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Plot Summary

Discover the intricate plot of The In-Laws (2003). From unexpected twists to emotional highs and lows, this detailed summary breaks down every moment to give you a deeper understanding of the film’s story.


Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) is an undercover agent of the CIA whose son, Mark (Ryan Reynolds), is marrying Melissa Peyser (Lindsay Sloane). Steve is married to Judy Tobias (Candice Bergen). Steve has told at home that he is a xerox salesman. Steve and Judy don’t get along at all.

Melissa’s father is mild-mannered foot doctor, Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks). Jerry is married to Katherine Peyser (Maria Ricossa).

When the two families meet for dinner, Peyser stumbles on to Steve Tobias’ secret operation as Tobias tries to set up a deal to sell a Russian submarine, the Olga, to an arms smuggler in France as bait to catch arms smugglers. Steve had forgot about the dinner with the in-laws and so he decided to meet the buyer of the submarine at a oriental restaurant, owned by his friend Quan Lee (Chang Tseng).

Angela Harris (Robin Tunney) is working with Tobias on this mission, but Tobias never allows her to take the lead, saying that she is not ready yet. Steve meets with Yadira (Tamara Gorski) in the men’s bathroom of the restaurant to broker the deal in 4 days. But Yadira wants Steve to bring the proof to the buyer Jean-Pierre Thibodoux (David Suchet) in France, before he pays. While this negotiation is happening, Jerry walks in and overhears everything. They are attacked by FBI agents who think Steve is a rouge CIA agent, forcing Steve to fight them off.

Mark knows that Steve is CIA and wants him to fix things with Jerry. The seller of the submarine is Cherkasov (Vladimir Radian), a Russian arms agent (& Kingpin of the Russian mob) was earlier the commander of the Russian fleet.

Steve reaches out to Jerry at work. Steve hides the submarines nuclear signature (The fissile nuclear waste from the submarine’s reactor) in Jerry’s coat, and this prompts Jerry to be arrested by the FBI. Jerry is suspected by the FBI (led by Agent Will Hutchins (Russell Andrews)) of being part of a seemingly malicious deal. Steve rescues Jerry and also recovers the submarine signature from the FBI car in which Jerry was being transported.

Steve tells Jerry that he and Angela are the CIA. He has no option but to take Jerry with him for the meeting with Thibodoux. Thibodoux is a smuggler and wants a stealth nuclear submarine, so he can move drugs, arms and everything else all over the world, without anyone being able to detect his shipments.

Thibodoux hands over $170 MM to Steve and the deal is set to go down on Sunday, the day of Mark’s wedding when the buyer and the seller will meet each other in Chicago. Steve introduces Jerry as Fat Cobra, a legendary assassin with a fat dick. While Thibodoux spends time with Jerry, Steve infiltrates Thibodoux’s private office and steals his client list from his computer. Jerry bonds with Thibodoux by fixing his foot problem.

Jerry calls the FBI from Thibodoux’s phone and is told that Steve is a rouge agent, who was let go by the CIA. Jerry gives them the location of the rehearsal dinner, but Steve finds out and has to shift the rehearsal dinner to a different location. The FBI gets the new location, but Steve had randomized the elevators and thus they could never get to the right floor. The agents finally take the stairs and when they get to the top floor, Steve escapes with Jerry, jumping off the roof with a parachute.

Steve gets tired of juggling his work and personal life and knows that this is impacting Mark’s life now. He asks Angela to put off the deal by a few hours, so he can focus on the wedding and complete the deal by night. The next day, as they are about to enter the wedding venue, Will arrives to arrest them, but Steve convinces him to postpone the arrest by 2 hours by showing him pics of Will cross dressing in college (he claims he was pledging).

Inside, Steve and Jerry can’t find Mark and Melissa. Turns out Angela was working with Thibodoux all along. They have abducted Mark and Melissa. Cherkasov is dead, and they want the sub as well as the money. Angela and Thibodoux escape with the money. But Mark and Steve team together and chase them.

Thibodoux takes a rubber boat to the sub, and dumps Angela along the way. Thibodoux fires a torpedo at the wedding (which was near Lake Michigan), but Steve and Jerry intercept the acoustic torpedo in a jet ski (which makes the most noise) and guide it back towards the submarine, blowing it up. The blast generates a water shock wave that washes out the entire wedding.

The wedding is washed out, and when Will comes to arrest Steve, he reveals his identity and asks Will to officiate the wedding. Steve reveals to Jerry that he never returned the entire $170 MM to Thibodoux.

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