After decades of rockets exploding in his face, anvils falling on his head and every Acme invention turning against him, Wile E. Coyote finally decides to do something completely unexpected: sue the company.
Coyote vs. Acme turns the classic Road Runner chase into a
live-action/animation courtroom comedy, pairing Wile E. with struggling
personal-injury lawyer Kevin Avery as they take on the enormous Acme Corporation.
What starts as a ridiculous product-liability case gradually becomes a much
bigger story about corporate abuse, exploited cartoon characters and the secret
experiments behind Project Sisyphus.
Below is a full spoiler recap of Coyote vs. Acme, including
the courtroom battle, Bugs Bunny's whistleblower reveal, the truth behind
Project Sisyphus, Road Runner's surprising testimony and the ending that
finally gives Wile E. something more valuable than catching his lifelong rival.
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| COYOTE VS. ACME (2026) — FULL MOVIE RECAP • ENDING EXPLAINED |
Watch the Coyote vs. Acme Trailer
The official trailer sells the film's central joke
perfectly: after a lifetime of being injured by faulty Acme products, Wile E.
Coyote finally hires a lawyer and takes the manufacturer to court.
Quick Facts
Director: Dave Green
Screenplay: Samy Burch
Story: James Gunn, Jeremy Slater and Samy Burch
U.S. theatrical release: August 28, 2026
Distributor: Ketchup Entertainment
Runtime: 1 hour 41-43 minutes
Rating: PG for cartoon violence and some language
Genres: Comedy, Adventure, Family, Animation
Main live-action cast: Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena, Tone
Bell, Martha Kelly
TMDB movie ID: 1204680
Dr. Lorre Discovers Acme's Secret
The story begins in 1992 inside an Acme laboratory, where
Looney Tunes characters such as Daffy Duck are being used in experiments. Dr.
Lorre realizes that something deeply unethical is happening inside the company.
Before he can be silenced, Lorre leaks a warning to an
unknown contact and says goodbye to Tweety. He escapes the guards for a moment,
but Acme corners him outside and forces him into a cartoon black hole that
becomes his prison.
Lorre's final promise is that the truth will eventually come
out. Three decades later, that buried secret becomes the key to Wile E.
Coyote's lawsuit.
Wile E. Coyote Decides to Sue Acme
Thirty years later, Wile E. is still in the desert trying to
catch Road Runner with the same kind of elaborate Acme inventions that have
failed him for decades.
His latest plan uses metal balls, a magnetic glove and
rocket skates. As usual, the devices work just long enough to give Wile E. hope
before turning against him in increasingly ridiculous ways.
Back in his cave, bruised and defeated, Wile E. sees a
television commercial for personal-injury lawyer Kevin Avery. Kevin advertises
his firm as representing cartoon characters hurt by defective Acme products.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Wile E. realizes
that his problem might not be bad luck. Acme may actually be responsible.
Kevin Avery Takes the Case
Wile E. travels to the city, where cartoons and humans live
together, and walks into Kevin's struggling law office. Kevin works with Dottie
Jones, Sal Maltese and his idealistic niece Paige Avery, who is interning at
the firm.
At first, Kevin sees Wile E.'s complaint about defective
rocket skates as another small settlement case. Then Wile E. reveals an
enormous collection of broken Acme products accumulated over decades.
The evidence transforms the case from one malfunctioning
product into a possible pattern of corporate negligence.
Acme's legal team, led by slick attorney Buddy Crane,
initially offers Wile E. a $50,000 settlement. Wile E. tears up the agreement
and burns it. He wants a trial.
The Trial Begins
Kevin quickly discovers how difficult it is to fight Acme.
Buddy is polished, confident and much better prepared in court, while Kevin and
Wile E. stumble through an embarrassing opening day.
Buddy's strongest argument is brutally simple: Wile E. is
the one who keeps buying dangerous gadgets, designing insane traps and using
the products in ways that repeatedly injure him. Acme, he argues, cannot be
blamed for Wile E.'s own obsession with catching Road Runner.
Kevin hopes Road Runner can testify as a witness to Wile
E.'s decades of suffering, but catching the bird long enough to bring him to
court proves almost impossible.
Daffy Duck and Project Sisyphus
Kevin receives a mysterious phone call from a whistleblower.
The familiar voice tells him to visit a specific address, where Kevin, Paige
and Wile E. find Daffy Duck living in an institution filled with especially
unstable cartoon characters.
