Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Incredibles


Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) have married and settled into relatively normal lives. Now known as Bob and Helen Parr, they have a house in the suburbs and are raising three kids, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dashiell ("Dash") (Spencer Fox) and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile). Violet and Dash each have superpowers like their parents, while it seems as if Jack-Jack is a normal baby without powers.

Bob is frustrated with the drudgery of his job as a claims adjuster for a corrupt insurance company called Insuricare and secretly helps deserving clients to find loopholes to get their payments. He dreams of returning back to his glory days of superheroism, going so far as to moonlight as a crimefighter by listening to a police scanner with his friend Lucius - another former super called Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson). When Helen finds out, it causes an argument. Bob hates having to hide their gifts, and wants to return to the heroics of the old days, while Helen is concerned about keeping the family together and not having to start over again by going into hiding in a brand new location.

Eventually Mr. Huph (Wallace Shawn), Bob's miserly boss, suspects Bob is helping clients and reprimands him. During the lecture, Bob notices a person being mugged in the street. Mr. Huph stops Bob from going to the victim's aid, threatening to fire him, and the mugger escapes. Bob is furious, and when Huph smugly begins lecturing again, Bob grabs him by the neck and hurls him through several office walls. Huph is hospitalized and Bob is fired.

While Bob is trying to figure out how to tell Helen, Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), a mysterious agent, contacts him and offers highly-paid work: subduing a renegade robot, the Omnidroid 9000, on Nomanisan, an uncharted volcanic island. Bob takes the assignment, hiding both the loss of his job and the renewal of hero work from Helen. Bob defeats the Omnidroid from the inside, damaging his supersuit slightly from the battle, and becomes much happier. When he takes his suit to its designer, flamboyant Edna Mode (Brad Bird), for repair, she creates for him a brand-new suit; she is adamant about only one detail: "No capes!" She points out how several super heroes met untimely deaths because their capes were snagged on takeoff, sucked into jet turbines (Stratogale), snags on missile fins (Thunderhead), express elevator trouble (Meta-Man), sucked into vortexes (Splashdown) and snags on takeoff (Dynaguy) and many more. Unbeknownst to him, she also creates suits for his entire family.

Two months later, Mirage calls Bob with a new assignment. Helen overhears the call, but does not realize its full implications or content. When Bob returns to the island, he is ambushed and defeated by an improved version of the Omnidroid prototype robot. He is held captive there by Syndrome (Jason Lee), once a young fan named Buddy Pine. Buddy once wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick, but was harshly rejected "learning an important lesson: you can't count on anyone, especially your heroes". Embittered, he made a fortune in high-tech weapons technology. He then invented the Omnidroid, a robot designed to kill supers. Bob manages to escape from Syndrome and discovers that Syndrome has killed many of his superhero friends in the process of developing the Omnidroid, and is now planning on unleashing the robot into the city of Metroville where it will cause mass destruction, with only Syndrome able to stop it.

Back at home, Helen notices that Bob's old super suit has recently been repaired. She visits Edna and learns that he has resumed superhero work. With a call to Insuracare she also realizes that Bob is no longer employed. Edna has also created super suits for Helen and the children, and advises her to take control of the situation.

Helen activates the homing device Edna built into Bob’s super suit, which reveals his location to both her and Syndrome (who recaptures him). She heads for the island in a jet plane, on which Violet and Dash have stowed away, after leaving Jack-Jack at home with a babysitter. Syndrome, meanwhile, tortures Bob for information and launches a missile attack against Helen's airplane. Helen and the kids manage to escape unharmed, and swim to the island, though everyone on the island believes they are killed. Bob grabs Mirage and threatens to kill her unless Syndrome frees him; Syndrome calls this bluff, and Bob releases her unharmed, remaining Syndrome's prisoner.

While Helen infiltrates Syndrome’s base, the new and improved Omnidroid 10000 is launched on a rocket towards its target, Metroville. In Syndrome’s base, a grateful Mirage secretly frees Bob just before Helen arrives. The two superheroes rush to find their children, who are fighting off Syndrome’s henchmen. A battle ensues, wherein the family cooperates to defeat their attackers. However, Syndrome arrives and captures the Incredibles using his zero-point energy fields. Syndrome then explains his plan: to save Metroville from his own Omnidroid and thereby become a hero. He then leaves the Incredibles in an energy prison. Violet’s force fields allow them to escape, however. With Mirage’s help they depart for the mainland after Syndrome.

In Metroville, Syndrome attempts to stop the Omnidroid's destructive rampage, but the robot figures out the nature of his remote control and knocks him unconscious. The Incredibles and Frozone fight the robot. Together, they are able to get the Omnidroid to disable itself. The town applauds them for their achievements; the possibility of superheroes coming out of hiding is mentioned and for the government to "let the politicians figure it out". Syndrome wakes up to find that the Incredibles have stolen his glory.

The Incredibles return home to find that Syndrome is kidnapping Jack-Jack. As Syndrome attempts to fly up to his jet using his rocket boots, Jack-Jack suddenly reveals his super powers by transforming into fire, metal, and then an imp-like monster. Syndrome drops Jack-Jack, who is caught by Helen, and attempts to flee. Bob hurls the family car into the jet; Syndrome is knocked into the turbine and is killed when his cape is caught in the engine and pulls him in -- just as Edna might have warned him. Violet then protects the family from the raining flames and debris as the jet explodes, much to the amazement of their young neighbor, who responds with the words "That was totally WICKED!!".

Three months later, the family is much happier; even Bob is content with their civilian life. Dash is running in a track meet; he carefully controls his use of super-speed and finishes in second place. Violet, who formerly felt alienated to the point of using her hair to hide her face, is found with her hair pulled back and successfully asking her friend Tony for a date to the movies, with Tony getting nervous instead of Violet. As they walk out of the sports complex, a new villain, The Underminer (John Ratzenberger), rises from the ground and declares "war on peace and happiness.”

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