McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)’s Timeline and Summary
- McMurphy shows up at the mental hospital and sits down with the head doctor, who isn't quite convinced that McMurphy is crazy. He thinks McMurphy might be faking to get out of prison.
- McMurphy meets the men in the mental ward and gets frustrated when he can't get them to sit still and play cards.
- At his first group therapy session, McMurphy enjoys the show of the other patients yelling at each other and freaking out. In another session, he recommends watching the World Series instead of doing the regular patient schedule. But he gets voted down when Nurse Ratched puts the issue to a vote.
- When the issue of the World Series comes up a second time, the patients vote in favor of watching the baseball game. But Nurse Ratched dismisses the vote by saying that not all of the patients are present.
- McMurphy decides that he's had enough of the mental hospital, so he plans to tear a water fountain out of the floor and chuck it out the window. He even bets the guys he can do it, but then fails.
- One day, McMurphy escapes over the mental hospital's fence and takes his fellow patients on a joy ride in a school bus and then a boat. When they get back to shore, the cops are waiting for them.
- McMurphy gets in trouble when he gets into a fight with some guards while trying to defend another patient. He gets sent for electroshock therapy. But the next time we see him, he doesn't seem to be any different.
- Toward the end of the movie, McMurphy invites his girl Candy and her friend Rose to come party at the mental hospital. He plans on escaping before morning, but falls asleep and gets caught.
- The next day, Billy Bibbit commits suicide, and McMurphy tries to kill Nurse Ratched because he blames her for what has happened. He's stopped and given a frontal lobe lobotomy, which basically makes him a zombie.
- Rather than see McMurphy in his new state, Chief Bromden smothers him with a pillow and kills him.