Line #32 Film/SpyHard


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_505.jpeg]]
2
3	->''"All the action. All the women. Half the intelligence."''
4	-->-- '''Tagline'''
5
6	''Spy Hard'' (1996) is an action-comedy movie that marked the film debuts of Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg, spoofing spy (primarily Film/JamesBond) and other action films. Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg wrote the film, which was directed by Jason's father Rick Friedberg.
7
8	Creator/LeslieNielsen stars as Dick Steele, Agent WD-40, opposite Creator/NicolletteSheridan as his partner [[FemmeFatale Veronique Ukrinsky]], Agent 3.14, as the two try to stop the evil genius, General Rancor (Creator/AndyGriffith), from taking over the world.
9
10	----
11	!!This movie contains examples of:
12
13	* AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload: Steele, to Agent 3.14:
14	--> '''Steele''': You carry a UB-21 Schnauzer with a Gnab silencer. That's KGB. You prefer an H&K over an A.K. Your surveillance technique is NSA. Your ID is CIA. You received your Ph.D. at NYU. Traded in your GTO for a BMV. You listen to [=CDs=] by [[Music/{{REM}} R.E.M.]] and Music/{{S\|toneTemplePilots}}TP. And you'd like to see J.F.K. in his [=BVDs=], getting down with O.P.P. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And you probably put the toilet paper back on the roll with the paper on the inside.]]
15	* ActionGirl: Agent 3.14. She effortlessly beats up three goons threatening Steele and in the climax almost single-handedly defeats Rancor's guards while Steele focuses on Rancor himself.
16	* AnArmAndALeg: General Rancor lost both his arms after his previous run-in with Agent Dick Steele, but has had various prosthetic replacements constructed. After Steele ties Rancor to his own missile in the climax, he loses his legs as well.
17	* AndThisIsFor: PlayedForLaughs.
18	--> '''Secret agents''': And this is for ''Film/MyGirl2!''
19	--> '''[=McCluckey=]''': [[NotMeThisTime I wasn't even in]] ''[[PunctuatedPounding My. Girl. 2]]''!
20	--> ''Beat as the two agents look at each other''
21	--> '''Secret agents''': [[SuddenlyShouting WE DON'T CARE!]]
22	* BigBad: General Rancor.
23	* BigStupidDoodooHead: WD-40 to the villain in the climax: "Let me tell you what being patriotic really means, you scumbag poop."
24	* BlindDriving: The bus driver played by Music/RayCharles. Yes, the blind dude. {{Inverted\|Trope}} in that he's actually pretty good (when the brakes work, at least). It's implied he isn't really blind, since he compliments Ukrinsky on her dress.
25	* BodyWipe: During the credits, the camera zooms into Music/WeirdAlYankovic's nostril until it fills the screen.
26	* BookEnds: The opening and closing versions of the theme song have Weird Al expressly referring them as such.
27	* BreakingTheFourthWall: When Agent Steele goes to visit a female agent in a hotel room, he does an internal monologue the entire time, but she can somehow hear his voiceover.
28	* TheCameo: Creator/MrT, Music/RayCharles, [[Film/TheKarateKid Pat Morita]], Wrestling/HulkHogan and many, many others.
29	* CardCarryingVillain: It's only visible in the background, but Rancor Industries has "Committed to Evil" as its company motto.
30	* CompanyCrossReferences: The eastern facade of the [=TeamDisney=]/Michael Eisner building at [[Creator/{{Disney}} Walt Disney Studios]] in Burbank, featuring caryatids of the [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Seven Dwarfs]] holding up the roof, is featured in a rare reference to the Disney brand in a film from a mature wing of the company [[note]] it's entirely possible the location scout chose it for comedic purposes, given the presence of the Dwarfs, on what is supposed to be the headquarters of a spy agency. [[/note]]
31	* CreditsGag:
32	** While he's singing the title song, Music/WeirdAlYankovic interacts with the credit captions a couple of times; he bats the movie title away, and does a double-take at his own credit when it appears.
33	** The end ones, following the ''Naked Gun'' tradition, have jokes such as "Horse Translator ... Literature/DoctorDolittle", "Gorgeous Blonde's Phone Number: Still Trying To Get It" and "Kung Fu Grip: G.I. Joe".
