The Hangover

The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor.

It follows the characters of Phil (Cooper), Stu (Helms) and Alan (Galifanakis) who awake in Las Vegas after a bachelor party to find they have no memory of the previous night's events and are missing their friend Doug (Bartha) whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day. The story was partially inspired by the filmmakers' real-life misadventures.

The Hangover was filmed on a budget of $35 million and was released in North America 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 US$467 million. The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and received multiple other accolades.

Celebrating his impending marriage to Tracy (Sasha Barrese), Doug (Justin Bartha) and his friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Tracy's brother Alan (Zach Galifianakis) travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, staying at Caesars Palace. As night falls, the four friends share drinks and toast to a night they will never forget.

The following morning, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken to find they have no memory of the previous night and Doug is nowhere to be found. They discover that Stu is missing a tooth, their villa is in disarray, a tiger is in their bathroom and a baby is in the closet. Searching for Doug they find his mattress impaled on a statue outside of their hotel and the valet brings them a police cruiser instead of their Mercedes. Using clues to retrace their steps, the trio travel to a hospital where they discover they were roofied, causing their memory loss and that they came to the hospital from a Chapel. At the chapel they learn that Stu married a stripper named Jade (Heather Graham) despite having a long-term but mean-spirited girlfriend, Melissa (Rachael Harris). Outside the chapel, the trio are attacked by gangsters but escape, visiting Jade who they discover to be the mother of the baby. While in Jade's apartment, the trio are arrested by two police officers for stealing the police car. The police explain that they found the Mercedes and release the trio in exchange for them volunteering to be targets for a taser demonstration. While driving the Mercedes, they discover a naked man (Ken Jeong) in the trunk who proceeds to attack them with a crowbar before running away. Alan admits to being the person who put roofies in their drinks to ensure they had a good night, believing them to be Ecstacy.

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 roofies and they drive towards Tyson's home in the Mercedes, but the tiger awakens and attacks them, ravaging the car's interior. After pushing the car the rest of the way to avoid the tiger, Tyson shows the trio footage of them stealing the tiger to help them locate Doug. While driving, their car is struck by another vehicle intentionally, the passengers revealed to be the gangsters from the Chapel and their boss Leslie Chow - the naked man from their trunk - who accuses the trio of stealing $80,000 of his money and kidnapping him. Chow claims to have their "friend" and threatens to kill him unless his $80,000 is 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, exchanging the money for their "friend" only to learn that is the wrong Doug (Mike Epps), the drug dealer who sold Alan the roofies by mistake.

With the wedding occurring in hours, Phil calls Tracy to admit they cannot find Doug but after a conversation with "Black Doug", 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 prank by Stu, Phil and Alan. Before leaving, Stu makes arrangements to meet with Jade the following week to pursue a relationship. With less than four hours before the wedding and with no flights available, the four friends race home, with Doug revealing he has possession of Chow's original $80,000. They arrive late to the wedding but Doug and Tracy are married and Stu finally breaks up with Melissa. As the reception ends, Alan finds Stu's digital camera chronicling the events they cannot remember and the four agree to look at the pictures together once before erasing the evidence of their exploits.