The film follows a man (Robert Downey Jr.) who must get across the country to Los Angeles in time for the birth of his child and is forced to road-trip with an aspiring actor (Zach Galifianakis).

Shot in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Atlanta, Georgia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the film was released on November 5, 2010.

Peter Highman, a successful architect, is due to fly home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah, who is about to give birth.

On the way to the airport, he has a chance encounter with Ethan Tremblay with his dog Sonny, who is going to Los Angeles to be an actor and is planning to scatter his recently deceased father's ashes at the Grand Canyon.

Ethan takes over driver duty so Peter can get some rest after a sleepless night, but he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car.

The Mexican Federal Police lock Peter up, but Ethan steals a truck and breaks him out, causing several car crashes in the process.

Sarah delivers the baby safely, and Peter expresses his discomfort at his new daughter being named Rosie Highman.

At the end, Ethan guest stars on an episode of his favorite television program, Two and a Half Men, with Peter and Sarah watching it in bed with their daughter.

Previews for the film feature the songs "New Moon Rising" by Wolfmother and the original version of "Check Yo Self" by Ice Cube.

On November 24, it went down to #8 behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Tangled, Burlesque, Megamind, Love & Other Drugs, Unstoppable and Faster.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Shamelessly derivative and only sporadically funny, Due Date doesn't live up to the possibilities suggested by its talented director and marvelously mismatched stars.

[9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars out of a possible four, noting "The movie probably contains enough laughs to satisfy the weekend audience.