The Tim Burton Film
England, 1846. As a ship called the Bountiful sails into London port, optimistic young sailor Anthony Hope talks with a passenger, a man that the Bountiful rescued from being stranded at sea, who gives his name as "Sweeney Todd". Sweeny admits to returning to London after a fifteen year absence, then launches into the story of a young, naïve barber named "Benjamin Barker", who lived a happy life with his beautiful wife Lucy and baby daughter Johanna... until a corrupt and tyrannical judge named Turpin framed Benjamin for a crime he didn't commit and sentenced him to a lifelong deportation to Australia, hoping to force Benjamin's wife to remarry him.Anthony Hope doesn't pick up on the obvious implications as to Sweeney Todd's true identity. Instead, viewing the man as a friend, the two dock in London and go their separate ways. Hope's path leads him past the home of Judge Turpin, where, after giving charity to a mad old beggar woman, he spots the Judge's adopted daughter Johanna singing of her loneliness in a window and immediately becomes smitten. Unfortunately, when he tries to get in to meet her, he is caught by the enraged Judge, who has his henchman, a Beadle named Bamford, beat Anthony bloody and drive him off, promising to throw him in prison if he's ever caught near Judge Turpin's home again.
Meanwhile, Sweeney Todd returns to Fleet Street, where he lived before his deportation, and stumbles across a meat pie shop run by Nellie Lovett, whose business is doing terribly; meat is too expensive for her to reliably buy, and thus her pies have become notorious as the worst in London, which she muses is ironic, given she knows for a fact one of her rivals, Mrs. Mooney, is compensating for the lackluster meat by trapping London's abundant cats and using their flesh for pie filling. Mrs. Lovett recognizes Todd as Benjamin Barker, and she fills him in on what happened in his absence — namely, that Judge Turpin attempted to seduce Lucy Barker for some time, before finally tricking her into attending a party he was throwing, where he raped her. Unable to live with the torment of it all, Lucy poisoned herself with arsenic from a local apothecary, after which Judge Turpin adopted Benjamin and Lucy's daughter Johanna for himself. Having always nursed a crush on Benjamin, Mrs. Lovett eagerly becomes Todd's apprentice in a plan to seek revenge on Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford. She reveals that she kept Benjamin Barker's silver-chased straight razors hidden and presents them to him.
The next day, Todd and Lovett go out amidst London's street carnival and see a braggadocios "Italian" barber named Adolfo Pirelli hawking his "miracle hair-growth tonic" with the aid of his abused boy assistant Tobias "Toby" Ragg. Identifying the tonic as nothing more than urine mixed with ink, and spotting Beadle Bamford in the crowd, Todd challenges Pirelli's claims and incites a barber's duel, with the Beadle overseeing. Todd effortlessly defeats Pirelli and earns the admiration of the Beadle and the watching crowd, which he uses to promote his new barber's shop, above Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. Todd's true plan is to wait for the Beadle to arrive for a shave himself, so he can secretly murder one of the two men he blames for the destruction of his life.
Unaware of his "friend's" plans, Anthony Hope comes to Sweeney Todd for emotional support, remaining determined to continue wooing Johanna.
Whilst waiting for the Beadle, Todd and Lovett are instead visited by Pirelli and Toby. Pirelli reveals he is actually Londoner Davy Collins, a former assistant of Benjamin Barker's. He demands that Todd pay him 50% of all future profits, or else he will go to Judge Turpin and reveal Todd's true identity. Enraged and panicked, Todd grabs an iron tea kettle and beats the would-be blackmailer into a bloody mess. Believing he has killed the man, Todd stuffs his body into a trunk and manages to smooth-talk Toby into leaving when he comes in pursuit of his master by telling him to go back down to Mrs. Lovett and have some gin. No sooner has the boy left than Todd discovers that Collins is still alive, and he finishes the would-be blackmailer off by slitting his throat.
Leaving Toby to comfort himself with a bottle of gin, Mrs. Lovett heads upstairs and discovers the mess. They reason that they'll have to get rid of the body somehow, which is when Lovett hits upon an idea: they could strip the meat off of the corpse, dispose of the bones in the sewers beneath her shop, and use the meat as filling for her pies. After all, if Londoners will happily eat cat-meat in pies, then why shouldn't they do the same for human-meat pies?
Fortunately for Toby, he has drunk himself to sleep by the time the two adults have finished plotting. When he awakens, they claim that "Signor Pirelli" has abandoned him, and offer to take him in as help in the pie shop, to which he agrees, having become quite stricken with Mrs. Lovett as the first thing he's ever known to a mother figure.
A week after Sweeney Todd promoted himself, after sentencing a child to be hanged for his second time appearing before court, Judge Turpin confides in Beadle Bamford that he intends to marry his adopted daughter Johanna. The Beadle applauds the idea, and suggests that the Judge avail himself of Sweeney Todd's expert care before proposing. Regarding this as sound advice, the Judge heads to Sweeney Todd's barber shop on Fleet Street.
Believing God has smiled on him at last, Sweeney prepares to murder the judge whilst he has him vulnerable in his hands, only to be thwarted at the last minute when Anthony Hope bursts in, eager to tell his "best friend" about how he has persuaded Johanna to elope with him. Such is his excitement that he blurts this out before he realizes that the Judge is sitting in Sweeney Todd's chair. The furious Judge leaps to his feet, declares that he will never allow Johanna to elope with the likes of Anthony, and denounces Todd as his obvious enemy before storming out of the establishment.
