The Hangover Part II is a 2011 American comedy film and sequel to the 2009 film The Hangover, and the second installment in The Hangover trilogy. The film was directed by Todd Phillips, who co-wrote the script with Craig Mazin and Scot Armstrong, and stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Jeffrey Tambor, Justin Bartha, and Paul Giamatti.
It tells the story of Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug, as they travel to Thailand. After the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu takes no chances and opts for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. Things do not go as planned, resulting in another bad hangover with no memories of the previous night.
Development began in April 2009, two months before The Hangover was released. The principal actors were cast in March 2010 to reprise their roles from the first film. Production began in October 2010, in Ontario, California, before moving on location in Thailand. Produced by Legendary Pictures and Green Hat Films, the film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on May 19, 2011 and was released theatrically on May 26, 2011. It became the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2011 and the highest-grossing R-rated comedy during its theatrical run, and received mixed reviews.
A third installment, The Hangover Part III, was released in May 2013.
Plot
Stu Price plans to travel to Thailand for his upcoming wedding to Lauren, his fiancée. To avoid what happened in Las Vegas two years earlier, Stu does not allow his three best friends, Doug Billings, Phil Wenneck and Alan Garner to throw him a bachelor party. He instead hosts his bachelor party at IHOP with Phil and Doug.
Tracy convinces Doug to persuade Stu to let her brother Alan join their trip to Thailand. Stu agrees to bring his friends, including Alan, Tracy, and Phil's wife Stephanie. At the airport, Lauren's 16-year-old brother Teddy, a Stanford scholar, joins them, to Alan's disapproval.
During the rehearsal dinner, Lauren's father Fong expresses disapproval of Stu in a toast. Later, Stu joins Phil, Doug, Alan, and Teddy for beers around a campfire, toasting to Stu and Lauren's future happiness.
The next day, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake in a rundown Bangkok hotel room with no memory of how they got there. Stu has a face tattoo, Alan's head is shaved, and a capuchin monkey is in the room with them. They discover that Chinese gangster Leslie Chow followed them to Thailand on Alan's invite and can't find Teddy, only his severed finger. Chow begins recounting the previous night but passes out after snorting cocaine. Thinking he's dead, the panicked trio hides his body in the hotel's ice box.
Through a tip from Doug (who left the campfire earlier and stayed at the resort), they go to a police station to pick up Teddy, but are given a wheelchair containing an elderly Buddhist monk. He cannot reveal anything, having taken a vow of silence. After finding a business card, they travel to the smoldering ruins of a business, apparently destroyed in a riot the night before.
They enter a nearby parlor where Stu got his tattoo, and they learn that they started a fight that escalated into the riot. The trio returns the monk to his temple, where they are encouraged to meditate. Alan eventually recalls that they had been at a strip club, where they learn that Stu had sex with a trans woman. Upon exiting, the trio is attacked by two Russian mobsters who shoot Phil in his arm and take the monkey, which originally belonged to them.
After Phil is treated at a clinic, Alan confesses that he had drugged some of the marshmallows with muscle relaxers and his ADHD medication to sedate Teddy, but accidentally mixed up the bags. Furious, Stu attacks Alan.
During the scuffle, they find an address and time for a meeting on Alan's stomach. They meet Kingsley, a gangster demanding Chow's bank password by morning for Teddy. They seek Chow's password at the hotel, discovering he is still alive. They steal back the monkey, who has the code in his vest, and escape through a car chase in which the monkey is shot and injured.
After taking the code and leaving the monkey outside a veterinary, the group completes the deal with Kingsley the next morning. Interpol agents appear and arrest Chow. Kingsley, who reveals himself to be an undercover agent, does not know where Teddy is.
Desperate, Phil calls Tracy to say that they cannot find Teddy. During a rolling blackout, Stu realizes where Teddy is. The trio returns to the hotel to find Teddy in the elevator (though he still misses a finger). He had woken up earlier than the others, but became trapped after the power went out when he left to find ice for his finger. Using Chow's speedboat, the four return to the wedding reception.
Fong is about to cancel the wedding when Stu arrives, delivers a defiant speech, and insists he's wild, impressing Fong, who gives his blessing. At the reception, Alan gifts Stu a performance by Mike Tyson. Later, Teddy reveals he took pictures on his phone before the battery died. The group agrees to view the photos once before deleting them.
Cast Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck, a teacher, and the leader of the Wolfpack Tanner Maguire as young Phil (credited as "Phil - 12 Years Old") Ed Helms as Dr. Stu Price, a dentist traveling to Thailand to get married William A. Johnson as young Stu (credited as "Stu - 12 Years Old") Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner, brother-in-law to Doug, who idolizes Phil Aedin Mincks as young Alan (credited as "Alan - 12 Years Old") Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow, the Chinese gangster the trio encountered in Vegas William Jiang as young Chow (credited as "Chow - 12 Years Old") Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner, Alan and Tracy's father Justin Bartha as Doug Billings the bachelor from the previous film and member of the Wolf Pack Dylan Boyack as young Doug (credited as "Doug - 12 Years Old") Paul Giamatti as Kingsley/Detective Peters, an undercover Interpol agent Jamie Chung as Lauren Srisai, Stu's fiancée Sasha Barrese as Tracy Billings, Doug's wife Mason Lee as Teddy Srisai, Lauren's brother Gillian Vigman as Stephanie Wenneck, Phil's wife Bryan Callen as Samir, a strip club owner in Bangkok Sondra Currie as Linda Garner, Tracy's and Alan's mother Yasmin Lee as Kimmy Nirut Sirijanya as Fong Srisai, Lauren's father Penpak Sirikul as Joi Crystal the Monkey as The Drug-Dealing Monkey
Mike Tyson reprises his role as himself and sings a cover of the 1984 Murray Head song "One Night in Bangkok" for the movie.
