History Film / TheGumballRally

A 1976 American action comedy film directed and co-written by veteran stuntman Charles Bail, about an illegal cross-country road race. The large EnsembleCast includes Michael Sarrazin, Creator/RaulJulia, Normann Burton, Creator/GaryBusey, John Durren, Susan Flannery, Creator/StevenKeats, and Creator/TimMcIntire.

A 1976 American action comedy film directed and co-written by veteran stuntman Charles Bail, about an illegal cross-country road race. The large EnsembleCast includes Michael Sarrazin, Creator/RaulJulia, Normann Burton, Creator/GaryBusey, John Durren, Susan Flannery, Steven Keats, and Creator/TimMcIntire.

** Bannon calls Smith a "schemer" early in the film, and it shows. He hired one of the best race drivers in the world, his support crew, and pre-arranged refueling and maintenance stops alongside his racing route, including one inside of a rolling truck that helps them also get across a roadblock. The biggest obstacle to his victory is not having the entire police force of the country out to get him, but his driver being an impulsive horn-dog.
** The Porsche 911 team also are this: they spend a big part of their screen time talking about being ready for the race in such ways as checking out in a computer (in TheSeventies!) traffic and weather conditions, check that they know the CB lingo, and such. The Porsche's engine blows out somewhere in Colorado and must accept the help of a pair of good ol' boys that were chasing them because they flirted with them, and one of the girls gets a quick bout of LoveAtFirstSight and [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces has sex with the guy in the field as the car's being fixed]].

* LatinLover: Franco. He gets laid twice during the film, considers getting laid more important than racing (this one [[FlawExploitation is more detrimental for Smith than he really wanted it to be in the final act]]), and has a weird fetish of doing motor sounds when he's having sex.

* RightUnderTheirNoses: One of the teams evades a roadblock by driving into the empty trailer of a moving semi.

* RightUnderTheirNoses: One of the teams evades a roadblock by driving into a truck.

* WetBlanketWife: Jose's girlfriend Angie spends the whole film whining that she didn't want to be part of the race and nagging him about going back to New York, or just stopping the car so she can get out and go back on her own, even when they're in the literal middle of the country (and at one point makes him lose control of the Rolls-Royce by giving him a DopeSlap, which causes a multiple-car pile-up).

* PuttingAFlagOnYourHead: Angie spends most of the film wearing an American flag bikini with jeans.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: There was a trans-continental underground race that rebelled against the 55 MPH limit, but ironically it's the ''true'' Film/TheCannonballRun.

* TheBigRace: From one coast to the other, non-stop.

%%* ButtMonkey:
%%** Lt. Roscoe
%%** Lapchick spends the whole film bug-eyed over his various crashes.

* MetallicarSyndrome: Pretty much every car.

* ShowSomeLeg: See "Distracted By The Sexy" above.

* BikerBabe: Joann Nail and Susan Flannery play a pair in a Porsche 911.
* ButtMonkey:
** Lt. Roscoe
** Lapchick spends the whole film bug-eyed over his various crashes.

The race ends at the ''Queen Mary'' in Long Beach, California, where the finishers celebrate their adventures and the defeated Roscoe skulks off to one side--until a fleet of police cars and tow trucks arrive to impound the vehicles; as it proves, Roscoe had contrived in advance to see to it that all of them were illegally parked. Bannon congratulates Roscoe on his final victory, and again utters the code word "Gumball" to initiate a race back to New York.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Gibson finds pretty funny when the cop team makes them pull over so they can drive past at one point. Preston is pretty damn angry that it happened, though.

* ArchEnemy: Roscoe considers Smith this to him, because Smith is the biggest "schemer" of the two organizers of the Rally. Both Smith and Bannon consider Roscoe more of a FriendlyEnemy.

* WackyRacing: It's a comedy and most of the cast is spread amongst the racing teams. Also all strategies are accepted, and the two most notable ones is a pair of policemen that disguise themselves as policemen of every state they pass and a crew in a van modified to hold enough gas to race truly non-stop through the country (although [[EveryCarIsAPinto that one ended in some explosive mishaps]]).

* SuddenlySpeaking: Lapchick is TheVoiceless until the very end, as he loses control of his bike (again) and plunges into the water alongside the ''Queen Mary'':
-->'''Lapchick:''' [[PrecisionFStrike OH, SHIIIIIT...]]

* TheVoiceless: Lapchick, the "Mad Hungarian," who becomes SuddenlySpeaking as the film's very last gag.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Even when several epic pratfalls cull about half of the racing teams before they can even leave New York City (let alone State), that still leaves about a dozen major characters.

--> [Barney squeals tires as they leave the parking lot]

[''Roscoe reacts stupefied for a second, like he had been actually answered by God, before looking to his side'']

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: A light-hearted version with a roadster-driving {{Jerkass}} that [[PlayingBothSides scams money out of both Smith and Roscoe to drive the runners into a police trap]]. Smith and Bannon catch up to him a few minutes after they dodge the roadblock and take back all of the money and rip the steering wheel out of the man's roadster, leaving him stranded in the middle of the desert (and Franco [[ChekhovsGag squirts him with his water pistol]] after making the man believe that he was going to be blown away for his betrayal).

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Film/TheCannonballRun'' and its sequels.