Genre: Action/Superhero/Comedy
Directors: Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Billy Magnussen, Scoot McNairy, Natalie Dormer, Jesse Plemons, Lee Pace, Mahershala Ali, Lea Seydoux, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Hader, Emmy Rossum, Dan Stevens
Plot: In 1999, Maxwell Lord (Lee Pace) is at the United Nations waiting for the organization’s approval of the Justice League International. Assuming it will easily reach the numbers it needs, Lord already has a headquarters under construction. There, Ted (Scoot McNairy) and Michael (Billy Magnussen) are playing with some of the new technology, with Skeets (Kumail Nanjiani) explaining what it does. In walks J’onn J’onzz (Mahershala Ali). J’onzz introduces himself as Lord’s appointed head-of-command for the JLI. He tells them his backstory, of how he is the last living being from Mars and that he is also known as the Martian Manhunter. He now uses his shape-shifting abilities to act as a detective on Earth. Behind his back, Michael and Ted make fun of J’onn’s plain demeanor and cool-headedness and make a bet on who can make the man laugh first. When he returns, he tells the two of them that he can read minds and heard everything they just said. As they sit frozen still (Michael with his face clinched, trying not to think anything wrong), J’onn asks the two of them if they want to go on their first mission before the others arrive and Michael jumps out of his seat to accept.
CUT TO: Booster and Beetle travelling in Ted’s flying Bug with Booster seeming bummed. He complains that they are not getting headlining villains like Doosmday and instead are stuck with the C-level baddies. Ted insists that all they need to do is get the job done here and they slowly establish themselves as Earth’s best heroes. Booster rolls his eyes. Upon arriving at a television station, Booster tells Ted to go ahead and he will catch up. Ted arrives to find Oswald Loomis (Bob Odenkirk) – a former host of a local TV show where he pulled pranks on people but was fired after multiple public scandals – holding people hostage live on air. He is threatening his formers colleagues at gunpoint and demanding he get a gig back at the network.
While Blue Beetle starts to negotiate with Loomis, Booster checks on his looks in the mirror and does a quick floss. After Booster makes his grand entrance, Loomis asks what’s wrong with Booster’s hair. Booster, having just checked, freaks out while Loomis offers to help – reaching behind his head and pulling a penny from behind his ear. “Oldest trick in the book!” he proclaims while Booster is furious at falling for the Prankster’s trick on live TV. Loomis gives Booster the penny for consolation and explains to him that Metropolis and Honolulu are the only two places in the United States where taking a coin from someone’s ear is illegal.
After falling for a penny-behind-the-ear trick from The Prankster, Booster is embarrassed for being tricked on live TV but then finds that Loomis’s penny has special powers and has frozen Booster in place. As Loomis re-ups his demands, a gang of lower level Metropolis villains burst onto the set and the studio give them the money. Loomis is pissed as they are stealing his thunder while Beetle soon becomes out-matched in the numbers game. The criminals are just as confused explain that someone called him in and invited to reap the rewards of this hostage situation. Ted realizes that Michael was the one that called them, but he is quickly subdued by the vast amount of enemies. Martian Manhunter arrives and takes out the criminals and aids police in the arrest of Loomis as Booster regains movement.
CUT TO: Lord, standing in front of the United Nations, his face flushed with embarrassment as everyone watches that news unfolds. His proposal is rejected immediately.
Beetle, Booster, and Manhunter ride silently in Beetle’s Bug. Booster explains that he thought simply defeating The Prankster would look lame so he wanted to improve the optics by giving them an against-all-odds situation. Complete silence. He tries to make a joke (and get Manhunter to laugh). Complete silence He then tries to turn on some music but his hand is slapped away when it gets near the dial. Manhunter shakes his head in disapproval, while Ted looks the most pissed he’s ever been in his entire life.
One year later. With the assistance in funding from Michelle (Natalie Dormer), Ted has resurrected his deceased father’s tech company Kord Industries. He has not talked with Michael since the Prankster incident. Michael is down in the dumps after the fall-out with Ted and April breaking up with him over his antics. With multiple films now under his belt, he has now turned more of his attention to Goldstar Inc. and his film career and is working towards making his magnum opus: The Booster Gold Story. While Michelle knows how much this project excites him, she advises against revealing to the public that he is from the future.
