ELIO

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens as a young Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) is at an air and space museum with his aunt, Major Olga Solis (Zoe Saldaña). Olga has been taking care of Elio since the death of his parents, but he has struggled to connect with other kids his age. Elio wanders off and ends up in an exhibit for the Voyager 1 and becomes fascinated by the wonders of outer space and the possibility that there is life outside of Earth.

Over the years, Elio becomes obsessed with meeting other aliens and spends time hoping to get abducted, while Olga has not been able to form much of a bond with him. Elio believes it is because she gave up her dreams of being an astronaut to take care of him. During one of his nightly beach visits to try and get abducted, Elio meets two other boys, Bryce (Dylan Gilmer) and Caleb (Jake Getman), who heard about Elio’s exploits. They get into a scuffle that ends with Elio bruising his eye after hitting himself with his ham radio. Olga has to pick him up from the hospital, where he gets a patch on his left eye.

Olga later takes Elio to work at her base. She is brought to meet with a scientist, Gunther Melmac (Brendan Hunt), who thinks the computers have picked up a message from another planet after making contact with the Voyager. Elio sneaks in and stays until everyone has cleared the room. He leaves a message hoping to join them in outer space, signed off with “Okay, bye, I love you.” The message sends, but it causes a major blackout at the station. Olga brings Elio home angrily and tells him she is planning to send him to a summer camp called The Carver Academy. Elio justifies his desire to go into outer space because he feels that Olga doesn’t want him and he tells her he doesn’t consider her family. This is the final straw for her.

Olga brings Elio to camp, where he is dismayed to find that Bryce and Caleb are there. At night, Elio continues to try and make contact with aliens, while the bullies prepare to prank him. Meanwhile, Olga is at work when the computers begin to glitch out until the message “Bring us your leader, please” starts flashing on the screens and on her phone. Elio runs out of his tent when he hears the bullies coming, but they catch up to him. Before Caleb can strike Elio, time begins to freeze as a portal in the sky opens and begins to pull an excited Elio inside.

Elio is brought to the Communiverse, a part in outer space where the leaders from other planets come together and share knowledge from other worlds in the galaxy. He meets liquid supercomputer OOOOO (Shirley Henderson), who helps Elio communicate with the aliens and gives him a disc to regulate his gravity and body temperature. He then meets Ambassadors Questa (Jameela Jamil), Helix (Brandon Moon), and Tegmen (Matthias Schweighofer), who welcome him to the Communiverse after mistaking him for being the real leader of Earth, since they intercepted his message but assumed he sent the Voyager spacecraft himself.

Before Elio can clarify things, the other ambassadors must deal with another candidate who wants to join the Communiverse: Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) of the Hylurkian race. He is an aggressive, bloodthirsty tyrant, and the other ambassadors want nothing to do with him. Grigon promises to return to conquer the Communiverse. Fearing retaliation, the ambassadors prepare to close up shop and send Elio back home, but, not wanting to return to the moment where he would get beaten up, Elio chooses to personally negotiate with Grigon himself, which might help make him Ambassador of Earth more quickly. He even uses his eyepatch as proof of his “battle scars” to show that he has what it takes. The others agree and send Elio with OOOOO to prepare.

OOOOO helps Elio make a clone of himself, “Other Elio”, which is sent back to Earth to fulfill Elio’s role while he is out in space. He also uses a Universal User Manual (Bob Petersen) to help him come up with negotiation tactics when talking to Grigon. Elio is sent onto the Hylurkian mothership where he meets with Grigon. While he initially seems to be getting through to Grigon, Elio mistakenly angers him by referring to his supposedly bad parenting skills after Grigon mentions his son. Grigon has Elio imprisoned in the dungeon.

Back on Earth, Olga takes Other Elio home from camp after learning that he was in a fight. However, she is surprised to see that this Elio is now more sociable and agreeable after just one day at camp.

In the dungeon, Elio meets Grigon’s son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), who looks like a large tardigrade. Unlike his father, Glordon is naive but kindhearted. With help from Glordon, Elio escapes the dungeon and plans to use Glordon as a “bargaining chip” against Grigon to make him leave the Communiverse alone. While crawling through tunnels, Elio has to hide inside Glordon’s mouth to avoid being consumed by lava. They also come across a Hylurkian carapace, which is the armor that Glordon will wear for the rest of his life when he comes of age, just like Grigon has.

The boys make it back to the Communiverse and get in touch with Grigon. Elio uses a willing Glordon as the bargaining chip, “tormenting” the alien boy by tickling him. Grigon relents and agrees to back off from the Communiverse, then prepares to go pick up Glordon. The other ambassadors celebrate and prepare to make Elio an official ambassador. However, Glordon cries to Elio because he doesn’t want to go back with his father just to become a war machine like him. Elio then comes up with the idea to clone Glordon so that he can go back with Grigon while the real Glordon stays with Elio.

