Kangaroo Jack - Plot

Plot

In the summer of 1982, a boy named Charlie Carbone (Robert Reid) is about to become the stepson of a mobster named Salvatore Maggio (Christopher Walken). On that same day, he meets his new best friend, Louis Booker (Shawn Smith), who saves him from drowning. The mobster's apprentice, a recently released ex-con named Frankie Lombardo (Brian Casey), had tried to drown Charlie intentionally by throwing a football deep into the surf, which would make it look like he wasn't responsible.

Twenty years later, in 2002, Charlie (Jerry O'Connell) has his own beauty salon. Yet, Sal's goons arrive every week and take at least 80% of the profits, barely letting Charlie keep enough money for future improvements. Louis (Anthony Anderson) is still Charlie's best friend. After they botch the job of hiding some stolen goods (resulting in some of Sal's men getting arrested and many of his stolen goods being recovered by police), Sal gives Charlie and Louis one more chance. Under the instructions of Frankie (Michael Shannon), they have to deliver a package on the next flight to Sydney, then to Coober Pedy to meet a man named Mr. Smith. Frankie also tells them that if they should run into any trouble, they should call Mr. Smith at the cell phone number, that he gives them. Unbeknown to Charlie and Louis, Sal tells his Capo that he is "cancelling their return trip". On the plane, Louis peeks into the package, only to find $50,000.

Whilst driving through the Australian Outback (on their way to Mr. Smith), Charlie and Louis inadvertently run over a red kangaroo, and seemingly killing it. Louis feels interested and puts his "lucky jacket" on the kangaroo with Charlie's sunglasses; they think that the kangaroo looks like Jackie Leggs, one of Sal's goons. When they are taking the picture, the kangaroo then comes back to consciousness and hops away, with just one problem: The $50,000 was in the jacket. Charlie and Louis hop into the jeep and chase the kangaroo attempting to grab the money from the jacket on the kangaroo, but the ensuing chase ends with the duo driving through a field of termite mounds and crashing into a pile of rocks. When they reach a nearby bar called the Old Alice Inn in Alice Springs Louis calls Mr. Smith (Csokas) and tells him about the situation. Mr. Smith maliciously tells Louis that they had better have his money when he comes after them or he'll kill them and feed them to saltwater crocodiles.

Louis gets advice from a local animal sanctuary and is told by Jessie (Estella Warren) that the best way to catch the kangaroo is to shoot it with a tranquillizer dart fired from the air. They enlist the help of an alcoholic bushplane pilot named Blue (Hunter). Unfortunately, an unexpected jolt causes Louis to shoot Blue with the dart rather than the kangaroo, and the plane crashes. When Blue radios for help, his air traffic controller, Tansy (Roberts), has been taken hostage by Mr. Smith's minions and, upon hearing the location of the aircraft, they destroy the radio, gag Tansy and head off in that direction.

Back in New York City, Sal gets a call from Mr. Smith, saying that Charlie and Louis haven't arrived yet. Thus, Sal sends Frankie and his minions to Australia to look into this. When Frankie and his minions arrive in Sydney, they're met by a man called Mr Jimmy who drives them into the desert.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Louis attempt to reclaim the money, but end up stranded in the desert. They are met with many adversities including a pack of wild dingoes, a sand storm, and then Charlie starts to hallucinate because of the heat. He first sees their jeep and starts to relax in it, but then realizes it is a mirage. They finally get rescued by Jessie, who Charlie thinks is another mirage, so he foolishly grabs her breasts. Jessie knocks him out, and he has a delusion about the kangaroo, who starts rapping in front of him. After he awakens, he asks Jessie to help them find the missing animal. She declines at first, but when Charlie offers to pay her, she graciously accepts. The next morning, they set out on camels to find the kangaroo.

Quite unexpectedly, they get attacked by Mr. Smith and his henchmen. Jessie learns the truth about the money and offers to lead Smith to the kangaroo. Smith accepts the offer and Charlie and Louis are led off by Smith's henchmen. However, the two friends manage to outsmart their captors, and return to rescue Jessie. Charlie has a brief confrontation with Smith before Frankie arrives. Though a welcome sight at first, Frankie turns his gun on Charlie and Louis, stating that "Sal isn't happy" and that Charlie has "screwed up final straw big".

However, luck intervenes when a fight between Frankie and Mr. Smith escalates into a full on brawl between the two men's henchmen and themselves. Jessie, Louis, and Charlie escape in the chaos, but Frankie and his men give pursuit. During the chase, Louis manages to get the package back from the kangaroo, but goes off a cliff in the process.

Charlie manages to save Louis from falling to his death, and at first they rejoice at having gotten the money back. Frankie arrives and Charlie attempts to return the money, but Frankie reveals that Sal really sent Charlie and Lewis to Australia to pay for their own execution at the hands of Mr. Smith. All of a sudden, Mr. Jimmy (who turns out to have been an undercover police officer) and the police arrive and arrest Frankie, Mr. Smith, and their respective minions and Charlie reclaims Louis' lucky jacket from the kangaroo telling Louis that if he had not put the jacket on the kangaroo, they would' ve delivered the money to Smith, and he would've killed them both, Charlie also claims that the jacket is truly lucky.

One year later, Charlie and Jessie are married and sell their new shampoo and they put a picture of Jack on the bottle, Frankie and his men are imprisoned for life which Sal Maggio has also failed at avoiding, and Louis is currently Charlie's advertising partner. As for the kangaroo (now called Kangaroo Jack), he is still hopping around the outback.