Michael arrives at the first pre-production meeting as a producer on the film. Claude Collins (Jesse Plemons) is quick to introduce himself to Michael, who thinks Clause must be from catering or something. Michael Bay (Bill Hader), the director of the film, enters the conversation and asks Michael what he thinks about the man who has been chosen to play him in the film. Michael pulls Bay aside and tells him Collins is way too ugly to play him. Bay insists that despite this being Claude being a total unknown, he killed it in his audition and this will be his big break. Michael demands that he be fired from the movie but Bay won’t back down. Bay has a major meltdown and says that if Claude goes, he goes. Michael walks out of the meeting and tells the rest of the crew that he will now be directing and starring in this film.
Claude goes back home to his lonely life and is totally dejected. After thumbing through a number of audition calls, he spots an ad for equipment tester at Kord Industries that pays well. On his first day on the job, Claude’s inexperience shines through and he accidentally causes a fire that severely burns his face. While Ted visits Claude in the hospital and apologizes profusely, Claude throws a fit upon returning home from the hospital – knowing his acting career is over and he will be rejected by potential lovers for the rest of his life.
As Claude falls deeper into his loneliness, he notices that his skin is starting to develop lumps and feel claylike. When walking outside, he is ridiculed by strangers and retreats back to his home. He becomes so self-conscious that he can’t go out in public anymore. As his skin intensifies in its transformation, Claude begins to realize that he can expand the size of his body and body parts. He reasons that the radioactive substances in Kord’s equipment is what caused his deformation.
Max Lord has dinner with Ted and J’onn and tells them that enough time has passed since the Prankster incident and that they should be able to restart their attempt to get the JLI approved. While John says the circumstances must be right, Ted is skeptical as he wants to help his company get off the ground. In order to try and sweeten the offer, Lord offers to help secure funding for the company but Ted is resistant. Ted does tell him that he is worried that the company is going to be wrecked by a lawsuit from a disgruntled employee, upon which Lord says he can handle that.
After some routine crime-fighting, Michael flies through the city with his portable radio and hears a contest that is announcing a giveaway for two tickets to the local Creed concert. He uses Skeets as his telephone and ends up being the lucky caller. Michelle recommends he take Ted and that she orchestrate a reconciliation between the two of them. Although at first resistant, Ted gives in to Michelle’s request and agrees to meet with Michael. Michael, meanwhile, can’t find his Creed CD to listen to on the trip to show.
With the help of Skeets, he goes on a covert mission and breaks into Lord’s offices to retrieve his CD. While rummaging through the different cabinets, he accidentally activates a secret compartment of the facility and discover a collection of Lord’s files that are labeled classified. They are in-depth reports on the different superheroes of Earth – Beetle, Manhunter, himself, etc. They go into detail about the weaknesses of each and how they could be vulnerable to attack. Booster is disgusted by it all, but especially the fact that “bad taste in music” is listed under his weaknesses. He steals his file, finds his CD, and makes his way out. Later in the day, Lord’s assistant Sasha Bordeaux (Lea Seydoux) thinks the the office seems a bit different and discovers Michael’s little mission on security footage and contacts Lord.
Lord and Sasha visit Claude. Claude is surprised to find an attractive female at his apartment and lets them in give that she is unbothered by his grotesque looks. They to compensate Claude reasonably well if he chooses not to press charges against Ted. Lord tells him that they are willing to pay for him to get facial reconstruction, or if he prefers, Sasha could perform favors on him. Claude tells him that while those things are nice, the first he wants is revenge on Ted and Michael. Lord says that Ted is off-limits but he knows where Michael is at all times and can help out in that regard.
At the reunion with Ted, Michael apologizes for everything before. Ted accepts the apology and says he was sorry to hear about his relationship with April. When Michael says his life has been weird without Ted in it, Ted responds by saying that he has kinda had Michael in his life since he’s dating his twin sister and Michael jokingly cuts him off there. He asks if he’d like to go to a Creed concert with him and Ted accepts. Michael then decides to bring up Lord’s documents and says he thinks Lord might have some sinister intentions. Ted becomes disappointed and thinks this whole meeting was a set-up for another one of Michael’s zany plans. He reasons that Lord had the weaknesses so he could improve the JLI’s defense abilities to cater to the team’s strengths as he plans to bring up the proposal to the U.N. again. Ted storms out and says he’s not going to the concert.
