Felonious Gru/Synopsis

The story of Felonious Gru from the Despicable Me franchise.

Early Years
Gru comes from a long lineage of Gru's. Although his hometown is unknown, in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres he claimed he was from Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a child he had always dreamed of going to the moon. He made a "prototype" rocket out of macaroni and an actual working prototype rocket. For most of his childhood he was neglected and ignored by his mother, and it is unknown if this is what inspired him to become a megavillain, or if the Gru family is a family of megavillains, although his mother showed no signs of being one. He has worked with Dr. Nefario, who builds gadgets and weapons for Gru, for some time and based on what Dr. Nefario said, they have been planning the moon heist for a long time.

Minions
Gru is briefly seen attending the Villain Con alongside his mother, he's observing Dr. Nefario's newest invention, the freeze ray (which he later uses in the movie).

At the conclusion of Minions, Scarlet Overkill and Herb Overkill return to retrieve the crown from Queen Elizabeth II and are chased by the Minions, when the two villains are suddenly frozen by a young eight-year-old Gru with his freeze ray. He takes the crown himself and goes to make off with it proudly. After Bob stops to give Scarlet the smaller crown Queen Elizabeth II had awarded him, the minions eagerly follow the young Gru and proclaim him boss. During the credits, young Gru is shown training the Minions.

Despicable Me
Gru returns home from an unknown endeavor only to learn of the theft of the Pyramid of Giza from Dr. Nefario. With his pride badly wounded, Gru assembles his Minions in his underground lair. He recalls the successful thefts of the Times Square jumbo-tron, and the miniature Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower from Las Vegas. He then reveals his long-time planned, most epic heist; the theft of the Moon.

Gru heads to the Bank of Evil to obtain a loan from Mr. Perkins, the bank's owner. While Gru waits for his audience with Mr. Perkins, Vector, another villain, annoys the former by showboating and displaying his piranha gun. When Gru finally gets to face Mr. Perkins, he asks for funding to build the rocket which is necessary for his plan to steal the moon. Mr. Perkins refuses to give him a loan unless Gru presents the SR-6. Additionally, during the meeting, Gru finds out from Mr. Perkins that it was Vector who stole the Pyramid of Giza. As Gru leaves the bank, he freezes Vector's head with his freeze ray.

During a testing of the shrink ray in a facility in East Asia, Gru steals it and flies off on his ship. However Vector steals the shrink ray from Gru mid-flight. Gru tries to shoot Vector down with guns and then with missiles, but fails. Vector then blasts Gru's ship with the shrink ray as payback for the latter freezing his head. This causes the ship to shrink, forcing Gru and the Minions to ride the miniaturized ship home.

Gru attempts to retake the shrink ray from Vector's lair only to be thwarted by its defensive systems, and Vector's pet shark. Gru sees three girls, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, trying to sell Vector cookies, and Vector lets them in. Gru plans on using the girls to reobtain the shrink ray and contacts Dr. Nefario and tells him to build a bunch of Cookie Robots for the theft. Gru goes to Miss Hattie's Home for Girls, the orphanage Margo, Edith and Agnes are from, masquerading as a dentist and adopts them.

The following day, the girls convince Gru to drive them to dance class before going to Vector's lair to deliver the large quantity of cookies that Vector ordered. After the class, the cookie robots are delivered by the girls and activated. The robots break into Vector's vault by hacking open the vault's door, and weld a hole in the wall from the inside. Gru and two Minions enter through the opening and grab the shrink ray, but as they are leaving they are sealed in by the cookie robots. They escape through some air vents and out to the main entrance (without Vector noticing) and return to the car.

On the way home, Gru and the girls stop by an amusement park called Super Silly Fun Land, which Gru sees as a chance to abandon the girls. After being forced to ride the roller coaster with them and helping Agnes win a unicorn stuffed toy, he ends up having fun with Margo, Edith and Agnes.

At his home, he fine-tunes his plan to Mr. Perkins via a teleconference, but he is interrupted by the girls during his presentation. Perkins surprises Gru by again refusing him the loan—claiming that while he doesn't have a problem with the plan, he doesn't want Gru to do it and he still wants a younger villain to do it. Though Gru is ready to abandon his plan due to lack of funds, the girls and the Minions donate money, sell Gru's furniture, and salvage scrap metal from junkyards to keep the plan going.

