40 Fun Facts About The Pacifier

What kind of animal is Gary, the Plummer family pet who helps foil a gunman at the end of The Pacifier?

A duck named Gary lives with the Plummers and goes for Shane early on, then distracts the armed villain in the final standoff so he can be overpowered.

Teenager Seth Plummer secretly skips sports practice in The Pacifier to rehearse for which stage musical?

The Sound of Music gives Seth the part of Rolf, and when the show's director storms out, Shane takes over the production himself.

Before he is assigned to babysit in The Pacifier, Vin Diesel's Shane Wolfe serves as a lieutenant in which elite force?

Navy SEALs is Shane's unit, and he lands the babysitting job after a rescue mission ends with the children's father dead and Shane himself wounded.

Vice Principal Murney ends The Pacifier singing off-key on stage in a musical, dressed in which costume?

A nun's habit is what the blustering Murney wears on stage, a humbling turn after Shane beat him in a showdown in front of the entire school.

The Pacifier was a comic change of pace for Vin Diesel, already famous as Dominic Toretto in which action franchise?

Fast & Furious made Diesel an action star in 2001, yet he turned down its first sequel and tried this family comedy before returning to the series.

At the end of The Pacifier, Shane Wolfe retires from the military and takes which job at the children's school?

Wrestling coach is Shane's new post, which keeps him close to the Plummers and to the principal he has fallen for.

Shane Wolfe helps eldest child Zoe Plummer in The Pacifier by giving her lessons in which everyday skill?

Driving is the skill, and it pays off when Zoe takes the wheel in the finale to get her brothers and sister away from a pursuing villain.

Which Everybody Loves Raymond star plays the blustering Vice Principal Murney, Shane Wolfe's rival in The Pacifier?

Brad Garrett, who played Robert Barone on the sitcom, was singled out in Variety's review as the film's one genuinely comic contribution.

Which Gilmore Girls star plays the school principal who falls for Shane Wolfe in The Pacifier?

Lauren Graham, Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, plays Claire Fletcher, a principal with a military past of her own who subdues the last villain herself.

Which skill does Shane Wolfe teach Lulu Plummer's scout troop in The Pacifier?

Martial arts lessons turn the tables, and the girls end up overpowering and tying up the boys who had been attacking their cookie stand.

Which Hollywood studio teamed with Spyglass Entertainment to produce and release The Pacifier as a family comedy?

Walt Disney Pictures joined the project in November 2003 with Vin Diesel set to star, a month after Spyglass had announced the film.

Which of the five Plummer children is the baby of the family in The Pacifier, still in diapers when Shane moves in?

Tyler is the baby of the household, a part shared on screen by two infants, Bo and Luke Vink.

Julie Plummer spends most of The Pacifier abroad in which country, trying to open her late husband's safety deposit box?

Switzerland is where the box sits in a bank, and a trip planned for a couple of days drags on for weeks because nobody can guess the password.

The Pacifier's director and the actress who plays Zoe Plummer reunited two years later for which movie musical?

Hairspray cast Zoe's actress as the bratty Amber Von Tussle, with the filmmaker behind The Pacifier both directing and choreographing.

Which actress, later Chloe in the Pitch Perfect films, plays rebellious eldest child Zoe Plummer in The Pacifier?

Brittany Snow, known at the time for the TV drama American Dreams, played Zoe years before her a cappella fame.

The two masked intruders who break into the Plummer house in The Pacifier are eventually unmasked as whom?

The next-door neighbors, the Chuns, are the culprits, a twist Roger Ebert said any viewer could predict from how much dialogue they were given.

The Pacifier is set in suburban Maryland, but which Canadian city stood in for it during filming?

Toronto doubled for the Plummers' American suburb, and Variety's reviewer quipped that the resemblance was hard to miss.

The Pacifier's writers, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, went on to script which hit family film series?

Night at the Museum is among the pair's credits, and their screenplays have together earned more than $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

What is the spooky code name of the top-secret program Howard Plummer was developing in The Pacifier?

GHOST is what the villains are after, and Shane's real mission in the house is to find where the dead scientist hid it.

Which trusted figure from Shane Wolfe's career is revealed as a double agent near the end of The Pacifier?

His commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett, knocks Shane out cold and helps hold the Plummer family hostage.