34	* DamselInDistress: Barbara Dahl, who spends the major part of the movie strapped to a bomb.
35	* DisposablePilot: Creator/MrT plays one of these in the opening sequence.
36	* DramaticSpaceDrifting: Parodied when General Rancor is launched into space aboard his rocket, and then floats around until he slams into an Apollo-type spacecraft, prompting a voiceover of "Houston, we have a problem".
37	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Kabul is far worse--Ray Charles is blind; Kabul doesn't even ''look'' the first time he and Steele meet. Shortly after, he runs over a woman's foot...then asks for her phone number, like he did it on ''purpose.'' He later takes his hands off the wheel of an ambulance.
38	%%* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped
39	* EyePoke: Used against Dick Steele. He blocks successfully but he's punched out immediately after anyway.
40	* FakeArmDisarm: Rancor loses both his robotic arms during the final fight with Steele, forcing him to flee.
41	* FauxActionGirl: Barbara Dahl infiltrates Rancor's base, only to be captured and become the DamselInDistress.
42	* FedToTheBeast: Parodied. After capturing the hero, General Rancor tries to have Agent Dick Steele fed to... a dinosaur. He escapes, and it feeds on Rancor's right hand-man instead.
43	* FeetFirstIntroduction: Parodied. When Dick first meets Agent 3.14, the camera pans up what you think is her legs, but is actually a huge billboard of some random woman's legs.
44	* {{Flashback}}:
45	** Steele has one about Victoria Dahl, which consists of a parody of ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid''. Later, Steele tries to have another flashback but The Director cuts it short: "We don't have time for flashbacks."
46	** Steele has a flashback of the first time he met an agent with whom he is speaking, less than thirty seconds earlier.
47	* FullMoonSilhouette: Executed during the ''Film/{{Speed}}'' parody, during the bus jump.
48	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: During the intro sequence (which is parodying that of ''Film/{{Thunderball}}''), two of the female silhouettes bump into each other and begin fighting.
49	** Behind the air-stewardess & the obnoxious businessman arguing with her, someone can be seen putting a crying baby into an overhead locker.
50	** The PA announcements at LAX apparently drift into a Spanish lesson ("''¿Donde es Maria?''" "''Where is Maria?''" "''Maria is in the library.''")
51	* FunnyBruceLeeNoises: Done by Steele fighting a would-be assassin in his hotel.
52	* GoofyPrintUnderwear: On the poster.
53	* HollywoodSilencer: The bad guys use a pillow to silence the ''machine gun'' they are using to execute a [[EveryoneHatesMimes mime]].
54	* HomeAloneAntics: {{Subverted\|Trope}}: A bunch of secret agents chasing a CaptainErsatz of [[Film/HomeAlone Kevin McAllister]] through a house simply evade and defuse all of the traps.
55	* ImColdSoCold: Parodied when Steele rescues 3.14 from the nunnery; at one point a bunch of ice lands on 3.14 and she remarks that she's so cold. Instead of the obvious, Steele assumes that the people who kidnapped her did horrible things to her:
56	--> '''Steele''': What have they done to you? They'll pay for this.
57	* InnerMonologueConversation: A seductress responds vocally to Dick's InnerMonologue.
58	* {{Jerkass}}: General Rancor. Agent Coleman, and Robert Culp as the obnoxious businessman on the plane.
59	* JunglesSoundLikeKookaburras[=/=]NoisyNature: Parodied. As a spy sneaks into a secret base in a Caribbean jungle, a bunch of jungle sounds can be heard, including the kookaburra call. Then the camera moves to the side a little, where we see that a guard is making all these sounds, while reading from a book: ''The Cries of Common Jungle Animals''.
60	* JurassicFarce: General Rancor keeps several pet dinosaurs in his SupervillainLair and prepares to have Agent Steel [[FedToTheBeast fed to them]]. They use re-used sound FX from ''Jurassic Park'' to drive the point home.
61	** Not to mention... whatever it was that the tribesmen who originally captured them fell victim to offscreen.
62	* LargeHam: Andy Griffith as General Rancor, and how.