While the rocket is being built, Gru has fun with the girls, having tea parties with them, allowing them to have a slumber party, telling them bedtime stories and cooking them various shaped pancakes. Dr. Nefario soon begins to see the girls as a distraction to Gru. Since the moon heist and an important ballet recital the girls fall on the same day, Gru wants to move the day of the heist. Dr. Nefario confronts Gru and tells him how he feels the girls are becoming "a major distraction" and tells him "they need to go, if you don't do something about it, then I will." He remains true to his word and contacts Miss Hattie and requests she take the girls back to the orphanage. Both Gru and the girls are heartbroken.

The following day, on May 26, and with a broken heart, Gru boards the rocket and flies off to the moon, but not before one of the minions puts the ticket Agnes gave him into his space suit's pocket, despite Gru giving it back to that minion and telling him he doesn't have time for the girls dance recital. Gru shrinks the moon and pockets it. When he sees the ticket Agnes gave him, he realizes he has time to catch the recital. However, it has ended by the time he arrives. On the seat that the girls reserved for him, Gru finds a note from Vector, who has kidnapped the girls, telling him to bring the moon.

After forcing Gru to hand over the moon, Vector goes back on the deal and keeps the girls as his captives. This enrages Gru, who storms Vector's lair, the latter's defenses proving useless. Vector flees in an escape pod with the girls inside. Gru chases after them, climbing the disguised Pyramid and hanging onto the exterior of the ship. He nearly falls to his death, but is rescued by Dr. Nefario in the ship that Vector shrank previously. Nefario reveals that the effects of the shrink ray are not permanent and the effect wears off at a rate proportional to its original mass (which he calls the "Nefario Principle"), to put it simply, the bigger the object, the faster it returns to normal after being shrunk by the Shrink Ray.

As Gru gives chase to Vector, the effects of the shrink ray on the Moon inside the pod begin to wear off, causing the Moon to grow and smash open the glass bubble holding the girls. Gru rescues them by securing Vector's ship using a rope with a grappling hook and tells them to jump and that he will catch them. Edith and Agnes jump, and while Margo is about to jump, Vector catches her, but the (rapidly-expanding) Moon wrecks Vector's controls, causing his ship to accelerate into space and carry the moon back into orbit. Margo falls off the ship so Gru jumps off to catch her. The Minions join hands to form a lifeline, saving Gru and Margo.Gru re-adopts the girls and they settle down to live a happy life as a family. He tells them a bedtime story about a unicorn whose life was changed when he met three little kittens (his own life story). The girls give a special recital for the minions, His mother, who after years of neglecting her son, finally tells him she is proud of him. A Minion changes the music from Swan Lake to disco, and everyone present rushes onstage to dance. As everyone else continues to dance, Gru raises himself and the girls up on a platform onto the roof of his house, and they watch the moon fill the sky, now in its rightful place.

Despicable Me 2
Gru has retired from villainy, preferring to concentrate on his new venture of producing bottled jellies and jams and the responsibilities of being a father to his three adopted daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes.

During Agnes's birthday party, Gru finds out a fairy princess he hired can not make it to the party, forcing him to quickly dress as one himself (Gruzinkerbell). While his daughter sees right through the ruse, Agnes says that she didn't tell the truth for the sake of the other kids..

After the birthday party, Gru is approached by Lucy Wilde, an Anti-Villain League agent who requests that he come with her. When Gru resists, she stuns him with her lipstick taser and forcibly abducts Gru. Two of the Minions who try to thwart her plans are captured also. They travel to AVL's underwater headquarters where Gru meets the league's director,Silas Ramsbottom. He asks Gru to assist its agents in their efforts to track down the perpetrator who stole a secret laboratory in the Arctic Circle. The lab's scientists are experimenting with the mutagen PX-41, which is capable of transforming living things into indestructible killing machines.

