The Hangover (2009)

• director Todd Phillips' vulgar, obscenity-filled, absurdist quasi-comedy/bromance caper was the first of an eventual trilogy, including The Hangover Part II (2011), and The Hangover Part III (2013)
• the first installment told about the outlandish adventures of four guys in "Sin City" Las Vegas in mid-October of 2009 during two nights of a debauched bachelor party and its aftermath, to celebrate the imminent wedding of one of them:
  • Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis), the bride's socially-awkward, perverted and bearded brother suffering from ADHD, brother of the fiancee Tracy
  • Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), a married schoolteacher, the "Wolfpack" leader
  • Doug Billings (Justin Bartha), the bridegroom, soon to be married to Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese), daughter of wealthy Sid Garner (Jeffery Tambor)
  • Stu Price (Ed Helms), a nervous and anxious Jewish dentist (Divine Dentistry), in a three-year relationship with a mean, controlling, bitchy and abusive live-in girlfriend Melissa (Rachael Harris)

"The Wolfpack"
Alan Garner	Doug Billings
Phil Wenneck	Stu Price

• before the film's opening title credits, the film actually began with a phone call placed in the Mohave Desert from Phil to Doug's fiancee Tracy only five hours before her wedding, with the confession about their screwed-up bachelor party in Vegas: "We f--ked up...Things got out of control and, uh, we lost Doug....We can't find Doug!"; given the circumstances, Phil predicted that the wedding couldn't possibly take place: "That's not gonna happen"
• in a flashback to two days earlier, the foursome assembled together and drove to Vegas in Tracy's father's borrowed, silver 1965 Mercedes 220SE convertible for a 48 hour bacchanalia; they booked a spacious, luxury hotel "Villa" at Caesars Palace for $4,200 dollars a night; they began the night by celebrating with a rooftop toast with shots of Jägermeister beer; Alan (with a "satchel" or "manpurse" strapped across his shoulder) announced their new nickname - the "Wolfpack" - "Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast!"; to their shock, Alan cut his hand with a knife to become "blood brothers," but the others refused to follow suit; Phil spoke about their collective memory - and stressed that they must keep completely mum about their time together: "Forget everything....OK, good or bad. We don't remember so we got nothing to talk about. Nothing, guys, nothing!"; he toasted: "To a night we'll never remember, but the four of us will never forget"
• the following dawn after a fast-forward, Phil's words rang somewhat true - they awoke in their spacious, now-wrecked and upended hotel villa, with severe hangovers and no memory of what had occurred the night before; their suite was completely littered and trashed; in view was a smoldering chair, champagne bottles set up like bowling pins at the end of a hallway, a clucking chicken, Stu with a slightly bloodied shirt, and a growling tiger in the bathroom; a female appeared to sneak out of the room without disturbing any sleeping occupants; when he was awakened, Phil asked: "What the f--k happened last night?"

		Stu's Missing Tooth
Bengal Tiger in the Bathroom

• Stu realized he was now missing a front tooth (found shortly later in Alan's pocket), and both Doug and his mattress was missing from the room; and then they heard a crying baby in a closet that Alan named Carlos; the threesome began a search for the missing Doug; they remembered the rooftop toasts, dinner at the Palm at about 10 PM, and craps at the Hard Rock, but then everything went blank for about 12 hours; Stu had an ATM receipt from the Bellagio Hotel Casino at 11:05 PM for an $800 withdrawal, and Alan had a Caesar's valet parking stub (stamped 5:15 AM), while Phil realized he was wearing a hospital arm-band or bracelet; as they waited for the delivery of their valet car, they saw Doug's mattress impaled outside on the arm of a Caesars Palace statue; and when the valet service brought their car, the Mercedes had been swapped with a stolen Las Vegas Metro Police cruiser
• the threesome first retraced their steps to the hospital at about noon-time where they questioned the doctor who remembered that the foursome had arrived at 2:45 AM without a baby; Phil was treated for a non-life threatening head concussion and bruised ribs, and a blood work test revealed he had a large amount of Ruphylin (or Rohypnol) (aka "roofies" or the "date-rape" drug) in his system
• the doctor suggested that they visit Vegas' THE BEST LITTLE CHAPEL because they had talked about a wedding; the chapel's wedding organizer Eddie (Bryan Callen) warmly greeted them and with official photos of the ceremony to prove it, he told how Stu had been married and hitched up with a stripper/escort named Jade (Heather Graham) who was the single mother of baby Tyler found in their suite's closet
• as they were leaving the parking lot, they were violently assaulted by two Asian thugs who demanded the return of some person ("Where the hell is he?"), smashed the windshield, and accidentally wounded Eddie with gunfire; they sped off in the cruiser to Jade's apartment where she was happy to see Stu and her baby again; after her late night work at the strip club, she had been in the "Villa" with them in the early morning when they were all passed out, but after leaving for coffee, she returned and they had vacated the room; Stu became perturbed when he noticed that he had given Jade a ring to wear - his grandmother's 'Holocaust' ring; Alan wondered: "I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust"

