Line #73 Film/Stripes


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stripes_1981.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:310:That's the fact, Jack!]]
3
4	->''"We're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army!"''
5	-->-- '''John Winger'''
6
7	A 1981 military comedy directed by Creator/IvanReitman and starring Creator/BillMurray. Also in the cast are Creator/HaroldRamis, Creator/WarrenOates, Creator/PJSoles, Creator/SeanYoung, Creator/JohnCandy, and Creator/JohnLarroquette.
8
9	John Winger (Murray) is a slacker who convinces his friend Russell Ziskey (Ramis) to join the U.S. Army with him. The two of them have a miserable time in basic training, but eventually their drill instructor, Sgt. Hulka (Oates), gets injured in a training exercise and they have to finish the training on their own. The night before graduation day they stay up all night, show up late for the parade, and put on one hell of a show for the generals. In the end, they are assigned to guard the new EM-50 urban assault vehicle in Italy.
10
11	While John and Russell are guarding it, they decide to "borrow" it and go for a joyride to see their girlfriends in Germany. The rest of their squad comes after them, thinking that they're communist spies, but they take a wrong turn and get captured by the Soviets in Czechoslovakia. Winger and Russell come back to save their squad. When they come back to the states, somehow they all end up getting medals.
12
13	The movie was well-liked by critics, with an 88% fresh rating on Website/RottenTomatoes. It was also fairly successful financially, grossing $85 million domestically on a $10 million budget. Music/ElmerBernstein composed the score.
14
15	----
16	!!This movie provides examples of:
17
18	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Sgt. Hulka can't help but let out a few guffaws at Winger's smart-assed "Big Toe" speech before promising to come back at 0500 to put that Big Toe where the sun don't shine.
19	* AllOrNothing: After spending the entire basic training screwing up, John leads the platoon in a rifle demonstration ''in front of the commanding general.'' Either they are going to jail, or impress the general so much he selects them for his "special project" in Italy. Guess which happens?
20	* AnalogyBackfire: Winger talking Ziskey into helping him rescue the rest of the squad:
21	-->'''Winger:''' C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's ''Czechoslovakia''. It's like going into ''Wisconsin''.\
22	'''Ziskey:''' Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once! Forget it!
23	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Czech soldiers "speak" in vaguely Russian-sounding grunts.
24	* AskAStupidQuestion: After Hulka gets injured from the stray mortar round, Ox asks him "Sergeant, does this mean we're through for the day?". Hulka immediately starts strangling Ox. Made even funnier by the honking sound Hulka makes as an answer before strangling him.
25	* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: The EM-50 "Urban Assault Vehicle". (It's basically an armed GMC Motor Home, GM's classic -- but failed -- attempt to compete with Winnebago.)
26	-->'''Stillman:''' My truck! Where's my fucking ''truck''?!
27	* AxCrazy: Francis 'Psycho' Soyer, who threatens to kill his squadmates if they touch him or his stuff, or call him anything other than Psycho. When the drill practice session the night before graduation devolves into a fight, he holds his obviously-fake practice rifle like he intends to shoot somebody.
28	* BadBoss: Captain Stillman shows what happens when the PointyHairedBoss is given responsibility for a company of soldiers.
29	* BavarianFireDrill: In the extended cut, John and Russell talk their way into going AWOL with a platoon flying into South America by claiming that they're "double-double top secret" officers.
30	* ButtMonkey: The movie's loaded with them, but special mention has to go to the two Russian guards at the Czech checkpoint. They couldn't buy a break with all the vodka in Russia. Finally, completely fed up, they have this exchange:
31	-->'''Guard One''': I hate tourist season!
32	-->'''Guard Two''': Such a truck would be good for picking up girls in Minsk...
33	* CasualCarGiveaway: When John and Russell arrive at the Army recruiting center, they park in front of a Morguelan Walsh storefront:
34	-->'''Shopkeeper:''' Hey, this is a loading zone! You can't park here!
35	-->'''Russell:''' We're not parking it, we're abandoning it.
36	* CoolOldGuy: Hulka, who despite his demeanor is AFatherToHisMen, going as a OneManArmy to rescue his men (though he has help.)
37	* DeadpanSnarker: The usual suspects in an Ivan Reitman movie, but Warren Oates' Hulka can stand toe to toe with even Creator/BillMurray's Winger.
38	* DerangedTaxiDriver: Winger pretends to be one when a GrandeDame customer annoys him. This begins the series of hilarious disasters that ends in...
39	* DifferingPrioritiesBreakup: ... Anita wants to be an adult. [[{{Manchild}} Winger doesn't.]]
40	* DisproportionateRetribution: OK, John, you hate your job and you're mad at your customer, but did you ''have'' to turn your taxi into a [[spoiler: roadblock on a four-lane highway bridge]]?!?
