THE SHEEP DETECTIVES

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens as shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is writing a letter to someone named Rebecca. He tells her all about the sheep in his meadow, and how all of them are special, but he has a few that he spends a lot of time with. There are ram brothers Reggie and Ronnie (both Brett Goldstein), who love to bash things; Zora (Bella Ramsey), a curious little lamb; Cloud (Regina Hall), a sheep who is a bit of a “diva”; Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart), a sophisticated sheep, Wool-Eyes (Rhys Darby), a sheep who cannot see because of the wool over his eyes; and Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), a ram that has an excellent memory. For George, the two sheep that are most special to him are Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), a black ram who wanders from the meadow every now and then; and Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who always listens to George’s crime stories.

George frequently goes into the nearby town of Denbrook, where he tells Rebecca about some of the locals. There is another shepherd named Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole), whom George is not fond of; Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill), a butcher that George REALLY doesn’t like; Beth Pennock (Hong Chau), an innkeeper that has a grudge against George; Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), a bumbling police officer; and Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holbrook-Smith), a preacher that also has some issue with George. George walks into the congregation during Hillcoate’s sermon and puts a big wad of cash in the offering before leaving.

On the meadow, the flock is rude to a small unnamed Winter Lamb (Tommy Birchall) since he is small and not the same as those born in the spring. George picks the lamb up and feeds it, as he thinks they all deserve to be treated equally. Caleb arrives to speak with George for a moment, but he is promptly sent leaving after a few minutes. Whenever the sheep want to forget something unpleasant, they all collectively choose to forget, but Mopple cannot forget even if he tried.

At the inn, Beth finds from the postwoman that George is writing to Rebecca using rose-scented paper. Beth swipes the letter from the bag. Moments later, she is visited by a reporter named Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), who is covering the cultural festival of Denbrook. Beth takes him around to show him it’s just three lousy stands with barely any “culture” to display. As Elliot is later getting home, he crashes his car into a tree in the rain. Meanwhile at George’s home, there is a knock on his door that startles him awake.

In the morning, Lily and Mopple go to discover George’s body lying in the grass. Mopple has to explain to Lily that George is dead and that he has not “become a cloud” like how she believes sheep end up when they pass on. Lily is heartbroken and breaks the news to the rest of the flock that their shepherd is gone. Tim comes upon the body and believes it to be a heart attack at first, until he investigates the inside of George’s trailer and sees that he shared a drink with someone and believes that he was poisoned. Elliot, who looked in the trailer with Tim, thinks he’s got a murder case he can report on.

Lily tells the flock what she overheard and thinks this is a mystery that they need to solve. Sebastian returns and thinks they are dumb for attempting to solve something when they are just animals, but he is convinced to join Lily and Mopple as they travel into Denbrook. First, Lily and Mopple have to get over their fear of crossing the road since it’s the first time they are seeing something not covered in grass.

The townsfolk gather for a reading of George’s will from his lawyer, Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), one altered from his previous will. Also arriving is Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon), who is revealed to be George’s daughter from the United States (and Tim is quickly smitten with her). Elliot shows up to the reading but is forced by Lydia to stay out of the room. Lydia reads the will in the presence of Tim, Rebecca, Caleb, Ham, Beth, and Hillcoate, as well as calling a man named Peter Van Vuuren, who turns out to be George’s son/Rebecca’s twin who was given up for adoption in South Africa. The will also calls out the attendees as “two murderers, a victim, a fool, a winter lamb, and a bad shepherd”. Most notably is that George has left both halves of his acres to his children, including $30 million for Rebecca since George patented a blue medicine for sheep to help with a condition called orf. The motive is now made known. Outside, Mopple gets into a mess when he runs blindly through the building after getting a grass-stained sheet on his face. Caleb leads him out safely.

Back on the meadow, the sheep try to solve the murder themselves. The Winter Lamb mentions seeing George’s “ghost” leaving his body in the night, but the others dismiss this claim. The sheep also spot Rebecca walking along the meadow, despite having earlier told Tim she has never visited her father’s meadow. Sebastian also objects to the flock’s treatment of the Winter Lamb, since he was born outside the spring as well. He tells Lily about his backstory, where he aged out of the petting zoo at the carnival and was forced to fight with dogs until George rescued him.

Tim begins his investigation by narrowing down the suspects from the will reading and their motives against George, and is joined by Elliot so he can get a good story. He finds out that Beth swiped George’s letter to Rebecca, as well as how he and Ham had issues because George was a vegetarian (not exactly a butcher’s friend). Caleb had his lease on the meadow canceled by George. As for why George dropped the cash into Hillcoate’s plate during his sermon, Hillcoate admits that he and George were involved in some business that led to a falling out, which is why he knows that the will was addressing him, not Caleb, as the “bad shepherd”. Tim and Elliot also confront Rebecca after finding out her real name is “Chastity Cramps” and that she had indeed been at the meadow before.

The sheep learn from Cloud that Rebecca had been by the meadow before the previous night, as she had dropped a bracelet on the ground. Due to their continued distrust of the Winter Lamb, Sebastian ends up leaving the flock again.

Lily finds Tim and leads him back to the meadow so he can find Rebecca’s bracelet. He arrives at her location with Elliot and Beth to arrest her on suspicion of George’s murder. Adding to this is that Tim finds the poison berry used to kill George stuck to the bottom of her shoe. Rebecca protests that she is innocent and how she had been communicating with George via letters since he had always felt guilty about having to give her up for adoption since he was very young.