Jade Happily Reunited With Stu and Her Baby Tyler

• the group was interrupted by two arresting police officers who barged into the apartment with guns drawn and took them in handcuffs to a police station; with his one phone call, Phil called Tracy and lied that they had been 'comped' an extra night and would be staying two nights at the hotel, although the wedding was the next day; they were told by Officer Franklin (Rob Riggle) that their impounded Mercedes vehicle had been found in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd at 5:00 AM; to avoid being jailed until a hearing before a judge on Monday morning (after the wedding), they agreed to volunteer to be tasered by stun-guns as test subjects for a touring group of schoolchildren, to demonstrate how the police subdued suspects (the sadistic Officer after Phil was felled: "Right in the nuts! That was beautiful")
• as they drove back to the hotel in their released Mercedes from the impound yard, they were again attacked by a strange, naked, feisty and gay Asian gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) who was discovered locked in their Mercedes' trunk; he jumped out and began beating them up with a crowbar; as the naked guy (with a small penis hidden in massive amounts of pubic hair) wielded the weapon and threatened Alan, Alan shouted out: "Nobody's gonna f--k on you! I'm on your side! I hate Godzilla! I hate him too! I hate him! He destroys cities! Please! This isn't your fault. I'll get you some pants"; Alan was also struck with the crowbar before Chow ran off
• feeling guilty, Alan admitted how he had drugged the rooftop drinks with "Good Morning, Cinderella" - what he thought was Ecstasy that he had bought at a liquor store - but it was a strong drug known as Ruphylin that had completely wiped their memories; Stu was upset at the results the drugs had brought for him: "I lost a tooth, I married a whore"
• back at the hotel, they were confronted by legendary boxer Mike Tyson (Himself) and his bodyguard; the boxer first encouraged them to briefly join him in a sing-along to Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight, but suddenly punched out Alan; the angry bodyguard demanded that they return Tyson's pet Bengal tiger (in their bathroom) that had been stolen from Tyson's mansion - within 40 minutes time
• by nightfall, the tiger was tranquilized with a raw steak (spiked with 5 roofies) and driven in the backseat of the Mercedes to Tyson's home, but during the trip, the animal awakened and clawed Phil's neck before the three managed to scramble out of the car after some fender-benders; as they pushed the car to Tyson's home a mile away, the tiger completely ripped apart the car's interior; security camera footage confirmed that the foursome (including Doug) had kidnapped the leashed animal at 3:30 AM and put it in their stolen police cruiser; Tyson approved of the theft: "Nice, high-five that one"
• on their return trip to the hotel, the now-clothed Chow with some Asian gang members broad-sided their vehicle with their SUV; he demanded: "I want my purse back, assholes" - referring to $80,000 dollars of stolen Bellagio casino poker chips (eventually discovered in Doug's purse); he then accused the group of kidnapping him and putting him in the car trunk; the gangsters revealed that they had a head-covered hostage in the SUV (the guys wrongly assumed it was Doug!), and gave a deadline of sunrise to return the money to Big Rock in the Mojave Desert, in exchange for the hostage
• that night Alan cheated at blackjack (by counting cards, but evaded being caught for illegally gambling) to win the $82,400 that was to be used for the exchange in the desert, but when the hood was removed from the hostage's head, it wasn't Doug (Alan: "The Doug we're looking for is a white"), but an African-American who was called: "Black Doug" (Mike Epps) - he was the drug-dealer in the liquor store who had sold Alan the bad "roofies" advertised as Ecstasy, and he had hung out with the group shooting craps at the Bellagio
• --- the flashback ENDED!! -- the scene returned to the frantic phone call to Tracy about the missing Doug
• as they raced back to their hotel room, Stu surmised that Doug - on the rooftop - had tried to signal his whereabouts by throwing his mattress onto a statue below; he had to have been on the roof, since the windows were inoperable in any of the rooms; they discovered that Doug was severely sunburned and trapped for a day and a half on the roof of Caesar's Palace; Stu remembered that Doug had originally been moved there as a practical joke
• they checked out of the hotel, and before leaving Stu made plans to meet up with Jade for a dinner date the following weekend; the group drove the beaten-up, ruined Mercedes back home to Los Angeles in only three and a half hours, during which time Doug found the $80,000 in chips in his pocket; on the freeway, they were tossed wrapped-up packages with phone-ordered tuxs from The Tux Shop before arriving late, but just in time for Doug to marry Tracy
• during the outdoor celebratory reception, it was long overdue for Stu to drop his demanding girlfriend Melissa in front of a large audience, when he admitted he had joined his friends in Vegas: ("I think, in a healthy relationship, sometimes a guy should be able to do what he wants to do...You're such a bad person! Like, all the way through to your core!"), and that he knew she had cheated on him with a bartender during last June's cruise; after the wedding, Doug was pleasingly shocked and relieved when told that his new bride's father had gifted him the Mercedes (not knowing it was destroyed)
• Stu's discarded digital camera found by Alan in the back seat of the car revealed what had happened during the previous night - ("Some of it's even worse than we thought") - the group decided to view the pictures together only one time - "and then we delete the evidence"
• there were hilarious out-takes in the final credits sequence (to the tune of Flo Rida's and Kesha's Right Round); the images included Alan passed out next to a topless female, enjoying a lap dance and also having his fat belly pierced; Stu and Phil also cavorted with strippers and lap dancers, and Stu had pulled out one of his front teeth with a pair of pliers as part of a dare from Alan; the group played craps at the Bellagio casino and brought Phil to the hospital with a concussion

Stu with Strippers	Stu with Jade	Stu's Pulled Out Tooth With Pliers
Gambling at the Craps Table	Alan's Piercing At a Tattoo Parlor	Phil in the Hospital