Meet The Parents

Gaylord M. "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) is a nurse living in Chicago. He intends to propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), a schoolteacher. His plans are disrupted by the news that Pam's sister Debbie (Nicole DeHuff) is getting married and Greg and Pam are invited to spend the weekend before the wedding at Pam's parents' house in Oyster Bay, New York (on Long Island). Hoping to make the best of the situation, Greg now plans to propose to Pam in front of her family and brings the engagement ring he bought for Pam with him. At the Byrnes family home, Greg meets Pam's father Jack (Robert De Niro), mother Dina (Blythe Danner) and their beloved cat Mr. Jinx. Jack takes an instant dislike towards Greg and, subtly at first but more openly as time goes by, criticizes Greg for his choice of career as a male nurse and anything else he sees as a difference between Greg and the Byrnes family. Greg's surname remains a running gag throughout the film as characters frequently refer to Greg by his surname only. Greg desperately tries to impress Jack but his efforts fail one by one. Greg presents the family with a bottle of cheap champagne he purchased at a local drug store; while trying to open the bottle, the cork flies out of the bottle and hits the urn containing the ashes of Jack's beloved mother, breaking the urn and spilling the ashes on the ground, which Mr. Jinx then uses as a litter box, upsetting Jack even further. Greg becomes even more uncomfortable after he receives an impromptu lie detector test from Jack and later learns from Pam that her father is a retired CIA operative and not a florist. Adding to Greg's problems is the fact that the airline company lost his bag in which he packed the engagement ring thereby putting on hold his plans to propose to Pam. Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, including Pam's ex-boyfriend Kevin Rawley (Owen Wilson), Greg still feels like an outsider. Despite honest efforts to impress the family, Greg keeps doing things to make himself an easy target for ridicule and even anger; he inadvertently causes Debbie a broken nose and a black eye just before her wedding, he uses a malfunctioning toilet and causes the Byrnes' back yard to become flooded with sewage, he sets on fire a wedding altar that was recently delivered to the Byrnes' home back yard, and several misunderstandings cause Jack to believe Greg is a marijuana user. Later, Greg inadvertently lets Jinx out of the house and is unable to catch him again. As the terrified Byrnes family launches into a frenzied search, Greg, desperate to prove himself worthy to the family, finds a similar stray cat at a local animal shelter and spray paints its tail to make it look like Jinxie. Hailed as a hero, Greg quickly becomes the villain again when a neighbour of the Byrnes' calls with the news that Jinx wandered into the house next door and Jack discovers Greg's cover up scheme. By now, the entire Byrnes family, including Pam, agrees that it's best for Greg to leave Long Island until the wedding is concluded. Unwillingly, Greg leaves in order to go to the airport where he is detained by airport security for insisting that his bag, the same one previously lost by the airline company, stay with him rather than be checked. Back at the Byrnes household, Jack tries to convince Pam that Greg was lying to her about everything and, as proof, he explains that his friends at the CIA were unable to find proof of anyone named "Greg Focker" ever taking the MCAT which Greg claimed he had passed (with the initial intention of becoming a doctor). Upon learning that Greg's real first name is Gaylord and being presented with proof from Pam that he did in fact pass the test, Jack realizes that Pam loves Greg and that she wants to marry him. Jack rushes to the airport, convinces the airport security to release Greg and brings him back to the Byrnes household to a grateful Pam. As Greg is proposing to Pam, Jack and Dina listen in on their conversation from another room, agreeing that everything did, in fact, turn out in the best interest of their daughter and the only thing left to do is to meet Greg's parents. After the conclusion of Debbie and Bob's wedding, the film ends with Jack viewing footage of Greg recorded by hidden cameras that Jack had placed strategically around the house. One of which is Greg, looking at the camera, well aware that Jack is watching him and is calling him out.