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From left to right: Alan (and some baby they found later revealed to be named Tyler a.k.a. "Carlos"), Phil, and Stu.

Alan: When we get together, bad things happen and people get hurt.
Chow: Yeah, that's the point: it's funny.
The Hangover: Part III, summarizing the entire series

The Hangover is a 2009 comedy film directed by Todd Phillips (director of Old School and Starsky & Hutch).

Four guys drive to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, and the bulk of the film deals with three of the friends (Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Zach Galifianakis) trying to remember the events of the previous night while trying to track down the fourth — the groom — using clues they have on their person. And Mike Tyson himself is involved. Hilarity Ensues.

The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), making it the first "pure" live-action comedy — one that was not a musical or a dramedy — to win the award since 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire. It additionally became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy ever in the United States at the time, breaking a record held by Beverly Hills Cop for almost 25 yearsnote . Its success led to the creation of two sequels, forming a trilogy.

The Hangover Part II was released in 2011; it follows the three members of "The Wolfpack" from the first film as they wake up from another crazy night — this time, in Bangkok. The status of this film was in doubt due to a Frivolous Lawsuit over the use of Mike Tyson's tattoo by Helms, but Warner Bros. successfully got the lawsuit dismissed, and the film opened as scheduled.

The Hangover Part III was released in 2013, in time for Memorial Day. In this film, the Wolfpack make their way back to Vegas, but this time, they're not just cleaning up their own mess; they're also trying to survive an angry rival of Chow (Ken Jeong) who wants them to find his enemy — or else.


These films provide examples of:

