Genre: Action/Superhero/Comedy
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Glenn Howerton, Dan Fogler, Elisabeth Moss, Clayne Crawford, David Dastmalchian, Dean Norris, H. Jon Benjamin
Plot: Calumet City crime lord Lew Moxon (Dean Norris) meets with criminals Ralph Dibney (Clayne Crawford), Patrick "Eel" O'Brian (Glenn Howerton) and Chuck Brown (David Dastmalchian) about breaking into the safe at Crawford Chemical Supply to steal the company's payroll before it is sent off to the city bank. Dibney handles point, O'Brian will crack the safe while Brown will handle the getaway. Unbeknownst to them, FBI Agent Nancy Morgan (Elisabeth Moss) has Moxon under surveillance and decides to tail the crew as they head for the job.
The job goes wrong almost immediately as Agent Morgan and her team decide to bust the crew at Crawford Chemical Supply. Dibney opens fire on the feds. Brown escapes to the rooftop of the building and flies away in a squirrel suit. The exchange of bullets punctures one of the chemical vats, spraying the chemicals all over Dibney and O'Brian. Agent Morgan hits O'Brian in the abdomen with a bullet, sending him over a rail and into the factory's drainage pipes, which flushes his unconscious body out of the facility.
O'Brian wakes up on the city's shoreline. He wanders back into the city, where his body begins stretching and contorting into monstrous shapes. People begin running away, screaming, but it's only when O'Brian catches a glimpse of his own reflection that he realizes they are running away from him. The police arrive and open fire on him. At first he begins stretching to dodge the bullets, but soon he realizes that the bullets have no effect on him and merely bounce away. O'Brian runs away from the police, taking giant steps the length of a city block to run away.
O'Brian loses the police and stops on the Calumet City Bridge. He looks over the edge, contemplating suicide, when he notices another man (Dan Fogler) doing the same thing. The man gets excited when he sees O'Brian and introduces himself as Wolfgang Winks, but says his friends call him "Woozy". Woozy asks why O'Brian is standing on the edge of the bridge. O'Briand tells him he has become a monster and asks Woozy the same question. Woozy explains that he was just released from the city psychiatric hospital due to a lack of funding and was hoping that someone would notice him and call it in so he could get his old room at the hospital back. The two go and get lunch where they start to hatch ideas to capitalize on O'Brian's newfound abilities. They debate whether there is more money in crime or crime-fighting, and end up flipping a coin to decide, ending up with crime-fighting, but only after O'Brian insists on going two-out-of-three, and ultimately eight-out-of-fifteen. O'Brian begrudgingly allows Woozy to stay with him at his old hideout while they figure out how to fight crime, but gives him a series of unrealistic rules he must follow in order to stay including no breathing through his mouth and no using the bathroom (he mentions there is a perfectly good restroom at the gas station down the block).
Agent Morgan sees the reports of the "monster attacking the city" on the news and recognizes the "monster" as O'Brian. She goes to his apartment to investigate, but only finds Woozy there who tells her that he is O'Brian's roommate and that he hasn't seen O'Brian in days. Once Morgan leaves it is revealed that O'Brian was in the room all along, stretching himself to look like curtains.
Woozy goes to the gas station down the block to use the restroom and sees that there is a bank robbery in progress. Woozy decides to hold it in and run back to tell O'Brian about the robbery. O'Brian doesn't understand why Woozy rushed to tell him, but Woozy reminds him that he proclaimed that he will use his powers for good. Woozy gives him a pair of ski goggles to wear to conceal his identity. O'Brian then heads on over to the bank. The criminals are leaving the bank when he gets there and he notices that it is Dibney and Brown. The three get caught up in catching up, but finally O'Brian tells them that he can't allow them to steal all the money. They laugh at him and keep moving, so O'Brian stretches himself extra wide to block their path. Dibney reveals that he can stretch too from the chemical that was spilled on them, and steps over him to make his escape. O'Brian is stunned and decides to focus his attention on Brown, stating he never liked him anyways. Brown suddenly flies off on a kite. O'Brian reaches after him, but the police open fire on O'Brian, distracting him and allowing Brown to escape.
