The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis.
It follows the characters of Phil, Stu, and Alan, who awaken in Las Vegas after a bachelor party to find they have no memory of the previous night's events and are missing their friend Doug, whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day. The story was partially inspired by the filmmakers' real-life misadventures.
The Hangover was filmed on a budget of $35 million and was released in North America on June 5, 2009, becoming a critical and commercial success. It became the tenth highest-grossing film of 2009, with a worldwide gross of over US$467 million. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades.
PlotThe following morning, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night and Doug is nowhere to be found. Stu is missing a tooth, their hotel suite is in disarray, a tiger is in their bathroom, and a baby is in the closet. They find Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers a police cruiser.
Following clues to their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with rohypnol, causing their memory loss, and that they came to the hospital from a chapel. At the chapel they learn that Stu married a stripper named Jade (Heather Graham) despite having a long-term but mean-spirited girlfriend, Melissa (Rachael Harris). Outside the chapel, the trio are attacked by gangsters claiming to be looking for someone. They escape and next visit Jade, finding her to be the mother of the baby. The police arrive and arrest the men for stealing the police car.
The police reveal that the Mercedes has been impounded and release the trio in exchange for their volunteering to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked man in the trunk, who attacks them with a crowbar before running away. Alan admits to being responsible for drugging their drinks to ensure they had a good night, believing them to be Ecstacy.Returning to their villa, they find Mike Tyson, who orders the trio to return the tiger to his mansion immediately. Stu drugs the tiger with the remaining roofies and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes, but the tiger awakens and attacks them, ravaging the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to avoid the tiger, Tyson shows the trio footage of them stealing the tiger to help them locate Doug. While driving, their car is struck by another vehicle intentionally; the passengers are revealed to be the gangsters from the chapel and their boss, Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) - the naked man from their trunk - who accuses the trio of stealing $80,000 of his money and kidnapping him. Chow claims to have their "friend" and threatens to kill him unless his $80,000 is returned. Unaware of the location of Chow's $80,000, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing Blackjack. They meet with Chow, exchanging the money for their "friend" only to learn that is the wrong Doug (Mike Epps), the drug dealer who mistakenly sold Alan the roofies.
With the wedding occurring in hours, Phil calls Tracy to admit they cannot find Doug. Following a conversation with "Black Doug", Stu realizes where Doug is. The trio travel back to their hotel where they find Doug on the roof, moved there on his mattress while he was asleep, as a prank by Stu, Phil and Alan. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet with Jade the following week to pursue a relationship. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights available, the four friends race home, with Doug revealing he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. They arrive late to the wedding but Doug and Tracy are married and Stu breaks up with Melissa. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera chronicling the events they cannot remember and the four agree to look at the pictures together once before erasing the evidence of their exploits.
Cast- Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck, a teacher.
- Ed Helms as Dr. Stuart "Stu" Price, a dentist.
- Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner, the socially awkward, future brother-in-law of the groom.
- Justin Bartha as Doug Billings, the groom.
- Heather Graham as Jade, a stripper/escort.
- Sasha Barrese as Tracy Garner, the bride.
- Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner, father of the bride.
- Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow, a flamboyant gangster.
- Mike Epps as "Black Doug", a drug dealer mistaken for Doug Billings.
- Mike Tyson as Himself. Tyson was not originally interested in the project until he found out Todd Phillips had directed Old School, which Tyson enjoyed.Tyson later said the film helped turn his life around; the job offer and fun he had on set convinced him to clean up his act.
Box officeThe Hangover proved to be a financial success. On its first day of release, the film drew $16,734,033 on approximately 4,500 screens at 3,269 sites, beating out the big budgeted Land of the Lost — the other major new release of the weekend — for first day take.Although initial studio projections had the Disney·Pixar film Up holding on to the number one slot for a second consecutive weekend, final revised figures, bolstered by a surprisingly strong Sunday showing, ultimately had The Hangover finishing first for the weekend, with $44,979,319 from 3,269 theaters, averaging $13,759 per venue, narrowly edging out Up for the top spot, and more than doubling the take of Land of the Lost, which finished third with $18.8 million.The film beat even Warner Bros.' own expectations — which had anticipated it would finish third behind Up and Land of the Lost — benefiting from positive word-of-mouth and critical praise, and a generally negative buzz for Land of the Lost.It stayed at the number one position in its second weekend grossing another $32,794,387, from 3,355 theaters for an average of $9,775 per venue, and bringing the 10-day amount to $104,768,489.
As of December 17, 2009 it had grossed $277,322,503 in the United States and Canada, making more than six times its opening weekend, which only comprised 16.2% of its total domestic gross. It also made an additional $190,094,219 in international markets, for a total worldwide gross of $467,416,722, making it the sixth highest grossing film of 2009 in the U.S., the tenth highest grossing film of 2009 in the world, as well as the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States, surpassing a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 years.Out of all R-rated films, it is the third highest grossing ever in the U.S., behind only The Passion of the Christ and The Matrix Reloaded.However, adjusted for inflation The Hangover earned less than half the total earned by Beverly Hills Cop and is out grossed by several comedies coming in even after Porky's.
