Story of movie Tropic Thunder :
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller. It stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors who are making a fictional Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director (played by 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. The screenplay by Justin Theroux, Stiller, and Etan Cohen was from a story by Stiller and Theroux. The film was produced by Stuart Cornfeld, Stiller and Eric McLeod for Red Hour Productions and DreamWorks Pictures as an international co-production between the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
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| Directed by | Ben Stiller |
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| Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
| Cinematography | John Toll |
| Edited by | Greg Hayden |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $92 million |
| Box office | $188.1 million |
Stiller's idea for the film originated while playing a minor role in Empire of the Sun, and he later enlisted Theroux and Cohen to help complete the script. After the film was green-lit in 2006, filming took place in 2007 on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i over thirteen weeks and was later deemed the largest film production in the island's history. The film had an extensive marketing promotion, including faux websites for the three main characters and their fictional films, airing a fictional television special, and selling the energy drink advertised in the film, "Booty Sweat".
The film received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the film's characters, story, faux trailers, and the performances of Stiller, Downey, Black and Tom Cruise, though the depiction of the mentally handicapped and usage of blackface makeup were seen as controversial. The film's soundtrack and score debuted on August 5, 2008, before the film's theatrical release. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks released the film in the US on August 13, 2008. In its North American opening weekend, the film earned $26 million and retained the number one position for the first three weekends of release. Downey received Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his performance, with both him and Cruise receiving nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. The film grossed more than $188 million worldwide before its release on home video on November 18, 2008.
Screenplay
Hook-handed Vietnam veteran Staff Sergeant John "Four Leaf" Tayback's memoir, Tropic Thunder, is being made into a film. With the exception of newcomer, supporting actor Kevin Sandusky, the cast—fading action hero Tugg Speedman, five-time Academy Award-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, rapper Alpa Chino, and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy—all cause problems for rookie director Damien Cockburn, who cannot control them, resulting in a million-dollar pyrotechnics scene being wasted. The project is months behind schedule. Furious studio executive Les Grossman orders Cockburn to resume filming as planned, or have the project shut down.
On Four Leaf's advice, Damien drops the actors into the middle of the jungle, with hidden cameras and rigged special effects explosions to film "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. Unknown to the actors and production, the group have been dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang. Just as the group are 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 Damien is alive, and that they are still shooting the film. Kirk is unconvinced but joins them in their trek through the jungle.
When Four Leaf and pyrotechnics operator Cody Underwood try to locate the dead director, they are captured by Flaming Dragon. Four Leaf is revealed to have hands; he confesses to Underwood that he actually served in the Coast Guard, 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 results in Kirk leading the rest of the cast as an increasingly delirious Tugg is captured by Flaming Dragon. Taken to their base, Tugg believes it is a POW camp from the script. The gang discovers he is the star of their favorite film, the box office bomb Simple Jack, and force him to reenact it several times a day.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Tugg's agent Rick 'Pecker' Peck confronts Les over an unfulfilled term in Tugg's contract that 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. Despite the threats, Les expresses no interest in rescuing Tugg and is instead happy at the insurance payout that would happen if Tugg dies. He attempts to convince Pecker to play along by promising a Gulfstream V jet and "lots of money".
Kirk, Alpa, Jeff, and Kevin discover Flaming Dragon's heroin factory. After witnessing Tugg being tortured, they plan a rescue attempt based on the film's script. Kirk impersonates a farmer towing a "captured" Jeff on the back of a water buffalo, distracting the armed guards so Alpa and Kevin can infiltrate and find the prisoners, but a combination of broken Chinese and inconsistencies in his story sets off the gang's boss. The actors, knowing their cover has been blown, begin firing, fooling gang members into surrender. Their control of the gang falls apart when Jeff grabs the leader and heads for the drugs, and the gang, realizing the guns fire blanks, recover their guns and fight back.
The four actors locate Four Leaf, Cody, 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. Four Leaf destroys the bridge, rescuing Tugg, but as the helicopter takes off, the gang boss fires a rocket-propelled grenade at the helicopter. Rick unexpectedly stumbles out of the jungle carrying a TiVo box and throws it in the path of the grenade, saving them. The crew return to Hollywood, where footage from the hidden cameras is compiled into a 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. During the end credits, Grossman dances alone to Ludacris' "Get Back".
- Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman: Once the highest-paid, highest-grossing action film star ever due to his Scorcher franchise, his career has stalled, and he now has a reputation for appearing in nothing but box office bombs. After a failed attempt at portraying a serious role in Simple Jack, in which he plays a mentally-challenged farm boy, he takes the role of Four Leaf Tayback in an attempt to save his career. The first faux trailer at the film's start is a preview for Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown, the latest in his series.
- 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 he is only considered an actor because of his comical delivery and nothing else. Portnoy's faux trailer for juvenile family film The Fatties: Fart 2, about a family (with each member played by Portnoy) which enjoys passing gas, spoofs Eddie Murphy's portrayal of multiple characters in films such as Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.
- Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus: An Australian method actor and five-time Academy Award winner, Lazarus had a controversial "pigmentation alteration" surgery to 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 gay 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 the other monk) in Wonder Boys. Downey said he modelled 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. Downey's makeup was designed and created by makeup effects legend Rick Baker, who is no stranger to race transformations after a number of films with Eddie Murphy where he has done so.
- Steve Coogan as Damien Cockburn: The inexperienced British film director who is unable to control the actors in the film.
- 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 cast get high.
- Danny McBride as Cody Underwood: The film's explosives expert and helicopter pilot. He is a pyromaniac.
- Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino: A closeted homosexual rapper who is attempting to cross over into acting, portraying a soldier named Motown, while promoting his "Bust-A-Nut" candy bar and energy drink, "Booty Sweat". He feels his image as a rapper would not allow him to be open as gay. His name is a play on Al Pacino. Before the faux trailers, a faux commercial for "Booty Sweat" and "Bust-A-Nut" appears, accompanied by the song "I Love Tha Pussy" and the slogan "Pop An Ass Open!".
- Bill Hader as Rob Slolom: Grossman's assistant and right-hand man.
- Nick Nolte as Sergeant John "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.
- Matthew McConaughey as Rick "Pecker" Peck: Speedman's extremely devoted agent and best friend.
- Brandon Soo Hoo as Tran: The 12-year-old young leader of the Flaming Dragon gang. The character was compared to Karen National Union guerrilla leaders Johnny and Luther Htoo.
- Reggie Lee as Byong: The second-in-command of the Flaming Dragon gang.
- Tom Cruise as Les Grossman: The profane, ill-tempered studio executive producing Tropic Thunder.
Various actors and celebrities portray themselves, including Tobey Maguire, Tyra Banks, Maria Menounos, Martin Lawrence, The Mooney Suzuki, Jason Bateman, Lance Bass, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alicia Silverstone, and Jon Voight. Christine Taylor, Mini Anden, Anthony Ruivivar, Rachel Avery, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Sean Penn have roles as minor characters in the film. Co-writer Justin Theroux appears in two brief roles as a UH-1 Huey gunner and the disc jockey from Zoolander (shown in a deleted scene).