Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

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The film follows the exploits of Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould), an ordinary 11-year-old boy, and his "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." He is left out by his family; his older brother, Anthony (Dylan Minnette), his older sister, Emily (Kerris Dorsey), his mother, Kelly (Jennifer Garner), his father, Ben (Steve Carell), and his baby brother, Trevor (Elise/Zoey Vargas), living in the western United States state of California.

The day before Alexander's twelfth birthday, he wakes up and finds gum in his hair and clips it off with a pair of scissors. Anthony is trying to earn his driver's license so he can drive his girlfriend, Celia (Bella Thorne), to the prom, Emily is rehearsing for the title role in her school play of Peter Pan, Kelly is working for a publication company that is publishing a new children's book which will promote her to vice president of the company, and Ben, who has been unemployed for seven months, has landed a job interview as a game designer for a video game company.

That same morning, Alexander attends school where he experiences another series of mishaps, as well as finding out that his friends, including his crush, Becky Gibson (Sidney Fullmer), and best friend, Paul (Mekai Curtis), will all be attending the birthday party of Phillip Parker (Lincoln Melcher) instead of his, due to Philip's expensive party entertainment and popularity. He tries to tell his family how miserably his day has gone, but none of them even listen to what he says. That evening, Anthony upsets Celia during a phone call while yelling at Alexander saying he is an "idiot brother", and Emily rehearses her stage lines in Kelly's car while leaving its light on. Alexander makes himself a makeshift birthday sundae and wishes his family could experience the disappointments he does every day.

The next morning, Alexander wakes up to find his family in disarray and chaos erupts; his parents have overslept, Emily has a cold, and Anthony has found out that he and Celia broke up. The battery in Kelly's car is dead, because Emily left its light on all evening long while rehearsing, so Ben has to take Trevor with him to the interview after dropping Kelly off at work. At school, Paul gives Alexander good news: Philip's birthday party is cancelled as Philip has gotten the chicken pox, so the kids that were originally going to attend Philip's party have now decided they will attend Alexander's party instead.

Alexander calls his father, asking him to plan a party for him. Kelly is informed of an embarrassing typo in the book they are publicizing ("dump" instead of "jump"), and needs to stop Dick Van Dyke from reading it at a public reading later. Ben takes Trevor along to the office interview and meets Greg (Donald Glover) who seems impressed at his credentials, although they decide to hold another meeting after Trevor ingests a highlighter. Meanwhile at school, Anthony finds out that Celia has gotten back together with him. Feeling excited about what happened, Anthony jumps up and accidentally slaps a banner which is held up by two trophy display cases between him, causing them to fall and smash, which leads to his teacher taking him to the principal's office and suspending him.

Kelly manages to arrive at Dick Van Dyke's reading, but she is too late in trying to warn him about the book's typo. He reads it with the inappropriate material, humiliating himself and the publishing company. Meanwhile, Ben has purchased cough syrup for Emily's worsening symptoms and takes Anthony to the Department of Motor Vehicles, where his driving instructor intentionally distracts him by convincing him to pick up his cell phone, causing him to destroy several parking meters, badly damage the family minivan, and ultimately fail his driving exam, much to the family's dismay. Alexander confesses that the family's day was jinxed because of his ill wishes the night before, and apologizes, but Ben says "Apology not accepted" because they can still have some good in it.

Afterwards, they all go to Emily's play, which is inadvertently sabotaged by her impaired behavior as she had gotten excessively drunk after overdosing on the cough syrup. Afterwards, the game design firm calls Ben and asks him to meet them at an "authentic" Japanese hibachi restaurant called Nagamaki for another meeting. The family, joined by Celia, goes to the restaurant in their badly damaged minivan, where Ben accidentally sets his shirt on fire at the grill, embarrassing him to the employers. The whole family consoles him, admitting that they will overcome whatever else the day has in store for them. Alexander states, "You just gotta have the bad days so you can love the good days even more", and Anthony suddenly decides not to go to the prom with Celia, stating that his family is more important, and they also break up completely.

The family returns home, and discover that Ben had hired a rental animal service to recreate an Australian petting zoo for Alexander's birthday party. A crocodile and kangaroo, however, have escaped from their cage and Ben is kicked by the kangaroo after chasing it for several blocks. They then decide to pitch in to try and salvage the day by helping host it. Ben and Kelly receive good news: he got hired for the game design job, and she has been informed that the celebrity reading went viral and has created publicity for the book. Reunited, Ben then brings out the cake, with Alexander wishing for more days like the one they shared together.