Plot summary

The evil Chairman Drek (Paul Giamatti) is giving a bad guy speech to his followers, the Blarg, as they prepare to blow up an abandoned planet. Drek catches one of his goons texting, and he orders his robot henchman, Victor Von Ion (Sylvester Stallone) to deal with it. Victor responds by eating the goon's phone. The villains then proceed to obliterate the planet.Elsewhere, the young lombax Ratchet (James Arnold Taylor) is in his garage working on someone's ship. The customer arrives to pick up the ship. However, Ratchet accidentally turns on the ship's magnetic pull, causing all the metal in the garage to fly toward the ship. Ratchet turns the ship on and flies it far away, and then accidentally ejects the customer from his seat.Ratchet idolizes the Galactic Rangers - Cora (Bella Thorne), Brax (Vincent Tong), Elaris (Rosario Dawson), and their leader, the beloved Captain Quark (Jim Ward). They are seeking new recruits since there have been multiple abandoned planets getting destroyed, and Ratchet is immediately interested. His boss/mentor Grimroth Razz (John Goodman) tells him to dream smaller to avoid disappointment.Drek breaks out mad scientist Dr. Nefarious (Armin Shimerman) from prison to help create an army of robots to destroy the Galactic Rangers. Nefarious has an axe to grind with Quark for getting him locked up. One of these robots (David Kaye) is smaller than the rest and is labeled a defect. Drek sends Victor to destroy him, but the little robot runs away and gets into an escape pod.Ratchet travels to the city of the Galactic Rangers, where Quark (ever the attention seeker) makes his grand entrance and beckons hopeful rangers to join. Ratchet is called in for an interview, and Quark immediately tells him he doesn't have what it takes. Dejected, Ratchet returns home and tells Grim he was right about dreaming small.Ratchet finds the escape pod with the little robot and rescues him before the pod self-destructs. Ratchet decides to name him Clank.Drek unleashes the robots upon the city as they head to destroy the Rangers. Quark, Cora, and Brax spring into action. Ratchet and Clank fly overhead in Ratchet's ship. The Rangers fight the robots and shoot most of them, but Ratchet swoops down and uses the magnetic pull on his ship to bring the robots toward him. He flies toward their ship and turns off the magnet, causing the robots to crash into their ship and explode. The people of the city view Ratchet's heroic act and cheer him on. Quark isn't too happy since his glory was taken, but when asked by a reporter if this means the Rangers will induct Ratchet and Clank into their team, Quark reluctantly says they are.Ratchet and Clank are brought in for training. Clank is left with Elaris in her office (really just a big broom closet) while the main three Rangers show Ratchet how to use their many weapons. He fails spectacularly with all of them.The Rangers head to Drek Industries to find Drek's machine and stop them. They learn that Drek has created a Deplanetizer, which destroys the abandoned planets and is meant for him to create a new planet. Quark stumbles upon Drek's office, where the villain decides to bargain with him. He wants Quark to deliberately betray the Rangers by stalling their heroic efforts, with the end result being that Quark will get his fame and love back since Ratchet stole his thunder. Although hesitant, Quark agrees.When the Rangers attempt to foil Drek's plan to blow up another planet (this time an inhabited one), their weapons systems are down, thanks to Quark. Meanwhile, Victor catches up to Clank and plans to settle their score. However, Clank pulls out a gun that produces a rain could, causing the rain to fall on Victor and rust him to death. Ratchet learns of Quark's deceit, and they are too late in stopping the planet from being destroyed once all the inhabitants have been evacuated.Ratchet returns home disappointed. Grim comes by and reassures him that in order to be a hero, you don't have to do big things, just the right ones. This restores Ratchet's spirit.The villains plan to blow up one more planet before creating the ultimate planet, but the Rangers learn that the effect of the planet's destruction would destroy the whole system. As Drek attempts to set things in motion, Nefarious shoots him from behind with a gun that turns Drek into a sheep, thereby leaving Nefarious in control. He then puts Drek in a pod and launches him far away.The Rangers infiltrate the Deplanetizer, with Quark returning to the heroic side. Elaris comes up with a plan to move the Deplanetizer's blast in another direction. The Rangers succeed in doing so, causing the blast to hit the unfinished planet, where Drek has landed. He turns back into his normal form before he gets fried.Quark and Nefarious have one final battle. Nefarious almost kills Quark with his RYNO gun (Rip You a New One), but Ratchet appears from behind and whacks Nefarious off the ledge and into the core of the Deplanetizer. The Rangers escape as the Deplanetizer crashes.The Rangers return home as heroes, except for Quark, who goes around the galaxy doing an apology tour. Ratchet and Clank are now best friends and official Galactic Rangers.Before the credits roll, we see the crash site of the Deplanetizer. Some repair bots find Nefarious and revive him as an evil robot.