Tropic Thunder

***Tropic Thunder*** is a 2008 satirical action comedy film.

## Synopsis

Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

## Plot

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, closeted 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. Lazarus 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 Lazarus 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, trying to convince Pecker to leave has-been Tugg to die for an insurance payout, in addition to 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".