    open/close all folders 

     The entire series 
  • Affably Evil: Leslie Chow just wants to be friends with The Wolfpack.
  • Comic Trio: Phil leads, Stu complains, and Alan (the one that caused the mayhem in the first place) goes along with it.
  • Denser and Wackier: The sequels become more absurd and slapsticky than the first film, while reoccurring character Chow gets flanderized in his subsequent appearances.
  • Distressed Dude:
    • Subverted with Doug and Teddy in the first two films — the only danger they're in comes from it taking two days to find them in the isolated locations they're trapped in and not of any direct threats on their lives.
    • Played straight in the third film, as Doug is kidnapped and held hostage as incentive for the Wolfpack to track Chow down after he stole millions from Marshall.
  • DIY Dentistry: Stu is missing a tooth when they wake up from the night they can't remember. At the end, it's revealed that he pulled it out himself because the others said he couldn't do it. For extra irony points, Stu himself is a dentist, for all the difference it makes when yanking out a tooth with pliers at a strip club while black-out drunk.
  • Four-Man Band:
    • Only Sane Man: Doug, the most levelheaded of the Wolfpack.
    • The Smart Guy: Phil, who figures out most of the places where the Wolfpack was the night before.
    • The Pervert: Alan, the stupid Manchild who started all this shit.
    • Butt-Monkey: Stu, who has the worst things happen to him.
  • Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
    • Stu: The Cynic, always finding something to complain about.
    • Doug: The Optimist, the mild-mannered bridegroom who is nice to everyone.
    • Phil: The Realist, who takes charge of the search for Doug.
    • Alan: The Apathetic, always has his head in the clouds and caused all this shit to go down in the first place.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Alan is Sanguine, Phil is Choleric, Stu is Melancholic and Doug is Phlegmatic.
  • Freudian Trio: Alan (id), Phil (ego) and Stu (superego).
  • Genre Throwback: A mundane, vulgar and gritty one to the Screwball Comedy genre of the 1930s and 40s for it's premise and the tropes the trilogy upholds. The main three of the Wolf Pack is a down-to-earth Expy of The Three Stooges, while Doug himself can be considered an Expy of Ted Healy, whom the Stooges were lackeys of in the early days. The first film's scene has a Shout-Out to Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby, while the racial stereotype character of Leslie Chow would not look out of place from a film from the 30s and 40s where the racial imperium was the norminvoked. Alan himself mostly thinks he's in one of the era's films when they abide by The Hays Code back then if his tendency to Gosh Dang It to Heck! is taken to consideration. Todd's real life experience that inspired the making of the first film can be considered the closest to a screwball comedy film-like situation in real-life.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Stu tries to give Melissa a dressing-down, all he can come up is "you're... a bad person!".
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Alan. So much. While pretty much every character in the series is not afraid of dropping a few f-bombs, Alan absolutely refuses. There are examples from all three films, but this exchange from the first movie sums it up quite nicely.
    Phil: GOD DAMN IT!
    Alan: Gosh darn it!
    Phil: SHIT!
    Alan: Shoot!
  • How We Got Here: Part of each film shows the Wolfpack in various situations, and then they slowly retrace their steps. The third film subverts it, because they didn't get wasted like in the first two films until the very end of the film at least, but events that happened in the first film end up becoming important points in the third one.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Stu repeatedly calling himself a doctor in the first film, only for both Phil and the doctor who examined Phil to correct him by pointing out he's "really only a dentist."
    • Inverted in Part II, after Phil gets shot in the arm — Phil asks Stu to check his wound because he's a doctor, and Stu insists he's just a dentist to try & get out of it.
    • Subverted in Part III when Phil attempts to motivate Stu by telling him "You. Are. A. Doctor". It works.
  • Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Chinese Mr. Chow is played by Korean Ken Jeong, and Thai siblings Teddy and Lauren are Chinese and Korean respectively (and don't look remotely Thai).
  • Large Ham: Alan, along with Stu and Leslie Chow.
  • Living Prop: Stephanie, Phil's wife, has one line in each film and is never named on screen. This applies even more so in Part II where she spends her brief screentime hovering silently at Phil's shoulder, and her one line comes amidst several characters speaking at the same time when Alan runs a speedboat aground and everyone is checking to make sure the guys are okay.
  • Mundane MacGuffin Person: Doug, who is given all the characterization of a very Nice Guy to both his friends and brother in law. So much so that you can honestly believe these guys would shake down all of Las Vegas to find him.
  • Made of Iron: All of the Wolfpack appear to be this.
    • In the first film Alan takes a stun gun to the face, a crowbar to the face, and a Mike Tyson punch to the face, all within one day. Phil is tased in the crotch, attacked by Chow with a crowbar, clawed by a tiger and on the side of the car that gets T-Boned. Finally, Stu is tased in the neck, hit in the crotch with a crowbar and rips out his own tooth.
    • In Part II all three guys are repeatedly beaten with a long stick of bamboo by a monk, and Phil gets shot in the friggin' arm but manages to get by fine with a few $6 stitches. Made of iron, indeed.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Oh so subverted. At first it looks like the events of last night couldn't ever be anything but this, but by the end of the movie, the characters have a pretty good idea of what they did, and it lives up. Played straight, as they never get to know where they found the chicken (a popular theory is that they tried to feed it to the tiger) or how the chair ended up on fire.
    • It's never been explained why Alan can't be within 200 feet of an elementary school or a Chuck E. Cheese, though this could be because he picks fights with children (see Manchild above). Zach Galifinakis says in the DVD commentary that Alan innocently tried to play with some children which of course looked suspicious to parents. It was all just a misunderstanding.
    • "What are you talking about? I've found a baby before."
    • In the second film, the guys somehow managed to start a riot, which brought out the police and left part of Bangkok in ruins.
  • Oh, Crap!: The first two movies are full of these moments, particularly right after the guys wake up.
  • Only Sane Man: Doug, and to a lesser extent, Phil. Stu would qualify if not for his tendency to completely flip out over (sometimes) minor things.
  • Photo Montage: Happens during the credits of the first two films to show what happened during their respective nights.
  • Post–Wake-Up Realization: Alan wakes up after they were all hungover and not noticing that there's a tiger in the bathroom.
  • Serial Escalation: Every time it looks like they've got a handle on what they did, something even worse makes itself known.
  • Signature Style: The Dan Band.
  • The Smurfette Principle: All three lead characters are male and most secondary characters with substantial screentime such as Doug, Mr. Chow and Teddy are male too. The first film has more of a female presence since Jade (Heather Graham's character) gets a fairly big supporting role but her counterpart in Part II appears in only one scene and the only other female characters with more than a couple of lines are Tracy and Lauren.
  • Team Power Walk: Happens in all three films, all of which are soundtracked to a Kanye West song.
    • In the first movie, when they are hitting the casino to the tune of "Can't Tell Me Nothing."
    • In the second movie, when they are leaving the airport to the tune of "Stronger."
    • In the third third movie, walking out to Alan's wedding to the tune of "Dark Fantasy."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In the sequels, Chow's two henchmen have not been seen since the first movie.
  • World of Jerkass: With the exception of Stu, Doug, Jade, and Lauren, pretty much everyone is either an apathetic jerk, a criminal, or downright insane.

