In the city of Monstropolis, the power grid is fueled by the screams of human children, collected by elite scarers who believe the kids are toxic. When top scarer Sulley and his assistant Mike Wazowski accidentally let a fearless little girl named Boo into their world, they must race to return her home before the Child Detection Agency catches them, uncovering a dark conspiracy within their company along the way.
Information |
|
|---|---|
Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
November 02, 2001 |
Running time |
92 minutes |
Genre |
Animation Adventure Comedy Family Fantasy |
Budget |
$115,000,000 |
Box Office |
$577,400,000 |
Crew |
|
Directed by |
Pete Docter |
Produced by |
Darla K. Anderson |
Written by |
Andrew Stanton Daniel Gerson |
Music by |
Randy Newman |
Cinematography |
Jean-Claude Kalache Rick Sayre |
Edited by |
Robert Grahamjones Jim Stewart |
Production Co. |
Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios |
Distributed by |
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Official Trailer
The Plot
The Failed Simulation and the Energy Crisis
The story begins in a child's bedroom, where a young boy lies in bed, trembling with fear as he stares at his closet door. Suddenly, the door creaks open, and a pair of beady red eyes glow from the darkness beneath the bed. A monster rises, towering over the boy, snarling and displaying razor-sharp claws. The boy sits up and screams in terror, but the monster's reaction is unexpected—he flinches, startled by the scream. In a clumsy retreat, the monster steps backward and trips on a soccer ball, which bounces up and strikes him in the face. He then slips on a skateboard, sliding as if on a banana peel, and crashes forcefully into a pile of sharp jacks scattered on the floor. The monster howls in dire pain, running in circles and knocking over a dresser drawer, grunting in agony as the jacks stick to his backside.
Suddenly, alarms blare, and the bedroom lights flood on. The boy, still sitting in bed, ceases his screaming and stares blankly, revealing himself to be an animatronic simulation. The bedroom walls lift away, and the "monster" removes the jacks, revealing this to be a training session at Monsters, Inc., the primary power utility for the city of Monstropolis. The trainee is berated by Mr. Waternoose, the crab-like CEO of the company, for leaving the door open—a fatal mistake, as monsters believe human children are toxic and that a single touch could kill them. Waternoose addresses a group of recruits, explaining that the city is facing a severe energy crisis. Monstropolis is powered by the screams of human children, harvested by skilled "scarers" who enter the human world through closet doors. However, modern children have become desensitized to fear due to overexposure to television and media, making screams harder to collect and threatening the city's survival.
The Top Scarer and the After-Hours Discovery
The company's intricate system involves a massive warehouse of closet doors, which are transported via hanging conveyor belts to the "scare floor." Here, the top scarer, James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, a large blue monster with purple spots, dominates the leaderboard. He is supported by his best friend and assistant, Mike Wazowski, a small, one-eyed green monster. They are on the verge of breaking the all-time scream record, much to the envy of Randall Boggs, a gecko-like monster with camouflage abilities who sits in second place and is obsessed with overtaking Sulley.
One evening, the work day ends, and Mike is in a rush to celebrate the birthday of his girlfriend, Celia Mae, the Medusa-like receptionist, at a fancy sushi restaurant called Harryhausen's. However, Mike has neglected his paperwork. Sulley, being the good friend he is, offers to stay behind and file the reports so Mike can make his date. While on the now-deserted scare floor, Sulley notices a single active door remaining in a station, which is a violation of company policy. Curious, he peeks inside to check for a monster but sees no one. As he turns to leave, he hears a thumping sound and realizes a small human girl has grabbed onto his tail. She is unafraid, giggling and calling him "Kitty." Terrified that her "toxic" touch will kill him, Sulley uses tongs to place her back in the room, but she escapes. He eventually scoops her into a gym bag and hides in the locker room. When he returns to the scare floor, he sees Randall deactivate the door and send it back to the vault, realizing Randall was the one working unauthorized.
Panic at Harryhausen's
Desperate and carrying the girl in the gym bag, Sulley rushes to Harryhausen's to find Mike. He crashes the romantic dinner, frantically trying to explain the situation without alerting the patrons. However, the girl escapes the bag and begins wandering around the restaurant. The monsters in the restaurant, including the sushi chefs, spot the human child and erupt into mass hysteria. The Child Detection Agency (CDA) descends upon the scene in yellow hazmat suits, sealing the building under a decontamination dome. Amidst the chaos, Sulley and Mike manage to snatch the girl and escape through a back exit just before the quarantine is fully enforced, fleeing back to their apartment.
A New Power Source
Safe in their apartment, Mike and Sulley try to keep the girl contained while CDA helicopters search the city outside. They discover that she is not actually toxic, as Sulley is forced to touch her without dying. They eventually name her "Boo." While hiding, they make a startling discovery: when Boo cries, the apartment lights flicker and surge with dangerous intensity, but when she laughs, the energy output is immense—so powerful that a burst of laughter blows the fuses in the building. Sulley begins to bond with the toddler, tucking her into his bed, while Mike remains anxious to get rid of her. They devise a plan to disguise Boo as a small monster using a mop and a lamp shade so they can sneak her back into the factory and return her home.
The Trap and the Scream Extractor
The next morning, the duo successfully smuggles the disguised Boo onto the scare floor. They spot her door, which Randall has summoned. Mike, eager to be done with the situation, rushes to the door, but Sulley senses a trap, noting that Randall is acting too helpful. To prove Sulley wrong, Mike runs into the room and jumps on the bed, only to be trapped in a box by Randall, who was lying in wait for Boo. Randall and his assistant, Fungus, unaware they have captured Mike, cart the box down to a secret basement lair.
