Game Night

***Game Night*** is a 2018 American action comedy film directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. It was theatrically released in the United States on February 23, 2018.

## Plot

Married couple Max and Annie are avid gamers who met at bar trivia and became engaged during charades. Their plans for a baby are complicated by Max's feelings of inadequacy compared to his successful brother, Brooks. They host a regular game night with their friend Ryan and married couple Kevin and Michelle, which they struggle to keep secret from their socially awkward police officer neighbor Gary, especially after his painful divorce from their friend Debbie. Brooks arrives in Max's dream car, humiliates him with a childhood story, and offends Annie (who assumed Max was overthinking his issues with Brooks) by offering to host their next game night himself.

When the guests, including Ryan's new date Sarah, arrive at Brooks's rental house, Brooks reveals he has initiated an interactive role-playing mystery game, promising the winner his Corvette. An actor enters to begin the game but is knocked unconscious by two masked men who kidnap Brooks. Believing this is part of the game, the couples passively observe the fight and split up to solve the mystery. Ryan and Sarah visit the role-playing company’s office to offer a bribe for the final clue. Kevin and Michelle talk to the actor, leading them to realize Brooks's abduction was real.

Max and Annie track Brooks's phone to a bar and use a pistol Brooks dropped to hold his captors at gunpoint and free him. When Annie accidentally shoots Max in the arm, they realize they are in danger. They flee as Brooks confesses that he is a black marketeer: he procured a Fabergé egg for a criminal known as "the Bulgarian" but instead sold it to someone with the alias "Marlon Freeman". With his kidnappers in pursuit, Brooks jumps out of the car to allow Max and Annie to escape.

The couples regroup and, unable to go to the police, decide to recover the egg from Freeman to deliver to the Bulgarian. They show up at Gary's house and distract him with the pretense of a game night while Max uses his police computer to discover Freeman's real name, Donald Anderton, and his address. After Max bleeds on Gary's dog and a shrine dedicated to Debbie, the group leaves and receives a phone call to meet the kidnappers in one hour.

They sneak into Anderton's mansion, where he is hosting an underground fight club. Searching for the egg, Michelle admits to Kevin that she once slept with Denzel Washington while they briefly separated, but Kevin determines him to be a celebrity doppelganger after seeing his picture. Separately, Max tells Annie he may not be ready to have a child. Ryan spots the egg in an open safe, leading to a game of keep away with Anderton's guards. The group escapes with the egg but accidentally breaks it, revealing a list inside.

The group meets with Brooks and his captors, only to be captured themselves. Brooks reveals that he has always been jealous of Max's life and intended for him to win the Corvette all along. Gary saves them but is shot in the chest. Max and Annie comfort him by promising to invite him to every future game night, and he reveals that he faked the entire abduction — including hiring the kidnappers — to trick them into letting him rejoin game night.

He is, however, unaware of the list, which he recognizes as a WITSEC list, and they are cornered by the real Bulgarian. Max offers the list in exchange for their lives, but Brooks, thinking they will all be killed anyway, swallows the list and is taken to the Bulgarian's plane. Max and Annie race to the airport in the Corvette, stop the plane, subdue the Bulgarian and his henchman, and rescue Brooks; Max realizes he wants to be a father after all.

Three months later, Brooks is under house arrest for his crimes but has sold the list on the black market for $3 million (after tipping off the witnesses for $20,000 each). He hosts game night for the group, including Gary, and Annie reveals she is pregnant through a game of Pictionary as armed men arrive outside.

## Cast

**Jason Bateman** as Max Davis

**Rachel McAdams** as Annie Davis

**Billy Magnussen** as Ryan Huddle

**Sharon Horgan** as Sarah Darcy

**Lamorne Morris** as Kevin Sterling

**Kylie Bunbury** as Michelle Sterling

**Jesse Plemons** as Gary Kingsbury

**Michael C. Hall** as The Bulgarian

**Kyle Chandler** as Brooks Davis