Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes)’s Timeline and Summary
- Gustave started as a lobby boy. We don't know where or when, but he eventually works his way up to concierge. He is the first concierge the Grand Budapest has.
- As concierge, Gustave entertains many elderly female clients.
- One day, he is presented with a new lobby boy, whom he begins to rigorously train.
- A month later, he finds that Madame D., one of his lady friends, has died. He travels to her home in Lutz where he is greeted cordially by her family.
- He finds that Madame D. has willed him Boy with Apple, a very valuable painting. He steals it and hides it.
- When the military police come to arrest him, he runs…to no avail.
- In jail, he uses Mendl's to befriend a rough bunch of prisoners planning on escaping. After smuggling in tools, they do just that.
- After making it out, Gustave calls upon the Society of the Crossed Keys who put him on a train to the Zubrowka Alps to meet with Serge.
- During their meeting, Serge tells him of a second will Madame D. made, but is strangled to death before he can finish.
- Gustave and Zero chase Serge's killer, Jopling, down the mountain side where Gustave, hanging from a cliff, is rescued by Zero.
- They flee from the pursuing Henckels and disguise themselves as Mendel's workers waiting outside the Budapest for Agatha to retrieve Boy with Apple.
- Upon seeing Dmitri enter, the two chase after him until both parties are halted by a firefight.
- In the end, they find the will and Gustave becomes heir to everything Madame D. owned, including the hotel.
- An unspecified amount of time later, on a train, Gustave is shot trying to use his influence to protect Zero from the soldiers.