongst those archetypes may be variations; fighters can be rage-driven barbarians, or divine-infused paladins.
Each major character in “Honor Among Thieves” aligns with an existing D&D class: Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga is a barbarian with her favored weapon — a battle axe; Rege-Jean Page is a paladin who is almost comically virtuous.
It’s fun seeing these classes and their abilities come to life on the big screen, including some more obscure ones like Chris Pine’s storytelling bard and Sophia Lillis’s shapeshifting druid.
“Honor Among Thieves” also gives them interesting backstories — Page’s paladin is cursed with dark Thayan magic, Lillis’s druid is a tiefling raised among elves — that prevent them from being too cookie-cutter.
Fantastic Beasts
“Honor Among Thieves” has a terrific bestiary that includes classic monsters like fire-breathing dragons (one very overweight one named Themberchaud) and re-animated skeletons (who provide more humor than horror).
But there are also the intellect devourers, which resemble giant brains with dog legs, displacer beasts, six-legged predator cats that cast illusions, and gelatinous cubes, giant jellies that slowly dissolve anyone who gets trapped within them. And our personal favorite, the mimic. The mimic looks like a treasure chest but is really a monstrous mouth.
Among the humanoid races, there are the aarakocra or bird-men, used to great comedic effect in the opening and ending scenes, dragonkin, halflings, and even a brief appearance by tabaxi or cat-men (Page’s paladin rescues a young tabaxi child who was eaten by a sahuagin).
Famous Names
“Honor Among Thieves” name drops several notable characters from “Dungeons & Dragons” lore.
Justice Smith’s sorcerer Simon is descended from the legendary wizard Elminster. And there are several references to another wizard — Mordenkainen. Mordenkainen created many spells, including the arcane seal in Castle Never’s vault.
Famous Places
In addition to famous names, “Honor Among Thieves” takes audiences on a journey around the continent of Faerun. It starts with Pine and Rodriguez’s characters escaping a prison in Icewind Dale, with much of the plot taking place in the city of Neverwinter. There’s also the mention of rich men from Waterdeep and references to Baldur’s Gate. All are well-known destinations in D&D and actually have video games named after them.
Spectacular Spells
Magic is an integral part of D&D.
In “Honor Among Thieves,” we see Simon the sorcerer and Sofina the wizard duel with a variety of magical spells.
There are the usual, self-explanatory mainstays like lightning bolt and time stop. But Sofina utilizes spells of a more exotic variety, including Evard’s black tentacles (which summons writhing arms to trap victims), Otiluke’s resilient sphere (which traps victims in a bounding ball) and meteor swarm.
To see these spells come to life on the big screen is a delight to knowledgeable fans.
Throwback Tribute
“Honor Among Thieves” includes a wonderful throwback tribute to the “Dungeons and Dragons” animated series that ran from 1983-85.
When the heroes enter the Neverwinter arena tournament, they see other combatants. One group is dressed exactly like the characters from the animated series.
You can see the classic characters — as well as the aforementioned displacer beast, mimic and gelatinous cube — in the clip below:
One tiny gripe
“Honor Among Thieves” uses lots of magical items — notably a helm of disjunction and hither-tither staff — to push the plot along. These items don’t exist in classic D&D, though they have close counterparts, i.e. a rod of cancellation could have the same effect as the helm. Only D&D purists would nitpick at this!
So if you’re a casual or hardcore fan of Dungeons & Dragons, there’s lots of easter eggs and visual references to enjoy.
Even if you’re not, enjoy the action-adventure and this A-list cameo.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is playing now only in theaters.
