The Shape of Water (2017) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Elisa was born mute and cannot speak. She communicates through sign language, which becomes crucial to her connection with the Asset. This condition isolates her from mainstream society, making her relate more easily to the creature that cannot speak either.

Foreshadowing: Early scenes show Elisa's isolated life and her neighbor Giles who understands her sign language.

• mute
• elisa
• sign language
• communication
• isolation

The Asset is an amphibious creature discovered in South America and brought to the Occam Aerospace Research Center for study during the Cold War. It's a sentient being with intelligence, emotional capacity, and extraordinary physical abilities that the government views as a potential military asset.

Foreshadowing: The film opens with Giles narrating about a princess and a monster, setting up the creature's role.

• asset
• creature
• amphibian
• government
• research center

Strickland tortures the Asset partly to break its spirit and make it controllable, but his cruelty also stems from personal frustrations. His accident at the facility (losing fingers) and failing marriage have made him bitter and violent, and he takes out his frustrations on the defenseless creature.

Foreshadowing: Strickland's aggressive personality is shown early when he berates employees and demands results.

• strickland
• torture
• cruelty
• violence
• government agent

Dr. Hoffstetler is a Soviet spy working undercover at Occam. His true name is Dmitri. He was sent to steal the Asset for the Soviet government, but he develops conflicted feelings about the creature's intelligence and suffering, ultimately helping Elisa's escape plan despite his divided loyalties.

Foreshadowing: Hoffstetler is shown contemplating the Asset's intelligence and moral questions before his true allegiance is revealed.

• hoffstetler
• spy
• soviet
• communist
• dmitri
• cold war

Elisa communicates with the Asset through sign language, teaching it basic signs like "egg" and "music." The creature proves intelligent enough to learn and even responds with gestures of its own. Music also becomes a key form of connection between them, with Elisa playing records to the creature.

Foreshadowing: Elisa's nightly visits to the enclosure show her developing this communication system gradually.

• sign language
• communication
• music
• eggs
• bonding

Elisa feels a deep kinship with the Asset because both are outsiders who cannot speak and are isolated from society. She sees a reflection of herself in the creature and believes it deserves freedom. Her compassion drives her to risk her life and her friendship with Giles to rescue it.

Foreshadowing: The opening narration about the princess and her beloved establishes the theme of love across boundaries.

• rescue
• freedom
• compassion
• outsider
• love
• elisa

Elisa and Giles devise a plan to smuggle the Asset out in a cargo truck. They drain some of the water from its enclosure, keep it moist with wet blankets, and sneak it out during a shift change. They transport it to Elisa's apartment bathroom, where it can survive temporarily until they release it into the canal.

Foreshadowing: Elisa's careful planning and observations of the facility schedule make the escape possible.

• escape
• rescue
• truck
• apartment
• canal
• plan

The Asset possesses remarkable healing abilities and can regenerate its own injuries. During the climax at the canal, it demonstrates the power to heal others by restoring Elisa's ability to breathe underwater and possibly reversing her death after Strickland shoots her. It also has superhuman strength and can survive outside water for extended periods.

Foreshadowing: The creature's healing abilities are hinted at when Hoffstetler notes its remarkable recovery from injuries.

• powers
• healing
• regeneration
• supernatural
• abilities

After Strickland shoots Elisa at the canal, the Asset brings her into the water and uses its healing powers to resurrect her. It also gives her the ability to breathe underwater by opening gill-like slits on her neck. Elisa transforms and lives permanently with the Asset in the ocean, achieving the transcendent union described in the opening narration.

Foreshadowing: The film foreshadows this transformation through Elisa's aquatic dreams and the repeated imagery of water as a place of freedom.

• resurrection
• underwater
• transformation
• love
• death
• healing

Strickland discovers Elisa and Giles at the canal attempting to release the Asset. During the confrontation, he tries to kill the creature but is instead attacked and killed by the Asset, which snaps his neck or drowns him. His death represents the defeat of cruelty and prejudice by love and understanding.

Foreshadowing: Strickland's obsessive pursuit of the Asset throughout the film builds to this violent confrontation.

• strickland
• death
• confrontation
• canal
• justice

The key lime pie scene at the local shop establishes the close friendship between Elisa and Giles. It also shows the first hint of social tension when Giles is humiliated by the Pie Guy after being rejected by a young man at the counter. This scene humanizes the characters and foreshadows the theme of outsiders being rejected by society.

Foreshadowing: The Pie Guy's later recognition of Giles at the protest rally connects back to this earlier rejection.

• pie
• giles
• friendship
• social rejection
• scene

Elisa has scars on her neck from childhood, likely from the operation that removed her vocal cords, which is why she cannot speak. These scars are significant because they physically mark her status as an outsider and set up the reversal at the end when the Asset transforms her, giving her gills in the same location.

Foreshadowing: The scars are visible in early scenes, and the ending's transformation specifically targets this area.

• scars
• neck
• vocal cords
• transformation
• gills