41	* DontCallMeSir: Sergeant Hulka: "You don't say "sir" to me, I'm a sergeant, I work for a living."
42	* DrillSergeantNasty: Sergeant Hulka, though, befitting an Ivan Reitman comedy, he's more the dry and sarcastic type than a furiously aggressive type such as Creator/RLeeErmey. In fact, he's one of the few characters in the entire film who has much in the way of common sense.
43	* {{Eagleland}}: Most of the main characters are distinctly Type 2 (as Winger puts it, America got started because they got kicked out of every decent country), but still trying to be Type 1. PlayedForLaughs.
44	* EmbarrassingFirstName: "Anyone calls me Francis, and I kill you."
45	-->'''[[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant Hulka]]''' ''Lighten up, Francis.''
46	* {{Expy}}: Francis 'Psycho' Soyer is fairly obviously based on [[Film/TaxiDriver Travis Bickle]].
47	* FairCop: Stella and Louise as a pair of female Military Policemen.
48	* FanserviceExtra: The women that Capt. Stillman spies on; all the girls at the topless mud wrestling bar.
49	* AFatherToHisMen: Sergeant Hulka.
50	* {{Foil}}: In terms of comedy duos, Russell is this for Winger, in a RedOniBlueOni arrangement. For the platoon as a whole, we have Sergeant Hulka, the island of common sense in a sea of insanity keeping the platoon in line and on mission despite their incompetent commander.
51	** For the film as a whole, Warren Oates served the same purpose, being the seasoned and experienced actor tying together the cast of zany comedians.
52	* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''"WHERE'S MY '''TRUCK'''?"'' The third act involves John and Russell stealing an armored, militarized GMC Motor Home.
53	* GeneralFailure: Captain Stillman
54	* GetOutOfJailFreeCard: Even though John and Russell '''borrowed''' the EM-50 on their own accord, they get heralded as heroes coming home since they demonstrated its effectiveness against the Soviets.
55	** Averted with Stillman, whose rank incompetence allowed them to do it in the first place.
56	* TheGhost: Sergeant Crocker, training the other platoon in Captain Stillman's company during Basic, is never seen, referred to a number of times, and in the extended cut, is given the blame by Captain Stillman for the mortar mishap that put Hulka in the hospital (which, of course, was caused by Captain Stillman himself.)
57	* GrandTheftPrototype: PlayedForLaughs. The film's third act revolves around John and Russell stealing the U.S. Military's latest experimental undercover [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]], the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, for a joyride to Germany so they can see their {{Love Interest}}s, then [[BigDamnHeroes raising hell in Czechoslovakia to save their captured friends]].
58	* GrenadeHotPotato: Stillman accidentally arms one, then hands it off to his long-suffering corporal to dispose of. [[spoiler: We hear it explode, but the corporal is shown alive and in good health later.]]
59	* GloryHound: Stillman.
60	* GroinAttack: Stella pulls off a lot of those during the rescue mission.
61	* HateSink: Captain Stillman; in addition to all his astonishing achievements listed throughout this page, he's insufferably arrogant, not nearly as bright as he thinks he is, [[ThePeepingTom a perv who spies on female enlisted personnel]], and revealed as a [[DirtyCoward panicked, gutless wonder]] at the end.
62	* HelloAgainOfficer: John and Russell run into Stella and Louise everywhere they go, combining this with ShipTease.
63	* HeterosexualLifePartners: John and Russell, which makes Russell's quip that they're not gay but willing to try if the Army wants them to even funnier.
64	* IgnoredExpert: Hulka during Stillman's mission to retrieve the EM-50. Hulka gets so irritated [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he bails out before they're captured by the Czechs]].
65	* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Captain Stillman manages to go above and beyond by invoking this trope with a ''mortar,'' nearly wiping out a platoon when he forces enlisted men who are just learning the weapon to fire blindly -- and into the obstacle course where Sergeant Hulka's men are training.
66	* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: "Soviet" troops carry a motley collection of dressed up MAC-10s, Uzis, and Finnish Valmet assault rifles in lieu of anything that they would normally use. This is because it was filmed the height of the Cold War and Soviet equipment wasn't readily available.
67	* {{Incoming}}: Sgt. Hulka when Capt. Stillman's carelessness on the range results in the platoon coming under fire.
68	* IndyPloy: John's plan to rescue the platoon.
69	-->'''Russell:''' Do the words "act of war" mean anything to you?
70	-->'''John:''' I have a plan...
71	-->'''Russell:''' Oh, great, Custer had a plan, too.
72	* InsistentTerminology: Col. Glass ask LT Stillman if he (Stillman) knows what the EM-50 project is. Stillman mutters, "It's a tank, or something." Glass responds, "It's an ''Urban Assault Vehicle''." Later, the boys find out it's a modified RV.