     Part I 
  • Accidental Marriage: Because you can't have a party in Las Vegas without somebody taking a spontaneous trip down the aisle.
  • Air Drums: Mike Tyson, when the guys are in his hotel room.
    Mike: Shh, shh... This is my favorite part coming up right now.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Obviously. Except it's not from alcohol, it's from being unknowingly drugged.
  • Animeland: When a naked, angry Asian man jumps out of the trunk of the car, Alan instantly tries to calm him down by saying that he hates Godzilla too.
    • If you pay attention to Chow's face, it can become a funny moment: he leaves because he's just so confused by the Godzilla line.
  • Anywhere but Their Lips: Among the first clues that Stu's girl really isn't right for him is that she won't let him kiss her on the lips.
  • Apathetic Teacher: Phil pretty much doesn't give a rat's ass about the kids in his class.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: When Stu is confronted by Melissa, she angrily asks him why he went to Las Vegas. This causes Melissa to breakdown and shout at him, causing them to break up.
  • Artistic License – Law: Needing a large amount of money to get Doug back, the trio go to a blackjack table where Alan wins over $80,000 by counting cards, despite the other guys telling him earlier it's illegal. The thing is, Alan's method of counting cards was not illegal. He didn't use any outside devices or receive instructions from a partner, so he didn't break any laws.
    • However, casinos do reserve the right to stop the game and bar you from playing in the future if they suspect cheating.
    • Alan did however briefly Lampshade over this in the original, though the other members of the Wolfpack don't believe him.
    Alan: "It's not illegal, it's highly frowned upon."
  • Asian Rudeness: Leslie Chow qualifies, with his aggressiveness and insults.
  • Beast in the Building: The main characters wake up after a blackout drunk bachelor party to a trashed hotel suite full of unexplained items, including a live chicken. When Alan goes to the bathroom, it takes him a moment to realize there's a tiger with him. They stole it from Mike Tyson.
  • The Cameo: Mike Tyson as himself. Also Carrot Top and Wayne Newton during the end credits photo montage.
  • Catchphrase: Phil says "No shit it's X" often enough during the course of the movie for it to count as one.
    • Phil also says "No, this is good!" every time they remember something terrible from the night before. Stu eventually calls him on it.
    • Alan: "That's classic!"
    • Stu: "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: The mattress
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Or his ring, in this case. As soon as the Holocaust ring is introduced, you know something is going to happen to it. Stu uses it when he gets married to a hooker.
    • Also, the "This Door Locks Behind You" sign on the door to the roof was a pretty obvious sign that somebody was getting locked up there at some point — though by the time they found Doug, it had long been forgotten.. Possibly a Brick Joke.
    • The tiger.
    • Alan's card counting book, which leads to the Chekhov's Skill.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: As the guys are waking up, a woman is leaving the room. It turns that she actually married Stu the night before.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Card-counting.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Stu is more concerned that his friends get it right who his girlfriend cheated on him with (a bartender, not a bellhop) than with the fact that she cheated on him in the first place.
  • Cool Car: You'll never see a finer example of a 1969 Mercedes-Benz convertible on film. Too bad they gradually smash the shit out of it as the movie goes on.
  • Creator Cameo: Director Todd Phillips is the man they walk in on going down on his girlfriend in the elevator.
  • Danger Takes A Back Seat: In the form of a tiger, although they put it in there.
  • Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Happens to Alan near the start. He goes into the suite's bathroom and doesn't notice the tiger in the room with him at first. When he does, he merely turns away and mutters, "Stupid tiger." Seconds later, cue the Oh, Crap! when he realises that yes, there is definitely a tiger in the bathroom with him. Cue a hasty exit and frantically warning the others not to go in there.
  • The Ditz: Jade plays this during Alan's second blackjack haul.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After being cheated on, humiliated, and beaten by Melissa throughout the film, Stu finally decides to stand up for himself and subsequently breaks up with her.
  • Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Subverted with Stu's shrill, unfaithful and physically abusive fiancé Melissa. On the one hand, it's played as Black Comedy, but pretty much everyone but him in the story agrees that she's rotten. Even when Stu stands up to her at the end, she seems rather flippant about it. Seeing him finally break up with her in a rather magnificent (albeit awkward) manner is one of the most satisfying moments in the film.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: Invoked with Mike Tyson's reaction to Phil dry humping his tiger.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first film, Chow is treated as more of a mafia boss or the head of a crime syndicate, complete with henchmen and very hands off way of doing things. All other appearances have him working alone and make it pretty clear that he's way too kooky to be in charge of anyone.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: How Stu figures out where Doug is.
  • Fan Disservice:
    • Alan's naked ass. Even worse, his dick gets sucked by an elderly woman in the credits.
    • And when we thought it couldn't get any worse than that, a wrinkled, overweight old man gets a physical exam in front of the heroes, and we're subjected to a shot of his backside as well.
    • Mr. Chow popping out of the trunk, totally naked, his already small penis obscured by a lion's-mane of pubic hair.
  • Fanservice:
    • Phil waking up without a shirt on. Also, when he wears that black suit.
    • Heather Graham whipping her tit out. Also, all the naked women in the photos that play over the credits.
    • The numerous shots of women in their bikinis at the pool.
  • Fiery Cover-Up: After visiting the chapel, Stu suggests taking all the merchandise from his Shotgun Wedding to Jade, putting it in the cop car, and torching the cop car. Phil has to talk him down from that.
  • Finish Him!: The male cop screams this while goading a kid to taser Phil.
  • Forgotten First Meeting: Played for Laughs. Phil doesn't recognize Alan when he meets him and Doug for the bachelor party. Alan reminds him he's met Phil four times.
  • Groin Attack:
    • Phil gets zapped in the crotch during the tasering class.
    • Mr Chow hits Stu in the crotch with a crowbar.
  • HA HA HA—No: Chow: "HA-HA-HA-HA- ahhh, fuck you."
  • Henpecked Boyfriend: Stu. He manages to break up.
  • Hero Antagonist: The cops.
  • Homage: To Rain Man, when Alan gets their money back.
    Phil: Don't you have to be really smart to count cards?
    Alan: Oh yeah? Someone should tell that to Rain Man. He nearly bankrupt Vegas and he was a "ruh-TARD."
  • Hope Spot: When the three amigos win their $80,000 back and are celebrating that they'll now get Doug back. Then the trade happens.
  • How We Got Here: Pretty much the whole movie, after Phil calls Doug's fiance.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Ambiguously Gay Mr. Chow referring to the heroes as "gayboys".
  • I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: The doctor that treated Phil says "I'm a doctor, not a tour guide" when asked about the directions of the chapel.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Alan's bag; Phil call it a man-purse, and Alan insists it's a satchel. He later gets into an argument with Chow on the matter.
