Ralph Breaks the Internet
Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) have been best friends since their misadventures six years prior, hanging out every night after work in Litwak's Family Fun Center and Arcade. While Ralph is content with his current life as he was without friends for 27 years, Vanellope admits to being bored with her game's predictability and wishes for something new. Mr. Litwak installs a new Wi-Fi router in the arcade. However, the game characters are told that the internet is dangerous and are explicitly told not to enter the Wi-Fi router through the power switchboard which connects the various games and allows the characters to mingle after the arcade day is over. The next day, Ralph attempts to fulfill her desires by creating a secret bonus track during a race. Vanellope overrides player control to test it out, but the resulting conflict between her and the player results with the cabinet's steering wheel being broken. Since the company that made Sugar Rush is defunct, one of the kids finds a replacement for Mr. Litwak (Ed O'Neill) on eBay. Unfortunately, Mr. Litwak finds it too expensive and has no choice but to unplug Sugar Rush, leaving the game's characters homeless. The new part cost $200 on eBay and Mr. Litwak says that is more than what the game makes in a full year. Mr Litwak would sell the arcade machine for parts to a salvage guy by the coming Friday. The Surge Protector finds homes for all Sugar Rush's citizens as a short-term measure as they figure out how to save the game, with Felix and Calhoun (Jane Lynch) the lead character of Hero's Duty, adopting the racers, all 15 of them. Vanellope is distraught and tells Ralph that she really loved her game, even though it was unpredictable. She says that she cannot imagine going through her day without her game. Later that night, after conversing with Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer), Ralph decides to enter the internet via Mr. Litwak's recently installed Wi-Fi router to obtain the new wheel on eBay. Internet is a place where websites are represented as buildings in a sprawling city, avatars represent users, and programs are people. The search engine KnowsMore (Alan Tudyk) who has an aggressive auto-fill function, redirects them to eBay, where they win the auction for the steering wheel by unintentionally spiking the price to US$27,001 only to find they have just 24 hours to raise the funds, or they will lose the bid and the wheel. The two turn to a pop-up advertiser named Spamley (Bill Hader) who brokers items obtained from video games, to quickly make money. Spamley takes them to their site and introduces them to the world of loot hunting. Spamley provides a platform for people to sell their looted treasure from games to other humans who need it, and they pay good money for it. They receive a lucrative job of stealing a valuable car belonging to Shank (Gal Gadot) the lead character in the popular racing-centered Battle Royale game Slaughter Race. The car pays $40,000 on Spamley's site which is enough to buy the wheel from eBay and to save Sugar Rush. Ralph and Vanellope steal the car but are forced to return it when Shank chases them all over the game and forces them to stop. Shank compliments Vanellope's driving skills and points the duo towards Yesss (Taraji P. Henson) at BuzzzTube. Yesss is an algorithm that determines the trending videos on BuzzzTube, a portmanteau of YouTube and BuzzFeed. Yesss informs Ralph that he made $43 from his previous video, but now that video is tapped out and would not make any more. This is where Ralph decides to make a series of viral videos playing off popular trends to get the money. Trending topics include human suffering, hot pepper eating challenges, video game walk-through, screaming goats, removing gadgets from their packaging, cooking demonstrations, makeup tutorials, and bee puns. They decide to make more videos, which will earn them the money for the wheel if they attract enough views. Ralph needs 200 million hearts in the next 5 hours to make enough money to save Vanellope's game. As Ralph's videos become a viral sensation, an excited Vanellope joins Yesss's staff in spamming users with pop-up ads. A concerned Ralph convinces Yesss to send Vanellope to a Disney fan-site, where she meets the Disney Princesses Cinderella (Jennifer Hale), Aurora (Kate Higgins), Ariel (Jodi Benson), Belle (Paige O'Hara), Jasmine (Linda Larkin), Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), Mulan (Ming-Na Wen), Tiana (Anika Noni Rose), Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), Merida (Kelly Macdonald), Anna (Kristen Bell), Elsa (Idina Menzel), Moana (Auli Cravalho) and Snow White (Pamela Ribon) while escaping from First Order Stormtroopers, for unauthorized advertising. The princesses identify with Vanellope when she says that everybody assumes that her problems are solved when a big strong man shows up. Vanellope is given the title of Queen of the comfy due to her comfortable clothes which the other princesses get made for themselves. Vanellope befriends the princesses and is encouraged by them to address her sense of non-fulfillment, reaching a musical epiphany when Ralph calls her upon earning the money to purchase the wheel. When Vanellope does not show up at eBay as he bought the item, Ralph's second call causes him to overhear her confessing to Shank she wants to stay in Slaughter Race because its unpredictability and challenges made her feel so alive. Horrified at the thought of Vanellope leaving him, Ralph turns to Spamley for a way to make Slaughter Race too boring for Vanellope by slowing everything down. Spamley takes Ralph to meet Double Dan (Alfred Molina) a half-worm virus creator who inhabits the dark web, and he gives him an Insecurity Virus which replicates any flaw it finds. When Ralph unleashes the virus in Slaughter Race, it unexpectedly replicates Vanellope's glitch across the game, triggering a server reboot and forcing Ralph to rescue Vanellope before the reboot deletes her from the game. Vanellope assumes the crash was her fault, but a guilty Ralph confesses to her what he had done. Feeling betrayed, she takes the hero medal she made him six years prior and throws it away. While Ralph rushes to recover the medal, which was now broken in half, the Insecurity Virus scans him and duplicates his personality flaws. This results in a legion of Ralph clones that destroy the Internet on a rampant search for Vanellope. The real Ralph finds her, and they work with Yesss to lead the clones into an anti-virus software. However, the clones collect into a giant automaton of Ralph and foil their plan. Seeing that Ralph is fighting a losing battle, Vanellope surrenders herself, but Ralph refuses to accept this. He confronts his clones by admitting to his insecurities and tells the automaton a physical separation does not mean the end of their friendship. With his insecurities resolved, the clones disintegrate, and the Internet is restored, while Ralph is saved from falling to his death by the combined efforts of the Disney Princesses. Later, Shank arranges for Vanellope to re-spawn in Slaughter Race, allowing her to stay. Ralph gives her half of his broken medal and returns to the arcade. As Sugar Rush is plugged back in, Ralph comes to terms with Vanellope's absence as he begins participating in social activities with other game characters while staying in touch with Vanellope through video chats.
Read more →