Michael turns to his next option: J’onn J’onzz. Michael firsts asks if he can call him Eminem and J’onn remains unamused. When he starts to ask if he wants to join him at the concert. J’onn rejects the question before Michael can even finish it. Next, he tries to call April but she doesn’t answer. Ted, meanwhile, tells Michelle that he feels a little bad for walking out again on Michael and if he should go back to join him. She tells him it is up to him.
Before Michael goes to the concert, he tells Skeets that he is leaving him at home – he’s going to this totally solo. As Michael travels to the concert, Claude tracks him from afar. At the concert, Michael tries holding it in but has to urinate even though they are about to play his favorite song ‘Higher’. Claude, using his clay-like form, has squeezed through the gates and arrives on stage. He expands his size to be 15 ft. tall and the crowd cheers – thinking this is a mascot for the band’s latest album ‘Human Clay’, which they start to chant. Human Clay surveys the crowd but can’t find Michael and he starts violently rummaging through the crowd with no regard for the audience members. The band runs off stage and the crowd starts to panic. Michael returns from taking a leak to this scene, but is unsure what to do without his suit or Skeets. Human Clay finally spots Michael and quickly makes his way to him. He forms his hand into a hammer and knocks Michael over, before taking him captor.
Human Clay takes Michael on stage and warns the audience to say goodbye to their beloved Booster Gold. He tells him that Michael that he won’t be starring in anymore movies anytime soon before starting to seep his claylike form into Michael’s eyes, nose, and mouth (suffocating him). Suddenly, Blue Beetle’s flying bug swooshes in and lands on stage. Beetle leaps out to fight him but finds that his weapons are useless against Human Clay since they were made through the same methods. Claude, realizing this is Ted Kord, lets out a sadistic smile takes ahold of him, too.
Suddenly, an even bigger ship lands on the stage, piloted by Maxwell Lord and Sasha Bordeaux. Out walks Martian Manhunter and Michelle in the Booster Gold gear. Together, they are able to capture Human Clay in a metal container and rescue Michael and Ted. Ted tells Michelle that he never expected to be this turned on by seeing Booster Gold, causing Manhunter to let out a brief chuckle. Ted immediately turns to Michael and lets out a victory shriek as he won their bet. Michael hugs his sister and asks how she ended up here. She says Skeets flew to her apartment and let her know that Michael was in trouble. Plus, after hearing Michael go on and on about superheroes growing up, she figured she would see what the whole hubbub was about. She says they can call her Goldstar (with a wink). Ted and Michael shake Manhunter’s hand as Michael begrudgingly gives Lord a nod. The crowd begins to shuffle back in and cheers the heroes for their work to stop Human Clay. Lord whispers to Michael “Now, THIS is good publicity”. The band comes back on stage and start to play ‘Higher’ again, with the heroes on stage.
Epilogue text updates us on where the characters went after this: After the setback, Ted establishes Kord Industries as one of the most competitive tech companies in the world. Michelle gets a second suit and fights alongside Booster and Beetle as Goldstar before becoming homesick and eventually going back to the future to fight crimes there.
Collins is sent to Arkham Asylum and is annoyed by the label “Human Clay” so his fellow inmates to call him “Clayface” (the inmates laugh at that as well).
Although he does not get approval for a new Justice League International, the good press from the Creed concert helps land Lord the position as the head of the government’s metahuman spy agency Checkmate.
Manhunter, in conjunction with Lord, continues to fight crime but also uses his detective/telepathy skills to travel the world and keep tabs on all the metahumans for what he assumes would be an eventual task force, if needed in the case of an emergency in the future. Booster meanwhile…
2007. At the world premiere of the long-gestated ‘The Booster Gold Story’, Michael is preparing to go on stage to introduce the film. April (Emmy Rossum) pays him a quick visit and tells him to hurry up as everyone is waiting and gives him a kiss before exiting. As he practices his lines, a time sphere crashes into the room – a slight variation of the one Michael uses. A man steps out that introduces himself as Rip Hunter (Dan Stevens) – a name that rings a bell to Michael but he can’t put his finger on it. Rip says he can’t explain who he is or where he is from but it is urgent that Michael not release this film. It is imperative that no one know of Michael’s time-traveling abilities. Michael agrees to cancel the screening but as soon as Hunter leaves, Michael looks at the camera and says “Yeah right, what does he know?!” and cockily walks out on stage.
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