Smokey and the Bandit II

Smokey and the Bandit II is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham, and stars Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason and Dom DeLuise. The film is the sequel to the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit.
The film was originally released in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and several other, mainly Commonwealth countries as Smokey and the Bandit Ride Again. Early video releases and TV broadcasts also used this title, but in more recent years most have reverted to the original U.S. title. It was followed by another sequel three years later, Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983), in which Reynolds only made a brief cameo appearance, and Sally Field did not appear.
== Plot ==
Big Enos Burdette is in a literal mudslinging campaign against John Conn for Governor of Texas. After failing to get the outgoing governor's endorsement, Big Enos overhears him on the phone ordering a crate in Miami to be delivered in nine days to the Republican National Convention in Dallas. Burdette schemes to earn the governor's endorsement and have the crate delivered to the convention in his name, and tracks down Cledus "Snowman" Snow and offers him and Bo "Bandit" Darville $200,000 to do the run. Cledus takes the Burdettes to Bandit to make the offer in person, but Bandit has become a heavy drinker since breaking up with Carrie ("Frog"), and is drunk when the Burdettes arrive and double the payoff to $400,000. Cledus accepts on Bandit's behalf, but adds that Big Enos should give them half in advance, to which they agree. Cledus is ecstatic, but Bandit begins to miss Carrie.
Cledus calls Carrie, who is back in Texarkana and again about to marry Junior. But when Cledus calls during the wedding and offers her $50,000 to help out, she agrees and again becomes a runaway bride. Though she still has feelings for Bandit, when Carrie arrives she initially intones she is only in it for the money, and she and Cledus work on getting Bandit off the booze and back into shape. She then trades in Junior's car for a new Trans Am. The three arrive at the pier in Miami only to find out the manifest is quarantined for three weeks. They return late that night to steal it, only to find the "package" is a live elephant (the G.O.P. mascot) which Cledus names "Charlotte" after his aunt. When Bandit removes a splinter from Charlotte's foot, she takes a liking to him.
Soon after they start off for Dallas, they are accosted for the first of several times by Sheriff Justice, but Bandit outwits him and they escape. En route, they stop at a remote fuel station and notice something wrong with Charlotte. Moments later, an ambulance pulls in with an Italian gynecologist in the back; "Doc" is initially reluctant to help, but when his ambulance driver speeds away unknowingly leaving him stranded, he asks to hitch a ride with them, agreeing to watch Charlotte.
Doc later finds that Charlotte is pregnant and due to give birth any time, but Bandit is determined to stay on schedule. Entering Louisiana, Doc says that Charlotte is almost in labor and needs to be off her feet. Cledus decides they all need a break and they go to a nearby nightclub where Don Williams is headlining. When Carrie sees Bandit scribbling on a napkin a picture of Charlotte cradled by suspended netting to keep her off her feet, she angrily leaves, but not before telling Bandit that she will come back only when he likes himself again. Later that night, a drunken Bandit makes his drawing a reality, and Doc agrees that his idea will work.
Buford decides to call for help from his brothers- Reggie, a Mountie Sergeant in Quebec, and Gaylord, an effeminate Texas State Patrolman. Later, as Bandit and Cledus enter Texas, Buford lures the Bandit into a trap: a mass of 40 Texas Patrol and Mountie cruisers pursuing him across a desert basin. Bandit orders Cledus to get to Dallas, but instead, Cledus enlists a large convoy of his trucker pals and comes to Bandit's rescue playing "The World's Biggest Game of Chicken", wrecking nearly all of the cruisers in a massive demolition derby while Doc and Charlotte watch from the sidelines. The two escape by crossing a makeshift trailer bridge with Buford and his brothers in pursuit. Two of the trucks pull away, resulting in Gaylord and Reggie's cruisers crashing in the ensuing gap before they can cross, but Buford is still in pursuit, though his cruiser is barely functioning.
With Charlotte now going into labor, Cledus begs a reluctant Bandit to stop at a safari reserve, where Charlotte finally has her baby. Bandit is ready to load them both back up in the truck, but Cledus refuses and then knocks Bandit down when he insults him. When he sees Charlotte in tears, Bandit finally comes to his senses and apologizes.
