Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

For the 2016 video game, see Detective Pikachu.

Template:Infobox Film

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a Japanese-American live-action film produced by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. The movie is based on the 2016 game, Detective Pikachu. Detective Pikachu is voiced by Ryan Reynolds, known for his role as Deadpool.

Confirmed human roles are played by Kathryn Newton, Justice Smith, and Ken Watanabe. The movie was released on May 10, 2019.

Plot

In a mysterious lab, scientists study an artificial humanoid being. A man exits the lab and enters a car. Suddenly, a glitch in the system causes the being to wake up and break out, causing the lab to get destroyed. The being flies off, and goes towards the car; at a building, the being waves its hand, causing the car to crash.

Elsewhere, two guys run off at a field. A guy, named Jack, tries to get the other guy, Tim, to catch a Pokémon, a Cubone. Tim is reluctant but is persuaded to take the Poké Ball and catch Cubone. Jack reminds Tim that he needs to bond with Cubone first, and Tim comments how both he and Cubone are lonely, considering Cubone's mother is missing. Cubone becomes angry, so Tim, before an incident occurs, throws the Poké Ball, causing Cubone to be warped inside the Ball. Jack and Tim cheer but realize that the Ball needs to glow green to confirm Cubone's capture. Alas, Cubone releases itself, and throws the bone to attack Tim.

Later on, Tim and Jack walk back to the town. Jack tries to get Tim to warm up and catch a Pokémon on his own, instead of dedicating his career as a policy salesman. As Tim tries to ignore him, he learns of a terrible accident that occurred: his father has passed away. Thus, Tim takes a train to learn more about his father's death. On his way, he gets visited by a Lickitung, who licks his face in affection.

Sometime later, Tim arrives in Ryme City: a place where people and Pokémon live in harmony where there are no Pokémon battles and no Pokémon are caught inside Poké Balls. He goes to the police office, where he finds a Snubbul glaring at him furiously. Suddenly, a police officer arrives, introducing himself as Mr. Yoshida. Tim wonders if his Snubbul is angry at him, but Yoshida denies, for Snubbul is always looking angry, but deep inside, it is actually gentle. Tim explains he is the son of Harry Goodman, the detective that passed away. Yoshida gives him the keys to Harry's apartment.

Tim goes to that location and spots a Psyduck glaring at him from a corner. Tim enters inside and finds Psyduck stalking him. Tim shrugs him off and unlocks Harry's mail-case. A woman comments how she has waited long to find someone unlocking that mail case: she introduces herself as Lucy Stevens, a news reporter intern. She also wants to uncover the case behind Harry Goodman, but Tim admits he has no clue about him and walks away to Harry's apartment. Inside, he looks at Harry's table, before entering his bedroom. He finds a letter that his father wrote, and intended on sending it to Tim. Staring at his father's Pokémon collections, Harry has flashbacks when he was young: his father invited him to step inside the train to Ryme City, but Tim refused and stayed with his grandmother. In addition, Tim has another flashback where he had a Pokémon battle, but his mother was not there to see him. It was later on when his father came in distress, informing of his wife's fate.

As Tim continues to look around, he finds a strange capsule, with an "R" letter. He opens it, causing purple gas to leak out, making him cough. To get some air, Tim opens the window, letting the gas out, which affects a group of Aipom near the window. As he catches his breath, Tim finds someone in the house. Taking a stapler, Tim manages to find the mysterious guest: a Pikachu wearing a hat. Much to his surprise, Tim finds out that the Pikachu can talk, who even threatens him to drop the stapler. Pikachu explains that he is Harry's Pokémon partner, but does not remember much else, and notices Tim is the son of his partner. Just as they continue, they get attacked by the Aipom, who break into the apartment. Tim and Pikachu run off to the top of the building, and in haste, the Aipom take off Tim's pants. Luckily, Tim and Pikachu fall through a vertical tunnel into a dumpster. Tim freaks out and runs to a street, where he points to people at Pikachu that can talk. Pikachu calms him down, as only Tim can hear him; to others, Pikachu simply utters its cry: "Pika-Pika". In fact, Tim gets his pants on, after Pikachu warns him about it.

