Line #37 Film/TheGumballRally


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3	->''"Ladies, gentlemen, you have been selected because you have the necessary skills. You are here because you have the determination to succeed. Now, it won't be as easy as last year. There are some who will use any means to try and stop us. Some of you won't make it. For those of you who do, there'll be no glory, no headlines...but just a few magic hours flat out against the red line with no catalytic converter and no fifty-five mile an hour speed limit. Ladies and gentlemen, the Gumball Rally has begun!"''
4	-->-- '''Michael Bannon''', commencement speech
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6	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 Creator/MichaelSarrazin, Creator/RaulJulia, Normann Burton, Creator/GaryBusey, John Durren, Susan Flannery, Creator/StevenKeats, and Creator/TimMcIntire.
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8	Wealthy but bored businessman Michael Bannon (Sarrazin) issues the code word "Gumball" to his fellow automobile enthusiasts, who gather in a garage in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity to embark on a coast-to-coast road race "with no catalytic converter and no 55-mile-per-hour speed limit." Their nemesis, LAPD lieutenant Roscoe (Burton), also learns of the race and most of the film is devoted to the misadventures of the various driving teams and Roscoe's ineffectual attempts to apprehend them. HilarityEnsues.
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10	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; it turns out that Roscoe had contrived in advance to see to it that all of the racers 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.
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12	Compare ''Film/TheCannonballRun''; both films were inspired by the same [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Baker_Sea-To-Shining-Sea_Memorial_Trophy_Dash real-life outlaw race]].
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14	----
15	!!''The Gumball Rally'' provides examples of:
16	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Gibson is amused when the cop racing team makes them pull over so they can drive past at one point. Preston is pretty damn angry that it happened, though.
17	-->'''Gibson''': Dammit if you can't take a joke!
18	* TheAllegedCar: One of the teams enters the race with a Jaguar, but it refuses to start and they give up after they [[EpicFail end up twelve hours behind all of the other teams]].
19	* ArchEnemy: Roscoe considers Smith to be this, because Smith is the biggest "schemer" of the two organizers of the Rally. Both Smith and Bannon consider Roscoe more of a FriendlyEnemy.
20	* ArtisticLicenseCars: Lapchik rides a Kawasaki [=KH400=], but for most of the movie it sounds like a dinky 50cc scoot, possibly for comedic effect.
21	* AsYouKnow: Smith [[JustifiedTrope acknowledges the fact that some (but not all) of the racers are newcomers to the competition]] to explain the rules of the Gumball Rally to the audience.
22	* AvengersAssemble: The film starts with Bannon sending the rally code for the Gumball Rally drivers to convene for a new bout, and a montage of a few of the teams answering.
23	* AwesomeButImpractical: Lapchick's decision to make the Rally in a CoolBike was cool, sure, but unfortunately it makes him more exposed to the elements than if he had been driving a car, which leads to a pair of AmusingInjuries moments when he runs into a lot of cold as he's going over the Rockies (which leads to him putting his face to his bike's exhaust to get warm) and a sandstorm in the Nevada Desert (which tears all of his clothes off).
24	* BadassDriver: Franco [[SuperRinger was hired by Smith]] for his reputation as one.
25	* AxCrazy: Subverted. When Franco arrives on the day of the race, Bannon cracks jokes about him, then about Franco's mother. Franco goes full on Italian rage, screaming at the top of his lungs at Bannon over the insult, before pulling a pistol out of a bag like a mafioso and threatening Bannon with it., while Bannon looks on in DullSurprise. Subverted when Franco pulls the trigger and reveals its a realistic-looking water pistol that he proceeds to spray Bannon and Graves with. He does the same trick on a jalopy driver who wronged them when they track him down towards the end of the film.
26	* BaitAndSwitch: Bit failed because it's obvious it's a film about racing, but still the opening AvengersAssemble sequence makes it look like Bannon is bringing the drivers together for a heist ("ladies and gentlemen, you have been selected because you have the necessary skills. You are here because you have the determination to succeed...") and then clarifies that it's for a race ("...just a few magic hours flat-out against the red line, with ''no'' catalytic converter, and no 55-mile an hour speed limit! Ladies and gentlemen, the Gumball Rally has ''begun''!")
