Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner,
Mr. Jones. Prize pig
Old Major encourages the farm animals to rebel against Jones and take over the farm, teaching them the
revolutionary song "Beasts of England" before he dies from a heart attack. When Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals the next morning, Major's successor
Snowball leads the animals into the storehouse for food, before leading them into chasing away Jones, who returns later with neighbouring farmers in attempt to retake the farm. The animals defeat the invaders, rename the farm "Animal Farm" and destroy the tools of oppression that had been used against them. They decide against living in the
farmhouse, though
Saddleback boar Napoleon is interested and begins to secretly raise an orphaned litter of puppies as
attack dogs while helping himself to Jones's
jam storage. The Seven Commandments of
Animalism are written on a barn wall, the most important being "All animals are equal". The animals cooperate to run the farm and produce plenty of food, but the pigs, led by Napoleon and his second-in-command
Squealer, avoid physical labor yet claim leadership and special foods such as
milk "by virtue of their brainwork". As the winter causes work to slow, Snowball holds a meeting where he promises
electric power at the cost of harder work and
rationing in the meantime, which Napoleon opposes. When the animals decide to proceed in favour of Snowball, Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball out of the farm before declaring himself leader of Animal Farm and denouncing Snowball as a traitor. He promptly abolishes farm policy meetings, appropriates all decision-making, and advances Snowball's plan for a
windmill as his own. Work begins on the windmill, spearheaded by
Boxer the
workhorse and
Benjamin the
donkey who work
overtime, while the pigs consume more food and appropriate more luxuries for themselves. When Boxer and Benjamin find the pigs sleeping on beds in the farmhouse, the pigs alter the Commandment "No animal shall sleep in a bed" to "No animal shall sleep in a bed WITH SHEETS". Napoleon starts trading some of the hens' eggs for jam from local businessman Mr. Whymper without their consent, prompting the hens to revolt against the pigs before Napoleon's dogs intervene. To impose his will through fear, Napoleon holds a
show trial of the hens, where a sheep and a duck also confess to dissenting; they are all executed by the dogs, and the victims' blood is used to change one of the Commandments into "No animal shall kill another animal WITHOUT CAUSE". Fearful of a potential counter-revolution, Napoleon also bans "Beasts of England" under penalty of death, declaring the revolution complete and the dream of Animal Farm realised. Later, farmers jealous of Mr. Whymper's profits attack Animal Farm. The animals ambush and repel the farmers at the cost of numerous casualties, while Jones drunkenly blows up the windmill with himself inside. The animals are forced to rebuild the windmill, including Boxer, whose injuries and age cause an accident that forces him to retire. Napoleon calls a van to take Boxer away, which Benjamin recognises as being from Whymper's
glue factory; he and the other animals try to save him, but to no avail. Squealer delivers a sham
eulogy in which he claims Boxer's last words were to glorify Napoleon. The animals see through the propaganda but are driven away by the snarling dogs. That night, the pigs toast to Boxer's memory with whisky they traded for his life. Several years later, Napoleon rules Animal Farm under a
cult of personality and has expanded its influence into neighbouring farms owned by pigs who now act almost identically to humans, walking upright on two legs and wearing clothes. During one pig ceremony, Benjamin and the animals, now famished after constant harsh labour and rationing, are horrified to learn that the pigs have reduced the Commandments to one single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Benjamin spies on the pigs' dinner party, where Napoleon is congratulated for having the hardest-working and lowest-consuming animals in the country, and the pigs toast to a future of similar pig-owned farms everywhere. Benjamin has a hallucination of Napoleon and the pigs all turning into Jones. Realizing the only thing the revolution accomplished was trading one dictator for another, Benjamin rallies the farm animals and others from nearby farms to storm the farmhouse while the dogs are too drunk to respond. The animals smash through the house and kill Napoleon and his followers as Benjamin stands with triumph. ==Production==