Captain Bones, Oliver Reed is an aging pirate who arrives at the Admiral Benbow inn, a rough place run by Jim Hawkins Christian Bale and his widowed mother Isla Blair. Bones keeps a wary watch for a one‑legged visitor and becomes a dangerous nuisance, casting a shadow over the quiet seaside home.
One day, a fiery pirate named Black Dog John Benfield appears at the inn, clashes swords with Bones, and then retreats into the night. Bones starts to suffer a heart attack, and before Jim can intervene, the enigmatic Blind Pew Christopher Lee arrives, hands Bones the Black Spot, and departs. Before dying, Bones passes Jim the key to his chest, a clue that will pull Jim into a much larger world of treasure and betrayal.
Mrs. Hawkins and Jim ransack Bones’ chest to hunt for rent money, and Jim pockets a packet of papers. Pew and Black Dog return with more pirates to seize the papers, threatening the Hawkins family. Dr. Livesey Julian Glover and his men intervene, scattering the attackers and killing Pew. Livesey and Jim carry the papers to Squire Trelawney Richard Johnson, where one map, drawn by Captain Flint, reveals that £700,000 lies buried on a distant island.
Trelawney decides to secure passage aboard the ship Hispaniola, hires Captain Smollet Clive Wood to command, and, with the help of the celebrated one‑legged pirate Long John Silver Charlton Heston, recruits a skilled crew of sailors. Livesey and Jim join the voyage as ship’s doctor and cabin boy, while Smollet keeps a wary eye on everyone, suspecting that mutiny might creep into the ranks—a concern that unsettles the hopeful but impulsive Trelawney.
As the voyage begins, Jim overhears three sailors—Silver, Israel Hands Michael Halsey, and Dick Johnson Steven Mackintosh—plotting a mutiny. When land is sighted, Jim hurries to alert Livesey, Trelawney, and Smollett, who secretly prepare their own countermeasures. Smollett allows some crew to go ashore to limit mutiny risk, then gathers Trelawney’s servants (Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth [James Cosmo]) and takes refuge in the cabin, while Jim sneaks ashore to spy on Silver and witnesses the murder of two sailors who refuse to join the conspiracy. There Jim also meets Ben Gunn [Nicholas Amer], a marooned former crew member whom Captain Flint left on the island years earlier.
Livesey and Hunter locate Flint’s old stockade and plan a new base of operations. Meanwhile, Hands uses a cannon to sink the jolly boat during a retreat, and Redruth is killed in the ensuing chase across the island. Gunn guides Jim to a cave and hands him a cryptic message for the Squire.
The next morning, Silver tries and fails to parley for the treasure map. The pirates storm the stockade, wounding Joyce and the Captain, but the defense holds, inflicting heavy losses. That night, Jim steals Gunn’s coracle, makes for the Hispaniola, and cuts the anchor line. Hands, badly wounded after a clash on deck, agrees to help Jim beach the ship, then turns on Jim, stabbing at him from the shadows; Jim fires, killing Hands.
Returning to the stockade, Jim finds the mutineers in control and his friends missing. He admits he has stirred up trouble, and Silver is nearly toppled by George Merry [Pete Postlethwaite], who wants Jim dead. Silver reveals he cut a deal with Livesey for the map, and the mutineers reassemble to keep Jim alive as a hostage. The next day, Livesey tends the wounded pirates, and Jim confides in him about the Hispaniola and Silver’s role in his survival. Livesey hurries to warn the others.
The mutineers set off with the map in search of the treasure, but they are unnerved by a spectral voice that seems to be Captain Flint—actually Gunn in disguise. They discover the treasure has already been looted. Merry attempts another surge, but Livesey’s party arrives to drive the mutineers away. Jim, the Doctor, and Gunn regroup in Gunn’s cave where Gunn reveals he moved the treasure there months earlier. They load the Hispaniola and head home.
Silver, unwilling to face trial, menaces Gunn and steals a gig, slipping away to freedom. The remaining crew return with their fortune, and Jim vows never to return to the cursed island, a promise born of hard lessons learned in a place where greed, loyalty, and survival collide.
