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The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, co-produced with Daniel Goldberg, and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It is the first installment in The Hangover trilogy. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, and Jeffrey Tambor. It tells the story of Phil Wenneck (Cooper), Stu Price (Helms), Alan Garner (Galifianakis), and Doug Billings (Bartha), who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug's impending marriage. However, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up with Doug missing and no memory of the previous night's events, and must find the groom 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, Phillips 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, and was a critical and commercial success. The film became the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2009, with a worldwide gross of over $467 million. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades. It is the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States at the time (before its sequel broke the record), surpassing a record previously held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 years.
A sequel, The Hangover Part II, was released on May 26, 2011, and a third and final installment, The Hangover Part III, was released on May 23, 2013. While both were also box-office hits, neither was well-received.
plot[]
Two days before his wedding, Doug Billings, a cheerful yet careful bachelor, travels to Las Vegas with his best friends Phil Wenneck, a sarcastic Elementary School teacher, and Stu Price, an apprehensive dentist. He also brings Alan Garner, his future brother-in-law who is immature and eccentric. Sid, the father of his fiancée Tracy, allows Doug to drive his vintage Mercedes-Benz W111 to Vegas from Los Angeles. They get a suite at Caesars Palace, and celebrate by sneaking onto the hotel rooftop and taking shots of Jägermeister. The next morning, Phil, Stu, and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night; Doug is nowhere to be found, Stu's tooth is missing, the suite is a disaster, a Bengal tiger is in the bathroom, and a baby is in the closet. They see Doug's mattress impaled on a statue outside and when they ask for their Mercedes, the valet delivers an LVPD police cruiser.
Retracing their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were drugged with Rohypnol (roofies), causing their memory loss, and that they went to the hospital from a chapel the previous night. At the chapel, they learn that Stu married an escort named Jade, despite being in a long-term relationship with his domineering and philandering girlfriend Melissa. Outside the chapel, the trio is attacked by gangsters demanding to know where "he" is. Bewildered, they flee and track down Jade, the mother of the baby.
They are then arrested by the police for having stolen the police cruiser. After being told that the Mercedes was impounded, the trio are released when they unwittingly volunteer to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked Chinese man named Mr. Chow in the trunk, who beats the trio with a crowbar and flees. Alan confesses that he drugged their drinks to ensure they had a good night, believing the drug to be ecstasy.
Returning to their suite, they find Mike Tyson, who knocks Alan unconscious and orders them to return his tiger to his mansion. Stu drugs it, they load it into the Mercedes, and drive to Tyson's mansion. However, the tiger awakens midway and attacks them, clawing Phil on the neck and damaging the car's interior. They push the car the rest of the way to the mansion, and successfully deliver the tiger to Tyson, who shows them security camera footage indicating they didn't lose Doug until they got back to the hotel. While driving back, their car is rammed by a black Cadillac Escalade manned by the gangsters from the chapel and Chow, who is their boss. Chow accuses them of kidnapping him and stealing $80,000 in poker chips. As they deny it, he tells them he has Doug, and threatens to kill him if it is not returned. Unable to find Chow's chips, Alan, with help from Stu and Jade, uses his knowledge of card counting to win $82,400 playing blackjack.
The next morning, they meet Chow in the Mojave Desert to exchange the chips for Doug, only to find that the Doug in question is actually the drug dealer who sold the roofies to Alan the previous night. With the real Doug's wedding set to occur in five hours, Phil calls Tracy to tell her they cannot find him. Simultaneously, the other Doug remarks that someone who takes roofies is more likely to end up on the floor than on the roof; Stu suddenly realizes where Doug is, interrupting Phil before he can reveal Doug's disappearance to Tracy.
