Ice Age: Collision Course(2016)

SHORT VERSION:
The Herd, Buck, the residents of Geotopia, and the dromaeosaurs Gavin, Gertie, and Roger end up averting the apocalypse by first sealing off all the steam vents connected to a volcano near the previous asteroid’s landing spot in order to build up tremendous pressure inside of it, then taking all of the crystals of the previous asteroid (which Geotopia was situated in and whose crystals gave its residents eternal youth until now) up to the mouth of the volcano and dumping them in, since they are magnetic and will be able to draw the incoming asteroid away. An eruption is soon triggered, which sends the crystals into the atmosphere and pulls the asteroid away from Earth in the nick of time and back into outer space, saving the planet. Julian wins Manny’s respect in the process and is welcomed into the family as his future son-in-law.

The Herd leaves Geotopia, but before they do, Sid has one last goodbye with Brooke, the Geotopian he has mutually fallen for, as well as with Granny, who has come to like Geotopia very much and decided to stay. Shortly after the Herd’s departure, a small piece of crystal comes down from the sky and lands in a steam vent in a hot spring that the Geotopians are relaxing in, and this combination results in the Geotopians regaining their youth, including Granny and Brooke.

Before Peaches’ and Julian’s wedding starts, Diego and Shira find out that children no longer fear them after they have heard about how they helped save the world from an asteroid. Before Peaches walks down the aisle, Manny and Ellie tell her that they are fine with her going out and exploring the world with Julian after they wed, saying that they will be right here waiting for her whenever she wants to come back. Peaches and Julian then get married, and Brooke shows up afterwards and reunites with Sid.

LONG VERSION:
While the Herd and Buck are sleeping one night in some caves next to a crater, the dromaeosaurs Gavin, Gertie, and Roger decide that this is the perfect time to finally get their claws on Buck. However, when Roger attempts to do so, he accidentally captures Granny instead, and she ends up hurting the trio and freaking them out with her senility, prompting them to send her into the crater. After she lands on the ground fast asleep, a shadow of a figure is seen approaching her. The next morning, the Herd sees that Granny has gone missing, and while figuring out where she went, Buck admits that he is being hunted by three dromaeosaurs seeking revenge on him and they have probably kidnapped Granny, but he didn’t want to tell them because he didn’t want to “damage morale”. Diego then gets Granny’s scent and follows it to the edge of the crater, where Buck notices the remains of the previous extinction-causing asteroid in the middle of it, and he informs the other animals that they have arrived at the crash site and what is left of this asteroid will serve as a large-enough magnet to divert the incoming asteroid away from Earth, provided they can find a way to get it off the ground. They soon hear Granny shrieking, and assuming that she is in trouble, they run down into the crater and follow her cries to the inside of the asteroid, where they find her being massaged by one of the many residents of Geotopia, a beautiful community covered in thousands of purple crystals attached to the asteroid’s walls. They are then greeted by Brooke, a female sloth, and she and Sid develop an instant attraction to each other. After Buck explains to her that another asteroid is coming towards Earth and they will all be blown to smithereens if they don’t do something soon, Brooke decides to take the Herd to see Geotopia’s leader.

They are brought before the leader, Shangri Llama, and Buck informs him of the incoming asteroid and how it is magnetically attracted to this place. Shangri Llama explains that it must be attracted to the crystals, which are the source of the magnetism, and he adds that the crystals are particularly special because their power grants eternal youth; he and the other residents are a few hundred years old despite their youthful appearances. Buck explains that they need to launch this entire place up into space to attract the incoming asteroid and send it away from Earth, but Shangri Llama is not keen on seeing Geotopia destroyed (despite Buck pointing out the fact that it will get destroyed anyway), plus he says that shooting the crystals into space is impossible. After hearing this, the Herd and Buck consider themselves defeated and decide to spend their last hours together in Geotopia. Sid takes the time to become better acquainted with Brooke, and she eventually asks him to become her mate for life, to which he excitedly agrees. However, wanting to put a diamond on her finger to make it official, and ignoring Brooke’s warning to not do this, he goes and breaks off one of the crystals. This results in the entire asteroid coming apart, and Shangri Llama appears and angrily tells Sid that the asteroid’s wall was what was helping to keep the crystals’ power inside and thus keep everyone young. He, Brooke, and the other residents then age rapidly.

As Shangri Llama pitches a fit, Buck takes notice of an active volcano in the distance, and that – plus a comment made offhand by Shangri Llama – causes him to get struck with an idea on how to stop the asteroid. He explains to everyone that, if they seal the steam vents around the volcano, it will cause tremendous pressure to form, and they must take all of the crystals and put them into the volcano. The pressure build-up will then trigger an eruption and send the crystals into the atmosphere, where their magnetic power will draw the asteroid back into outer space. Shangri Llama selfishly hoards some crystals and says that they need them to rebuild their sanctuary, but Brooke gets the attention of the Geotopians and tells them that this place is not theirs to keep; it came from the sky, and now it is time for them to give it back. She adds that change isn’t easy, but it is a part of life, and it is time for them to embrace it again, and she tells Shangri Llama that he can either get on board or stay out of their way. She then orders everyone to grab every crystal they can find.

