OVERLAY REPORT

The plot of *Ratatouille* (2007) is set in motion by a chain of specific actions involving the protagonist, Remy, which bridge the gap between his life as a scavenger in the French countryside and his arrival in a professional Parisian kitchen. ### 1. The Foraging Trip and the Discovery The initial action that triggers the narrative occurs when **Remy leads his brother, Emile, into the kitchen of an elderly woman’s house** where the rat colony lives in the attic. Unlike the other rats, Remy is a gourmet who refuses to eat garbage. He enters the kitchen specifically to find **saffron** (to pair with a mushroom they found) and to watch a television program featuring his idol, the late Chef Auguste Gusteau. While in the kitchen, Remy is distracted by a news report on TV announcing Gusteau's death and the subsequent loss of a star for his restaurant. This moment of distraction allows the elderly woman to wake up and discover the rats. ### 2. The Shotgun Incident and Colony Evacuation The discovery leads to a frantic action sequence: the old woman attempts to kill Remy and Emile with a **shotgun**. Her erratic firing misses the rats but **blasts a hole in the ceiling**, revealing the entire colony of hundreds of rats living in the attic. This forces an immediate, chaotic evacuation. The rats flee to a nearby stream, using makeshift rafts (such as old bins and wood). In a pivotal choice, **Remy risks his life to run back into the house to retrieve Gusteau’s cookbook**, *Anyone Can Cook*. ### 3. Separation in the Sewers As the rats navigate the drainage pipes to escape the woman's gunfire, Remy becomes separated from the colony. While the rest of the clan goes one way, **Remy is swept down a different pipe** while using the heavy cookbook as a flotation device. This action physically isolates him from his family and leads him into the sewers of Paris, where he eventually follows the "spirit" of Gusteau (a hallucination) up to the surface. ### 4. The "Soup Incident" at Gusteau’s The plot truly enters its main arc through a specific intervention at Gusteau’s restaurant. After Remy climbs to the roof and looks down into the kitchen, he watches the new garbage boy, **Alfredo Linguini**, accidentally spill a pot of soup and then attempt to "fix" it by throwing in random, non-culinary ingredients (like water and miscellaneous scraps). Horrified by Linguini's lack of skill, Remy’s instincts take over: * **The Action:** Remy falls into the kitchen and, instead of immediately fleeing, he **sneaks over to the stove and fixes the soup** by adding a precise combination of herbs and cream. * **The Consequence:** Linguini catches Remy in the act, but before he can dispose of him, the soup is served to a critic and becomes an instant sensation. This sequence of events—the foraging, the discovery, the separation, and the impulsive act of cooking the soup—establishes the "ghost-chef" partnership between Remy and Linguini that drives the remainder of the film.