The Adventures of Pluto Nash

The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 science fiction comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy as the title protagonist. The film is considered one of the worst box office bombs, grossing only around $7.1 million on its reported $100 million budget.

Plot
In 2080, on a lunar Moon colony called Little America, a retired smuggler called Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) buys a nightclub, in an attempt to fulfill a longtime wish of his. Additionally, this prevents the murder by ingestion of battery acid of the club's previous owner, Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr) by mobsters Gino (Burt Young) and Larry (Lillo Brancato) whom Anthony owed money to. Seven years later, "Club Pluto" has become a successful business, frequented by many socialites. Its staff consists of Pluto himself, a Hispanic assistant, and an anthropomorphic, android robot named Bruno (Randy Quaid).

One night, Pluto is approached by a young woman called Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), who has become stranded on the Moon and desires to earn some money by which to pay for transport to Earth. Because her father "Nicky Sticks" was a friend of Pluto's, she seeks help from Pluto offering her skills as a singer. Pluto, instead, gives her a job as server at his club and allows her to remain after its nightly closure to the public. During the same night, Pluto is accosted thrice by Mogan (Joe Pantoliano) and Kelp (Victor Varnado), messengers of a mysterious entrepreneur called Rex Crater. They tell Pluto that Rex wishes to buy Club Pluto and convert it into a gambling casino. Pluto refuses, and Rex Crater's minions destroy the club. Pluto, Dina, and Bruno escape.

Determined to get his club back, Pluto decides to investigate Rex Crater, of whom very few people know anything. From Rowland (Peter Boyle), a retired police officer who is a friend of his mother's, Pluto learns that Rex Crater is never seen outside of a penthouse in the city of Moon Beach, and that he has been involved with a geneticist called Runa Pendankin, who specialized in cloning before her death.

Pluto and Dina visit Doctor Runa Pendankin's apprentice Mona Zimmer (Illeana Douglas), who operates a cosmetic surgery station. They pose as a married couple attempting to revive their infatuation for one another by having their figures altered; after having seen, and adapted to their liking, several examples of commonly preferred bodily shapes and contours, they reveal that they have come for information regarding Doctor Pendankin's death. Mona Zimmer, having been intimidated by Pluto's bluffs, reveals that shortly prior to her death, Doctor Pendankin had worked for or with a Terrestrial criminal whose initials, inscribed on his briefcase, appear to have been "WZW".

Pluto and Dina return to the hotel and meet Pluto's mother Flura Nash (Pam Grier), who was just smoking pot and being with Bruno, who was filling his battery. They are attacked by Rex Crater's assassins, who have tracked them to the hotel. Upon hijacking a limo with a holographic chauffer named James (John Cleese) Pluto takes Dina and Bruno to an old refugee of Pluto's from his day when he was a smuggler.

At the hideout, Pluto searches for any Terrestrial criminal with the initials "WZW". When this yields nothing, Dina suggests that the initials are in fact "MZM", having been seen upside-down by Mona Zimmer. Pluto searches for "MZM" and discovers a criminal called Michael Zoroaster Marucci (Alec Baldwin). Pluto suspects that Michael Marucci and Rex Crater are one and the same. Abruptly, he is contacted by his mother, who tells him that Rowland has been killed by a fellow police officer and the hideout is attacked by Rex Crater's agents. A chase ensues, and the heroes escape, but their car is damaged and explodes, causing them to be presumed dead by the agents. They manage to get out in their astronaut suits, but they soon run out of oxygen and pass out. Bruno carries them through the Moon desert, but soon, his battery runs out.

They are eventually rescued and taken to Moon Beach by Felix Laranga (Luis Guzmán), a smuggler who idolizes Pluto Nash. They infiltrate Rex Crater's casino/hotel. Bruno ends up running afoul of a robot slot machine whose lever he accidentally breaks. When Bruno is taken away by security, Pluto sends Dina to get Bruno out and pay for the damages to the robot slot machine. Pluto meets with Anthony, who is now going under the name Tony Francis, a famous intergalactic singer. Pluto asks Tony if there was a way up to Rex Crater's penthouse. Upon talking in an elevator, Pluto is told that the only way up is to climb the elevator ropes to the penthouse.