27	* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: At one point, Bannon and Smith manage to screw over Roscoe by driving straight towards a massive roadblock he set at exactly fifty-five miles per hour. [[LawfulStupid Because they are not speeding, the other policemen decide they're not committing a crime and let them pass]].
28	-->'''Bannon:''' How inadequate.
29	* TheBigRottenApple: Full of useless cops and casual crime -- Roscoe is robbed by a random mugger, the cop who picks him up when he calls for someone to pick him up is on a first-name basis with a crazy flasher that gets in their way, and the Sergeant that drives him to the airport makes very gleefully clear that now that the racers and Roscoe are not in the city, he could give less of a shit.
30	* ButtMonkey:
31	** Lt. Roscoe is constantly humiliated by various setbacks and the racers constantly getting away from him no matter how many cops he tosses at them.
32	** Lapchick spends the whole film bug-eyed over his various crashes and the fact he is ExposedToTheElements because he is driving a motorcycle leads to a couple of embarrassing moments (he is nearly frozen solid driving through thje Rockies and stripped nearly-naked by a sandstorm).
33	* CandidCameraPrank: Inverted. The Dodge police cruiser team gets an Arizona state trooper to believe that they are filming a movie from a camera hidden on a far-away peak, and ask him to hold still for a face shot, as they make their getaway.
34	* CarMeetsHouse: The "no-stops" van team swerves out of the road to try to escape a flaming VaporTrail and crash the van [[FromBadToWorse right into a]] [[StuffBlowingUp fireworks factory]]. Lapchick's bike gets to meet a billboard and a very tall tree.
35	* CarSkiing: The Camaro pulls this stunt to try to get past an L.A. traffic jam. It doesn't work; the driver loses control and rolls the car.
36	* CoolBike: Lapchick the Mad Hungarian is the only racer to try the Rally on a bike, and he brings along a nice Kawasaki crotch-rocket for the deed. Pity that it becomes a [[ChronicallyCrashedCar Chronically Crashed Bike]]. The biker gang that [[WackyWaysideTribe molest Jose and Angie at one point]] also being the standard collection of hogs.
37	* CoolCar: Several. Even TheAllegedCar among the contestants gets cool points by virtue of being a Jaguar.
38	* CoolOldGuy: Two in this case courtesy of the Mercedes team.
39	* CrazyPrepared:
40	** 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 (Franco) being an impulsive horn-dog.
41	** 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 guys in the field as the car's being fixed]].
42	* CryingWolf: After the first time Kandinsky and Avila manage to swindle Preston and Gibson to pull over because they are driving in a fake police car, the latter two think that a second patrol car that asks them to pull over while driving through Arizona is the other racers and keep speeding... and then they figure out that [[OhCrap it's an actual police car]] and floor it. The real police car's engine eventually [[ExplosiveOverclocking explodes from the strain of the chase]], allowing Preston and Gibson to escape. Ironically, Kandinsky and Avila are driving right behind that patrol car and the policeman, believing them to be fellow cops, orders them to continue the pursuit.
43	* DistractedByTheSexy: "Emergency Plan Alpha" is a very sexy blonde who distracts Franco into pulling over and letting Bannon win the race.
44	** Played with earlier in the film when Franco encounters a beauty in a Mercedes (Collen Camp) at a gas station. He refuses to leave with Smith until he's bedded her, prompting Smith to drive off and leave Franco behind. We later find out that Franco timed the assignation and thanks to the speed and driving of the woman, she catches back up to Smith and he hops from convertible to convertible to rejoin Smith and the race.
45	* DontLookBack: Played for laughs.
46	--> '''Franco:''' And now, my friend, the first-a rule of Italian driving: [breaks off the rear-view mirror and throws it away] whats-a behind me is not important!
47	* DownLADrain: The film climaxes with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnl4Y-nYdJE a race down the concrete L.A. River channel]] between Bannon's Cobra and Smith's Ferrari.
48	* DressingAsTheEnemy: One entry disguises their car as a police cruiser, complete with magnetic door decals for every state they'll be passing through.
49	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Lapchick the Mad Hungarian. ''Literally''. Franco, to a lesser extent. Also Ace "Mr. Guts" Preston and his assistant Gibson in the Camaro Z-28, toward the end, as Gibson tries to get through a traffic jam by [[CarSkiing going up on two wheels]] (while giving a rebel yell).
