Of Mice and Men recap

George Milton and Lennie Small are migrant farm workers in California who travel together and share a dream of one day owning a small farm of their own. Lennie is enormously strong but simple-minded and cannot control his urge to pet soft things, often harming them by accident. After fleeing trouble in the town of Weed, they take work at a ranch, where they meet the old handyman Candy, the hostile Curley, Curley's lonely wife, and the steady mule driver Slim. When Candy offers his savings, the farm dream briefly seems within reach, but Lennie's strength keeps causing harm: he crushes Curley's hand in a fight, and later, in the barn, he accidentally breaks the neck of Curley's wife while stroking her hair. As an armed mob forms to lynch him, George finds Lennie first at their agreed hiding spot, comforts him with the story of their farm, and mercifully shoots him to spare him a worse death.

George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers, camp overnight beside a river before starting new jobs. George is small and sharp-minded; Lennie is enormous and powerful but has the mind of a child and loves to stroke soft things, without any sense of his own strength. They had to flee their last job in the town of Weed after Lennie frightened a woman by clutching her dress. To settle him, George repeats their shared dream: to save enough to buy a small farm of their own, where Lennie can look after rabbits. George warns Lennie that if trouble ever comes, he must return to this riverside spot and hide. The two reach the ranch and meet the crew: the aging one-handed handyman Candy and his old dog, the boss's aggressive son Curley, Curley's restless new wife, and the respected mule driver Slim, whose dog has just had puppies.

Settling in at the ranch, Lennie is given one of Slim's puppies. In the bunkhouse, the hand Carlson pesters Candy until the old man reluctantly allows him to shoot his worn-out dog. George quietly confides in Slim about why they had to leave Weed. Candy overhears George and Lennie describing their dream farm and offers his savings to buy in with them, and for the first time the plan begins to feel real and close. Curley, looking for a fight, attacks Lennie, who at George's shouted command grabs the smaller man's hand and crushes it. Slim pressures Curley into staying quiet about how the injury really happened. On a Sunday evening in the stable hand Crooks's room, Lennie, Candy, and then Curley's wife gather; Crooks is briefly drawn toward the idea of the farm before the lonely, bitter woman reminds them of the power she holds over them and notices the bruises on Lennie's face.

In the barn, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy by handling it too roughly. Curley's wife finds him there and, softening, lets him stroke her hair; when he grips too hard and she cries out, he panics and shakes her until her neck breaks, killing her. Terrified, he flees to the riverside hiding place George had named. Candy and George discover the body, and the dream of the farm collapses. Curley gathers an armed party to hunt Lennie down and make him suffer. George reaches Lennie first at the river. He calms him by describing their farm one last time, telling him to look across the water and picture the rabbits, and then shoots him in the back of the head with Carlson's pistol to spare him the mob. When the others arrive, only Slim understands what George has done and quietly leads him away.

Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife in the barn and runs to the riverside brush that George had told him to hide in. When the body is found, any hope of the farm is gone, and Curley leads an armed party out to kill Lennie in revenge. George slips away and reaches Lennie before the others do. He tells him one last time about the little farm they would have shared and the rabbits Lennie would tend, having him gaze across the river as he speaks. Then, using Carlson's stolen Luger pistol, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head, killing him quickly rather than letting the mob take him. The men arrive moments later. Curley and Carlson assume George wrestled the gun away and shot Lennie in self-defense, but Slim understands the truth and quietly reassures George that he did what he had to do. Slim leads George off for a drink, leaving the others unable to grasp what has happened.