Ali Khan: The Hangover
Film Research
This is the opening scene where Phil calls Tracy (Doug's future wife) to let her know that they screwed up.
The guys are on the rooftop of Caesars Palace, making a toast to Doug and to a night they will soon forget.
Stu wakes up the next morning and is surprised to see a chicken in front of him.
Phil, Stu, and Alan head down to the lobby wondering where Doug had gone. Alan is carrying the baby that they found in the closet, while Stu is icing his mouth from his missing tooth.
After finding a hospital band around Phil's arm, the guys decide to head down there to retrace their steps. They learn that they have been roofied which explains why they can't remember anything, but they don't know who roofied them.
The guys discover that Stu married a prostitute (who is also the mother of the baby) and need to find her so they can get the marriage annulled.
After getting a beat up from Leslie Chow, Alan admits to drugging everyone. In his defense, he didn't know that what he was giving them was roofies. He thought it was ecstasy.
The guys sit down with Mike Tyson, after returning his tiger back to him, and go over security footage from the night before to give them clues as to where Doug might be.
The casino is their last hope of getting Doug back from Leslie Chow, who kidnapped him and will only give him back if the guys bring $80,000
The climax scene. The exchange between the guys and Leslie Chow. $80,000 for Doug.
To the guys' disappointment, the man under the hood was not their Doug. It was the dealer who sold Alan the roofies.
The guys finally find Doug locked up on the roof of Caesars Palace and all sunburned.
Essay
The Hangover takes the concept of “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” and created an adventure full of suspense and comedy. The opening scene takes place on the day of Doug’s wedding, two days after everything goes down. The music playing at the beginning sets the mood for a happy wedding, but as it changes, the atmosphere of the film dramatically shifts. You can tell that the opening scene is tense because the preparation for the wedding looks to be almost finished, and yet Doug (the groom) and his buddies are nowhere to be seen. This is why Tracy (the bride) looks to be distressed as she sits in her dressing room waiting for a phone call from her fiancee while getting her hair done. When the phone finally does ring, she immediately picks it up only to know that it’s Doug’s friend Phil. The close up of the guys (Phil, Stu, and Alan) show that they’re tired, dirty, and covered in blood. While Phil is on the phone with Tracy, the other guys are seen in the background waiting by the car on an empty desert road. Phil and Tracy’s conversation on the phone ends with Phil stating that they messed up bad. Which leaves the audience wondering what could they have done? What happened and how did they get to where they are? The opening scene startes with all these questions the audience may have, then the rest of the movie unfolds all the answers.
Two days before Doug and Tracy’s wedding, Doug and his friends, Phil and Stu, along with his severely socially incompetent future brother-in-law Alan, head off to Las Vegas for a guy’s bachelor weekend. While driving his future father-in-law’s Mercedez, they rent out a very pricey villa at Caesars Palace and then head for the rooftop to have a good time. The scene ends with all of them raising a shot glass to friendship and Doug’s wedding.
The next morning, Phil, Alan, and Stu wake up to a nasty hangover. Unable to recollect what exactly happened to them. With the villa looking like a tornado had it, the guys find a tiger in the bathroom who happens to belong to the one and only, Mike Tyson; a baby in the closet that belongs to a prostitute that Stu ends up marrying the night before; one of their bed mattresses punctured through a statue on the roof; and a missing tooth.
The only thing they can’t seem to find is their friend Doug. It also seems that the four robbed a dangerous Chinese crime-boss’ chips at a casino. But one question stills remain, how did they blackout that night and how come they can’t remember anything? They find out from the doctors that they had ruphylin in their system. But who and when did the guys get roofied? The answer is Alan. Alan slips ruphylin in Doug, Phil, and Stu’s shot glasses when they were on the rooftop. In Alan’s defense, he did not know the drug he was giving them was ruphylin. He thought he was giving them ecstasy. The dealer that gave Alan the drug must have switched them up. It is now Phil, Stu, and Alan’s mission to find their best friend Doug, divorce the prostitute, put back Mike Tyson’s tiger, and pay off the Chinese mobster in a single day.
With everything crossed off the checklist through the path they hope to find Doug, they still don’t end up with any luck. Phil then decides it’s time to cut the act needs to tell Tracy what happened, which takes us back to what was going on in the opening scene. We hear the opening play once again while Stu, Alan, and his dealer talk about why they call it “roofies”. Stu then realizes that they put Doug on the roof of Caesars Palace as a prank but forgot that he was up there and locked up. That explains why the mattress on the statue of Caesar was thrown out. It was thrown by Doug in order to signal for help. Stu quickly tackles Phil down and takes the phone away from him. Telling Tracy that Phil is just drunk and that everything is fine, and they’re heading back home with Doug.
They all race back down to the hotel and find Doug all sunburned, huddling for shade on the roof. While they’re all ecstatic for finding Doug, they still need to head back home in time for the wedding. They head back down to California in the Mercedez and make it back just in time for Doug to marry Tracy.
This movie is a huge rollercoaster filled with comedy, action, mystery, and suspense. It’s one of those movies where you kinda know there’s going to be a happy ending, but you still want to see how the story unfolds, which creates that suspense.
Words to Idea + Thesis Statement
5 Words: Comedy, Retrace, Recollect, Wedding, Vegas
Thesis Statement: This comedy film is about four friends who cannot recollect their actions after a night in Vegas, forcing them to retrace their steps and make it back home before one of the friend’s wedding.
Visual Research (Inspiration Board/Collection)
Exploration/Formulation (Style Board/Examples/Studies)
Exploration/Formulation (Motion Tests)
Story Board
Sign will first move left to right while only showing the "WELCOME" letters. Then it will move again while only showing "LAS VEGAS" While its opacity will go from 100 to 0. The lights will also be animated to flash red and yellow.
Sign will appear towards the left side of the frame with no animated transition. The "LAS VEGAS" type will flicker. After its third blink, the Sign will no longer read "Las Vegas Nevada". It will transition to "Warner Bros. Presents".
Frame zooms in only to the right side/curve of the sign. The text "in association with Legendary Pictures" will appear at the bottom right corner of the frame. The text will be flashing yellow and red in correspondence to the light bulbs.
The previous text will slide out from the bottom and this text will fade in from the same position.
The sign will now rotate 90 degrees clockwise and become the shape of a champagne glass. Scale down to fit the frame and connect to the stem of the glass which will fade in. The balls on the outside will slowly float their way into the glass.
Zooms into the bubbles as they're falling and the main roles are introduced.
The roofie will slowly rotate as it is dropping down into the glass. As it's falling, the frame will zoom into the tablet until that's the only thing showing in the frame.
Co-starring roles are introduced.
The frame will zoom back out and the roofie is now mixed in with the drink, but still visible.
The glass now be will be tilting and white figure of a mouth open will fade in and will be drinking the beverage. The stuff inside will also be attempted to be animated with the glass.
The bubbles will be seen traveling down the pharynx, along with the roofie drug.
Frame will zoom into a few of the bubbles and introduce more of the cast.
Once the bubbles travel down the pharynx, bring the head down and zoom into the brain area (frame should be all white now)
The background will turn black and slowly transition to the next phase of the sequence.
Circles of different sizes and opacities will appear and will animate in a way where it will make the audience feel like they're hallucinating.
Important symbols throughout the movie will also be floating around this part of the sequence.
This will occur for the rest of the sequence, and where the rest of the cast is introduced.
The text will animate the same way as the bubbles.
After this part, everything will fade away till the frame is black.
The Hangover title will appear as a final cutout.
Final Title Sequence