The two enter a cafe, where they discuss what happened to Harry. There, Pikachu admits he likes to drink coffee, a lot. Anyway, Pikachu had amnesia, and came back to Harry's apartment, after finding a note listing the location of the apartment inside the hat. Still, Pikachu feels it has a feeling in the gut that Harry is still alive, and wants to join up with Tim to investigate more. Tim refuses to take part and wishes to return home since he merely wanted to pay respects to his father. However, Pikachu feels there's something deeper, and convinces Tim to join in the case, and the two return to the apartment to get some rest.

The next day, as Tim and Harry go to the city's company, Howard Clifford and his son, Roger Clifford, make a spot about the company, noting that they, like Pokémon, transcend evolution. As the commercial ends, Tim and Pikachu run into Lucy and her Psyduck. Lucy tries to silence Tim, as they go to her office, which is nothing more but document archives. In there, Lucy gives Tim a document about Harry's last case, which is said to unveil some sort of a large crime, and points towards the docks: the Ryme Wharf. There, Tim and Pikachu encounter a Mr. Mime, who was to be the informant to Harry Goodman. Though Mr. Mime refuses to say anything, Pikachu decides to play good cop, bad cop. However, he fails, for Mr. Mime created an invisible wall. Instead, Tim manages to play a mind trick, to fool Mr. Mime that he poured some invisible fuel around and would lit it with an invisible match. Mr. Mime, through mimic moves, explains that they'd learn more at an illegal arena in Ryme City.

At the arena, Tim and Pikachu briefly see a battle between a Blastoise and a Gengar. Pikachu comments that this arena is illegal, and get spotted by a mysterious woman. As they walk around, they get spotted by the arena's MC, Sebastian. He notes that Pikachu has battled his Charizard, and not only did Pikachu leave a scar on the latter, but it also damaged Sebastian's coat. Pikachu simply mutters how strange it is for the guy not to wear a shirt underneath. Regardless, Sebastian demands a rematch, in exchange for info about Harry. Tim takes on the challenge and lets Pikachu fight, who explains he can use Volt Tackle, Discharge, Quick Attack, and Electro Ball. Sebastian sends out a Charizard, but before the battle begins, he lets out a purple gas. This causes Charizard to outrage and attack Pikachu violently, who narrowly dodges the attacks. As he goes to counterattack, Pikachu realizes he cannot even use moves and tries to escape Charizard's Flamethrower attacks.

As Charizard goes to finish Pikachu off, Tim tries to stop him by grabbing Charizard's tail. To stop Charizard, Pikachu uses a Magikarp; Tim reminds it is the weakest Pokémon ever, but Pikachu replies it just needs some incentive to evolve into a Gyarados. In the heat of battle, Sebastian comes in the ring to stop them but falls down. The chemicals he had in his coat leak out, emitting the purple gas that causes every Pokémon to get violent. While Charizard calms down, Tim forces Sebastian to tell him about Harry and learned that the latter contacted a scientist. Just then, the Magikarp evolves into a Gyarados and emits a Hydro Pump that pushes Tim and Pikachu out of the arena. At that moment, Pikachu and Tim get visited by the police, who arrest them. The two are taken to the station, where Mr. Yoshida admits his disappointment towards the two. Tim explains he can feel his father is still alive. Yoshida denies that, and even shows footage where the car, in which Harry had been, fell off a bridge and became burned in the fire. Thus, Mr. Yoshida declares the case has been concluded and nothing else can be done about it.

