Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frosst) are a pair of British science-fiction enthusiasts who travel to the States for the San Diego Comic-Con. Clive hopes to write his own S.F. book, to be illustrated by Graeme. On the way to the convention, they take a road-trip through the American Southwest to visit several UFO sites and find themselves on a remote desert highway at night. They encounter some homophobic rednecks at a diner, and then they witness a car-crash. They stop to help and find Paul (voice of Seth Rogen), who is a genuine alien visitor to Earth. Clive faints and wets his pants in shock, and Graeme offers Paul a ride.
Sometime later, Special Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) shows up at the crash site, reporting to his boss, The Big Guy, that he nearly has Paul in custody. The Big Guy is Sigourney Weaver and she sends a couple of rookie agents named Haggard (Bill Hader) and O’Reilly (Jo Lo Truglio), to help. Clive is paranoid about Paul, fearing an alien invasion, but Paul explains that his image has been used to get the public familiar with aliens so they don’t panic. They stop at an RV park run by Christian fundamentalists, Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig) and her father Moses (John Carroll Lynch). When Ruth sees Paul, she faints, so they take her with them. Paul talks her into questioning her beliefs and cures her blindness.
She calls her father at a bar, but Agent Zoil monitors the call. She is accosted by rednecks and a bar-fight begins. Paul terrorizes them into fainting. At another RV park, agent Zoil questions Ruth, but she plays dumb and escapes. Haggard and O’Reilly understand about Paul and confront Zoil, who orders them to stand down, but they set out to capture Paul on their own. At the home of Tara Walton (Blythe Danner) they learn that she rescued Paul when his ship crashed, killing her dog. No-one has ever believed her story and she is a pariah. Haggard and O’Reilly and Zoil arrive and surround the house. Their attack ignites gas from the stove, destroying the house and killing O’Reilly. Haggard chases the fugitives and drives off a cliff. Zoil tells The Big Guy that he has it all under control, but she orders a military response.
The fugitives arrive at Devil’s Tower (Where else?) and set off fireworks to signal Paul’s mothership. Agents arrive in a helicopter. Zoil shoots the agents because he was an unknown ally of Paul, but Zoil is wounded. Tara knocks out The Big Guy. Moses shows up and shoots at Paul, but hits Graeme instead. Paul uses his healing powers on him and Moses believes Paul to be the Messiah. Graham and Ruth lock lips, but The Big Guy holds everyone at gunpoint until she is crushed by Paul’s transport ship. Paul says farewell to his friends and offers to take Tara with him. The aliens go home and their human friends wave good-bye. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, and Ruth peddle their bestselling book, Paul, at Comic-Con.
The film was directed by Greg Mottola from a screenplay by Simon Pegg and Nick Frosst. It was produced by Working Title Films, StudioCanal, Big Talk Pictures, and Relativity Media, and distributed by Universal. It received generally good reviews. It cost 40 million and grossed 98 million and received several nominations. Pegg and Frosst made the film in honor of Steven Spielberg and he has a voice cameo in it. The film was quite funny, as expected with all those comedians on board. It received some criticism for the use of so many clichés, but it was a parody, after all. It does not compare with Shaun of the Dead, perhaps, but was a fun road-trip movie, and it makes fun of the UFO and Alien tropes we know so well. It is chock full of musical and spoken references to movies we love. The humour is a bit juvenile, but when we have Simon Pegg and Nick Frosst and Seth Rogen, we’re not really expecting Cary Grant sophistication, are we?. Everyone was obviously having fun, particularly Sigourney Weaver.