The film is the Hollywood debut of Mason Lee, son of director Ang Lee.
Nick Cassavetes has a cameo appearance as a Bangkok tattoo artist. Liam Neeson was initially cast in that role, which was originally envisioned for Mel Gibson.
Production
Development and pre-production
In April 2009, Warner Bros. hired Todd Phillips, who directed The Hangover, to write a sequel with Scot Armstrong. The deal, reached two months before the release of The Hangover in June 2009, came as result of The Hangover'''s positive screen tests, and a trailer which drew a strong reaction from audiences at ShoWest. The writers from the first film, Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, decided not to come back to write the sequel because, according to Lucas, "they were done with that story…and didn't want to just write Hangover sequels their whole careers."Variety reported in July 2009, that production on The Hangover 2 would begin in October 2010, for a May 26, 2011 release, following the same production schedule used for the first film. Also in July, Zach Galifianakis stated in an interview with Latino Review that the film will be set in Thailand, "Well, I think we're going to Thailand. The problem with Hangover 2 is that we have to live up to what we did which is very difficult. So we get, I think, kind of kidnapped. It has nothing to do with the bachelor party. We're definitely not doing that again but we do end up in an exotic place. That's all I know."
In January 2010, Phillips dismissed rumors that Zac Efron would join the cast of The Hangover 2, though Ed Helms stated that Efron would be a welcomed addition, commenting, "I love that guy. He's actually really funny."
In March 2010, Phillips denied reports that the film would take place in Mexico or Thailand stating, "I don't know. There's a lot of rumors. There was rumor also that it was going to Mexico or something and neither are true." Also by March, Galifianakis, Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Justin Bartha completed negotiations and signed deals to reprise their roles in the sequel.
Cooper stated that "we made [the] decision early on" to keep the same plot structure. "I remember we did this photo shoot for Vanity Fair and that was when we first talked about a sequel in a realistic way; and we were all in the room together afterwards and we were saying 'here's the choice: do we stray from the structure or do we run straight for it?' And we all agreed, no question about it, we hadn't earned the ability to take these 3 guys out and put them in a new structure. There needs to be a ticking clock, there needs to be a missed night and there needs to be someone who's gone and a woman who is waiting to get married and a guy who needs to get married."
In June 2010, before accepting the Guy Movie of the Year award on the Spike Guys Choice Awards, Phillips announced that there would be a Hangover 2 and that they were hoping to begin filming around October 15, 2010, for a July 4, 2011 weekend release.
In July 2010, it was confirmed that the film would indeed be set in Thailand and earlier comments made by Phillips denying such reports were a deliberate case of misdirection. The following month, Bradley Cooper stated he believed the rumors to be true and was looking forward to filming The Hangover 2 in Thailand.
In October 2010, Phillips confirmed that the film would take place in Bangkok and Los Angeles and that Galifianakis, Cooper, Helms and Ken Jeong would be returning.
Filming On a budget of $80 million, principal photography began on October 8, 2010, in Ontario, California with the first images of production being released a few days later. It was also reported in October that actress Heather Graham would not be reprising her role as Jade from the first film. Later in the same month it was reported that Mel Gibson would have a cameo appearance in the film as a Bangkok tattoo artist. Four days later Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures and director Todd Phillips confirmed that Gibson would not be appearing in the film. Phillips stated: "I thought Mel would have been great in the movie and I had the full backing of [WB president] Jeff Robinov and his team. But I realize filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and this decision ultimately did not have the full support of my entire cast and crew."
Liam Neeson replaced Gibson after being invited by Cooper, who worked with Neeson on The A-Team, to take the part. Neeson, a fan of the first film stated, "I just got a call to do a one-day shoot on 'Hangover 2' as a tattooist in Thailand, and that's all I know about it." Although, Neeson had filmed his scenes, his cameo was edited out when director Todd Phillips was forced to do reshoots and Neeson was not available. He was replaced by Nick Cassavetes.
In November 2010, it was reported that Jamie Chung had been cast in the film as Stu's fiancée as well as it being renamed, The Hangover Part II. In an interview director Todd Phillips revealed that Mike Tyson would be back in the sequel. Also in November, it was reported that Paul Giamatti had joined the cast. The next day it was reported that former U.S. President Bill Clinton filmed a cameo appearance for the film in Bangkok while he was in the city to deliver a speech on clean energy. Ed Helms clarified that Clinton merely visited the set and would be surprised if he appeared in the film.