The Hangover

The Hangover
Directed by	Todd Phillips
Produced by	Todd Phillips
Written by	Jon Lucas Scott Moore
Starring	Bradley Cooper Ed Helms Zach Galifianakis Heather Graham Justin Bartha Jeffrey Tambor
Music by	Christophe Beck
Cinematography	Lawrence Sher
Editing by	Debra Neil-Fisher
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release	June 5, 2009
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35 million
Gross revenue	$467,483,912
Followed by	The Hangover Part II

The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film, co-produced and directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It is the first film of The Hangover franchise. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, and Jeffrey Tambor. The Hangover tells the story of Phil Wenneck, Stu Price and Alan Garner, who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate their friend Doug Billings' impending marriage. However, Phil, Stu and Alan have no memory of the previous night's events and must find Doug before the wedding can take place.

Lucas and Moore wrote the script after executive producer Chris Bender's friend disappeared and had a large bill after being sent to a strip club. After Lucas and Moore sold it to the studio for $2 million, Philips and Jeremy Garelick rewrote the script to include a tiger as well as a subplot involving a baby and a police cruiser, and also including boxer Mike Tyson. Filming took place in Nevada for 15 days, and during filming, the three main actors (Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis) formed a real friendship.

The Hangover was released 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 $467 million. Critics praised the film's comedic approach but criticized it for its vulgarity. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades. It is the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009 in the world, as well as the second 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. A sequel, The Hangover Part II, was released in 2011, and a third and final film, The Hangover Part III, was released on May 23, 2013.

Plot

Celebrating his upcoming marriage to Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese), Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) travels with his best friends Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Stu Price (Ed Helms), and Tracy's brother and Doug's future brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) to Las Vegas in Alan's father's Mercedes-Benz for a bachelor party, staying at Caesars Palace. They relax in the room and go to a casino, and celebrate with few drinks on the hotel rooftop. The next 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, a chicken in their living room, and a baby is in the closet, whom they name "Carlos". They find Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers an LVPD police cruiser.

Following clues to their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with rohypnol ("roofies"), causing their memory loss, and that they came to the hospital from a chapel. At the chapel, they learn that Stu married a stripper, Jade (Heather Graham), despite having a long-term relationship with his mean-spirited girlfriend, Melissa (Rachael Harris). Outside the chapel, the trio are attacked by gangsters, saying they are looking for someone. They flee and visit Jade, discovering that she is the mother of the baby, whose real name is Tyler, before being arrested by the police for stealing the police cruiser. Having been told that the Mercedes has been impounded, the trio is released when they volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration, unknowingly. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked Chinese guy in the trunk who attacks them and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, thinking the drug to be ecstasy.

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 rohypnol and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes, but the tiger attacks them, claws Phil on his neck, and damages the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to the mansion, Tyson shows the trio footage of them at his house 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 that was in his purse and kidnapping him. As the guys try to deny this, Chow says he has their friend, and threatens to kill him if his money is not 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 and exchange the money, only to find that "Doug" is an African-American drug dealer (nicknamed Black Doug by the trio), who inadvertently sold Alan the roofies. With the wedding occurring in 5 hours, Phil phones Tracy, telling her that they cannot find Doug. After a conversation with "Black Doug" (Mike Epps), 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 practical joke by Stu, Phil and Alan. Doug's mattress had been thrown there by Doug himself, in an attempt to signal for help. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to go on a date with Jade the following week. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights to L.A. available, the foursome race home, with Doug revealing he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married and Stu breaks up with Melissa after having grown tired of her controlling his life. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera detailing the events they cannot remember and the four agree to look at the pictures together before deleting the evidence of their exploits.

Cast

• Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck, a teacher.
• Ed Helms as Dr. Stu Price, a dentist.
• Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner, Doug's socially inept, future brother-in-law.
• Justin Bartha as Doug Billings, the groom.
• Heather Graham as Jade, a stripper and escort.
• Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner, Tracy's and Alan's father.
• Sasha Barrese as Tracy Garner, the bride.
• Rachael Harris as Melissa, Stu's girlfriend.
• Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow, a flamboyant Chinese gangster.
• Mike Epps as "Black Doug", a drug dealer who is mistaken for Doug.
• Rob Riggle as Officer Franklin
• Cleo King as Officer Garden
• Ian Anthony Dale as Chow's #1
• Michael Li as Chow's #2
• Mike Tyson as himself. Tyson originally refused to appear in the film, but he changed his mind when he found out that Todd Phillips directed Old School, which Tyson liked. Tyson later said that working on the film convinced him to change his lifestyle.
• Matt Walsh as Dr.Valsh
• Dan Finnerty as wedding singer
• Murray Gershenz as Felix
• Andrew Astor as Eli
• Casey Margolis as Budnick

Cameos

• Todd Phillips, the film's director, cameoed as Mr. Creepy, who appears briefly in an elevator.
• Mike Vallely as Neeco, the high speed tuxedo delivery man.
• Wayne Newton as himself, in photo slide show.
• Carrot Top as himself, in photo slide show.

Images

External links

• The Hangover at the Internet Movie Database