50	* DrivingIntoATruck: At one point, Smith demonstrates how CrazyPrepared he is by having his support team helping him use this ploy to evade a police roadblock and make a pit stop.
51	* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: The car disguised as a police cruiser (driven by police officers) loses the race when it stops to help a pregnant lady giving birth while stuck on an L.A. freeway.
52	--> '''Kandinsky:''' Oh, no. Avila, no way. I don't wanna hear it, Avila.
53	--> '''Avila:''' "[[StandardPoliceMotto To serve and to protect]]", huh?
54	* EpicRace: From one coast to the other, non-stop and in open defiance of the national speed limits.
55	* FunnyForeigner: Lapchick, Franco. And the British Benz team.
56	* [[GoodOlBoy Good Ol' Boys]]: The Camaro Z28 team (but especially Gibson, who hollers rebel yells [[LargeHam as loudly]] as Creator/GaryBusey is capable of). Also the Arizona state trooper.
57	* HairTriggerTemper: Ace "Mr. Guts" Preston just seems militantly determined to be angry all of the time. Some of it ''may'' be put at the feet of his mechanic Gibson being [[SurroundedByIdiots a bit of a dumbass]], but only just.
58	* HerosClassicCar: Bannon's Shelby Cobra vs. Smith's top-of-the-line Ferrari.
59	-->'''Smith''': So Mike... what is this, a vintage car event?\
60	'''Bannon''': Well Smitty, you know some things get meaner as they get older.
61	* HereWeGoAgain: At the very end of the film, Bannon once more says "Gumball" to trigger a new race back to New York.
62	* HotBlooded: Franco's entire motivation.
63	* HumiliationConga: Roscoe's begins with him getting his stakeout car sabotaged by Bannon so he can't warn the NYPD that the racers are off or blockade their start himself, then he has his luggage, money and ''pants'' stolen [[TheBigRottenApple a random New York City mugger]], and then he's humiliated in front of every law enforcement group he liaisons with from coast to coast. The film leaves in the air whether or not him telling Bannon and Smith that he's done and he's gonna quit being a cop at the end is for real or just a bluff to buy time for the racers' cars to be towed away. Of course, ''then'' his victory is short-lived because Bannon and Smith ''immediately'' start another Gumball Rally, just one heading back to New York...
64	* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Kandinsky and Avila (the Dodge Polara team) disguises their car and themselves as policemen from every state they pass in order to keep the cops away. For further irony, they are actual cops (from L.A.) At one point, the both of them discuss the pros and cons of this idea by pointing out that a police car roaring down the street with lights on parts traffic "like Moses at the Red Sea", but if any cops catch them there is going to be a gigantic shit-storm falling on their heads. And sure enough, the cop that pulls them over even accuses them of doing this with these exact words and looks ''pissed''.
65	* ImposterForgotOneDetail: Kandinsky and Avila's plan to disguise themselves and their patrol car to look like the police of every state they pass hits a snag when an Arizona patrolman notices that the car they are using does not looks at all like the one the Arizona police uses (as can be seen [[https://www.imcdb.org/i013369.jpg in this picture (the fake patrol car is on the front)]], it has different color, different light bar and is missing the bullbar -- or as the officer calls it, "a funny-looking police car") and pulls them over. They end up [[BavarianFireDrill having to pretend on the fly]] that they are part of a film crew to avoid being arrested.
66	* JurisdictionFriction: Largely averted. Roscoe pursues the racers from coast to coast with the help of local law enforcement, despite not having any jurisdiction.
67	* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Roscoe is completely unable to stop the race and gets quite the HumiliationConga from trying, but he gets a ([[HereWeGoAgain temporal]]) last laugh by asking the rules in the ''Queen Mary'' parking lot to be changed so he can have all of the cars towed for illegal parking while everybody's celebrating.
68	* LargeHam: Creator/RaulJulia's character, Italian race driver Franco Bertollini.
69	* 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 and driving a Hotwheels car over his lover's body when he's having sex.
70	* {{Leitmotif}}: Lapchick is the only racer who gets one. It's a funny tuba tune. Roscoe gets a ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''-esque march.