The two go to a park, where Tim blames himself for not entering a train, to go live with his father when he was eleven years old. In fact, Tim rarely saw his father, but when he read the letter, he realized that Harry really cared for his son. Pikachu is touched by his sad emotions, but reminds even the case behind Harry is finished, they still don't know what happened to Pikachu, since it lost its memories. As Tim regains his motivation, they find the mysterious woman. Despite Pikachu's bad omens, the two take the car to the company's director. At the top office, they meet the company's director, Howard Clifford, who speaks about evolution, and shows his Eevee evolving into a Flareon. The latter explains how he struggled in creating a world where people and Pokémon are united, but in doing so, he neglected his son, who tried to seize power, and resented Pokémon. Since Howard was a weak man in a wheelchair, he asks of Tim and Pikachu to stop his son, Roger. In addition, he shows a digital vision, where Harry and Pikachu survived. However, the humanoid being, named Mewtwo, distorted Pikachu's memories and took Harry away.

With this information in mind, Tim and Harry visit Lucy and her Psyduck. The group takes a car to the abandoned facility. In the car, to keep Psyduck calm, Pikachu is forced to massage its legs, in fear of its headache, which could obliterate them. Upon arriving at the facility, Pikachu teases Tim about being in love with Lucy, who cuts the fence, unaware that they are being observed. The two break into the facility, noting how scary it looks, and find a group of Greninja and Torterra, who were being tested on. While Lucy takes photos, Tim and Pikachu look around. At the same time, Roger Clifford, with his team, is in a car to intercept Tim and Lucy, and Roger even unlocks the facility's test subjects. Tim and Pikachu find some files of the facility, discovering that the group of scientists, led by Dr. Ann Laurent, obtained Mewtwo, who fled the Kanto region 20 years ago, and performed experiments on it. A glitch in the system caused Mewtwo to regain its strength, destroy the lab and float out of it. Much to their surprise, they saw that it was Harry Goodman who caught Mewtwo and took it to the lab.

As Tim and Pikachu are shocked to see that Harry was involved, they try to find Lucy and Psyduck. Much to their surprise, they find the test subjects have escaped, and find Lucy and Psyduck being held by some Greninja, who fight off with Water Shuriken. The group passes by some Torterra, but get chased away. Psyduck gets an intense headache, and after being provoked by Pikachu, emits a strong Psychic wave, which stops the Greninja. As the group tries to rest, they find the earth trembling. Pikachu thinks it is just Psyduck messing with them, but seeing a piece of wood falling just in front of them, the group tries to escape. They narrowly evade the earth's tremors, which cause Lucy and Psyduck to get separated with Pikachu and Tim. The latter two make a leap across a chasm and barely get to the other side. Seeing that the ground has a pair of eyes, the group realizes they are standing on super-sized Torterra. A boulder falls on Pikachu, causing it to get severely hurt, and the group falls in the sea.

When the group goes back to the land, Tim sees he has to get help for Pikachu, who is close to dying. Tim finds a Bulbasaur and pleads of it to find a Pokémon that can heal Pikachu, his partner. Lucy reminds that Bulbasaur does not understand what Tim is saying, but the former exclaims it can sense what he is feeling towards Pikachu. The Bulbasaur summons more of its kind, which takes Tim and Pikachu to a secluded spot, and are joined by some Morelull. Tim witnesses that the Pokémon that'll cure Pikachu is none other than Mewtwo itself. Tim hesitates, but Mewtwo stops him and cures Pikachu's wounds. Pikachu wakes up and sees Mewtwo, who shows a vision. In fact, Mewtwo saved Harry's life, by warping him away before the car exploded. Moreover, it that Pikachu emitted a jolt in the system's facility, to force Mewtwo to escape. As Tim demands to know where his father is, Mewtwo gets electrocuted and taken away by Roger Howard.

As the group returns to the car, Pikachu realizes that he betrayed Tim's father. Tim tries to convince Pikachu that they still need to work, and believes it in his gut that Pikachu would not do something as bad like that. Pikachu, by accident, electrocutes Tim a bit and shows that he, indeed, could be a betrayer, and runs off. Without further ado, Tim decides to let Pikachu be, and returns to the city with Lucy. There, Tim leaves Lucy to inform the city of Roger's actions, while he goes to report this to Howard Clifford. Lucy finds Cynthia, a news reporter, and attempts to tell these breaking news. Cynthia thinks of Lucy as a lowly intern and asks of her to get some coffee, but Lucy has other ideas involving the cameraman.

