Line #8 Trivia/TropicThunder


1	* ActorInspiredElement:
2	** The character of Les Grossman was entirely of Tom Cruise's creation. Originally, he was to cameo as Speedman's agent, Rick Pecker, but Cruise instead suggested that he play a foulmouthed studio executive. Both he and Ben Stiller worked on developing the character, with Cruise specifically suggesting Grossman having large hands and dancing (Though Stiller used Music/FloRida's "Low" as background music after that scene was recorded.) Cruise summed it up quite succinctly [[https://youtu.be/Sa-ch8H_5DE in a 2017 interview on BBC Radio 1]]:
3	--->'''Cruise:''' "I said, "Do you mind, Ben? I wanna play this character," I said. "I wanna have fat hands, and I wanna dance."
4	** Robert Downey Jr. came up with Sergeant Osiris's voice on his own, and suggested Kirk Lazarus be changed from an acclaimed Irish actor to an Australian because he had already done an Australian accent for ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' and could improvise better in it (although he does use an Irish accent in a few scenes). Lazarus's penchant for remaining in character between takes and off the set was also copied from RDJ.
5	* AllStarCast: Creator/BenStiller, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Creator/JackBlack, Creator/TomCruise, Creator/JayBaruchel, Creator/NickNolte, Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Creator/DannyMcBride and Creator/SteveCoogan.
6	* TheCastShowoff: Brandon Soo Hoo (Tran) was trained in martial arts and acrobatics and shows it in Tran's fight scene against Portnoy.
7	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/BenStiller and Creator/TomCruise were considered for the role of Peck.
8	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Almost all coverage of the film refers to Creator/JackBlack's character as Jeff "Fats" Portnoy as if "Fats" is Portnoy's InSeriesNickname; Fats is actually the name of Portnoy's ''character''.
9	* CrossdressingVoices: Fujiko Takimoto voices Tran in the Japanese version.
10	* DevelopmentHell: There were talks about developing a Creator/TomCruise-[=starring=] Les Grossman SpinOff circa 2010. Nothing has materialized since.
11	* DirectedByCastMember: Creator/BenStiller. Made filming the movie a little complicated since it's about filming a movie within a movie.
12	* DyeingForYourArt: Cruise's appearance as Grossman is completely transformed from sleek, muscular hunk to portly, balding and scraggly. Grossman's personality and character, however, are typical Cruise and, as listed in the ActorInspiredElement entry above, the appearance was intentional on the part of Cruise.
13	* FakeAustralian: American Creator/RobertDowneyJr played an Australian who was playing an African American and even disguised himself as an Asian farmer. In short, he's a dude playing a dude playing as a dude disguised as another dude ''for real''. There's a reason he ''actually'' got an Oscar nomination for this role.
14	* FakeNationality: The Vietnamese cartel Flaming Dragon is led by a Chinese-American and the second-in-command is Filipino-American.
15	* InspirationForTheWork: Creator/BenStiller got the idea for the film while working on ''Film/EmpireOfTheSun''. This was around the time Vietnam War movies were all the rage in Hollywood, such as ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', and ''Film/CasualtiesOfWar'', with most of Stiller's friends at the time were talking up the boot camp experience they enrolled in prior to filming those movies and claiming that they understood what it meant to be a soldier, despite never doing active military service. All of this prompted Stiller to wonder what would really happen if a group of self-involved and self-important actors were really trapped in a warzone.
16	* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: During one take of the scene were Jeff is being carried by a water buffalo, the buffalo (which the crew later learned was pregnant) became agitated and started bucking, sending Creator/JackBlack flying into some nearby rocks. Black wasn't injured, but he was greatly annoyed that the cameras hadn't captured the incident for posterity.
17	* PlayingAgainstType:
18	** Creator/TomCruise, whose main roles alternate between action films and dramas, with him playing either a badass hero or a heartthrob of sorts, plays a foulmouthed, balding, morally ambiguous film producer in a satirical comedy.
