The LEGO Movie

***The Lego Movie*** is a 2014 computer-animated comedy film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a story by Lord, Miller, and Dan and Kevin Hageman. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, its story focuses on Emmet, an ordinary Lego minifigure who helps a resistance movement stop a tyrannical businessman from gluing everything in the Lego world into his vision of perfection. Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman provide their voices for the film's main characters. The film was dedicated to Kathleen Fleming, the former director of entertainment development of the Lego company, following her death in Cancún, Mexico, in April 2013.

The first film produced by the Warner Animation Group, *The Lego Movie* was released on February 7, 2014 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It became a critical and commercial success, grossing $468.1 million worldwide against its $60-65 million budget, and received praise for its animation, acting, story, and humor. The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film; it was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film (lost to *How to Train Your Dragon 2*) and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Everything Is Awesome" (lost to "Glory" from *Selma*).

The film has expanded into a major franchise which ties into the Lego brand, such as the sequel *The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part* (2019); two spin-off films *The Lego Batman Movie* (2017) and *The Lego Ninjago Movie* (2017); the 4D film *The Lego Movie: 4D – A New Adventure*; and the 2-D animated television series *Unikitty!*

## Plot

In the Lego universe, the wizard Vitruvius attempts to protect a superweapon called the "Kragle" from the evil Lord Business. He fails to do so, but prophesies that a person called "the Special" will find the Piece of Resistance capable of stopping the Kragle. Business then kicks Vitrivius into a lava lake, seemingly killing him.

Eight and a half years later, a construction worker named Emmet Brickowski comes across a woman named Wyldstyle, who is searching for something after hours at Emmet's construction site. When he investigates, Emmet falls into a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance. Compelled to touch it, Emmet experiences vivid visions and passes out. He awakens with the Piece of Resistance attached to his back in the custody of Bad Cop, Business's lieutenant. Emmet learns of Business's plans to freeze the world with the Kragle, a tube of Krazy Glue with the label partially rubbed out; the Piece of Resistance is the tube's cap. Wyldstyle rescues Emmet, believing him to be the Special, and takes him to meet Vitruvius. Emmet learns that she and the wizard are Master Builders—people capable of building anything they need without instruction manuals—who oppose Business's attempts to suppress their creativity. Though disappointed to find Emmet is not a Master Builder, Wyldstyle and Vitruvius are convinced of his potential when he recalls visions of a human named "the Man Upstairs".

Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius evade Bad Cop's forces with the aid of Batman. They attend a council of the Master Builders, who are unimpressed with Emmet and refuse to fight Business. Bad Cop's forces attack and capture everyone except for Emmet and his friends. Emmet devises a team plan to infiltrate Business's headquarters and disarm the Kragle. As the plan nearly succeeds, he and his friends are captured and imprisoned, and Vitruvius is killed by Lord Business, who throws the Piece of Resistance into an abyss and sets his headquarters to self-destruct, leaving all present to die. Vitruvius shows he made up the prophecy as he dies, but reappears to Emmet as a ghost and tells him it is his self-belief that makes him the Special. Strapped to the self-destruct mechanism's battery, Emmet flings himself off the edge in the tower and saves his friends and the Master Builders. Inspired by Emmet's sacrifice, Wyldstyle rallies the Lego people across the universe to use whatever creativity they have to build machines and weapons to fight Business's forces.

Emmet finds himself in the real world, where the events of the story are being played out in a basement by a boy, Finn, on his father's Lego set. The father—known as "the Man Upstairs"—chastises his son for creating hodgepodges of different playsets, and proceeds to permanently glue his perceived perfect creations together. Realizing the danger his friends are in, Emmet wills himself to move and gains Finn's attention. Finn returns Emmet and the Piece of Resistance to the set, where Emmet possesses the powers of a Master Builder and confronts Business. In the real world, Finn's father looks at his son's creations, and quickly sees that the villainous Business is based on him. Through a speech Emmet gives Business, Finn tells his father that he is very special and has the power to change everything. Finn's father reconciles with his son, which plays out as Business having a change of heart, capping the Kragle with the Piece of Resistance, and ungluing his victims with mineral spirits. As a result of the father allowing Finn's younger sister to join them in playing with his Lego sets, Duplo aliens arrive in the Lego universe and threaten destruction.