The film begins with a disclaimer from Warner Bros. by "apologizing" to the citizens of North
Pasadena.
Thomas (Thomas Mann) is turning seventeen, and his friends Costa
(Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) are planning to throw
a huge birthday bash at Thomas' house, and to increase their popularity
among their schoolmates. As Thomas' parents are going away for the
weekend for their anniversary, Thomas' father lays down the rules,
which include having a max of five people at their house, not to drive
his expensive
Mercedes,
and no one is allowed in his office. Thomas is first reluctant to have
the party at his house because of these rules, but Costa encourages him
to have the party. Costa even hires AV-student Dax (Dax Flame), to
record the events. Throughout their day at school, Costa and J.B.
remind everyone about the party using
text messaging and spreading it by
word of mouth.
Thomas also decides to invite Alexis (Alexis Knapp), the hottest girl
at school. Thomas also talks to his best female friend Kirby (Kirby
Bliss Blanton), whom he has a crush on.
As the trio plan for the party, Costa lures Thomas and J.B. to buy
marijuana for the party from T-Rick (
Rick Shapiro),
an ex-military soldier living in a dilapidated house. As T-Rick goes to
get the weed for them, Costa steals a gnome displaying the middle
finger and gives it to Dax to put in the car. As the three leave
T-Rick's home, T-Rick discovers his gnome stolen, and chases them
relentlessly as they escape in Thomas' mini-van which he received as a
gift from his parents, destroying the windshield in the process.
The party starts and only Thomas, Costa, J.B. and Kirby are at the
house. Thomas worries that no one will come until suddenly, cars start
pulling up in the neighborhood. The party becomes an instant hit as
many people begin to show up. Thomas sets up the party so that it will
be limited to only the backyard and poolhouse, with the doors to the
house locked and will only be accessible to Thomas, Costa and J.B.,
which will be guarded by two child security guards (Brady Hender and
Nick Nervies). But as more and more people show up, the party gets
moved into the house, which infuriates Thomas. Thomas begins
questioning others at the party as to how they heard about the party,
which leads to Costa revealing that he put out ads on
Craigslist and on a local radio station to attract more people.
During the party, many events happen; the gnome is smashed, which turns out contains large amounts of
ecstasy,
which everyone (including Thomas, Costa and J.B.) take. The police show
up, after a neighbor complains about the noise, but later leave as the
party guests are quiet in the backyard, making them believe the party
is over. Thomas makes out with Kirby, and reveals that he loves her.
Later on, Alexis shows up to the party, and flirts with Thomas
throughout the night, until she brings Thomas to his room to have sex,
which is broken up by Kirby, who then runs off from the party. With all
of the attention surrounding the party, news coverage of the party
begins with news choppers flying over the house. In addition, a
dwarf guest (
Martin Klebba) drives Thomas' dad's Mercedes into the pool, after being put into an oven earlier by other party-goers.
The police return, and are quickly overwhelmed by the party
guests.They are forced to retreat and comeback with a SWAT team, and
decide to let the party burn out before moving in. This goes well,
until it gets interrupted by T-Rick, who shows up to the neighborhood
sporting a
flamethrower
in an attempt to reclaim his already smashed gnome, begins torching up
trees around the neighborhood and at cars parked on the road, ending
the party. He is stopped by police who shoot his flamethrower pack
which later blows up inside a mobile home that he ran into for cover.
The trio (with no any other option left since the house is destroyed),
along with Dax, the two security guards and Milo, Thomas' dog, run away
from the scene as many of the party attendees flee from the cops. The
neighborhood is left in flames until firefighter choppers douse the
flames, damaging property.
They wake up on the bleachers of their high school, as the police
continue hovering over the neighborhood. Costa lets the security guards
go, but does not pay them because they did a "shit job" of watching the
house. Knowing that he will have to take the blame for the party and
the destruction to the neighborhood, Thomas lets Costa, J.B. and Dax
leave. When his parents do come home, his father commends him for the
party because he thought he was a loser, until hearing about how many
people showed up to the party and what happened, but still punishes
him, as he will be using Thomas' college funds to pay for the damages,
along with finding out how he will pay the rest of the damages.
The next day at school, Thomas, Costa and J.B. are cheered on by
students for throwing an awesome party. Thomas is also able to rekindle
his relationship with Kirby. In the epilogue, it is revealed that
Thomas was convicted on six different charges, Costa is able to get an
indictment on his charges because of his expensive lawyer, and J.B.
gets his charges dropped because his parents pleaded that he is a
special needs
person, which would make it difficult for the court to charge him. But
he is forced to take the short bus every day to/from school. The film
ends with Costa being interviewed by Jillian Reynolds, where he
cordially invites everyone to his next party, which he promises to be
better than his last.