Gru refuses the offer, citing his need to get back to his jelly production and daughters. Before he leaves, Lucy admits she is impressed by his work as a villain and gives her business card to Gru, urging him to contact her if he changes his mind. Upon return to his lab, Gru realises that his Minion-run production line had churned out bottles of awful-tasting jellies. In addition, his research scientist, Dr. Nefario confesses to Gru that he misses being "evil" and has been offered employment elsewhere. After giving Dr. Nefario a 21 fart-gun salute send-off with the minions, Gru contacts Lucy and takes on the task of recovering the stolen mutagen.

Traces of chemical scent given off by the mutagen narrow the search to the confines of the Paradise Mall. Gru works undercover as the owner of a cupcake shop,named 'Bake My Day', with Lucy being assigned as his partner. He suspects Eduardo Perez, the owner of Salsa & Salsa, is an old super-villain called El Macho, who supposedly died after body-strapping TNT and riding a shark into an active volcano that resulted in his fiery demise.

The duo break-in to Salsa & Salsa after closing hours, in an attempt to convict Eduardo. Gru and Lucy, however, have to tangle with Eduardo's pet chicken, Pollito. Pollito ends up pinning down Gru, whom barely gets saved by Lucy firing her epoxy shooter at the unruly chicken. The duo then searches the kitchen vault for the PX-41 serum, only to find Eduardo's special salsa. They are forced to flee when Eduardo arrives and barely escape thanks to Dave and another Minion.

While the team investigates wig merchant Floyd Eaglesan, Margo begins to develop a crush on Eduardo's son, Antonio, much to Gru's frustration. The Gru family is invited to Eduardo's Cinco de Mayo party at his mansion. Following this incident, Gru's over-protectiveness of his daughter leads him to make wild, baseless accusations about Eduardo being El Macho and his son, which are scoffed at by Ramsbottom.

Later that day, a determined matchmaking neighbour, Jillian, sets a reluctant Gru up on a date with her rude and superficial friend Shannon. During the date, Shannon discovers Gru's wig and threatens to humiliate him, but Lucy saves him from embarrassment by shooting her with a mild moose tranquilizer dart. They take Shannon home, and Gru realizes he is in love with Lucy. When he arrives at the mall the next day, the Anti-Villain League arrest Floyd Eagle-san, who protests vehemently that he was framed, after the AVL team uncovers the empty mutagen jar in his shop. Silas tells Gru that the case is now closed and that Lucy will be transferred to AVL's Australian branch.

Gru, heartbroken from the situation, tells Agnes that she was right about him loving Lucy. However, Gru is unable to muster the courage to ask Lucy out before she leaves. The family then goes to Eduardo's party. Gru follows Eduardo and discovers that he was correct about Eduardo being the presumed-dead super-villain El Macho. Gru also discovers that Dr. Nefario has been working for Eduardo and that the duo has been capturing and mutating all of Gru's minions into the purple-furred monsters using the stolen mutagen serum, PX-41 . Eduardo offers Gru a chance to conquer the world, but Gru makes unconvincing excuses and hastily leaves with the girls. Margo has also been heartbroken when Antonio cheated on her for another girl. For breaking her heart, Gru encases Antonio in a block of ice with his freeze-ray.

Dr. Nefario calls Gru to tell him that Lucy had arrived at Eduardo's party to find him, and has been captured by Eduardo. Gru drives back to Eduardo's home with Dave and Stuart on his personal motorcycle. He disguises the two Minions in purple paint to escort his "captured" self into Eduardo's compound in a rescue attempt. Gru manages to restore the minions who are under El Macho's control using the awful-tasting jam infused with the antidote which Dr. Nefario made.

When Gru finds El Macho, the latter threatens to launch Lucy into the volcano where he faked his death. As El Macho lays his finger on the button, a Minion takes it away from him. El Macho bemoans that he wished to work with Gru and drinking a vial of PX-41, moves to kill Gru. Gru manages to electrocute El Macho with Lucy's lipstick taser. After El Macho collapses to the ground, Gru tries to untie Lucy who is strapped onto a TNT-loaded shark rocket. While attempting to do so, Pollito pecks the trigger for the rocket, sending the pair flying towards the active volcano. While on the rocket, Lucy accepts Gru's date invitation before the pair dives into the safety of the ocean, just seconds before the rocket explodes.

One hundred and forty-seven dates later, Gru and Lucy marry.

