Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) Full Recap

The film starts with a beat up minivan rolling down a quiet street at night. Inside sits the Cooper family, and every single one of them looks like they just survived a war. Mom is holding a bag of ice. Emily is half-dressed as Peter Pan. Anthony is wearing a bright blue tuxedo, and the baby's face is completely green. 12-year-old Alexander says his parents believe there's no such thing as a bad day.

They're wrong. Today was the worst day his family has ever had, and none of them knows it was all his fault. They're wrong. To understand how they got there, we go back one day. Alexander wakes up with gum stuck in his hair. Downstairs, his dad, Ben, proudly serves a fancy egg dish called a frittata.

Two months ago, he couldn't even make a grilled cheese. Ben lost his job as an aerospace engineer 7 months ago, so now he stays home with baby Trevor. His mom, Kelly, runs out the door to her job at a publishing company. Alexander has big news. His birthday party is tomorrow night, but a popular kid named Philip Parker just announced his own party on the same night.

Philip is getting a live band, a taco truck, a fog machine, and a karaoke machine. Ben promises Alexander they'll have pizza and maybe volleyball in the pool. Nobody else at the table is really listening. Kelly is busy with the baby's diaper and everybody is talking at the same time.

His sister Emily is rehearsing for her lead role as Peter Pan and his big brother Anthony is glued to his phone. Alexander rides to school with the Gibson family and he tries to impress Becky Gibson by pretending he liked the same book she's reading. A kid named Elliot Gibson has sent an embarrassing fake photo of Alexander to the whole school. Meanwhile, Anthony is talking to his girlfriend, Celia, about the junior prom.

He's taking his driver's test tomorrow, and the first thing he wants to do with his new license is drive her there. Celia also heard that the two of them are going to be crowned Duke and Duchess. Then, Alexander's best friend, Paul, gives him the bad news. Everyone is going to Philip Parker's party instead of his.

Paul and Philip go to the same doctor, so now they're suddenly best friends. Even Paul thinks Alexander should just cancel. Last year, Alexander's dad threw a party so dorky that it nearly ruined his reputation. Ben, meanwhile, is the only dad at a mommy and baby yoga class. In the middle of it, his phone rings.

You just said my name. It's a guy named Greg, and Ben has landed a job interview for tomorrow. Then, baby Trevor says his very first word. It's the silly nickname the yoga moms just gave Ben a father mommy. Ben is so excited that he tells the entire room. At the publishing company, Kelly's boss, Nenah, is launching a new children's book about potty training.

The book teaches toddlers to jump on the party. Kelly is in charge of it, and tomorrow, the actor, Dick Van Djk, is going to read it out loud at a bookstore. Nah tells Kelly that if the launch goes well, she'll make her vice president. Back at school, Alexander's class is picking countries for a big report.

Alexander loves Australia and even owns a dig, so he asks for it. So like Arnold Schwarzenegger and stuff. Instead, the teacher spins a globe and Alexander lands on Djibouti. Then Philip Parker spins and gets Australia. And he doesn't even know the difference between Australia and Austria.

Djibouti. In science class, Alexander partners with Becky Gibson, the girl he's been hoping to impress. He invites her to his party. She politely says she's going to Philillip's party like everybody else because he has a frozen yogurt machine and a trampoline. Alexander blurts out that he has those, too.

Alexander is so busy talking that he doesn't notice her notebook is sitting on the burner. It catches fire and the whole lab panics. To top it all off, his teacher sticks him with the class guinea pig, Melvin for the weekend. His teacher is leaving for a conference, and nobody else signed up to take Melvin home.

Alexander carries the cage home by himself. At home, his mom asks him to wash off Trevor's favorite pacifier, a little bumblebee the baby can't live without. Alexander rinses it in the sink. Then, Ben flips the switch on the garbage disposal, and the bumblebee is gone. Trevor screams and the family knows it's going to be a long night.

At dinner, everyone has amazing news. Emily's director says she's the best Peter Pan he's ever worked with. Anthony is going to be crowned at prom and get his license on the same day. Kelly might become vice president, and Ben has a job interview to design video games. And baby Trevor said his first word.

The whole family cheers. Alexander just sits there eating a Vegemite sandwich because it's Australian. Then they turn to Alexander. He announces that he's cancelling his party because nobody is coming. He lists everything that went wrong. The photo, his best friend, Djibouti, the fire in the science lab.

His family tries to cheer him up, but Alexander says they don't understand. And their lives are all so perfect. Kelly offers to call Philip's mom, and Alexander begs her not to make it worse. That night, Emily goes out to rehearse in her mom's car. Upstairs, Anthony is on the phone with Celia when Alexander barges in and starts arguing with him.

