Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    EmmysSuperheroes GuideSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Napoleon Dynamite

  • 2004
  • PG
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
249K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
251
481
Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff, Efren Ramirez, Aaron Ruell, and Jon Heder in Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Play trailer1:15
20 Videos
99+ Photos
Buddy ComedyQuirky ComedySatireTeen ComedyComedy

A listless and alienated teenager helps his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while dealing with his bizarre family life back home.A listless and alienated teenager helps his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while dealing with his bizarre family life back home.A listless and alienated teenager helps his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while dealing with his bizarre family life back home.

  • Director
    • Jared Hess
  • Writers
    • Jared Hess
    • Jerusha Hess
  • Stars
    • Jon Heder
    • Efren Ramirez
    • Jon Gries
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    249K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    251
    481
    • Director
      • Jared Hess
    • Writers
      • Jared Hess
      • Jerusha Hess
    • Stars
      • Jon Heder
      • Efren Ramirez
      • Jon Gries
    • 1.6KUser reviews
    • 186Critic reviews
    • 64Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 10 wins & 23 nominations total

    Videos20

    Napoleon Dynamite
    Trailer 1:15
    Napoleon Dynamite
    Napoleon Dynamite
    Trailer 0:34
    Napoleon Dynamite
    Napoleon Dynamite
    Trailer 0:34
    Napoleon Dynamite
    Sundance's Most Memorable Comedy Gems
    Clip 1:30
    Sundance's Most Memorable Comedy Gems
    Napoleon Dynamite: Dance
    Clip 2:01
    Napoleon Dynamite: Dance
    Napoleon Dynamite: Home Life
    Clip 1:49
    Napoleon Dynamite: Home Life
    Napoleon Dynamite: New Kid
    Clip 0:56
    Napoleon Dynamite: New Kid

    Photos167

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 162
    View Poster

    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Jon Heder
    Jon Heder
    • Napoleon Dynamite
    Efren Ramirez
    Efren Ramirez
    • Pedro
    Jon Gries
    Jon Gries
    • Uncle Rico
    Aaron Ruell
    Aaron Ruell
    • Kip
    Diedrich Bader
    Diedrich Bader
    • Rex
    Tina Majorino
    Tina Majorino
    • Deb
    Sandy Martin
    Sandy Martin
    • Grandma
    Haylie Duff
    Haylie Duff
    • Summer Wheatly
    Trevor Snarr
    Trevor Snarr
    • Don
    Shondrella Avery
    Shondrella Avery
    • Lafawnduh
    Bracken Johnson
    • Randy
    Carmen Brady
    • Starla
    Ellen Dubin
    Ellen Dubin
    • Ilene
    J.C. Cunningham
    • Jock #1
    Jimmy Stevens
    • Jock #2
    • (as James Smooth)
    Brian Petersen
    • Lance
    Brett Taylor
    • Nathan
    Thomas Lefler
    • Principal Svadean
    • (as Tom Lefler)
    • Director
      • Jared Hess
    • Writers
      • Jared Hess
      • Jerusha Hess
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews1.6K

    7.0248.7K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    rmonroe401

    Awesome!

    I have to say I was so intrigued by the mixed responses to this film on this board I had to see it. In my opinion it was the best movie I have seen in years. I am so tired of the typical BS Hollywood crap, and this movie was far from that. Napoleon was indeed dynamite! The first couple minutes I was kinda worried that the naysayers were right, but as the movie continued I couldn't stop laughing! And for those how think that it was wrong to exploit the nerds in society, you definitely missed the whole point of the movie. It wasn't exploited them, it was more celebrating them and their uniqueness. And as for being unrealistic, this movie was more realistic than any movie I have seen. That was part of what made it hilarious. Not doubt this will be a cult classic! GO NAPOLEON!

    I give this film a 10 out of 10
    7Buddy-51

    The real "Revenge of the Nerds"

    Napoleon Dynamite is a king among nerds, a slack-jawed, mouth-breathing high school student who suffers the slings and arrows of perpetual ridicule, yet who gives as good as he gets when the treatment gets too rough. Luckily, Napoleon is far from alone in his nerddom. He has an older brother who wears buttoned-up short sleeve dress shirts and black-rimmed glasses, and whose social contact is limited mainly to people he meets in internet chat rooms. Napoleon's Uncle Rick is what might be called a "muscular nerd," a used-up, middle aged football player who dreams of his glory days in 1982 when he was just one play away from a career in the NFL and a life of fame and fortune, and who now spends his time hawking Tupperware products, selling miracle breast enhancement devices, and investing in time travel machines he finds in catalogues. Napoleon also befriends the school's newest nerd, a transfer student named Pedro, and tries to start up a romance with the shy and awkward Deb, who sheepishly goes door to door drumming up business for her studio that specializes in "glamour" photo shots for a decidedly unglamorous clientele.