Despicable Me 3
In Despicable Me 3, Gru becomes an agent for the Anti-Villain League. When Balthazar Bratt steals a huge gem, Dumont Diamond, from a ship and is about to flee, Gru and his wife with two minions arrive with their personal submarines to pursue Bratt, which change into water scooters when going out of the water. Lucy then blows a water column throwing Gru to the ship - which is now floating away because of the expanding chewing gum that Bratt threw.

Gru at first tries to shoot Balthazar but he soon finds out his gun is replaced with a water gun (presumably done from his daughters); then, he fights aganist a dancing Balthazar. Due to Balthazar's carelessness, Gru knocks him out and gets the gem; yet, Balthazar activates his keytar and the shockwave of the tune blows away Gru's clothes and then throws him out of the ship. A broken bubble from Balthazar's gum hangs Gru in the front of the ship, but the floating boat brings the naked Gru in front of a birthday party held in a skyscraper. Seeing this, Gru embarrassingly sings the birthday song to the party participants, which make the people inside amused and even take photos of his ridiculous appearance.

After the failed mission, Gru, in his Grumobile, crashes a car with whose drive provocates him when he mutters about considering to take revenge on Bratt by dancing. The couple then enter a house and ascend to a base of AVL in the sky by a secret mechanic system inside. They enter a huge auditorium where numerous agents gather, in the middle, Silas Ramsbottom announces his retirement and his position will be replaced by Valerie Da Vinci immediately, and impatient Valerie soon pushes him down under the podium. After he's gone, Valerie furiously questions which agent failed to capture Bratt, who is the criminal AVL has been long for to catch. Gru answers, and Valerie decides to fire him, while Lucy defends for her husband, stating that she should be fired as well and doubting Valerie won't want to do so. Eventually, Gru and Lucy are thrown out from the aircraft with their items.

When they return home, their daughters give them a surprise party for their honeymoon in the way of "kidnapping" them. The party takes place in a tree house in Hawaiian style, with Dave and Jerry amusing them with drum playing. Agnes prepares a mixed soup with a gummy bear inside, which both Gru and Lucy almost barf when having some. When the girls ask them about their work, Gru admits that he lost his agent job and he'll find another one.

One of the Minions, Mel, gives a call to Gru, so Gru goes down to the lab. There, the Minions, already know the news that Gru is no longer an agent, excitedly persuade Gru to go back to villainy. Gru doesn't want to, and Mel projects a slide about a collection of Gru's past featuring his villainous acts and embarrassing scenes of being a father. Gru, however, still doesn't change his mind, so the Minions decide to leave him, except Dave and Jerry, who just came back from the Hawaiian party.

The next day, Gru knows the news that Bratt got the diamond from the newspapers, and he sees Agnes selling some items for maintaining their life, including her beloved Unicorn Plush, which Gru is quite surprised and little bit sorrowful when it comes to his joblessness. Fritz shows up at the lawn asking for Gru, and Gru tricks him to hold a rocket so he flies away with it and it explodes seconds later; however, Fritz returns, telling Gru that he has a twin brother named Dru and the news about his father, Robert. Gru isn't convinced at all, because he believes his father has been dead for years, but he becomes puzzled when Fritz gives him a photo of his parents and two infants taken in 1960s. Gru goes to his mother, who is having diving classes with young Vincenzo and Paolo; as Gru asks her about whether he has a twin brother, she is shocked and then explains the real story. In fact, she divorced with Robert and hid the truth about having another twin son.

Later, Gru takes a private plane with Lucy and the girls to Dru's Mansion in Freedonia; in his way, he is excited for meeting Dru and guesses which appearance he will be like. As he lands a the nearby apron, he finds that the mansion and the apron are surrounded by and full of a large herd of pigs, and one of them keeps attacking and chasing after Gru. Gru happily greets to Dru as Dru rushes down the stairs, but he is soon shocked to see that Dru is a blond after he takes off his white hat. Dru then asks Fritz to drive Lucy and the girls to the town, and Gru and Dru go to the underground base beneath the garden in the mansion; during the process, Gru falls to the end hard unprepared. Dru then takes Gru to some statues of their ancestors, telling him that the villainy is actually the family tradition. When Robert was alive, he was proud of Gru while he wasn't satisfied with Dru. Gru replies that he quit being villain for a while, so Dru shows him a multi-functional golden vehicle that Robert once used and they both drive to the town wildly. The vehicle is equipped with superb functions, saving them from many following critical circumstances, though Gru is quite shocked and annoyed.

