The film opens in 2005 with U.S. Army Librarian Corporal Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson). Joe is a perfectly average, unassuming, and slightly apathetic man. He likes beer, football, and his routine. He is selected for a top-secret military "Human Hibernation Project" alongside a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph), due to her similarly "average" psychological profile.
Joe is horrified. He is, by default, the smartest person alive. He tries to find a library or a record of his family, only to find that all books have been replaced by picture-based "books" with single words like "FART" and "POOP." The internet is a series of animated bouncing logos. idiocracy full film
He and Rita are arrested for "not having tattoos" (tribal tattoos are mandatory) and sent to a rehabilitation facility. There, Joe explains his situation to a gurney-obsessed doctor and eventually meets President Camacho. The film opens in 2005 with U
Rita helps Joe escape. They steal a time machine prototype (a broken-down police car) and flee into the wasteland. They find an old, abandoned farm with a functioning irrigation system. Joe rigs it to run on toilet water. Within days, the dead crops spring to life, growing enormous, healthy produce. He likes beer, football, and his routine
After a failed attempt to reason with them, Joe suggests they use water from the toilet. This is considered disgusting. Joe is laughed out of the room and sentenced to a public "smackdown" (execution) on live TV.
However, the final scene delivers the film’s darkest punchline. Back in the hibernation lab in 2005, another pod is found. It opens, revealing the man who was originally supposed to be the "most average" subject: a defense attorney named Donald. He was swapped out at the last minute by Joe because "that guy was an asshole."
The plan: freeze them for one year and see if they can be revived. But the project is abandoned when the lead officer is arrested for selling military secrets. In the ensuing chaos, the hangar housing the hibernation pods is demolished. Joe and Rita are forgotten, buried underground.