The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert



""That's just what this country needs: a cock in a frock on a rock.""

- Bernadette

This movie stars Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp as a spectacularly camp trio of drag performers who travel across Australia in a converted school bus named "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Hugo Weaving plays Anthony "Tick" Belrose, a.k.a. Mitzi Del Bra. Guy Pearce plays Adam Whitely, a.k.a. Felicia Jollygoodfellow. Terence Stamp plays Bernadette Bassenger, birth name Ralph.

In the wake of Bernadette's husband's death, Tick agrees to do a drag gig for his estranged wife in Alice Springs, bringing Bernadette and Adam along with him. Along the way they crack stereotypically cutting jokes, reveal secrets about themselves, drink themselves stupid, party with a camp of Aborigines in the desert, meet an Asian woman with interesting talents and pick up her repairman husband Bob for the ride, experience intolerance and danger from violent locals, and, of course, practice their drag show.

Once the group get to Alice Springs,

This movie, with its rather... niche premise, unexpectedly became an international success upon its release in 1994. It earned $11,220,670 in the United States market alone, where it was the 109th most successful film of its year. The film won an Oscar for Best Costume Design. Terence Stamp won Seattle International Film Festival Award for Best Actor, also being nominated for several other acting awards. It was also a critical hit, and remains highly appreciated. Rotten Tomatoes rates it 93% fresh. It's still regarded as a comedy classic -- even if you've never seen it, you've heard about it. Naturally, it's been adapted into a stage show as well.


 * Agent Peacock
 * All Musicals Are Adaptations: The stage musical.
 * Anger Born of Worry: Tick yelling at Adam for flirting with the violent and homophobic desert dwellers while he'd tricked them into thinking he was a woman.
 * Attractive Bent Gender: Guy Pearce.
 * Australian Movies
 * Bedouin Rescue Service: The Aboriginal camp.
 * Berserk Button: Do not call Bernadette by her birth name of Ralph. Just don't.
 * Brick Joke: When the trio launches Priscilla, their going-away party drowns out a ceremony announcing a girl who plans to run across Australia. The girl shows up twice later in the film, once just after the bus takes a short cut, and again when she runs right past the group and takes no notice of them.
 * Camp Gay: Adam. And Tick as well, but much less so.
 * Cast Full of Gay
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: Adam threatening to sing.
 * Cool Old Man: Bob.
 * Costume Porn: The musical, which won a well-earned Laurence Olivier Award for Best Costume.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Frank is on the receiving end of one from.
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Bernadette makes one if Adam doesn't stop singing; "I will punch in your face so hard you'll need to stick a toothbrush up your ass to clean your teeth."
 * Deadpan Snarker: The above quote is just one of many of Bernadette's wonderfully bitter and snarky lines.
 * Dirty Old Man:
 * Disproportionate Restitution: Slightly downplayed with the gang, as Adam shouldn't have tried to trick the mining crew into thinking he was a woman so he could get sex... but their assault and attempted castration of Adam was way too far (especially since it didn't get as far as sex, and Adam was on drugs at that point).
 * Disappeared Dad:
 * Drag Queen
 * Drugs Are Bad
 * Taking drugs was a factor in Adam's terrible idea to disguise himself as a woman to have sex with men in Coober Pedy... especially when said men turned out to be violently homophobic.
 * Bob's wife Cynthia puts on her... floor show, after taking drugs Frank had locked away.
 * Embarrassing First Name:
 * Flashback Cut: Used at various points for the main trio's histories.
 * Flying Under the Gaydar:
 * Freudian Excuse: Subverted with Adam.
 * The Full Name Adventures
 * Groin Attack:
 * Frank planned to slice off penis with a knife in Coober Pedy.  This gets turned back on Frank in an awesome way when  knees him in the groin.
 * Adam subjected his uncle to an ingenious one when said uncle tried to molest him.
 * His and Hers: Upon learning that Tick is married, Adam says that he "would have bought you a lovely matching set of Hers and Hers bath mats."
 * I Am Not Shazam: Before watching the film, lot of people mistakenly assume that Priscilla is the name of one of the characters rather than the bus.
 * Impractically Fancy Outfit: And lots of them. Especially for the scene were Felicia is outrunning the thugs for a while in that tight dress and high heels (while on drugs, too).
 * The only Oscar the film won was for Costume Design, and the only Tony the musical won was for...Costume Design.
 * Jerkass: Adam has his moments.
 * Land Down Under
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Adam's teasing of Bernadette, culminating in him using Bernadette's deadname Ralph... to a complete stranger to boot. Which makes her snap and and beat him up.
 * Incidentally, calling any Transsexual by their birth name is definitely not advisable. Not only will you piss them off, you may well be putting them in danger. The More You Know.
 * No Bisexuals: Averted:
 * Nobody Over 50 Is Gay: Subverted. Mitzi is obviously not that young.
 * Hugo Weaving was 34 when this movie was made. It's just male pattern baldness.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bernadette is quite obviously based on transsexual former Les Girls performer Carlotta.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: So. Many. Dresses.
 * Plot-Driven Breakdown
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: The closest thing to an antagonist in the film is the homophobic mining gang, who beat up Adam and try to slice his penis off when he flirts with them while disguised as a woman. Their leader, Frank, even refers to Adam as "faggot" and "cocksucker", along with intending to attack  when they intervened.
 * Popcultural Osmosis: For a film about three drag queens on a road trip through the Australian outback, this is a surprisingly well-known movie.
 * Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Played with, where Adam stops his uncle from molesting him by pulling out the drain plug. While the build-up to it isn't played for laughs at all -- it's incredibly disturbing due to the situation, the funny part is how Adam thwarts his uncle, which results in his uncle's testicles getting stuck in the drain.  Cut back to the bus where Adam and Tick are cackling their heads off as Tick concludes the story.
 * Scenery Porn: is full of it during the three protagonists' trip towards Alice Springs. Combines this and Costume Porn during the climb to Kings Canyon.
 * Shout-Out: Hugo's prancing in a green dress as rescue arrives is said to be one to The Sound of Music on the director's commentary.
 * Sir/Lady Swears A Lot: Adam and Bernadette can be quiet foul-mouthed at times. Frank, the de-facto leader of the homophobic mining gang, also counts.
 * Spotting the Thread: Frank when they had a toast and he got a good look at.
 * Stage Names: "Mitzi Del Bra" and "Felicia Jollygoodfellow", obviously.
 * Invisible to Gaydar: Tick falls somewhere between this and Camp Gay. Bernadette plays it strait, acting like an old woman (only qualifying for this trope on the grounds she used to live as a man).
 * Transsexual: Bernadette.
 * Traveling At the Speed of Plot
 * Travel Montage: Used for comedic effect when Tick and Adam sing songs in a montage, only for it to be revealed at the end of it that they've only been traveling for four hours.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: Played with, since they aren't above swearing or dirty jokes; they're not Villainous Crossdressers, at least.
 * Zig-zagged with Bernadette, who's a trans woman drag queen (played by a cis man) in addition to the above.