      It's not a purse, it's a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.
    • "It was a bartender!"
  • Instant-Win Condition: Despite all the terrible, terrible consequences of all their activities in Vegas, when the main characters find Doug and return him (mostly) on time to the wedding, that's it, conflict over. They even ended up winning $80,000 that Doug managed to hold on to. Of course, they did blackmail the cops into letting them go without jail time or any records (but not without hilarious results), Mike Tyson forgives them for the tiger incident, Jade acknowledges the marriage as stupid and allows Stu to leave, and the Triads/Yakuza/whatever the hell a Korean Mafia is called only wanted the money.
  • Jerkass: Stu's girlfriend Melissa and the two cops who got their cruiser stolen by the Wolfpack.
  • Just Keep Driving: When they are taking the tiger back to Mike Tyson's house and they hit the bus, then stop the car in the middle of the road. None of the other vehicles bother to stop.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Singing a rap song during a wedding? Fine. Maintaining its sexually explicit lyrics, f-word and all? Hilarious.
  • Megaphone Gag: After the protagonists get stuck in traffic in their stolen police car, the driver activates the lights and siren and demands pedestrians get out of the way so they can drive on the sidewalk. At the end of the scene, he addresses a female pedestrian and says "Ma'am in the leopard dress, you have an amazing rack" over the speaker system.
  • Naked People Are Funny: And dangerous going by Chow's introduction scene.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: You'd think Mike Tyson punched Alan's lights out right at the peak of the climax to "In the Air Tonight" by watching the trailer. But in the final cut, Mike finishes the song, and Alan is knocked out later in that scene.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Turns out Alan spiked the group's rooftop drinks with what he believed was ecstasy because he wanted to ensure they all had a good time. Unfortunately, the dealer accidentally gave him roofies and the drinks instead caused them all to suffer memory loss.
  • One-Steve Limit: An important plot point is that there are two characters named Doug — a drug dealer who sold the roofies to Alan, and the lost groom. They wind up inadvertently rescuing the first Doug, who inspires a "Eureka!" Moment, which leads to them finding Doug on the roof.
  • Ontological Mystery: Three friends wake up in a Vegas hotel room with serious hangovers and no memory of what happened last night. One of their friends is missing and there are signs of them having been involved in some kind of wild party. From there the rest of the film is about the trio investigating to figure out just what the hell happened.
  • Plot Armor:
    • Among other things, how Doug survived spending 36 hours on the roof of a Vegas hotel without water and minimal shade.
    • The gang as a whole takes a huge amount of punishment and keeps on going, despite also being extremely hungover. Special mention goes to Alan, who repeatedly takes blows to the head (including from Mike Tyson himself), and seems none the worse for wear.
  • Red Herring:
    • You'd really think that Alan's comment about not being allowed within 200 feet of schools or Chuck-E-Cheeses was going to come back to haunt them later in the movie.
    • Stu's missing tooth might count. It seemed like it would be just as much of a clue as all the other weird stuff they found, but it turns out it doesn't have any relevance to finding Doug. Stu just pulled it out himself for a dare.
    • Not mention when they hear the banging in the trunk.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Stu gives one of these to Melissa at the end of the film, to Phil's delight.
  • Running Gag: Two instances of Insistent Terminology.
    • "He was a bartender!" (And he didn't even cum inside of Melissa.)
    • "You're a dentist, not a doctor."
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Downplayed. The trio probably would've found Doug a lot quicker had they not been misinformed about Doug's mattress being thrown out of the window when it was actually thrown off the roof, but there was still the matter of the tiger, baby, etc.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The wedding singer is the same one from Phillips' Old School and Starsky & Hutch.
    • Also, Gremlins is referenced in the dialogue.
    • The tiger found in the found bathroom is a reference to the leopard in the bathroom in Bringing Up Baby.
    • Alan obliquely refers to Three Men and a Baby when they meet up with Jade.
    • The scene in the desert with the protagonists' car reflected in Mr Chow's sunglasses is a direct reference to Casino (also set in Vegas).
    • Three men sitting in a car, then hearing a thumping sound from a person in the trunk might also invoke memories of Goodfellas, another Scorsese film.
    • Tommy Boy: The tiger waking up and destroying the Cool Car is a direct echo of this, especially the shot of the animal pausing to kick out the window.
    • "What happened to Omar?" "Don't worry about Omar, he's not with us no more."
    • And the Rain Man tribute in the casino complete with the same actress in the casino scene in that movie wearing the same dress.
    • One of the songs used in the soundtrack is Kanye West's "Can't Tell Me Nothing", which Galifinakis created an alternate music video for in 2007.
  • Sincerest Form of Flattery: By the end of the film, Alan's taken to mimicking Phil. When Phil realises this, as they wait for Stu so they can leave, his expression looks like a non-verbal Flat "What".
  • Spoiler Cover: On the poster, Phil has scratches on the side of his neck, which he gets when he gets attacked by the tiger while driving the car.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The DVD commercial points out the One-Steve Limit.
  • Trespassing to Talk: The trio come back to their hotel room to find Mike Tyson waiting for them and their explanation as to why they have his tiger.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
    • The events may have been avoided if the drug dealer didn't accidentally give Alan roofies instead of ecstasy.
    • The three may have found Doug earlier had the valet not misinformed them about Doug's mattress being thrown out of the window, when it was actually thrown off the roof.
  • Viva Las Vegas!: Trope Exemplar, but also Deconstructed since it shows the consequences of a night out on the town.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Three of them, although one's a still photo during the end credits and another is in black and white so only one is really Squicky.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: After Alan almost navigates them into a semi truck on the freeway while they're driving to Vegas.
    Alan: "That was awesome!"
    Doug: "That was NOT awesome, what is wrong with you?!"
  • Watch the Paint Job: Since the Mercedes is The Precious, Precious Car, of course it'll be wrecked beyond recognition.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Some viewers were preoccupied the entire movie with just the mystery of the chickens (which is never really resolved), a very minor detail.
    • We also never truly find out what landed Phil in the hospital.
      • In the credits, he's slapped by the tiger.
    • We never find out where the sword stuck into the couch came from either.
    • Why the chair wound up on fire is never explained either
  • What Did I Do Last Night?: The main characters spend the whole movie trying to figure out the answer to this question. The answer? Everything you can do in Vegas, and then some.
  • Where It All Began: The guys finally find Doug on the hotel roof, where the whole night started. In fact, they really had all the clues they needed within a few minutes of figuring out he was gone.

