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Hot Tub Time Machine
Four pals are stuck in a rut in adulthood: Adam has just been dumped, Lou is a hopeless party animal, Nick is a henpecked husband, and Jacob does nothing but play video games in his basement. But they get a chance to brighten their future by changing their past after a night of heavy drinking in a ski-resort hot tub results in their waking up in 1986.
2010 · Directed by Steve Pink · 101 min · Science Fiction · Comedy · Adventure · Screenplay in the scene database · 7 frames
Tagline
Forget the present. Change the future. Kick some past.
Plot
Three estranged middle-aged friends—Adam Yates, a workaholic who was dumped by his girlfriend; Nick Webber-Agnew, a neglected husband who works a dead-end job; and Lou Dorchen, an alcoholic slacker—reconnect in 2010 when Lou is hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning. Although Lou denies that he attempted suicide, Adam and Nick attempt to cheer him up by arranging for him to join them and Adam's socially inept nephew Jacob at Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, where the three enjoyed themselves as youths. When they arrive, they find that the town is not what it used to be, with many of the stores boarded up and the hotel run down.
While drinking in their hotel room's hot tub, the four accidentally douse the console with a Russian energy drink. After waking up and going skiing, the four find many societal differences from the past and realize they have accidentally traveled back to 1986. Adam, Lou, and Nick have also assumed their younger bodies, though Jacob's appearance is unchanged since he was not born yet, and he occasionally flickers in and out of reality. A cryptic repairman appears and warns them not to change anything as it might affect history. To minimize the butterfly effect, the group plans to re-enact their previous experiences: Adam has to break up with his girlfriend Jenny and get stabbed in the eye with a fork, Lou must pick a fight with and get beaten up by ski patrol bully Blaine, and Nick must have sex with a groupie and perform with his band at an open mic. They also find Kelly, Adam's sister and Jacob's mother, at the resort.
The three find their tasks difficult. Lou gets punched by Blaine and loses his backpack, but realizes he must face him again later at night, so he reluctantly challenges him again. Adam becomes attracted to Jenny again and loses the will to break up with her, but is distracted when he meets free-spirited music journalist April during a concert. Nick is concerned about cheating on his wife, even though he is yet to meet and marry her at this time. Jenny turns the tables on Adam when she initiates their breakup, but he still gets stabbed in the eye with a fork after he tries to prevent it. Severely heartbroken, he wanders around the resort alone before encountering April. They break into a house and have sex.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Josh Heald, Sean Anders, John Morris
- Cinematography: Jack N. Green
- Edited by: George Folsey Jr., James Thomas
- Music: Christophe Beck
- Production design: Bob Ziembicki
- Produced by: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Matt Moore
Cast
- John Cusack as Adam
- Craig Robinson as Nick
- Rob Corddry as Lou
- Clark Duke as Jacob
- Sebastian Stan as Blaine
- Chevy Chase as Repairman
- Crispin Glover as Phil
- Lyndsy Fonseca as Jennie
- Lizzy Caplan as April
- Collette Wolfe as Kelly
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, New Crime Productions, United Artists
- Budget: $36,000,000
- Box office: $64,780,213
- Themes: poison, time travel, one-night stand, singer, forty something, snow skiing, ski resort, 1980s, butterfly effect, 80s throwback
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