Knowing that their flock will merge with Caleb’s flock soon, Lily and Mopple cross into his meadow to meet the rest of the sheep. One of them simply approaches Lily and ominously warns her to run. She and Mopple then come across a picture of Caleb and Ham shaking hands, as they realize that this farm is meant to slaughter the sheep for meat (thus making them the “two murderers”). Two German shepherd guard dogs chase Lily and Mopple into the meadow, but they are defended by Sebastian. Unfortunately, he is fatally wounded by a dog bite, and he dies next to Lily. This forces her to come to terms with the fact that sheep die just like humans and do not become clouds, something that Mopple has to break to her since she has willfully forgotten the same thing happened to other sheep like her parents. Lily says the grief is too hard for her to remember, but Mopple tells her it’s necessary for her to hold on to the memories of her loved ones like George.

Lily and Mopple return to the flock, breaking the news about Sebastian to them. As she prepares to give up, Lily sees a vision of George speaking to her and understanding her. This gives her the encouragement she needs to bring his killer to justice.

Lily gets back on the case and joins Mopple as they recruit the Winter Lamb to go into George’s trailer and find something that can help them. They then go back to the station at Denbrook where Rebecca is being held, and the Winter Lamb sneaks in to paint a message on the floor. In the morning, Tim sees a blue line and a yellow line connected to a picture of George, ending in a smudge of green mixed together.

The people gather in the middle of town as Rebecca is being transferred for prosecution. However, Tim sees Lily, Mopple, and the Winter Lamb with his hooves covered in paint. The pieces come together for Tim, and he stops to reveal to everyone he knows who the real killer is (Rebecca is “the victim”). The real killer was someone who was not physically at the will reading: Mr. Peter Van Vuuren, AKA…ELLIOT MATTHEWS. Since George was found with one hand covered in blue and the other in green, Tim knew that the blue was from his sheep medicine, and the green was from Peter’s hair dye mixed with the medicine in a struggle as he had poisoned George after visiting him following his “car accident”. It was easy for him to elude suspicion since Lydia kicked him out of the room, allowing him to call without being detected. He had hoped to acquire George’s $30 million inheritance if Rebecca were convicted, going as far as to plant the poison berry on her shoe. Peter nearly weasels his way out until Tim pulls a hair off him that could be analyzed and convict him. Peter attempts to escape, but Reggie and Ronnie are called for “a legitimate cause for bashing”. They destroy Peter’s car and leave him to be arrested.

In the aftermath, Lydia tells Rebecca that the new will cannot be honored, so the original will stipulates she will inherit George’s land. When Caleb and Ham try to get Rebecca to sell the land to them, she refuses and instead buys Caleb’s sheep from him, growing the flock even more as she stays on the land. Before Rebecca returns to the meadow, a repentant Beth gives her the last letter George wrote to her. The rose-scented paper gave her the impression that George was writing to a lover, which makes Rebecca realize Beth was in love with him (making her the “winter lamb”, or a “reject”). She admits that although they did try for a romance, George’s heart always belonged to Rebecca’s mother, who was named Lily.

Rebecca returns to the meadow with Caleb’s sheep and sits to read the flock a book written by George. Lily goes to find the Winter Lamb and welcome him to the flock, even naming him after George. As Lily returns with George to the flock, she looks up to the sky and sees a cloud that looks like Sebastian.

In the English countryside, shepherd George Hardy tends to his beloved flock. When his sheep find him dead outside his trailer, they learn that George was murdered. Head sheep Lily leads an investigation alongside the rams Sebastian and Mopple to solve the murder, while local bumbling police officer Tim Derry of the nearby town of Denbrook also works on the case.

A reading of George's will gathers several people who had motive, such as rival shepherd Caleb Merrow, butcher Ham Gilyard, innkeeper Beth Pinnock, Reverend Hillcoate, and George's estranged American daughter, Rebecca Hampstead, to whom he had been exchanging letters before his death. The will states that Rebecca is set to inherit $30 million from George since he patented a medicine for sheep, while her twin Peter Van Vuuren will also inherit some of George's land. Rebecca is arrested on suspicion of murder after lying about visiting George's meadow.

Lily and Mopple visit Caleb's meadow since they know their flocks will merge, but they are horrified to discover that Caleb and Ham work together to slaughter the sheep for meat, which is why George disliked both of them. Caleb's guard dogs chase the sheep, but they are saved by Sebastian, who is fatally wounded and dies. This causes Lily to come to terms with death and loss, as she and the other sheep outside of Mopple always willfully forgot things like death whenever they didn't want to feel sad anymore, but Mopple encourages her to remember Sebastian. Lily speaks to an apparition of George to encourage her to solve the crime.

Lily and Mopple recruit a rejected Winter Lamb to help solve the case. Before Rebecca can be prosecuted, Tim realizes what the sheep were trying to tell him, and he solves the case. The killer is Peter, AKA Elliot Matthews, the supposed local reporter for the paper. He had hoped to get the $30 million inheritance by having Rebecca convicted, but the evidence is shown since Tim figured that the blue and green stains on George's hands were from a struggle with Peter after the blue medicine on George's hands mixed with the blonde dye in Peter's hair. Peter tries to escape but is stopped by ram brothers Reggie and Ronnie, and he is arrested.

Rebecca inherits George's land and buys Caleb's sheep to grow their flock. Lily welcomes the Winter Lamb into the flock and names him after George. She then looks up in to the sky and sees a cloud that looks like Sebastian