Synopsis

Birdman (2014)

More Information on IMDB

You are now watching Birdman (2014) on SuperMegaStream.com

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is a washed-up Hollywood actor best known for playing the superhero Birdman decades ago in a series of blockbuster films. He is tormented by the voice of Birdman, which mocks and criticizes him, and he sees himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis.

Riggan hopes to reinvent his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. The play is produced by Riggan’s best friend and lawyer, Jake (Zach Galifianakis), and also stars Riggan’s girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough), and first-time Broadway actress, Lesley (Naomi Watts). Samantha (Emma Stone), who is Riggan’s daughter and a recovering addict, serves as his assistant.

During rehearsals, a light fixture falls onto Ralph, Riggan’s co-star; Riggan tells Jake he caused the light to fall so he could replace him. At Lesley’s suggestion, Riggan replaces Ralph with the brilliant but volatile method actor Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), refinancing his house to fund his contract. The first previews are disastrous: Mike breaks character over the replacement of his gin with water and attempts to rape Lesley during a sex scene. Riggan reads early press coverage and is incensed that Mike has stolen the show, but Jake encourages him to continue. When Riggan catches Samantha using marijuana and subsequently berates her, she tells him he is expendable and that his play is a vanity project.

Backstage during the final preview, Riggan sees Samantha and Mike flirting. He accidentally locks himself out of the theater and walks in his underwear through Times Square to get back inside; amateur videos of the incident go viral online. After the preview, Riggan runs into influential critic Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan), who tells him she hates Hollywood celebrities who “pretend” to be actors and promises to “kill” his play with a negative review once she sees it. Riggan gets drunk and passes out in the street. The next day, he hallucinates a conversation with Birdman, who tries to convince him to make another Birdman film, and sees himself flying through New York City back to the theatre.

On the opening night, for a scene in which Riggan’s character kills himself, Riggan replaces his prop pistol with a real one and shoots himself in the head onstage. He earns a standing ovation from all but Tabitha, who leaves during the applause. In the hospital the next day, it is revealed that Riggan botched his suicide, merely blowing his nose off. Jake tells Riggan that Tabitha gave the play a rave review, dubbing his suicide attempt “super-realism”, a new form of method acting. After Samantha visits Riggan, he dismisses Birdman, and seeing birds outside, climbs onto the window ledge. When Samantha returns, Riggan has disappeared with the window open. She looks down at the street, then up at the sky and smiles.