Plot

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley's classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Prelude

In 1857, the Horisont, a Royal Danish Navy ship sailing for the North Pole, is trapped in the ice. The crew works on breaking the ice but are increasingly exhausted. Captain Anderson is determined to complete his mission to the North Pole, despite the dangers further ahead on the expedition.

Alerted to an explosion in the distance, Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen) and his men discover a gravely injured Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), who wears a prosthetic leg. Upon bringing him aboard, the crew are attacked by a Creature (Jacob Elordi) who demands Victor's surrender. Anderson orders his men to shoot at the Creature. The Creature is hit multiple times but keeps coming at the ship. The Creature boards the ship and kills many of the crew, when he is attacked. Captain Anderson uses a blunderbuss weapon to shoot the Creature off the ship and to sink the Creature into the icy water. Victor learns that the Creature killed 6 of Anderson's crew. Victor says that the Creature cannot be killed and begs Anderson to offer Victor to the Creature, when he returns. Victor explains that he is the Creature's maker, and recounts its creation.

Part I: Victor's Tale

Victor's mother Claire (Mia Goth) dies giving birth to his younger brother William (Felix Kammerer), who becomes the favorite of their aristocratic baron father Leopold (Charles Dance), a renowned surgeon. Leopold had married Claire as she brought a considerable dowry and a noble lineage. Leopold dictated every aspect of Victor's life, including training him to be a surgeon. Tiny mistakes would be punished with a cane to the face, as Victor's hands were precious as that of a future surgeon. Victor was very connected to his mother.

Grieving his mother and hardened by his father's abuse, Victor becomes a brilliant, arrogant surgeon, obsessed with "curing" death through science. Victor decided in his mind that his father let his mother die, but Leopold responded that no one can conquer death. 2 fires and a revolt on the estate caused the family fortune to dwindle. Leopold passed away. William was sent to one side of the family in Vienna and Victor headed to London and then Edinburgh.

In 1855, Victor is expelled from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for reanimating corpses, which a disciplinary tribunal denounces as sacrilege. Professor Krempe (Ralph Ineson) is the academician who oversees the hearing of Victor. In his experiment Victor demonstrates conclusively that reanimated corpses have the ability to make decisions and respond to human interaction.

Arms merchant Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) offers Victor unlimited funding and an isolated tower by a lake, on the outskirts of the city, to continue his experiments. Enlisting William's assistance in building his laboratory, Victor becomes smitten with William's fiance Elizabeth (Mia Goth), Harlander's niece.

At one point Victor sits in the confession booth of the church, as a priest, when Elizabeth comes to confess and learns that she positively hates him, and calls him a tyrant and a controlling person. Elizabeth finds Victor's deception and later goes to lunch with him and even shares a dance. William was busy in constructing the lab, and that left Victor to spend time with Elizabeth. Victor finally proposes to Elizabeth, which she refuses.

When an impatient Harlander demands results, Victor harvests body parts from hanged criminals and soldiers killed in the ongoing Crimean War. He fashions a large creature to reanimate, preparing to harness lightning to send electric currents through the lymphatic system. As a storm approaches, Harlander reveals he is dying of syphilis and demands his brain be put into the Creature. Victor refuses, and Harlander falls to his death attempting to sabotage the experiment. Victor electrifies the Creature, but it seemingly fails to reanimate.

The following morning, Victor finds the Creature alive. Victor teaches the Creature to face the sun and absorb sunlight for warmth. Chaining it in the cellar, he marvels at the Creature's immense strength and rapid healing but can only teach it to speak one word: "Victor." Frustrated, Victor imitates his father's cruel discipline to teach him more words and things, enraging the Creature.

Arriving with William, Elizabeth questions Victor's treatment and bonds with the Creature, teaching him to speak her name. Victor can see that Elizabeth is beginning to have feelings for the Creature. Elizabeth tells Victor that perhaps the Creature's heart is purer than that of the common man. Victor lies to William that the Creature killed Harlander and sends them away, setting fire to his lab with the Creature inside. Hearing the Creature cry out his name, Victor has a change of heart and attempts to reenter the tower, but it explodes, grievously wounding his leg.

As Victor tells his story, the Creature boards the ship, confronts the captain, and reveals his side of the story.

Part II: The Creature's Tale

The Creature breaks his chains and escapes the explosion. Wandering the woods, he is shot at by hunters and later takes shelter in the mill gears of their farm. Observing the family through the walls, the Creature grows attached and secretly helps the family by providing them with large supplies of firewood and building a pen for their sheep. The family thank their unseen benefactor as the "Spirit of the Forest." The family leaves gifts of clothes and food for the spirit, which the Creature accepts.

When the rest of the family leaves for the winter, the Creature befriends their blind patriarch (David Bradley), who teaches him to read and speak fluently. The Creature learns about how God created man, and wants to know where he came from. Struggling to remember his past, the Creature journeys to the ruins of the laboratory and discovers the truth about his creation, and the address to Victor's estate. He returns to the farm to find the blind man being attacked by wolves. The Creature fights them off and comforts his dying friend. The hunters return and, mistaking the Creature for the blind man's killer, shoot him dead, though he later revives.

Realizing he cannot die and will spend eternity alone, the Creature confronts Victor on the night of William and Elizabeth's wedding, asking he create a companion for him. Victor, fearing the possibility of the creature reproducing, adamantly refuses and the Creature attacks him. Overhearing the commotion, Elizabeth arrives and embraces the creature upon seeing him.

Victor attempts to shoot the Creature but inadvertently shoots Elizabeth instead. William attempts to rush the Creature but is mortally wounded. As he dies, he calls Victor the true "monster". The Creature carries Elizabeth to a cave where she dies. Victor pursues the Creature to the Arctic. In a confrontation, the Creature attempts to destroy himself with a stick of dynamite but fails.

A remorseful Victor and the Creature reconcile, addressing each other as "father" and "son", before Victor succumbs to his injuries. The Creature uses his strength to free the ship from the ice. Captain Anderson decides to abandon his own reckless pursuit and sail back homeward. Alone, the Creature reaches out to embrace the sunlight as Victor once taught him.