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Plot Summary

The film opens with a montage of protests regarding the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War, before cutting to Raoul Duke (Depp) and Dr. Gonzo (Del Toro) speeding down the desert of Nevada. Duke, under the influence of mescaline, complains of hallucinating a swarm of giant bats, before going through the pair’s inventory of psychoactive drugs. Shortly afterward, the duo stop to pick up a young hitchhiker (Tobey Maguire), and explain what they are doing. Duke has been assigned by an unnamed magazine to travel to Las Vegas and cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race. However, they have also decided to take advantage of this trip by purchasing countless drugs, and rent a brand new Chevy Impala convertible. The young man soon becomes terrified of the drug-filled antics of the duo, and flees on foot. Trying to reach Vegas before the hitchhiker can go to the police, Gonzo gives Duke a tab of “Sunshine Acid”, then informs him that there is little chance of making it before the drug kicks in. By the time they reach the strip, Duke is in full throes of his trip, and barely makes it through the check-in; all the while hallucinating that the hotel clerk is a moray eel, and that his fellow bar patrons are hideous lizards in the depths of an orgy.

The next day, Duke arrives at the race, and heads out with his photographer, a man by the name of Lacerda. During the coverage, Duke becomes irrational and believes that they are in the middle of a battlefield, so he promptly fires Lacerda, and returns to the hotel. After consuming some more mescaline, as well as huffing diethyl ether, Duke and Gonzo arrive at the Bazooko Circus casino, but leave shortly afterwards, the chaotic atmosphere severely frightening Gonzo. Back in the hotel room, Duke leaves Gonzo unattended, and tries his luck at a quick round of roulette. However, when Duke returns to the room, Gonzo, after consuming a full sheet of LSD, has trashed the room, and is sitting fully-clothed in the bathtub, attempting to pull the tape player in with him. He pleads with Duke to throw the machine into the water when the song White Rabbit “peaks”. Duke agrees, but merely throws a grapefruit at his attorney’s head before running outside.

The next morning, Duke awakes to a massive room service bill, and no sign of Gonzo (who had returned to Los Angeles while Duke slept), and attempts to leave town. As he nears Baker, California, a highway patrolman pulls him over for speeding, and advises him to sleep at a nearby rest stop. Realizing that he is being set up, Duke instead decides to return to Las Vegas, and reads a telegram from Gonzo, informing him that he has a suite in his name at the Flamingo Las Vegas so he can cover a District Attorney’s convention on narcotics. Duke checks into his suite, only to be met by an LSD-tripping Gonzo, and a young girl by the name of Lucy (Christina Ricci) he has brought with him. Gonzo explains that Lucy has come to Las Vegas to meet Barbra Streisand, and that he fed her LSD on the plane without her knowing. Sensing the trouble this could get them into, Duke convinces Gonzo to ditch Lucy in another hotel before her trip wears off.

Gonzo accompanies Duke to the District Attorney’s convention, and the pair discreetly snort cocaine as the guest speaker delivers a comically out-of-touch speech about “marijuana addicts” before showing a brief film. Unable to take it, Duke and Gonzo flee back to their room, only to discover that Lucy has called. While Gonzo deals with Lucy over the phone (pretending that he is being savagely beaten by thugs), Duke attempts to mellow out by trying some of Gonzo’s stash of adrenochrome. However, the trip spirals out of control, and Duke is reduced to a incoherent mess before he blacks out on the floor.

After an unspecified amount of time passes, Duke wakes up (with a microphone wrapped around his head, recorder duct-taped to his chest, wearing Wellington boots and a faux lizard tail) to a complete ruin of the once pristine suite. After discovering his tape recorder, he attempts to remember what has happened. As he listens, he has brief memories of the general mayhem that has taken place (including a heated encounter with a waitress at a diner, convincing a distraught cleaning woman that they are police officers investigating a drug ring, and attempting to buy an orangutan).

Duke drops Gonzo off at the airport, after missing the entrance, driving across the tarmac and pulling up right next to the plane, before returning to the hotel one last time to finish his article. The film ends with Duke speeding back to California as The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” plays over the credits.

by Wikipedia