     Part II 
  • Arc Words: "Bangkok has him now" in relation to Teddy. Later becomes important when Stu realizes that Teddy is trapped inside their hotel's elevator, meaning that Bangkok - the city itself - has him.
  • Artistic License – Geography: The monastery in Chiang Mai that the elderly monk comes from would in reality be about 700 kilometres away from Bangkok in the north of Thailand, rather than merely a short bus ride, meaning it would have taken fourteen hours just to get there and back. And getting from the Krabi resort to Bangkok and back by speedboat — since the two locations are on the opposite coasts of Thailand — would require a 1,500-mile journey through the straits of Malacca via Singapore and would clearly be impossible for the group to do in the limited time frame.
  • Artistic License – Medicine:
    • Stu's new tattoo looks like it's almost completely healed already, even though it was only applied a few hours before.
    • When Alan reveals how he inadvertently drugged his friends again, there is absolutely no way that a combination of muscle relaxers (most commonly Baclofen, Soma, & Flexeril) and ADHD medication (most commonly Adderall, Dexedrin, Ritalin, & Vyvanse) would have an amnesiac effect. The muscle relaxers alone by have made them loopy and pass out early, but not cause amnesia. And the amphetamine-based ADHD medication would not only have prevented any amnesiac effect, but they would've been so hyper-stimulated that they would've been in control of their faculties.
  • Black Comedy: Subverted with Phil and Stu's initial reaction being along the lines of Dude, Not Funny! to Alan using a plastic bottle to simulate an erection, but when a monkey starts nibbling on it, everybody bursts out laughing.
  • Call-Back:
    • Phil's phone call to Tracy to tell her they've lost Teddy gets one.
      Phil: It happened again.
      Tracy: Seriously, what is wrong with you three?
    • When the guys wake up and realize that they had another wild night, their initial reactions provide several call backs to the waking up in the first film, such as Stu asking about his teeth after Phil and Alan's shocked reactions to his new tattoo; and Alan immediately being asked if he roofied them again; and once they realize Stu's future brother-in-law is missing, one of the first places they check for him is the roof.
    • Chow jumps out of an icebox and, once again, begins beating on the three guys in Part II. Thankfully this time he is clothed.
  • Country Matters:
  • Darker and Edgier: Bangkok makes for a grittier setting than Vegas. Not to mention the whole bit about the severed finger and transvestite strippers.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Lauren's dad makes no secret of his disdain for Stu.
  • Disney Death: Chow.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Chow during the chase scene.
  • Easily Forgiven: Alan. The Vegas incident can be attributed to his own ignorance rather than malice, but that excuse only works once. Not to mention they asked him if he drugged them the second time, and he not only straight-up lied to them, but swore to God.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: How Stu figures out where Teddy is.
  • Fan Disservice: All the girls at the club turn out to be transsexuals; while they prominently display breasts, they also have the male package down there. Then Stu finds out what he did with one of them the night before.
  • Fingore: Teddy loses a finger (all in good fun though, as he was playing five-finger fillet with a bowie knife and after severing the finger on a misaimed thrust the group plays with the detached digit).
  • Full-Name Ultimatum: "Stuart Price! You get your ass back here right now!"
  • Funny Background Event: After Alan runs the speedboat aground and it eventually comes to a stop to the side of the wedding, he can be seen dropping the anchor on dry land.
  • Holiday in Cambodia: The general premise.
  • Hope Spot: Kingsley uses Teddy as insurance that the guys get Chow to complete their "business transaction". Then when the deal happens it turns out those guys don't actually have Ted, it was just a sting operation and Chow gets arrested.
  • How We Got Here: Again, like in the first movie. Even has a Call-Back.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Mike Tyson tells Stu that he should have his tattoo removed. As in, the exact same tattoo that Tyson has on his face. invoked
  • I Don't Like You And You Don't Like Me: Stu's father-in-law-to-be says that he's never told Stu, but he doesn't like him. Stu sheepishly responds that he already knew that.
  • Jerkass: Kingsley although it's an act and Stu's father-in-law.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • It turns out that, as opposed to the first film, Alan deliberately roofied everyone, even if he was only targeting Teddy, which really doesn't make it any better. Other than the others getting mad with him for about a minute, there are no repercussions.
