Tom and Huck
Tom and Huck is a 1995 American adventure comedy-drama film based on Mark Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Mike McShane, Eric Schweig, and Amy Wright. The film was directed by Peter Hewitt and produced/co-written by Stephen Sommers. The film was released in North America on December 22, 1995.
In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by a vicious half-Native American criminal known as "Injun Joe". Tom befriends Huck Finn, a boy with no future and no family, and is forced to choose between honoring a friendship or honoring an oath, when the town drunk is accused of the murder.
Plot
One dark stormy night, Native American Injun Joe goes to meet Dr. Jonas Robinson for some criminal activity. Meanwhile, a boy named Tom Sawyer runs away from home with his friends to work on steamboats. This ultimately fails as their raft collides on a rock in the Mississippi River, throwing Tom into the water. His friends find him washed up on the shore, and Tom finds it was Huckleberry "Huck" Finn who carried him to safety. Tom later meets Huck discovering an unusual way to remove warts - by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night. There, they witness Injun Joe and Muff Potter, the town drunk, digging up the grave of Vic "One-Eyed" Murrell for Robinson. A treasure map is discovered and Robinson assaults Muff and Injun Joe in an attempt to take it for himself. He manages to knock out Muff, but Injun Joe fights back by fatally stabbing Doc with Muff's knife.The next morning, Muff is charged for the murder. Tom and Huck had signed an oath saying that if either of them came forward about it, they would drop dead and rot. The boys embark on a search for the treasure map Injun Joe has, so they can declare Muff innocent while preserving their oath. Eventually, however, Injun Joe finds the lost treasure and asks his partner Emmett to hide it in a cave before burning the map. With the only evidence to prove Muff's innocence destroyed, Tom and Huck's friendship starts to decline, and Huck eventually leaves Hannibal. Injun Joe then discovers that Tom was a witness to the crime. He finds Tom and threatens he will kill him if he ever tells anyone about the murder.
At Muff’s trial, Tom decides that his friendship with Muff is more important than his oath with Huck and exposes the truth. Injun Joe unsuccessfully attempts to kill Tom before leaving Hannibal. The townspeople declare Tom as a hero for his bravery and plans to throw a festival to commemorate the occasion. Knowing that Injun Joe wants him dead, Tom decides not to attend. Huck later sneaks into Tom's bedroom one night, criticizing Tom for breaking their oath before leaving town again.
The next day during the festival, a group of children, including Tom and his love interest Becky Thatcher, enter McDougal's Cave, where Tom and Becky become lost. Meanwhile, the judge is alerted by the sheriff that Injun Joe ended up killing Emmett. Huck, who secretly attends the festival, overhears all this and goes after Tom. Eventually Tom and Becky stumble upon Injun Joe in the cave. He traps them, but they manage to escape and later discover the spot where Injun Joe hid the treasure. Tom then finds an opening in the cave and asks Becky to go get her father.
Injun Joe ultimately finds Tom and attempts to kill him before Huck suddenly shows up. After a brief struggle, Injun Joe easily overpowers Huck. Just as he is about to land a finishing blow, Tom quietly empties the contents from the treasure chest and threatens him by throwing the chest over a chasm. Injun Joe tries to get the chest from Tom, only to fall into the chasm to his death. The boys reconcile as they claim the treasure and are declared heroes by the people. Tom is praised on the front page of the newspaper, and Widow Douglas adopts Huck.