Sunrise over Lake Van

In Venice, California, Theo / Turbo (Ryan Reynolds), is a garden snail who dreams of being the greatest racer in the world, just like his hero, 5-time Indianapolis 500 champ, Guy Gagne (Bill Hader). His obsession with speed and all things fast has made him an oddity and an outsider in the slow and cautious snail community, and a constant embarrassment to his cautious older brother, Chet (Paul Giamatti). Turbo desperately wishes he could escape the slow-paced life he's living. One night, after nearly getting killed by a lawnmower while attempting to retrieve a fallen tomato that day, Theo wanders onto a freeway to admire the traffic and wishes on a star (later revealed to be an airplane) to be fast. Suddenly, he gets sucked through the supercharger of a Chevrolet Camaro during a street race, fusing his body with Nitrous Oxide. The next day, when Theo wakes up from unconsciousness, his incident the night before finds himself vested with the power of incredible speed and accuracy, as well as some of the characteristics of an actual car, such as eyes that light up like headlights, and a shell that blinks red like taillights and makes car sounds and music from a radio. Unfortunately, Theo's first attempt to show this power off ends with him crashing a Big Wheel tricycle into the garden, getting himself and Chet fired from the garden crew. As the siblings quarrel, Chet is snatched by a crow, but is pursued and rescued by Theo at a run-down strip mall called "Starlight Plaza" where they are then captured by Tito (Michael Pena), a "Dos Bros" taco truck driver and is brought to race with other snails. Theo astounds both human and snail alike with his speed and earns the respect of the snails. Theo wins the race in a matter of seconds, earning the respect of the snails led by Whiplash, and firmly establishing the name "Turbo" as his own, while Tito plans to revive Starlight Plaza with Turbo as a main attraction, but Tito's older brother Angelo furiously dismisses him. The crew is led by Whiplash (Samuel L. Jackson) the leader of the Starlight Plaza Snail crew, with his crew Smoove Move (Snoop Dogg) a flexible snail, Burn (Maya Rudolph) a maternal sassy red snail, Skidmark (Ben Schwartz) Whiplash's number 2, and White Shadow (Michael Patrick Bell) a white large snail, who have impressive skills of their own. Inspired by this extraordinary snail, Tito dreams to revive the strip mall with Theo as an attraction, and eventually with the help of the snails who manage to divert and strand a tour bus and drum up impressive business. At this success, Theo convinces Tito to try to enter the snail in Indianapolis 500 as a competitor. While Tito's brother, Angelo (Luis Guzman), still declines to support him, the neighbors agree to put up the entrance fee and accompany them to Indianapolis. Once there, Tito is refused entry into the race, but a chance meeting with Guy Gagne gives Turbo a chance to show off his speed which astounds the racetrack at the snail qualifying for the race. Gagné and Turbo both qualify for the race by achieving a speed of 226 MPH. This impossible feat soon becomes a sensation on social media and the owner of the race gives in to the pressure, egged on by Gagne himself, to let the snail compete. The night before the race, Turbo sneaks out after a heated argument with Chet who is completely against the idea of his brother being in the race as he fears he will get hurt or killed by the other racers. Turbo encounters Gagné, who reveals his true nature: all he truly cares about is winning and that he only supported Turbo's participation in the race so it would bring more people to watch him win, then demoralizes and warns Turbo to back out of the race while escorting him out of his pit garage. Undeterred, Turbo enters the race the next day, but the dangerous racetrack and the far more experienced competition leaves him trailing in last place. At a pit-stop, Whiplash and his crew give Turbo a vital pep talk, advising him to race like a snail. Back in the race, Turbo realizes what they mean and uses his small size to maximum advantage with maneuvers around and under the competition that no human racer can emulate. With the snail rapidly gaining in the standings, Gagne starts racing dirty and manages to knock Turbo against the circuit wall, damaging his shell and weakening his speed powers. However, Turbo refuses to give up, and eventually takes the lead from Gagné on the final lap. Eventually, in the final stretch with Turbo in the lead, Gagne tries a desperate maneuver to beat the snail and gets into a major crash that snares most of the competitors in a major pileup. Turbo is thrown, waking up once again from unconsciousness with his shell punctured and his speed all but gone. Alarmed at seeing Turbo giving up and retreating into his shell barely a few feet from the finish line, Chet puts himself into incredible dangers to meet up with Whiplash's crew to get to the racer. Seeing his brother and friends arrive riding crows to encourage him to continue, Turbo resumes the race. Unfortunately, Gagne, refusing to lose, pursues him by dragging his wrecked car after the snail and attempts to crush him. At the last second, Chet tells Turbo to tuck and roll into his shell at Gagne's last blow and the force allows him to tumble past the finish line to win. Starlight Plaza thrives from Turbo's fame, and all the businesses become spectacular successes and hold elaborate snail races. Whiplash's crew is given special propulsion aids for their shells, while Chet is the track referee and paramedic, and the garden snails have also received special shells of their own. Turbo discovers that his shell has healed, and his super-speed has returned, now ready to race once again and born the Team FAST.