The Pacifier

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. After a failed rescue mission, Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe is assigned as babysitter to the dead man's family.

For The Simpsons short, see The Pacifier (The Simpsons short). For other uses, see Pacifier (disambiguation).
The Pacifier
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAdam Shankman
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPeter James
Edited byChristopher Greenbury
Music byJohn Debney
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution[1]
Release date
  • March 4, 2005 (2005-03-04)
Running time
95 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$56 million[2][3]
Box office$198.6 million[2]

The film was released in March 4, 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures. It received generally negative reviews from critics. It grossed $113 million in the United States and a total of $198 million worldwide against a budget of $56 million.

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. Boarding the helicopter to escape, the team is attacked and Plummer is killed. Shane spends two months in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds to the chest.

At the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Shane's commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett, explains that he has been assigned to escort Plummer's widow, Julie, to Zürich, to retrieve the contents of Plummer's safety deposit box. Meanwhile, Shane has been assigned to stay at the Plummer residence in Bethesda, Maryland, to search for the secret project called GHOST and mind 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. Shane eventually begins to discover the children's problems and resolve them, gaining their trust after saving them from a pair of armed ninjas.

Later, the school's vice principal, Duane Murney, informs Shane that Seth has cut and bleached his hair, has a Nazi armband in his locker, and has skipped a month of wrestling practices. At home, Seth tells Shane he only joined the wrestling team because of his father. After Seth sneaks out of the house, Shane follows and learns that Seth has secretly joined an amateur production of The Sound of Music, playing the role of Rolf. The director quits, and Shane takes charge of the show, takes care of the house, gives Zoe driving lessons, and teaches Lulu and her fellow Firefly Scouts martial arts to defend themselves against rival scouts.

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 Girl Scouts use the fighting skills that Shane taught them to fight and tie up the rival boy scouts. Zoe and Shane share stories of their fathers, both of whom had died in similar circumstances, and both hug. They are interrupted by a phone call from Julie, who has figured out the password "My Angel", retrieved a two-prong key from the box, and is on her way home. The kids immediately plan a "Welcome Home" party for her.

That evening, Shane discovers a secret vault underneath the garage, which requires the key Julie just acquired. When Bill and Julie arrive home, he and Shane go to the garage, where Shane says he is rethinking his career. The two ninjas from before arrive and pull off their masks, revealing themselves as the Chuns, the Plummers' North Korean next-door neighbors. Suddenly, Bill overpowers Shane and knocks him out, revealing himself to be a double agent working with the Chuns. After Bill ties up and gags the children, Mr. Chun holds them hostage in the playroom while Bill and Mrs. Chun take Julie down to the vault. They open the door, but a dangerous security system prevents them from proceeding, with one of the traps burning off Mrs. Chun's eyebrows.

The children take down Mr. Chun and wake Shane, who sends them to get help while he goes to the vault to help Julie. Mr. Chun follows them in Bill's car. With Zoe at the wheel, the kids force him to crash. Shane gets past the security system using the dance Howard had used to lull Peter to sleep each night. Julie knocks out Mrs. Chun, and Shane's voice activates the final vault, opening the door which knocks Bill unconscious. By then, the children have lured a large crowd of police-(including the FBI) to the house. Mr. Chun arrives and holds all of them at gunpoint. Shane notices the school principal and his love interest Claire Fletcher (who also happens to be a fellow retired Navy officer) right behind him, having followed the chase when she saw it pass by the school. Shane distracts Mr. Chun with the help of the family pet duck Gary, and Claire knocks him unconscious.

Bill and the Chuns are arrested, and Shane and the Plummers say their goodbyes. 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, and Claire and Shane kiss backstage.

Cast
  • Vin Diesel as Shane Wolfe, a Navy SEAL.
  • Lauren Graham as Principal Claire Fletcher, former Navy officer and the principal of the Plummer children's school.
  • Brittany Snow as Zoe Plummer, the eldest of the children; she is sixteen years old and a typical teenage cheerleader girl.
  • Max Thieriot as Seth Plummer, the second oldest child. He is fourteen years old 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 two years old and can only go to sleep when someone sings the "Peter Panda" song and wears white diapers.
  • Bo and Luke Vink as Baby Tyler Plummer, the youngest; a seven-month-old infant.
  • Faith Ford as Julie Plummer, the children's mother.
  • Chris Potter as Captain Bill Fawcett, Wolfe's corrupt commanding officer. He's the hidden main antagonist of the film.
  • Brad Garrett as Vice Principal Dwayne Murney, the school's vice-principal, and former wrestling coach.
  • Carol Kane as Helga Popescu, the children's Czech nanny.
  • Tate Donovan as Howard Plummer, a professor who developed "GHOST", Julie's husband and father of the children. He was killed at the beginning of the film.
  • Denis Akiyama and Mung-Ling Tsui as Mr. and Mrs. Chun, the Plummers' next-door neighbors.
  • Scott Thompson as the director of a local drama production.

Soundtrack
No.TitleWriter(s)Original artist(s)Length
1."Everyday Superhero"Greg Camp, Paul BarrySmash Mouth3:28
2."Saturday Night"Ozomatli, J. Smith-FreemanOzomatli3:59
3."We Will Rock You"Brian MayQueen2:01
4."The Anthem"Benji Madden, Joel Madden, John FeldmanGood Charlotte2:55
5."Skip to My Lou"TraditionalLarry Groce and Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus1:21
6."The Power"Benito Benites, John "Virgo" Garrett III, Toni C.Snap!3:47
7."Sixteen Going on Seventeen" (The Sound of Music)Rodgers and HammersteinDaniel Truhitte, Charmian Carr2:10
8."Climb Ev'ry Mountain" (The Sound of Music)Rodgers and HammersteinShirley Bassey2:16
9."The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (Instrumental theme song of the movie with the same name)Ennio MorriconeBruno Nicolai & Unione Musicisti di Roma2:45
Total length:24:42

Reception

Box office

Entertainment Weekly predicted that the film would earn about $17 million and come in second behind John Travolta's Be Cool.[4] It opened at #1 in the box office upon its opening weekend with $30.6 million.[5] By the end of its run, it earned $198.6 million worldwide.[2]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 21% approval rating based on 130 reviews and an average rating of 3.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Vin Diesel parodies his tough guy image for the family audience, but the result is only moderately amusing."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, writing, "This premise is promising, but somehow the movie never really takes off."[9] Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote: "If [audiences] swallow this odoriferous exercise in calculated career repositioning, they'll swallow anything."[10]

Possible sequel

In December 2015, Vin Diesel said that a sequel was being written.[11]

References
  1. "The Pacifier". American Film Institute. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  2. "The Pacifier (2005)". Box Office Mojo. IMDB. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
  3. "The Pacifier (2005) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  4. Dave Karger. "Travolta will trump Diesel at the box office". Ew.com. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  5. "Weekend Box Office Results for March 4-6, 2005". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
  6. "The Pacifier". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  7. "The Pacifier Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-04-29.
  8. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  9. Ebert, Roger (March 3, 2005). "'Pacifier' lacks comedic muscle". Chicago Sun-Times.
  10. McCarthy, Todd (2 March 2005). "The Pacifier". Variety.
  11. Burlingame, Russ (2015-12-16). "Vin Diesel Reveals The Pacifier Sequel Is Being Written". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
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