The following contains SPOILERS for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now in theaters, and fans and critics both seem to largely agree that the movie is a really fun time. It has great action and more than a few laughs, but what might be the best thing about it is that the movie is simultaneously a fantastic film adaptation of the Dungeon & Dragons game, yet doesn’t require the audience to know a thing about Dungeons & Dragons.
The big way that Honor Among Thieves can be both things at once is that while it includes a lot of information and detail that is specific to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, it never makes a big deal out of any of it. Most of the details are simply slipped in like easter eggs, and the audience is left to simply understand what it all means in context. But for the fans who know, there was a lot to note. So let’s take a look at several (but certainly not all) of the Dungeons & Dragons references in Honor Among Thieves, that were there for fans, but that non-fans can now understand.
Neverwinter, Lord Neverember and Szass Tam
The bulk of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves takes place in and around the city of Neverwinter. This is one of the major locations in the D&D world known as Forgotten Realms. It exists along the Sword Coast, a major location for Dungeons & Dragons, and is a focus of the current 5th edition campaigns.
It’s referenced in the film that prior to Forge taking control in Neverwinter, the city had been overseen by Lord Neverember. This is a character who fans will know well, at least by name. In addition to being the Lord Protector of Neverwinter, he’s also known as an Open Lord in the city of Waterdeep, another significant D&D location not far away. Another character referenced, but not directly involved in the plot, is the red wizard Szass Tam, another name that players will know, and one they may even have fought.
Tiefling/Dragonborn
One of the most important decisions a player of D&D will need to make is what race their character will be. That decision will impact what sorts of relationships your character might have, and can also determine where you’ll find friends and where you might find enemies. Many of the Dungeons & Dragons races will be well known to any fan of classic fantasy. For starters, there are humans, elves and halflings, but there are also a few that appear in Honor Among Thieves that are a bit more unique.
The character played by Sofia Lillis in the movie refers to herself as a tiefling, and while the film doesn’t explain what that means, it’s made clear that a lot of people have a bias against tieflings. This is because tieflings are the result of a melding of human and infernal bloodlines, so she's basically part demon. Of course, tieflings are nothing compared to the Dragonborn, which are also seen in the film and are the offspring of actual dragons, despite their humanoid look.
Displacer Beast/Gelatinous Cube/Mimic
There’s an entire book in Dungeons & Dragons dedicated to the creatures that one might come across during an adventure, and while many of them, like dragons or jinn, might look familiar, there are dozens of others that are a bit more unusual. Honor Among Thieves does make a point to introduce you to an owlbear by name, but there are a few others that we meet that are not given proper names in the film.
As our party of adventuring heroes makes their way through the maze of the High Sun Games, they find themselves avoiding monsters at every turn. The treasure chest with teeth is called a mimic, The thing that looks like a panther with tentacles is a displacer beast, and the gelatinous cube is a… gelatinous cube. And honestly, the cube might be the most dangerous of them all, because once you get inside one of those things, getting out is no easy feat.
Speak to Dead, Bigby’s Hand And Basically All The Spells
Magic is a cornerstone of Dungeons & Dragons, though not every character is capable of using it. Still, it won’t be long in any adventure before you come up against it, and Honor Among Thieves pulls pretty much all of its magic spells directly out of the Player’s Handbook.
Speak with Dead, along with its “arbitrary” five questions, is right out of the book. The same is true for basically every spell seen in the film, from the battle of disembodied hands in the big finale (variations on a series of spells called Bigby’s Hand) to the use of the Green flame blade magic, which is both an actual D&D spell and a Big Trouble in Little China joke.
Mordenkainen's Arcane Seal/Helmet Of Disjunction
With so many direct references to Dungeons & Dragons in Honor Among Thieves, one might think that everything in the movie is pulled directly from the game. However, there are some things that the movie created itself, though even many of them are inspired by elements of the game.
The lock on Forge’s vault, where all the money is supposed to go, is said to be an unbreakable spell called Morenkainen’s Arcane Seal. This sends our heroes in search of a magical item called the Helmet of Disjunction, which is supposed to be able to cancel any magic spell.
Both of these things are inventions of the film, but the helmet’s ability is seemingly taken from a magic spell in the D&D called Mordenkainen’s Disjunction, which does the same thing that the helmet does. Also, the need for somebody to attune themselves to a powerful magical item in order to properly use it is also totally a thing.
If you saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and didn’t catch a single one of these references, that's fine. That was actually sort of the point. So often you really need to already be a fan to enjoy the movie version of something, but this movie didn’t make that a requirement. But now that you know some of the references, perhaps you’ll enjoy the movie that much more when it comes time for a rewatch.
