Edward Scissorhandsis a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp . The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter Kim. Supporting roles are portrayed by Winona Ryder , Dianne Wiest , Anthony Michael Hall , Kathy Baker , Vincent Price , and Alan Arkin .

Burton conceived the idea forEdward Scissorhandsfrom his childhood upbringing in suburban Burbank, California . During pre-production ofBeetlejuice, Caroline Thompson was hired to adapt Burton's story into a screenplay, and the film began development at 20th Century Fox , after Warner Bros. passed on the project.Edward Scissorhandswas then fast tracked after Burton's success withBatman. Before Depp's casting, the leading role of Edward had been connected to Tom Cruise , Tom Hanks , Robert Downey, Jr. , and William Hurt , while the role of The Inventor was written specifically for Vincent Price in his final performance.

The majority of filming took place in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida , which generated over $6 million for the local economy. Edward's scissor hands were created and designed by Stan Winston . The film is also the fourth feature collaboration between Burton and film score composer Danny Elfman .Edward Scissorhandswas released with positive feedback from critics, and was a financial success. The film received numerous nominations at the Academy Awards , British Academy Film Awards , Saturn Awards , as well as winning the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation . Both Burton and Elfman considerEdward Scissorhandstheir most personal and favorite work.

An elderly woman describes to her granddaughter where snow comes from, by telling her the story of a young man named Edward ( Johnny Depp ), who has scissors for hands, the creation of an inventor ( Vincent Price ). The inventor's final result was a humanlike young boy who had everything except for hands, but the inventor had a heart attack and died while in the act of giving a pair of real hands to Edward, leaving him "unfinished" forever.

Many years after Edward was created, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs ( Dianne Wiest ) visits the Gothic mansion on the hill where Edward lives. There, she finds Edward alone, and decides to take him to her home. Edward becomes friends with Peg's young son Kevin ( Robert Oliveri ) and her husband Bill ( Alan Arkin ). He later falls in love with the Boggs' teenage daughter Kim ( Winona Ryder ).

Peg's neighbors are impressed by Edward's adept hedge-trimming and hair-cutting skills (both of which he does with his scissor-hands), but two of the townspeople, a religious fanatic named Esmeralda ( O-Lan Jones ) and Kim's boyfriend, Jim ( Anthony Michael Hall ), immediately dislike him. Joyce, a housewife in the neighborhood, suggests that Edward open a hair-cutting salon with her. While examining a proposed site, she attempts to seduce him in the back room, causing Edward to leave in a state of panic.

Wanting money for a van, Jim, Kim's boyfriend, takes advantage of Edward's ability to pick locks, and breaks into his parents' house. The burglar alarm sounds and everyone except Edward escapes, despite Kim's angry insistence that they return for him. Edward is arrested and released when a psychological examination reveals that his isolation allowed him to live without a sense of reality and common sense. Meanwhile, infuriated by Edward's rejection, Joyce exacts revenge by claiming that he tried to "rape" her. This, added to the "break-in", causes many of the neighbors to question his personality and ruin his popular reputation. During the Christmas season, Edward is feared by almost everyone around him except the Boggs family, resulting in him and the family becoming outcasts.

While the family is setting up Christmas decorations, Edward creates an angel ice sculpture . The shavings create an effect of falling snow, which Kim dances under. Jim calls out to Kim, distracting her, and Edward accidentally cuts her hand. Jim says that Edward had intentionally harmed her and attacks him. Edward runs away, tearing the clothes Peg gave him, and wanders the neighborhood in a rage. When Kim sees this, she breaks up with Jim, and he goes to his friend's van to get drunk. While Peg and Bill search for him, Edward returns and Kim greets him with a hug. When Kevin is almost run over by Jim's drunk friend, Edward pushes him out of the way, but cuts his face, causing witnesses to think he was attacking him. When everyone hears the police siren, Edward flees to his hilltop mansion and the neighbors form an angry mob and follow.

Kim heads to the mansion before the neighbors can get there and reunites with Edward. Jim follows them and brutally attacks Edward, who does not retaliate until Jim slaps and pushes Kim. Edward stabs him in the stomach and pushes him away to fall out of a window to his death. Kim confesses her love for Edward and shares a kiss with him as they say goodbye. To save him, Kim lies to the townspeople that Edward and Jim killed each other in the fight. She tells them that the roof had caved in on them and shows them a disembodied scissor-hand similar to Edward's. All the neighbors, both shocked and content, return to their homes.

The elderly woman from the beginning, now revealed to be Kim in her old age, reappears, as she finishes telling her granddaughter the story, saying that she never saw him again. She chose not to visit Edward because she wants Edward to remember her the way she was in her youth. She also reveals that Edward is still alive, seemingly immortal since he is artificial and can never age, and he "creates snow" from his ice sculptures, which falls upon the neighborhood below. She tells her granddaughter that "Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it." While Edward creates more ice sculptures, a flashback of a young Kim is then shown dancing under the snow, falling from the angel ice sculpture above her.