Hot Shots!: Difference between revisions

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As one-third of the team that [[Airplane!|forever spoiled the airline disaster movie]], Abrahams takes the fighter pilot action movie and turns it into something a couple degrees off center, just enough to catch us off-guard. At first blush, it appears to be a serious action movie, but then the whole thing spirals off into chaos.

[[Charlie Sheen]] stars as Topper Harley, an ex-Navyman who left the armed services to [[Dances ~~With~~ Wolves|live with the Native Americans]] after the tragic death of his father. He is called back into service to help save a mission that is being sabotaged by a greedy weapons manufacturer. In the meantime, he must locate Saddam Hussein's cache of nukes and (more importantly) win the heart of his therapist Ramada Thompson ([[Valeria Golino]]) away from a rival pilot.

[[Charlie Sheen]] stars as Topper Harley, an ex-Navyman who left the armed services to [[Dances with Wolves|live with the Native Americans]] after the tragic death of his father. He is called back into service to help save a mission that is being sabotaged by a greedy weapons manufacturer. In the meantime, he must locate Saddam Hussein's cache of nukes and (more importantly) win the heart of his therapist Ramada Thompson ([[Valeria Golino]]) away from a rival pilot.

''Hot Shots!'' was followed by a sequel, ''Hot Shots! Part Deux'', in 1993, which did for ''[[Rambo]]'' what the original did for ''[[Top Gun]]''. This time the story is a near perfect recreation of ''Rambo III'', where Topper has resigned himself to an Asian monk village. His commanding officer Colonel Walters arrives to recruit him for a rescue mission, which he refuses. When Walters is captured on the following rescue attempt, Topper agrees to go in and rescue everyone.

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* [[Aerial Canyon Chase]]: Charlie Sheen's character lures enemies into a canyon and Top Gunning them by stepping on the brakes. Yes, he's piloting an airplane.

* [[Anachronism Stew]]: [[Played for Laughs]]. Admiral Benson has apparently fought in every major battle of the past century or two, including Little Big Horn... or was it Wounded Knee?

* [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]]:

* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]:

** All the Iraqi fighter pilots names and dialogue is just the names of Middle Eastern dishes.

** The dialogue between Topper and his Native American friend is a bunch of gibberish (Minnesota towns and cities with Indian names) with some occasional English parsed in.

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* [[Destructo-Nookie]]: Ramada ends up in an imprint on her bed one morning.

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] : "[[Top Gun|Your ego is writing cheques your body can't cash]]"

* [[Dodge By Braking]]: Harley leads pursuing jets into a canyon, and then ''[[Brake Angrily|slams on the brakes]]'', complete with brake-screeching noises.

* [[Dodge by Braking]]: Harley leads pursuing jets into a canyon, and then ''[[Brake Angrily|slams on the brakes]]'', complete with brake-screeching noises.

* [[Excited Show Title]]

* [[Eyes Do Not Belong There]]: To Harley's credit, the little velvet case he keeps them in is nice...

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* [[Fatal Family Photo]]: If that shirt were any redder, it would be outside the visible light spectrum...

* [[Fish Eye Lens]]: A character is afflicted with "Walleye Vision" that makes the world appear this way. He's a ''pilot''. Later on he gets corrective glasses... which are tiny aquariums with live fish in them, making them a literal example of this trope.

* [[The Fun in Funeral]]: Ties in with [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] (see below). Also, while delivering {{spoiler|Dead Meat's}} eulogy, Benson starts to list off characters from ''[[~~The Godfather (Film)|~~The Godfather]]'' among good people who died young.

* [[The Fun in Funeral]]: Ties in with [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] (see below). Also, while delivering {{spoiler|Dead Meat's}} eulogy, Benson starts to list off characters from ''[[The Godfather]]'' among good people who died young.

* [[Funny Background Event]]: Another ZAZ trademark. These include:

** Troop drills involving can-can dancing.

** A man serving as the blood donor for another character slowly deflating.

* [[Fun ~~With~~ Subtitles]]: When Topper tells his chief that he met a beautiful woman, but "she threw [him] a curve," the spoken word is "[[wikipedia:Orel Hershiser|Hershiser]]".

* [[Fun with Subtitles]]: When Topper tells his chief that he met a beautiful woman, but "she threw [him] a curve," the spoken word is "[[wikipedia:Orel Hershiser|Hershiser]]".

** When the subtitles say the characters are saying the word "English", the word they're actually saying is "Americanese".

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: "I'm in a hospital! What could go wrong?" Cut to Dead Meat's funeral.

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* [[Shout-Out]]: So many, but unlike some recent movies, the shout outs still include jokes... okay mostly.