The animals close off all of the steam vents and get every crystal into the volcano, but then Scrat – who is out in space piloting a spaceship (more on that later) – collides his ship with the asteroid and speeds up its trajectory, in addition to causing some small pieces to break off of it and start a meteor shower. As the animals are trying to drag a humongous crystal across a rock bridge towards the mouth, they come under attack from Gavin, Gertie, and Roger, who destroy the bridge and send the crystal down to the bottom of the fissure below it. Roger manages to trap Buck in his talons, and after Gavin and Gertie join him, Buck tries to explain that they will all die if the asteroid hits Earth. Gavin responds by saying that only the mammals will die, for he thinks that he and his children can avoid the blast simply by flying high in the sky. However, the dromaeosaurs then see a flock of birds above them getting killed by some meteorites and then another small cluster of meteorites causing an explosion tall enough to reach the sky, and they realize that their logic is badly flawed. Buck pleads again to let him and his friends be given the chance to save the world, but Gavin orders Roger to kill him while also moving forward to do it himself. Roger stops his father and tells him that he won’t let him harm Buck, saying that he wants their family to remain alive and that there are things more important than his pride right now, and if he cares about him and Gertie, then he should help Buck. Gertie agrees with Roger, and Buck even says that he would work with his worst enemy to ensure a bright future for the next generation. Gavin decides to assist Buck, and using some vines, he and his children pull the giant crystal back up and fly towards the mouth with it, with Manny and Julian helping out from the ground.

Unfortunately, before the dromaeosaurs can drop it into the volcano, they get struck with a meteorite and crash-land at the base of the volcano, leaving them incapacitated and the crystal falling short of the mouth and beginning to slide down the slope. Manny tells Julian to go with Ellie and Peaches while he pushes the crystal back towards the mouth, but Julian tells him that they are going to do this together. As all of the other animals head down the mountain, Manny and Julian find that their combined strength just isn’t enough to stop the crystal from sliding, but then Julian spots a section of the slope a little further down the volcano that is long and ends with an upward curl. He then comes up with an idea: He and Manny will let the crystal go and direct it so it will slide down to that section, figuring that the momentum it will pick up as it goes will enable it to fly up once it hits the curl and then go right down into the volcano. After convincing Manny that this will work, they let go of the crystal and push it where they need it to go, and it flies up and lands on the rim of the mouth before teetering over and falling in. They then run like mad down the volcano as it begins to rumble, but when it seems like the eruption won’t happen, Granny notices a small unsealed steam vent next to her and plugs it with her walking stick, which automatically triggers the blast needed to launch the crystals. The asteroid comes extremely close to the ground before the energy of the crystals magnetizes it and pulls it up, directing it back towards outer space and saving the planet.

Feeling that Julian has proven himself, Manny welcomes him into the family as his soon-to-be son-in-law. Later, Sid chats with Brooke and finds out that she is staying in the ruined Geotopia, telling him that he has a whole life ahead of him and he must live it, and she tells him that he will always be her one true love. They then give each other pictures of themselves etched on flat stones so they will have something to remember each other by. Sid also finds out that Granny has decided to stay in Geotopia, having already come to enjoy the place. After the Herd leaves, all of the Geotopians and Granny relax together in a hot spring, but then a small piece of crystal falls from the sky and lands in the spring’s steam vent. This combination results in Geotopia getting pretty much restored to its former glory and the residents regaining their youth, along with Granny and Brooke.

We next see the Herd and all of their other friends – along with Buck, Gavin, Gertie, and Roger – at Peaches’ and Julian’s wedding. Diego and Shira find out that children no longer fear them after two of them approach them and ask if they helped save the world from an asteroid, and as they begin to regale the kids with the story, Shira remarks to Diego that they would be great parents. Before Peaches walks down the aisle, Manny and Ellie tell her that they are fine with her going out and exploring the world with Julian after they wed, saying that they will be right here waiting for her whenever she wants to come back. She and Julian get married, and shortly afterwards, Sid discovers that Brooke is here, having come to be with him. She soon sings a song for him that everyone dances to, and afterwards, Manny compliments Sid on doing a great job planning the wedding….until Sid gives him the bill.

*In Scrat’s story, Scrat finds himself falling into what looks like a cave while trying to bury his acorn. However, when he sticks the acorn into a small mound of ice, he discovers that he is actually inside a spaceship frozen in a tall tower of ice when the entire cave reveals itself to be a holographic projection created by the ship, and the acorn is actually stuck in a steering mechanism meant for an acorn to fit into. The ship powers up as a result of the acorn’s placement, and as Scrat tries to yank it out, he accidentally steers the vessel all around, breaking it out of the ice and then sending it rocketing into space. After the ship collides with the moon, it triggers a chain of events centered around Scrat being thrown around by the steering column and activating random options on the control panels, resulting in the creation of the solar system itself. Both Scrat and the acorn then get thrown into an airlock, put in separate spacesuits, and ejected into space, with Scrat tethered to the ship. Two small moons come together and smash to pieces, with one chunk of rock taking Scrat’s acorn away, and Scrat gets knocked around by some other small pieces until he goes crashing all the way through one large piece, where he finds his acorn on the other side. He takes it and walks along the rock’s surface until he decides to pack it in a certain spot, but when he does, it causes the rock to split completely in two and send one half hurtling towards Earth (becoming the very asteroid that the Herd and Buck had to deal with). He manages to return to the spaceship with his acorn, but through some more problems with operating the ship’s controls and gadgets, he finds himself moving further away from Earth, and then he accidentally flushes his acorn back out into space. In the process of trying to reclaim it using the ship’s tractor beam, he creates some mayhem that results in obstacles for the Herd and Buck as they are making their journey to the crater. He manages to retrieve the acorn, but during an attempt to return to Earth, he flies too fast and comes in right behind the asteroid and hits it, sending his ship off-course and the asteroid moving faster towards the planet (as mentioned earlier). He ends up crashing on Mars and renders the planet inhospitable to all life, and after realizing what he has done, he sheepishly rushes back to the shuttle and returns to space. He is last seen trying to enjoy his acorn, but his efforts get hindered by him getting a pummeling from several of the ship’s uncooperative automatic doors.