They travel back to Caesars Palace where they find a dazed and sunburned Doug on the roof, who they moved there on his mattress the previous night as a practical joke; Doug had thrown the mattress onto the statue in an attempt to signal for help. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet Jade for a date the following week. With no flights available, the four drive home in the mangled Mercedes. Despite their late arrival, Doug and Tracy are married. At the wedding, Stu finally stands up for himself and breaks up with Melissa. Alan finds Stu's digital camera containing photos of the debauchery from the night in Las Vegas, and the four agree to look at the pictures before deleting them.
cast[]
- Bradley Cooper as Phil, a teacher and the leader of the Wolfpack
- Ed Helms as Stu, a dentist
- Zach Galifianakis as Alan, Doug's socially inept, future brother-in-law, who has ADHD and acts childishly and erratically
- Justin Bartha as Doug, the groom, who goes missing for most of the film
- Heather Graham as Jade, a stripper and escort
- Sasha Barrese as Tracy, Doug's bride and Alan's sister
- Jeffrey Tambor as Sid, Tracy's and Alan's father
- Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow, a flamboyant Chinese gangster
- Rachael Harris as Melissa, Stu's domineering, philandering girlfriend
- 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.
- Mike Epps as Black Doug, a drug dealer who is mistaken for Doug
- Jernard Burks as Leonard
- Rob Riggle as Officer Franklin
- Cleo King as Officer Garden
- Bryan Callen as Eddie, the wedding organizer
- Matt Walsh as Dr. Valsh
- Ian Anthony Dale as Chow's #1
- Michael Li as Chow's #2
- Sondra Currie as Linda, Tracy's and Alan's mother
- Gillian Vigman as Stephanie, Phil's wife
- Murray Gershenz as Felix (hospital elderly man)
- Nathalie Fay as Lisa
Todd Phillips, the film's director, appears as Mr. Creepy, who appears briefly in an elevator. Professional skateboarder Mike Vallely portrays Neeco, the high-speed tuxedo delivery man. Las Vegas personalities Wayne Newton and Carrot Top appear as themselves in the photo slide show.
production[]
writing[]
The plot of The Hangover was inspired by a real event that happened to Tripp Vinson, a producer and friend of executive producer Chris Bender. Vinson had gone missing from his own Las Vegas bachelor party, blacking out and waking up "in a strip club being threatened with a very, very large bill I was supposed to pay".
Jon Lucas and Scott Moore sold the original script of The Hangover to Warner Bros. for over $2 million. The story was about three friends who lose the groom at his Las Vegas bachelor party and then must retrace their steps to figure out what happened. It was then rewritten by Jeremy Garelick and director Todd Phillips, who added additional elements such as Mike Tyson and his tiger, the baby, and the police cruiser. However, Lucas and Moore retained writing credit in accordance with the Writers Guild of America, West's screenwriting credit system.
casting[]
Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Bradley Cooper were all casual acquaintances before The Hangover was filmed, which Helms said he believed helped in establishing a rapport and chemistry amongst their characters. Helms credited Phillips for "bringing together three guys who are really different, but really appreciate each others' humor and sensibilities". Helms also said the fact that the story of the three characters growing closer and bonding forged the friendship between the three actors: "As you spend 14 hours a day together for three months, you see a lot of sides of somebody. We went through the wringer together, and that shared experience really made us genuine buddies."
Lindsay Lohan was in talks with Phillips for the role of Jade in the film but was ultimately not cast due to being considered too young for what was discussed.
filming[]
On a budget of $35 million, principal photography took place in Nevada for fifteen days.
The Hangover was mostly filmed on location at Caesars Palace, including the front desk, lobby, entrance drive, pools, corridors, elevators, and roof, but the suite damaged in the film was built on a soundstage.
Helms said filming The Hangover was more physically demanding than any other role he had done, and that he lost eight pounds while making the film. He said the most difficult day of shooting was the scene when Mr. Chow rams his car and attacks the main characters, which Helms said required many takes and was very painful, such as when a few of the punches and kicks accidentally landed and when his knees and shins were hurt while being pulled out of a window. The missing tooth was not created with prosthetics or visual effects, but is naturally occurring: Helms never had an adult incisor grow, and got a dental implant as a teenager, which was removed for filming.
Jeong stated that his jumping on Cooper's neck naked wasn't a part of the script, but rather improvisation on their part. It was added with Phillips' blessing. Jeong also stated that he had to receive his wife's permission to appear nude in the film.
Phillips tried to convince the actors to allow him to use a real Taser until Warner Bros. lawyers intervened.
Regarding the explicit shots in the final photo slide show in which his character is seen receiving fellatio in an elevator, Galifianakis confirmed that a prosthesis was used for the scene, and that he had been more embarrassed than anyone else during the creation of the shot. "You would think that I wouldn't be the one who was embarrassed; I was extremely embarrassed. I really didn't even want it in there. I offered Todd's assistant a lot of money to convince him to take it out of the movie. I did. But it made it in there."
