Paul (film)

Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings are British comic book enthusiasts and best friends who travel to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con, and to take a road trip through the Southwestern United States to visit sites significant to UFO lore. While driving on a remote desert highway at night, after a tense situation with some rednecks in a diner, Graeme and Clive observe a car driving erratically and then crashing. They stop to investigate and offer assistance to the driver, who turns out to be an alien named Paul, whom Graeme agrees to give a ride despite Clive fainting and wetting his own pants from seeing him. Later, Special Agent Zoil of the FBI arrives at the car-crash site and informs his unseen female superior, "the Big Guy", that he is closing in on Paul. She sends two inept rookies, Haggard and O'Reilly, to assist Zoil.

Clive remains paranoid over Paul's intentions, considering his appearance evidence of a conspiracy theory, until Paul tells them that the government spoon fed his image to the public to keep them from panicking if anyone encounters his race. They later camp at an RV park run by two Christian fundamentalists, one-eyed Ruth Buggs and her father Moses. The next day, when Ruth discovers Paul, she faints, and the three have no choice but to take her with them. During an argument, Paul convinces Ruth to question her beliefs and uses his healing power to cure Ruth's blinded eye. The fugitives stop at a bar and Ruth tries to call her father, but Zoil intercepts the call. She is then accosted by the rednecks from the diner and a bar fight ensues. The group escapes when Paul terrifies the rednecks into fainting. Later, at another RV park, Ruth is questioned by Agent Zoil, but feigns ignorance and escapes. Haggard and O'Reilly in the meantime have figured out about Paul. When they confront Zoil, he orders them to return to base but they go behind his back and insist on catching the alien on their own.

The group soon arrives at the house of a woman named Tara, who rescued Paul when he crashed on Earth 60 years ago and accidentally killed her dog (after whom Paul was named) in the crash (seen at the beginning of the movie). As a result of no one believing her story, she has spent her life as a pariah. Although angry at first, she forgives Paul and goes to make coffee for her visitors. Just then, Haggard, O'Reilly and Zoil surround the house. The fugitives flee, but O'Reilly shoots at them, igniting gas from Tara's stove and destroying her house with O'Reilly inside it. Haggard pursues and catches up to the RV but loses control and drives off a cliff to his death. Zoil reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within the hour, but she is tired of waiting and informs Zoil that she has ordered a "military response".

Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at Devils Tower National Monument, where they set off fireworks as a signal to Paul's mothership. A helicopter suddenly arrives with agents and the Big Guy. Zoil then appears and initiates a stand-off, unexpectedly shooting the Big Guy's agents, before being wounded by the Big Guy. It is revealed that Zoil is Paul's friend and was 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 then the Big Guy regains consciousness and holds the group at gunpoint. Just as the Big Guy is about to kill them, she is crushed by the landing mothership. 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 them goodbye.

Two years later, Graeme, Clive and Ruth are at another Comic-Con, where Graeme and Clive are promoting their new bestselling novel titled Paul.

Seth Rogen provides the voice and motion capture for Paul the alien.

• 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. Bateman described his character as an "exaggerated nasty guy". Bateman also stated that he based 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 Waltion
• 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 in a Nevada gas station.
• 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 $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.[32] It intersperses David Arnold's score with the rock songs appearing in the film.

All tracks are written by David Arnold, except as noted.

Pegg has stated that he would like to do a sequel to Paul, titled Pauls.[33] However, he also said the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen unless costs decrease.[34]

• List of British films of 2011
• List of American films of 2011

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