Randall Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson)

A convict who escapes prison under false pretense to become a modern-day rebel and hero

Charming and manipulating, McMurphy is the protagonist of the story, and the antithesis of everything Nurse Ratched represents. He is exuberant, vital and vulgar - at times even unpredictable - but clever. Everything in his personality suggests great energy and lack of control. He loves to challenge authority.

Using a strong sense of humor and comic exaggeration, he instigates change in the ward and teaches the inmates to be sane. He is determined to get the patients to loosen up, and steals the loony bus and a luxurious boat to take the inmates on a fishing trip. And who in their right mind would trade the World Series for shuffling around a mental ward for the sake of a meaningless existence?

Although he brags of being a psychopath, this self-diagnosis already seems unlikely: he is clearly boisterous and entertaining, yet the question of McMurphy's sanity remains a lesson Nurse Ratched is all too willing to teach. His wild antics cost him the very substance of his personality, and while he is successful in bringing change to the ward, he can only look to Chief for his final payment: a silent death.

Jaime Rosa [Top]


Chief "Broom" Bromden (Will Sampson)

A silent, dignified, giant Indian Chief "as big as a god-damn tree trunk"

Schizophrenic, and as narrator, he holds a key position, feigning muteness and deafness to protect himself from pain. McMurphy liberates him from his silence. He, in turn, rescues McMurphy from life as a vegetable, proving that a single person can still overcome oppressive conditions.

Chief, like Harding and Billy Bibbit, suffers to some degree from a domineering female figure, as indicated by his many childhood stories. He also tells of an imaginary fog machine, a symbol of his incoherence and inability to assert himself. When he joins the other men in protest of Nurse Ratched, the fog disappears, but at a cost: By making choices, he trades personal safety for the privilege of human choice.

He gradually reasserts himself with the help of McMurphy, and is perhaps the best example of the beneficial effect McMurphy brings to the ward. His awareness of the outside world grows stronger, also the result of McMurphy's companionship.

The final fight between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched marks her final dehumanization, as she loses the ability to speak. This neatly parallels Chief, who gradually regains his voice and his humanity.

Jim Crissman [Top]


Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher)

The ward superintendent and ultimate authority, demanding obedience and perfect order from everyone, Nurse Ratched is among the most coldly monstrous villains in film history.

Nurse Ratched captures the spirit of the ward, as a symbol of bureaucracy and authority - the very lives of inmates are in her hands. Her ways are very strict and her mind closed to any deviation from the rules. She is an unfeeling woman with a stone heart, and does not allow people to make their own decisions or to determine their own destiny.

Somehow, she is able to cope silently and effectively with each challenge McMurphy and his influence brings to the ward. She accepts no personal concerns or suggestions that would go against her will or the schedule (for example, the denial of McMurphy's request to see the World Series). She remains determined to make McMurphy's stay indefinite, insisting that the ward would eventually help him. The other doctors want to release him as they can see he is not crazy.

She executes her power most dramatically by ordering electroshock treatments to crush McMurphy, eventually resorting to a lobotomy to sever the man from the animal. Ultimately, however, Nurse Ratched loses to McMurphy's plan as the Chief makes his final escape into the real world.

Kathy Pham [Top]


Billy Bibbitt (Brad Dourif)

A pathetic, incessantly stuttering, paranoid thirty-one year old boy child

Billy is introverted, impressionable, and deathly afraid of his mother, who would not loosen the binding Oedipal chain preventing him from reaching emotional maturity. McMurphy eventually finds a way to help him overcome his years of sexual oppression. Unfortunately, the changes last only for a single night, as Nurse Ratched becomes the ultimate catalyst of his fear, driving him to suicide.

It's interesting to note that his stuttering disappears for a brief moment when Nurse Ratched confronts him about his liberating sexual experience, and returns immediately when she threatens to tell his mother.

Jayson Patricio [Top]


Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassick)

An insecure neurotic lacking self-confidence, he is always looking for someone to back up his ideas.

When McMurphy arrives, Cheswick is the first to support his rebellion against Nurse Ratched. Cheswick appears to be a man of much talk and little action, but earns himself an appointment with the Disturbed Ward, presumably for shock treatment, when he starts to protest the ward policies. He seems to suffer from a very low self-esteem, and is quick to react when someone has a new idea. He likes to be a follower but, in turn, makes a failed attempt to lead.

Jeff McMillan [Top]

Additional Cast

Dale Harding (William Redfield)
Ineffectual, rationalizing intellectual

Martini (Danny DeVito)
Immature personality

Taber (Christopher Lloyd)
Cynical, trouble-making sadist; thinks everybody is "full of shit"