- A malfunctioning time machine at a ski resort takes a man back to 1986 with his two friends and nephew, where they must relive a fateful night and not change anything to make sure the nephew is born.
- Three friends on losing streaks: Adam, whose girlfriend dumped him, Nick, with a dead-end job and a cheating wife, and Lou, a suicidal alcoholic. To help Lou recover from car-exhaust poisoning, Adam and Nick, with Adam's nephew Jacob, go to a winter resort that was their old party place. It's now a dump, but the lads rally for a night of drinking in the hot tub. Somehow, the hot tub takes them back to 1986, on a fateful night for each of them. Maybe if they do everything the same way they did that night, they'll get back to the future so Jacob can be born. There are serious temptations to do things differently. Will they make it back to their sorry lives? And what about Jacob?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
- Forty-somethings Adam Yates, Nick Webber and Lou Dorchen have been friends since they were teenagers, and even though they have each other's contact information, they, as adults, don't like to associate with each other now, and often ignore especially Lou's attempts to keep in touch. Their lives haven't turned out very well. Adam, who wants to be in love, has just been acrimoniously dumped by the latest in a long string of girlfriends. His twenty-three year old nephew, Jacob, lives in his basement since Jacob's single mother, Adam's sister Kelly, is a deadbeat. Nick once had a promising musical career, but gave that up for his wife Courtney, who rules the family. Nick now works in a dead end job in a doggie spa. And Lou lives a reckless life as an overgrown adolescent. Because of an accident which almost takes Lou's life - which the authorities believe was an attempted suicide despite Lou's denials - Adam, Nick and Jacob decide to treat Lou to a vacation weekend to Kodiak Valley, a ski resort the three friends often frequented during happier times in their life. The resort has seen better days. But they're happy that they manage to get the same hotel room they had twenty-four years earlier during Winterfest '86. After taking a dip in the hot tub in their room, they miraculously awaken back to that Winterfest with all the knowledge of their adult lives. The one person who seems to know what's going on is the hot tub maintenance man, who implies that they have to recreate their lives on that 1986 Winterfest vacation so as not to upset the future before they can be sent forward to the present. That premonition is most important to Jacob, who believes that any change to their structure will result in him not being born. But Adam, Nick and Lou have problems adhering to many of the less pleasant incidents of that vacation. But if adhering to what they did in 1986 won't change the future, they may come to the realization that making certain changes may result in a better life for themselves than the first time around, the consequences be damned.—Huggo
- Three estranged, depressed friends-Adam Yates (John Cusack), who was dumped by his girlfriend (who took everything in the breakup and burnt the rest of it); neglected husband Nick Webber-Agnew (Craig Robinson) (who took his wife's last name post marriage) working a dead-end job at a pet store (checking dog's balls and giving them health check-ups); and Lou Dorchen (Rob Corddry), an unemployed, alcoholic slacker in his 40s-reconnect in 2010 when Lou is hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning. The doctor says this might be a suicide attempt (Lou is divorced, a loser (with every attempt at a business ending in failure, no family, and a shriveled testicle) and want his friends to monitor him for a few days. To cheer him up, Adam and Nick arrange for Lou to join them and Adam's slacker nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) (who lives in Adam's basement and plays video games all day) at Kodiak Valley Ski Resort, where the three enjoyed parties in their youth, but when they travel to the town, they see many stores boarded up and the hotel run down.
During a night of heavy drinking in their hotel room's hot tub, the four douse the console with an illegal Russian energy drink called "Chernobly". The next day (Lou vomits all over a squirrel), the four go skiing, and after many unexpected occurrences (1980s fashion, music videos on MTV and Michael Jackson still being black), they realize they have traveled back to 1986. Adam (Jake Rose), Lou (Brook Bennett), and Nick (Aliu Oyofo) have also assumed their younger bodies; they appear normal to each other, but to others (and in their reflections) they look like their younger selves. Jacob's appearance has not changed since he was not born yet, though he occasionally flickers.
A cryptic hot tub repairman (Chevy Chase) appears and warns them not to change anything, as it might affect history. To minimize the butterfly effect, the gang plans to re-enact their experiences. Adam has to break up with his girlfriend Jenny (Lyndsy Fonseca) and get stabbed in the eye with a fork; Lou must pick a fight with and get beaten up by Blaine (Sebastian Stan), a ski patrol bully and have sex with a random girl; Nick must have sex with a groupie (Tara (Jessica Paré)) and perform "Careless Whisper" with his band at an open microphone event. They discover Jacob's drug-addicted mother Kelly (Collette Wolfe), Adam's sister, is also at the resort.
The guys find their tasks difficult; Lou gets punched by Blaine and loses his backpack but realizes he must face him again later at night, so he reluctantly challenges Blaine again. Adam finds his attraction to Jenny reignited and no longer wants to break up but is distracted when he meets free-spirited music journalist April (Lizzy Caplan) during the resort's Poison concert. Nick worries about cheating on his wife, even though the events occur before he even meets her. Later, Lou (who is angry that Adam reneged and changed the past by not breaking up with Jenny) tries to capitalize on his knowledge of football game outcomes; it works until he risks everything on a game-winning touchdown, only to have a squirrel from the resort (on which he vomited earlier) crash the field and ruin the play.
Jenny turns the tables on Adam when she initiates their breakup, but Adam still gets stabbed in the eye with a fork after he tries to prevent the breakup; feeling miserable, he wanders around the resort alone. He soon re-encounters April; they break into a nearby home and become intimate. Eventually April leaves on her bus. Nick changes his destiny (after admitting to Lou that Courtney (Kellee Stewart), his wife, cheated on him) by covering the more upbeat "Jessie's Girl", followed by a "preview version" of "Let's Get It Started". When the repairman informs Jacob that a chemical was the key to their time travel, Jacob realizes it was the Chernobly.
The guys prevent Lou, once again beaten up by Blaine without his friends, from falling off the rooftop. They go to Blaine's cabin (who had confiscated all of Lou backpack) to search for the drink, during which Lou finds and seduces Kelly. When Jacob interrupts Lou and Kelly having sex, Jacob suddenly vanishes. The guys realize that Lou is Jacob's father; after Lou and Kelly finish conceiving Jacob, he reappears. Leaving Kelly, Lou finally attacks Blaine; the four friends retrieve the Chernobly and return to the hot tub where they create a vortex. Jacob and Nick enter the tub, but Lou decides to stay in 1986, admitting to Adam that his carbon monoxide poisoning was a suicide attempt. Knowing the future, he wants to make investments and have a closer father-son relationship with Jacob. Adam insists upon staying, too, but Lou throws him into the vortex at the last moment.
Back at the present, Adam, Nick, and Jacob discover that Lou has changed history by founding the immensely successful Lougle (Basically Google), which affords him a luxurious lifestyle with Kelly. Adam discovers that he is happily married to April, while Nick is a successful music producer married to a loving and supportive wife. The guys reunite at Lou's mansion with their families, satisfied with their new lives.
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