The Shape of Water is a 2017 romantic fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid amphibian creature, and decides to help him escape from death at the hands of an evil colonel. Filming took place on location in Ontario, Canada, from August to November 2016.
The Shape of Water was screened as part of the main competition in the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered on August 31, 2017, and was awarded the Golden Lion. It was also screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It began a limited release in two theaters in New York City on December 1, 2017, before expanding wide on December 22, 2017, and grossed $195 million worldwide.
The Shape of Water was acclaimed by critics, who lauded its acting, screenplay, direction, visuals, production design, cinematography, and musical score. The American Film Institute selected it as one of the top ten films of 2017. The film was nominated for a leading thirteen awards at the 90th Academy Awards, winning four, including Best Picture and Best Director for del Toro, and received numerous other accolades. It was the second fantasy film to win Best Picture, after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). A novelization by del Toro and Daniel Kraus was published on March 6, 2018.
Plot
Elisa Esposito, who was found abandoned by the side of a river as an infant with scars on her neck, is mute and communicates through sign language. In 1962, during the Cold War, Elisa works as a custodian at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland, and lives a very routine life in an apartment above a movie theater. Her only friends are her closeted gay next-door neighbor Giles, a struggling middle-aged advertising illustrator, and her co-worker Zelda Fuller.
Colonel Richard Strickland has just captured a mysterious creature from a South American river and has taken it to the Baltimore facility for further study. Curious, Elisa discovers it is a humanoid amphibian. She begins visiting him in secret, and they form a close bond.
Seeking to exploit the Amphibian Man for a US advantage in the Space Race, General Frank Hoyt is eventually persuaded by Strickland to vivisect it. Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, a scientist who is secretly a Russian spy named Dimitri Mosenkov, pleads unsuccessfully to Strickland to keep him alive for further study, while simultaneously ordered by his Soviet handlers to kill the creature.
When Elisa overhears the Americans' plans for the Amphibian Man, she attempts to persuade Giles to help her liberate him. He refuses at first, scared of the consequences and ethics. After failing to get his job back, Giles is rejected by a pie restaurant worker, who he discovers is a racist and homophobe. Subsequently, he has a change of heart.
Hoffstetler stumbles upon Elisa's plot in progress and chooses to assist her. Though initially reluctant, Zelda also becomes involved in making the escape successful. Elisa plans to release the Amphibian Man into a nearby canal when heavy rain will allow access to the ocean. In the meantime, she keeps him in her bathtub. Strickland interrogates Elisa and Zelda, among others, but he learns nothing.
The Amphibian Man encounters one of Giles's cats, who reacts expectedly. Giles discovers the Amphibian Man devouring the cat. When he tries to stop him, he gets startled, slashes Giles's arm and rushes out of the apartment. He gets as far as the cinema downstairs before Elisa finds him and returns him to her apartment.
The creature touches Giles on his balding head and wounded arm. The next morning, Giles discovers hair has begun growing back on his previously bald head, while the wounds on his arm have healed. Elisa continues to develop her romantic relationship with the Amphibian Man, culminating in sexual intercourse.
General Hoyt unexpectedly arrives and tells Strickland he has 36 hours to recover the Amphibian Man, or his career and life will be over. Meanwhile, Hoffstetler is told by his handlers that he will be extracted from the US in two days. Although the planned release date approaches, the Amphibian Man's health begins to deteriorate.