The Lego Movie (2014)

The Lego Movie is a 2014 3D computer-animated adventure comedy[8] film written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a story by Lord, Miller and Dan and Kevin Hageman. Based on the Lego line of construction toys, the story focuses on an ordinary Lego minifigure who finds himself helping a resistance stop a tyrannical businessman from gluing everything in the Lego world into his vision of perfection. Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman provide their voices for the film's main characters.

The first film produced by the Warner Animation Group, The Lego Movie was released on February 7, 2014 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It became a critical and commercial success, grossing $469 million worldwide against a $60 million budget and receiving praise for its visual style, humor, voice acting and heartwarming message. The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film; it was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Everything Is Awesome".

The film has since expanded into a major franchise which ties into the Lego brand, with a sequel, entitled The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, scheduled for release on February 8, 2019. A spin-off film, The Lego Batman Movie, was released to theaters on February 10, 2017, with a second spin-off, The Lego Ninjago Movie, released September 22, 2017. A third spin-off, The Billion Brick Race, is in development. A 4D film based on the film itself, entitled The Lego Movie: 4D - A New Adventure, was released to Legoland parks across the world after its premiere at Legoland Florida on January 29, 2016.

The film is dedicated to Kathleen Fleming, the former director of entertainment development of the Lego company, following her death in Cancún, Mexico in April 2013.[9][10]

Plot
In the Lego universe, populated by anthropomorphic minifigures, the evil Lord Business finds a super-weapon called the "Kragle". The wizard Vitruvius attempts to stop him, but is blinded by Business's robots. Before Business leaves with the weapon, Vitruvius prophesies that someone called "The Special" will find the "Piece of Resistance", a brick capable of stopping the Kragle.

Eight-and-a-half years later, in the city of Bricksburg, ordinary construction worker Emmet Brickowski notices a mysterious woman searching for something at his construction site. When he investigates, Emmet falls into a hole and finds the Piece of Resistance. Compelled to touch it, Emmet experiences vivid visions and passes out. He awakens with the Piece of Resistance attached to his back, in the custody of Good Cop/Bad Cop, Lord Business's lieutenant.

The woman, who introduces herself as Wyldstyle, rescues Emmet, believing him to be the Special, and takes him to meet Vitruvius in the Old West. Emmet learns Wyldstyle and Vitruvius are "Master Builders"[11] – people capable of building anything from their imagination without the need of instructions – who oppose Business. Wyldstyle explains that Business wants to use the Kragle (a tube of Krazy Glue with a weathered label) to freeze the world into perfection. Though disappointed to find Emmet is not a Master Builder, Wyldstyle and Vitruvius are convinced of his potential when he recalls visions of a seemingly human deity referred to as "The Man Upstairs".

Emmet, Wyldstyle and Vitruvius evade Bad Cop's forces with the aid of Batman, Wyldstyle's boyfriend. They go to the hidden realm of Cloud Cuckoo Land to attend a council of Master Builders, all of whom are unimpressed with Emmet and refuse to fight Business. Bad Cop's forces invade Cloud Cuckoo Land, having placed a tracking device on Emmet, and capture everyone except Emmet, Wyldstyle, Batman, Vitruvius, and a small group of other Master Builders, and Cloud Cuckoo Land is destroyed. Emmet devises a plan to infiltrate Business's office tower and disarm the Kragle with help from Princess Unikitty and the pirate Metalbeard. The plan goes well at first, but the group ends up captured and imprisoned in the Think Tank, where all the Master Builders are forced to make instructions. Vitruvius resists but is decapitated by Business, who sets a self-destruct protocol and leaves everyone to die, including Bad Cop.

As he dies, Vitruvius reveals he made up the prophecy. He soon reappears to Emmet as a ghost and reveals self-belief is what makes one the Special. Strapped to the self-destruct mechanism's battery, Emmet jumps into the abyss outside the tower and severs the connection, saving his friends. Inspired by Emmet's sacrifice, Wyldstyle rallies the Lego people across the universe to build machines and weapons to fight against Lord Business's army of Micro Managers. Meanwhile, Bad Cop allies himself with the Master Builders.

Emmet finds himself in the human world as a Lego mini-figure, unable to move. The events of the story are being played out by a boy named Finn on his father's expansive Lego set in their basement. His father, "The Man Upstairs", comes home from work and is horrified to see his son "ruining" his ideal setup by combining different playsets and ignoring the instructions, and immediately proceeds to undo Finn's changes and permanently glue the pieces together. Realizing the danger his friends are in, Emmet wills himself to move and gains Finn's attention.

Finn returns Emmet and the Piece of Resistance to the set, where Emmet now possesses the powers of a Master Builder and confronts Business in Bricksburg. Meanwhile, Finn's father looks at his son's creations and realizes Finn had based the villainous Lord Business on him and his perfectionism. Through a speech Emmet gives Business, Finn's father comes to his senses and apologizes to his son, and the two unglue the constructions with mineral spirits, which plays out as Business having a change of heart and freeing his victims. Emmet is hailed as a hero and begins a romantic relationship with Wyldstyle with Batman's blessing.

Finn's father then allows Finn's younger sister Bianca to join them in playing with his Lego sets as well, resulting in aliens from the planet Duplon beaming down to the Lego world and announcing their plans to destroy everyone.