Pikachu whistles the tune of the Pokémon Theme until he finds the bridge. He sees some Water Shuriken from Greninja and realizes that the scientists sent Greninja to attack Harry Goodman, while Mewtwo was actually protecting the latter. This causes Pikachu to realize that Harry is still alive, and goes to the city. Lucy moves around the crowd and spots Roger, who glares her among the crowd of the festival celebrating the people and Pokémon of the city. Tim meets up with Howard; much to his surprise, it was Howard that manipulated him, for Howard took control over Mewtwo. Using the "R" gas, Howard had Mewtwo enraged, and using a headgear called Neurolink, Howard's consciousness was passed onto Mewtwo, which let him take control over the Legendary Pokémon. Mewtwo escaped to the city's festival, destroying the balloons to unleash the "R" gas, which enraged the Pokémon participating the festival. However, Howard, who had control over Mewtwo, used the power to fuse people into Pokémon, to make their consciousness as one. Lucy tries to warn the people not to let the Pokémon inhale the gas, but has her consciousness fused with her Psyduck.

As for Tim, he opens a locker in the room, revealing Roger, who is gagged. At the same time, a second Roger comes in. The second Roger shapes into the same mysterious woman who attacks Tim earlier, and removes the shades "he/she" wore, showing beady eyes. The latter realizes this is actually a Ditto, who takes on different shapes. Ditto takes on the shape of a Loudred, who emits a sonic blast that knocks Tim away. Outside, Pikachu goes through the streets, and finds Psyduck, learning that it has Lucy's consciousness. Pikachu looks at the sky and sees Mewtwo behind all the chaos. It goes to counter Mewtwo, by destroying all the balloons. Mewtwo notices that, and goes after Pikachu, attacking it at every turn, who goes atop of a Pidgeot. It tries to counterattack Mewtwo with a Discharge, but Mewtwo protects itself. Tim, however, faces Ditto, who changes shape into a Machamp, followed by Lucy, who knocks him onto the ground and throws him to the cliff nearby, and turned into a Cubone to make Tim fallen from the tower, until Roger manage to rescue Tim in time. Ditto changes into a Bouffalant, crashing the room while knocking Roger out. As it attacks Tim, Ditto accidentally destroys the "R" capsules, letting the purple gas out, causing the latter to go haywire on its shape-shifting powers and phases out in exhaustion.

Pikachu continues to confront Mewtwo. However, the Pidgeot that Pikachu is riding inhales the gas, causing it to lose control. Pikachu jumps away, to a satellite dish, which bends over, making Pikachu fall to the top of the building. Pikachu confronts Mewtwo, and goes to attack it, but fails. Tim, however, notices Pikachu fighting Mewtwo. He goes to release control over Mewtwo by taking away the Neurolink from Howard's body. However, Ditto regains control, and posing as Cubone, it knocks Tim to the edge of the window, causing him to dangle. As Cubone tries to get Tim to fall off the building, Roger has untied himself, and bashes Cubone away, causing it to fall down. As Mewtwo goes to finish Pikachu off, the latter states it only delayed Mewtwo from something important: Tim removes the Neurolink from Howard, causing Howard's consciousness to separate from Mewtwo.

Mewtwo and Pikachu fall down to their demise. However, the former regains control and saves Pikachu from the fall. Pikachu and Tim are glad that everything's over, but to fix back what happened, Mewtwo uses its power to diffuse the people's consciousness from Pokémon, separating the two entities. Lucy, who has unfused with Psyduck, swears she won't repeat this experience ever again. While Howard is arrested, Roger thinks that he should've spent some more time with his father, so this won't happen ever again. He turns to Lucy, and impressed with her reporting skills, decides to have her on the team as a full-time reporter. Tim, however, asks of Mewtwo where his father is. Mewtwo shows a final vision: when the car crash happened, Mewtwo noticed that Harry was badly wounded. In order to save him, Pikachu volunteered to save him. Thus, Mewtwo used its power to fuse Harry's consciousness with Pikachu, but at the cost that it would have no memory of what happened. With that explained, Mewtwo uses its power a final time on Pikachu.

