The Pacifier Information

The Pacifier is a 2005 action comedy film directed by Adam Shankman and written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant. It stars Vin Diesel. The film was released in March 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures, and earned US$30 million in its opening weekend.

Plot

Shane Wolfe (Vin Diesel) is assigned to rescue Howard Plummer (Tate Donovan) from a group of Serbian rebels. Wolfe and Plummer are shot while escaping, Plummer dies and Wolfe spends two months in the hospital. Wolfe's commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett (Chris Potter), is assigned to escort Plummer's widow, Julie (Faith Ford), to Zurich, where a safety deposit box belonging to the Plummers has been discovered. Wolfe is assigned to stay at the Plummer residence, in Bethesda, Maryland to search for the secret project called GHOST, and to look after the family's five children: Zoe (Brittany Snow), Seth (Max Thieriot), Lulu (Morgan York), Peter (Logan and Keegan Hoover), and Baby Tyler (Bo and Luke Vink).

Even with the help of nanny Helga (Carol Kane): Zoe and Seth rebel against Wolfe's authority; Lulu is obsessed with the new house-guest; the pet duck, Gary, resents Wolfe; and Helga finally quits when one of Zoe and Seth's pranks go wrong. Later, Wolfe finds Lulu and her troupe of Fireflies (Jordan Todosey, Nikki Shah, Maria Georgas and Emi Yaguchi-Chow) at the kitchen table. They encounter an unexpected house party hosted by Zoe and her boyfriend, Scott (Kyle Schmid). Wolfe forces all the guests to clean up the house before going home. Zoe yells at him, right before they are then attacked by a pair of masked ninjas, whom Wolfe eventually defeats. He then explains the situation to the kids, who then agree to comply whatever orders he give to them.

A few days later, the school's vice principal, Dwayne Murney (Brad Garrett), brings the facts that Seth has cut and bleached his hair for no apparent reason, has a Nazi armband in his locker, and has skipped every wrestling practice for the past month, to Wolfe's attention. Seth sneaks out of the house, tricking the alarm system with a refrigerator magnet. Wolfe leaves Zoe in charge and follows him, where he learns that Seth has secretly joined an amateur production of The Sound of Music. The director (Scott Thompson) quits as he believes the show will be a failure, whereupon Wolfe volunteers to take his place, and juggles this task with taking care of the house, giving Zoe driving lessons, and teaching Lulu and the Firefly Scouts martial arts to defend themselves against the rival boy scout troop.

Later, Seth quits the wrestling team at Wolfe's prompting, confessing that he is in The Sound of Music after Murney catches him under the bleachers, practicing his dancing. When Murney threatens the boy, Wolfe challenges him to a wrestling match in front of the entire school. Despite Murney's show of bluster, Wolfe easily wins. The training Wolfe gives the Firefly Scouts becomes useful when they once again have a conflict with the boy scouts. Wolfe also gets Zoe to open up about her grief over her father's death by telling her about how his father had shipped him off to military school when he was eight and that one day he got a letter saying his dad had been killed and that it was okay for her to talk about her dad and that it was too much of a burden to keep it inside. They are interrupted by a phone call from Julie, who has guessed the password ("My Angel"), retrieved the item in a box (a special key), and is on her way home. The kids immediately begin to plan a 'Welcome Home' party. Less than an hour later, Wolfe discovers a secret vault underneath the garage, which requires a key to open. When Fawcett and Julie arrive home, Fawcett and Wolfe go to the garage, where Wolfe says he is rethinking his career. The two ninjas seen earlier arrive armed, and pull off their masks, revealing themselves as the Plummers' North Korean neighbors, the Chuns (Dennis Akayama and Mung-Ling Tsui). Fawcett knocks out Wolfe, revealing he is a double agent. They bind and gag Zoe, Seth, and Lulu with rope and black handkerchiefs, place Peter and Tyler in the playpen, and Fawcett and Mrs. Chun take Julie to the vault while Mr. Chun looks after the children. They manage to open the door, but the dangerous security system prevents them from going any farther.

The kids escape Mr. Chun and awaken Wolfe, who goes to the vault to help Julie, sending the kids to summon the police. Mr. Chun follows them in his car; with Zoe at the wheel, the kids force him to crash. Wolfe figures out how to get past the security system, using a dance ("The Peter Panda Dance") used to make Peter go to sleep each night to avoid its traps. He, Julie, Fawcett, and Mrs. Chun engage in combat, and end the fight when Julie knocks out Mrs. Chun. Wolfe's voice activates the final vault, knocking out Fawcett with the door. By then, the children have lured a large crowd of police to the house. Mr. Chun holds all of them at gunpoint. Wolfe notices school principal and love interest Claire Fletcher (Lauren Graham) right behind him, having followed the chase when she saw it pass by the school. Wolfe, aided by Gary the duck, distracts Mr. Chun, and Claire knocks him unconscious.

With their missions accomplished and Fawcett and the Chuns arrested, the Plummers prepare to say goodbye to Wolfe. Lulu gives him a picture of all the kids to keep. Wolfe tells her that she's the best friend he's ever had and that he will always be thinking of her. The two of them hug and Wolfe tells the kids that there is still "one more mission". The films cuts to Seth's performance at the opening night of The Sound of Music. As Wolfe and Claire watch the performance, it's revealed that Wolfe has retired from the Navy and is now the new wrestling coach at the high school, now that Murney has "found his true calling". Murney is shown briefly on stage, where he is singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" off-key while dressed in a nun's habit.

Cast

• Vin Diesel as the Lieutenant Shane Wolfe, U.S. Navy SEAL.
• Faith Ford as the Julie Plummer
• Lauren Graham as Claire Fletcher, the principal of the Plummer children's school, formerly in the Navy.
• Brittany Snow as Zoe Plummer, the eldest of the children; she is sixteen years old and a typical teenage girl.
• Max Thieriot as Seth Plummer, the second oldest child. He is thirteen years old and a sullen teenage boy.
• Morgan York as Lulu Plummer, the middle child. She is seven years old and is the most troublesome of the five.
• Kegan and Logan Hoover as Peter Plummer, the second youngest; he is three years old and can only go to sleep when someone sings the "Peter Panda" song.
• Bo and Luke Vink as Baby Tyler Plummer, the youngest; a seven-month-old infant.
• Chris Potter as Captain Bill Fawcett, Wolfe's commanding officer.
• Carol Kane as Helga, the children's Romanian nanny.
• Brad Garrett as Vice Principal Dwayne Murney, the school's dim-witted vice-principal and wrestling coach.
• Tate Donovan as Howard Plummer, a professor who develops "GHOST".
• Dennis Akayama and Mung-Ling Tsui as Mr. and Mrs. Chun, villainous Korean spies looking for "GHOST".
• Scott Thompson as the director of a local production of The Sound of Music.

Soundtrack

Reception

Critical response

The film received generally negative reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 20% based on reviews from 128 critics. The site's consensus is "Vin Diesel parodies his tough guy image for the family audience, but the result is only moderately amusing." Metacritic gives a rating of 30% based on reviews from 27 critics.

Roger Ebert gives the film 2 stars out of 4.

Box Office

The film opened at #1 in the box office upon its opening weekend with $30,552,694. It would go on to earn $196 million worldwide.