Mr. Bean is a well-meaning yet clumsy and destructive security guard at the
National Gallery in London. After the gallery's sentimental chairman prevents the board of directors, who despise Bean for his laziness, from firing him, the board instead opts to send Bean on a three-month sabbatical to serve as their representative at an unveiling ceremony of the painting ''
Whistler's Mother'', which has been purchased by the Grierson Art Gallery in
Los Angeles from the
Musée d'Orsay. The Grierson Gallery's curator, David Langley, impressed with the false identity of "Dr. Bean", offers to accommodate Bean in his home for two months against his family's wishes. After Bean gets arrested for causing a panic at the airport when he causes the
airport police officers to believe he has a gun, and accidentally destroys the family's prized possessions, David's wife, Alison, leaves for her mother's house along with their children, Kevin and Jennifer. David begins to question Bean's status as an art expert following a visit to
Pacific Park, where Bean is arrested again, this time for tampering with a
simulator ride to make it more exciting for him. After Bean accidentally ruins a dinner with Mr. Grierson and his wife later that night, David discovers Bean does not hold a doctorate and knows nothing about art. When ''Whistler's Mother'' is delivered to the gallery, Bean is left alone in the exhibition room, where he blows some of the dust off the painting, causing him to sneeze on it, and stains it with an ink-soaked handkerchief while wiping away his sneeze droplets. He then attempts to clean it with
lacquer thinner, causing the figure's face to dissolve and prompting him to replace it with a cartoon face. Fearing the loss of his job and potential criminal charges over the damage, David becomes despondent and gets drunk with Bean, though his family returns out of pity. Later that night, determined to save David's career, Bean breaks into the gallery, where he incapacitates the security guard with laxatives and replaces the damaged ''Whistler's Mother'' with a life-sized poster coated in
egg whites and
nail varnish to resemble the real one, which successfully fools everyone at the ceremony the next day. Bean then gives an improvised and sentimental speech about the painting based on his time with David, winning the crowd's approval. Lieutenant Brutus (the same officer who arrested Bean for the airport and Pacific Park incidents) arrives and informs David that Jennifer has just been severely injured in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend, prompting David and Bean to rush to the hospital. Bean is mistaken for a medical doctor and forced into an operating room, where he encounters Brutus, who had been shot while dealing with a mugging on the way to the hospital and inadvertently saves his life by removing the bullet from his body with only his hand. David then begs Bean, unaware of his true identity, to wake Jennifer up from her unconscious state, which he succeeds in after an accident with a
defibrillator sends him flying and landing on top of her. Grateful for having their daughter back and wondering how to repay their doctor, David and Alison are surprised when Bean unmasks himself. At Bean's suggestion, they allow him to stay with them for one more week. After spending quality time together with the Langleys, Bean and David head back to the airport for Bean's flight home, where he thanks David for everything before he departs. At home, Bean decorates his bedroom with photographs of his time in Los Angeles, as well as the original ''Whistler's Mother'' painting he smuggled back with him. ==Cast==