O'Brian heads back to his apartment where he finds Agent Morgan and Woozy waiting for him. He asks Woozy why he let her in, but he says that he went to the gas station to take a bath and when he came back she was already there. She asks him why he tried to stop the robbery, and he explains to her that he has decided to try to use his powers to do some sort of good. He tells her that the robbers are part of his crew from the chemical plant, Ralph Dibney and Chuck Brown. She tells him that she can use her FBI resources to help him track them down. He agrees to try to capture them, but only if she goes on a date with him. Agent Morgan's investigation into Dibney and Brown is a deadend, so she decides to resume surveillance on their only known associate: Lew Moxon.
O'Brian and Woozy discuss ways to make money and Woozy suggests that O'Brian needs a superhero name like "Blue Beetle" or "Batman". Woozy suggests several names such as "Elastic Man" and "Rubberband Man", but O'Brian scoffs at all of them, saying that if he wanted a stupid name he'd go by "Plastic Man".
Reports indicate that Dibney and Brown are in the act of robbing another bank. Agent Morgan calls O'Brian and tells him where to go, but he refuses to help unless she goes on the date she owes him after. She relents, and O'Brian races to the bank. They're already in the process of escaping by the time he gets there. Dibney, now calling himself "The Elongated Man", which O'Brian comments is even worse than "Plastic Man" escapes down a sewer drain. As Brown escapes on his kite, O'Brian grabs on and stretches himself into a sail that forces the kite to crash into a tree. O'Brian laughs about the "Kite Man" getting stuck in a tree like Charlie Brown's kite. O'Brian ties Brown up with one arm and takes Brown to Agent Morgan, who places him under arrest for armed robbery.
That night, O'Brian and Morgan go on their date at a Chinese restaurant. She asks him why he decided to go from committing crimes to trying to stop them and he tells her that he flipped a coin, but she thinks he's kidding. The date is going well until O'Brian starts talking about how he is interested in finding out how his new "superheroes" transfer to the bedroom. Her phone rings and she tells him she has to go, but O'Brian assumes she left because of what he said. When she leaves, he shrinks down to the size of a pack of gum and hides in Morgan's jacket pocket.
Morgan goes home and changes out of her date clothes and into clothes for work, while a shrunken O'Brian watches. Morgan really does go to work and heads to the FBI field office to interrogate Chuck "Kite Man" Brown. She asks him where Dibney is, but he doesn't say a word, not even when he's offered a deal if he testifies against Dibney and Moxon. During the interrogation, O'Brian sneaks out of Morgan's pocket and hides under the table. Morgan leaves the room to give Brown time to think over the deal. O'Brian stretches himself back out to his normal size. Brown comments that Dibney can't shrink like O'Brian can. O'Brian asks where Dibney is hiding out these days, but Brown doesn't tell him. O'Brian tells Brown that kites aren't allowed in federal prison before leaving by slipping under the door. Morgan's superior Agent Felder (H. Jon Benjamin) tells her that the surveillance team has tailed Moxon to Crawford Chemical Supply. O'Brian, who was eavesdropping, sneaks out of the building and heads for the chemical plant.
At Crawford Chemical Supply, O'Brian discovers that Moxon and Dibney are planning on using the company's chemicals to alter more criminals to create a gang of super-powered thugs. Moxon opens fire at O'Brian with a machine gun, but the bullets bounce right off of O'Brian and come right back at Moxon, killing him. Dibney and O'Brian have a stretched out fight through the corridors of the chemical plant. Dibney grabs an axe and attacks O'Brian with it, but it cuts right through O'Brian having no effect on him. O'Brian grabs Dibney's arms and stretches them out, pulling them all around inside and out of the building, but eventually Dibney's arms stop stretching and he starts screaming in pain. O'Brian ties Dibney's arms down, then turns his own arm into a rubber mallet that he knocks Dibney out with. Agents Morgan and Felder enter the plant to find an unconscious Dibney tied into ridiculous, unbelievable knots.
Agent Morgan knocks on O'Brian's door. He stretches his head underneath the door. She tells him that she is sorry for leaving their date early and asks if they can finish it. He kisses her. As they kiss, Woozy walks down the hall, wearing a shower cap, behind Morgan announcing that the gas station won't let him use the bathroom anymore because he flooded it taking a bath.
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