Meet Dave

In his New York City apartment, a young boy named Josh Morrison (Austyn Lind Myers) stares through his telescope at an object falling from the sky. It is a golf-ball-sized metal ball which flies through the window and lands in his fishbowl, quickly draining the water along with the goldfish. He decides to show it at his school's science class presentation.

Some months later a massive fireball crashes into the water near Liberty Island. It is revealed to be a spaceship which resembles a human (Eddie Murphy), controlled by 100 tiny humanoid aliens. Its Captain (also played by Murphy) pilots the spaceship from the command deck located in its head, with the help of his second-in-command Number 2 (Ed Helms), and researcher Number 3 (Gabrielle Union). The spaceship looks very human, and displays numerous superpowers, but the aliens don't know how to make the "ship" act like a human. A superstitious cop named Dooley (Scott Caan) desperately searches for the alien.