Anthony snaps at his little brother that he's so annoying and exhausting, but Celia thinks he's talking to her. Click. Celia is gone, and she lets every one of his calls ring out. In bed, Kelly worries about Alexander. She also asks Ben how he can be so calm when he's been out of work for 7 months.

Ben says freaking out wouldn't help. Then he'd just be freaked out and unemployed. Kelly says their house feels like a train station with everyone coming and going. Ben promises he's got the kids and the house covered. The clock hits midnight and Alexander is still up sitting at the kitchen counter.

Technically, he's 12 now. No cake, no party, no presents, just a bowl of ice cream with one candle stuck in it and Melvin watching from his cage. Alexander makes a wish. He wants his whole family to find out what a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is like. He shuts his eyes and blows.

The next morning, everything falls apart. Ben and Kelly oversleep. When Ben tells Alexander to steer his ship with positivity on his birthday, he stubs his toe a second later. Emily comes downstairs sniffling, croaking that Peter Pan can't have a cold. Anony's morning starts with a scream from the bathroom.

There's a huge red zit right in the middle of his forehead on prom day. Kelly is late for her big event. Trevor is running around without a diaper and nobody can find anything. Peter Pan can't have a cold, Dad. Kelly's car won't start because Emily left the light on all night while she was rehearsing.

So the whole family piles into the minivan and Anthony drives so he can practice for his test. The ride is a disaster of honking horns and arguing. Kelly sticks her head out the window and tells a guy in a tiny car to drop the latte and get out of the way. The bell is already ringing when they pull up and Alexander has to run for the door.

Stay so cursed. At school, Anthony catches up with Celia and explains that he was talking to his brother last night, not her. Celia doesn't care. She says he doesn't understand what it means to be a good boyfriend and she doesn't even want to go to prom anymore. Anthony stands alone in the hallway holding his phone.

Kelly reaches the office late and Nah is waiting with the new book. There's a typo all over it. One wrong letter has turned the word jump into a very different word, the kind no parent wants in a children's book about the potty. And Dick Van Djk is about to read it to a room full of kids.

Kelly's car is still dead, so she races out of the office on a co-worker's bike, weaving through traffic toward the bookstore. Back at school, Paul runs up to Alexander with big news. Philip Parker woke up with chickenpox, so his party is cancelled. Now everyone is coming to Alexander's party instead.

Alexander finds Becky and apologizes for burning her notebook. Then he tells her his party is still on. She says maybe she'll come. Alexander calls his dad and tells him everyone is coming tonight, so they need food for 50 kids. And this time, no magic tricks, no tap dancing, and nothing dorky.

Ben promises. Then Emily calls from the nurse's office. She's too sick to rehearse and she sounds worse by the minute. At school, Anthony catches Celia in the hallway, begs her to give him another chance, and she says yes. Are you sure I can't just drop him off with you? He's so happy that he jumps up to celebrate and smacks a banner and the whole thing comes crashing down.

It takes two glass trophy cases with it. Anthony gets suspended. Kelly sprints into the bookstore just as Dick Van Djk takes the stage. She tries everything to stop him, but he waves her off and starts reading. Out comes the wrong word again and again in front of a room full of toddlers and their horrified parents.

Kelly tries to explain the misprint and security drags her away. Dick van Djk storms off the stage. Ben's babysitter cancelled, so he brings Trevor to his interview. The bosses are all young guys and they admit they thought Ben was a little old for the job. Then they read his resume.

He has a doctorate in orbital mechanics and he helped design a space station. They want to make a space station game and Ben's eyes light up. Ben is pitching them a great idea when they notice something. Trevor has been chewing on a green highlighter and his whole face is green. The bosses cut the interview short and say they'll call him.

Ben picks up Anthony from the principal's office and Emily from the nurse. Emily refuses to let anyone else play Peter Pan. So, Ben stops at a pharmacy for cough syrup. He also tries to find another Bumblebee pacifier, but they don't have one. The pharmacist tells him to keep the cough syrup to the recommended dose.

Kelly meets them and she can't even talk about what happened at the reading. Ben tells her the good news, even though he has to admit his own interview didn't go so well. 50 kids are coming tonight and he's already got people setting up at the house. Marker, it's fine. Meanwhile, Emily keeps sipping that cough syrup, way more than she should.

Then they drive Anthony to his driving test. On the way, Alexander begs his brother not to take it today because he's sure it will go wrong. Anony's examiner is M. Suggs, a tough lady who tells him that in this minivan, she's the boss. When he drives 15 m an hour in a 25 zone, she asks if he's a senior citizen and tells him to speed it up.

Back in the waiting area, Kelly gets a call from Nenah. The phones at the office won't stop ringing and parents are furious about the reading. She says she thought she could count on Kelly. During the test, Celia calls. Anthony says he never answers the phone while driving, but Ms.

