ALADDIN (2019)

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens on the sea where a Mariner (Will Smith) is sailing with his wife and two children, Omar (Jordan A. Nash) and Lian (Taliyah Blair). He starts to tell the children a tale of a street rat, a princess, and a magic lamp. The kids ask that he sings since he tells stories better that way, and so he proceeds (“Arabian Nights”) and takes us to the kingdom of Agrabah.

Somewhere outside the city, the evil sorcerer Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) and his parrot Iago (Alan Tudyk) are standing outside the Cave of Wonders waiting for their pawn to go in and retrieve a treasure, but the Cave rejects all those that it finds unworthy by burying them deep into the sand until it has found the “diamond in the rough”.

In Agrabah’s marketplace, we meet Aladdin (Mena Massoud), who lives alone with his pet monkey Abu (Frank Welker) and gets by through being sneaky and taking what he can get. He pawns off a small item to get a bag of dates, but he gives it to a family who needs food more than he does. Elsewhere in the market, Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott), disguised as a commoner, takes some food from a stand and gives it to small children. The shop owner attempts to punish Jasmine for it until Aladdin intervenes and uses Jasmine’s bracelet as payment for the food. However, he swipes the bracelet back instantly and switches it out before the owner finds out and sends the palace guards after Aladdin (“One Jump Ahead”). He and Jasmine run through the market until they evade the guards and reach Aladdin’s hideout where he has a great view of the city. Aladdin expresses a desire to leave his current position while Jasmine, still not revealing who she is, also wishes for freedom. When they go back down to the market, Jasmine tries to leave but doesn’t have her bracelet since Abu took it. She is upset because it was her mother’s bracelet, and she leaves after calling Aladdin a thief. Moments later, guards on horses enter the palace and almost knock over some children before Aladdin steps in and insults one of the guards. He retaliates by telling Aladdin he is nothing more than a street rat who will die alone. Dejected, Aladdin returns home.

Upon her return to the palace, Jasmine and her father, The Sultan (Navid Negahban), meet Prince Anders of Skanland (Billy Magnussen), a potential suitor for Jasmine. She scares him off with her pet tiger Rajah. Although The Sultan is frustrated with Jasmine rejecting suitors since Skanland could have been a valuable ally, she doesn’t want someone chosen to marry her, as she is more interested in ruling the kingdom and making necessary changes to Agrabah so that she can help people. Meanwhile, Jafar, who is The Sultan’s vizier, wants to convince him to use their armies to invade the kingdom of Sherebad, which is where Jasmine’s mother is from. Jafar attempts to use his snake staff to hypnotize The Sultan, but it doesn’t work after Jasmine comes in, and The Sultan tells Jafar to stay in his place. Not long after, Iago draws Jafar’s attention to Aladdin coming into the palace.

Aladdin sneaks past the guards to try and return Jasmine’s bracelet, still thinking she is just a handmaiden while her best friend and acutal handmaiden Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) is the actual princess. Jasmine has to send Aladdin away, but he promises to return the next night. He is caught by Jafar and the guards, but Jafar talks to Aladdin and tries to appeal to him by showing that he was a former street rat himself who rose to power. He also tells Aladdin that Jasmine is the princess, and that he can help him be rich enough to impress her. Aladdin asks what he has to do.

Jafar brings Aladdin and Abu to the Cave of Wonders to retrieve a simple lamp, but the Cave warns Aladdin not to touch anything but the lamp. He enters, and although he and Abu get tempted, they focus on getting the lamp. They even find a Magic Carpet and free it to help them find it. Sure enough, the lamp is at the top of a rocky hill. Aladdin climbs to reach it, but Abu accidentally grabs a ruby that falls. The Cave then attempts to trap Aladdin and Abu there as it starts to crumble and turn to lava around him. Carpet helps Aladdin and Abu reach the exit, but when he asks for Jafar’s help, he only takes the lamp and attempts to kill Aladdin. Abu attacks Jafar before he and Aladdin get trapped in the cave. Jafar thinks he is victorious until he checks his pockets to find that the lamp is gone, and he screams in fury.

In the cave, Aladdin tries to find a way out. He wonders what the big deal over the lamp was until he rubs it and summons a great blue powerful Genie (Will Smith). He explains to Aladdin, in song (“Friend Like Me”), his powers and the ability to grant Aladdin, his new master, three wishes. Aladdin gets Genie to get them out of the cave, but since he didn’t rub the lamp when he made the wish, it didn’t count and was basically a freebie. Aladdin also asks Genie what he would wish for, and he admits he would love to be free and not have to grant anymore wishes. Aladdin promises to use his third wish to free Genie. Aladdin then thinks that he can use his first wish to make himself a prince to win over Jasmine and be able to marry her. Genie says there is “grey area” in that wish, but he eventually agrees to give Aladdin a princely makeover, turn Abu into an elephant to carry him, and then assemble a whole entourage for the new prince, Prince Ali of Ababwa.

Aladdin, Genie, and the magically conjured Ababwans enter Agrabah and put on a grand display (“Prince Ali”) for everyone to be won over. The Sultan lets them into the palace, and Aladdin is brought to “meet” Jasmine, who does not recognize him as this prince. When trying to make an offer for Jasmine’s hand, she takes offense as Aladdin is making it seem like she is a prize to be won, and he just embarrasses himself.