Daffy gives them a box containing Acme paint hidden years
earlier by Dr. Lorre. The paint creates a secret tunnel, and inside they
discover Lorre's warning about something called Project Sisyphus.
A real train suddenly barrels down the impossible painted
tunnel, nearly killing Kevin and Paige. The incident proves that Acme's technology
is far stranger and more dangerous than Kevin imagined.
Kevin Learns the Case Is Bigger Than Wile E.
Kevin initially wants to quit. His firm is barely surviving,
Acme has enormous resources and the conspiracy appears far beyond a simple
product-liability lawsuit.
Paige is disappointed that her uncle is giving up. Kevin
looks back through years of old cases and sees how often he accepted smaller
settlements for injured cartoons instead of truly fighting for them.
That realization changes him. Wile E.'s case becomes Kevin's
chance to stop being the lawyer who always settles for less.
Meanwhile, Paige visits Granny, who was married to Dr. Lorre
before he disappeared. Granny explains that Lorre once created useful Acme
technology, but company executives later forced him into Project Sisyphus.
Bugs Bunny Reveals the Truth
A clue hidden in the whistleblower's message leads Kevin,
Paige and Wile E. to a carrot festival. There they finally meet the mysterious
source: Bugs Bunny.
Bugs reveals that Acme originally tested useful inventions
with cartoon volunteers. Over time, however, the company turned those
experiments into Project Sisyphus.
The cartoons were deliberately subjected to dangerous
products that caused repeated pain, injury and humiliation. Acme then used what
it learned from those tests to create and sell products around the world.
The implication is dark beneath the comedy: Acme built its
success by treating cartoon characters as disposable test subjects because
their bodies could survive extreme punishment.
Acme Forces a Mistrial
Kevin tries to bring Acme's public-relations chief, the
Tasmanian Devil, into court as a witness. Taz appears ready to reveal valuable
information, but Buddy and his people quietly remove him before he can expose
the company.
Without enough admissible evidence, Judge Troppogrosso
declares a mistrial and dismisses the case.
It looks like Acme has won. But Kevin speaks publicly about
Project Sisyphus outside the courthouse, and the allegations explode into a
national scandal.
Congress decides to investigate Acme, moving the fight from
a local courtroom to Washington, D.C.
The Case Goes to Washington
Wile E. agrees to attend the Senate hearing only because
Kevin lies and tells him Road Runner will be there.
At the same time, Kevin receives terrible news: his law firm
is effectively broke after spending everything on the Acme case.
Frustrated and exhausted, Kevin finally admits that he lied
about Road Runner. He lashes out at Wile E. and tells him that after all these
years, he is never going to catch the bird.
The words crush Wile E. He leaves Kevin and walks away
alone.
Kevin and Wile E. Fall Apart
Acme agents soon target Wile E. directly. Tweety and another
operative lure him into a trap on the street.
Kevin realizes Wile E. is in danger and races after him
using the same rocket skates that helped start the lawsuit. The chase turns
into another Acme disaster involving collapsing roads and explosive eggs.
Kevin manages to help Wile E. escape, but the two are
separated, and Kevin crashes badly enough to be knocked unconscious.
The Senate Hearing
Kevin wakes up battered but still goes to the congressional
hearing.
Before the session, Buddy privately offers him money to walk
away. Kevin refuses.
Facing the senators without Wile E. beside him, Kevin gives
the most important speech of his career. He admits that Acme is bigger, richer
and more powerful than his tiny firm, but explains that Wile E. taught him
something by failing over and over without ever truly giving up.
Wile E. arrives in time to hear Kevin defend him.
During questioning, Acme CEO Foghorn Leghorn argues that
suffering is simply part of progress. Cartoons, he claims, can survive
extraordinary physical punishment, so using them in experiments is justified.
The statement finally exposes Acme's real attitude: the
company never saw the toons as people whose pain mattered.
Road Runner Finally Testifies
Just when the hearing appears to have reached a dead end,
Road Runner arrives.
Kevin carefully asks questions that Road Runner can answer
without speaking. The bird confirms that he witnessed Wile E.'s repeated
injuries from Acme products.
Then comes the emotional surprise. Road Runner indicates
that he considers Wile E. a friend and even asks whether the Coyote plans to
return to the desert.
