Paul (film)

Best friends Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are British comic book and sci-fi enthusiasts who travel to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con. Clive is trying to write his own sci-fi book, and Graeme is illustrating Clive's book. In addition to going to the convention, they embark on a road trip through the Southwestern U.S. to visit UFO sites on a remote desert highway at night.

After a brush with homophobic rednecks at a diner, they watch a car driving erratically and crashing. Stopping to offer assistance to the driver, he is revealed to be Paul, an alien. Graeme agrees to give him a ride, despite Clive fainting and wetting his pants upon seeing him.

Later, Special Agent Zoil of the Secret Service arrives at the car-crash site, informing his unseen female superior, known as "the Big Guy," that he is closing in on Paul. She sends rookies Haggard and O'Reilly to assist. Clive remains paranoid over Paul's intentions, considering his appearance as evidence of a conspiracy. Then Paul explains the government fed his image to the public to keep them from panicking if anyone encounters his race.

Graeme, Clive, and Paul later camp at an RV park run by Christian fundamentalists, one-eyed Ruth Buggs and her father Moses. The next day, when Ruth sees Paul, she faints, so they take her with them. During an argument, Paul convinces Ruth to question her beliefs and uses his healing power to cure her blind eye.

Stopping at a bar, Ruth calls her father, but Zoil intercepts the call. She is accosted by the rednecks and a bar fight ensues. They escape when Paul terrifies them into fainting. Later, at another RV park, Ruth is questioned by Agent Zoil, but plays dumb and escapes. Meanwhile, Haggard and O'Reilly have figured out about Paul. Confronting Zoil, he orders them to return to base, but they go behind his back and try to catch the alien on their own.

The group soon arrives at Tara's, who rescued Paul when he crashed on Earth 60 years ago, accidentally killing her dog (hence Paul's name) in the crash (opening scene). As no-one believed her story, she has spent her life as a pariah. Although angry at first, she forgives Paul and prepares to make tea for her visitors. Haggard, O'Reilly and Zoil arrive and surround the house. The group flee but O'Reilly shoots at them, igniting gas from Tara's stove and destroying her house with him inside. Haggard pursues and catches up to the RV but loses control and drives off a cliff. Zoil reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within the hour but tired of waiting, she orders a "military response".

Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at Devils Tower National Monument, where they set off fireworks to signal Paul's mothership. A helicopter suddenly arrives with agents and the Big Guy. Zoil appears and initiates a stand-off, unexpectedly shooting the agents, before being wounded. He is revealed to be Paul's friend, attempting to aid his escape under the guise of capturing him. During the fight, Tara knocks out the Big Guy. Moses arrives unexpectedly and fires at Paul, but hits Graeme instead. Paul once again uses his healing powers, reviving Graeme in spite of the danger to himself, causing Moses to believe Paul to be a messiah.

Graeme and Ruth admit their feelings for each other and kiss, but the Big Guy regains consciousness and holds the group at gunpoint. Just as she is about to kill them, she is crushed by the landing transport ship. Paul says goodbye to his friends and offers Tara a chance to go with him, promising to give her a new life after ruining her childhood and accidentally killing her dog. The aliens go home as the remaining humans wave. Two years later, Graeme, Clive and Ruth are at another Comic-Con, where Graeme and Clive are promoting their new bestselling novel titled Paul.

Prominent comedic actor Seth Rogen provided the voice work and motion capture for Paul the alien (pictured in 2013).

• Simon Pegg as Graeme Willy
• Nick Frost as Clive Gollings
• Seth Rogen as Paul (voice and motion capture)[5]
• Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil. Describing his character as an "exaggerated nasty guy", Bateman based his portrayal of Zoil on Yaphet Kotto in Midnight Run and Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.[6] His name is a play-on of the film, Lorenzo's Oil (1992).
• Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs
• Bill Hader as Agent Haggard
• Blythe Danner as Tara Walton
  • Mia Stallard as Young Tara Walton
• Joe Lo Truglio as Agent O'Reilly
• John Carroll Lynch as Moses Buggs, Ruth's father
• Jane Lynch as Pat Stevens
• David Koechner as Gus, a redneck whom Graeme and Clive first encounter at the Little A’Le’Inn.
• Jesse Plemons as Jake, Gus's friend.
• Sigourney Weaver as "The Big Guy". In an interview with Graham Norton, Weaver stated: "It's a love letter to sci-fi fans. I jumped at the chance to be in it. To find a comedy that also pays homage to sci-fi is a dream come true."[7]
• Syd Masters as himself, singing cowboy on stage
• Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, a famous science fiction writer
• Steven Spielberg as himself (voice)

In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost said they made the film to demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, as well as their favourite science-fiction films.[8] After they mentioned the project to Spielberg, he suggested he might make a cameo appearance, and a scene was added to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in 1980 discussing ideas with Paul for his soon-to-become box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[9][10] According to Robert Kirkman, he, along with Invincible co-creator Cory Walker and Invincible artist Ryan Ottley, had a cameo in the film as the Big Guy's henchmen.[11]

The idea for Paul came from Pegg and Frost in 2003, while they were filming Shaun of the Dead.[1] To help with the script, Pegg and Frost went on their own road trip across America and used ideas from it to add to the script.[12] According to Mottola, the film was given the green light shortly before the late 2000s recession; if it had been delayed, "they probably wouldn’t have made the movie."[1] The budget for the film was around US$40 million.[1] Principal photography, including 50 days in the New Mexico desert,[1] wrapped on 9 September 2009,[13] with additional scenes filmed in July 2010 at the Albuquerque Convention Center, which was designed to look like the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.[14] During filming, Joe Lo Truglio was a stand-in for the character Paul, the only character who was created by CGI, although Seth Rogen, the voice of Paul did some motion capture in preproduction during postproduction.[15] The cover art for the fictional comic book Encounter Briefs was drawn by alternative comics artist Daniel Clowes.[16]

A teaser trailer for the film was released on 18 October 2010.[17] The film had its world premiere in London on 7 February 2011.[18]

Paul: Music from the Original Motion Picture was released on 21 February 2011 by Universal Music.[40] It intersperses David Arnold's score with the rock songs appearing in the film.

Pegg has stated that he would like to do a sequel to Paul, titled Pauls,[41] but that the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen unless costs decrease.[42] On August 13, 2021 during a live stream on Instagram, Pegg stated that there was 'no chance' of a sequel.

• List of British films of 2011
• List of American films of 2011
• List of media set in San Diego

Wikiquote has quotations related to Paul (film).

• Paul at IMDb
• Paul at AllMovie