Fantastic Mr Fox - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

The story revolves around an anthropomorphic, tricky, clever fox named Mr. Fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. In order to feed his family, he makes nightly visits to farms owned by three wicked, cruel, dimwitted farmers named Boggis, Bunce, and Bean and snatches the livestock or food available on each man's respective farm. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr. Fox, the farmers devise a plan to attempt to shoot him by sneaking up on him a certain distance from his hole, blasting shots at their enemy, only to shoot off his tail.

In order to successfully kill the fox, the farmers dig up his burrow using caterpillar tractors, although fortunately the family manages to escape by burrowing further beneath the earth to safety. The trio of farmers are ridiculed for their persistence, so they decide to gather by Mr. Fox's hole with tents and pointed guns in order to shoot him when he emerges. Cornered by his rivals, Mr. Fox and his family (along with all of the other families of underground creatures) are left to starve.

Suddenly, Mr. Fox devises a plot one day to acquire food. He and his children tunnel through the dirt and wind up burrowing to Boggis's hen-house, just as he had planned. Mr. Fox kills several chickens and sends some of his young to carry the food back home to Mrs. Fox for her to prepare a meal. Along the way to their next destination, Mr. Fox runs into his friend Badger and permits him to accompany him on his mission, and the group proceeds to tunnel to Bunce's farm and then to Bean's cider cellar (where they are nearly discovered by a hired woman named Mabel when she enters the room to collect a few jars of apple cider for Bean). They carry their findings back home, where a great celebratory smorgasbord is being served to the starving underground animals and their families. At the table, Mr. Fox invites everyone to live in a secret underground neighbourhood with him and his family, where he will hunt for them daily and no longer need to worry about predators. Everyone joyfully cheers for this idea, whereas Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are left waiting for the fox to emerge from his hole.