In the end, Tim waits at the train station to get back home. Suddenly, he is visited by Pikachu and his partner: his father, Harry. Harry notes that Tim is yearning to return home, but asks won't he stay in Ryme City for a bit. Tim thinks a bit, and puts his train ticket into the trash; he wants to stay with his father for a while. Harry is glad, but wonders what will Tim do from now on. Tim considers being a detective, to which Pikachu happily agrees with "Pika-Pika!"

Template:Incomplete-plot

History

On July 20, 2016, Legendary Pictures announced that they acquired the rights to make a live action movie based on the earlier that year released Detective Pikachu game.

On August 22, 2016, reports stated that Nicole Perlman & Alex Hirsch has written the screenplay.

On November 30, 2016, reports stated that Rob Letterman has directed the movie.

On December 6, 2017, Ryan Reynolds was announced to voice Detective Pikachu, alongside Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton.

During an interview with IMDb at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018, Suki Waterhouse teased that she had to do a move wherein she "disappears into a Pokémon".

On July 25, 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. would distribute the movie instead of Universal.

On January 25, 2019, just 4 months before the film was even released, a sequel was confirmed to be in the works.

Characters

"*" denotes for characters with exclusive Japanese dub actors

Human

• Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens (*). Dubbed by Marie Iitoyo
• Justice Smith as Tim Goodman (*). Dubbed by Ryoma Takeuchi
• Ken Watanabe as Detective Hide Yoshida
• Ryan Reynolds as Harry Goodman (*). Dubbed by Hidetoshi Nishijima
• Karan Soni as Jack (*). Dubbed by Yūki Kaji
• Omar Chaparro as Sebastian. Dubbed by Kenta Miyake
• Bill Nighy as Howard Clifford (*). Dubbed by Hiroshi Naka
• Chris Greene as Roger Clifford (*). Dubbed by Shin-ichirō Miki
• Rita Ora as Dr. Ann Laurent (*). Dubbed by Megumi Hayashibara
• Thomas Weslet Pentz "Diplo" Jr. as Himself (*). Dubbed by Kaito Ishikawa
• Ryoma Takeuchi as a Trainer with Red Jacket

Pokémon

• Pikachu (*), voiced by Ikue Ōtani (normal voice); Ryan Reynolds and Hidetoshi Nishijima as Harry Goodman through possession on each language
• Psyduck (Lucy's) (*), dubbed by Rikako Aikawa
• Snubbull (Detective Yoshida's)
• Ditto (Howard's) (*), voiced and portrayed by Suki Waterhouse, and dubbed by Wakana Kingyo
• Mewtwo (*), voiced by Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe, and dubbed by Kōichi Yamadera and Sayaka Kinoshita
• Jigglypuff (*), voiced by Michele Knotz, and dubbed by Mika Kanai
• Charizard (Sebastian's)
• Eevee → Flareon (Howard's)
• Bulbasaur (multiple)
• Venusaur
• Charmander
• Squirtle
• Blastoise
• Pidgeot
• Rattata
• Growlithe
• Arcanine
• Machamp
• Graveler
• Doduo
• Dodrio
• Gengar
• Kingler
• Cubone
• Lickitung
• Mr. Mime
• Magikarp → Gyarados
• Snorlax
• Totodile
• Togepi
• Aipom
• Sneasel
• Octillery
• Treecko
• Ludicolo
• Slaking
• Loudred
• Torterra
• Purrloin
• Audino
• Emolga
• Joltik
• Golurk
• Bouffalant
• Rufflet
• Braviary
• Greninja
• Flabébé
• Pancham
• Pangoro
• Morelull
• Comfey