In the basement, Randall reveals a terrifying invention: the "Scream Extractor," a massive machine designed to forcibly suck screams from children's lungs, which would render the need for scarers obsolete and solve the energy crisis unethically. He straps Mike to the chair and prepares to use the machine on him. Sulley, having followed them, unplugs the machine just in time, frees Mike, and they escape with Boo to find Mr. Waternoose, believing the CEO will help them stop Randall.
Betrayal and Banishment
They locate Waternoose in the simulation room and frantically explain Randall's plot. Waternoose initially feigns shock but then demands Sulley demonstrate his scaring ability to the new recruits before he will listen further. Sulley roars ferociously at the simulation dummy, unintentionally terrifying Boo, who cowers in fear of him. As Sulley reaches out to comfort her, she recoils, and he sees his monstrous reflection in the monitor, realizing the horror of his job. Waternoose then reveals his true colors: he is working with Randall. He confesses that he will kidnap a thousand children if that is what it takes to save the company. He summons a massive metal door and pushes Sulley and Mike through it, banishing them to the snowy wastelands of the Himalayas.
The Yeti and the Return
Stranded in a blizzard, Sulley and Mike are rescued by the Abominable Snowman, a friendly chatterbox who offers them snow cones. The Yeti mentions a human village located at the base of the mountain. Sulley realizes that if they can get to the village, they can enter a closet door and travel back to the monster world. Mike, furious at Sulley for ruining his life, refuses to follow. Sulley constructs a makeshift sled and braves the storm alone to save Boo. After cooling off, Mike eventually follows him.
The Door Vault Chase
Sulley emerges through a closet door back onto the scare floor and rushes to Randall's secret lair. He arrives just as the Scream Extractor is activating on Boo. Sulley destroys the machine, tossing parts of it at Randall, and rescues the child. Mike arrives to help, and they flee to the factory's vast door vault. Randall pursues them, leading to a high-speed chase on the moving conveyor belts, riding doors as they fly through the air. They jump in and out of portals, traveling instantly between the monster world and various locations on Earth, including Paris and a tropical island. Boo overcomes her fear of Randall and attacks him, beating him with a bat to help Sulley.
Trapped in the Bayou
Eventually, Sulley and Mike manage to corner Randall. They throw him through a door that leads to a trailer home in the bayou swamplands of the human world. Inside the trailer, a boy cries out that an "alligator" has entered. The boy's mother appears with a shovel and begins beating Randall mercilessly. Sulley and Mike pull the door back, and Sulley destroys the control panel, permanently deactivating the door. To ensure Randall can never return, they push the door off the high rails, watching it shatter into pieces on the warehouse floor below.
The Sting Operation
With Randall gone, they return to the scare floor to send Boo home, but Waternoose is waiting with the CDA. Mike distracts the agents while Sulley grabs Boo and her door, fleeing to the simulation room. Waternoose chases them, furious. Inside the simulation bedroom, Waternoose corners Sulley, ranting that he will do anything to save the company, including kidnapping children and silencing anyone who stands in his way. Suddenly, the walls of the simulation room lift. Sulley has tricked Waternoose into confessing while the simulator cameras were recording. The CDA, led by the grumpy dispatcher Roz—who reveals she has been working undercover as the head of the agency for over two years to expose this corruption—witnesses everything. Waternoose is arrested and dragged away, accusing Sulley of destroying the industry.
A Tearful Farewell
With the criminals apprehended, Roz thanks Sulley and Mike but insists that Boo must be returned to her world immediately for safety, and her door must be destroyed to prevent further contact. Sulley takes Boo back to her room one last time. He tucks her into bed and they play with her toys for a fleeting moment. Boo points to her closet, expecting him to be there, but he must leave. After a heartbreaking goodbye, Sulley exits the room and closes the door. He watches as the door is fed into the station's shredder, reducing it to splinters and severing his connection to Boo forever. Sulley keeps a single splinter of the wood as a memento.
Laughter and a New Beginning
In the aftermath, the factory faces closure due to the energy crisis, but Sulley recalls the immense power of Boo's laughter. He takes over as the new CEO of Monsters, Inc. and revolutionizes the system. The scare floor is transformed into a "Laugh Floor." Instead of terrifying children, monsters now enter bedrooms to perform comedy routines, juggling, and jokes to make kids laugh. Mike Wazowski becomes the top comedian; he enters a room, swallows a microphone, and lets out a massive burp, causing the child to erupt in laughter. The power canister fills instantly to maximum capacity, proving that laughter is ten times more powerful than screams. The energy crisis is solved.
The Surprise
Sometime later, Mike pulls Sulley aside in the locker room. He reveals a surprise he has been working on in secret. Despite suffering cuts and splinters that have bandaged his hands, Mike has painstakingly glued every piece of Boo's shredded door back together. It stands in the middle of the room, missing only one small piece. Sulley reaches into his clipboard, retrieves the splinter he saved, and fits it into the gap. The door's red light activates. Sulley takes a deep breath, opens the door, and peers into the darkness. A familiar voice says, "Kitty!" A look of pure joy spreads across Sulley's face as the story ends.
Top Cast
- John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
- Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski
- Mary Gibbs as Boo
- Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs
- James Coburn as Henry J. Waternoose
- Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae
- Bob Peterson as Roz
- John Ratzenberger as Yeti
- Frank Oz as Fungus
- Dan Gerson as Needleman / Smitty
Movie Collection
- Monsters, Inc. (2001)
- Monsters University (2013)
