Micmacs

A young Bazil loses his military father when he is killed while attempting to defuse a land mine in Western Sahara. The tragedy haunts him and seeds questions about war, weapons, and accountability. This past event shapes his worldview and fuels future actions.

Thirty years later, Bazil is working in a Paris video rental shop when a stray bullet from a street shoot-out pierces his forehead. He survives, but doctors decide to leave the bullet in place to avoid risking brain damage. The incident leaves him living with a constant, looming risk.

Doctors conclude that removing the bullet could cause irreparable brain damage, so they opt to leave it where it is. Bazil must carry the knowledge that the bullet could kill him at any moment, casting a shadow over his life. This choice isolates him from a normal sense of safety.

When Bazil returns to work, he is replaced by a new employee who hands him a shell casing recovered from the bullet. The gesture underscores his obsolescence and fuels his sense of grievance. It sets in motion his turn toward the scavenger world he will inhabit.

Bazil becomes a street performer, using mime and sign language to entertain passersby. Slammer, a former convict, welcomes him to Tire-Larigots, a shelter carved beneath a mountain of recycled waste. The shelter offers him shelter, community, and a new purpose.

Bazil meets Elastic Girl, Mama Chow, Remington, Buster, Tiny Pete, and Calculator, who become his improvised family. Slammer’s backstory of surviving an execution adds grit and resilience to the group. They band together to protect Bazil and pursue justice in their own way.

While scavenging, Bazil finds the offices and factories of the firms that produced the mine and the bullet that harmed him. They sit on opposite sides of a street in Paris, symbolizing how both sides profit from the same cycle of violence. The discovery fuels his plan for compensation and revenge.

Bazil enters De Fenouillet's company to demand compensation but is violently escorted out on the orders of the CEO Nicolas Thibault de Fenouillet. The rejection hardens his resolve and pushes the crew toward more audacious action. It highlights the ruthlessness of the arms trade.

Bazil infiltrates the other company's premises and manages to hear a speech by CEO François Marconi. The talk reveals the scale of the arms deal and the moral ambiguities behind it. Bazil realizes both CEOs hold power over life-and-death consequences in distant wars.

Bazil follows Marconi home and drops a microphone down his chimney to record conversations. The Tire-Larigots crew agrees to help him exact revenge on the two arms dealers. The plan marks a shift from discovery to active confrontation.

The crew incapacitates Boulounga's men by planting drugs on them at an airport, disrupting their operations and signaling the scale of Bazil's campaign. The operation demonstrates their willingness to use bold, unorthodox methods. Tension rises as bodies of the two companies intersect.

Remington stages a confrontation with De Fenouillet and Marconi, canceling the deals and declaring war between them. Bazil and his friends break into Marconi's house, steal luxury cars, and seize De Fenouillet's relics, while sabotaging a truck full of bombs at Marconi's plant. The caper escalates into a full-blown, high-stakes showdown.

A rooftop chase leads to Elastic Girl hiding in a refrigerator as chaos erupts around Marconi and De Fenouillet. Bazil is briefly captured but is rescued by the crew; the two CEOs are captured, hooded, and prepared for a reckoning. The sequence culminates in a dramatic reversal of power.

The captives are brought to a desert-like setting for a final spectacle, which is revealed to be a staged performance. Bazil and Calculator upload the video to YouTube, publicly disgracing Marconi and De Fenouillet. In the aftermath, Bazil and Elastic Girl become a couple as the crew returns to life on the streets.