71	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: As part of Franco Bertollini's EstablishingCharacterMoment, we see him in a hotel room in bed with a woman right after arriving on the country and the night before the rally, with "Santa Lucia" playing on the background. As he gives his grand farewell to the woman, we find out that Franco hired a small band and that it has been standing on the corridor this whole time.
72	* MadeOfIron: Lapchick the Mad Hungarian gets in several massive motorcycle crashes throughout the film and he carries on.
73	* MetallicarSyndrome: Pretty much every car. Justified because only exotics can perform the balls-to-the-wall racing the rally is all about (the film was made right in the middle of the 55 MPH limit era and all of the engine downgrades that it involves).
74	* MyLittlePanzer: Franco's super-realistic water pistol. He [[ChekhovsGag twice]] manages to scare someone by making him think that he's going to shoot them before squirting them in the face.
75	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Arizona state trooper who Kandinsky and Avila put one over on looks a little like (and talks ''exactly'' like) Creator/HenryFonda.
76	* NoRulesRacing: Being an unofficial, underground race, there's no governing body saying what the racers can and cannot do. Jose wasn't even invited to the race, but no one can stop them from participating because, "This whole race is unofficial, so I'm as unofficial as you are."
77	* PoliceAreUseless: Zig-zagged with Roscoe being a very driven officer of the law and most of the other officers that try to arrest the racers being useless (or at least way over their head), and there's the NYPD and the {{Jerkass}} sergeant who serves as a liaison for Roscoe who are very happy to tell them all "good riddance".
78	* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: The crew of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL.
79	--> '''Andy [=McAllister=]:''' Sedately, Barney, as befits our years and station in life.
80	--> ''[Barney squeals tires as they leave the parking lot]''
81	* RedBaron: Lapchick and Ace "Mr. Guts" Preston are the only characters with nicknames, but Lapchick's "Mad Hungarian" moniker is the only one that gets mentioned repeatedly.
82	* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: A light-hearted version with a roadster-driving {{Jerkass}} who [[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).
83	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: After Roscoe is humiliated in front of the biggest bunch of cops he wrangled to create a roadblock (because Bannon and Smith, the two men that Roscoe ''really'' wants to arrest, got past it [[LawfulStupid by driving at exactly fifty-five MPH]]), he pitifully looks [[HeavenAbove up at the sky]] and asks "[[ButtMonkey why me?]]"
84	-->'''Patrolman''': Because you're an asshole, Roscoe, that's why!\
85	''[Roscoe reacts stupefied for a second, like he'd actually been answered by God, before looking to his side]''
86	* RightUnderTheirNoses: One of the teams (Smith and Franco) evades a roadblock by driving into the empty trailer of a moving semi and having the semi transport them beyond it. Roscoe catches wise, but Smith and Franco get out and drive off before Roscoe catches back up to the truck which now has a wall of empty boxes covering up the trick..
87	* RunningGag: Several. Lapchick's craziness, Franco's womanizing, the Rolls-Royce...
88	* RuleOfCool: At the beginning of the film, it's made very clear that this is a standard rally race with staggered start times (albeit in tiny, 10-second intervals). In other words, they're technically racing against the clock, not against each other. At the end of the race this is conveniently forgotten as the Ferrari and Cobra (which were only separated by one interval) race to get to the finish line first, because it's more fun to watch cars race each other than the clock.
89	* RuleOfThree: [[RunningGag While the rest of the race is going on]], we get three cut-aways to the Jaguar team stranded in the starting line over on New York. The last time we see them, it's been 12 InUniverse hours since the race started and they still haven't been able [[TheAllegedCar to get the damned car started]], [[RageQuit so they call it quits]].
90	* ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: The Porsche 911 team relies on their feminine wiles to evade speeding tickets (or to get whatever else they need during the race). It also works quite well - repeatedly - on the [[GoodOlBoy Good Ol' Boys]] team in the Camaro Z28.
91	* SequelHook: After Roscoe impounds most of the cars, Michael and Smith decide to run another race immediately. To make it official, Michael even whispers "Gumball" to Sam.
92	* ShownTheirWork: This was a film made by people who ''loved'' cars, and they took care to get the engine sounds right, particularly for the two lead cars.
93	* ShowSomeLeg: Bannon's final gambit to win the race involves placing a very curvy blonde right in the path of Franco. [[DistractedByTheSexy It works]].