    • And two counts for when Stu slept with Kimmy, a kathoey (transgender woman) sex worker. One since, as Stu was clearly wasted and couldn't give informed consent, Kimmy raped him. Two since, even though Stu was wasted, the incident is quickly brushed over and he goes on to marry his fiancee without telling her the truth, or even getting tested for a quite possible STD.
  • Oh, Crap!: "Is that Alan driving the speedboat?"
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Both Teddy and his family are ridiculously calm about the fact that he not only cut off his own finger, but that the guys irretrievably lost it in Bangkok, with no chance of getting it reattached. The guy is a talented musician and is also training to be a surgeon; while this isn't a definitive career destroying injury note , it's certainly going to make the next few months fairly stressful as he learns to cope with a missing digit, let alone the fact that his wound might have gotten dangerously infected over the past twenty four hours. But nope; all he does is shrug. Wacky Bangkok.
  • Male Frontal Nudity: Mr. Chow and the transgender strippers.
  • Mexican Standoff: Chow apparently always ends up in one of these. He met his wife at one.
  • Not Quite Dead: Chow.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Phil is shot in the arm. Only grazes him and leads to 8 stitches, but he makes sure to point out that had the bullet gone a little to the left, it would've killed him.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to Chow's overseas bank account is Baloney1.
    Chow: Well, it used to be just baloney, but then they started making you add number.
    Kingsley: Fuckin' annoying...
  • Plot Armor: How Teddy survived in an elevator with no food or water and a cut off finger.
  • Raging Stiffie: Invoked by Alan when stuffing his water bottle under the monk's coat.
  • Rape as Comedy: Stu is raped by the transsexual hooker.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lauren's (Stu's fiancee) father gives a speech at the rehearsal dinner that essentially amounts to him insulting Stu and comparing him to dull, flavorless rice. At the end of the film, Stu inverts this and gives a "The Reason I Don't Suck" Speech.
  • Recycled in Bangkok: It's pretty much the same movie, except in Bangkok, and with a different groom missing.
  • Scandalgate: Mike Tyson's tattoo artist threatened to block the release of Part II after he claimed copyright over the facial tattoo Stu gets in the movie; this was dubbed "Tattoogate" by the media. Had this been released before the lawsuit was filed, Tyson himself recommending that Stu remove his tattoo at the end of the film would really be a Harsher in Hindsight.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Played straighter in Part II than in Part ITeddy was in the elevator on his way to get ice for his severed finger, when the power went out a minute after Phil and Alan woke up. If the trio had figured that out there and then before going back to the resort, they would've just needed to explain Stu's tattoo and get Teddy to a hospital, instead of getting dragged into Chow's dealings.
  • Sequel Goes Foreign: Part II takes place in Thailand and includes the characters lampshading the fact that the same circumstances happened in a foreign country.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Alan as the guys are walking through the airport.
  • Ship Sinking: Part II kills off the Stu/Jade ship.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Kingsley a.k.a. Detective Peters.
  • Strictly Formula: Part II is pretty much the same exact thing. IN THAILAND!
  • Stylistic Suck: Mike Tyson's singing can only be described as this.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: TV ads that ran the week Part II was released featured heavily the "Time in a Bottle" elevator scene, so when Chow dies 30 minutes in, you're pretty sure it's not going to stick.
  • The Tyson Zone: The Trope Namer asks to see the photos of the Wolf Pack's wild night by saying "I'm Mike Tyson. Nothing surprises me." And he still reacts to the pictures with a cry of "Motherfuck!"
  • Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Stu and the transsexual prostitute.
  • The Voiceless: The elderly man in the wheelchair. At first they're confused as to why he doesn't speak, and why he's wearing Teddy's hoodienote , but then they learn he's a monk who has taken a vow of silence, and not even the other monks would be able to get him to speak.
  • What Did I Do Last Night?
  • Zen Slap: When the main trio try to locate Stu's missing future brother-in-law Teddy, they seek answers in a temple full of monks who then proceed to beat the men with their staffs for talking during their deep meditation.

