A Grand Day Out - Plot

Plot

One night, Wallace and Gromit are relaxing in the living-room pondering where to go for the upcoming bank holiday. Wallace gets up to prepare tea with cheese and crackers, only to discover they are out of cheese. Wallace suggests they should go somewhere where there is plenty of cheese. After browsing possible destinations (including Lancashire, Cheddar, Wensleydale, Philadelphia and Tescos), they ultimately choose to go to the Moon, since "everybody knows the moon's made of cheese." The two build a moon rocket in their basement, complete with easy chairs and a wallpapered cabin. Once the two complete packing provisions for the journey, Wallace lights the rocket's fuse. With only a minute to go in the countdown, he realizes that they have forgotten to pack crackers. He rushes out of the rocket and hurries up to the kitchen to get crackers, making it back to the rocket a few seconds before the engine ignites. Even with the engine running, the rocket refuses to lift off (the mice in the basement are watching the whole thing and with the fire coming from the rocket they put on different kinds of glasses to protect their eyes). Gromit realizes he has forgotten to release the hand brake and does so, allowing the rocket to lift off.

Upon reaching the moon, which is in fact made of cheese, Wallace and Gromit set up a picnic. They try out the lunar cheese, trying to determine what kind it is, but realize it's like nothing they've ever tasted before. They decide to try another spot, where they find a mechanised storage facility, with a strong resemblance to an oven, called "the Cooker". Wallace puts a coin into the machine, but nothing happens (he even pulls a dial off while trying to get it to activate), so he and Gromit continue on their way. Once they’ve left, the Cooker springs to life with two robotic arms springing out from either side of it. It discovers Wallace and Gromit’s picnic site; agitated by the mess, it cleans up the mess of dirty dishes. It then discovers a magazine advertising skiing holidays lying on the picnic blanket, and develops a desire to travel to Earth and go skiing. After putting a moon cheese spike Wallace and Gromit had sampled earlier back together with glue, it then spots their rocket and is amazed by it. It gives them a parking ticket and is annoyed by an oil leak.

Shortly afterwards, the Cooker notices Wallace. Aggravated by his littering, illegally-parked and leaky rocket, and uncontrollable consumption of moon cheese, the Cooker sneaks up behind Wallace to bludgeon him with a truncheon. Just as Gromit notices the machine, it runs out of money and shuts down. The previously-oblivious Wallace notices the Cooker, decides to take the truncheon as a souvenir, and inserts another coin into the Cooker in exchange for the truncheon. As Wallace and Gromit leave for the rocket, the Cooker comes back to life. Realizing the rocket can take it to Earth where it can fulfill its dream of skiing, the machine chases after Wallace and Gromit, who, noticing the Cooker and thinking that it's angry with them for taking a large basket of lunar cheese, prepare for an emergency takeoff. At the same time, the Cooker breaks into the rocket with a tin cutter (it could not climb up the ladder from a lack of legs). Blundering about in the dark interior of the rocket's engine room (even knocking a pipe out of its place), the Cooker lights a match near the fuel tank, causing an explosion. The Cooker tries to hang on, but eventually is thrown across the lunar surface as the rocket launches, ripping off two strips of metal from the rocket. Initially crushed by its failure to get to Earth, the Cooker realizes it can use the metal strips as a pair of skis. While happily skiing on the lunar surface, the Cooker waves goodbye to Wallace and Gromit, who return home.