63	%%* TheLastStraw
64	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: [[DaChief The Chief]] is talking, while facing the camera, about how horrible it will be if General Rancor succeeds in his master plan, while a violin is playing in the background. He then gets annoyed and turns around to yell at the violinist standing to the side.
65	* LegFocus: {{Parodied\|Trope}}. Veronika Ukrinsky appears to be [[FeetFirstIntroduction introduced by a pan-up of her legs]], until she appears in the middle of a statue of legs. That being said, the filmmakers still play the trope straight with her, and even the credits note "Ms. Sheridan's Stand-Out: Her Legs".
66	* LiteralCliffhanger: Spoofed when Steele first defeats General Rancor, when his love interest Victoria Dahl is hanging from a cliff. Not only does Steele's sleeve rip, revealing a ridiculously muscular arm, but it stretches [[CartoonPhysics like they're in a cartoon]]. She falls into the ocean to her death, performing a swan dive.
67	* LockAndLoadMontage: Parodied. The heroes get jumped by enemy mooks mid-montage.
68	* MadeOfExplodium: Music/WeirdAlYankovic's head, after holding the final note of the title theme for about two minutes. Possibly a [[ActorAllusion Musician Allusion]] to Music/TomJones--obviously a parody of ''Film/{{Thunderball}},'' but may be a reference to the urban legend that Tom Jones passed out when holding that famous last note.
69	* MasterOfDisguise: [[DaChief The Chief]] disguises himself as all sorts of furniture throughout his office--he calls it "the ancient art of Origatze."
70	* MsFanservice: Agent 3.14 spends the entire film running around in very short, tight skirts and minidresses. While Steele is looking at her crucially important pendant, he becomes distracted by her...upper chest area.
71	* NarrowParody: It's primarily a Film/JamesBond spoof, but it's pretty much a time capsule of early-to-mid 1990s pop culture, including references to ''Film/JurassicPark'', ''Film/TrueLies'', ''Film/{{Speed}}'', ''Film/SisterAct'', ''Film/PulpFiction'', ''Film/InTheLineOfFire'', and ''Film/HomeAlone'', not all of which have stood the test of time.
72	* NeonSignHideout: The villain's headquarters has a clearly marked "Intruder Entrance" sign on one of their doors, and it isn't SchmuckBait either, it's actually pointing out to intruders the best place for them to enter.
73	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: "[=McClatchey=]" is clearly supposed to be a stand-in for Macaulay Culkin [[note]] albeit played by Mason Gamble, who played Dennis the Menace in the [[Film/DennisTheMenace 1993 film]] [[/note]].
74	** AndThisIsFor: The bad guys even hit him for the bad movies Culkin did.
75	--> "I wasn't even in Film/MyGirl 2!"\
76	({{beat}}) "We don't care!"
77	** Not so with Wrestling/HulkHogan, who fares poorly in the fight and has to tag in Dr. Joyce Brothers, a media psychologist who wrote for Good Housekeeping. She does significantly better.
78	* NunTooHoly: ...but they will {{m\|oreDakka}}ake ''you'' hole-y.
79	* OneDialogueTwoConversations:
80	--> '''Steele''' (''addressing Veronique''): Tell me more about you.
81	-->: '''Brian the Waiter''' (showing up): Well, I like loose-fitting clothes and I drive a '69 Pinto.
82	* PillowSilencer: Exaggerated, wherein a mime [[http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/15/SpyHard_M2HB_01.jpg/600px-SpyHard_M2HB_01.jpg gets shot]] with a ''.50 Browning machine gun'' silenced in this fashion on the pre-credits sequence.
83	* PunnyName: The daughter of Steele's initial love interest is [[{{Franchise/Barbie}} Barbara Dahl]]. Miss Cheevus is another example.
84	* PungeonMaster: General Rancor, who is missing both his arms and has various prosthetic replacements, is constantly making arm-related jokes.
85	--> "Arm me!"\
86	[After a FakeArmDisarm] "Leave me alone, I'm an unarmed man!"
87	* RealityIsUnrealistic: That note that Weird Al sings that was edited to last for a ridiculously long amount of time? Nope. That was the plan, but Al found out he really could hold the note out that long.
