Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

**Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul** is a 2017 film starring Jason Drucker, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott, Charlie Wright and Owen Asztalos, directed by David Bowers, written by Jeff Kinney and Bowers and produced by Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $23 million.

## Plot

One year after the previous film, while at Corny's family restaurant, the Heffley family — consisting of Greg, his older brother Rodrick, his father Frank, his mother Susan, and his younger brother Manny — plans to take a road trip across the USA to attend Meemaw's 90th birthday. However, after Greg and Rowley rescue Manny, who got stuck inside a tube in the play area, Greg ends up in a ball pit with a diaper stuck on his hand, startling him. He subsequently becomes famous after the people around him record him and post the footage on the internet, leading Greg to be dubbed as "Diaper Hands", much to Greg's devastation.

Later, at the Heffley residence, Greg learns that Player Expo is taking place not very far from Meemaw's house in Indianapolis. Greg's gaming star, Mac Digby, will be attending, and Greg hopes to meet him and get in one of his videos so he will gain newfound popularity. He plans to sneak off from the road trip to attend the Expo without his parents' knowledge, however. The Heffley family hits the road in their Toyota Sienna minivan, where all their cell phones are immediately confiscated by Susan, who wants the road trip to be "absolutely technology-free", much to Greg and Rodrick's irritation.

After arriving at a filthy motel, Greg and Rodrick notice a family playing in the hot tub whom he nicknames the “Beardos” due to the patriarch’s big beard. He then discreetly gets into the Sienna to retrieve his phone and plans to use it. Later, when Greg and Rodrick are relaxing in the hot tub, Rodrick hears a notification from Greg's phone and discovers his plans to go to Player Expo. Greg discourages Rodrick from tattling on him to Susan, saying that they had a rock band video game tournament there that Rodrick could participate in. Liking the idea, Rodrick opts to go with Greg to the Expo.

Going to sleep, Greg is annoyed by a loud noise created by the Beardo siblings, who playfully crash a cleaning cart into a wall, and storms out of the room. He confronts them but Brandi, the oldest sibling, purposely rolls the cart into their car, leaving a huge scratch. Just as Mr. Beardo comes out of his motel room, Brandi angrily blames Greg responsible and Mr. Beardo goes after him but he evades him.

The next day, the Heffleys attend a country fair where Manny wins a pig. Mr. Beardo and his family notices Greg and chases after him but outruns yet again. Back on the road, the Heffleys, unable to take care of the pig, drop it off at the petting zoo, much to Manny's dismay, but not before Greg reroutes the GPS to the Player Expo convention. Checking at the hotel room, Greg and Rodrick sneak out to go to Player Expo with the excuse that they are getting Meemaw a present. Rodrick lost badly at rock band video game tournament due to being an untalented drummer. However, after Frank and Susan see their children on live TV, they go to get the boys themselves.

Upon Greg sees Mac Digby participating in a video game competition, Greg instructs Rodrick to record him going up on stage with Mac so his popularity will boost, but the attempt fails when Mac notices him and Greg steps back and accidentally unplugs the video game with his foot. Just then, Susan storms into the stage and embarrasses him, accidentally revealing that he is Diaper Hands to the public. Susan opens up to Greg and says that all she wanted was a nice road trip that would bring the family closer together, and she accuses Greg of being selfish and not caring. Infuriated, Greg snaps back at Susan, saying that she doesn't care about what he loves, which is why he had to sneak out to the Expo in the first place. Hurt by her son's words, Susan hands her phone to Greg to play games and told him to enjoy himself because she doesn't care anymore.

The Heffleys get back on the road and after a while the tarp on the boat flies off and all their belongings fly out. After stopping on the side of the road to retrieve their stuff, the Beardos show up and steal some of their stuff including a suitcase that’s holding a memory book Susan made for Meemaw’s birthday. After trying to stop them from getting away, the Beardos manage to escape them causing Susan to cry. Susan saw her road trip plan was a failure. After Greg apologizes for his actions, the Heffleys then encounter many more obstacles on the road including their van full of seagulls flying everywhere, taking a different route, a cinnamon roll tube exploding, getting sprayed with mud, and encountering the Beardos once again. The Heffleys get their stuff back, only for Greg to be hiding in the shower while Mr. Beardo goes to the bathroom. Greg inadvertently turns on the shower and ends up trying not to get grabbed by Mr. Beardo but escapes, recreating the scene from the horror movie Psycho.

The Heffleys continue celebrating their victory on the road but break down after driving up a big hill. However Greg saw that Meemaw’s house is just at the bottom of the hill so Greg, Rodrick, and Frank push the van forward to make it go down. Greg, unable to make it in the van, hops in the boat. But the bumpy hill causes the boat to disconnect from the van and rolls down separately. The boat rolls right into a stack of hay, sending it flying right into Meemaw’s pool. The Heffleys then celebrate happily at Meemaw’s. On the way home, after breaking down in the road, a tow truck appears, Susan and Frank try to tell him to tow them. Then, Manny speaks perfect Spanish and after arriving in the petting zoo, Manny gets the pig back. At the end, Greg explains that although the road trip wasn't perfect, he still wouldn't change a thing. He says that Manny was allowed to keep his pig as a pet, Rodrick was able to get a new van, and Dad was able to explain having time off from work to bond with family. Greg expresses excitement for where they'll be going next year, but Susan steps in to say that they will be flying. In the post credit scene Greg, Rodrick and Rowley took selfies with two teenage girls, who recognize Greg from the "diaper hands" meme.