A Summary of the Lego Movie

The Lego Movie

The first scene of the movie opens up with Vitruvius the wizard apprehensively guarding an object within the bowels of the Lego Mountain when his instinct warns him of a presence. It turns out to be Lord Business and in a scuffle that follows, he blinds Vitruvius and casts him aside, thus clearing the way for himself to acquire what the wizard was guarding – Kragle. Having guessed the evil intentions of Lord Business but totally helpless, Vitruvius makes one last attempt at stopping him by warning him of a prophecy wherein an individual blessed as ‘The Special’ will put an end to his nefarious plans. He would achieve this by wielding the ‘Piece of Resistance’ and thus put an end to Lord Business’s reign of tyranny. Lord Business reacts scornfully to this suggestion and having kicked Vitruvius out of his way, flies away confidently from the mountain with Kragle in his possession.

After a lapse of more than eight years, focus falls on Emmet Brickowski, a regular inhabitant of Bricksburg, a Lego city, as he wakes up to a new day and embarks on a routine that he has been following every single day of his life, namely assimilating instructions, freshening up and landing up at the breakfast table with his plant as company. Catching up with news while eating the first and most important meal of the day is the custom in Bricksburg too and Emmet updates himself on the latest pertaining to President Business, his company Octan, importance of following rules and Taco Tuesdays. There is something about ‘putting people to sleep’ before he moves on to his favorite sitcom and enjoys its silly jokes.

Morning makes way for the day and for Emmet, his colleagues in the construction company as also everyone else in Bricksburg, it is time to sing ‘Everything is Awesome’ while relishing a cup of coffee for $37. Post-working hours, everyone is making plans for the evening and while Emmet is reading instructions, the paper gets blown out of his hand only to be caught a few moments later but not before there is loud ‘Whoosh’ noise. Its source turns out to be a hooded person who seems to be in search of a relic and is operating a device for the purpose. Emmet is pleasantly surprised when, on being called out, it turns out to be a beautiful girl who then turns around and leaves. Chasing after her, Emmet falls into a ditch wherein he comes across a crystal containing a block and as soon as he touches it, he is enveloped in a swirl of visions and voices.

On waking up, Emmet finds himself imprisoned with the Piece of resistance jutting out of his back and two-faced cop – good/bad depending on the side he prefers to project, hovering over him and questioning him as to how he found the relic. It is Bad Cop’s conviction that Emmet might be making an attempt to foil Lord Business’s plans. Emmet tries his best to convince Bad Cop of his innocence and is crest-fallen when the latter shows him videos wherein people around him have mostly painted a non-descript picture of his personality. Soon, Emmet is being huddled on his way to the melding chamber by Bad Cop to pry out the Piece of resistance when they are intercepted by the woman whom Emmet had encountered in the dark before.

For a woman, she is surprisingly strong, agile and adept at warfare and manages to overpower all the robotic guards single-handedly thus releasing Emmet and enabling him to escape the prison confines. As they zoom through the Lego Universe, the lady introduces herself as Wyldstyl and Master Builder, a qualification that she proves a few minutes later by assembling a motorcycle in an alley for her and Emmet to flee. Chased by the robots, Emmet and Wyldstyl weave through the landscape and along the way Wyldstyl fills Emmet up on Vitruvius’s prophecy, concluding with the fact that it is none other than Emmet who is deemed to be ‘The Special’. Emmet is not really in a position to refute her claims and taking his silence as consent, Wyldstyl lets him ride the bike while she keeps all the robots at bay.

Once again she displays her building capability by transforming the bike into an aircraft to navigate through a tunnel. While going through the tunnel, she interrogates him and soon realizes that he is not ‘The Special’. But they do make it out of the tunnel and escape the clutches of Bad Cop who is truly infuriated at having missed them.

As Emmet and Wyldstyl land up in the new portion of Lego world referred to as ‘The old West’, Wyldstyl is unable to hide her disappointment at Emmet’s personality although she does try to educate him on Lord Business’s ulterior motives. She also enlightens him to the fact that unknown to Emmet there are other Lego worlds, namely Ninjago, Bionicle and so on, while shopping for clothes for both of them in an effort to fit in. Meanwhile Bad Cop reports to Lord Business in his head-quarters namely Octan Towers wherein he is chastised by the tyrant in having let Emmet escape. Lord Business then introduces him to Kragle and demonstrates its power by gluing Bad Cop’s parents. When the Good Cop side tries to take charge, Lord Business wipes him out with a nail-polish remover and orders bad Cop to finish what he had started.