Where in the Plummer home does Shane Wolfe finally discover the hidden vault holding the secret in The Pacifier?

Beneath the garage lies a vault that only opens with a two-pronged key, the very thing the children's mother has gone abroad to fetch.

Which animal features in the name of the bedtime song that sends toddler Peter Plummer to sleep in The Pacifier?

Panda completes the Peter Panda song, and the bedtime dance his father used later gets Shane through the booby traps guarding the vault.

Which insect gives its name to the cookie-selling scout troop that Lulu Plummer belongs to in The Pacifier?

Firefly is the troop's name, and rival boy scouts wreck the girls' cookie stall outside a store while Shane is inside doing the shopping.

Shane Wolfe, no good with names, at first refers to the Plummer children in The Pacifier by which military-style label?

Red Team is his name for the brood, with each child given a number, a system that does nothing to win them over.

Which actress, Oscar-nominated for Hester Street and seen in The Princess Bride, plays nanny Helga in The Pacifier?

Carol Kane plays Helga with a thick accent, and the nanny storms out for good after a prank the older children meant for Shane hits her instead.

Which actress, an Emmy nominee as Corky Sherwood on Murphy Brown, plays widowed mother Julie Plummer in The Pacifier?

Faith Ford spends much of the film away from her screen children, since Julie is overseas while Shane runs the household.

Which actor, later Dylan Massett in Bates Motel and the star of Fire Country, plays Seth Plummer in The Pacifier?

Max Thieriot had made his film debut only a year earlier, and playing Seth earned him a Young Artist Award nomination.

Which choreographer turned director, later a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, made The Pacifier?

Adam Shankman once danced in pop videos for Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson, and took on Vin Diesel's comedy straight after Bringing Down the House.

In the climactic chase of The Pacifier, the Plummer children force Mr. Chun to crash into which kind of business?

A car dealership takes the hit, though the stubborn villain still makes it back to the house to hold everyone at gunpoint.

What does the villainous Mrs. Chun lose to a booby trap guarding the vault in The Pacifier?

Her eyebrows are burned clean off, which stops the crooks in their tracks until someone who knows the safe way through arrives.

Which retail chain features so heavily in The Pacifier that Variety's review complained about the product placement?

Costco gets the plug, and Variety's critic Todd McCarthy grumbled that the film promoted the store far too hard.

The Pacifier opens with Shane Wolfe's unit rescuing scientist Howard Plummer from kidnappers of which nationality?

Serbian rebels seize him for his secret work, and although Shane's men free him, he is killed moments later as they board their helicopter.

Entertainment Weekly tipped which Travolta crime comedy to beat The Pacifier to number one on its opening weekend?

Be Cool was the favourite, but Vin Diesel's film upset the forecast and opened on top with about $30 million.

Which actor, the voice of the title hero in the animated film Hercules, plays scientist Howard Plummer in The Pacifier?

Tate Donovan has only a brief role, because Howard is killed at the start of the film and his death sets the whole babysitting plot in motion.

In which Maryland community does the Plummer family live, with Shane Wolfe as house guest, in The Pacifier?

Bethesda is the Plummers' suburb on screen, though Variety's reviewer noticed that its streets looked suspiciously Canadian.

Which Kids in the Hall comedian plays the stage director who walks out on Seth's musical in The Pacifier?

Scott Thompson's director quits the show in a huff, which is how a military man ends up staging a musical.

The Pacifier's director was free to take the job because which festive comedy he was preparing had been postponed?

Four Christmases was shelved when its studio found it already had a Tim Allen holiday film on the way, so the director switched to Vin Diesel's comedy.

Which composer scored The Pacifier a year after his Oscar-nominated work on The Passion of the Christ?

John Debney leaned on mock military marches for the comedy, a world away from the solemn biblical epic he had just scored.

Which child actress, Kim Baker in Cheaper by the Dozen, plays scout Lulu Plummer in The Pacifier?

Morgan York left acting after a recurring part in Hannah Montana and later became a novelist and podcaster.

Before The Pacifier, Vin Diesel first won wide notice with a small part in which Steven Spielberg film?

Saving Private Ryan gave Diesel the part of a soldier after Spielberg noticed him in a short film he had written, directed and starred in.