Napoleon Dynamite is an American independent film written and directed by Jared Hess. The movie is based on the short film he directed at Brigham Young University with Jon Heder, Peluca, which was discovered at the Slamdance Film Festival. Napoleon debuted in 2004, earning $116,666 in its limited release opening weekend, $2,083,493 in its wide release opening weekend, and over $44.5 million as of January 1, 2006. The film cost only $400,000 to make. The DVD was released on December 21, 2004. Although it is popular with people of all ages and generations, it is particuarly popular among members of Generation Y, who seem to identify with the film to some degree. In 2005, it won three MTV Movie Awards, for Breakthrough Male Performance, Best Musical Performance, and Best Movie. It was filmed in Preston, Idaho, USA.

The film follows the protagonist Napoleon Dynamite, an introverted, dorky high school student with a penchant for "tots", drawing fantasy creatures, fishing for bass, and telling implausible stories. The film showcases Napoleon's personality and circle of equally quirky friends, family, and associates in his predominantly Mormon hometown of Preston, Idaho. Though the film has been described as "quirky", it is not in the same vein as the Wes Anderson films, as the main character, his brother, and some of his friends' behaviors mirror a flatness and ennui characteristic often associated with his generation. The movie is semi-autobiographical. As the film-makers state in the DVD commentaries, much of their own social awkwardness growing up in Utah was the inspiration for the characters.

Napoleon lives with his 32-year-old computer-geek brother Kip and their grandmother, who sends the somewhat dim ex-high school jock, Uncle Rico, to look after them while she is hospitalized. Napoleon's nerdy, unemployed (and nearly unemployable) brother Kip spends most of his day "chattin' with hot babes" on the internet--with his surprising success serving as one of several sub-plots within the movie.

The movie has no strong plot, but the largest sub-plot of Napoleon Dynamite revolves around Pedro Sanchez's quest to become Class President of Preston High School. The film follows Napoleon Dynamite's friends Pedro (Efren Ramirez) and Deb (Tina Majorino) as they become true and close friends, and as Deb and Napoleon "hook up". As Jon Heder jokingly said in an interview: "I think they might one day find it in their hearts to unite for eternity."

Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), the film's protagonist, is supposedly a stereotypical geek who loves to draw fantasy creatures. He has very poor social skills and an awkward appearance, he also lacks the intelligence typically associated with nerds, having attempted time travel with a crude device his Uncle Rico purchased on the Internet. He enjoys Tater Tots and tetherball. He is active in the Future Farmers of America and his school's Happy Hands Club. His best friends are Pedro and Deb. He enjoys eating steak and milk every night for dinner. It would seem he was named after Elvis Costello's pseudonym, as seen on the back of the album Blood and Chocolate, but director Hess denies any such connotation.

Pedro Sanchez (Efren Ramirez) is a new student that the Principal of Preston High says is from Colonia Juárez, Mexico. He is occasionally the target of mild antagonism on the part of the school principal. He runs for class president, and that is the overall plot of the movie. His cousins are portrayed as the "cousins with all the sweet hook-ups" and help him protect a boy from having his bike taken.

Deb (Tina Majorino) is a shy and awkward schoolmate, and a friend of Napoleon. She is interested in photography, and spends her time trying to earn money for college by selling glamour shots and boondoggle keychains. She often wears her hair in a single ponytail off to one side. Deb seems to be the most articulate character in the film.

Kipland "Kip" Ronald Dynamite (Aaron Ruell) is Napoleon's wimpy older brother ("like 32 years old") who enjoys online dating and claims to be training to become a cage fighter. He and Napoleon live with their grandmother.

Uncle (Kyle) Rico (Jon Gries) is the sleazy uncle of Napoleon and Kip. Rico lives in an old RV in the middle of a field. He played football in his younger days ("back in '82"), and is constantly living in the past. He longs to go back in time and change his fortunes, certain he had the potential to join the NFL. Uncle Rico enjoys eating fried steak. He watches Kip and Napoleon while their Grandma is in the hospital due to a broken coccyx. During this time, he and Kip bumble through a variety of business engagements, such as selling Tupperware and herbal breast augmentation. A hint of sexual involvement between Rico and his customers is subtextually apparent just under the storyline.