Vitruvius is playing the piano when Emmet and Wyldstyl walk in and then a serious discussion ensues wherein Vitruvius tells Wyldstyl that she was meant to be the chosen one but the title was conferred upon Emmet since he was credited with having found the Piece of Resistance. Wyldstyl tells him about Emmet’s incapability and is proved right when the two travel through Emmet’s mind only to discover that his ultimate creation is a couch. On an optimistic note, Vitruvius takes it as a challenge that training Emmet was the answer to this problem.

No sooner than when they reach this decision, Bad Cop raids the saloon with his men to inquire about Emmet. The trio swiftly constructs a vehicle and escapes only to suffer from a loose wheel along the edge of the cliff. Emmet handles the wheel, Wyldstyl maneuvers the vehicle and they manage to shake off all the robots except Bad Cop who destroys their vehicle and sends them plunging down the chasm with crocodiles waiting to snap them up. Just as Wyldstyl and Emmet are thanking each other thinking that their end is inevitable, they are swooped by Batman into his aircraft who then causes Bad Cop’s aircraft to crash.

Traveling through the Sun and Middle Zealand, they land in Cloud Cuckooland which is Princess Unikitty’s domain. She leads them to the convening venue for other Master Builders wherein they meet Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Benny, Shaquille O’Neal, Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Dumbledore, Gandalf, Milhouse Van Houten and Michelangelo. Emmet tries his best to shake off his impression of being ‘The Special’ while Metal Beard narrates a story of his escape from Lord Business’s den. By then bad Cop has followed signals from the tracker in Emmet’s leg and attacks all the heroes all of whom escape in a submarine. Asking for instructions, Emmet is ticked off by Vitruvius who tells him to think for himself what he should be doing.

All the Master Builders are caught and presented before Lord Business except and his friends who have concealed themselves in the couch that Emmet built while in the sub. Having noticed it floating in the sea, Metal Beard descends and rescues the group while the Master Builders acknowledge the importance of the couch. It is time to re-group and think of a plan and Emmet displays his common sense by routing for instructions since that is what Lord Business least expects. What is required to put it into action is a hyperdrive and Batman manages to acquire it from Millennium Falcon and provides it to Emmet.

Donning different roles and personas, the team infiltrates Octan Towers and singing ‘Everything is Awesome’ Emmet and Wyldstyl even get past the guards. But before Batman and Wyldstyl can get the Kragle to Emmet and he can plug it with the Piece of Resistance, the entire team is captured by the robots and presented before Lord Business in a room referred to as ‘Think Tank’. There Lord Business taunts Vitruvius about the prophecy and having fought off the robots, Vitruvius is about to say something to Emmet when Lord Business uses a penny to behead him. Facing death, Vitruvius admits to Emmet that the prophecy was his creation and as he breathes his last, Emmet is completely demoralized while the Master Builders are held captive.

Lord Business manages to prise the Piece of resistance off Emmet’s back, replaces it with a battery and chucking it out of the window, carries out his plan of destroying Octan tower with all the master Builders and Bad Cop within. It is time for him to put Taco Tuesday into motion and he accomplishes the task by spraying glue over the entire town of Bricksburg much to the horror of Emmet and the other onlookers. Only when Vitruvius re-appears as a ghost and inspires Emmet that the latter decides to act by hurling himself out of the window with the battery while bidding adieu to Wyldstyl.

Touched by his sacrifice, Wyldstyl calls for every available person in Bricksburg and builds an army setting Emmet’s example and praising his heroic deed. When the guards try to stop her, unexpected help arrives from Bad Cop who has replaced his blank face with a smiley and together work towards overcoming the evil powers of Lord Business.

Detonation device having miraculously deactivated, Emmet plummets through space and lands up amidst the Lego set of a human boy named Finn. Before Emmet realizes, Finn’s father who has an amazing likeness to Lord Business comes in and scolds Finn for using his creativity. He then goes on to glue all the pieces thus causing Emmet to realize that he must attract Finn’s attention somehow. Emmet succeeds and assisted by Finn, he is transported back into the Lego world wherein a battle is raging between robots and Master Builders.

On being confronted by Emmet, Lord Business tries to squirt Kragle on him which Emmet defies by his Piece of Resistance and follows it up with a discourse on the importance of creativity. He urges Lord Business to embrace it too while its translation into the real world causes Finn’s father to acknowledge his son’s creativity. Lord Business then plugs Kragle with the Piece of Resistance, causing it to explode and resulting in everyone in Bricksburg coming unstuck. Alls’ well that ends well with Bad Cops’ parents having been released, Emmet declared a hero and Wyldstyl his companion.

In the real world, Finn’s mother calls the family to dinner and while Finn and his father are thinking in terms of including his sister, Duplo intruders are seen hovering over Lego world, thinking in terms of an invasion.