The Ring (2002 film)

In Seattle, teenage best friends Katie and Becca discuss their town’s resident legend of a cursed videotape; whoever watches it dies seven days later. Katie claims she watched the tape a week ago. Minutes later, Katie is killed by an unseen force.

At Katie's funeral, her aunt Rachel Keller begins to investigate Katie's death. Rachel lives with her young son Aidan, who possesses a degree of mediumship. Rachel learns that Katie's friends who also viewed the tape all died on the same night as Katie, all with disfigured appearances. Rachel travels to Shelter Mountain Inn where Katie stayed, discovering the cursed videotape. Rachel watches the tape, which contains disturbing, gruesome imagery. Once the tape ends, Rachel receives a phone call from an unknown caller who whispers "seven days".

Rachel recruits Noah, her ex-boyfriend and Aidan's father, to study the tape, making a copy after he watches the original. Rachel begins to experience supernatural phenomena as the week passes, haunted by a young girl with soaking wet long black hair. Investigation into the tape's imagery leads Rachel to Anna Morgan, a horse breeder from Moesko Island, who committed suicide after her prize-winning horses drowned themselves. Rachel catches Aidan watching the tape, and discovers Noah is also experiencing supernatural occurrences.

Rachel travels to Moesko Island to speak to Anna's widower Richard. On the ferry journey, a horse leaps to its death after Rachel pets it, recreating imagery from the cursed tape. Noah goes to Eola Psychiatric Hospital to view Anna's medical files. Both separately discover Anna had an adopted daughter, Samara, who possessed an ability to psychically etch mental images onto surfaces and into people’s minds. Rachel tries to speak with Richard about Samara, but he denies her existence.

Rachel speaks with Dr. Grasnik, the island's general practitioner, who explains Samara was adopted due to Anna's infertility, recommending them to admit her to Eola, assuming Samara is still there. Rachel sneaks into the Morgan farmhouse, watching a videotape of Samara in a psychotherapy session, who claims she has no control over her abilities. Rachel confronts Richard, who commits suicide upon learning Samara's powers are still at large. Noah arrives and he and Rachel go to the barn, where Samara was kept isolated. They find a burnt image of a tree, and Rachel recognizes it from Shelter Mountain.

They return to the Inn, locating a stone well hidden under the floorboards; the final image on the tape. Rachel falls in the well, experiencing a vision of Anna suffocating Samara and throwing her down the well, where she died seven days later. Samara's corpse surfaces after Noah tells Rachel that the seven-day deadline has passed. The authorities assure Noah and Rachel that Samara's corpse will be given a proper burial.

The next day, Rachel tells Aidan that the curse has been lifted by liberating Samara. A distressed Aidan tells Rachel that it was a mistake to help Samara, saying that now she will never stop. At his apartment, Noah is murdered by the vengeful ghost of Samara. Rachel, upon finding his disfigured corpse, returns home and destroys the original tape, wondering why Noah was killed but she was not. She realizes that the difference is that she made a copy of the tape, which Aidan watched, thereby continuing the cycle that Samara wants to spread of duplicating the video and showing it to someone else to save oneself.

Rachel assists Aidan in making a copy of the cursed tape. Aidan asks what will happen to the person who watches the new tape, to which Rachel does not answer.

The film features an original score composed by Hans Zimmer (who would later collaborate on Gore Verbinski's other works). The soundtrack release did not coincide with the film's theatrical run. It was released in 2005, accompanying The Ring Two in an album that combined music from both The Ring and The Ring Two. The soundtrack contains a few themes associated with the characters, moods, and locations, including multiple uses of the Dies Irae theme. The score makes use of string instruments, pianos, and synthesizers.

All music is composed by Hans Zimmer, Henning Lohner, and Martin Tillman.

In order to advertise The Ring, many promotional websites were formed featuring the characters and places in the film. The video from the cursed videotape was played in late night programming over the summer of 2002 without any reference to the film.

A sequel, The Ring Two, was released in 2005. A short film titled Rings was also released in 2005, and is set between The Ring and The Ring Two. Another sequel, also titled Rings, was released in 2017.

• List of ghost films
• List of Ring characters

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