The film depicts the construction and ultimate demolition of a metaphorical wall. Though the film's symbolism is open to interpretation, the wall itself clearly reflects a sense of isolation and alienation.Pink (Bob Geldof), the protagonist (and unreliable narrator) of the film, is a rock star, one of several reasons behind his apparent depressive and detached emotional state. He is first seen in a quiet hotel room, having trashed it. The opening music is not by Pink Floyd, but is the Vera Lynn recording of "The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot". During the following scenes, it is revealed that Pink's father, a British soldier, was killed in action during World War II during Pink's infancy. The reference is almost certainly to the death of Roger Waters' real-life father, Eric Fletcher Waters, who died in combat in Italy during Operation Shingle (the Battle of Anzio) in February 1944.The movie then flashes back to Pink as a young English boy growing up in the early 1950s. Throughout his childhood, Pink longs for a father figure after he learns his father died in the war. At school, he is humiliated by his mean and stern teacher for writing poems in class. The poems that the teacher seizes from him and reads aloud are lyrics from "Money" from the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon. Pink is also affected by his overprotective mother who spoils him by giving him whatever he wants.As an adult, Pink eventually gets married as his fame as a rock star grows, but he and his wife grow apart and she has an affair while Pink is on tour. When Pink learns of the affair, he compensates with expensive materialistic possessions and turns to a willing groupie (Jenny Wright), whom he brings back to his hotel room only to trash it in a fit of violence, causing her to flee the room in terror.Pink slowly begins to lose his mind to metaphorical "worms". He shaves off all of his body hair (an incident inspired by former bandmate Syd Barrett, who appeared at a 1975 recording session of Wish You Were Here, having shaved his eyebrows and body hair) and, while watching The Dam Busters on television, morphs into his neo-Nazi alter-ego. Pink's manager (Bob Hoskins), along with the hotel manager (Michael Ensign) and some paramedics, break into the hotel room and discover Pink. They take him away into a waiting limousine outside the hotel and inject him with drugs to enable him to perform.The drugs cause Pink to hallucinate and he fantasises that he is a neo-Nazi dictator, his concert is a rally. His followers proceed to attack ethnic minorities and rape the white girlfriend of a black man. Later, Pink holds a rally in suburban London, singing "Waiting for the Worms". The scene is inter-cut by images of animated marching hammers that goose-step across ruins.Pink screams "Stop!" and takes refuge in a bathroom stall at the concert venue, reciting poems which would later be used as lyrics on Pink Floyd's "Your Possible Pasts" from The Final Cut album and "5:11 AM (The Moment Of Clarity)" from Roger Waters' The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.In a climatic animated sequence, Pink puts himself on trial. He is depicted as a small, pink rag doll that rarely moves. The judge is a giant pair of buttocks, with two backward facing legs, an anus for a mouth and a scrotum for a chin. The lawyer is a tall, menacing, vulturelike man and the schoolmaster is an abusive, hateful marionette. After hearing from the parties and witnesses (Pink's wife and mother), the judge orders the wall to be torn down. The wall explodes and shows a montage of events from the entire film.The film concludes with three children cleaning up a pile of debris after an earlier riot. It is unknown whatever has happened to Pink, leaving the viewer to decide.
Output: Where did Pink's father die in combat?