     Part III 
  • Abbey Road Crossing: In the third film. No zebra crossing available, apparently.
  • Actionized Sequel: To the point that comedy is almost an afterthought.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The Stinger has Alan, Cassie, and Phil wake up in a trashed hotel room, hungover and confused the night after Alan & Cassie's wedding. Stu emerges from the bathroom with breast implants and Alan remembers that the wedding cake was a gift from Chow, who emerges from the next room naked, laughing and swinging a samurai sword.
  • Artifact Title: The Hangover: Part III ditches the set-up of the first two films, and doesn't have the Wolfpack retracing a wild night they can't remember until The Stinger.
  • Back for the Dead: Black Doug.
  • Badass on Paper: Alan. He isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when the search for Chow seems to have gone cold, he gives a Dumbass Has a Point moment that gets them back on track, inadvertantly gets Marshall and his henchman killed, and pulls off a Go Through Me on Chow by standing in front of Phil and refusing to move, which saves their lives because Chow is unwilling to shoot Alan.
  • Bad Boss: Marshall calls Black Doug a moron when he tells the group he sold the wrong drugs to Alan in the first movie, and then kills him for having failed him.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: Off the side of Caesar's Palace.
  • Berserk Button: Black Doug really doesn't like being called "Black Doug".
  • Big Fancy House: The Mexican villa. Believed to belong to Chow in the past, but it actually belongs to Marshall.
  • Black Comedy: The third film is almost entirely a black comedy.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Black Doug is shot and killed by Marshall.
  • Blofeld Ploy: Marshall seems to be about to shoot Doug, but shoots Black Doug instead.
  • Bond One-Liner: After Marshall and his men shoot into the trunk where they believe Chow is holed up: "End of conversation."
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Alan pisses his pants when Black Doug is killed by Marshall. Marshall gives him a pair of sweatpants to compensate.
  • Call-Back:
    • Phil makes a joke about Stu getting tested for any disease from the face tattoo, though he is obviously making jokes about Stu's encounter with the hooker in Bangkok.
    • Before the third film ends, there is a shot of the Wolfpack walking together to Alan's wedding as they've done in the past.
    • In the first film, when Chow stomps on his satchel, Alan gets upset, claiming that there were Skittles in there. During the flashback at the liquor store, Alan can be seen buying Skittles along with alcohol.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In the first movie, when Stu was explaining to Black Doug that he gave Alan the roofies instead of ecstasy, he claimed someone named Marshall will get mad at him for it. Marshall shows up in Part III.
  • Color Blind Confusion: Chow being color blind means that he can't tell Stu which wire to cut when both are trying to disarm two parts of a security system at the same time.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Alan does this quite a few times.
    • When scolding Alan at the start of the film, his father mentions that Alan is 40 years old and still lives at home, and needs to finally grow up. Alan points out that he's actually 42.
    • Chow uses a miniature replica of his house, actually Marshall's, to illustrate his plan to break in and get the gold. After he explains the plan in full detail, Alan points out that they can't break into the house, because it's too small.
  • Comic Trio: Phil leads, Stu complains, and Alan goes along with it when not making things worse.
  • Covers Always Lie: The first teaser poster, parodying Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2, depicts Las Vegas on fire. The city is fine in the movie.
  • Creator Cameo: Director Todd Phillips briefly appears as a guy paying a prostitute while Chow parachutes by their hotel window.
  • Darker and Edgier: Part III is this to Part II (which was this to the original). Part III includes four onscreen human deaths (three of them murders), a plot involving Phil, Stu and Alan trying to drug Chow to deliver him to a gangster in return for Doug and a lot of animals dying in gruesome ways.
  • Dark Is Evil: Marshall, who has Black Doug as his head of security, is always seen wearing a pair of shades and has a black limo, which he allows the group to use to track down Chow after Chow steals Phil's minivan.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Chow parachuting out of his hotel room to escape from Phil and Alan. He lampshades it himself when he's about to land on top of the limo.
    • Alan lets Chow out of the limo's trunk, but doesn't think to take his gun away. He has to pull off a Go Through Me in order to stop Chow from trying to shoot Phil.
  • Dumbass Has a Point:
    • Alan has one when they're trying to come up with a place they can catch Chow and drug him, saying they could use a movie theater. Phil says it's a great idea because they can use the darkness for cover in catching Chow.
    • Black Doug remarks that "Somebody's gotta pay" when Marshall reveals that the villa is his and Chow ripped him off and killed his guard dogs. Marshall says "He's right" and instead of shooting Doug as Black Doug thought he would do, shoots Black Doug instead.
    • When Phil remarks that he left his phone in the minivan, which Chow stole, Alan pipes up that he has a find my phone app, and Stu backs up Alan's point by saying they can track Chow down with the app, as if Chow stole the minivan and the phone is in it, it can lead them to Chow, which it does. In fact, without Alan's point, the film wouldn't have gone any further.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Marshall vs. Chow.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Marshall acts like a gentleman, but in reality he's very threatening, manipulative and prone to killing others to get what he wants.
  • Genre Shift: The film heavily downplays the raunchy, comedic tone of its predecessors and plays out more like a straight crime thriller.
  • Go Through Me: Alan does this for Phil when Chow had his gun pointed at the latter. Since Chow considers Alan a friend, partly because he's the only one who wrote to him while in jail, and more importantly, opened the trunk and gave him his gun, thus allowing him to survive Marshall's attack, Chow ultimately relents and allows them to live.
