The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy as the owner of a lunar nightclub investigating who was behind the arson that destroyed his club. The film is considered to be one of the worst box-office flops of all time, grossing only around $10 million on its reported $100 million budget.
Plot
In the decade of 2080, on a lunar colony called Little America, a retired smuggler called Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) buys a nightclub, thus attempting to fulfill a longtime wish of his and additionally preventing the murder by ingesting battery acid of the club's previous owner Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr) by his creditors Gino (Burt Young) and Larry (Lillo Brancato).
Seven years later, "Club Pluto" has become a successful business, frequented by many socialites. Its staff consists of Pluto himself, a Hispanic assistant, and an android robot named Bruno, a obsolete model 63 deluxe (Randy Quaid). His obsolete status is a constant gag. Meanwhile, Anthony has become a stage performer, under the name of Tony Francis, and has become interplanetary famous despite his inability to sing.
One night, Pluto is approached by a young woman called Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), who has become stranded on the Moon and desires to earn money by which to pay for transport to Earth. Because her father "Nicky Sticks" was a friend of Pluto's, she seeks help from Pluto offering her skills as a singer. Pluto, instead, gives her a job as server at his club and allows her to remain after its nightly closure to the public. During the same night, Pluto is accosted thrice by messengers of a mysterious entrepreneur called Rex Crater, who wishes to buy Club Pluto and convert it into a gambling casino. Pluto refuses, and Rex Crater's minions destroy the club. Pluto, Dina, and Bruno escape, and begin to investigate Rex Crater, of whom very few people know anything. From Rowland (Peter Boyle), a retired policeman who is a friend of his mother's, Pluto learns that Rex Crater is never seen outside of a penthouse in the city of Moon Beach, and that he has been involved with a geneticist called Runa Pendankin, who specialized in cloning before her death. Her skills were so renowned that she created an entire basketball team using Micheal Jordan DNA, called the Air Jordans before human cloning was declared illegal she set up on he moon
Pluto and Dina visit Doctor Runa Pendankin's apprentice Mona Zimmer (Illeana Douglas), who operates a cosmetic surgery station. They pose as a married couple attempting to revive their infatuation for one another by having their figures altered; after having seen, and adapted to their liking, several examples of commonly preferred bodily shapes and contours, they reveal that they have come for information regarding Doctor Pendankin's death. Mona Zimmer, having been intimidated by Pluto's bluffs, reveals that shortly prior to her death, Doctor Pendankin had worked for or with a Terrestrial criminal whose initials, inscribed on his briefcase, appear to have been "WZW".
Pluto and Dina return to the hotel, and meet Pluto's mother, Flura Nash (Pam Grier). They are attacked by Rex Crater's assassins, who have tracked them to the hotel. Upon hijacking a limo with a holographic chauffer named James (John Cleese) Pluto takes Dina and Bruno to an abandoned smuggler's refuge.
At the hideout, Pluto mounts an Internet-based search for any Terrestrial criminal with the initials "WZW". When this yields nothing, Dina suggests that the initials are in fact "MZM", having been seen upside-down by Mona Zimmer. Pluto searches for "MZM" and discovers a criminal called Michael Zoroaster Marucci. Pluto suspects that Michael Marucci and Rex Crater are one and the same. Abruptly, he is contacted by his mother, who tells him that Rowland has been killed by a fellow policeman and the hideout is attacked by Rex Crater's agents. A chase ensues, and the heroes escape, but their car is damaged and explodes, causing them to be presumed dead.
They are eventually rescued and taken to Moon Beach by Felix Laranga (Luis Guzmán), a smuggler who idolizes Pluto Nash. They infiltrate Rex Crater's casino/hotel. Bruno ends up running afoul of a robot slot machine whose lever he accidentally breaks. When Bruno is taken away by security, Pluto sends Dina to get Bruno out and pay for the damages to the robot slot machine. Pluto meets with Tony, the former owner of Club Pluto attempts to help them. Pluto asks Tony if there was a way up to Rex Crater's penthouse. Upon talking in an elevator, Pluto is told that the only way up is to climb the elevator ropes to the penthouse. Pluto asks Tony if there's a Plan B. When they leave the elevator, Rex's assistant Belcher (James Rebhorn) and some men hint surrender as Plan B. Tony is knocked out while Pluto is stunned. Meanwhile, Dina approaches the security at the place where the robots are locked up. When the guard tells Dina that the repairs on the robot slot machine aren't done yet. Bruno manages to trick the guard into letting him out and ends up knocking out the guard. Just then, Dina and Bruno are captured by Rex Crater's agents and taken to him.
Upon being unstunned by Belcher, Pluto accuses Rex Crater of being Michael Marucci (played by Alec Baldwin in an unbilled cameo). At this, Rex Crater reveals himself to be a clone of Pluto: created by Runa Pendankin from Pluto's removed appendix to act as public face of Michael Marucci's illegal activities. However, Rex has killed Marucci. When his henchmen arrive and see both Rex and Pluto, Rex kills his two henchmen and has their bodies removed. He and Pluto fight while the others are uncertain which was which. Pluto shoots Bruno and Belcher (who assumes that Pluto would not damage his own robot) shoots Rex. Pluto orders Belcher and his men to leave and reveals his identity to Dina by speaking of her employment to him. Bruno was wearing a bulletproof shirt. Rex comes back to life also having worn a bulletproof shirt. He attempts to garotte Pluto, but is thrown through a window and dies.
The movie ends with the heroes celebrating in the rebuilt Club Pluto.
History
The movie had its origins in the mid-1980s. The script went through numerous revisions and, upon completion of filming, sat on the shelf for two years, finally being released in August 2002. The majority of critics lambasted the movie for its acting, dialogue, lack of humor, and very poor and crude special effects, even more so for a movie with a $100,000,000 budget. It was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Picture. Production began in April 2000, and wrapped up in September 2000. At one point, Jennifer Lopez was cast for the role of Dina in this film, but eventually turned it down. Rosario Dawson was cast in her place.
Reception
The film was universally savaged by critics with a 6% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and was highly unsuccessful financially. Its budget was estimated at (U.S.) $100 million, with marketing costs of $20 million and domestic box office (of which the studio typically receives about half) $4,420,080 and $2,683,893 (overseas). It had a total worldwide gross of $7,103,973.[3] Eddie Murphy poked fun at himself in an interview with Barbara Walters about this movie by saying: "I know two or three people that liked this movie." The film performed better on DVD, with US DVD rental gross of $24,983,000.[4]
Currently, this is the largest financial loss of any film ever made, adjusted for inflation. It has since been referred to in multiple case-studies of film flops.[citation needed]
In 2008, Murphy appeared in another science-fiction themed comedy, Meet Dave. Although Meet Dave had been scripted under the title Starship Dave, but because of the box office failure of The Adventures of Pluto Nash the studio executives for 20th Century Fox insisted on the title change.[5]
In 2009, Rotten Tomatoes named the film the 79th worst movie of 1999-2009, in its article "Worst of the Worst 2009"[6]
See also
References
External links