Back home, Olga starts to bond with Other Elio until she starts to notice he’s a little TOO different. At night, after getting suspicious, Olga goes into his room and peels back the eyepatch, revealing Other Elio only has one eye. He wakes up and proceeds to explain himself.

Grigon arrives to pick up Glordon. Elio hides the real Glordon inside a ship and brings Other Glordon to Grigon. The clone gets inside the carapace and starts to go with Grigon, until his newfound excitement at warmongering and conquering makes Grigon realize that this is not his actual son. He melts the clone and becomes enraged with Elio and the Communiverse. Elio is revealed as a liar and not as an actual leader. Grigon proceeds to have his soldiers hold the ambassadors captive and tear the place apart to look for Glordon. When the Hylurkians go looking for him, Glordon accidentally turns his ship on and is sent to Earth. The other ambassadors blame Elio for what is going on, and Questa sends him through a portal back to Earth.

Elio washes up on a shore, where he finds Olga and Other Elio together. While he thinks that the clone has officially replaced him, Elio overhears Olga begging for their plan to work, as she is hoping to make contact for Elio to come back. He approaches her and reveals himself, leading to their reconciliation. They notice activity going on at the military base, as that is where Glordon’s ship crash-landed. Olga rushes Elio and the clone there, and Other Elio creates a distraction by melting himself so that Elio and Olga can get inside. Grigon is starting to get weaker from hypothermia due to his body not adjusting to Earth’s temperature. The two activate the ship and head off into space.

Elio and Olga run into a problem since the ship cannot go into hyperspeed because they are heading towards a debris belt. Elio manages to get in touch with Bryce, who is remorseful for what happened earlier, but Elio forgives him and admits he was wrong too. He asks for help in maneuvering past the debris, which leads to Bryce getting in touch with Melmac to help guide Elio and Olga. They get hit a lot and nearly destroy their shields, but they manage to get through it and reach a safe point to go into hyperspeed.

The ship crashes into the Communiverse, and Elio and Olga rush Glordon to Grigon’s side. Seeing his son dying, Grigon tears off his armor to reveal his regular wormy form. He wraps Glordon in webs and swaddles him, helping Glordon wake up. Glordon admits to Grigon that he doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps, but Grigon admits he already knew that and says he still loves Glordon anyway. Grigon releases the ambassadors, and Questa arrives to give Elio his medal to make him an official ambassador. However, Elio realizes he needs to be with Olga, stating that this is not goodbye, but simply “not now.” Glordon runs to Elio and hugs him, and the boys state their love for each other.

The Communiverse brings Elio and Olga back to Earth. Everyone from the camp to the military base, as well as Melmac, witnesses the ship arriving, while Elio and Olga watch it leave together.

During the credits, Elio and Bryce are hanging out, and they use Elio’s ham radio to get in touch with Glordon. After the credits, a lizard is seen tapping a lizard emoji into a phone. This is a teaser for the next Pixar film, “Hoppers”.

11-year-old Elio Solis lives with his aunt Olga, a major with the United States military, after the death of his parents. He struggles to connect with kids his own age, so he has hopes to be abducted by aliens to take him to a better life. At Olga's job, Elio sends a message into outer space, which is intercepted by actual aliens. They take Elio while he is at a summer camp, and Elio finds himself in the Communiverse, where aliens from other planets come together to share knowledge. The other ambassadors mistake Elio for the leader of Earth since they got his message.

Another alien, Lord Grigon, wants to join the Communiverse, but his brutish and aggressive nature make the other ambassadors distance themselves from him. Not wanting to be sent back to Earth, Elio opts to negotiate with Grigon personally, while a clone of himself is made to take his place on Earth. Elio fails in his negotiation and is imprisoned, but he meets Grigon's son Glordon, who is sweet-natured and doesn't want to follow his father's footsteps of becoming a warlord. Elio uses Glordon as a "bargaining chip" to get Grigon to back off, and then makes a clone of Glordon to go back with his dad. However, Grigon quickly figures it out, causing him to imprison the Communiverse ambassadors after Glordon accidentally gets sent to Earth. The ambassadors realize Elio lied about being a leader, and he is sent back home.

Elio finds Olga, who realized the truth about the clone and was trying to get Elio back. After they reconcile, they find Glordon's ship crash-landed near the military base, but he is dying from hypothermia due to his body not adjusting to Earth's temperature. Elio and Olga fly the ship through a debris belt with help from a kid named Bryce that Elio befriended, as well as Olga's coworker Melmac, before they return to the Communiverse. Grigon rips off his armor to swaddle Glordon to revive him. Although he knows Glordon doesn't want to be a warmonger like him, Grigon still loves him and he releases the ambassadors. Elio is officially made an ambassador, but he chooses to go back home with Olga, stating that he will eventually return. He and Glordon say goodbye to each other and affirm their love for one another.

After returning home, Elio and Bryce use a radio to contact Glordon.