Bandit later finds Carrie and tells her that he likes himself now, and that he does not want to be without her. He then tells her that he has not yet taken Charlotte to Dallas, but they can still make it. Carrie is overjoyed when she sees Charlotte's baby, and Bandit asks Charlotte's permission for him and Carrie to get hitched, to which Charlotte trumpets her approval; Doc, now riding in the cab with Cledus and Fred, also voices his approval, and they all drive away with Charlotte and her baby in tow in circus carts, with Buford still in pursuit, now driving a Greyhound bus.
== Cast ==
* Burt Reynolds as Bo "Bandit" Darville
* Mr. Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice
** Mr. Jackie Gleason as Reginald Van Justice
** Ms. Jackie Gleason as Gaylord Justice
* Jerry Reed as Cledus "Snowman" Snow
* Dom DeLuise as Dr. Frederico "Doc" Carlucci
* Sally Field as Carrie ("Frog")
* Pat McCormick as Big Enos Burdette
* Paul Williams as Little Enos Burdette
* David Huddleston as John Conn
* Mike Henry as Junior Justice
* John Anderson as the Governor
* Brenda Lee as "Nice Lady"
* The Statler Brothers as themselves:
** Phil Balsley
** Lew DeWitt
** Don Reid
** Harold Reid
* Terry Bradshaw as himself
* "Mean Joe" Greene as himself
* Mel Tillis as fairground owner
* Joe Klecko as himself ("Bulldog")
* Anthony T. Townes as young black boy
* Don Williams as himself
* Nancy Lenehan as Ramona
* John Megna as P.T.
* Chuck Yeager as party guest
* John Robert Nicholson as patient
* 1980 Pontiac Trans Am as "Son of Trigger"
== Production Notes ==
* Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise had previously worked together in The End and would work together again in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II, and (in voice only) Don Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven.
* As he did in most of his other films, Reynolds breaks the fourth wall after being reunited with Frog, by addressing the camera and saying, "She still loves me."
* Smokey and the Bandit II was filmed simultaneously with The Cannonball Run, in which Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise also co-starred. Football players Joe Klecko and Terry Bradshaw also appear in both films.
* It is the first film to feature director Hal Needham's "Blooper Reel Credit Crawl" at the end, in that a collection of bloopers and outtakes from the film showed on one side of the screen while the closing credits slowly scrolled up the other side. Cannonball Run, also directed by Needham, used this same technique.
* Buford's brothers were both portrayed by Gleason; "Reggie" was a Canadian version of "Reginald Van Gleason III", a popular character from Gleason's television variety show.
* The film was written and produced before it was announced that the 1980 Republican National Convention would be held in Detroit rather than Dallas.
* Many of the movie's scenes take place in northern Palm Beach County, especially at Burt Reynolds' ranch in Jupiter, Florida.
* Although the Bandit again sticks to a Pontiac Trans Am, this time a 1980 Turbo model with five color decals unlike 1981's single color decals, the Snowman switches to a 1980 GMC General, silver with blue trim with the same mural on the trailer as in the original film. This "new rig" suggests that the pair were successful in the "double or nothing" wager offered by the Burdettes at the end of the first film, where they were persuaded to drive from Atlanta to Boston and back in 18 hours to buy clam chowder and bring it to the Burdettes.
* A world-record automobile jump was captured on film during the "roundup sequence", when stuntman Gary Davis jumped a 1974 Dodge Monaco over 150 feet. Davis suffered compressed vertebrae as a result of a hard landing.
* The roundup sequence in the desert shows many new Pontiac Le Mans sedans decorated as police cars being destroyed. The cars were originally ordered by a car rental agency in Phoenix, who refused to accept the delivery when they discovered the cars were not equipped with air conditioning. Pontiac took the cars back and eventually gave them to the producers to be used in the film.
== Featured Songs ==
* "Texas Bound and Flying" (Theme from the film, written and performed by Jerry Reed)
* "Charlotte's Web"; "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine" (performed by The Statler Brothers)
* "Again and Again" (performed by Brenda Lee)
* "Tulsa Time", "To Be Your Man" (performed by Don Williams)
* "Here's Lookin' At You" (performed by Mel Tillis)
* "Ride Concrete Cowboy, Ride" (performed by Roy Rogers & The Sons of the Pioneers)
* "Pecos Promenade" (performed by Tanya Tucker)
Category:1980 films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:Rated PG