Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is about a school tournament that Harry never asked to enter, and about the first open sign that Voldemort is gathering strength. The story begins in the summer, when Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys. Masked followers of Voldemort attack the crowd there, and a glowing Dark Mark appears in the sky.

Back at Hogwarts, the school hosts the Triwizard Tournament, with visiting students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Each school is meant to put forward one champion, and the Goblet of Fire picks Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum. Then the Goblet also names Harry, who is too young to enter and says he never put his name in. He is forced to compete, and Ron turns jealous and stops speaking to him. Who dropped Harry's name into the Goblet is the question that carries the rest of the film.

The full plot of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire follows three tournament tasks and ends in a graveyard where Voldemort returns. Harry is bound by magic to compete, even though no one believes he entered himself. Ron eventually makes up with him after seeing the danger he faces. For the first task Harry gets past a dragon on his broomstick, after Mad-Eye Moody quietly gives him advice. The second task sends him underwater to rescue a hostage, and he saves Ron and also helps Fleur's little sister.

Between tasks the students attend the Yule Ball, where friendships and rivalries are strained. Harry also receives hints that Voldemort is gathering strength. In the final task the champions enter a hedge maze, and Harry and Cedric reach the cup together and agree to take it as joint winners. The cup is a Portkey, and it carries them to a graveyard, where Wormtail kills Cedric.

Wormtail then uses Harry's blood to bring Voldemort back to a body. Voldemort summons his followers and duels Harry, who escapes with Cedric's body. Back at Hogwarts, Moody is exposed as Barty Crouch Junior, a Death Eater who used Polyjuice Potion to pose as him and who put Harry's name in the Goblet. Dumbledore tells the school that Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic refuses to accept it. The visiting students leave, and Harry, Ron and Hermione know the school and the world will not be the same.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had its world premiere on Sunday, 6 November 2005, at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, according to CBS News. General release followed on 18 November 2005 in both the US and the UK, and on 1 December 2005 in Australia.

In the US the film opened with more than $102 million across 3,858 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. It finished with $291 million domestic and $610 million international, for $901 million worldwide.

That total places it sixth of the eight main films. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone earned more than $1 billion, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 earned more than $1.3 billion, and Part 1, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince all finished above Goblet of Fire. Only Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban earned less. The full comparison sits on the Harry Potter box office page.

Since this is a 2005 release, current showtimes are not the usual way to see it. Streaming, rental and purchase options are covered on the where to watch Harry Potter page.

The ending of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire resolves the tournament mystery and then takes the victory away, because the cup Harry wins is a trap. Harry and Cedric agree to take it together as joint winners, and that small act of fairness is what delivers both of them to the graveyard, since the cup is a Portkey. Wormtail kills Cedric, and the film does not soften it: Harry returns holding a body, not a trophy.

The scheme behind it has layers. Barty Crouch Junior, posing as Mad-Eye Moody through Polyjuice Potion, put Harry's name in the Goblet. That is why Moody's quiet advice before the dragon task makes sense on a second viewing, and, in my opinion, it is the best reason to rewatch the first half. Wormtail then uses Harry's blood to bring Voldemort back to a body. It could be argued that this makes the tournament a long route to the graveyard rather than a distraction from the real plot.

The true ending, in my reading, is the memorial that follows. Dumbledore honors Cedric and tells everyone that Voldemort killed him, while the Ministry of Magic denies it. The foreign students depart, and Harry, Ron and Hermione look ahead, aware that dark times are coming. That Ministry denial is the thread that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix picks up directly, when the Ministry sends Dolores Umbridge to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts.

There is also a ratings point. The first three films were rated PG in the US, and Goblet of Fire is the first to carry PG-13, which fits a story that ends with a killing and a resurrection.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is set at a World Cup campsite, on the Hogwarts grounds and, finally, in a graveyard far from the school.

The campsite at the Quidditch World Cup is where the Dark Mark first appears. Hogwarts hosts the three tournament tasks, including the underwater task, with the Yule Ball between them. The hedge maze is the setting for the final task, and the graveyard, reached by Portkey, is where Cedric dies and Voldemort returns. For the order in which these events fall across the saga, see the Harry Potter timeline.

Trivia about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire mostly concerns who changed and who stayed the same.

• Patrick Doyle composed the score in place of John Williams, who scored the first three films, and only Hedwig's Theme carried over.
• The Weird Sisters, the band at the Yule Ball, are played by Jarvis Cocker, Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway, among other musicians.
• Mike Newell directed from a screenplay by Steve Kloves.
• The production budget was $150 million, the same as Order of the Phoenix.
• Robert Pattinson is billed sixth, as Cedric Diggory.
• It is the first of the main films to be rated PG-13 in the US, after three rated PG.
• It is the fourth film in release order and the seventh in chronological order when the Fantastic Beasts films are counted first. See Harry Potter movies in order.