Agatha Trunchbull, more commonly known as Ms. Trunchbull or simply the Trunchbull, is the main antagonist of the critically acclaimed film Matilda. She is the former headmistress of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, Miss Honey's aunt, and Matilda's arch-nemesis. She is also the stepsister of Miss Honey's deceased mother, Mrs. Honey, and is is the stepsister-in-law of Miss Honey's deceased father, Dr. Honey, Mrs. Honey's husband.
She was portrayed by Pam Ferris.
Role in the film[]
Her role in the film is similar to her role in the novel but she has a few differences. In this version she also put Matilda in the Chokey, thinking she was responsible for her father's lowlife business. Thankfully, Miss Honey saved Matilda from the horrid iron maiden.
Trunchbull attempted to drive to the Olympics, but the car ran out of gas, much to the villainous and argumentative principal's fury and anger. When she entered the house, she called Mr. Wormwood and threatened to sue him and kill him. She then went on a rampage, trying to find Matilda and Miss Honey after discovering someone has entered her house. Luckily, Matilda and Miss Honey got away from the evil woman's house, greatly infuriating her.
Thankfully, the Trunchbull was toppled by Matilda's quick thinking and magical powers, who tricked her into believing she was being haunted by the ghost of her brother-in-law (who, it is implied, may have been murdered by the Trunchbull in order to inherit his estate) - upon being convinced of this haunting, she fled in terror. However, she soon found Matilda's red hair ribbon and was now convinced somebody did enter her house.
She showed up at school to teach the children a lesson about who was responsible for intruding in her property. Matilda, now fed up with her torturing, abuse and cruelty, used her power to use a chalk, creating a message from her deceased brother-in-law, which frightened the Trunchbull. Matilda then sent two chalk erasers to assault her, knocking her to the floor. When she came to, she threw a boy out the window for no good reason, but Matilda's magic power sent him flying back at her, causing the Trunchbull to crash onto a globe.
Matilda then made the globe spin around and around and the Trunchbull went flying off and landed on the floor unconscious. When she came to, she charged like a bull at Lavender, but she was saved by Matilda's power, and the Trunchbull crashed right through the door into the hallway. She was pelted by lunch food by all of the children in her school afterwards, as they were all fed up with being tortured and abused. The Trunchbull fled in her sputtering car, and she was never seen or heard from again after this, but it's likely that she moved to another place to start a new life or probably committed suicide in fear that Magnus's ghost would haunt her.