**Warning this Synopsis is containing the whole movie begining to end**
The Wiz is an all-black version of L. Frank Baum's book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", except for some changes. Instead of Kansas, The Wiz takes place in and around New York City, using some familiar landmarks as the various places of Oz. Instead of Dorothy being a young girl, she is a 24-yeard old kindergarten teacher from Harlem. This was an adaptation of the 1975 Tony Award winning Broadway play of the same name.
We begin in Harlem on a cold winter day as Aunt Em (Theresa Merritt) is throwing a family dinner party when her daughter just had a baby. In all the joy and happiness ("The Feeling That we Had"), Dorothy (Diana Ross) feels totally out of place and is moping about the dinner table. Dorothy tells how she feels in the song "Can I Go On Not Knowing?", which are the first words that come out of her mouth. As Dorothy and Aunt Em are cleaning up, Em tells Dorothy about a new teaching job in a high school. Dorothy is unsure about taking this big step, but Aunt Em tells Dorothy that she has "never been south of 125th Street" and to find a place of her own. Dorothy ponders this while trying to take out the garbage when Toto, her miniature Schnauzer, runs out into the incoming blizzard. Dorothy chases Toto and gets caught in the vortex of the storm, whisking her away into the far reaches of the sky.
Dorothy crashes through a Giant OZ symbol and falls into a big sandbox. As Dorothy and Toto come to, she realizes that she is in a strange freakish playground known as Munchkinland. All of a sudden, strange creatures start peeling off of the walls and come towards her. Dorothy is scared out of her wits when they get closer and closer, but these creatures come over to thank her. Thank her for what? Well, the creatures, known as the Munchkins, pull her out of the sandbox and show her the remains of the giant symbol that she had crashed through. The giant Z appears to have landed on a person with silver slippers on. The Munchkins describe her as Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. Evermean was the playground commissioner who caught the Munchkins painting on the walls and, as punishment, put THEM on the walls. When she got killed by Dorothy's entrance, the curse was lifted and the Munchkins are now free. Another witch appears, and this is Miss One (Thelma Carpenter) whose greatest delight is playing numbers and using mathematical references in her sentences. As a reward for killing the Wicked Witch of the East, Miss One gives Dorothy the dead witch's silver slippers. "I don't want these shoes, I wanna go home", cries Dorothy. Dorothy is given a warning never to take the slippers off until she gets home. Miss One also reminds Dorothy of three other witches in Oz: herself; Glinda the Good Witch of the South (Lena Horne); and the "multi-horrid" Wicked Witch of the West Evillene (Mabel King) who happens to be Evermean's sister. The only one that can help Dorothy get back home is the Great and Powerful Wiz. "What's a Wiz?" asks Dorothy. Her question is answered in a spectacular number "He's the Wizard", featuring the Munchkins playing around with skateboards, hula hoops and kazoos and Miss One leading Dorothy around the playground. The Wiz resides in the Emerald City, and Dorothy has to find the Yellow Brick Road to get there. Dorothy sees a little cab waiting for her, but the minute she gets up to it, it flashes "Off-Duty" and pulls off. She turns back around to find that Miss One and the Munchkins have all disappeared. Dorothy tells about her loneliness in the song "Soon As I get Home" as she and Toto walks through what seems like a junkyard alongside a burned-up tenement slum. As she finishes the song, the sun comes up and a peddler runs out of the darkness and passes Dorothy. Dorothy fails to catch up with him and she is on her own again.
Meanwhile, a downtrodden Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) hangs on a TV antenna, being heckled by four crows who constantly eat his cornfield and makes fun of his intelligence. The Scarecrow gains his smarts by reading passages from famous authors and historic figures, only to get shot down by the Crows. The Crows make him recite some commandments and sing the Crow anthem, "You Can't Win" (which was later a hit for Michael Jackson). Dorothy, watching the whole thing from a distance, cannot take this abuse anymore, so she scares away the crows and gets the Scarecrow down off of the pole. Dorothy tells him that he is just a product of negative thinking after years of listening to the crows heckle him. The Scarecrow wants a brain so he could get the best of the crows and anyone who stood in his way. Dorothy tells him about the supposedly Great Wiz who lives in the Emerald City. He also helps Dorothy find the great Yellow Brick Road by skipping the cabs and just "Ease on Down the Road".