19	** Creator/BenStiller and Creator/JackBlack's [[Film/MeetTheParents comedic]] [[Film/SchoolOfRock outputs]] are more remembered for their light-hearted slapstick. ''Tropic Thunder'', while still maintaining a few elements of slapstick, relies heavily on satire and BlackComedy for its jokes.
20	** At the point of this film's production, Creator/MatthewMcConaughey was pigeonholed into bland romantic and action leads. Playing the somewhat pathetic Rick Peck reminded people that [=McConaughey=] had more range than his body of work belied.
21	* StarringAStarAsAStar: Movie stars Creator/JackBlack, Creator/BenStiller, and Creator/RobertDowneyJr play fictional movie stars Jeff Portnoy, Tugg Speedman, and Kirk Lazarus (with Portnoy as more of a wacky fart-joke comedy guy, Speedman as a monosyllabic actioner, and Lazarus as an Oscar-obsessed intensive method actor.)
22	* ThrowItIn: A few scenes just happened on its own.
23	** The scene that had Tugg talking to a flying mantis flying into his face actually happened by accident.
24	** When Tugg nearly fell into the river while he was crossing alone, Ben Stiller really did trip.
25	** The dance sequence at the end came from Creator/TomCruise randomly deciding to start hip-hop dancing during a make-up test. The crew thought it was funny enough that they worked it into the script.
26	** Some improvisation was used for the real film's dialogue -- in fact, Kirk was written as ''Irish'', but Creator/RobertDowneyJr found it easier to improvise with an Australian accent ([[Administrivia/TropesAreTools which helped make his "white man acting as a black man" set-up more ridiculous]], considering the stereotype about all Aussies seeming to be fair-haired). However, Kirk does use an Irish accent at a few points in the film, namely the fake Satan's Alley trailer.
27	* TrendKiller: The film's mockery of the InspirationallyDisadvantaged trope is widely credited with killing off the appeal of films that featured neurotypical actors playing such characters. The idea was already declining by the time the film came out, but Kirk Lazarus' scathing mockery of the practice as ableist OscarBait solidified its downfall; no film that featured it would ever be nominated for an Oscar again, and portrayals of neuroatypicality in major movies shifted away from having actors change their mannerisms to match preexisting conceptions.
28	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
29	** Creator/KeanuReeves was originally supposed to play Tugg, poking fun at the criticisms of [[DullSurprise his own inability to emote]], with Ben Stiller doing an [[IronyAsSheIsCast ironic]] CreatorCameo as his agent, Rick Peck.
30	** When Stiller got the main role, the joke was changed to the agent being played by a bigger Hollywood star. Stiller offered the part to Tom Cruise, but he suggested adding the producer, Les Grossman, and playing him instead. Creator/OwenWilson was cast as Peck, but he dropped out to seek treatment after his suicide attempt in late 2007, and Creator/MatthewMcConaughey was cast instead.
31	** The original draft of the movie was about a bunch of actors developing PTSD as a result of the pre-production boot camp necessary to make them into plausible soldiers for a war movie.
32	** Creator/WEarlBrown was one of the first considerations for Portnoy, but he personally turned it down because he felt Creator/JackBlack fit the role better.
33	** Creator/KevinHart turned down the role of Alpha Chino because he did not want to play a gay character.
34	** Originally, Creator/NickNolte's reveal during the video teleconference scene was intended to be an {{homage}} to Quint in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. Stiller toned it down, feeling that there were too many homages in the film at that point.
35	** Creator/TobeyMaguire was a last minute replacement and was only available for two hours on set.
36	* WriteWhoYouKnow: The actor characters were all based on actors Ben Stiller became acquainted with while working on ''Film/EmpireOfTheSun'', in which he had a minor role as a POW. He described them as becoming "self-important" and "self-involved" and appeared to believe they had been part of a real military unit after taking part in boot camps to prepare for war film roles.

Context Trivia / TropicThunder