Big Trouble (2002 film)

''Big Trouble'' is a 2002 American black comedy film based on the novel '' Big Trouble'' by Dave Barry. It was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and featured a large cast including Tim Allen and Rene Russo with Dennis Farina, Zooey Deschanel, Sofia Vergara and Jason Lee in supporting roles. Like much of Dave Barry's fiction, it follows a diverse group of people through a series of extremely strange and humorous situations against the backdrop of Miami. The film was a bomb at the box office, and received mixed critical reception.

Plot

In a high-school game of " Killer" (in which a student must shoot another with a squirt gun), Matt Arnold has to "kill" classmate Jenny Herk, so sneaks up on her at home. By coincidence, hitmen are also there to assassinate Arthur Herk, who has embezzled money from his company, Penultimate Corp.

As the fake assassination attempt coincides with the real one, police officers Monica Romero and Walter Kramitz are called out to the resulting disturbance. During the chaos, Matt's friend Andrew calls Eliot Arnold, Matt's father. Picking up Matt, Eliot immediately feels a mutual attraction to Anna Herk, Jenny's mother, and Matt and Jenny are attracted to each other too. Meanwhile, their housemaid Nina falls for Puggy, a young homeless man who lives in a tree on their property. She runs from the shootings and he saves her from the hitmen.

Realizing he is the intended victim, Arthur visits arms dealers to buy a rocket but is sold a suitcase nuclear bomb as the dealer is out of rockets and doesn't tell him what it is. Escaped convicts Snake and Eddie, previously kicked out of the bar for disorderly conduct, hold it up, kidnapping Arthur and Puggy (an employee there) and taking the suitcase, not knowing its contents.

Meanwhile, when Matt tries to "kill" Jenny in a mall parking lot, a security guard thinks his gun is real and opens fire on them. Matt and Jenny run away and eventually return to the Herks', followed by officers Monica and Walter, who stumble across the confusion. Eliot is called over again.

The convicts force Arthur to return home, capture everyone and tie them up. Taking Puggy and Jenny, they leave (with the suitcase) for the airport. Nina, who was hiding in her room, frees everyone but Monica and Arthur (who are handcuffed). Shortly after, the house is visited by two FBI agents tracking the bomb. They free Monica and have her lead them to the airport (Arthur is left tripping on a hallucinogenic toad, believing Martha Stewart has possessed the dog).

The criminals, Puggy and Jenny pass through security, where the bomb is inadvertently triggered and its 45-minute timer begins; Puggy escapes in the confusion of boarding. The FBI agents tell everyone that unless the bomb is retrieved soon, the plane must be shot down. Puggy leads them to the criminals' plane, which Eliot sneaks onto. Meanwhile, the two hitmen get out of the traffic jam (caused by Snake and Eddie) and reach the airport. Bumping into Officer Romero, and Special Agents Greer and Seitz, they knock the hitmen's rifle out of their golf bag in the process. Romero grabs it, renders it useless, and returns it.

Eliot, having sneaked onto the plane, attacks Eddie and Snake with a fire extinguisher. Hearing the case is a bomb, Eliot hurls it out of the open rear door, only for Snake to leap after it. In a feat of dumb luck, Snake manages to cling onto the door's steps. Despite Eliot's insistence that the case is a bomb, Snake opens fire on him, prompting Eliot to pull the emergency lever decoupling the door. Snake plunges into the ocean with a defiant smile, still clinging to the bomb, which explodes safely in the water. Eliot is congratulated by the FBI, promised presidential cowboy boots and a hat, and told the events that took place are strictly top secret.

In the last scene: after chasing down a plane, subduing two criminals, and saving Miami from a nuclear disaster, Eliot finally wins Matt's respect. Anna and Eliot marry a week after she divorces Arthur. Walter, after a forced strip search by the airport guards, becomes a male stripper and marries. The hitmen escape Miami after a series of very weird events. They claim their Miami job was the lowest point in their careers. They were surrounded by the fans of Florida Gators on their plane home (a running joke in the film). Eddie goes back to jail in a prison outside of Jacksonville, becoming friends with another dimwitted inmate who has the same affinity for crude jokes. Arthur is last seen still handcuffed and tormented by his dog.

Cast

* Tim Allen as Eliot Arnold – A divorced man, fired from his job at the ''Miami Herald

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