As they are traveling down the road, they come across an abandoned amusement park where a mysterious voice from among the rubble calls out for help. They follow the voice and discover the Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) crushed under his fourth wife Teeny. He got in that position when he was trying to help save the failing amusement park, and was "fell" by Teeny. The Tin Man wants a heart so he can be caring and vunerable again and to know how it feels to have human feelings and emotions ("What Could I Do If I Could Feel?"). As he sits there crying at the hopelessness of it all, Dorothy and the Scarecrow tell him about going to the Wiz and invites him along. But there one problem: the Tin Man rusted himself crying and needs some oil. Dorothy and the Scarecrow find an oil can and the Tin Man gives them necessary instructions in the song "Slide Some Oil to Me". There's also a break where the Tin Man tap dances, plays around with mechanical musical robots, and ends it with a flashy "Saturday Night" finish. Soon the trio are "Easing on Down the Road" again until they come across a library.
As they walk by, the Tin Man senses that they are not the only ones there as a stone lion statue with moving eyes watches them. Dorothy and Scarecrow check out the said statue and come to the conclusion that "a stone lion can't check you out". All of a sudden, the statue breaks and a REAL LION (Ted Ross reprising his Broadway role) pops out! Everyone is scared out of their wits as they incur the wrath of "A Mean Ole Lion". He ends the song by insulting both the Scarecrow ("You petty package of horse fodder!") and the Tin Man ("Overexcited slot machine"). In turn, Toto bites the Lion on the foot and the Lion……starts bawling out loud! King of the Jungle? More like King of the Cowards! Dorothy berates him for putting a stunt like that ("You big Scaredy cat!"), and he is ashamed of himself. Lion says that he was drummed out of the jungle because he was I.O.B.K. "Incapable of Being King". He hid in a statue so that no one would discover that he was a lion without any courage, and starts crying again. The group starts feeling sorry for him and Dorothy invites him to come to the Emerald City to see the Wiz. But the Lion is scared to go, but Dorothy and the group help him to "Ease on Down the Road".
The road leads them to a subway, and a very hellish one at that. The terror begins when the peddler with the weird melody comes down the stairs and starts playing with his clown dolls hanging on the sides of his box. Suddenly the clowns grow bigger and bigger and bigger until he cuts them loose and they give chase. The Lion makes a mad dash up a stairway and the group follows him, only to have a gate shut on them. As they struggle to pull the door open, the Lion, already up the stairs, struggles with his fear and opens the door with all his might before the clowns grab the trio. They get through and the four run off their separate ways, each with their own tormentor.
The Scarecrow almost gets eaten by trash bins- with teeth! The Lion hears him and tears the trash cans limb from limb.
The Tin man is next when he stands under a circuit breaker box, and two little wires connect to both sides of his metallic face and starts giving him electric jolts. The Lion saves him by smacking the box off the wall.
Dorothy's tormentors are the scariest of all in the movie. As she stands in the subway, she hears a noise, then sees a post breaking off and walking towards her. It isn't long until many posts break off of their stands and start menacing the terror-stricken Dorothy. As she is about to be crushed, the Lion hears her scream and come to free her from the deadly circle of posts. The four eventually meet each other and get out of the Subway from Hell.
The next thing the four some come across is the Poppy Fields. The Poppies are a group of red and pink sirens who lure unsuspecting victims to their opium-laced deaths. We also learn that they own the prejudiced cabs that always flash off-duty. The Lion leads them all to the poppy field, but the Scarecrow notices that something is up when a giant lip gate closes on them. He tells the Tin Man that this is a setup, but Dorothy and the Lion are both under the powerful poppy spell. The Poppies place them on a scaffold and leads them into a giant opening with red steam coming out. The Scarecrow and the Tin Man get up to the rooftop to stop them, but it is too late as Dorothy, Toto and the Lion lie there in a dead heap.
The Tin Man starts crying and the teardrops revive the Lion, who wakes up in a drunken stupor. As the Tin Man cries over Dorothy to wake her up ("Think of Teeny!"), the Lion realizes what had happened and starts to renounce himself as a courageous lion and attempts to jump off the roof. Dorothy, the Tin man and the Lion stop him and tell that everything is all right and that the worst is over. Scarecrow tries to cheer the Lion up with a quote "Showers expected late tomorrow", but that further dampens his spirits. Dorothy really brightens him up when she tell him that he has to "Be a Lion". The foursome hold hands and sing the final note of the song, when all of a sudden, they are right in front of the famed Emerald City (Actually, New York City as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge side). They are ecstatic as they ease on down the road to finally make their dreams come true.
