Plot
Paul Sheldon, the author of the best-selling series of Victorian-era romance novels featuring the character Misery Chastain, has finished the series' final installment, in which Misery is killed off. As Paul celebrates the completion of the manuscript for his new crime novel, Fast Cars, he is caught in a snowstorm in a remote section of Colorado, causing him to crash into a snowbank. He awakens to find that he has been rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse living nearby. Annie is an avid reader of Paul's Misery series, proclaiming herself Paul's "number one fan." She refuses to take Paul to the hospital despite his having two severely broken legs, nursing Paul herself using her stockpiled food and illicit stash of codeine-based painkillers, to which Paul quickly becomes addicted. Paul soon assesses that Annie is mentally unstable; she is prone to trailing off into catatonic episodes and has bouts of unreasonable rage, implying that she has schizophrenia or a schizoaffective disorder as well as a bipolar spectrum disorder.
When Annie learns of Misery's death in the book, she leaves Paul alone in her house for over two days, depriving him of food, water, and painkillers. Upon her return, she forces a weakened Paul to burn the manuscript for Fast Cars – which he hoped would launch his post-Misery career – and presents him with an antique Royal typewriter, for the purpose of writing a new Misery novel that will bring the character back from the dead. Biding his time, Paul begins a new book, Misery's Return, and allows Annie to read it as he writes. He manages to escape his room in a wheelchair on several different occasions, searching for more painkillers and exploring the house. He discovers a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings, suggesting that she is a serial killer who has murdered over thirty people. Meanwhile, Annie grows increasingly depressed and reveals that she knows Paul left his room. She punishes him by cutting off his foot with an axe and cauterizing his ankle with a blowtorch. Later, when Paul complains about the typewriter, she cuts off his thumb with an electric knife.
Colorado state trooper Duane Kushner eventually arrives at Annie's house in search of Paul. When Paul attempts to alert him, Annie murders Kushner by running him over with her riding lawnmower, and decides that she will shoot both Paul and herself after the novel is finished. While she disposes of the body, Paul steals a can of lighter fluid, which he uses to light the completed manuscript on fire. As Annie attempts to save it, he beats her with the typewriter, and they engage in a violent struggle. Paul is finally able to alert the police, who have arrived in search of the dead officer, Kushner. Annie is found dead from her injuries in the barn, apparently on her way to murder Paul with a chainsaw. Paul reveals that he had burned a decoy copy of the manuscript, and the real one is unharmed.
Returning home to New York, Paul submits Misery's Return to his publisher, which is set to become an international bestseller. Paul has frequent nightmares about Annie, and continues to have withdrawal from painkillers. He has also become an alcoholic with writer's block. Eventually, after a random encounter on the street, Paul gains inspiration to write a new story, weeping both for his shattered life and in joy that he is finally able to write again.