Props

• Charizard (balloon)
• Squirtle (balloon)
• Jigglypuff (poster & balloon)
• Lugia (balloon)
• Primeape (poster)
• Dewgong (sign)
• Gengar (balloon)
• Hypno (poster)
• Lickitung (sign)
• Tangela (sign)
• Kangaskhan (sign)
• Articuno (poster)
• Dragonite (poster)
• Mew (sign)
• Wooper (sign)
• Unown (sign, shirt)
• Steelix (poster)
• Blaziken (poster)
• Meditite (sign)
• Kyogre (balloon)
• Rayquaza (poster)
• Dialga (statue)
• Palkia (statue)
• Arceus (statue)
• Victini (sign)
• Petilil (sign)
• Reshiram (poster)
• Zekrom (poster)
• Swirlix (sign)
• Goomy (sign)
• Miltank (sign)
• Noctowl (sign)
• Cherubi (sign)
• Spoink (statue)
• Feraligatr (poster)
• Nidoking (poster)
• Magneton (sign)
• Dugtrio (sign)
• Scrafty (sign)
• Jolteon (sign)
• Masquerain (poster)
• Togepi (sign)
• Lunatone (sign)
• Slowbro (wood carving)
• Natu (wood carving)
• Eevee (sign)
• Whismur (sign)
• Sandshrew (wood carving)
• Geodude (wood carving)
• Dragonair (sign)
• Slurpuff (sign)
• Chandelure (lamps)
• Meowth (balloon)
• Mankey (balloon)
• Snorlax (balloon)
• Krabby (balloon)
• Bonsly (bonsai tree)
• Buneary (sign)

Moves

Bonemerang (Cubone) Lick (Lickitung) Water Gun Focus Punch Shadow Ball Flamethrower (Charizard)

Water Shuriken (Greninja) Electro Ball Volt Tackle (Pikachu) Boomburst (Ditto-Loudred)

Trivia

• This is the first live-action hybrid Pokémon film made, with the Pokémon are all rendered in much more realistic after being motion captured.
• This is the second action film based on a Nintendo game, the first being Super Mario Bros.
• Due to an English-language cast appearing, this is the first Pokémon film to be produced in English rather than Japanese.
• The movie's logo was unveiled during the Pokémon TCG World Championships.
• This is the first time Henry Jackman has composed the music score for a Pokémon movie.
• RJ Palmer, mostly known for drawing realistic Pokémon online, was hired for the movie's production artist board after one of the directors of the film had searched up "Realistic Pokémon".
• A TCG set is set to be released alongside the movie with realistic CG Pokémon graphics from the movie as the card art.
• This is the first Pokémon film to receive a PG rating from the MPAA.
  • Thus, it is also the first Pokémon film to have even been designated an MPAA rating since the G-rated traditionally-animated Pokémon Heroes.
• This is the first Pokémon film not to feature Ash Ketchum, his Pikachu, or Team Rocket.
• This is the first Pokémon film to be produced in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio, unlike all of the animated Pokémon films, which have been produced in 1.85:1.
• While abandoning Tim, Pikachu briefly sang a song from the Pokémon Theme, the first dub opening of the Pokémon anime.
• Kanto region is mentioned through the film, and poster of "Cerulean Arena" is featured in Harry's room.
• The writers confirmed this live-action took place in the shared prime anime universe. However, the timeline which storyline took is unknown.

Gallery

Detective Pikachu Poster English

Pokemon Detective Pikachu card

Trailers and clips

Trailers

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu - Official Trailer 1

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu - Official Trailer 2

TV spots

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu – Cute 30” Spot - Warner Bros. UK

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu – Big Spot - Warner Bros. UK

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu - "Big" In Theaters This May

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu - Destiny

= Other

Pokémon Detective Pikachu Full Movie Preview Warner Bros. Entertainment