* [[Sitting Sexy On a Piano]]: Ramada's musical number. Followed immediately by 'Falling Right Off A Piano'.

* [[Sitting Sexy on a Piano]]: Ramada's musical number. Followed immediately by 'Falling Right Off A Piano'.

* [[Spicy Latina]]: Ramada. Not Spanish, but damn close.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: Mocked with Dead Meat, who meets his beautiful wife on the tarmac, carries the [[Who Shot JFK?|critical evidence about JFK in his pocket]], came up with a solution for global warming, and tries to sign a life insurance policy before climbing in the cockpit... but his pen is out of ink. Oh, well, there'll be plenty of time for that later. His last words are, "I'm in a hospital! What could go wrong?" [[Answer Cut|Hard cut]] to his funeral...

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** Richard Crenna portrays a parody of his ''Rambo'' character, named after his ''[[Our Miss Brooks]]'' character.

* [[Aside Glance]]: After Ramada tells Topper how she envisions their potential relationship.

* [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]]: In just as full force in the sequel; at one point a startled guard yells out "I'll have a hamburger!" in a thick accent. Later on, a group of not-Iraqis sounds like they're yelling in a foreign language; in fact, they're actually arguing with one another in English over who is following who, but speaking it ''really'' fast and with their voices overlapping so it sounds like a different language.

* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: In just as full force in the sequel; at one point a startled guard yells out "I'll have a hamburger!" in a thick accent. Later on, a group of not-Iraqis sounds like they're yelling in a foreign language; in fact, they're actually arguing with one another in English over who is following who, but speaking it ''really'' fast and with their voices overlapping so it sounds like a different language.

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Saddam Hussein can melt down and reconstitute himself like the [[The Terminator|T-1000]].

** Hussein and President Benson duel with lightsabers.

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* [[Cardboard Prison]]: One of the prisoners slips completely through the bars to grab the keys to unlock his door.

* [[Casting Gag]]: Setting Colonel Walters as the analogue to Colonel Trautman from the Rambo movies is helped by being played by the same actor

* [[Character As Himself]]: Saddam Hussein.

* [[Character as Himself]]: Saddam Hussein.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: President Benson.

* [[Credits Gag]]: Many of them in the closing credits, including [[All You Need to Know About The Crying Game]].

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* [[Double Entendre]]: "You give Uncle Topper a nice big blow."

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Not-Saddam dual-wields machine pistols with [[Bottomless Magazines]] at the beginning of the move as he blindly rampages through the front yard.

* [[Distracted By the Sexy]]: A running gag in the monk village, where all of the celibate monks keep being distracted by a beautiful woman waltzing through their village, to [[Amusing Injuries|amusingly painful]] results.

* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: A running gag in the monk village, where all of the celibate monks keep being distracted by a beautiful woman waltzing through their village, to [[Amusing Injuries|amusingly painful]] results.

* [[Electric Torture]]: Parodied by having it cause a [[Big Blackout]] and pop popcorn inside the guy's shirt.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: Topper and a random Iraqi soldier team up to take on the Energizer Bunny.

* [[Everything's Better ~~With~~ Chickens]]: Harley runs out of arrows for his compound bow, so he picks up a nearby chicken and fires ''that'' at the bad guys.

* [[Everything's Better with Chickens]]: Harley runs out of arrows for his compound bow, so he picks up a nearby chicken and fires ''that'' at the bad guys.

* [[Fight Clubbing]]: A hilarious version.

* [[Fridge Logic]]: [[Played for Laughs]] with the monk village: "These men have lived their lives in strict celibacy, just like their fathers and grandfathers before them."

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** Monks taking turns to impress the first girl they have seen in centuries.

** The governor of Nebraska making a public apology for his state being so flat.

** Whenever the camera pans across during Topper and Romada's Italian dinner, we see another table, where [[The Godfather ~~(Film)~~|Michael Corleone is eating with Sollozzo and McClusky]], the last thing we see is him getting up to go to the bathroom...

** Whenever the camera pans across during Topper and Romada's Italian dinner, we see another table, where [[The Godfather|Michael Corleone is eating with Sollozzo and McClusky]], the last thing we see is him getting up to go to the bathroom...

* [[Groin Attack]]: ''Everyone'' cringes in pain... and walnuts come out of the guys mouth!

* [[Handwraps of Awesome]]: Topper Harley wears these in his Dim Sum match early in the movie.

* [[Helium Speech]]: Occurs after the president takes helium instead of oxygen to go diving.

