Orphaned high school student Rick Riker is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, develops super powers (except for the ability to fly), and becomes a hero.
High school student Rick Riker's life has been one accident after another. Raised by his paternal uncle and his wife, Albert and Lucille Landers, in Empire City after his parents were killed in one of those accidents, Rick has only two true friends, Trey, and their next door neighbor, Jill Johnson, although he has always wished he and Jill were more than friends, she being unable to see him as boyfriend material beyond her current boyfriend, boorish Lance Landers. Otherwise, Rick is often bullied by Lance and his ilk. A series of accidents on a school field trip to the animal research facility of Amalgamated Pharmaceuticals, run by Lance's dying uncle, Lou Landers, leads to Rick getting bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, he coming to the realization after he recovers from the bite itself that it has resulted in him gaining some superhuman powers, many inherent to being a fly. Beyond needing to learn how to hone and control those powers, he having problems with what a fly of any sort inherently does, namely fly, he has to decide who to tell, he fearing telling Jill in particular would place her in danger, especially as he isn't sure if he has the heroism to become a superhero. He may have no choice but to be heroic in the residents of Empire City being under attack by someone also with superhuman powers calling himself the Hourglass. What Rick does not know is that the Hourglass is really Lou Landers, whose scientific experiment to cure himself resulted in these powers instead. However, Lou has to kill to stay alive in needing to harness the energy from those he kills, in the order of one person per day. Megalomaniac Lou learns that he has a much more desired possible goal, that of immortality through murder on a grand scale.—Huggo
Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is an unpopular student at Empire High School. He lives with his Uncle Albert (Leslie Nielsen) and Aunt Lucille (Marion Ross). He has one friend and confidant, Trey (Kevin Hart). His crush is the breathtaking, Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), who hardly notices him, is dating Lance Landers (Ryan Hansen), a bully who torments Rick. During a school field trip at an animal research lab, Rick meets Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald), who coughs up blood because he is terminally ill. Dr. Strom (Brent Spiner), the head researcher at the lab, presents his mutated dragonflies, one of which has escaped and bites Rick, and causes his neck to swell.By the time Rick returns home he is violently ill. Uncle Albert and Aunt Lucille believe Rick is acting strange, so Albert proceeds to talk to Rick about puberty, but Rick passes out from the bite. He wakes up five days later, tries to look up "dragonfly bite" online but is contacted by a stranger instead who wants to speak to him in person, later adding Rick as a friend on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Lou Landers is involved in an accident during an experiment at the lab, transforming him into Hourglass, a villainous being who can siphon the life energy from others, killing them.During a science fair at school in which a comically rude and mean-spirited Stephen Hawking (Robert Joy) is present, Rick begins to experience strange physical traits, such as becoming stuck to objects, which creates a number of mishaps during the fair. Fleeing school, he discovers has developed superhuman abilities, such as the ability to walk on walls and superhuman strength, though he repeatedly laments throughout the film that he cannot fly. After testing his abilities, he pushes an elderly woman and her dog out of the way of an out-of-control truck, colliding with the truck himself. He is congratulated by passers-by, though he notices that the elderly woman he shoved out of the way landed into a wood-chipper and crushed, with her dog still on its leash.
Rick reveals his secret to his uncle and Trey and the latter offers to become his sidekick, but Rick refuses. He and Uncle Albert have an argument, which spurs a flashback sequence in which a younger Rick and his parents (Robert Hays and Nicole Sullivan) are mugged in an alley and die in a spoof of Batman Begins. With his dying words, his father urges him to sell all his shares in Google but invest heavily in Enron.
Later, after seeing Jill and Lance leave in Lance's Porsche Cayman, Rick, who desires a car of his own, goes to a bank, where he is denied a loan. A bank robber then holds up the bank and after Rick fails to stop him, Uncle Albert is shot and hospitalized. Jill visits Rick at the hospital, kisses him in an attempt to cheer him up. Meanwhile Landers accidentally takes his secretary's life energy, killing her.
Rick is met by Xavier (Tracy Morgan) at his school for mutants Ala X-Men where he meets Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, the Invisible Woman and Mrs. Xavier. Rick is told to make a costume by Mrs. Xavier and adopts the identity of the Dragonfly. The first version of the skin-tight Dragonfly costume completely covers his head and face so he can't see or breathe, causing him to panic. The final revision has eye, mouth, and nose openings. He meets the Human Torch but fails to fly. Dragonfly quickly becomes a media sensation, fights and gets badly injured by Hourglass who manages to escape stealing a canister of Cerillium.
Jill is attacked by muggers, but Dragonfly saves her. Just after Dragonfly defeats the last of the thugs, Jill tells Dragonfly he saved her life, and shyly asks Dragonfly if she can thank him with a kiss. Just before she can kiss him, Dragonfly slides down, so he has a perfect view down Jill's shirt.
Jill lifts him back up, but he goes over the building, leaving Jill alone. Dragonfly tries to kiss Jill again but decides to fight more crime to impress her. Landers plans to construct a machine that will kill 42 thousand people and give him enough life energy to make him immortal. During a Thanksgiving dinner at the Rikers', Landers manages to learn his secret identity. Just as Rick and Jill are about to kiss, the Hourglass appears and murders Aunt Lucille. Uncle Albert recovers, and after a comical funeral, Rick decides to end his superhero career, though Trey and Uncle Albert convince him to find Hourglass, who plans to kill countless innocent people.
At an awards ceremony to honor achievements in feminine hygiene, Landers is presented with a Douchebag Of The Year Award. Although Rick goes to the ceremony too, Landers tricks him into thinking that the Dalai Lama is Hourglass, which leads to a brawl in the ceremony hall involving all the attendees, including Buddhist monks, the Pope and Stephen Hawking. During this, Jill discovers that Landers is Hourglass. In a nearby hall there is a superhero convention where a flying machine awaits Hourglass. Landers gets in the convention hall and changes into Hourglass as Rick gets into his Dragonfly costume and fights him. When Hourglass tries to finish off Dragonfly, Jill attempts to intervene and is critically injured. Hourglass flies off with the machine to the rooftop where he activates the machine to steal the life-force from all the attendees of the ceremony and the convention.
After Stephen Hawking implores Rick not to give up, using a rationale that Rick points out are the lyrics to Celine Dion's "Taking Chances", he dons the Dragonfly suit, and battles the Hourglass on the rooftop. Dragonfly siphons off some of Hourglass's stolen life-force to heal Jill, but the Hourglass throws a bomb at Dragonfly, with the bomb sticking to Dragonfly's crotch. He back-flips several times, finally managing to stick the bomb to Hourglass. Stuck to his invention, he shouts "Oh, f**k!", with the bomb detonating and killing him.
Jill falls off the roof, but Dragonfly jumps off after her. After he grabs her and reveals that he is Rick, Jill tells him that she loves him, and they passionately kiss, and Rick finally grows wings. He flies them away, landing on the rooftop where Uncle Albert and Stephen Hawking await them. While they walk away, Hawking's wheelchair gets stuck and hits the ledge sending Hawking to a free-fall. Rick and Jill fly once more but they are hit by a helicopter.
