''Unaccompanied Minors'' (also known as ''Grounded'' in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a 2006

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Paul Feig Paul Samuel Feig (; born September 17, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for directing films starring frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy, including ''Bridesmaids'' (2011), '' The Heat'' (2013), ''Spy'' (2015) ...

and starring

Lewis Black Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis ...

Wilmer Valderrama Wilmer Eduardo Valderrama ( , ; born January 30, 1980) is an American actor, producer, and television personality. He is known for his role as Fez in the sitcom ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), Agustín Madrigal in ''Encanto'', and as Carlos ...

Tyler James Williams Tyler James Williams (born October 9, 1992) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor, making several appearances on ''Saturday Night Live'', ''Little Bill'', and ''Sesame Street''. Williams later rose to prominence for playing ...

, Dyllan Christopher, Brett Kelly,

Gia Mantegna Gia Cristine Mantegna (born Gina Cristine Mantegna) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Devin Levin on the ABC sitcom '' The Middle''. Personal life Mantegna was born Gina Cristine Mantegna in Manhattan, New York, and raised in ...

, and

Quinn Shephard Quinn Shephard (born February 28, 1995) is an American actress, film director, producer, screenwriter and film editor. She played the roles of Donna Malone in the Christmas comedy ''Unaccompanied Minors'' and Morgan Sanders in the television seri ...

. The film is based on a true story by Susan Burton first told on the

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

show ''

This American Life ''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internation ...

'', under the title ''In the Event of an Emergency, Put Your Sister in an Upright Position'' in 2001. ''Unaccompanied Minors'' was released on December 8, 2006 by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $21 million against a $25 million budget.

Plot

Spencer Davenport and his sister Katherine must fly from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with their dad. During their layover at the midwestern Hoover International Airport, a massive blizzard grounds all planes and cancels all flights, and the siblings are sent to the anarchic UM (

unaccompanied minor An unaccompanied minor (sometimes "unaccompanied child" or "separated child") is a child without the presence of a legal guardian. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child defines unaccompanied minors and unaccompanied children as those "who ...

) room, where they meet Christmas-spirited smarty-pants Charlie Goldfinch, surly tomboy Donna Malone, arrogant rich girl Grace Conrad, and mysterious Beef Wellington. Charlie, Spencer, Beef, Grace, and Donna sneak out, and proceed to enjoy themselves around the airport. When they are caught by the airport security guards and returned to the UM room, they find that the other minors, Katherine included, have been sent to a lodge down the road, and that the grouchy head of passenger relations, Oliver Porter — whose trip to Hawaii is among the canceled flights — intends for the kids to spend Christmas Eve in the UM room. Knowing that it will break Katherine's faith in

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

if she does not receive a present by the next morning, Spencer asks the others to help him get a present for his sister in return for a plan to escape. With Spencer's plan, the minors give Zach Van Bourke, the friendly clerk watching them, the slip, but Mr. Porter grows desperate to get the kids back, and sends all the airport guards to find them. After Donna and Grace get into a fight, Spencer decides that they're going to have to put their differences aside and work together, and Beef leaves to go and get a Christmas tree. Along the way, he reflects on how his step-father, Ernie, hoped to make him stronger by saying men are made, not born. Meanwhile, Spencer and Katherine's father tries to drive to the airport in his

biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with ...

fueled car, but it eventually breaks down at a gas station. However, the owner lets him borrow a

Hummer Hummer (stylized as HUMMER) is a brand of pickups and SUVs that was first marketed in 1992 when AM General began selling a civilian version of the M998 Humvee. Although discontinued in 2010, Hummer returned as a sub-brand of GMC in 2020. ...

. The minors head to a thinly secured exit in the back of the airport, letting a dog loose to distract the guards. While they hide from Mr. Porter in the baggage claim, Charlie, who is hiding in a suitcase, gets placed on a conveyor transport; Donna goes after him, putting herself on a wild ride. Spencer and Grace follow them to the unclaimed baggage warehouse, where they find many wonderful presents, including a set of walkie-talkies, and a doll for Katherine. However, they are seen dancing to

Lee Morgan Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's '' Blue Train'' (1 ...

's performance of ''

The Sidewinder ''The Sidewinder'' is a 1964 album by the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, U.S. It was released on the Blue Note label as BLP 4157 (mono) and BST 84157 ( stereo). The title track ...

'' on security cameras, and Mr. Porter and the guards chase the minors through the warehouse. Using a canoe, the minors take Zach captive and sled to the lodge while pursued by the guards, and manage to elude Mr. Porter long enough to find Katherine asleep in the lobby, and place the doll in her arms. While running around the lodge, Grace has to remove her contact lenses and put on glasses, which made her look like a dork in the past (but not to Spencer). With their mission completed, the minors go back to the airport with Mr. Porter quietly. They are placed under surveillance in separate rooms. The minors then confess their true feelings on why they act the way they do. An emotional Grace admits that even though her parents are still together, they emancipated her, as she just returned from boarding school and spends most of her time at airports. Spencer feeling bad, devises a plan to escape. Using the walkie-talkies, the minors tamper with the security cameras and escape through air ducts. They find the Christmas decorations Mr. Porter confiscated, and Beef returns with a huge Christmas tree that he traded his prized Aquaman action figure for. With Zach's help, the minors decorate the airport, and take items from the unclaimed baggage warehouse to use as presents for the rest of the stranded passengers. Mr. Porter finds Spencer to admit defeat and reveals that he's unhappy because he never really gets to spend time with his family during Christmas as well as his wife divorcing him five years ago. Spencer inspires some holiday spirit in the man with some friendly words and the gift of a

snow globe A snow globe (also called a waterglobe, snowstorm, or snowdome) is a transparent sphere, traditionally made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a town, neighborhood, landscape or figure. The sphe ...

