Summaries

Synopsis

Tim Dingman (Ben Stiller) and Nick Vanderpark (Jack Black) are best friends, neighbors and co-workers at 3M. Tim has been recently promoted at work, while Nick has received a performance evaluation which says that he is not focused enough on work. Due to his promotion, Tim has received a new fancy chair, which has excellent lumbar support.Nick is constantly coming up with crazy ideas to get rich quick. Tim is the voice of reason and tells Nick all the reasons why his crazy invention ideas are not practical and would not work. One day, while returning from work, Nick observes a dog owner having to clean after his dog. Nick thinks about inventing a canned spray to make dog turds disappear.Nick works with a research scientist Dimitriov to create a working prototype of his product. Tim is skeptical since he cannot understand how the product works and where does the feces disappear to. Nick asks Tim to go 50/50 for the next stage of the invention, which requires an investment of $4000. Tim's wife Debbie was excited about the idea and wanted to invest, but Tim says that matter cannot simply disappear.Soon, Nick performs a demonstration of the product, and it works just as intended. Tim is dumbfounded.

18 months later, Nick has invented Vapoorize, a spray that instantly removes dog feces, and he actually succeeds. Nick is now selling the product on live TV. He now lives in a huge mansion (right in front of Tim, where his old house used to be) with his family. Nick even has a horse named Corkey, who always comes to Tim's yard to eat his apples.As Nick's wealth continues to grow, so does Tim's envy, as he had initially scoffed at the idea and squandered an opportunity to invest and become mega-rich himself. Nick is blissfully unaware of Tim's jealousy, and his generosity only serves to make Tim more envious of him.Tim is increasingly self-conscious and goes into a tirade when any of his kids (Mike or Lula) question him about their relative lack of wealth as compared to Nick's family. Nick no longer has to work and spends all the time with his family.Meanwhile Nick's wife Natalie (Amy Poehler) decides to run for state senate but is continually plagued by questions about her husband's product. Natalie has decided to make environment as her main campaign platform. The people want to know where the dog turd goes to.

Tim's wife Debbie (Rachel Weisz) and children temporarily leave (as Debbie cannot stand to look at Tim), and he is fired from 3M (as his focus has nosedived recently), after Tim's jealousy reaches new levels and he has angry tirade at his boss when questioned about his lack of focus.Tim also has to cancel the pool as he now has no money to pay the contractors (who had already dug a hole in Tim's backyard). Meanwhile Nick has just acquired a new Vineyard.To drown his sorrows, Tim goes to a bar for the first time in his life. In a bar he meets J-Man (Christopher Walken), a bizarre drifter, who lends a sympathetic ear and offers advice. J-Man tells Tim to shake things up with Tim and sends him home in a taxi.After a drunken night out, Tim believes that he accidentally kills Nick's beloved horse, Corkey. Tim was shooting arrows, and he suddenly finds Corkey dead in his backyard with an arrow stuck in his body. Tim buries the horse in his abandoned swimming pool.J-Man comes by to return Tim's car. The same morning, Debbie returns home with the kids and is determined to focus on what she has with Tim.

Nick offers a $50,000 reward for the return of his horse. J-Man and Tim concoct a plan whereby J-Man would discover the dead horse and claim the reward, splitting the proceeds. J-Man decides to move the horse to a different location while Tim is enjoying a family vacation with his family at J-Man's cabin by the lake.The endeavor is hit by a series of unfortunate events, including the sequestering of Tim's family in J-Man's mountain cabin. The car could not drive up to the cabin and the family had to hike through a mountain to get there, only to find that it wasn't very nice to begin with.Then Tim is called back to the house by J-Man to help with putting the horse on the flatbed of J-Man's truck. But J-Man's truck is too high, so they load the horse on the top of Tim's mini-van. J-Man makes him drive way out of town to make sure that the horse is not discovered by anyone else and it starts raining. This leads to the horse's carcass being lost in a rainstorm.

Nick reveals to Tim that he is going to Rome for the debut of Vapoorize there and gives Tim the opportunity to join him in a 50:50 partnership, which he accepts. J-Man finds out that Tim is now rich, and, feeling betrayed, tries to blackmail him. After confessing to his wife, now enjoying her rich lifestyle, Tim agrees to pay J-Man; however, J-Man ups his demands and asks to be Tim's partner. Tim accidentally shoots him in the back with an arrow and J-Man, believing that Tim has tried to kill him, backs down in fear.

Tim eventually confesses all to Nick who forgives him for his jealousy and agrees to continue with the partnership. However, at a press conference for Debbie's electoral campaign (where she promises to withdraw her candidacy if it is proven Vapoorize is harmful to the environment in any way), Corkey's body is seen floating down the nearby river, and the animal's Post-Mortem discovers that the horse was not killed by the arrow as previously thought but actually poisoned by a by-product of Vapoorize, used by Tim to treat his garden after Corkey came to eat the apples off of his tree.The veterinarian informs the pair that she is obliged to inform the Environmental Protection Agency, and Vapoorize is immediately pulled from the market.

Nick and Tim almost lose all their wealth and glory-until Tim comes up with an invention of his own: Pocket Flan, inspired by Nick and his family's love for the dessert.J-Man is shown in the audience of Tim and Nick's infomercial for Pocket Flan, apparently reconciled.