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The movie begins with a news
broadcast revealing that an Egyptian pyramid has been stolen. When
super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) hears of this, his pride is injured, and
he resolves to pull the biggest heist of the century by stealing the Moon.
Gru tries to get a loan from the Bank of Evil and meets a young
super-villain, Vector (Jason Segel), who annoys him. Bank president Mr.
Perkins (Will Arnett) refuses to grant Gru the loan until he obtains a
shrink ray necessary for the plan. Mr. Perkins tells Gru that he is
getting too old and that new super-villains are younger and better, like
Vector, who is revealed to be the one who stole the Pyramid of Giza.
Before Gru leaves the bank, he freezes Vector's head in anger.
Gru and his minions steal the shrink ray from a secret lab in East Asia,
but Vector steals it from him. Gru and the minions chase him, piloting
their ship after him and firing weapon after weapon, all of which Vector
dodges. Vector then shoots Gru's ship with the shrink ray, causing it to
rapidly grow smaller with its passengers still inside. Gru and his minions
manage to avoid being crushed, and ride their tiny ship back home.
Gru attempts to get the shrink ray back from Vector's lair, but fails due
to the formidable weaponry defending it, and is unable to get inside.
After seeing three orphaned girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana
Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) enter the lair to sell cookies to Vector,
Gru adopts the girls from Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the head of the
orphanage, to use them to steal back the shrink ray. Gru has his assistant
Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) build robots disguised as cookies.
Gru shuts down Vector's defenses, and he manages to steal the shrink ray,
despite having numerous difficulties, and almost being caught by Vector.
On the way home the girls ask to go to an amusement park. Gru agrees,
intending to leave the girls there. Instead, the attendant says he, as an
adult, has to ride the roller coaster with them. As the day goes along,
Gru begins to bond with the girls, much to the annoyance of Dr. Nefario.
Back at home, he presents his plan to Mr. Perkins via video. The girls
keep interrupting him by freezing his body with his freeze ray, asking him
if they could order pizza, and drawing a picture of him sitting on his
toilet. Perkins again refuses to give him the loan, claiming that although
he doesn't have a problem with the plan, he just wants a younger villain
to do it instead. Gru has a flashback of his childhood, depicting his
wanting to go to the moon after seeing the first moon landing. When he
tried to impress his mother (Julie Andrews) with models of the rocket (and
an actual working one), she simply ignored him. Mr. Perkins calls Vector
(revealed to be his son, whose real name is Victor) to the Bank of Evil to
inform him that Gru has the shrink ray. Vector reassures his father that
he will get the Moon. Gru almost abandons his plan due to lack of funds,
but the girls and the minions take up a collection to keep it going.
However, Gru has to make a choice, because the moon will be in the optimal
position for the heist on the same day as the girls' ballet recital. Dr.
Nefario, seeing the girls as a distraction, contacts Miss Hattie, who
arrives to take the girls back. Gru, the minions, and the girls are
heartbroken. Gru goes on with his plan and flies to the moon. Vector tries
to latch onto the rocket, but Gru's defense mechanism prevents him from
doing so.
Gru makes it to the Moon and successfully shrinks and pockets it. Gru
remembers the ballet recital and rushes to it. However, when he gets
there, it has ended. There, he finds a ransom note from Vector demanding
the moon in exchange for the girls. After Gru hands over the moon, Vector
reneges on the deal, keeping the girls and the moon. This enrages Gru, who
storms Vector's lair, this time successfully breaching the defenses by
dodging Vector's heat-seeking missiles and making them blow up the outside
entrance, as well as incapacitating a shark. Vector flies off in an escape
pod with the girls. Gru holds on to the exterior of the ship. He nearly
falls to his death, but is rescued by Dr. Nefario piloting the same ship
that Vector shrunk earlier, which had regrown to its previous size.
Nefario reveals that the larger the object, the quicker the effects of the
shrink ray wear off. Very soon, the moon begins to grow and roll around
inside Vector's ship, slamming into him and smashing the girl's prison
cage, freeing them. Gru's ship then deploys a grappling hook, which
latches onto Vector's ship. Dr. Nefario reverses thrusters, and Gru's ship
begins to pull back Vector to keep him from escaping. Gru then climbs onto
the wing of his craft, and he tells the girls to jump, and that he will
catch them. Edith and Agnes make it, but Margo is delayed by Vector, who
grabs onto her and starts to close his ship's boarding ramp, but the
rolling moon slams him back into his ship. The grappling cable snaps,
causing Gru and Margo to fall, but they are rescued by the minions. Gru's
ship accelerates and jets away as Vector's ship explodes, and the Moon is
propelled back into orbit, with Vector stranded on its surface.
Gru and the girls settle down to live a happy life as a family. Before the
girls go to bed, Gru reads them a book he wrote called "One Big Unicorn"
after the original book "Three Sleepy Kittens" was destroyed by Gru, who
never liked reading it to the girls. The girls then hold a special ballet
recital for Gru, his minions, and his mother who acknowledges Gru to be a
better parent than she was. The music changes from Swan Lake to You Should
Be Dancing, and everyone rushes on stage to dance. The film ends as Gru
and the girls take the scissor lift to the roof and enjoy the view of the
Moon. |