    Set in a small town in rural Idaho, "Napoleon Dynamite" is a quirky regional comedy that achieved phenomenal mainstream success at the American box office. Its appeal is in its low-keyed, understated look at a group of people that more of us probably identify with than we would like to acknowledge. This is a movie for anyone who has ever felt unattractive or unpopular, who just never quite "fit in" with the people who really counted, especially in those dark ages known as the "teen years." One can't help liking and rooting for these bizarre and eccentric individuals who are really just looking for the same love and acceptance that we all are.

    Director Jared Hess, along with co-writer Jerusha Hess, never feels the need to exaggerate or overstate the comedy. It would have been easy for them to have turned this into another "Revenge of the Nerds," placing their characters in over-the-top predicaments and situations to appease audience expectations. Instead, they let the story develop subtly and gradually, making the film feel more attuned to real life in the process. It may seem like a contradiction in terms, but the writers achieve their humor through a kind of understated hyperbole that allows us to laugh with the characters rather than at them. These nerds may be nerds to the core, but they reflect the longings and doubts common to all of us at one time or another. As a result, "Napoleon Dynamite" is warm and humanistic where it could easily have been cruel and condescending.

    The filmmakers are helped immeasurably by a wonderfully talented cast, all of whom play their parts perfectly. Joe Heder as Napoleon, Aaron Ruell as his brother, Kip, Efren Ramirez as Pedro, and Tina Majorino as Deb all deliver their lines in a flat, emotionless, singsong monotone that perfectly captures the defense mechanism each of them has set up as a shield against a brutal, uncomprehending world. Yet, Napoleon and his fellow nerds never settle for victim status, as each finds a way to assert his individuality and carve out a little piece of happiness for himself. As an actor, only Jon Gries as Napoleon's Uncle Rico gets to break through the somnambulist haze and go for the fences in his delivery.

    "Napoleon Dynamite" is clearly not the kind of movie that every audience will appreciate, but those movie watchers with a taste for the offbeat and quirky will have a fun time with it.
    9gawkman

    You have to "get it" before you find it funny. And it is VERY funny.

    The love/hate reactions I've seen do not surprise me at all. This movie is very different, it's own style... and it is PURE GENIUS. But it's definitely not for everyone... you have to back off and understand the mood and general feel of the movie before you have the context to find the actions of the characters funny. Then you will "get it". And what is this context I'm referring to? This movie explores the very essence of boredom and mediocrity as you follow the daily life of a dorky guy doing uninteresting things in a small, unexciting town. Napolean's constant, open-mouth, blank stare says, "I'm only tolerating this monotonous existence because I've got nothing better to do." It took me about 15 minutes into the movie and then I GOT it. The movie has no real plot because it isn't about an interesting story, it's about the real life that exists BETWEEN the interesting stories. Ever call up your bud because you're bored, then talk about what you're not doing, then decide to get together and be bored together, and spend the remainder of the evening trying to think of something to do to no avail? This movie is about this very type of thing... a tribute to the ordinary every-day stuff that you have no reason or desire to remember... like eating reheated leftover Hamburger Helper, or that old shirt you wear when you're working that you're not afraid to get dirty, or some magazine you flipped through to pass the time in the dentist's waiting room.

    I constantly found myself saying, "This all seems too strangely familiar. I knew a guy like that. I've done stuff like that. I've been to a store like that. I've been in a house like that." This isn't the kind of movie to make you suddenly laugh out loud, it's a movie that will first make you chuckle, and then chuckle some more, and pretty soon you can't stop laughing as scenes and characters continuously remind you about the absurdity of watching random, stupid pointlessness. Why would something boring be interesting to watch? You'll just have to see it to understand.
    7dfranzen70

    Funny and unique!

    Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) is the typical sad-sack, luckless loser that has permeated high schools for seemingly centuries. He has no friends, he's picked on by bullies, he has a somewhat-odd home life ... but through it all, he's sure things will be just plain okay in the end.

    Napoleon and his older brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) live with their grandmother, but at the beginning of the film she tells them she needs to take off for a couple days. Enter their Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), a self-starter who's living in 1982 (when the coach of his high school football team declined to put him in as quarterback, thus altering Rico's life forever). Some of the funniest scenes in the film involve Napoleon's often-combative relationship with Uncle Rico; Rico is also bound and determined to return to those halcyon days of his youth via a time machine he's seen advertised on the Internet, and he enlists Kip to help him raise the funds.

