Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.

In 1959 the author of Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey volunteered to be a subject in experiments with hallucinogenic drugs. Near the end of the experiments, he began working the night shift in a mental ward and started to feel that the patients were not really crazy after all, just more individualised than society was willing to accept. Parts of his novel were written while he was under the influence of LSD and peyote.

In 1975 the movie won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Picture.