Nimona Plot Summary
Ballister Boldheart is our protagonist, and he’s on the verge of becoming a knight. However, he’s worried about not being accepted by the masses. On the night of his ceremony, he’s framed for killing the Queen from a tainted sword that he’s handed. Wanted for treason and dubbed “Queen Killer”, Bal is forced to leave his knight partner and lover Ambrosius to go on the run.
While hiding out, Ballister ends up in a workshop, where a plucky, boisterous rebel called Nimona decides she’s going to try and be his villainous sidekick. It turns out Nimona is a shapeshifter, who can turn into anything the plot calls for to get Bal out of trouble. As the pair go on the run, they set out to try and clear their names, while also continuing to bring balance to a realm on the edge of chaos.
Who framed Ballister?
The Director rallies the knights to try and find Ballister and bring him to justice after his prison break. A descendant of Gloreth, and also Bal’s partner, Ambrosius Goldenloin, leads the charge. However, a camera phone holds footage of the Director setting Ball up for failure, switching over the swords. She’s the one who framed him.
If this gets out though, it could undermine the entire Institution, which keeps everything in check. Should the entire nation learn the truth, it could destroy the realm and cause chaos. Bal decides instead to confide in Ambrosius, believing that he’ll know what to do.
Meeting on the rooftop, the knights surround Bal and destroy the phone and the video. Ambrosius refuses to believe his partner, leaving Bal and Nimona to fight their way out. Nimona turns into a number of different shapes and forms to do so and they eventually make it down to the ground level.
How does Bal intend to clear their names?
Nim loses control when a kid down on the street calls her a monster. It breaks her heart and she admits she doesn’t know what’s scarier – whether it’s everyone wanting her dead, or that sometimes she loses faith and actually wants to die.
Bal believes in Nimona though and tells her they can work together for the good of the realm and do what’s right. They’re not going to leave this be and they remain steadfast in taking out the Director. And Bal has a plan to do just that.
That plan sees Nimona take on Ambrosius’ form, and goad the Director into divluging the truth about killing the Queen. Bal happens to be on the balcony and records the whole thing.
The pair put the video up online and it goes viral. However, the Director isn’t done yet. The Director informs the realm that Nimona is a shapeshifter and took on her form to trick them all, spouting fake news and causing distrust and paranoia across the realm. While this takes hold of the nation, the Director speaks to Ambrosius in private and shows him a scroll. This is, in turn, shown to Bal when Ambrosius meets him in secret.
What is the true story of Gloreth?
Within this, a picture shows Nimona is actually Gloreth’s monster from the old fable whence their kingdom was founded. Bal questions her and almost calls Nim a monster, but before he does, they’re interrupted by the knights, who show up and chase her away.
In the past, Nimona has always been alone. She’s struggled to fit in and despite shape shifting constantly to different forms, she never really found a home or a friend – until she met Gloreth. The pair became friends, spending lots of time playing and doing everything together.
Gloreth accepted Nimona’s shape-shifting… but the villagers were not so kind. In fact, convinced that she’s nothing but a monster, they attacked her and tried to hurt her badly. Flaming pitchforks are flung her way, but they bounced off her skin and hit the ground, causing flames to spread hungrily through the village, turning it ablaze. In the chaos, Gloreth picked up a sword and banishec Nimona, telling her to leave.
The entire legend of Gloreth is wrong and distorted, which undermines the nation’s history. Nimona just wanted to fit in and was misunderstood from the start.
Having had enough, and with nothing else to live for, Nimona decides to live up to her billing, turning into a giant smoke monster and stomping through the city. In scenes reminiscent of Godzilla, fighter jets are sent out to destroy the creature, hitting her with constant missiles. People throw rocks in the street too, but before Nomina can impale herself on Gloreth’s statue and commit suicide, Bal steps up and stops her, apologizing.
Do the people realize Nimona isn’t a monster?
“I see you, Nimona. And you’re not alone.” He says. And just like that, she turns back into a girl and begins sobbing in his arms. Finally, all these people in the city see them and understand that Nim isn’t the horrible tyrant and monster they thought, she has feelings and isn’t so bad after all.
The real monster is, of course, the Director. Ambrosius sees this now. He refuses to listen to the Director’s demands, who wants to pummel the pair with cannon fire. The Director takes matters into her own hands and decides to fire herself. Nimona though, wants to rewrite the story, and turns into a flame of light, racing up to take out the cannon and destroy the evil Director.
In the aftermath of the attack, Bal is back with Ambrosius, and things are all good between them. Bal and Nimona are revered as heroes, while all the kids draw pictures of Nimona. There’s even one that says “We love Nimona” too.
How does Nimona end?
Ballister heads back to their hideout and begins looking around. He marvels over all their old gear, including the monopoly board and their photos. He decides to pin up the kid’s drawing on the wall to remember her. However, a knock at the door distracts him. As he heads over and opens it up, a blinding red light emanates behind him. “Hey boss,” Nimona says off-screen, as Ballister stands shocked.
So our little friendly monster seems to be absolutely fine and one would assume that the Director has also been killed or arrested for her part to play in all this. The people finally understand that Nimona is actually a good guy after all, and the realm doesn’t descend into chaos, giving everyone a happily ever after!
Read More: Nimona (2023) Movie Review
To share my opinion, to AK’s question, I think its 2 birds one stone type situation. I don’t think she necessarily had a vendetta against the queen, but she knew the queen was part of the “problem”. Overtime, when it became clear to the director, that Balister wasn’t “subpar” , nasty,or just gave up and in fact excelled she knew she had to take matters into her own hands. I think in her mind if she killed Ballister, or even try to frame Balister in different crime, the queen definitely would have looked into & would have exposed the director. And killing Balister wouldn’t have solved anything completely, the program would have continued. So in her mind, the public assassination of the queen was the only solution to ensure Balister & and ppl like him could never be apart of the royalty.
Unless I missed something, this review, nor the movie itself, explains WHY the director wants the queen killed. If her mission in life is to preserve order in the kingdom, why assassinate the kingdom’s leader? What is the goal of framing Ballister and planting the weapon?
This is a very entertaining movie with a lot of very positive messages, but its story arc seems to rely on a crucial plot point that doesn’t make much sense.
I wanted to know if Gloreth was a bacd guy and how Nimona’s life started, what happened to her a a young girl, we only know a little from the flash-back.
it didnt answer my question
i wanted to know if gloreth and nimona ever forgave each other and i didnt find this usefull.