Later, a party is held where Aladdin once again tries to woo Jasmine with Genie’s help, this time with him using his powers to make Aladdin dance well, but Jasmine is not fully won over. Genie tells Aladdin to just be himself, but he thinks he needs to do something bigger. He uses Genie as a distraction since he and Dalia have eyes for one another, and Aladdin uses Carpet to get him to Jasmine’s room. Rajah appears to like Aladdin just fine, but it isn’t until Aladdin shows Jasmine Carpet and says the words “Do you trust me?” (which he told her when they first met) that she agrees to join him. They ride Carpet across the city to see how beautiful it is (“A Whole New World”). As they sit atop Carpet over the city, Jasmine tricks Aladdin into revealing who he really is, but he pretends that he was just disguised as a commoner as well. Afterwards, Aladdin returns Jasmine home, and they have their first kiss.

The next morning, an eager Aladdin tries to visit Jasmine, but he is caught by Jafar and the guards again. Jafar knows who Prince Ali really is and wants to prove that he has the lamp by pushing him off a ledge and into the ocean to see if Genie will help him survive. Abu and Carpet see this and rush to bring Aladdin the lamp. He rubs it but loses consciousness before he can wish himself out of there. Genie bends the rules by getting Aladdin to “sign” a wish contract that counts as his second wish to save him. After reviving Aladdin, they find Jasmine, Sultan, and Jafar and tries to expose him for his crimes, but Aladdin sees that Jafar is controlling The Sultan with his staff, so he swipes it and smashes it to show The Sultan who Jafar really is. He has Jafar imprisoned for his crimes, but Iago manages to get the keys to free him.

Aladdin tells Genie that he has to break his promise to free him and use his third wish to maintain the Prince Ali ruse if he wants to stay with Jasmine. Hurt, Genie retreats into his lamp. Later, as Aladdin is walking through the streets, a disguised Jafar swipes the lamp off of him and now becomes Genie’s new master. For his first wish, he goes to the palace throne room and uses Genie to become Sultan in front of everyone. He even gets The Sultan’s loyal Captain of the Guards, Hakim (Numan Acar), to turn on him as he is meant to serve The Sultan. Jasmine then appeals to Hakim since he has known their family since he was a boy and was loyal to them. He quickly switches allegiances again, so Jafar uses his second wish to become the world’s most powerful sorcerer. He exposes Aladdin for who he really is before banishing him to the ends of the earth. He then forces Jasmine to marry him or else he will kill her father and Dalia. Jasmine reluctantly agrees but refuses to let herself be put down as a result (“Speechless”).

Aladdin wakes up in an area covered in ice and snow. He spots Abu trapped in a crevice and goes to rescue him, and Genie sends Carpet to rescue the two. They head back to Agrabah where Jasmine is about to go through with the ceremony to marry Jafar until she spots Aladdin and Abu riding on Carpet and steals the lamp from Jafar to join them. Jafar uses his powers to turn Iago into a monstrous bird to chase after them and get the lamp back, but Sultan pushes the staff out of Jafar’s hand so that Iago goes back to normal, and Abu has the lamp. Jafar manages to overpower everyone and trap them, even destroying Carpet, before boasting about his power. However, Aladdin tells Jafar that he will always only be second best to Genie since he gave him his powers and can take them away just as easily. Jafar then decides to use his third wish to become the most powerful being in the universe. Genie grants him the wish, and Jafar tries to use his new power to attack Sherebad, BUT now that he is also a genie, he is bound to his own lamp and he gets sucked into it. Iago attempts to escape, but Jafar pulls him in too. Genie then tosses the lamp all the way back to the Cave of Wonders and then repairs Carpet.

Everything goes back to normal, and although Genie is prepared to go back inside the lamp after Aladdin’s last wish, Aladdin surprises him by actually wishing for Genie’s freedom. This turns him human and relinquishes his powers for good. He hugs Aladdin and then offers to sail the world with Dalia (who is later revealed to be his wife after he becomes the Mariner). Aladdin and Abu start to leave the city, and The Sultan tells Jasmine that he thinks she is ready to rule, so he passes on the title to her so that she can be free to rule and marry who she wants. She runs into the city to catch Aladdin, and they kiss.

Aladdin and Jasmine are later married, with Genie and Dalia by their side. All of Agrabah celebrates while Abu takes Carpet for another ride.

The street rat known as Aladdin meets Princess Jasmine of Agrabah and falls in love with her. He meets the evil sorcerer and vizier to the Sultan, Jafar, who convinces Aladdin to go into the Cave of Wonders to retrieve a magic lamp for his own gain. Jafar loses the lamp after trying to kill Aladdin, and Aladdin discovers a Genie living in the lamp. Genie vows to grant Aladdin three wishes since he is Genie's new master.

Aladdin uses his first wish to become a prince so that Jasmine can marry him. She is not impressed by his attempts to woo her until he acts as himself, and also uses a little magic to help. Jafar tries to kill Aladdin again to get the lamp, but Aladdin ends up exposing Jafar to the Sultan for who he really is. Jafar's parrot Iago helps him escape the dungeon, and he later steals the lamp from Aladdin and becomes Genie's new master. He uses his first two wishes to become the new sultan and then to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world. He tries to banish Aladdin, but with help from his friends, he returns to Agrabah and tricks Jafar into wishing himself to be a genie so he can have the same power, but it causes him to get trapped in his own lamp, and he takes Iago with him.

Aladdin uses his last wish to set Genie free, and he goes on to pursue a relationship with Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia. The Sultan passes on his title to Jasmine, and she chooses to marry Aladdin. They live happily ever after.