Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton)’s Timeline and Summary
- Riggan levitates in his underwear.
- He then (maybe) makes a light fixture fall on Ralph's head.
- After that, he meets Mike and they run through some lines on stage.
- The first preview runs, but Mike ruins it, Riggan's mad.
- Riggan talks to Mike as they walk to a bar, but nothing much gets resolved.
- He then gets mad at Sam for smoking marijuana…and Sam gets mad at Riggan for being self-absorbed.
- The second preview doesn't go so well either (thanks again, Mike).
- Riggan gets mad at Mike for his interview and yells at him, lies to him, and fights him. In that order.
- Riggan, still mad, destroys his room as Birdman eggs him on.
- He does the final preview run, but he gets trapped outside and has to walk back to the front of the theater in nothing but his underwear with a crowd of onlookers.
- Riggan goes to the nearby bar and has a chat with Tabitha where he tells her she's lazy and she tells him she'll kill his play.
- He buys whiskey and gets drunk, passing out on the sidewalk.
- Then he wakes up with a mental manifestation of Birdman following him around.
- Riggan levitates, flies, possibly jumps off a building, possibly takes a cab, and somehow ends up at the theater before the show starts.
- He's suddenly very calm—he talks to Sylvia during intermission about love and marriage and Sam.
- Riggan grabs a real gun and heads to the set.
- After the play's final scene he turns to the audience and shoots himself in the nose.
- He wakes up in the hospital to a concerned wife and an ecstatic Jake. He holds his daughter when she brings him flowers.
- Riggan goes to the bathroom where he checks out his new nose and says goodbye to Birdman.
- And then he goes to the window and exits.