Tropic Thunder is a 2008 satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director (Steve Coogan) drops them in the middle of a jungle, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger. Tropic Thunder parodies many prestigious war films (specifically those based on the Vietnam War), the Hollywood studio system, and method acting. The ensemble cast includes Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise.
Stiller developed Tropic Thunder premise during the production of Empire of the Sun in the spring of 1987, and later enlisted Theroux and Cohen to complete a script. The film was greenlit in 2006 and produced by Stuart Cornfeld, Stiller, and Eric McLeod for DreamWorks Pictures and Red Hour Productions as an international co-production between the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Filming took place in 2007 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai over thirteen weeks and was the largest film production in the island's history. The extensive marketing campaign included faux websites for three of the main characters and their fictional films, a fictional television special, and selling the energy drink advertised in the film, "Booty Sweat".
Tropic Thunder was released in the United States on August 13, 2008 by DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews for its characters, story, faux trailers, and cast performances, with Downey being the most positively praised for his performance. However, the depiction of people with disabilities and the use of blackface makeup attracted controversy. The film opened at the top of the American box office and retained the number-one position for three consecutive weeks, ultimately grossing more than $195 million worldwide before its release on home media on November 18, 2008. Downey was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, while both he and Cruise received nominations for a Golden Globe.
Plot Tropic Thunder, the memoir of handless Vietnam veteran John "Four Leaf" Tayback, is being made into a film on location in Vietnam. Except for supporting actor Kevin Sandusky, the cast — faded action hero star Tugg Speedman, overbearing five-time Academy Award-winning Australian extreme method actor Kirk Lazarus, closeted gay rapper Alpa Chino, and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy — all cause problems for the inexperienced director Damien Cockburn, who cannot control them, resulting in a $4 million pyrotechnics scene being wasted. With the project months behind schedule, studio executive Les Grossman gives Damien an ultimatum: get the cast under control, or the project will be canceled.
On Four Leaf's advice, Damien drops the actors into the middle of the jungle, with hidden cameras and rigged special effects explosions to reshoot the film in guerrilla style. The actors have guns that fire blanks, along with a map and scene listing that will lead to a helicopter waiting at the end of the route. Unbeknownst to the actors and production, the group has been dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang. Just as the group is about to set off, Damien inadvertently steps on an old land mine and is blown up, stunning the actors. Tugg, believing Damien faked his death to encourage the cast to give better performances, assures the others that he is alive and that they are still shooting the film. Kirk is unconvinced but joins them in their trek.
When Four Leaf and pyrotechnics operator Cody Underwood try to locate the deceased director, they are captured by Flaming Dragon guards. Four Leaf is revealed to have hands; he confesses to Underwood that he actually served in the Coast Guard sanitation department, has never left the United States, and that he wrote his "memoir" as a "tribute". As the actors continue through the jungle, Kirk and Kevin discover that Tugg is leading them in the wrong direction. The resulting argument ends with Kirk leading the rest of the cast back toward the resort they were based at, as an increasingly delirious Tugg is captured by the Flaming Dragon guards. Taken to their base, Tugg believes it is a POW camp from the script. He is then brought forward to the gang's boss, the 12-year-old Tran, who discovers that Tugg is the star of their favorite film, the box-office bomb Simple Jack, and forces him to reenact that film several times a day, leaving him brainwashed.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Tugg's agent, Rick "Pecker" Peck, confronts Les over an unfulfilled term in Tugg's contract which entitles him to a TiVo. Flaming Dragon calls during the discussion and demands a ransom for Tugg, but Les instead delivers a profanity-laden death threat, believing them at first to be a rival talent agency. Upon realizing his mistake, he decides to abandon Tugg to his death, eager to finally be rid of him and salivating at the prospect of a large life insurance payout. To keep Rick quiet, he gives him the lease to a Gulfstream V jet.
Kirk, Alpa, Jeff, and Kevin discover Flaming Dragon's heroin factory. After witnessing Tugg being tortured, they use the film's script to plan a rescue. Kirk impersonates a farmer towing a "captured" Jeff on the back of a water buffalo, distracting Tran and his guards so Alpa and Kevin can infiltrate and find the prisoners. Kirk's story quickly falls apart after Tran notices inconsistencies. Knowing their cover has been blown, the actors fire off their blanks and manage to fool the guards into surrendering. Jeff grabs Tran and runs off with him to find the gang's heroin supply as the actors' control over his men falls apart.