  • Grand Finale: To hammer the point home, several of the movie posters just have "It Ends" for the tagline, except for the group poster, which has "The End", and the poster that homages Harry Potter, which has "It All Ends".
  • Headphones Equal Isolation: Part III has a shot of Alan, smugly listening to music through some headphones, as his father dies from a heart attack in the background.
  • The Heist: Part of the plot this time around, the Wolfpack has to locate Leslie and steal back $21 million worth of gold for another drug lord.
  • Hookers and Blow: Chow's hotel room in Caesar's Palace. We only sees flashes of it for the most part due to the strobe lights. Made awesome due to Black Sabbath being played in the background.
  • Impersonating an Officer: As seen in a flashback, Chow doing this sets the plot of the film in motion.
  • Large and in Charge: Marshall is definitely the one pulling the strings and is quite a bulky guy.
  • Low Clearance: The giraffe being decapitated on the highway and its head flying into an unsuspecting family's minivan. What the Hell, Hero?
  • Meaningful Background Event: Sid's heart attack in Part III, in the background of a shot focused on Alan listening to music through his headphones.
  • Meaningful Funeral: Played for laughs with Alan's angelic performance of Ave Maria at his dad's funeral.
  • Not Me This Time: After the Wolfgang wakes up from a third night they can't remember in The Stinger, Phil immediately blames Alan for drugging them. Only it was Chow this time.
  • Off with His Head!: The giraffe at the start of the film, courtesy of a bridge on the highway.
  • Only One Name: Marshall. We don't find out if this is his first name or surname, or hear his full name. We don't find out Black Doug's full name either.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Alan's changed his phone's password to "heyphil", to Phil's confusion.
  • Pet the Dog: After Marshall kills Black Doug, he gives Alan a spare pair of sweatpants after he had wet himself. Understanding how scary the moment was.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: The third film starts with Alan going off his meds after his father passes away. His friends offer to take him to rehab, but the main story ambushes them en route.
  • Prison Riot: Chow starts one so the guards would be distracted as he escaped.
  • Rule of Pool: When Marshall kills Black Doug for having failed him, his corpse is left floating in the pool.
  • Rule of Three: Todd Phillips did this to finish the series out as a trilogy.
  • Scary Black Man: Subverted with Black Doug. He tries to come across as this due to being associated with Marshall, but he's really incompetent. He sold the wrong drugs to Alan in the first film and his ideas for security at Marshall's villa are bypassed by Chow, so Marshall kills him.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • Subverted. Alan tries running away from the minivan when Stu, Doug and Phil are captured. One of the henchmen catches up to him and captures him too.
    • Played straight when Chow locks Phil, Stu and Alan in the villa's basement, reactivates the alarm, steals the gold and Phil's minivan, leaving them to their fate.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Alan's father berates him as a total loser and screw-up who has to grow up or he's cut off. At the man's funeral, Alan recalls his father's words as being "I love you, son. Don't ever change." It's clear he truly believes it.
  • Shout-Out: This poster spoofs the face-off between a certain Evil Sorcerer and his boy wizard nemesis.
  • Staging an Intervention: This is the inciting incident.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: This happens to Alan's dad, Sid Garner, courtesy of Alan giving him a heart attack when he hauls a giraffe onto a highway with his car, only to have it graphically decapitated by an overpass, and especially because of Alan's nonchalant reaction to what his dad had to do in order to fix the mess. This also ends up sending the entire plot into motion.
  • Take That, Critics!: The Stinger is one to everyone who complained how unbelievable it was that the Wolfpack had a second wild night they couldn't remember in Part II.
  • The Stinger: The Wolfpack wakes up after yet another wild night they can't remember.
  • Villainous Rescue: Happens twice to the Wolfpack in this film:
    • The first is when they're bailed out of a Mexican police station. By Marshall, whose house they had just broken into.
    • The second time, they're rescued by Chow, whom Alan helped free and gave him access to his handgun. When Marshall finds out Chow wasn't in the trunk of the limo, he was prepared to shoot them, until Chow pops up from the limo top, and shoots him and his bodyguard in the head.
  • Visual Calculus: When Alan begins card counting during a game of blackjack, advanced calculus manifests briefly to surround him.
  • Wire Dilemma: Stu and Chow have to cut the same wire on two panels of a security system at the same time to disable it, but Chow is colorblind and dyslexic.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Crosses over with Wire Dilemma above. When Chow reveals he's dyslexic as well as colorblind, you can hear this trope in Stu's exasperated "What. The Fuck?!"
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A couple of examples:
    • Chow does this to the Wolfpack when they help him steal the gold from the Mexican villa. He then proceeds to reactivate the alarm, and then snaps the necks of the sleeping guard dogs before leaving them to their fate.
    • Marshall does this to black Doug after he frees the Wolfpack from the Mexican authorities. He claims that his head of security isn't doing his job if a bunch of guys managed to break into the villa and steal the gold.

 
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Alternative Title(s): The Hangover Part III, The Hangover Part II

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Stu stands up to Melissa

After all that Stu went through with all the controlling abuse, by Melissa. He finally stands up to her and gives Melissa a piece of his mind.

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5 (9 votes)

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Main / TheReasonYouSuckSpeech

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