Synopsis 5
Not long after, the Maine state police storm Shawshank Prison along with several reporters to cover the developing story. Hadley is arrested for the murder of Tommy and is taken away by the state police. According to Red, he heard unfounded rumors through the grapevine that Hadley allegedly started "crying like a little girl" in the back seat of the police squad car while he was being taken away. Seeing Hadley being taken away in a police squad car and the local district attorney entering the prison with several policemen holding a warrant for Norton's arrest, Warden Norton finally opens his safe in his office, which he hadn't touched since Andy escaped, and instead of his financial ledgers, he finds the Bible he had given Andy with a note to the warden saying that he was right, "salvation did lay within". Norton opens it -- specifically to the book of Exodus -- and finds that the pages had all been cut out in the shape of Andy's rock hammer. Norton walks back to his desk as the police pound on his door, takes out a small revolver and shoots himself under the chin. Red remarks that he wondered if the warden thought, right before pulling the trigger, how "Andy could ever have gotten the best of him."
Shortly after, Red receives a postcard from Fort Hancock, Texas, with nothing written on it. Red takes it as a sign that Andy made it into Mexico to freedom. Red and his buddies kill time talking about Andy's exploits (with a few embellishments), but Red falls into a sort of depression from missing his friend.
At Red's next parole hearing in 1967, he talks to the parole board about how "rehabilitated" is just a made-up word invented to justify their job. He then explains how much he regrets his actions of the past, not because he's in jail but because he knows how wrong it was. He then closes by saying that he has to live with that for the rest of his life and asking the board to stop wasting his time and leave him alone. His parole is finally granted. He goes to live and work at the same places that Brooks did, even seeing Brooks 'message carved into the wooden beam. He frequently walks by a pawn shop which has several guns in the window. At times he contemplates trying to get back into prison feeling that he has no life outside of prison where he has spent most of his adult life, but he remembers the promise he made to Andy. He then reveals that he was not looking at the guns but at the compasses behind the guns, which he eventually buys.
Red follows Andy's instructions, hitchhiking to Buxton and finding the stone wall Andy described. Just as Andy said, there is a large black stone. Underneath is a small box containing a large sum of cash and instructions to come find him in Zihuatanejo although he doesn't name the city just in case. He also says he needs somebody "who can get things" for a "project" of his. Red suddenly understands all the power of hope and feels exhilarated by the feelings inside of him.
After carving a new message in the wooden beam which reads: "Brooks was here, so was Red", Red violates parole and leaves the halfway house, unconcerned since no one is likely to do an extensive manhunt for "an old crook like [him]." Red takes a bus to Fort Hancock, where he crosses into Mexico. The two friends are finally reunited on a beach of the Pacific coast where Andy is working on an old boat, just as he had hoped for, and share an elated embrace.
Shortly after, Red receives a postcard from Fort Hancock, Texas, with nothing written on it. Red takes it as a sign that Andy made it into Mexico to freedom. Red and his buddies kill time talking about Andy's exploits (with a few embellishments), but Red falls into a sort of depression from missing his friend.
At Red's next parole hearing in 1967, he talks to the parole board about how "rehabilitated" is just a made-up word invented to justify their job. He then explains how much he regrets his actions of the past, not because he's in jail but because he knows how wrong it was. He then closes by saying that he has to live with that for the rest of his life and asking the board to stop wasting his time and leave him alone. His parole is finally granted. He goes to live and work at the same places that Brooks did, even seeing Brooks 'message carved into the wooden beam. He frequently walks by a pawn shop which has several guns in the window. At times he contemplates trying to get back into prison feeling that he has no life outside of prison where he has spent most of his adult life, but he remembers the promise he made to Andy. He then reveals that he was not looking at the guns but at the compasses behind the guns, which he eventually buys.
Red follows Andy's instructions, hitchhiking to Buxton and finding the stone wall Andy described. Just as Andy said, there is a large black stone. Underneath is a small box containing a large sum of cash and instructions to come find him in Zihuatanejo although he doesn't name the city just in case. He also says he needs somebody "who can get things" for a "project" of his. Red suddenly understands all the power of hope and feels exhilarated by the feelings inside of him.
After carving a new message in the wooden beam which reads: "Brooks was here, so was Red", Red violates parole and leaves the halfway house, unconcerned since no one is likely to do an extensive manhunt for "an old crook like [him]." Red takes a bus to Fort Hancock, where he crosses into Mexico. The two friends are finally reunited on a beach of the Pacific coast where Andy is working on an old boat, just as he had hoped for, and share an elated embrace.
