The Minions, small yellow creatures who exist to serve the most despicable villain they can find, settle on a young Gru in the 1960s and stay with him as he becomes a supervillain. Gru adopts three girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, gives up crime, joins the Anti-Villain League and marries the agent Lucy Wilde. Despicable Me 4 ends with Gru, Lucy, the girls and their baby son Gru Jr. back in their own home after defeating Gru's old school rival, Maxime Le Mal. Minions & Monsters (2026) goes back to 1927 Hollywood with a different Minion tribe.
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No. 01 · 2010 · Film
Despicable Me recap
Gru is a supervillain with a lair under his suburban house, an army of Minions and an old scientist, Dr. Nefario. When a younger rival, Vector, steals the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru plans to top him by stealing the Moon, but he needs a loan from the Bank of Evil, run by Mr. Perkins, and he must first steal a shrink ray. Vector snatches the ray from him. To get into Vector's fortress, Gru adopts three orphan sisters from Miss Hattie's home, Margo, Edith and Agnes, who sell cookies door to door, and uses cookie robots to steal the ray back. Mr. Perkins turns out to be Vector's father and refuses the loan. Gru grows attached to the girls, taking them to a fun park and tucking them in, but the Moon heist falls on the same day as their dance recital. Dr. Nefario, worried the girls are a distraction, calls Miss Hattie to take them back.
How Despicable Me ends
Gru shrinks and steals the Moon, gives up crime for the girls, rescues them from Vector, and leaves Vector stranded on the Moon as it grows back to full size and returns to the sky. Gru misses the recital, and Vector kidnaps the girls and demands the Moon. Margo is pulled from Vector's ship and Gru catches her. Gru adopts the girls for good, reads them a bedtime story he wrote, and the family and Minions dance at a second recital.
Post-credits scenes
During the credits, the Minions compete to reach as far out of the screen as they can, a gag made for the 3D release. There is no story scene after the credits.
No. 02 · 2013 · Film
Despicable Me 2 recap
Gru has given up villainy and is trying to make jams and jellies with Dr. Nefario, while raising Margo, Edith and Agnes, who wants a mother. Lucy Wilde, an agent of the Anti-Villain League, kidnaps Gru for its director, Silas Ramsbottom, who asks him to find who stole PX-41, a serum that turns animals into savage purple monsters. Gru and Lucy go undercover at a shopping mall, running a cupcake shop. Gru suspects Eduardo, the owner of a Mexican restaurant, whom he recognises as El Macho, a villain thought to have died riding a shark strapped with dynamite into a volcano. The AVL arrests the wig shop owner instead. Margo falls for Eduardo's son, Antonio. Meanwhile Minions vanish one by one, and Nefario quits to work for El Macho. Gru realises he loves Lucy just as she is reassigned to Australia.
How Despicable Me 2 ends
Gru rescues Lucy from El Macho, cures the purple Minions with an antidote made from his jelly, and marries her. Lucy jumps from her plane to come back, but El Macho captures her, and Gru breaks into his lair. Nefario, who has secretly returned, brings the jelly antidote, which turns the purple Minions back, and El Macho, mutated by his own serum, is stopped. Gru frees Lucy from a shark-shaped rocket, and she agrees to marry him. At the wedding, Agnes finally has a mother.
Post-credits scenes
During the credits, the Minions audition for a film of their own, a teaser for Minions. There is no story scene after the credits.
No. 03 · 2015 · Film
Minions recap
The Minions have existed since the beginning of life, always seeking the most villainous master they can serve, from a dinosaur to Napoleon, and accidentally killing each one. After decades hiding in an ice cave, they lose all purpose, so three of them, Kevin, Stuart and Bob, set out to find a new boss. In 1968 they arrive in New York, learn about Villain-Con in Orlando, and hitch a ride with a family of bank robbers, the Nelsons. At the convention they win a job with Scarlet Overkill, the first female supervillain, and her inventor husband Herb, who take them to London and order them to steal the Imperial State Crown from Queen Elizabeth II. While escaping, Bob pulls Excalibur from a stone and becomes king. Furious, Scarlet takes the crown, and the Minions give her the throne, but she has them tortured and locked up.
How Minions ends
Kevin, made giant by Herb's machine, saves the Minions and stops Scarlet's missile, and the Queen gets her crown back. Kevin swallows the missile, which explodes as he is carried off by Scarlet's rocket dress, but he returns to normal. Bob receives a crown for his teddy bear and Kevin is knighted. When Scarlet and Herb try to steal the crown again, a young Gru freezes them and takes it, and the Minions decide he is their new boss.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. After the credits, the Minions and the cast perform the Beatles' "Revolution", until the dinosaur from the opening chases them off.
No. 04 · 2017 · Film
Despicable Me 3 recap
Gru and Lucy, now married and working for the Anti-Villain League, fail to capture Balthazar Bratt, a former 1980s child star turned villain, and he escapes with a huge diamond. The new director, Valerie Da Vinci, fires them both. Most of the Minions leave Gru when he refuses to return to villainy, and they end up in prison. Gru learns he has a twin brother, Dru, whom he never knew about, and the family travels to the country of Freedonia. Dru is rich, has lots of hair, and wants to become a supervillain like their late father, the Bald Terror. Gru agrees to help Dru steal the diamond from Bratt, secretly planning to return it to the AVL and win back his job. Lucy tries to win over the girls as their mother, and Agnes searches Freedonia for a unicorn.