At the Emerald City, the guards tell them to use the service entrance, but when he sees the silver slippers on Dorothy's feet, he opens the giant door quick. The foursome go inside and see green lighted mountains. Beyond these lighted mountains, they come across the giant Emerald City plaza (The World Trade Center) where people change colors when the Wiz says so. The Wiz broadcasts his orders at the top of the Twin Towers over loud speakers and bright colored lights. The people change from Green to Red and finally, the ultimate yellow brick, Gold. Then the Wiz calls up "the one with the silver slippers"- that's Dorothy up there on the giant screen TV! They crowd around her and her entourage and they march with grace and dignity and ease on down to the door. They get to the steps when the Guard sharply says "Only the one with the Silver Slippers!" Dorothy asks to speak to the Wiz, and a giant mike walks up to her and she speaks into it, her voice echoing throughout the city. "I'm not alone, sir. I'm here with my three companions and my dog, Toto." The Wiz answers, "Forget it! No Riff Raff!" Dorothy defends them and she is refused again by the Wiz. "Then, I'm not coming up there!" she says. His answer? A giant monstrous crash rocks the Emerald City and the people cower down to the ground! Dorothy tells him again, "Either you see my friends or you forget it!", and the Wiz grants the foursome an audience, against his will as it sounds. Everyone stands up, reassured that nothing further will rock them and the foursome go inside to finally see the mysterious Wiz.
They go into an elevator and it opens to a dark room. Two spotlights suddenly light up on the floor. "Step forward", commands the Wiz. The entourage walk in slowly and with fear of that will happen next. They finally see the Wiz, which is a giant galvanized Head with an Afro and colored fire and smoke coming out of his mouth! They are terrified and shaking in their boots when the Wiz tells them, "SO YOU WANTED TO MEET THE WIZARD!!!" Dorothy tells him that she wants to go home, and introduces them all one by one. The Scarecrow tells him that he wants a brain then faints dead away at the Lion's feet. The Tin man asks him for a heart so he can love all humanity. "And WHAT DO YOU WANT, YOU OVERSTUFFED ANIMAL CRACKER!" he says to the Lion, who in turn replies "I want to get the hell out of here!" Dorothy answers for him saying that he wants courage to be king of the jungle again. The Wiz asks for Dorothy's silver slippers, but she says she can't take them off until she gets home. The Wiz decrees "The Great Oz has decided….NOT to grant any of your wishes unless, UNLESS you, Dorothy, KILL EVILLENE, THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST!" That's a hard and dangerous chore, but if that's what it takes to get what their hearts desire, then that's what they have to do. They sadly go out the door, and the minute they leave, a man peers out of one of the head's eye. What's going on here?
In a hotel, Dorothy ponders about the dangerous task ahead of her and her friends. The Lion tells her that she doesn't really have to do this and that they can stay in the Emerald City. Dorothy says that she can never be happy as long as she is in Oz, and she has to go all the way to Evillene. The foursome join her and they are on their way to kill a wicked witch. The Guard shows them a way to get to her- by a smoky manhole. "How do we find Evillene?" Dorothy asks. The Guard tells her, "Don't worry, she'll find you."
The scene cuts to Evillene's sweat shop, a slave driven textile plant where they make sweat. We find out that the evil peddler, the deadly poppies and even the four Crows all work for Evillene. The workers work in a timed pace, and Evillene (Mabel King reprising her Broadway role) comes out, sits on her throne (which is a giant toilet, no less) and is mad as hell. To demonstrate her anger, she warns her workers "Don't Nobody Bring me No Bad News". Apparently, she has heard of Dorothy's pursuits and sends out her Flying Monkeys. "Yes, yes! The Flying Monkeys! I hate to have to do this myself because I can't stand the smells, BUT THESE ARE RED ALERT CONDITIONS!" she answers. She rings a bell and a group of monkeys in souped up motorcycles with wings appear at her command. She tells Cheetah, the leader, to bring her the entourage that is in her land. "How do you want them, white bread or Rye?" the Monkeys asks. Evillene replies, "You get smart with me and I'll send you back to your cages. Now GET Dorothy and DON'T DAMAGE THOSE SILVER SLIPPERS!" They go off to hunt down their prey while Evillene sprays Air freshener around her mill stating "War is Hell!"
The Monkeys catch up to Dorothy and her friends and a big chase around a parking lot ensues. Dorothy hops inside a garbage can and motions them all to her hiding place. It's a clean save until…"TOTO! WHERE'S TOTO!" The group quiets her down and Toto hops up to Dorothy and they duck down. But, once again, Toto gets Dorothy in trouble (think back to the snow tornado scene) as the Monkeys finally capture them.