In the town, Dru steals two lollipops from a candy shop cart, and soon he and Gru and chased after Freedonian police. Gru drives fast in lanes and eventually escapes by drilling a big hole to the sea outside the town. In a corner of the beach, Dru persuades Gru to commit another heist, and Gru decides to get the diamond back. At night, Gru exchanges clothes and disguises as Dru; their acts confuses Lucy and the girls. Agnes finishes his dinner quickly and she tells Gru that she is going to find a real unicorn so she needs to go to bead earlier. After Agnes prays to find the unicorn successfully, Gru goes in to the room and climbs up the ladder to reach her bed; at first, he tries to tell her that unicorns don't exist, but he changes his words not to break her heart. As he walks down, he falls to the floor as he forgot the height of the ladder.

In the State Prison, Mel recalls some good memories with Gru when he sees some soap bubbles on the ground and it resembles Gru's face, so he carves the mashed potatoes in the dish and when the Minions and other prisoners are having meal. Later, Gru demonstrates the tight protection around Bratt's Lair to Dru and he plans to go inside the lair alone while Dru waits outside. In his way to the lair, Gru, with a suit of fully body protection, fantasizes about after they retrieving the diamond, imagining that Valerie would be too impressed while he and Lucy can successfully return the AVL. After he springs to the wall of the lair, he finds out that Dru follows him and often causes danger to himself due to his clumsiness. After they get in, Gru later finds himself in Bratt's bedroom, where Bratt hugs the diamond, sleeping; the alarm is accidentally hit and Bratt wakes up, but he doesn't notice Gru or Dru and he leaves the room with the diamond.

Gru is surprised to see that Bratt stored hundreds of Evil Bratt dolls in his lair, and he finds a bubble gum factory with Dru. Gru hides behind some facilities and finds out Bratt decides to put the diamond into a giant robot he built; just then, Gru finds that Dru, who tried a piece of bubble gum, is having enlarging bubble gum from his nose and mouth and he tries to save his brother; Clive notices, and Bratt is surprised to see them both, as he laughs, Gru uses Heimlich maneuver to make the bubble gum spewed out to trap Bratt. They barely escape in the helicopter Lucy drives. Gru claims that the diamond can be taken back to the AVL, and Lucy twists his shoulder, telling him not to go behind her back ever again. After they get off the helicopter, Dru is furious that Gru lied to him about his true motives for the heist and they get into an argument. Gru criticizes Dru not having a real job and storms out. Before his leaving, Gru finds Lucy bound in the closet and learns that Bratt impersonated her and kidnapped the girls, taking them to Hollywood. Gru rushes to Dru who is still sulking from their argument. But learning that his nieces have been kidnapped by Bratt, Dru immediately drops his anger at his brother and he, Gru and Lucy board his hovercraft and fly to Hollywood to stop Bratt and rescue the girls. They pass by the plane that the Minions built, and Mel decides to follow them.

As Bratt causing havoc in Hollywood, he notices Gru is coming so he shoots out numerous Bratt dolls to disassemble Gru's flying vehicle; they three escape before it crashes, but Gru is thrown to the streets and loses his consciousness. Dru destroys the core of the giant robot before Bratt cut the street with the laser beam while Gru is in the path. Gru wakes up and wants to find Dru in the ruins, and he sees Bratt, holding keytar, is in front of him. They then starts a dance fight, at first, Gru loses several times, and then he gets his keytar and blows Bratt away by its shock wave of the of the sound, defeating him in a very similar fashion Bratt had done to him earlier. He later reunites with his family and the Minions.

Gru is later seen having a pillow fight with Dru and Minions when Lucy asks them to sleep; as he leaves, he tells Dru not to do anything villainous. But soon, he hears loud noises outside; it turns out that Dru and Minions drive Gru's Airship and decides to commit crime, and Gru decides to give him five minutes and laughs sinisterly.