Summer Wheatly (Haylie Duff) is a stereotypical blonde cheerleader against whom Pedro runs for class president.

Don (Trevor Snarr) is Summer's cocky boyfriend. He helps Summer on her campaign for class president and occasionally teases Napoleon and Pedro.

Trisha Stevens (Emily Kennard) is one of Summer's good friends, and is forced into going with Napoleon to the school dance. She is a member of the school's "Happy Hands Club" along with Napoleon. Her mother is a "client" of Rico.

LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery) is a woman Kip met over the Internet. She is tall, stylish, and African-American contrasting with Kip's short stature, awkward demeanor, and pale complexion. After spending time with her, Kip changes his clothes and demeanor to mimic African-American or white rapper stereotypes. In the post-credit sequence, she and Kip are wed.

Rex (Diedrich Bader) is sensei of the "Rex Kwon Do" martial arts dojo. He is an ex-ultimate fighter and charges a large fee for his services ($300 for an 8-week program). He is a very confident man and is married to Starla (Carmen Brady), a female bodybuilder.

Grandma (Sandy Martin) is the divorced grandmother of Napoleon and Kip. She breaks her coccyx on a jump while driving a Trike (ATV) at the sand dunes while on a date. According to Rico, there is a lot Napoleon and Kip do not know about her.

Randy (Bracken Johnson) is the school bully. He frequently injures and robs Napoleon and other nerds.

Tina ("Dolly") is the stubborn llama that belongs to Napoleon's grandmother.

Ilene (Ellen Dubin)

Preston, Idaho is a real town located near the Utah border, and is predominantly Mormon. Since the release of Napoleon, it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with the school, Preston High School, being a main feature. Preston held a Napoleon Dynamite Festival celebrating the film on June 24-25,2005, and an estimated 6,000 people attended the two-day event. Napoleon T-shirts have also become somewhat hot commodities in 2005, selling at many stores that sell novelty shirts, such as Hot Topic. In April 2005, the Idaho state legislature approved a resolution commending the filmmakers for producing Napoleon Dynamite, specifically enumerating the benefits the movie has brought to Idaho as well as for showcasing various aspects of Idaho's culture and economy

The film also displays many quirky references to Mormon popular culture. Napoleon uses euphemisms like flip, gosh, and heck that are common in Mormon circles, as alternatives to swearing. (For Example: "What the flip was Grandma doing at the Sand Dunes?" or "Heck yes. I'd vote for you.") He wears a t-shirt that reads "Ricks College", the former junior college located in Rexburg, Idaho now known as BYU Idaho. In the DVD extras, there is an interview with Jon Heder in which he jokes that perhaps Napoleon and Deb may be "sealed for time and all eternity"—a reference to the Mormon belief in "eternal marriage" or "sealing" performed in LDS temples. The principal's reference to "Juarez"—where he assumes Pedro is from—is a reference to Colonia Juarez, a Mormon colony in Mexico founded to evade U.S. polygamy laws in the nineteenth century. Characters, even those intended to be the popular girls, do not wear shorts any shorter than knee-length. Fashions in Mormon culture tend to be more modest than those of popular culture. At the same time, the director seems to have taken care to not project an overt presence of Mormon culture. Catholic crosses and statue images are placed prominently in some scenes, particularly at Pedro's house.