Wile E. has secretly prepared another elaborate machine
designed to catch Road Runner during the hearing. But after hearing the bird
call him a friend, he cannot bring himself to activate it.
For the first time, catching Road Runner matters less than the relationship hidden inside their endless chase.
Cast and Characters
Click any actor’s name in the Cast section for more details.
Coyote vs. Acme Ending Explained
Even after Road Runner's testimony moves the senators, the
hearing still ends without enough formal evidence to punish Acme.
Buddy and Foghorn celebrate, believing they have escaped
consequences again. Kevin and Paige then encourage Wile E. to use the trap he
originally built for Road Runner.
Instead of capturing the bird, the enormous Rube Goldberg
machine turns on Acme's own executives. A chain reaction of gadgets ends with
Buddy and Foghorn trapped and publicly humiliated.
Kevin, Paige and Wile E. leave believing they have lost the
legal battle. Outside, however, they discover dozens of injured cartoon
characters waiting to hire the firm.
Wile E.'s lawsuit has given the other toons the courage to
speak up. Even without a courtroom victory, the case has broken Acme's control
over them.
The Evidence That Finally Brings Down Acme
Bugs Bunny then gives Kevin and Paige the evidence they were
missing: video recordings of Project Sisyphus showing Acme's experiments on
cartoon characters.
The footage changes everything. Buddy and Foghorn are
finally arrested, and Dr. Lorre is released from the prison where Acme kept him
hidden.
Lorre reunites with Granny and Tweety, bringing the
conspiracy that began in 1992 full circle.
Kevin's firm, once nearly bankrupt, is suddenly overwhelmed
with new clients seeking justice against Acme. Paige eventually becomes a
partner.
Why Wile E. Does Not Catch Road Runner
The most important part of the ending is not Acme's arrest.
It is Wile E.'s decision not to trap Road Runner when he finally has the
opportunity.
For decades, Wile E. has defined himself through one goal:
catch the Road Runner. Every injury, invention and failure has been part of that
obsession.
Road Runner's testimony reveals that the chase means
something to both of them. They are rivals, but they are also companions whose
identities have been shaped by each other.
Wile E. realizes that actually ending the chase may not be
what he wants.
What Is Project Sisyphus?
Project Sisyphus is Acme's secret program for testing
dangerous inventions on cartoon characters.
The name is significant. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is
condemned to push a boulder uphill forever, only for it to roll back down each
time.
That perfectly describes Wile E. Coyote's existence. He
creates a plan, nearly succeeds, suffers a spectacular failure and starts
again.
Acme turns that endless cycle into a business model. The
company profits from the fact that cartoons can survive punishment that would
kill ordinary people.
What the Ending Says About Acme
The film's corporate satire becomes especially sharp in the
final act. Foghorn's defense is essentially that the cartoons' suffering does
not count because they are resilient enough to survive it.
The lawsuit forces the world to see the difference between
surviving pain and consenting to exploitation.
That theme also mirrors Kevin's own journey. At first he
treats cartoon injury cases as quick settlements. By the end, he understands
that his clients deserve to be taken seriously even if their world operates
according to slapstick physics.
The Final Chase
Kevin and Paige eventually drive Wile E. back to the desert.
Before leaving, Wile E. gives Kevin a piece of his blueprint
as a keepsake, recognizing that the two have become genuine friends.
Road Runner appears to greet him. Moments later, the two
race off into another chase.
The closing text explains that Paige becomes a partner at
the law firm, which goes on to represent many cartoon characters against Acme.
Wile E. still visits Albuquerque when he misses his human friends.
And despite everything, he still has not caught Road Runner.
Maybe someday.
Final Thoughts
Coyote vs. Acme works because it understands that Wile E. Coyote
does not need to become a completely different character in order to grow.
He still builds impossible traps. He still chases Road
Runner. He still refuses to give up. What changes is his understanding of what
those failures mean.
Kevin learns the same lesson in a more human way. Losing one
hearing does not mean the fight was pointless. Their case inspires other
victims to come forward and ultimately exposes the evidence that destroys
Acme's protection.
The ending therefore turns the classic Looney Tunes cycle
into something unexpectedly emotional: Wile E.'s greatest victory is not
finally catching Road Runner. It is realizing that his endless chase has never
made him a failure.
Reference Sources
• Ketchup Entertainment - Coyote vs. Acme
• Rotten Tomatoes - Coyote vs. Acme
• Box Office Mojo - Coyote vs. Acme