88	* RedAndWhiteComedyPoster
89	* RedundantParody: Basically {{Foreshadowing}} of Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg's later films. They never do seem to know if the movie they're spoofing was a drama, or an actual comedy.
90	** Partial example with the spoof sequence of ''Film/TrueLies,'' given that that was ''itself'' a comedic and near-parodic take on spy action films--though, to be fair, it was much, much more of an action film than this movie.
91	** Similarly, there is a parody of the already absurd scene from ''Film/PulpFiction'' where Creator/JohnTravolta and Creator/UmaThurman dance [[Series/Batman1966 the Batusi]]. It's no more ridiculous than the original.
92	** Don't forget the ''Film/SisterAct'' spoof, another film that was already a comedy.
93	** The running gag from ''Series/GetSmart'' of Agent 13 taking cover in something absurd is "parodied" here.
94	* RunningGag: A jogger is frequently injured during the film. Also [[UnluckyExtra the guy who keeps getting hit in the chest with arrows and knives.]]
95	* SavedByThePlatformBelow: Parodied. Dick Steele takes a horse up to the roof of a hotel while fleeing from one of the bad guys (on a lawnmower), but he ends up falling off the ledge. It turns out that that the horse landed inside a pool that was just one floor down, while Dick somehow landed inside a Harrier Jump Jet (actually part of a billboard, but it scares off the bad guy before he can notice this).
96	* SexySecretary: Miss Cheevus, who constantly flirts with Dick Steele.
97	* SensualSlavs: Veronika Ukrinsky, Russian agent and FemmeFatale.
98	* SpySpeak: Parodied as Steele meets Kabul -- until the driver saying his name makes him stump.
99	* StealthPun: Barbara Dahl = Barbie Doll.
100	* StrappedToABomb: The film plays this for laughs, as the film was a spoof type film. The villain ties up the captured lady agent to the bomb.
101	* StrappedToARocket: General Rancor's eventual fate.
102	* SuicidalGotcha: Steele escapes by jumping off a roof, only to appear again in a Harrier jump-jet, scaring off the pursuers. It is then revealed to be a prop being lifted by a helicopter for a billboard.
103	* TakeMyHand: Done in a spoof of ''Film/CliffHanger''.
104	* TakeThat: After the thugs capture the CaptainErsatz of [[Film/HomeAlone Kevin McAllister]] and the Professor Ukrinsky, they decide to take the time to torture the former, by hitting his head off of stairs, one for all the movies they didn't like, that starred Macaulay Culkin at the time.
105	--> '''Thug 1:''' [[AndThisIsFor This is for]] ''Film/GettingEvenWithDad''!\
106	'''Thug 2:''' And this is for ''Film/MyGirl''!\
107	'''Thug 1:''' And this is for ''Film/MyGirl2''!\
108	'''Mcluckey:''' [[NotMeThisTime I wasn't even in My Girl 2!]]\
109	--> '''Both Thugs:'''' WE DON'T CARE!!!!
110	* TalkingAnimal: When Dick Steele and his horse are about to fall off the roof of a hotel building, the horse makes a very human "Whoah!" after Steele does the same.
111	* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Played straight when Rancor's tape arrives... And deconstructed as Steele watches the same tape while away, leading him to ask the questions the tape expected with a delay.
112	* TechnologyMarchesOn: InUniverse as the native islander uses a cell phone to inform the general that Steele had been spotted on the island.
113	* TeeteringOnTheEdge: Dick panics during a Presidential parade and orders the President's limo to drive off in a hurry before getting it stuck dangling on the edge of a pier. He screws it up by tying a rope to the back end of the bumper to pull it back up, which then breaks off.
114	* ThisPageWillSelfDestruct: When he parachutes out, Steele leaves the tape recorder in the helicopter that he was being flown in, causing it to explode while still on-board, to the horror of the pilot.
115	* ToiletHumor: Done parodying the horse chase from ''True Lies''.
116	%%* ViewersAreGoldfish: Parodied.
117	* WeCanRebuildHim: General Rancor has been rebuilt with artificial arms after surviving the explosion of his helicopter so he can menace the world once more.
118	* YourHeadASplode: "Weird Al" Yankovic, hitting the high note of doom in the opening credits.

Context Film / SpyHard