Unaware of what he has done, Anthony tries to beg Sweeney Todd for help, but the enraged Todd drives him out of his shop. Though Mrs. Lovett tries to comfort him, the formerly innocent barber has a mental breakdown; he decides that he will not give up on his plans to murder the Judge and the Beadle. Not only that, to keep his hand in, he will murder his clientele, whom Lovett can then use as the filling for more pies, in addition to robbing the corpses. Too smitten with Sweeney Todd to even dream of saying no, and further spurred by her greed, Mrs. Lovett agrees, and once the barber shop and bakery have been properly outfitted, they go to work.
Back at Judge Turpin's home, the Judge arrives to discover Johanna preparing to run away with Anthony. Feeling betrayed, he has the Beadle drag her off to be committed in the local women's mental institute until she agrees to marry him.
Weeks pass, if not months, with uncounted victims dying under Todd's knife before being carved up, ground, and fed to their fellow Londoners in Mrs. Lovett's pies. Ironically, the thick, meaty filling of the pies makes them much desired amongst Londoners, and so Lovett's pie shop does very profitable business. But still the Judge and the Beadle evade Sweeney Todd's blood-slicked grasp. Though Mrs. Lovett tries to seduce Todd into forgetting his quest and running away with her to marry and live on the coast with the profits from their murderous trade, he cannot give up his yearning for vengeance. All the while, the same crazed beggar-woman that Anthony Hope gave money to when he arrived hangs around the pie-and-barber shop, with Mrs. Lovett desperate to keep her away from Sweeney Todd.
All the while, Anthony Hope continues to search for Johanna, and finally discovers her prison. Desperate for help, he turns to Sweeney Todd, who reasons that Anthony can slip into the bedlam house under false pretenses as a wigmaker's assistant, then spirit Johanna away. Todd promise to set Anthony up with everything he needs, including promising that Anthony can hide his Johanna in the shop, but secretly also plans to betray Anthony; selling out Anthony's plan to spirit the Judge's ward away is the perfect way to get the Judge into his shop to be murdered.
However, things all go wrong once Sweeney has sent his letter. Toby confesses to Mrs. Lovett that he has noticed how many of Sweeney Todd's customers have disappeared and never come back, and he suspects foul play, though he vows to protect Lovett from Todd. Mrs. Lovett lures Toby into the kitchen, offering to teach him how to make the pies for her and telling him that he can enjoy his fill of the left-over pies as he practices with the meat grinder. As he eats and plays at grinding the meat, she locks him in the kitchen and hurries back up to report to Sweeney Todd.
Before they can decide what to do, Beadle Bamford arrives at the shop, investigating complaints from the neighbors about the smells coming out of Mrs. Lovett's kitchen. Sweeney Todd lures the Beadle up to his barber shop, and quickly kills him. Ironically, just as he is doing this, a horrified Toby discovers recognizable human remains in the pies and grinder; Beadle Bamford's corpse dropping down the chute for processing is the last straw, and he desperately pries open the entry to the sewers and flees down it.
Todd and Lovett descend to the kitchen and then into the sewers to try and find and kill the boy, but are distracted by sounds from above. Mrs. Lovett remains below, whilst Sweeney Todd heads back to the surface.
The sounds are Anthony and Johanna, whom the former freed by killing the bedlam house manager and escaping with her. He has disguised the shaven-haired girl as a sailor, and instructs her to hide here in Todd's barber shop whilst he tries to find Todd. Ironically, as Anthony leaves, the mad beggar woman comes into the barber shop, looking for the dead Beadle and prompting Johanna to hide in a chest, which is when Todd bursts into the room. The beggar woman seems to recognize Todd, but hearing Judge Turpin's approach, a desperate and demented Todd slashes her throat with his razor and dumps her down the chute.
He has barely gotten the chair back into place when Judge Turpin storms into the room, looking for Johanna and Anthony. Todd sweettalks the corrupt judge that he has driven Anthony away and that Johanna has changed her mind, luring the judge into his barber's chair. Once he has Judge Turpin at his mercy, Todd reveals his identity and brutally stabs the judge to death before dumping him down the corpse-chute.
This is too much horror for Johanna, who gives herself away. Not realizing that she is his long-lost daughter, Sweeney Todd almost kills her too, only to be distracted by Mrs. Lovett's scream. Buoyed up by the satisfaction of killing Bamford and Turpin at long last, Todd tells Johanna to escape and goes down to the kitchen to see what is wrong. Behind him, Johanna vanishes into the night.
Mrs. Lovett claims that Judge Turpin clung to life long enough to make a grab for her dress, but the true cause of her distress is revealed when they open the roaring pie oven, filling the kitchen with enough light that Sweeney Todd can see the face of the beggar woman he killed before: none other than his own beloved wife, Lucy. As he clutches her corpse in disbelief, Mrs. Lovett confesses at long last that Lucy had actually survived taking arsenic, but the poison had damaged her brain, leaving her a demented wretch wandering the city and begging for charity. She insists that she had only hidden this from Sweeney Todd because she she loves him. Sweeney rises up and coaxes the fearful woman into his arms, assuring her that he loves her too... only to use her vulnerability to maneuver her around the kitchen so he can throw her bodily into the pie oven, which he seals shut as she rapidly burns to death.
Utterly broken now, Sweeney Todd sits on the floor and cradles the body of his wife Lucy. Behind him, Toby slinks out of the sewers and, for whatever reason, picks up Todd's discarded razor before sneaking up on the murderous barber and cutting his throat with his own razor. As Sweeney Todd dies, Toby leaves the kitchen of horrors, the last survivor of the whole sordid affair.