* [[History Marches On]]: The movie was released in 1993, and its context to modern culture has been amazingly consistent since. Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 and was executed in 2006. Films with political figures as the central villain (even parodies) tend to age very fast, but this movie stayed relevant for 13 YEARS after release. Of course, Saddam is shown watching ''[[~~The Arsenio Hall Show (TV)|~~The Arsenio Hall Show]]''. However, the ending joust scene is from the original [[American Gladiators]]. That show went off the air in 1996 and its second incarnation aired in 2008, making THAT scene relevant again! Also, early in the film a Subway restaurant can be seen in Iraq. This would have been out of place in 1993 when the restaurant had very few branches outside America...but now the franchise has expanded so much that there actually ARE Subway stores in Iraq.

* [[History Marches On]]: The movie was released in 1993, and its context to modern culture has been amazingly consistent since. Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 and was executed in 2006. Films with political figures as the central villain (even parodies) tend to age very fast, but this movie stayed relevant for 13 YEARS after release. Of course, Saddam is shown watching ''[[The Arsenio Hall Show]]''. However, the ending joust scene is from the original [[American Gladiators]]. That show went off the air in 1996 and its second incarnation aired in 2008, making THAT scene relevant again! Also, early in the film a Subway restaurant can be seen in Iraq. This would have been out of place in 1993 when the restaurant had very few branches outside America...but now the franchise has expanded so much that there actually ARE Subway stores in Iraq.

* [[I Just Shot Marvin in ~~The~~ Face]]: Averted, amazingly enough. Pay close attention to the way everyone handles weapons; nearly ''everyone'' is holding their weapons correctly and following the safety rules for handling firearms.

* [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: Averted, amazingly enough. Pay close attention to the way everyone handles weapons; nearly ''everyone'' is holding their weapons correctly and following the safety rules for handling firearms.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: Topper extends the antenna of a handphone to fence with Saddam. Walters later uses a fly swatter to knock out a guard, having quickly selected it from a pile of weapons including a several handguns, knives, and grenades.

** After running out of ammo because the guard kept moving (picking up coins, etc) Topper resorts to shooting him with a chicken.

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* [[Insurmountable Waist High Fence]]: Multiple examples; the commando team is stymied by a wooden fence whose lock they can't blow, because "It's not our property." Earlier, Topper has to use a grappling hook and several seconds of difficult climbing to get over a knee height stone fence; even more hilarious, not five feet away is a path leading around the fence.

** One of the POW's is imprisoned with twist ties and later the chinese finger trap. Another prisoner can't run because they've tied his shoelaces together.

* [[I Will Fight No More Forever]]: Harbinger undergoes a [[Ten Minute Retirement]], lasting the entire span of a tender heart-to-heart with Harley, leading directly into [[War Is Glorious]].

* [[I Will Fight No More Forever]]: Harbinger undergoes a [[Ten-Minute Retirement]], lasting the entire span of a tender heart-to-heart with Harley, leading directly into [[War Is Glorious]].

* [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo]]: The [[Energizer Bunny]] appears in one scene, only it's blue and not quite a rabbit. Still recognizable, and the voiceover is there.

* [[Missing Trailer Scene]]: The trailer, a parody of the teaser for ''[[Rambo]]: First Blood Part II'', contains special shoot footage of [[Charlie Sheen]] suiting up as the film's Rambo parody. Also, an alternate version of the first scene in the White House is included.

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* [[Out of the Inferno]]: Parodied.

{{quote| '''President Tug Benson:''' "My skin's made of asbestos. Tanning parlor accident at Dien Bien Phu."}}

* [[Parachute in A Tree]]: Happens to Topper Harley early on. He proceeds to cut himself free... with a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw knife.]]

* [[Parachute in a Tree]]: Happens to Topper Harley early on. He proceeds to cut himself free... with a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw knife.]]

* [[Pass the Popcorn]]: The limo driver in the ''[[No Way Out]]'' scene.

* [[Pepper Sneeze]]: While Topper Harley is trying to get some keys he spills some pepper. A small mouse wanders by, sniffs the pepper, and lets out a barely audible, high-pitched sneeze.

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* [[Special Effects Failure]]: Invoked. The heroes apparently arrive at base in a toy helicopter, which an officer immediately orders removed before someone trips on it.

* [[Spy Speak]]: Parodied. The other guy has no clue what he's talking about.

* [[Stalker ~~With~~ a Crush]]: Ramada's husband Dexter is pretty much one of these, from what her story of how they met sounds like.

* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: Ramada's husband Dexter is pretty much one of these, from what her story of how they met sounds like.

* [[Stealth Pun]]/[[Late to The Punchline]]: {{spoiler|THE MOLE HAS A MOLE}}, also the final action takes place on the border of Iraq and A Hard Place.

* [[Swiss Army Weapon]]: Harley has the coolest knife ''ever''.