Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver takes an assignment in Bermuda but ends up on the island of Lilliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens.
Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) has been working in the mail room of a New York daily newspaper for the past ten years. Afraid to put himself out there, he considers himself a loser, as do all of his peers. One day, after having finally had enough, he decides to declare his love to the beautiful Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), the newspaper's travel editor and one of Gulliver's only friends, only to chicken out at the last minute and instead tell her that he'd like to try his hand at writing a column. Darcy accepts and sends him on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle. There, Gulliver becomes shipwrecked and ends up on the island of Liliput, where he is twelve times taller than the tallest man. For the first time, Gulliver has people looking up to him.—Happy_Evil_Dude
Tired of treading water for the past ten years working in the mailroom of a New York newspaper, Lemuel Gulliver summons up the courage to travel to the Bermuda Triangle to impress the beautiful editor, Darcy Silverman. Instead, Lemuel ends up on the sandy beaches of the mysterious island nation of Lilliput: the isolated land of tiny people. However, as Gulliver gets to live out his fantasies, an embittered minuscule rival emerges from the warring neighbouring island of Blefuscu. Can Lemuel, the friendly giant, save the day?—Nick Riganas
Deeply depressed at his dead-end job in the mail room of a New York City newspaper, Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) decides to talk to journalist & travel editor Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet).
Dan Quint (T.J. Miller) is a recent hire at the mail room and realizes straightaway that Gulliver has a crush on Darcy and encourages him to talk to her. Within a day of joining work, Dan is made the head of the mail-room and is now Gulliver's boss. Dan says that Gulliver has been at the mail-room for 10 years and has peaked. This depresses Gulliver and he decides to talk to Darcy.
Gulliver convinces Darcy he could write a report about his (false) extensive world "travels" saying his dream is to become a writer. He calls the article "Gulliver's Travels".
Gulliver is a complete nerd and a Star Wars fan. He hates that he cannot brew a decent cup of coffee in the machine.After suffering writer's block and thinking that Darcy will not want to hang out with a "guy from the mail-room", he plagiarizes a report from other publications on the Internet.
The next day, Darcy, impressed by his writing, presents Gulliver with a new task - to travel to the Bermuda Triangle and write an article confirming that the legend of ships mysteriously disappearing in the area being caused by extraterrestrials is not true. The task requires Gulliver to be at sea for 3 weeks, completely cut off from the grid.
Upon arrival in Bermuda, Gulliver rents a boat and travels into the triangle. Gulliver is travelling alone on the boat and had brought a science fiction magazine with him to pass the time. As he enters the Bermuda Triangle, Gulliver's instruments stop functioning.After falling asleep at the helm of his ship, he's caught in a freak storm and the boat is overwhelmed by a waterspout. He washes up unconscious on the shore of Lilliput, where he is immediately confirmed as a "beast" by the town's tiny people. Gulliver freaks out and he tries to fight the little people, who bring him down with hooks and spears.
He is captured and imprisoned in a cave, citizens claiming him to be dangerous because of his huge size. The people of Lilliput are shown to be master engineers and builders who construct machines to be able to transport Gulliver and to put him to hard labor in the fields.
Here, Gulliver meets another prisoner named Horatio (Jason Segel) who was jailed by General Edward (Chris O'Dowd) because he likes Princess Mary of Lilliput (Emily Blunt), whereas Edward wants her for himself. After the island across from Lilliput, Blefuscu, infiltrates commandos to kidnap Princess Mary (and they set fire to the King's castle to distract the soldiers and leave the Princess unprotected), Gulliver manages to break free of the plow-machine he is forced to work and then rescues the princess from being kidnapped. Gulliver also saves her father, King Theodore (Billy Connolly) from a fire by urinating on it.Queen Isabelle (Catherine Tate) is Mary's mother and August (Olly Alexander) is Mary's brother.
Gulliver is declared a hero by Lilliput's citizens and makes up a deal of lies saying he is the President of the United States, says Yoda is his Vice-President and a living legend in his homeland. Edward, however, becomes enraged due to the luxurious accommodations that have been built for him, and even being presented as an honorary general of the Lilliputian Army complete with uniform. When the townspeople find Gulliver's boat and his things, Gulliver gets angry voice mail messages from Darcy, saying she has to take his place and travel to Bermuda now, and also found out about his plagiarism and she no longer wishes to be friends with him.
The next day, chaos ensues as the Blefuscian Navy lay siege on the city when Edward shuts down its defense system as an act of revenge for Gulliver's treatment. Gulliver defeats the armada, invulnerable to the cannonballs being fired at him (although he receives numerous welts on his stomach). Embarrassed once more, and with Mary no longer wanting to do anything with him, Edward defects to the Blefuscians and brings with him blueprints of a robot coming from one of Gulliver's sci-fi magazines. The Blefuscians secretly build the robot based on Gulliver's magazine, with Edward as the pilot.
The Blefuscians invade Liliput and the robot-wielding Edward makes Gulliver admit to the people that he is "just the guy from the mail-room" and nothing more. Edward banishes Gulliver on the shores of Brobdingnag ("the island where we dare not go"), where he is captured by Glumdalclitch, a giant girl who is to Gulliver as Gulliver is to the people of Lilliput, and forced to become her doll complete with wig and dress.
Horatio, who has gone to Brobdingnag after being spurned by Mary, reveals to Gulliver that Darcy has been imprisoned by the Blefuscians when she is lost in the Bermuda Triangle in the same manner as Gulliver. Gulliver narrowly escapes with him, using a parachute that he took from a dead U.S. Air Force pilot sitting in the dollhouse (a crashed F-104 Starfighter is seen in the girl's yard).
Once again accepting a duel from Edward, this time not only for Lilliput's freedom but for its fate as well - as Edward threatens to destroy it should Gulliver fail - Gulliver ultimately defeats him with the assistance of Horatio, who disables the machine's electrocuting weapon. Horatio is hailed a hero and gets King Theodore's permission to court the princess.
Edward, reaching the point of insanity, threatens to kill the princess, but the princess, finally having enough of Edward, beats him up in frustration. When King Theodore sentences all Blefuscians to the gallows or to prepare for war, Gulliver helps to make peace between the rival island-nations by reciting Edwin Starr's "War" and he, along with Darcy, return to New York City on their repaired ship. Gulliver, now a legitimate travel writer, takes Darcy to lunch while holding hands, after returning from another travel assignment.