While the film is set in the present-day, some viewers dispute the temporal setting due to several factors. For example, the music playing at the school dance is from the 1980s, featuring Alphaville and Cyndi Lauper. Other vestiges of earlier decades include fashion trends that reflect those of the 70s and 80s, and a VCR in the Dynamite residence that resembles those from the early days of video technology. Throwbacks to the 1990s come from music by the Backstreet Boys and Jamiroquai used in the choreography of Summer and Pedro's skits. The type of tupperware Uncle Rico is seen selling door-to-door has not been available for purchase for many years. Kip uses the Internet for dating and purchasing a "time machine". However, the model of computer is arguably from at least the early to mid 1990's and he is using a dial up internet service that charges users by how long they have been on, a practice uncommon in the US since at least 1997. Yet Uncle Rico (who appears to be in his late 30s to early 40s) frequently refers to his high school glory days of 1982 (the date on which he set the aforementioned "time machine"). The hydraulically equipped car in which Napoleon gets a lift to the dance - and the music playing therein - are fairly modern icons. Finally, Napoleon's school ID card, as shown in the opening credits, clearly reads "2004/2005," unambiguously setting the movie in the present-day.

The retro aspects of the movie have been suggested by some to be a depiction of cultural stagnation, or an homage to similar genre films of the 1980s, such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off. One could argue that such anachronisms have become popular in hipster film culture. The films of Wes Anderson, for instance, have the same out-dated electronics/music/clothing while still taking place in the present. When asked when his movie was set, writer/director Jared Hess simply replied, "Idaho."

All the characters of Napoleon Dynamite experience a rite-of-passage. Virtually everyone in the movie is stuck either in the '80s era or a past state-of-mind. This is evident in Deb's fashion sense (her hair and wardrobe), Uncle Rico's appearance and wistfulness, Kip's fashion sense (a nerdy, retro wardrobe and excessively large glasses), and Pedro's bewilderment at being reprimanded for practicing a "Mexican tradition". Towards the end of the movie, however, everyone snaps out of the past and into the present. To that end, Kip ditches the Internet for LaFawnduh and subsequently a new style, Rico's ex returns to him, Deb dons a new hair style, Pedro wins over his new classmates, and the popular crowd becomes integrated with those previously considered unpopular.

Although presented subtly, diversity is a common theme in the film: Napoleon and Kip find victory and love, respectively, in African-American culture; Pedro, a Mexican, triumphs over the stereotypical blonde-haired American cheerleader. The uniting nature of diversity is more clearly expressed in a scene after the end credits in which Kip and LaFawnduh are married, where people of all backgrounds come together to celebrate within the predominantly white, conservative town.

Napoleon Dynamite has had a very noticeable impact on popular culture since its theatrical release in June 2004. Repeating memorable quotations from the movie, such as "Sweet!","Heck yes", "Gosh", "Freakin' idiot", "Tina you fat lard, come get some dinner!", "My lips hurt real bad!" and "Vote for Pedro", has become a trendy part of popular youth culture. Although the only official movie merchandise is the DVD, many retailers are selling unofficial clothing and other merchandise based on the film, particularly "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts designed to look like the amateurish shirts worn in the movie.

Critically, Napoleon Dynamite was very divisive. Some praised the movie for its unconventional humor, while others decried the film for much the same reason. Many other critics voiced that, while the film's humor was unique, the movie's target audience and apparent intentions met too ironically, forming an ultimately useless plot. Keith Phipps of The Onion A.V. Club states "a seemingly ill-considered run for class president that provides Napoleon Dynamite's only semblance of a plot. It also allows the film to score some unearned points by taking a stand against the inevitable, dull tyranny of the popular kids. If this didn't seem so much like a film made to make those same kids bust a gut laughing at nerds, the ploy might even have worked."

In the 2005 National Spelling Bee, after asking for the definition of a word, one student recited the line "Do the chickens have large talons?", then proceeded to spell the word.

Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez reprised their roles in the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken, which would involve Napoleon in the role his namesake was in.

Heder has recently appeared in a skit shown at a conference where Bill Gates was presenting Windows Vista. The skit is just 5 minutes of Napoleon Dynamite if he was going to become head of Microsoft. Bill Gates plays himself but it seems that he's the "Kip" of the skit. It was leaked online

Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez also reprised their roles in a series of commercials advertising the 2005 Utah State Fair.

Napoleon will be parodied in the February 2006 comedy Date Movie.