ONE LIFE
NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by David G
Prologue text: In 1938, Hitler occupies Austria and demands possession of a region of Czechoslovakia: the Sudetenland. The leaders of Britain, France and Italy agree to his demand in the hope of avoiding war. The next day, Hitler’s troop cross the border into Czechoslovakia. Tens of thousands of refugees flee towards unoccupied Prague. Many of them families with children.
1988: Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) lives a quiet life in the English suburbs with his wife Grete (Lena Olin). Grete has grown frustrated with the clutter in their house brought on by Nicholas’ work. While cleaning out his office, Grete tells Nicholas to find a place for an old briefcase he keeps in a drawer. Grete leaves for a trip out of town and Nicky returns home alone and begins having memories of the past.
1938: A younger Nicky (Johnny Flynn) is working as a stockbroker in London and living with his mother Babi (Helena Bonham Carter). Nicky speaks to his friend Martin (Ziggy Heath) currently working in Prague helping refugees; Martin tries to dissuade Nicky from coming to help but Nicky insists on going. Babi expresses concerns over Nicky’s safety; he tries to reassure her that he will be careful and explains that he feels compelled to go.
Nicky arrives in Prague and meets with Martin’s colleagues from the British Committee for Refugees: Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai), the head of the operation. Doreen and Trevor explain the current situation and how refugees have fled Nazi rule and come to Prague. Doreen takes Nicky to a crowded refugee camp where he meets Hana Hejdukova (Juliana Moska), liaison officer for Czech refugees, and she gives him a tour. Nicky is strongly affected by seeing the conditions of the refugees, particularly the many children ill-prepared for the upcoming winter.
Nicky learns the British Kindertransport rescuing children is only helping children escape Germany and Austria, refusing to help in Czechoslovakia. Nicky meets with a Rabbi who is concerned Nicky’s plan to remove Jewish children from Prague will only help Hitler’s mission of eradicating the Jewish people; Nicky insists it would only be a temporary relocation. The Rabbi questions Nicky’s motives and Nicky reveals that though all his grandparents were Jewish, the family hid their religions when they immigrated to England, and he was raised Christian. He makes an impassioned plea, and the Rabbi agrees to assist.
Nicky calls Babi and asks for help; Babi visits the British Immigration office to gather information and is persistent with the head of the office, Mr. Leadbetter (Michael Gould), who initially refuses to speak with her. Nicky delays his return to the office and works with Hana to canvas the refugee camps and gather information on all the children. Nicky is determined to find a young girl and her baby sister that he met on the first visit; he tracks them down and learns the baby is an orphan the girl found and takes care of.
1988: Nicholas receives a call from his daughter who says she is available to talk if he wants to discuss what to do with the briefcase. Nicholas empties out his files from the storage shed and sets them on fire.
1938: Nicky and Trevor begin collecting information from all the local Jewish families and their children. Nicky receives a message from his office demanding he return to work. Babi calls him and tells him that each child seeking asylum in England would require an application, an individual sponsor willing to pay for the child’s needs, a payment of 50 pounds, a medical certificate, and a foster parent. Nicky suggests they try to gather press in England to gain public support and Trevor gives him his briefcase as a gift to help with the work. Nicky returns to the UK and works with Babi to draft a letter for newspapers about the crisis in Prague, his committee’s plans, and their request for help.
Nicky and Babi meet with Mr. Leadbetter and ask him to help accelerate the process as they plan to bring the first 20 children to Liverpool in 2 weeks and cannot wait, as the Nazi invasion is imminent. Babi manages to make an emotional connection and Leadbetter agrees to help if all the paperwork is in order. They get to work with Martin and manage to secure everything needed for the first group. Trevor informs Nicky that the situation in Prague is getting worse as some refugees are disappearing from the camps. Trevor successfully makes the journey to England with the first 20 children where they are assigned their foster families.
1988: Nicholas goes through a scrapbook inside of the briefcase filled with photos and writings on the operation. Nicholas meets with a newspaper editor and asks him to do a piece on a new refugee crisis; the editor shows little interest in the cause. Nicholas has lunch with older Martin (Jonathan Pryce) and the two friends catch up. Martin suggests Nicholas slow down his support efforts to enjoy the remainder of his life and that they donate the scrapbook to a museum. Martin suggests Nicholas be prouder of the work he did and Nicholas shares that he has recently been thinking about the children they saved.
1938: Doreen calls Nicky to tell him that the Nazis and Hitler have invaded Prague. Doreen and Trevor go to check on the refugees in one of the safe houses and discover two children are missing: the young girl and the baby. Nicky goes to see Leadbetter to get additional visas but finds Leadbetter is on vacation and no one else is willing to help him. Trevor forges three documents to get the children out of the country. On the train out of Prague with the children, Trevor is confronted by Nazi officers, but manages to get to England safely.
Nicky visits Leadbetter again with a large stack of the children still in need of rescue and Leadbetter agrees to help. In England, Nicky, Babi, and their colleagues learn that Germany has invaded Poland and war has officially begun. The operation in Prague begins destroying evidence of their work and abandons the office; Hana takes a large group of children to the last train out while Trevor stays behind.
1988: Grete returns home and is appreciative that Nicholas has cleaned the house. Nicholas decides to meet with a French historian who has reached out. Nicholas travels to meet Elisabeth “Betty” Maxwell (Marthe Keller); he shows her the scrapbook and reveals that he brough 669 children in total with his operation. Betty is impressed with how much work was done though Nicholas recounts how the last pages of the scrapbook are blank because the final train never made it to England as Nazi forces arrived and forcefully took the children off the final train before it departed. Betty hypothesizes that most of those kids later died in the concentration camps and Nicholas explains he prefers to imagine happier outcomes to keep himself from going crazy. Betty asks to share the scrapbook with her husband.
Nicholas and Grete host their daughter and son-in-law for Christmas. Nicholas receives a letter from the Sunday Mirror newspaper expressing interest in publishing an article on the child evacuation as well as partnering with the BBC television show “That’s Life” on a piece. Nicholas goes to visit the set of the show as he is told they want him there to help guarantee accuracy. He is sat in the front row of the audience and the show taping begins. Esther Rantzen (Samantha Spiro), the host of the show, tells Nicholas’ story and shocks Nicholas by revealing that Vera, one of the children he rescued, is now an adult and sitting next to him. Nicholas and Vera embrace as he is brought to tears. After the show, Vera tells Nicholas about her life.
Back home, Nicky breaks down in tears and is comforted by Grete. A week later, Grete receives a call from a producer at “That’s Life” who tells her that two more people Nicholas rescued have reached out and want to meet him. Nicholas agrees to return to the show with Grete. At the taping, Esther surprises Nicholas again by revealing the entire audience is made up of the now-grown children he helped rescue. The audience applauds Nicholas.
Sometime later, Nicky and Grete host a party with Vera and her extended family.
Epilogue text: After the show aired, more children reached out to Nicky and he remained close with them until he died at age 106. Nicholas eventually donated the scrapbook to the Holocaust Museum in Israel and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
