Credits Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (Selected territories) Summit Entertainment (International)
Production companies Walt Disney Pictures Walden Media Phoenix Pictures Chicago Pacific Entertainment
Directed by Andrew Davis
Screenplay by Louis Sachar
Based on Holes by Louis Sachar
Produced by Andrew Davis Lowell D. Blank Mike Medavoy Teresa Tucker-Davies
Starring Sigourney Weaver Jon Voight Patricia Arquette Tim Blake Nelson Shia LaBeouf
Cinematography Stephen St. John
Edited by Thomas J. Nordberg Jeffrey Wolf
Music by Joel McNeely
Synopsis In Texas, the Yelnats family has been cursed to be unlucky, which they blame on their ancestor Elya's failure to keep a promise to fortune teller Madame Zeroni over a century earlier in Latvia. One day, Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of sneakers that were donated to charity by baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston, and is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, in lieu of jail time. Stanley arrives to find that the camp is a dried-up lake run by warden Louise Walker, her assistant Mr. Sir, and camp counselor Dr. Pendanski. Prisoners, known by their nicknames—including Zero, Zig-Zag, Armpit, Squid, X-Ray, and Magnet—spend each day digging holes in the desert; they may earn a day off if they find anything interesting inside the holes. One night, Mr. Sir rescues Stanley from a yellow-spotted lizard, which he warns Stanley are aggressive, venomous, and lethal. After finding a golden lipstick tube initialed K.B. and a fossil, Stanley is accepted into the group and given the nickname Caveman. After taking the blame for Magnet's stealing of Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds, Stanley is taken to the warden's house, where old wanted posters and newspapers lead him to realize that "KB" stands for Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow, a schoolteacher turned outlaw from the past. Walker asks Stanley to grab her box of nail polish and mentions that it contains rattlesnake venom. After he and Mr. Sir explain what happened with the sunflower seeds, Walker injures Mr. Sir and allows Stanley to return to his hole. Camp Green Lake's history is revealed in a series of flashbacks as a flourishing lakeside community in the 19th century. Barlow is wooed by the wealthy Charles "Trout" Walker, whom she rejects, and by an African-American onion seller named Sam, whom she loves. One night, the jealous, racist Walker and the town's citizens burn down the schoolhouse and murder Sam. In retaliation, Barlow kills the local sheriff, who ignored her pleas for help, and becomes an outlaw hunting down Walker's men; at one point, she steals a chest of gold from Stanley Yelnats Sr., Elya's son. Twenty years later, the now-bankrupt Walkers track Barlow down and tell her to hand over her treasure. Barlow refuses and tells them to dig for it, after which she dies from a lizard bite and the Walkers set about digging for the treasure. The adults are unable to steal the chest from the boys, as the hole has swarmed with lizards, which do not bite Stanley and Hector due to the onions they ate earlier. The adults, puzzled, wait for the lizards to kill the boys. The next morning, the attorney general and Stanley's lawyer arrive, accompanied by Texas Rangers; the chest Stanley found is discovered to have belonged to his namesake great-grandfather. Walker; Mr. Sir, who is revealed to be a paroled criminal named Marion Sevillo; and Pendanski, who is a criminal impersonating a doctor, are arrested. Stanley and Zero are released and it rains in Green Lake for the first time in over 100 years. The Yelnats family claims the chest, which contains jewels, deeds, and promissory notes, which they share with Hector, who uses it to hire private investigators to find his missing mother, and both families live a life of financial ease as neighbors.
