| Director | Jerry Seinfeld |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy film |
| Runtime | 93 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $70 million |
In 1968, a young runaway orders Pop-Tarts in a diner, and a man named Bob Cabana offers to tell him the true origin story of the American breakfast food.
In 1963, Bob is head of development at the Kellogg's corporation, headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan. After Kellogg's once again dominates their rival Post in the annual Bowl and Spoon Awards, Bob senses that Post is about to unveil something that could dominate the market. Soon after, he observes two children dumpster-diving at Post, and discovers the company is creating a shelf-stable, fruit-based pastry breakfast food that seems to have addictive effects on children.
The Kellogg's team learns that Post has further developed a product created for Kellogg's by Bob's former co-worker Donna "Stan" Stankowski. Bob convinces his boss Edsel Kellogg to hire Stan back from NASA, and the team sets to work creating their own version of the pastry, recruiting several prominent figures from different industries as "taste pilots".
Marjorie Post, the head of the Post company and Edsel Kellogg's former lover, calls a meeting of the "five cereal families": Kellogg's, Post, Quaker Oats, Ralston Purina and General Mills. To the surprise of Bob's team, Marjorie announces that their product will be on shelves within one week. Bob undercuts them by obtaining exclusive rights to 99% of the world's sugar by making a deal with Puerto Rican criminal El Sucre.
Bob begins to worry about the taste pilots' lack of progress, but he and Stan combine several of their ideas to come up with a rectangular, fruit-filled food packaged in foil that can be toasted. Kellogg warns Bob that by creating a product that is served without milk, they may be stepping on the toes of the dairy industry, in reality an incredibly powerful and ruthless cabal whose leader kidnaps and threatens Bob.
Meanwhile, Marjorie visits the USSR in an attempt to secure rights to Cuban sugar from Nikita Khrushchev. The idea of a communist breakfast worries president John F. Kennedy, who summons the Kellogg's team to the White House to discuss the matter and ultimately agrees to instruct his brother to put pressure on organized milk.
While testing the new pastry, taste pilot Steve Schwinn is blown up in an accident and is buried with "full cereal honors". Meanwhile, Thurl Ravenscroft, a long-suffering Shakespearean actor who performs the mascot role of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's, is convinced by the milk syndicate that the new breakfast pastry will make the cereal mascots obsolete. At Schwinn's funeral, Thurl convinces the other mascots to join him in a strike.
The team struggles with marketing the new pastry, eventually settling on the name "Trat-Pop" at the suggestion of the dumpster-divers. A mob of mascots, led by Thurl, violently breaches Kellogg's headquarters, hoping to stop the product from being certified by the FDA. They are too late, and the product is certified. Walter Cronkite, reading a news brief off a piece of Silly Putty, misreads "Trat-Pop" in reverse as "Pop-Tart", forcing Kellogg's to change the name moments before they are shipped out.
The following morning, Pop-Tarts sell out of every store in the country within 60 seconds, defeating Post's poorly named "Country Squares". Thurl ends up facing a congressional committee for his role in the attack, the milkmen are implicated in Kennedy's assassination, and Marjorie Post becomes an icon of feminism who retires to Mar-a-Lago. Stan leaves Kellogg's again, becomes a hippie, and invents granola. Bob becomes nationally famous, and, during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, is shot by Andy Warhol, who is furious that the name "Pop-Tart" sounds like "pop art". Bob survives thanks to the foil packet in his pocket.
In the present, the boy expresses doubt that a Pop-Tart packet could stop a bullet, and begins to question other elements of the story like the creation of a sentient ravioli creature by two of the taste pilots. Bob admits that the story was made up as the boy's parents arrive to take him home. As they turn to go, the ravioli creature emerges from Bob's pocket.