Max and Freak first meet as toddlers in daycare, where Max admires Freak's steel leg braces.

Freak and his mother Gwen move into the duplex down the street from Max's grandparents' house.

Max retrieves Freak's ornithopter from a backyard tree, and the two boys begin their friendship.

Max lifts Freak onto his shoulders at the July 4th fireworks show so Freak can see over the crowd.

Blade's gang surrounds Max and Freak after the fireworks show and chases them into the muddy millpond.

Police rescue Max and Freak from the millpond; Freak declares to the officers that they are Freak the Mighty.

Freak convinces Max to sneak out at night and retrieve a stolen purse from a storm drain using a paper clip and string.

Max and Freak deliver the purse to Loretta Lee at the New Testaments, where Iggy and Loretta torment the boys.

Freak convinces school administrators to place him and Max in the same classes so they can help each other.

When classmates mock Max, Freak stands on his desk and leads the whole class in chanting Freak the Mighty.

Killer Kane sneaks into Max's basement on Christmas Eve and kidnaps him into the snowy night.

Loretta Lee sneaks into Kane's basement hideout and unties Max from the old boiler where he is bound.

Freak crashes through a window into the hideout and squirts Kane in the eyes with homemade pepper spray.

Police arrest Killer Kane; Max and Freak escape the burned-out building and reunite with Grim, Gram, and Gwen.

Max rushes to the hospital and learns Freak has died; in a panic, he breaks into the research wing searching for him.

This pool follows the central arc of Max and Freak's friendship, from their first meeting in daycare through their daring summer adventures together. They face a dangerous street gang at the fireworks show and complete a late-night quest to recover a stolen purse from a storm drain. Their partnership deepens at school, where Freak's boldness transforms classmates' mockery into a celebration of their shared identity as Freak the Mighty. The greatest test of their bond comes when Killer Kane kidnaps Max on Christmas Eve, and Freak devises a clever rescue that frees his friend and leads to Kane's arrest. In the aftermath, Max returns to the hospital only to discover that his best friend has died, leaving him with a blank book and a story to write.

The core friendship and legendary adventures of Freak the Mighty.

Max grows up living in his grandparents' basement, haunted by the memory of his father murdering his mother.

Max pulls Freak on the American Flyer wagon to his house and shows Freak his basement room for the first time.

Gwen spots Max emerging from the basement bulkhead while Freak is with him and flees home in terror.

After Gwen calls to apologize, Max attends a backyard dinner at Gwen and Freak's house and laughs until he spits food.

Freak explains the legend of King Arthur, Guinevere, and the knights' quests to Max during their first basement visit.

Freak begins banging on Max's bulkhead every morning throughout the summer, dragging him out on daily adventures.

Blade and his gang accost Max and Freak on the way to the fireworks, demanding any fireworks they have.

Freak leads Max on a long eastward journey through the city to the medical research wing of the hospital.

Freak suffers a choking seizure in the school cafeteria; a nurse reopens his airway and an ambulance takes him to the hospital.

Max overhears Gram and Grim arguing about whether to get a gun to protect themselves from Kane's release.

Grim visits Max's basement room to explain the parole hearing and show him the court order keeping Kane away.

At Christmas Eve dinner, Freak surprises Max with a handmade dictionary full of funny personal word definitions.

Kane ties Max to a broken boiler in the burned-out building's basement and gags him with a torn piece of shirt.

After Kane's arrest, Grim tells Max that his father is an accident of nature and that Max has his mother's heart.

Max shuts himself in his basement for days after Freak's death, missing the funeral and Gwen's move away.

This pool focuses on the significant but quieter events that shaped Max's world before, during, and after his friendship with Freak. It begins with Max's isolated life in the basement, defined by his father's crime, and traces the early bonds formed through small acts like showing Freak the basement room and sharing a backyard dinner. Over the summer, daily adventures sharpened Max's mind and body, and a revealing visit to the hospital hinted at Freak's secret condition. The tension of Kane's approaching parole hangs over the holidays, and the Christmas Eve kidnapping sets off the story's most dangerous sequence. After Freak's death, Max retreats once more to his basement in grief, and it is only through the act of writing that he finally begins to move forward.

The quieter moments that built and finally ended the legendary friendship.

As a small boy in daycare, Max kicks anyone who tries to hug him but never kicks Freak.

Max walks uninvited across the street to Freak's yard — the first time he approaches a new person on his own.

After the millpond rescue, Grim serves Max coffee in his best china and calls him Max instead of Maxwell.

Freak makes Max swear a solemn spit-on-hand oath and reveals his belief that the hospital will build him a bionic body.

After the kidnapping, Kane marches Max through snowy streets, tells him he is a chip off the old block, and forces him to agree.

Max's reading tutor Mr. Meehan notices significant improvement in Max's reading ability and tells him he suspected Max was simply lazy.

Principal Addison informs Max that his father is being released on parole; Max curls into a corner with his hands over his ears.

Freak returns from the hospital after his first seizure and tells Max he is growing on the inside but not the outside.

Kane places his hand on a Bible and swears he never murdered Max's mother, then forces Max to say he accepts the oath.

Max jumps onto Kane and shouts for the first time that he witnessed Kane strangling his mother when he was four years old.

Freak celebrates his 13th birthday, barely touches his food and cake, then collapses in a seizure before the party ends.

In the ICU, Freak hands Max a blank book and asks him to write down the story of Freak the Mighty.

Dr. Spivak explains to Max that Freak always knew he would die and invented the bionic body story entirely to give himself hope.

Max runs into Loretta on the street, and she tells him Gwen moved to California and fell in love.

Max opens Freak's blank book and begins to write; months later, the completed story becomes Freak the Mighty.

This pool traces the emotional turning points and revelations that define Max and Freak's inner journeys from beginning to end. From Max's first courageous act of crossing the street to meet a new neighbor, to Freak's secret belief in a bionic future, each event reveals how their friendship reshapes their understanding of themselves. Max's deepest fear — that he will become his father — is tested directly when Kane kidnaps him and tries to rewrite history with a false Bible oath, only for Max to reclaim his own memory by shouting the truth aloud. Freak's quiet courage reaches its peak in the ICU, where he hands Max a blank book and asks him to keep their story alive, already knowing his own time has nearly run out. After Freak's death, Max's grief gives way to understanding, and writing becomes the final and most important quest.