When they leave the elevator, Rex's assistant Belcher (James Rebhorn) and some men hint surrender. Tony is knocked out while Pluto is stunned. Meanwhile, Dina approaches the security at the place where the robots are locked up. When the guard tells Dina that the repairs on the robot slot machine aren't done yet, Bruno manages to trick the guard into letting him out and ends up knocking out the guard. Just then, Dina and Bruno are captured by Mogan, Kelp, and some of Rex's men.

Upon being unstunned by Belcher, Pluto accuses Rex Crater of being Michael Marucci. At this, Rex Crater reveals himself to be a clone of Pluto. Rex and Belcher explain that Rex was created by Runa Pendankin from Pluto's removed appendix to act as public face of Michael Marucci's illegal activities. However, Rex has killed Marucci and Runa and also stated that he was the one who told his henchmen where Pluto was hiding out due to him also inheriting Pluto's memories. When his henchmen arrive and see both Rex and Pluto, Rex kills Mogan and Kelp and has their bodies removed. He and Pluto fight while the others are uncertain which was which. Pluto shoots Bruno and Belcher (who assumes that Pluto would not damage his own robot) shoots Rex. Pluto orders Belcher and his men to leave and reveals his identity to Dina by speaking of her employment to him; Bruno was wearing a bulletproof shirt. Rex comes back to life also having worn a bulletproof shirt. He attempts to garotte Pluto, but is thrown through a window and dies upon hitting the card table below.

The movie ends with the heroes celebrating in the rebuilt Club Pluto with Nash as the owner, Dina as the lead singer, and Bruno as the new club manager, as Pluto bought new 78 robot models as bodyguards. Pluto looks at Dina at the stage, and smiles, smoking a cigar.

Cast

 * Eddie Murphy as Pluto Nash/Rex Crater
 * Randy Quaid as Bruno
 * Rosario Dawson as Dina Lake
 * Joe Pantoliano as Mogan
 * Jay Mohr as Anthony Frankowski/Tony Francis
 * Luis Guzmán as Felix Laranga
 * James Rebhorn as Belcher
 * Peter Boyle as Rowland
 * Pam Grier as Flura Nash
 * John Cleese as James
 * Burt Young as Gino
 * Lillo Brancato as Larry
 * Victor Varnado as Kelp
 * Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Miguel
 * Illeana Douglas as Dr. Mona Zimmer
 * Richard Raybourne as Bartender Phil
 * Alec Baldwin as Michael Zoroaster Marucci (uncredited)

Production history
The film originated in the mid-1980s. The script went through numerous revisions and production finally began in April 2000, and wrapped up in September 2000. Upon completion of filming, it sat on the shelf for two years, finally being released in August 2002.

At one point, Jennifer Lopez was cast for the role of Dina in this film, but eventually turned it down. Rosario Dawson was cast in her place.

Reception
The Adventures of Pluto Nash did very poorly at the box office; its budget was estimated at $100 million, with marketing costs of $20 million and domestic box office $4,420,080 and $2,683,893 overseas. It had a total worldwide gross of $7,103,973, making the film a huge box office bomb -- in fact, one of the worst of all time. The film was also a failure in terms of critical reception, being panned by critics and moviegoers alike. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 79th in the 100 worst 2000's decade movies list, with a rating of 5% on the Tomatometer based on 84 reviews. The majority of critics lambasted the movie for its acting, dialogue, lack of humor and crude special effects. Pluto Nash was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards in 2003, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Eddie Murphy), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Couple (Murphy and himself cloned), but failed to win any, and was later nominated for Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years at the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2005, which lost to Gigli.

Eddie Murphy poked fun at himself in an interview with Barbara Walters, saying: "I know the two or three people that liked this movie."

The film performed better on DVD, with US DVD rental gross of $24,983,000.