The Pacifier

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The Pacifier
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Shankman
Written by	Thomas Lennon Robert Ben Garant
Produced by	Roger Birnbaum Gary Barber Jonathan Glickman
Starring	Vin Diesel Lauren Graham Faith Ford Brittany Snow Max Thieriot Carol Kane Brad Garrett
Cinematography	Peter James
Edited by	Christopher Greenbury
Music by	John Debney
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures[1] Spyglass Entertainment[1]
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution[1]
Release date	March 4, 2005 (2005-03-04)
Running time	95 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$56 million[2]
Box office	$198.6 million[2]

The Pacifier is a 2005 American family action comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant and stars Vin Diesel. The film was released in March 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures and grossed $198 million worldwide.

Plot[]

U.S. Navy SEAL lieutenant Shane Wolfe is assigned to rescue Howard Plummer, a man working on a top-secret government project, from a group of Serbian rebels. Shane and his team successfully get Plummer off an enemy boat. However, while boarding the helicopter to escape, the team is attacked by the enemy. Plummer is killed, and Shane is wounded in a shootout, spending two months in the hospital as a result.

At the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Shane's crooked commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett, explains that he has been assigned to escort Plummer's widow, Julie, to Zürich, where Plummer's safety deposit box has been discovered to retrieve the contents. Meanwhile, Shane has been assigned to stay at the Plummer residence in Bethesda, to search for Plummer's secret project called GHOST and look after the family's five children: Zoe, Seth, Lulu, Peter, and baby Tyler. The kids prove to be difficult to handle, even with the help of nanny Helga, who quits when one of Zoe and Seth's pranks intended for Shane goes wrong. Meanwhile, in Zurich, Julie and Fawcett receive word of Howard's deposit box. However, she must provide a password to access it, which she does not know and she and Fawcett end up staying longer than expected. Shane eventually begins to discover the children's problems and resolve them, gaining their trust after saving them when their house was attacked by intruders.

Later, the school's vice principal, Duane Murney, informs Shane that Seth has cut and dyed his hair, has a Nazi armband in his locker, and has skipped every wrestling practice for a month. At home, Seth tells Shane that he only joined the wrestling team because of his father. After Seth sneaks out of the house and meets with what appears to be a group of Neo-Nazi youths, Shane follows him to the town theater, where he learns that Seth has secretly joined an amateur production of The Sound of Music (specifically, he has the role of Rolf Gruber, a Nazi), explaining the armband and hairdo. The director quits as he believes the show will be a failure. Shane volunteers to take charge of the show. Also take care of the house, & give Zoe driving lessons in the family minivan. Shane also decides teach Lulu and her fellow Firefly Scouts martial arts to defend themselves against rival Grizzly Scouts who enjoy bullying and harassing them.

As Seth quits the wrestling team, Shane challenges Murney to a wrestling match in front of the entire school, which he easily wins despite Murney's show of bluster. The Firefly Scouts use the skill Shane taught to beat the rival Boy Scouts. The girls tie up the boys and warn them to not to bother them anymore. Zoe and Shane share stories of their fathers, both of whom died in similar circumstances which greatly comforts Zoe. They are interrupted by a phone call from Julie, who has figured out the password, "My Angel" (which was engraved on her wedding ring), retrieved a two-prong key from the box and is on her way home. The kids immediately plan a "Welcome Home" party.

Later that evening, Shane discovers a secret vault underneath the garage, which requires exactly the type of key that Julie and Bill retrieved to open. When Bill and Julie arrive home, he and Shane go to the garage, where Shane says he is rethinking his career. The two armed intruders from before arrive and pull off their masks, revealing themselves as the Chuns - the Plummers' North Korean bakery owning neighbors. Suddenly, Bill knocks out Shane, revealing himself to be a double agent. Mr. Chun binds, gags, and guards the children while Bill and Mrs. Chun take Julie down to the vault. They open the door, but a dangerous security system prevents them from proceeding.

The children escape and awaken Shane, who tells them to go get help from the police since the landlines were slashed and while he goes to the vault to help Julie. Mr. Chun chases after them in Bill's car. With Zoe at the wheel, the kids force him to crash. Shane gets past the security system using the “Peter Panda” dance Howard had used to make his son go to sleep each night. Julie knocks out Mrs. Chun, and Shane's voice activates the final vault, knocking out Bill with the door. By then, the children have lured a large crowd of police to the house. Mr. Chun arrives and holds all of them at gunpoint. Shane notices the school principal and his love interest Claire Fletcher right behind him, having followed the chase when she saw it pass by the school. Shane distracts Mr. Chun with the help of Mr. Plummer's family pet duck Gary, and Claire knocks him unconscious.

Bill and the Chuns are arrested and taken into police custody. At Seth's performance, it is revealed that Shane has retired from the Navy and joined the school staff as the new wrestling coach. Murney, dressed as a nun, also performs in the play, singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" off-key. Claire tells Shane it’ll be nice having him around and they kiss backstage.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

• Vin Diesel as Lieutenant Shane Wolfe, Navy SEAL.
• Brittany Snow as Zoe Plummer, the eldest of the children; she is a sixteen-year-old high school student at Chesapeake Heights Public School and a typical teenage cheerleader girl.
• Max Thieriot as Seth Plummer, the second oldest child. He is a fourteen-year-old 8th Grade middle school student at Chesapeake Heights Public School and is a sullen teenage boy.
• Morgan York as Lulu Plummer, the middle child and is ten years old. She is a fourth grader in elementary school.
• Kegan and Logan Hoover as Peter Plummer, the second youngest; he is three years old, can only go to sleep when someone sings the "Peter Panda" song, and wears cars pull up diapers which Peter can put on himself , the diaper is actually pull ups training pants with lightning mcqueen designs.
• Bo and Luke Vink as Baby Tyler Plummer, the youngest; a seven-month-old diaper wearing infant.
• Lauren Graham as Claire Fletcher, the principal of the Plummer children’s school, formerly in the Navy.

Supporting cast[]

• Faith Ford as Julie Plummer, mother of the children.
• Chris Potter as Captain Bill Fawcett, Wolfe's corrupt commanding officer, who is later revealed to be working with the Chuns.
• Brad Garrett as Vice Principal Dwayne Murney, the school's vice-principal and former wrestling coach.
• Carol Kane as Helga Popescu, the children’s Romanian nanny.
• Tate Donovan as Howard Plummer, a professor who develops "GHOST”, Julie's husband and father of the children.
• Denis Akiyama and Mung-Ling Tsui as Mr. and Mrs. Chun, the Plummers' next-door neighbors, who are later revealed to be villainous North Korean spies looking for "GHOST".
• David Lipper as the cute cop
• Scott Thompson as the director of a local production of The Sound of Music.

Soundtrack[]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

As of August 2021, the film holds a 21% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, based on 131 reviews with an average rating of 3.72 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Vin Diesel parodies his tough guy image for the family audience, but the result is only moderately amusing."^[3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.^[5]

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, writing, "This premise is promising, but somehow the movie never really takes off."^[6]

Box office[]

The film opened at #1 in the box office upon its opening weekend with $30.6 million.^[7] By the end of its run, it earned $198.6 million worldwide.^[2]

Possible sequel[]

In December 2015, Vin Diesel said that a sequel was in the works.^[8]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Pacifier

• Official website
• The Pacifier at IMDb
• The Pacifier at AllMovie
• The Pacifier at Box Office Mojo
• The Pacifier at Rotten Tomatoes