How Despicable Me 3 ends
Gru and Dru defeat Bratt, who is trying to lift Hollywood into space with a giant robot, and Gru and Lucy get their jobs back. Bratt kidnaps the girls, Lucy saves them, and Gru beats Bratt in a dance battle. The brothers make up after Gru admits his lies. At the end, Dru steals Gru's jet with the Minions to be a supervillain, and Gru and Lucy chase him after giving him a head start.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. During the credits, short animated gags play; there is no scene after the credits.
No. 05 · 2022 · Film
Minions: The Rise of Gru recap
In 1976, eleven-year-old Gru dreams of joining the Vicious 6, his favourite villain gang. The gang throws out its founder, Wild Knuckles, after stealing the Zodiac Stone, an amulet that gives the power of the Chinese zodiac, and invites applicants. Gru auditions and is laughed at, but steals the stone and gives it to the Minion Otto, who trades it for a pet rock. Gru fires the Minions. Wild Knuckles, who survived, kidnaps Gru and takes him to San Francisco. Kevin, Stuart and Bob go to rescue him and learn kung fu from Master Chow. Otto follows a biker wearing the stone. Gru bonds with Wild Knuckles, who sees him as a protege, and they rob the Bank of Evil together. The Vicious 6, led by Belle Bottom, track them down.
How Minions: The Rise of Gru ends
Gru and the Minions defeat the Vicious 6 in Chinatown, turning them into rats, and Gru rehires the Minions. Knuckles is badly burned and appears to die, but at his funeral, after Gru gives the eulogy, Gru discovers that he faked his death. The Vicious 6 are arrested and the Anti-Villain League takes the stone. Gru now has the Minions as his crew for good.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In a mid-credits scene, Gru asks Dr. Nefario to join him; Nefario refuses, then agrees and gives them a ride in a rocket, setting up the first film.
No. 06 · 2024 · Film
Despicable Me 4 recap
Gru, working for the Anti-Villain League, arrests Maxime Le Mal, a cockroach-obsessed villain and his old rival from Lycee Pas Bon, at their school reunion. Maxime escapes, vowing to get revenge on Gru and his family, including his baby son, Gru Jr. The AVL, under Silas Ramsbottom, moves the family to a safe house in the town of Mayflower under new names, while Silas turns five Minions into superpowered Mega Minions, who cause havoc. Gru Jr. dislikes his father. Their neighbour's teenage daughter, Poppy Prescott, an aspiring villain, discovers who Gru is and blackmails him into helping her steal a honey badger, the school mascot. Lucy poses as a hairdresser. The school's principal tells Maxime where Gru is hiding, and Maxime and his girlfriend Valentina kidnap Gru Jr., planning to turn him into a cockroach.
How Despicable Me 4 ends
Gru rescues Gru Jr., who turns on Maxime, and the family returns home; Gru Jr. finally calls him "Dada". Gru, helped by Poppy and the Mega Minions, fights Maxime on a building site, and Maxime and Valentina are arrested. Dr. Nefario reverses Gru Jr.'s change. The family adopts the honey badger, Poppy gets into Lycee Pas Bon, and Gru visits Maxime in prison, where they sing together.
Post-credits scenes
During the credits, the Mega Minions fool around on screen, and one flies around the credits until they end. There is no story scene after the credits.
No. 07 · 2026 · Film
Minions & Monsters recap
In 1927 Hollywood, a tribe of Minions, not the ones who later serve Gru, chases a bank robber onto a film set and charms the studio bosses, Frank and Elwood Bright, into casting them. They become silent-film stars until sound arrives and their gibberish wrecks every take, and they are fired. James, a Minion who dreams of telling stories, wants to make a film called Minions & Monsters, but the tribe leader Dick refuses and most of the tribe leaves; only Henry and the deaf Minion Ed stay. Using a warlock's spellbook, James summons Goomi, a small green monster who offers to find monsters for the film, and they free a kraken and a giant piranha. Goomi's real plan is to summon Irene, a giant blob, to destroy the world, and Henry is taken as a sacrifice during filming. Meanwhile Dick's Minions work for Dort, an alien robot planning to conquer Earth.
How Minions & Monsters ends
Irene rampages through Los Angeles and swallows Henry, and James rescues him by driving a milk truck through her. Dort returns with his spacecraft and his Minion crew and turns Irene to stone, and James and Henry send Goomi and the other monsters back into the spellbook. Ed filmed the whole battle, so James finishes his movie and it premieres to a standing ovation. A museum guide closing the tale reveals that James and Henry directed the film you have been watching.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In a mid-credits scene, the spellbook reaches Gru's Minions, and Kevin, Stuart, Bob and Agnes try it out.
Common questions
What is the Despicable Me story so far?
The Minions, small yellow creatures who exist to serve the most despicable villain they can find, settle on a young Gru in the 1960s and stay with him as he becomes a supervillain. Gru adopts three girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, gives up crime, joins the Anti-Villain League and marries the agent Lucy Wilde. Despicable Me 4 ends with Gru, Lucy, the girls and their baby son Gru Jr. back in their own home after defeating Gru's old school rival, Maxime Le Mal. Minions & Monsters (2026) goes back to 1927 Hollywood with a different Minion tribe.
Where did Despicable Me leave off?
Minions & Monsters (2026) is the latest. Irene rampages through Los Angeles and swallows Henry, and James rescues him by driving a milk truck through her. Dort returns with his spacecraft and his Minion crew and turns Irene to stone, and James and Henry send Goomi and the other monsters back into the spellbook. Ed filmed the whole battle, so James finishes his movie and it premieres to a standing ovation. A museum guide closing the tale reveals that James and Henry directed the film you have been watching.
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