Troll 2 (1990) Plot Summary Explained

The goblins deliberately trick and trap the family. They orchestrate a surprise party to keep everyone distracted and occupied, preventing them from leaving. Additionally, Joshua's warnings are dismissed by the adults as overactive imagination, so they don't take the threat seriously enough to leave immediately.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Seth warns Joshua that the goblins control Nilbog and trick people into coming there, establishing why escape isn't simple.

• escape nilbog
• trapped in nilbog
• family trapped
• goblin trap

The Magic Stone is a mystical artifact that serves as a source of power against the goblins. Seth instructs Joshua to touch it when the time is right. When Joshua uses the stone after becoming toxic from eating the bologna sandwich, he successfully eliminates Creedence, the goblin leader, by channeling his toxic state through the stone's power.

Foreshadowing: Seth appears as a hitchhiker specifically to deliver the bag containing the stone and the bologne sandwich for Joshua to use at the critical moment.

• magic stone
• stone power
• seth gift
• goblin weapon

The double-decker bologna sandwich is given to Joshua by his grandfather Seth specifically to make him toxic to goblins. Seth prepared it as a weapon for dire situations. When Joshua eats the sandwich, his body becomes poisonous to the goblins, preventing them from consuming him and allowing him to approach and destroy Creedence using the Magic Stone.

Foreshadowing: Seth's urgent instruction to open the bag 'in dire situations' suggests the contents are specifically designed to counter the goblin threat.

• bologna sandwich
• toxic to goblins
• seth weapon
• poisoned food weapon

Holly accuses her boyfriend Elliot of homosexuality because he frequently spends time with his male friends Brent, Arnold, and Drew. Her suspicion creates tension in their relationship and leads to a confrontation when Elliot arrives late to meet her, bringing his friends along despite her insistence that he come alone.

Foreshadowing: This subplot is introduced early and runs parallel to the main goblin threat, adding interpersonal drama to the story.

• holly
• elliot
• relationship tension
• boyfriend friends

Nilbog is 'Goblin' spelled backwards. The town is the goblins' kingdom where they lure humans with the promise of a holiday retreat. The inverted name foreshadows the inverted moral world of the goblins, who pose as welcoming hosts while plotting to transform and consume their visitors.

Foreshadowing: Joshua receives ominous warnings about Nilbog from his grandfather before the family even departs.

• nilbog name
• goblin town
• meaning of nilbog
• backwards name

Creedence Leonore Gielgud is the druid leader of the goblins in Nilbog. She possesses magical powers that allow her to transform humans into vegetables or vegetable matter, which the goblins then consume. She appears in both human and goblin form, using her powers to terrorize and feed on the human visitors.

Foreshadowing: Arnold encounters her early in Nilbog, witnessing her transform a fleeing woman into vegetable matter to feed the goblins.

• creedence gielgud
• goblin leader
• druid
• transformation powers

The goblins follow a twisted ideology that opposes eating meat, which they preach at their abandoned church gatherings. Despite this moral stance against meat consumption, they freely deceive and poison humans with contaminated food, transforming their victims into vegetables that the goblins then eat. This reveals their hypocrisy and twisted moral code.

Foreshadowing: Joshua discovers this when he skates to the abandoned church and witnesses the goblin congregation preaching their anti-meat doctrine.

• goblin ideology
• vegetarian goblins
• church sermon
• goblin beliefs

When humans consume the goblins' poisoned food, they are transformed into vegetables. The goblins then harvest and consume these vegetable-human hybrids as their food source. This is the core of their sinister operation in Nilbog, luring visitors, feeding them poisoned meals, and harvesting the resulting 'produce.'

Foreshadowing: Seth's initial warning message describes this exact process: goblins deceive humans into eating poisoned food, transforming victims into vegetables for consumption.

• transformation
• vegetable people
• poisoned food
• goblin feast

After the family returns home thinking they've escaped Nilbog, the goblins have left poisoned food lurking in their refrigerator. Diane unknowingly eats the contaminated food and succumbs to the poison. Joshua witnesses the horrifying sight of his mother being devoured by the remaining goblins who followed them home, completing the tragic ending.

Foreshadowing: The family's blissful ignorance upon returning home creates dramatic irony, as the goblins' reach extends beyond Nilbog itself.

• diane death
• mother dies
• goblins follow home
• tragic ending

Seth, Joshua's deceased grandfather, appears multiple times to warn and guide his grandson against the goblin threat. He disguises himself as a hitchhiker to directly warn Joshua, provides the bag containing the bologna sandwich and Magic Stone, and intervenes during the confrontation with Creedence. Seth's ghostly intervention suggests he is protecting his family from beyond the grave.

Foreshadowing: The story opens with Seth's chilling message from beyond, establishing his ongoing protective presence throughout the narrative.

• seth ghost
• grandfather warning
• protective spirit
• supernatural help

Arnold, one of Elliot's friends, witnesses a woman being transformed into vegetable matter by Creedence. He then becomes the goblins' next victim, transformed into a plant himself. This demonstrates the immediate danger facing anyone who discovers the goblins' true nature in Nilbog.

Foreshadowing: Arnold's fate serves as a warning to the family about what happens to those who wander alone in Nilbog.

• arnold
• transformed into plant
• friend dies
• goblin victim