94	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: The 911 Porsche team loses time twice because men chase after them and force them to pull over to flirt with them. The first time (the girls tried to outrace them and the car's engine malfunctioned), the men were nice enough to fix it for them. The second time is a bit more unfortunate: they make it within minutes of getting to the finish line but they end up arriving at night because of a pair of highway patrolmen.
95	* StandardPoliceMotto: Avila quotes it as the reason they (in the disguised police cruiser) had had to stop and help a stranded pregnant motorist. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that they were real police officers in Los Angeles (and within their jurisdiction) at the time.
96	* SuperRinger: Franco Bertollini is mentioned by Bannon to be one of the best racers in the world, and was hired by [[TheRival Smith]] to be his driver in the Rally.
97	* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: The main racers are literally on a first name basis with their dogged pursuer.
98	* TakeThat: The production company approached Jaguar to provide a car for the film, but the company refused. So, the makers bought their own Jaguar to use in the film. The car fails to start.
99	* TemptingFate: The Porsche team flirts with a pair of cowboys in Colorado and race off with them in pursuit, saying that if they can catch them, they can have them. A few minutes later, the Porsche's engine blows out, letting the cowboys catch up to them. The cowboys are nice enough guys to help fix the car, and one of the girls gets LoveAtFirstSight and has sex with one of them in the meanwhile.
100	* ThereAreNoRules: Smith makes clear at the beginning that aside from whoever arrives first and in the shortest time being declared the winner, there are no rules to the Gumball Rally. And he exploits this to the fullest.
101	* ThrowTheDogABone: Roscoe actually manages to beat the racers in the end, by tricking them into parking illegally so their vehicles will get impounded.
102	* TollBoothAntics: The Preston/Gibson team wastes time in a toll booth in New York because Gibson screws up tossing a nickel into the booth's receptacle, then steps out of the Camaro and starts to look all over for the fallen coin, then Preston angrily drives to the side of the road to wait for him and the way he does so brings the attention of a policeman and they presumably waste a lot of time dealing with him because the next scene has Preston being so determined to not stop that he forces Gibson to take a leak in a bottle.
103	* ToyotaTripwire: Lapchick gets doored by a random motorist at one point.
104	* VaporTrail: Happens accidentally to one team of racers (the van entirely filled with fuel so they wouldn't have to stop to refuel) thanks to some jackass that tosses his cigarette away after his car dropped its exhaust pipe and damaged the underside of the van.
105	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: There was a trans-continental underground race that rebelled against the 55 MPH limit, which ironically was the ''true'' [[Film/TheCannonballRun Cannonball Run]].
106	* VitriolicBestBuds: Bannon and Smith have been trying to outdo each other since childhood.
107	* TheVoiceless: Lapchick, the "Mad Hungarian," who becomes SuddenlySpeaking in the film's very last gag, as he loses control of his bike (yet again) and plunges into the water alongside the ''Queen Mary'':
108	-->'''Lapchick:''' [[PrecisionFStrike OH, SHIIIIIIIT...]]
109	* WackyRacing: It's a comedy, and most of the cast is spread amongst the racing teams. Also, all strategies are accepted, and among the more notable of these are a pair of off-duty policemen who disguise themselves as policemen of every state they pass through 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]]).
110	* WackyWaysideTribe: A biker gang harasses Jose and Angie in one scene, and for a couple of minutes it becomes a LighterAndSofter biker exploitation film.
111	* WalkingSwimsuitScene: Angie spends several scenes wearing an American flag bikini top.
112	* WatchThePaintJob: One person enters the race by getting a job delivering a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow to Los Angeles. [[HilarityEnsues It doesn't end well]]. Especially after the sandstorm. Jose finally wrecks the car when he punts it in anger at the parking spot of its film executive owner and it goes rolling down a hill and hits a truck.
113	* WeaponForIntimidation: Hot-blooded Franco pulls a gun from a paper bag and threatens another driver with it. It turns out it's a squirt gun, and the whole thing was a gag.
114	* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Angie spends most of the film wearing an American flag bikini top with jeans.
115	* 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 even makes him lose control of the Rolls-Royce by giving him a DopeSlap, which causes a multiple-car pile-up).

Context Film / TheGumballRally