73	* {{Jerkass}}: Winger. Most of the platoon (initially) hates him for his failed attempts at playing smart with Hulka.
74	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Sgt. Hulka. Sure, he's your average loud and rough army sergeant, but he's willing to go to great lengths to protect his men.
75	* LetsSeeYouDoBetter: After Sgt. Hulka berates the platoon for their failure to complete the rope climb, Winger asks Hulka to do it himself. Hulka smugly takes the rope and climbs up to the platform with ease. Unfortunately, the platform is then hit by a stray mortar, causing Hulka to fall to the ground and injure himself.
76	* LettingHerHairDown: Stella and Louise, the two female [=MPs=], remove their helmets and let their hair down shortly before they end up spending the night with John and Russell in the General's house. Note that they hadn't ''decided'' on this course of action yet when they let their hair down.
77	* LuckBasedSearchTechnique: Russell discovers the EM-50's armaments this way.
78	* MildlyMilitary: The whole platoon, with the sole exception of Sergeant Hulka -- though Francis actually ''wants'' to be a lot more -- not better, but more (see below).
79	* MisfitMobilizationMoment: When Winger gives his rousing speech to his platoon.
80	* NaughtyBirdwatching: Cpt. Stillman does this.
81	* TheNeidermeyer: Captain Stillman.
82	* NeverMyFault: After the Soviets capture them, Stillman blames the platoon for the entire predicament they're in.
83	** In the extended cut, after Hulka gets injured by Stillman blindly shooting a mortar, Stillman blames it on another drill sergeant to the main platoon, with Winger not-so-subtly calling him out on it.
84	* NewMeat: Most of the platoon.
85	* NotSoAboveItAll: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:when Winger and Sgt. Hulka arrive home as heroes]], Sgt. Hulka offers his hand to Winger to shake, only to do the old "pull the hand away and salute" trick, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny to which Winger chuckles]]. ([[BrickJoke After all, Sgt. Hulka did tell Winger he had a great sense of humor]])
86	* OhCrap:
87	** Sgt Hulka, when Captain Stillman forces a soldier to fire an errantly aimed mortar: "Oh, ''shit''... INCOMING!"
88	** Not to mention the Red in the tower, when he sees the rocket launcher come out of the top of the EM-50, pointed at ''him''.
89	* OldSoldier: Sergeant Hulka; [[spoiler: the WhereAreTheyNow closer shows he's retired to open a Hulkaburger restaurant.]]
90	* OneManArmy: Sergeant Hulka proves himself this, or close to it, during the rescue mission.
91	* OnlySaneMan: Again, Hulka. The fact he's the only character played seriously makes his character stand out in this regard even more.
92	* OutOfGenreExperience: Hulka's heart to heart with John (where he gives John an invitation to take a swing at him, then floors John with a single punch to the gut) is a bit out of place in a slapstick comedy. Ivan Reitman kept the scene in the movie because he felt it was important to establish Sgt Hulka's authority and physical strength over the men (as well as his considerably more old-school approach versus John's wild antics).
93	* OpenSaysMe: DoubleSubverted. John and Russell try to rescue their captured unit from a cell by blowing up the locked door with a bomb, which fails. Then [[TheBigGuy John Candy's character]] Ox (who's inside the cell among the prisoners) decides to run screaming at the door, and smashes it open.
94	** Actually, Ox was charging at the whining Stillman, who was blaming them for the predicament they were now in, but who had the good sense to get out of the way of a charging 300-lb avalanche.
95	* ThePeepingTom: Captain Stillman engages in Naughty Birdwatching from his office, peeping into the female showers. When a high-ranking officer surprises him, Stillman is so startled that he accidentally drops the telescope through the closed window.
96	* PhysicalFitnessPunishment: Sgt. Hulka orders the men to go on a five mile run. Winger mouths off to him in protest, so he responds by having the men go on a ''ten'' mile run instead.
97	** A TrainingMontage during basic keeps cutting to Winger doing push-ups in the rain. We're to assume his rampant smart-assery is what has him out doing them repeatedly.
98	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Our plucky heroes.
99	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Sgt. Hulka. He ''genuinely'' cares for his subordinates.
100	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Hulka gives one to Winger during basic training.
101	* ReassignedToAntarctica: [[spoiler: Captain Stillman]] gets sent to Nome, Alaska at the end... just in time for a "record cold spell."
102	* ReCut: The "Extended Cut" DVD offers two ways to watch the film -- as it was shown in theaters, and with 18 minutes of deleted scenes added back in.
103	* RefugeInAudacity:
104	** Our heroes show up late to their graduation, but put on a performance which impresses everybody, even General Barnicke, who refers to them as "go-getters" and assigns them to the top secret EM-50 project.
