Plot
The film is set in a world where a person's soul resides outside their body in an animal-like form called a Dæmon. A dictatorial organization called the Magisterium exercises power in the secular world. Lyra Belacqua, an orphan of Jordan College along with her dæmon Pantalaimon (nicknamed Pan), spins tales of the Gobblers.
Forced to hide in a closet, Lyra learns that her uncle Lord Asriel is about to present a proposal. She listens when the Master and Scholars come in to view a slide of Asriel's. Asriel presents evidence that particles called "Dust" exist. The college funds Asriel's expedition. He believes it originates in a parallel universe and enters a person's body via their dæmon.
At dinner Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter, who insists on taking Lyra north as her assistant. Before Lyra leaves, the master of the college entrusts her with the only remaining alethiometer. This device, he tells her, reveals the truth. The Magisterium has destroyed all the others.
At Mrs. Coulter's house, Lyra mentions 'space dust'. Mrs. Coulter warns her never to mention it again. Mrs. Coulter's dæmon attacks Pan, causing Lyra to give in. Lyra and Pan discover that Mrs. Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board, the "Gobblers", who have been kidnapping local children. She also discovers that her best friend Roger and her Gyptian friend Billy have been taken by the Gobblers.
Running to her bedroom, they see Mrs. Coulter's dæmon holding the alethiometer. Changing into a hawk, Pan swoops down, grabs the alethiometer, and flies out of an open window. Lyra escapes behind him, slamming the window on Mrs. Coulter's dæmon. The "Gobblers" pursue her, but she is saved by some Gyptians. Aboard a Gyptian boat heading north to rescue their children, Lyra shows the alethiometer to a Gyptian wise man, Farder Coram. On deck that night Serafina Pekkala, the witch queen, tells Lyra that the missing children are in a place called Bolvangar . Mrs. Coulter sends two mechanical spy flies after Lyra and Pan; one is batted away but the other is caught and sealed in a tin can by Farder Coram, who explains that the spy fly has a sting with a sleeping poison.
At a Norwegian port, Lyra is befriended by a cowboy aeronaut named Lee Scoresby, who advises her to hire an armoured bear. Exiled in shame, the giant polar bear Iorek Byrnison has been tricked out of his armour by the local townspeople. Using the alethiometer Lyra tells Iorek where to find his armour. Armoured again, the fearsome Iorek and his friend Lee Scoresby join the trek northward.
That night while riding on Iorek's back, Lyra finds a cowering Billy separated from his dæmon. Lyra reunites Billy with his mother just as the group is attacked by Samoyeds who capture Lyra. Taken to the armoured bear king Ragnar, Lyra tricks him into fighting Iorek one on one. After killing Ragnar, King Iorek carries Lyra near Bolvangar, to a thin ice bridge. Reaching the station, Lyra is taken to eat with the missing children. While hiding again Lyra discovers that the Magisterium scientists, under the guidance of Mrs. Coulter, are performing experiments to sever the bond between a child and their dæmon. Caught spying, Lyra and Pan are thrown in the intercision chamber. Mrs. Coulter rescues Lyra and takes her and Pan to her quarters.
When Lyra wakes up she is comforted by Mrs. Coulter, who tells Lyra that she is her mother. Lyra then guesses that Lord Asriel is her father. When Mrs. Coulter asks for the alethiometer, Lyra gives her the can containing the spy fly. The spy fly stings Mrs. Coulter, knocking her and her daemon out. Lyra runs to the room with the intercision machine. The growing chain reaction builds as Lyra yanks a control box loose and hurls it into the intercision machine, causing it to explode. This sets off a series of explosions that tear the facility apart.
Outside, the children are attacked by Tartar mercenaries and their wolf dæmons. The battle is joined by Iorek, the Gyptians, and a band of flying witches led by Serafina Pekkala. The Tartars are defeated and the children are rescued. Rather than returning south, Lyra, Roger and Iorek fly north with Lee Scoresby in search of Lord Asriel.
Unaware that he is in mortal danger, Lord Asriel has set up a laboratory to investigate the glowing Dust from another world.
Read more about this topic: The Golden Compass (film)
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