. On Christmas morning, Mr. Porter dresses up as Santa Claus to hand out presents to the passengers, Spencer reunites with Katherine, their father arrives to pick them up, Beef tells a girl about his trek to find a Christmas tree, Charlie and Donna exchange phone numbers and share a kiss, and Grace accepts Spencer's invitation to spend Christmas with him and his family.

Cast

* Dyllan Christopher as Spencer Davenport *

as Oliver Porter *

as Grace Conrad *

as Charles "Charlie" Goldfinch *

as Donna Malone *

as Zach Van Bourke * Brett Kelly as Timothy "Beef" Wellington * Dominique Saldaña as Katherine Davenport *

Paget Brewster Paget Valerie Brewster (, ; born March 10, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She was first recognized for her recurring role as Kathy on the fourth season of the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. Her breakthrough role came as FBI Supervisory Speci ...

as Valerie Davenport *

Rob Corddry Robert William Corddry (born February 4, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' (2002–2006) and for his starring role in the film ''Hot Tub Time Machine''. He ...

as Samuel "Sam" Davenport *

Wayne Federman Wayne Federman (born June 22, 1959) is an Emmy Award winning American comedian, actor, author, writer, comedy historian, producer, and musician. He is noted for numerous stand-up comedy appearances in clubs, theaters, and on television; his book ...

as Airport Attendant *

Mario Lopez Mario Lopez (born October 10, 1973) is an American actor and television host. He has appeared on several television series, in films, and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. He is known for his portrayal of A.C. Slater on ''Saved by the Bell'', ''Sa ...

as Part-Time Substitute minors watcher *

Jessica Walter Jessica Walter (January 31, 1941 – March 24, 2021) was an American actress who appeared in over 170 film, stage and television productions. In film, she was best known for her role as a psychotic and obsessed fan of a local disc jockey in t ...

as Cindi * Rob Riggle as Head Guard Hoffman *

David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the ''Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's ''The Office''. Koechner first became involved in perf ...

as Ernie * B. J. Novak as Tommy Black *

Mindy Kaling Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979),Additional archive on June 25, 2015. known professionally as Mindy Kaling (), is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter and producer. She first gained recognition starring as Kelly Kapoor in the N ...

as Restaurant Hostess *

Tony Hale Anthony Russell Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series ''Arrested Development'' as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy ''Veep'' from 2012 until its ...

as Alan Davies *

Cedric Yarbrough Cedric Percelle Yarbrough (born March 20, 1973) is an American actor and comedian who stars in series '' Reno 911!'' as Deputy S. Jones and as Kenneth on the ABC sitcom '' Speechless'', as well as voicing Gerald Fitzgerald on the Netflix comedy ...

as Melvin "Mel" Goldfinch *

Kristen Wiig Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she joi ...

as Carole Malone *

Al Roker Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's ''Today'', and occasionally co-hosts '' 3rd Hour Today''. He has an ina ...

as Himself *

Teri Garr Teri Ann Garr (born December 11, 1944) is an American former actress, dancer, and comedian. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spans four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television. Her accola ...

as Aunt Judy (uncredited) *

The Kids in the Hall The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in C ...

Bruce McCulloch Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, musician and film director. McCulloch is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, including starring in the TV series of the same name. He ...

Kevin McDonald Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian actor, voice actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably th ...

, and

Mark McKinney Mark Douglas Brown McKinney (born June 26, 1959) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known as a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, which includes starring in the 1989 to 1995 TV series ''The Kids in the Hall'' and 1 ...

as Mr. Porter's security guards (aka 'The Guards In The Hall') * Former

Kevin and Bean ''Kevin and Bean'' was the morning show on KROQ-FM, an alternative rock-format radio station in Los Angeles, California. It was hosted by Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter. The show was on the air from 1990 to 2019 and interspersed music and n ...

co-host Allie Mac Kay as Perky Presenter

Production

Shooting on this film went on in both

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, and also in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Soundtrack

Tyler James Williams performed a song for the film with the same name as the film, but was not used in the film, but in a television spot to promote the film.

Reception

Box office

''Unaccompanied Minors'' grossed $16.7 million in the United States, and $5.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $21.9 million, against a production budget of $25 million. The film grossed $5.7 million in its opening weekend finishing seventh. In its second weekend it dropped 39% to $3.5 million, finishing 10th.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film holds an approval rating of 30% based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "''Unaccompanied Minors'', while featuring credible performances by its mostly young cast, is simply a rehash of other, funnier movies." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

References

External links

* * * {{Portal bar, United States, Film 2006 films 2000s adventure comedy films American adventure comedy films American Christmas comedy films Australian Christmas comedy films Australian adventure comedy films 2000s English-language films This American Life Comedy films based on actual events Films set in airports Films set in Kansas Films shot in Salt Lake City Films scored by Michael Andrews Films directed by Paul Feig Films produced by Lauren Shuler Donner 2000s Christmas comedy films 2000s Christmas films Village Roadshow Pictures films Warner Bros. films 2006 comedy films 2000s American films