The four actors locate Four Leaf, Underwood, and Tugg, and cross a bridge rigged to explode, to get to Underwood's helicopter. Tugg initially remains behind, believing Flaming Dragon to be his "family," but runs back screaming, chased by an angry horde of soldiers. Four Leaf destroys the bridge, rescuing Tugg, but as the helicopter takes off, Tran fires an RPG at the helicopter. Rick unexpectedly stumbles out of the jungle and saves them by throwing a TiVo box into the RPG's path. The crew return to Hollywood, and footage from the hidden cameras is compiled into the feature film Tropic Blunder, which becomes a major critical and commercial success. The film wins Tugg his first Academy Award, which Kirk presents to him at the ceremony.
Cast
Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman: Once the highest-paid, highest-grossing action film star ever due to his Scorcher franchise, his popularity has faltered after attempting to take a more serious direction in his career, and he now has a reputation for appearing in nothing but box office bombs. After drawing negative coverage for his role in Simple Jack, in which he plays a farm boy with an intellectual disability who can talk to animals, he accepts the role of Four Leaf Tayback in a last-ditch attempt to salvage his career. Tugg's faux trailer at the film's start is a preview for Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown, the latest in his series and a spoof of long-running summer action blockbuster franchises. Jack Black as Jeff Portnoy: A drug-addicted comedian-actor well known for portraying multiple parts in films that rely on toilet humor, particularly jokes about flatulence. In the film-within-a-film, he plays a raspy-voiced soldier named Fats. He fears filmgoers only find his movies funny because of his farts and nothing else. Portnoy's faux trailer for juvenile family comedy The Fatties: Fart 2, about a family (with each member played by Portnoy) that enjoys passing gas. The trailer acts as a spoof of actor Eddie Murphy's portrayal of multiple characters in films such as The Nutty Professor franchise. Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus: An Australian method actor and five-time Academy Award winner, Lazarus had a controversial "pigmentation alteration" surgery to temporarily darken his skin for his portrayal of the black character, Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris. Lazarus refuses to break character until he has recorded the DVD commentary for a part and only speaks in his character's African-American Vernacular English. Lazarus's faux trailer, Satan's Alley, is about two homosexual monks in a 12th-century Irish monastery, parodying films like Brokeback Mountain and Downey's own scenes with Tobey Maguire (who in a cameo portrays himself playing the other monk) in Wonder Boys. Downey said he modeled Lazarus on three actors: Russell Crowe, Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Farrell. Lazarus was originally intended to be Irish, but Downey felt more comfortable using an Australian accent, since he had portrayed an Australian character in Natural Born Killers. Makeup effects creator Rick Baker designed and created Downey's Osiris makeup while John Blake and Greg Nelson handled the on-set application. Nick Nolte as Four Leaf Tayback: The author of Tropic Thunder, a fake memoir of his war experiences on which the film-within-a-film is based. He suggests the idea of dropping the actors in the middle of the jungle to get them looking and feeling like soldiers lost in a foreign land. Steve Coogan as Damien Cockburn: The inexperienced British film director who is unable to control the actors in the film. The character was partly inspired by Richard Stanley, and his experience of directing the 1996 film The Island of Dr. Moreau, with Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando. Jay Baruchel as Kevin Sandusky: A novice actor, he is the only cast member to have read the script and book and attended the assigned boot camp prior to the film. Sandusky plays a young soldier named Brooklyn in the film-within-a-film. Brooklyn and Sandusky each occupy the position of straight man in character in the film-within-a-film and its cast, being the only actor without an internal conflict or deep-seated insecurity. He often serves as a mediator when tensions between the other members of the cast get high. Danny McBride as Cody Underwood: The film's explosives expert and helicopter pilot. He has developed a reputation for being a dangerous pyromaniac after an incident while working on Freaky Friday nearly blinded Jamie Lee Curtis. Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino: A closeted gay rapper who is attempting to cross over into acting, portraying a soldier named Motown, while promoting his "Bust-A-Nut" candy bar and "Booty Sweat" energy drink. He feels his image as a rapper would not allow him to be openly gay. His name is a play on Al Pacino. Kevin Hart turned down the role because he did not want to play a gay character. Bill Hader as Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Grossman's assistant and right-hand man Brandon Soo Hoo as Tran: The 12-year-old leader of the Flaming Dragon gang. The character was compared to God's Army guerrilla leaders Johnny and Luther Htoo. Reggie Lee as Byong: The second-in-command of the Flaming Dragon gang. Trieu Tran as Tru: A dedicated mercenary and actor in the Flaming Dragon gang. Matthew McConaughey as Rick "The Pecker" Peck: Speedman's extremely devoted agent and best friend. Yvette Nicole Brown as Peck's assistant Tom Cruise as Les Grossman: The balding, profane, ill-tempered studio executive producing Tropic Thunder. Some commentators and Hollywood insiders believe he is loosely based on film producer Scott Rudin, famous for his volcanic temper and poor treatment of others.