Starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, it tells the story of Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels), two dumb but well-meaning friends from Providence, Rhode Island, who set out on a cross-country road trip to Aspen, Colorado, to return a briefcase full of money to its owner, thinking it was abandoned as a mistake, though it was actually left as a ransom.
Lauren Holly, Karen Duffy, Mike Starr, Charles Rocket, and Teri Garr play supporting roles.
Lloyd, a chip-toothed limousine driver, is instantly smitten with his passenger Mary Swanson, who is flying to Aspen, Colorado.
She leaves a briefcase in the airport and Lloyd attempts to return it, unaware it contains ransom money she has left for criminals Joe "Mental" Mentalino and J. P. Shay.
In league with Nicholas Andre, a friend of Mary's family, Mental poses as a hitchhiker and is picked up by Harry and Lloyd, who annoy him with their childish antics.
Stopping for lunch, Mental plans to slip the duo rat poison pills, but they prank him by putting chili peppers in his burger, aggravating his stomach ulcer.
At a gas station, Harry flirts with fellow Aspen-bound driver Beth, and unwittingly saves Lloyd from being assaulted by Sea Bass, a trucker they offended earlier.
Police wait to intercept the duo on the road to Colorado, but Lloyd takes a wrong turn and drives all night through Nebraska.
The duo arrives in Aspen but cannot find Mary, and a frustrated Harry attacks Lloyd, breaking open the briefcase and discovering the money, which they use on a hotel suite and lavish spending spree.
They read in the newspaper that Mary and her family are hosting a charity gala, where a nervous Lloyd asks Harry to talk to her on his behalf.
They are held at gunpoint by Nicholas, who is behind the abduction of Mary's husband, Bobby, and is furious to discover that Harry and Lloyd spent the ransom, replacing it with IOUs.
An FBI team bursts in led by Beth, who is actually an agent on the kidnappers' trail and prepared Harry with a bulletproof vest and gun.
Harry tells Lloyd that they will get their "break" one day, and they play a game of tag as they walk back to Rhode Island.
John Hughes conceived the film before he sold it to the Farrelly brothers and asked for his name to be removed from the writing credits.
[10] Nicolas Cage, who was proposed to be Carrey's co-star, tried to negotiate a $2 million increase in his fee but New Line Cinema decided against casting him and signed Jeff Daniels instead.
Although New Line Cinema agreed to their demands, Daniels was offered the low salary in the hopes it would discourage him from signing on to the film.
[22] The soundtrack album's first single, "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick, was a chart hit, reaching number 27 in the US, while the music video for the Crash Test Dummies' version of "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" featured Jeff Daniels reprising his role of Harry.
Joe Bishop of Vice named the album his favorite movie soundtrack, while the same site's Cameron Matthews described it as "a perfect slice of the mid-'90s sound: bubbly pop rock with jangly chords and just enough grit, or aka the thing you can give your kids when they one day ask you what the '90s were like".
[23][24] Though not present on the soundtrack, the film famously features Carrey and Daniels singing an a cappella version of "Mockingbird" to Mike Starr's character.
The site's consensus reads: "A relentlessly stupid comedy elevated by its main actors: Jim Carrey goes bonkers and Jeff Daniels carries himself admirably in an against-type performance".
[30] Roger Ebert gave the film two of four stars for the hit-or-miss comedic elements, but praised the performances of Carrey and Daniels, dubbing the former a "true original", and writing that the dead parakeet joke "made me laugh so loudly I embarrassed myself.