Suggs keeps pushing him. Proms don't happen every day, she says. So, Anthony answers, and Ms. Suggs starts screaming at him to put the phone down. The minivan plows through one parking meter after another. Anthony fails his test, and M. Suggs throws him out of the van. I don't think he passed.

Back in the wrecked minivan, the whole family starts blaming each other. Anthony blames Alexander. Emily blames Alexander, too. Kelly blames Emily for the dead car battery. Then Alexander stops them. It was his fault. He tells them about the birthday wish and says he cursed the day.

Ben tells him nobody can really curse a day. Kelly says it isn't his fault. They just took on too much at once. Then Ben says something that changes everything. This day isn't ruined because this day isn't over yet. They remind each other of the time Ben lost Trevor at Target for 45 minutes and they still found him.

Emily says she's not missing her opening night. Anthony says he's not missing prom. The Coopers climb back into the van ready to fight and Ben starts clapping like a coach before a big game. They race to the tux shop, but the clerk has given Anony's tux to someone else by mistake.

The only one left is bright blue with ruffles. Then they rush into the school just in time for Emily's play. When the director complains about her being late, Kelly tells him he doesn't want to mess with her today. On stage, Emily is clearly full of cough syrup. She stumbles over her lines, waves at her friends in the audience, and tells everyone she's floating when the crew flies her up on the wire.

She swings wildly across the stage and knocks over Captain Hook. How much cough syrup did she have? But somehow she lands it, takes a bow, and gets a huge round of applause. Backstage, Ben tells Emily he's proud of her, and then she gets sick all over him. His phone rings. It's Greg from the video game company, and they want to meet tonight at a Japanese restaurant called Nagamaki.

Ben almost says no because they have too much going on. Alexander tells him to go for it. Curse or no curse. Ben's shirt is ruined, so he borrows a pirate blouse from the costume rack. Then they pick up Celia for the prom in the beatup van. She takes one look at Anony's blue tux and the wrecked minivan, and she's not impressed.

She says he looks like Willy Wonka when Anthony admits he failed his driving test. She rolls her eyes. At Nagamaki, the chefs cook right at the table. Ben sits down with the game guys in his pirate shirt. At first, they stare at it. Then he starts talking about a space survival game, and they love his ideas.

They even start calling the new game Space Pirates. At the next table, Celia complains that Anthony brought her to a place where she has to watch her food being cooked before prom. Then Anthony offers her a shrimp, and it turns out she's allergic. Some of their friends from school stop by on the way to the dance, and suddenly Celia acts like she loves the place.

Then Ben tries a trick and starts catching shrimp in his mouth. He gets too close to the grill and his sleeve catches fire. Ben runs through the restaurant flailing with his arm in flames until someone puts him out with a fire extinguisher. The game guys shake his hand on the way out and call him the flaming pirate of Neamaki.

Outside, Ben sits on the curb covered in foam. Alexander tells him he doesn't always have to steer the ship with positivity. Some days are just bad. Kelly says, "You need the bad days so you can love the good ones even more." Then the whole family yells that this day was terrible.

And they start laughing when Celia calls his family crazy. Anthony tells her to go to the prom without him. He's sticking with his family. They get home expecting the worst. And there's a kangaroo hopping around the front yard. Ben and Kelly set up a surprise for Alexander, an Australian outback party with a real petting zoo.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) Ending Explained

There are emuses, a walabe, and even a crocodile named Winston, who somehow ended up in the family pool before the handlers caught him. Alexander can't believe they did all this for him. On the same day, everything else went wrong. His parents planned it all because he loves Australia so much.

Guys, there is a kangaroo out there. Ben gives everyone a job. Emily is on music. Anthony fires up the barbecue. Kelly handles the snacks. and Alexander keeps Trevor away from anything that might eat him. Then the kangaroo escapes. Ben chases it down the street and through the neighbors yards, and he brings it back to a crowd of cheering kids.

Alexander's friends think his dad is awesome. Nobody is talking about last year's party anymore. Or even Paul admits this one beats anything Philip Parker could have thrown. The party is a huge hit. Kids line up to pet the walabe and the backyard is packed. Even Becky Gibson shows up and wishes Alexander a happy birthday.

Alexander tells her it's been a really crazy day. She looks around at the kangaroos and the crowd of kids and says it looks like it turned out pretty good. Then Ben gets a call. He got the job. The game guys loved him. Flaming pirate shirt and all. And he can set his own hours. And Kelly has news, too.

Dick Van Dijk's reading went viral with half a million views in one day. And Nah says the book is going to be huge. The family gathers around Alexander's birthday cake. Everybody sings to him and the kids crowd around. He realizes that even terrible days aren't so bad when you're surrounded by the people you love.

He closes his eyes and makes a new wish for more days like this one. Alexander thought his family would never understand his bad days until they had one together and came out closer than ever.