The Golden Compass

The story takes place in an alternate world dominated by a powerful church called the Magisterium, and where part of the spirit resides outside a person as an animal companion called a dæmon. At present, poor, orphan and Gyptian children are disappearing at the hands of a group that the children call the Gobblers. Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is an orphan raised at Jordan College in Oxford, while her uncle, esteemed explorer and scholar Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), is busy seeking the elusive Dust, a cosmic particle of which the Magisterium has forbidden even the mention. When Asriel returns from his latest expedition, Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon (Freddie Highmore) witness a Magisterium agent poison his wine. Lyra warns her uncle, saving his life; then she watches Asriel give a presentation regarding his findings on the North Pole, where he was able to prove the Dust's existence. The college gives Asriel a grant to fund another expedition that could lead to the discovery of the infinite worlds linked by Dust, which would severely undermine the Magisterium's hold on the world.