Evillene is having the time of her life torturing Dorothy and her friends. "You murdered my sister and stole her shoes!" she commands. When Dorothy refuses, Evillene goes down to grab them, but the powers attached to the slippers painfully bends her fingers back! So she won't give up the shoes, huh? Well, let's see what happens when I torture her friends. The Scarecrow gets sawed in half. "It doesn't hurt, it's just a little rip in my filing system", the Scarecrow gladly replies. Next, the Tin Man is crushed flat by a iron press. "Never fear, my little flower. I'm just a hollow shell!" the tin Man says. Then, the Lion is strung up by his tail, he tells her to don't give up the shoes. But the real hurt is what she attempts to do to poor little Toto. "Would you like sauerkraut or mustard, my dear….On YOUR HOT DOG!" She sees one of the crows about to throw Toto into a fiery furnace, and that throws Dorothy into an uncontrollable rage and she surrenders the shoes to Evillene. Sobbing, she sits at a table to take off the shoes until the Scarecrow motions to a button that says "In Case of Fire". Dorothy tricks Evillene big time when she pushes the button and the sprinkler system comes on and puts out the fire. Evillene is screaming uncontrollably "I'm allergic to water! It makes me melt!" and sinks down into her toilet throne! Dorothy has accidentally killed another wicked witch of Oz! She then has the slaves put everyone together again and everyone starts singing and rejoicing the end of the evil that has ruled over their lives in the song "Can't You Feel a Brand new Day?" Then, the slaves pull off their ugly costumes to reveal professional black ballet dancers for the long dance sequence of "A Brand new Day". Then, the foursome use the Flying Monkeys to speed back to the Emerald City.
It appears that the troupe has reached the back door to the Emerald City. They go in, and see a whole lot of magical illusion mechanisms and spotlights and things like that. "Guess who's been had", asks Dorothy. It doesn't seem very fantastic anymore because it seemed to be all an illusion. Dorothy sees a blanket trembling, and uncovers the real Wiz (Richard Pryor). "PHONEY! You're nothing but a phoney!" cries Dorothy. The group is indeed mad at him for pretending to be the great and powerful Wiz. He apologizes shamefully, and tells them "I;ve got no powers. I got no right pretending to be the Wiz. I have nothing, hocus pocus. I'm plain old Herman Smith from Atlantic City!" Herman then tells the sad story about his bad political career and used every he knew to get on the voting ticket. He even rented a hot air balloon to gain public notoriety. Then, a terrible storm came up and blew him to Oz. The people had never seen a hot air balloon before, and they proclaimed him a great and powerful Wiz. He could have told them then, but he needed the job, so he called the shots and kept Evillene at bay. Dorothy is mad because he sent them to kill Evillene knowing that they might never have survived that task, but his reason was that Evillene would have found out that he had no powers in reality and would have killed him and taken over everything. "Now I live here all alone in terror that someone would find out that I'm a fraud," he says. Everyone is disheartened because of this wretched turn of events and will never get their wishes.
Dorothy tells them that they never needed anything from anyone because they possessed the qualities that they were lacking the whole time. Scarecrow: for figuring out how to find the Yellow Brick Road, and how to destroy Evillene and every smart move they made; Tin Man: for crying over every little thing and having emotions, good components of a heart; Lion: hanging in there when the going got tough and not giving up when Evillene strung him up like a Christmas goose. Dorothy reminds them all to "Believe in Yourself", and they will always be happy. "But what about You, Dorothy? You'll never get home," says the Scarecrow. Oops, Dorothy forgot about herself when she was reminding everyone of how they should believe in themselves. Then, a snow shimmer falls and Glinda, the Good Witch of the South (Lena Horne) appears to Dorothy. Dorothy asks if there is a way to get home. Glinda tells her that home is inside of her. "Home is a place we all have to find, child. It's not just a place where you eat or sleep. Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, Knowing your heart, Knowing your courage. If we knew ourselves, we're always home anywhere." Then Glinda sings her version of "Believe in Yourself" and in the song tells her to click her heels three times. With that reassurance, Dorothy tells the Wiz an important lesson he will have to learn: "You will never find what you are looking for in the safety of this room. There's a whole world out there and you have to start by letting people see who you really are". Dorothy bids a tearful goodbye to the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion and leaves them with a clear understanding of themselves. And, with a better understanding of herself, she faces Glinda in a virtuoso solo and tells her about "Home". This song sums up Dorothy's entire journey and all that she had to go through to learn that she had the power to get anything she wanted and needed no one's help in understanding that.
Dorothy then clicks her heels three times, and finds herself standing outside her apartment building in New York. She takes Toto and runs into the house as the movie ends.