The scenes involving animals were filmed mostly with trained animals. Trainers and safety equipment were digitally removed from the final version. Some prop animals were used, such as when the tiger was hidden under a sheet and being moved on a baggage cart. Such efforts were given an "Outstanding" rating by the American Humane Association for the monitoring and treatment of the animals.
music[]
The film's score was composed by Christophe Beck. The film featured 20 songs, consisting of music by Kanye West, Dyslexic Speedreaders, Danzig, The Donnas, Usher, Phil Collins, The Belle Stars, T.I., Wolfmother and The Dan Band, who tend to feature in Phillips' films as the inappropriate, bad-mouthed wedding band. The Dan Band's cover of the 50 Cent single "Candy Shop" appeared in Part I. Pro-skater and punk musician Mike Vallely was invited with his band, Revolution Mother, to write a song for the film and also makes a cameo appearance as the high speed tuxedo delivery guy.
"Right Round" by Flo Rida is played over the ending credits. The film uses the Kanye West song "Can't Tell Me Nothing" for which Zach Galifianakis made an alternative music video.
- Track listing
| No. | Title | Artists | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "It's Now or Never" | El Vez | 5:17 |
| 2. | "Thirteen" | Danzig | 4:15 |
| 3. | "Take It Off" | The Donnas | 2:58 |
| 4. | "Fever" | The Cramps | 4:16 |
| 5. | "Wedding Bells" | Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps | 2:31 |
| 6. | "In the Air Tonight" | Phil Collins | 5:30 |
| 7. | "Stu's Song" | Ed Helms | 0:56 |
| 8. | "Rhythm and Booze" | Treat Her Right | 2:49 |
| 9. | "Iko Iko" | The Belle Stars | 2:50 |
| 10. | "Three Best Friends" | Zach Galifianakis | 0:29 |
| 11. | "Ride the Sky II" | Revolution Mother | 2:03 |
| 12. | "Candy Shop" | Dan Finnerty and The Dan Band | 2:58 |
| Total length: | 38:52 | ||
- Additional songs
- "Who Let the Dogs Out?" – Baha Men
- "Right Round" – Flo Rida ft. Kesha
- "Can't Tell Me Nothing" – Kanye West
- "Live Your Life" – T.I. featuring Rihanna
- "What Do You Say?" – Mickey Avalon and Lil Jon
- "Yeah!" – Usher featuring Ludacris and Lil Jon
- "Joker & the Thief" – Wolfmother
- "Shut Up Alan" - Dan Hughes ft. MC Ed Lewis
release[]
box office[]
The Hangover was a financial success. As of December 17, 2009, it had grossed $467,416,722, of which $277,322,503 was in Canada and the United States. It was tenth highest-grossing film of 2009 in the world, the ninth highest-grossing film of 2009 in the U.S. and 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 sixth highest-grossing ever in the U.S., behind The Passion of the Christ, Deadpool, American Sniper, It 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, including Porky's.
On its first day of release in the U.S., the film drew $16,734,033 on approximately 4,500 screens at 3,269 sites and exceeded the big-budgeted Land of the Lost—the other major new release of the weekend—for first day's box office takings. 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 twice that of Land of the Lost, which finished third with $18.8 million. The film exceeded Warner Bros.' 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.
home media[]
The Hangover was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD on December 15, 2009. There is a single-disc theatrical version featuring both fullscreen and widescreen options (DVD only), as well as a widescreen two-disc unrated version of the film, also containing the theatrical version (DVD, Blu-ray, and UMD). The unrated version is approximately seven minutes longer than the theatrical version. The unrated version is on disc one and the theatrical version, digital copy, and the different features are on disc two. The Hangover beat Inglourious Basterds and G-Force in first week DVD and Blu-ray sales, as well as rentals, selling more than 8.6 million units and making it the best-selling comedy ever on DVD and Blu-ray, beating the previous record held by My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
- ↑ "The Hangover (15)" (June 12, 2009).
- ↑ "The Hangover". Nash Information Services.
- ↑ "The Hangover (2009)". Internet Movie Database.