Hello, I’m your personal SPOILER robot.
The movie takes place in San Franstokyo, where apparently the Japanese invaded and took over America. Or at least California. And it’s clear Japan did the invading because Japanese culture is more prominent than American culture. It’s a future where robotics is everything and everyone wants to get into the top programs. And a world where people bet lots of money on robot fights.
(I’ve actually learned that the backstory is that after the 1906 Earthquake, Japanese immigrants rebuilt San Francisco and imbued it with a lot of Japanese influence. Apparently everyone was totally cool with this even though Americans were as distrusting of immigrants as we are now).
Like Hiro (Ryan Potter), a teenage genius who has already graduated high school. We meet him at a robot fight, where he manages to surprise a fierce opponent. The opponent threatens to beat him up, but Hiro is rescued by his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney). Determined to deter his brother from a life of illegal bot fights, Tadashi takes Hiro to visit his school—San Franstokyo Institute of Technology (SFIT).
There, he introduces Hiro to his friends: Go-Go (Jamie Chung), an adrenaline junkie who uses her knowledge to satisfy her need for speed; Wasabi (Damon Wayans, Jr.), a neat-freak who focuses on lasers; Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez), a chemist who is a cock-eyed optimist; and Fred (T.J. Miller), who is just the school mascot. Hiro is impressed.
Tadashi then shows Hiro his lab and the project he’s been working on: Baymax (Scott Adsit), a robot created to be a personal healthcare companion. He helps Hiro with a minor injury before going back into his travel case. Hiro is so past impressed, there isn’t a word to describe it. And then he meets Dr. Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell), a robotics pioneer. Hiro is determined to go to SFIT.
How does one get into SFIT? By impressing the college officials at a big expo. Hiro builds nanobots that are controlled by his mind. He puts on a big show and everyone is impressed. Including Andrew Krei (Alan Tudyk) of Krei Industries. He wants to buy the technology from Krei but Callaghan talks him out it. He offers Hiro a spot at SFIT. Hiro takes it.
Hiro and Tadashi have a brotherly moment outside the school when they find out the hall is on fire. They race toward it and someone tells them that Professor Callaghan is still inside. Tadashi races inside but the building explodes shortly after. Hiro is helpless to save his brother.
Everyone mourns Tadashi’s and Callaghan’s loss. Hiro becomes depressed and withdraws from everything. He never registers at SFIT, though his Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) encourages him to. Instead, he just mopes in his room.
Until he gets injured and triggers Baymax, who had been sitting in his pod on Tadashi’s side of the room. Baymax takes care of Hiro, even downloading more information about psychology in order to help with Hiro’s grief. He calls Hiro’s friends before Hiro orders him to find out what’s wrong with his surviving nanobot.
Baymax leaves the apartment and so Hiro pursues him though San Franstokyo. The nanobot leads them to an abandoned warehouse. Once they sneak in, Hiro discovers someone is mass producing his nanobots. That person? Someone wearing a kabuki mask. He has the nanobots chase down Hiro and Baymax.
They escape the warehouse and go to the police. The officer, of course, doesn’t believe him. So Hiro goes back to his garage and uses his skills to turn Baymax into a warrior. They go back to attack Kabuki Mask. Answering Baymax’s call, the others show up and see the giant nanobot monster. They help Hiro escape, with Go-Go taking the wheel in an epic care chase through San Franstokyo.
Fred brings them to his mansion. He’s loaded, which explains why he can just hang around the campus. His parents are out of town (and his dad looks suspiciously like Stan Lee), so they have the house to themselves. It gives them a base of operations. Because they are going to help him take down Kabuki Mask. And they are going to use their own special skills to do so, forming their own band of superheroes.
After a montage where they create their weapons and train to use them, it’s time to go find the Kabuki Mask. Baymax scans the city and picks up the Kabuki Mask’s vitals on a conveniently abandoned island. Which comes complete with an abandoned science research lab that’s been condemned.
They take a look around and discover two portals—one intact and the other damaged. Computer records are discovered as well. Including video. It seems Krei’s company was experimenting with teleportation. The video shows a demonstration of the technology. A young woman gets in a pod and prepares to be shot into the portal. But someone in the control room detects an anomaly. Krei is concerned but the government agents there pressure him into running the test. So they fire up the portal, send the pod in and then everything goes wrong. They have to abort the mission and an explosion destroys the portal. Everyone is stunned silent. Except for Callaghan, who runs down shouting at Krei. Guards subdue him as the military shuts down the operation.
As the video ends, Kabuki Mask starts attacking them again. On their end, it’s a mess. But they do manage to knock the mask off, revealing their foe’s identity: Professor Callaghan. This enrages Hiro—Tadashi died for nothing. Callaghan stole the nanobots and is going to use them to destroy Krei Industries. Hiro orders Baymax to destroy Callaghan and removes his health care program. Baymax becomes a killing machine. Aghast, the others intervene and restore Baymax’s program. Callaghan escapes and Hiro wants to go after him. The others give him a “What the Hell, Hiro?” speech. (See what I did there?)
(Sorry)
Hiro goes off with Baymax, determined to take down Callaghan. As he is trying to fix Baymax, he ends up watching video Tadashi took of how Baymax came to be. It touches Hiro and knocks him out of revenge mode. The others show up, agreeing to help him stop Callaghan. And not kill him, right, Hiro? Hiro agrees to their plan.
Krei is busy opening his company’s new building. Employees and dignitaries are gathered for the occasion. It’s the perfect place for Callaghan’s plan. He uses his nanobots to destroy the building and rebuild the portal. Callaghan wants to send Krei to the same fate he sent Callaghan’s daughter Abigail to. Yes, this is all for revenge. Hiro tries to get through to Callaghan as the portal begins to devour Krei’s work. The team works together to send the nanobots into the portal, clogging it. But the portal malfunctions again it appears it will explode.
Baymax, though, detects a life form in the portal. So he and Hiro take off to see if they can rescue the person. Inside the portal, they find Callaghan’s daughter still in her pod. She’s in stasis but alive. They try to push her out before the portal implodes, but Baymax’s rockets malfunction. It looks like they may not make it out. Until Baymax makes a heroic sacrifice, saving Hiro and Callaghan’s daughter.
Outside, emergency services and the authorities swarm the area. Abigail Callaghan is rushed to the hospital while her father is arrested. Our heroes, now Big Hero 5, watch from a rooftop before going home. There, Hiro realizes he has the blueprints to rebuild Baymax. He does so and they are Big Hero 6 again.
And they are ready to save the day in San Franstokyo.
So that was Big Hero 6. Did I enjoy it? Yep. My sister found it formulaic. While it was, I didn’t find it detracted from the movie. My only quibble is that I wish that they had expanded more on the other four members but maybe they’ll be more movies for them to do that. Otherwise, I have to hand it to Marvel and Disney’s ability to make me cry over a robot again.
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