105	** Winger, Russell, Stella, and Louise are able to capture the Czechoslovakian guards at the border by pretending to be a group of obnoxious American tourists who've gotten lost on their way to Austria.
106	* RousingSpeech: Winger gathers up the platoon as they pull an all-nighter to prepare for the graduation marching presentation, and gives them an inverted TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.[[labelnote:The speech!]]Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're ''Americans'', with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! ''(feels Bill Paxton's face)'' Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw "Film/OldYeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end? [[SarcasmMode Nobody cried when Old Yeller got shot, I'm sure.]] I cried my eyes out. So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something '''very, very wrong''' with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers. But we're ''American'' soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1! Now we don't have to worry about whether or not we practiced. We don't have to worry about whether Captain Stillman wants to have us hung. All we have to ''doooo'' is to be the great American fighting ''solllldier'' that is inside each one of us. Now do what I do, and say what I say. And make me proud! '''Fall in!'''[[/labelnote]]
107	* RunningGag: Hulka making Winger do push-ups.
108	* TheSlacker: John Winger, full stop (it is an early Bill Murray role, after all). Ziskey also, to a much lesser extent.
109	* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Nearly every interaction between Winger and Sgt. Hulka consists of the former being a smartass and the latter giving it right back to him.
110	* SociopathicSoldier: Francis ''really'' wants to be one.
111	* SoundOff: A hilarious version, where the platoon uses the song "Doo Wah Diddy" as a jody call[[note]]A term common in the U.S. military for a song sung while marching[[/note]]. Ironically, it works rather well; Not only the right rhythm to it, it even has a call-and-response section... (Reportedly, some armed forces units are ''[[{{Defictionalization}} actually using this song as a jody now]]'', because of the use in this film and how surprisingly well it worked.)
112	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: When John and Russell "borrow" the EM-50 to meet up with their girlfriends in Germany, Captain Stillman erroneously assumes they're attempting to steal it for the Soviets. Sergeant Hulka suggests that if that's the case, instead of sending a single squad of green troops after them, they should deploy some of the crack soldiers and air recon forces that have been stationed near the border since the start of [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar The Cold War]] to find it and bring it back. Stillman vehemently declines since he doesn't want his superiors to know the EM-50 went missing on his watch.
113	* TanksButNoTanks: The movie presents us with a scene set behind the UsefulNotes/IronCurtain, in which a "Russian" tank menaces some of the heroes. It is clearly an M48/M60 series tank with a few visual mods tacked on.
114	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Psycho during bayonet training. He knocks the dummy off the frame supporting it and stabs it over and over again while cursing furiously.
115	* ThoseTwoGuys: Stella and Louise have repeated run-ins with Winger and Zisky, often commenting on their antics before eventually joining in later in the film.
116	* TrojanPrisoner: John gets the gang into the Soviet base by acting as a soldier that captured the EM-50.
117	* TwoGirlsToATeam: Again, Stella and Louise, although they're also technically [[HeroOfAnotherStory Heroes Of Another Story]] as they're not actually ''part'' of the team, just in a romance subplot with two of the guys who are.
118	* UncleSamWantsYou: See poster above.
119	* UnrevealAngle: We don't get to see exactly ''what'' John is doing to Stella with the ice cream scooper.
120	* WackyWaysideTribe: In the extended cut, John and Russell try to desert during Basic, and somehow end up parachuting into somewhere in South America, before running into a group of rebels, accidentally dumping a bunch of LSD into their stew, almost getting killed, and sneaking off before getting put back on the plane and sent back to Basic.
121	* WeaponizedCar: EM-50 "Urban Assault Vehicle" -- essentially a cruise-missile armed camper!
122	-->'''Stillman:''' Where's my [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] truck?!
123	* WeaponsUnderstudies: While in the Czech Red Army outpost, we see a "Russian" tank that is clearly a US built [=M48/M60=] series tank with a few visual mods tacked on.
124	* WeightWoe: Ox reveals to the others that he joined the Army solely because he was hoping the training program would help him lose weight.
125	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Standard for an Ivan Reitman film. Represented by humorous magazine covers: [[spoiler: Hulka opens a burger chain, Stella is a Penthouse covergirl, Louise and Russell are interviewed by the fictional magazines [[CoolCar Road Life]] and [[RatedMForManly Guts]], Ox becomes a teen heartthrob, and John graces the cover of a news magazine that asks "The New Army: Can America Survive?"]]
126	** Oh yeah, [[spoiler:and a small news blurb about Stillman getting [[ReassignedToAntarctica assigned to a snowbound doom]].]]
127	* WrittenByTheWinners: Inverted. The Czech newspaper portrays the two border guards who'd failed to stop an American infiltration in a story titled "Local Boys Repel Yankee Horde".
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Context Film / Stripes