    Napoleon befriends the new kid in school, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), who has a sweet bike, can talk to girls, and has an actual mustache. But like Napoleon, Pedro is a misfit. Both sometimes hang out with yet another taciturn student, Deb (Tina Majorino, all grown up from Waterworld), who secretly (it seems) likes Napoleon. But there isn't a lot of focus on their relationship, because Napoleon himself is fairly oblivious to how people perceive him. This isn't a story about young love or lust, it's a story about a misfit refusing to fit - while fitting in with others like him.

    Jon Heder is perfectly cast as the gawky, dorky Napoleon; he resembles Butt-Head in countenance, although certainly not in temperament or intelligence. Mouth agape and with an awkward gait, Napoleon is about as odd a duck as you'd find in high school, and yet he still manages to survive with his dignity intact. He's a good egg, although he seems to overreact at times: "What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? Napoleon: Whatever I feel like I wanna do.....GOSH!" Still, his delivery is perfect. You can readily picture a Napoleon in any high school.

    I think where the film ultimately succeeds, aside from the casting of Heder, is that it doesn't fall into the traps of predictability and stereotyping. Sure, it's a high school movie, and there are snobby pretty girls and arrogant jocks, but not much time is devoted to them. Sure, there's a big dance, but it doesn't necessarily turn out the way you'd expect it to. What you're left with, then, isn't a typical coming-of-age story, but rather a unique take on a rather mundane - albeit life-altering - time in a boy's life.
    7gavin6942

    The Smartest Dumb Comedy Ever Made

    Napoleon Dynamite (yes, that's his real name) is an outcast student in Preston, Idaho. But he befriends some other outcasts and in their own strange way they may just make themselves known. There may not be a definite plot, but it would be something like that.

    I am calling this film "the smartest dumb comedy ever made" because the humor is all really stupid -- one-liners, absurd events and situations... with characters that really are not your typical movie heroes. But it's clear the people behind the film are not dumb at all. There's a hidden gem in this film.

    The problem may be that the smartness is not on the surface. The first time I saw the film, I thought it was lame. The second time, I loved it. The third time, loved it more. I showed it to a friend once, who disliked it, but I wonder if she tried it again... and saw the genius. (Some might argue that "Freddy Got Fingered" is similar... I'm not going to try that here.)

    More like this

    Step Brothers
    6.9
    Step Brothers
    Blades of Glory
    6.3
    Blades of Glory
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    7.1
    Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
    Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    7.8
    Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    School of Rock
    7.2
    School of Rock
    Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    6.6
    Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    6.7
    Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
    Office Space
    7.6
    Office Space
    The Waterboy
    6.2
    The Waterboy
    Peluca
    6.4
    Peluca
    Billy Madison
    6.4
    Billy Madison
    Superbad
    7.6
    Superbad

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Jon Heder drew all of the drawings in the movie except the unicorn.
    • Goofs
      When Napoleon is waiting in the van for Uncle Rico to take him to the dance, he looks at his watch. The time and date displayed is 5:40 p.m., Thursday 7/17. (They may have forgotten to change the date on the watch -- how many school dances are in July?) After he starts running down the road, he stops to look at his watch and the time and date says 5:54 p.m., Monday, 7/21.
    • Quotes

      Don: Hey, Napoleon. What did you do last summer again?

      Napoleon Dynamite: I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!

      Don: Did you shoot any?

      Napoleon Dynamite: Yes, like 50 of 'em! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that?

      Don: What kind of gun did you use?

      Napoleon Dynamite: A freakin' 12-gauge, what do you think?

    • Crazy credits
      There is a 5 minute scene with Kip and LaFawnduh's wedding after the end credits.
    • Alternate versions
      In the streaming prints of the movie on Hulu & Disney+, the line "You guys are retarded!" is replaced by "You guys are idiots!".
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Stepford Wives/Garfield: The Movie/The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
    • Soundtracks
      We're Going to be Friends
      Written by Jack White

      Performed by The White Stripes

      Courtesy of Third Man Records/V2 Records/XL Recordings

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ21

    • How long is Napoleon Dynamite?Powered by Alexa
    • Filming dates:

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 27, 2004 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Napoleón Dinamita
    • Filming locations
      • Preston, Idaho, USA
    • Production companies
      • Fox Searchlight Pictures
      • Paramount Pictures
      • MTV Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $400,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $44,540,956
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $116,666
      • Jun 13, 2004
    • Gross worldwide
      • $46,140,989
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 36 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Tina Majorino, Haylie Duff, Efren Ramirez, Aaron Ruell, and Jon Heder in Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
    Top Gap
    What was the official certification given to Napoleon Dynamite (2004) in Spain?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.