Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Judge Turpin exiled Benjamin Barker so he could pursue a romantic relationship with Lucy's wife. Turpin harbored dark desires for Lucy and used his position as a judge to falsely accuse Barker of a crime, banishing him from London. This allowed Turpin to gain access to Lucy, who later took her own life by drinking arsenic.

Foreshadowing: The tyranny of Judge Turpin is established early in the film as the root cause of Barker's suffering.

• judge turpin
• benjamin barker
• exile
• revenge
• Lucy

Lucy did not actually die from the arsenic. After consuming the poison, she survived but was left disfigured and homeless, living as a beggar woman on the streets of London. She wandered the city in this guise for years, unrecognized by everyone, including her own husband and daughter.

Foreshadowing: The beggar woman who appears throughout the film is constantly around Todd and Lovett, hinting at her true identity.

• lucy
• arsenic
• beggar woman
• survival
• disfigurement

Mrs. Lovett lied to Todd about Lucy being dead because she wanted him to remain available for her own romantic pursuits. Knowing Lucy was alive and living as a beggar woman, Lovett deliberately withheld this information to keep Todd from reuniting with his wife. This deception ultimately leads to the film's tragic conclusion when Todd discovers the truth.

Foreshadowing: Lovett's reluctance to discuss the beggar woman and her vague answers about Lucy hint at her deception.

• mrs lovett
• lucy
• lie
• deception
• romance

Todd nearly killed Johanna because he was consumed by bloodlust and madness after learning that Judge Turpin had sent her to a mental asylum. In his murderous frenzy, driven by years of vengeance and grief, Todd did not recognize his own daughter when she appeared before him. He was only stopped by Mrs. Lovett's scream of horror.

Foreshadowing: Todd's violent tendencies escalate throughout the film, with his razor becoming an extension of his rage.

• johanna
• todd
• near kill
• frenzy
• mental asylum

Toby, formerly Pirelli's assistant, witnessed the chaos unfolding after discovering the truth about Todd and Lovett's crimes. In a moment of vengeance for all the evil he had witnessed, Toby stabbed Sweeney Todd to death. This act brought a brutal end to Todd's reign of terror and completed the tragic cycle of violence that defined the film.

Foreshadowing: Toby's suspicion of Todd grows throughout the narrative, building toward his inevitable confrontation.

• toby
• tobias ragg
• kill
• todd
• revenge

After Todd killed his victims, Mrs. Lovett came up with the practical solution of processing the bodies into her meat pies. This solved the problem of disposing of the corpses while also revitalizing her failing pie business, which became incredibly successful. The grotesque enterprise represented their twisted partnership and descent into moral corruption.

Foreshadowing: Lovett's struggle to sell pies and her dreams of moving to the seaside establish her motivation for the gruesome scheme.

• meat pies
• victims
• baking
• disposal
• lovett

Anthony Hope, the sailor who fell in love with Johanna, successfully rescued her from the mental asylum where Judge Turpin had imprisoned her. The two were able to escape together, leaving the horrors of Fleet Street behind them. While the film's ending is tragic for most characters, Anthony and Johanna represent the possibility of love surviving amid the darkness.

Foreshadowing: Anthony first sees Johanna singing to her birds and vows to win her heart, establishing their romantic subplot.

• anthony hope
• johanna
• rescue
• elopement
• asylum

Adolfo Pirelli, a fellow barber who claims to be Todd's rival, challenged him to a shaving contest in the marketplace. The contest was rigged in Pirelli's favor to scam money from onlookers. When Todd refused to lose on purpose and instead humiliated Pirelli in front of the crowd, it drew the attention of Beadle Bamford and revealed Todd's dangerous violent tendencies.

Foreshadowing: This incident marks Todd's first public display of violence since returning to London.

• adolfo pirelli
• shaving contest
• challenge
• rigged

Judge Turpin wanted to marry Johanna because he had developed the same obsessive desire for her that he once had for her mother, Lucy. After gaining guardianship of Johanna following Barker's exile, Turpin pursued her inappropriately, eventually sending her to a mental asylum when she rejected his advances. This mirrors his earlier predation on Lucy.

Foreshadowing: Turpin's dark desires are established from the start when he exiled Barker specifically to get to Lucy.

• turpin
• johanna
• guardianship
• incestuous desire
• mental asylum

Before his exile, Benjamin Barker was already a skilled barber who worked in the shop above Mrs. Lovett's pie shop on Fleet Street. After returning as Sweeney Todd, he revived his razors as tools of vengeance against those who wronged him. The barber trade was both his profession and the method he used to get close enough to kill his victims.

Foreshadowing: The film title itself establishes the barber as Todd's identity and weapon.

• benjamin barker
• barber
• razor
• vengeance
• skills

After Lucy survived the arsenic poisoning, her life was destroyed. Judge Turpin's advances and her husband's exile left her with nothing. She was disfigured by the poison and ended up homeless, wandering the streets as a beggar woman. Despite living near the pie shop for years, she remained unrecognized, watching the events unfold without revealing her identity.

Foreshadowing: The beggar woman's persistent presence near key locations hints at her connection to the story's past.

• lucy
• beggar woman
• homeless
• disfigurement
• arsenic

Judge Turpin was killed by Sweeney Todd during their final confrontation. After Todd lured Turpin to his barber shop under the pretense of a shaving, he slit the judge's throat in revenge for all the suffering Turpin caused him and his family. This violent act represented the culmination of Todd's years-long quest for vengeance.

Foreshadowing: Todd's obsession with revenge against Turpin drives the entire narrative.

• turpin
• death
• slit throat
• revenge
• killed