Characters / Ace Ventura

Ace Ventura

Ace Ventura Sr.

Played by: Jim Carrey

• The Alleged Car: His car fails to start, which lets the angry dirtbag man he took the missing dog from catch up to him, smash in his windshield, and batter his car. Ace, strapped for cash, can't pay to fix the busted windshield, which is so badly shattered he can't see out it anymore and has to stick his head out while driving. It's a wonder he didn't get in trouble with the law for driving like that.
• Animal Lover: He gets along with animals fantastically and they seem to like him just as much in return.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Ace invokes this for a throwaway gag.
  Melissa: You really do love animals, don't you?
  Ace: If it gets cold enough.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Don't let Ace's craziness fool you. Not only he is a capable fighter (even wrestling with an crocodile), he speaks fluent animal and can summon a herd onto his enemies. In the crossover episodes with The Mask, he even overpowers the Mask several times.
• Brain Bleach: Ace reacts to the realization that a woman who he was sexually attracted to used to be a man by vomiting his entire stomach's contents into the toilet (using a plunger on his face), burning his clothes and then scrubbing himself down in the shower while sobbing. The next scene, he's in his car, chewing a whole package of Big Red gum.
• Bring My Brown Pants:
  Ace: I'm looking for Ray Finkle. (Ray's father points a shotgun at Ace, whose expression doesn't change one bit) And a clean pair of shorts.
  • It's done again in the Animated Adaptation Crossover with The Mask, when the Mask whips out two guns – each sporting multiple barrels and a few rocket launchers – pointed right at him.
• Bullet Catch: With his teeth, while driving a car. Accidentally. Immediately after taunting the shooter, "What's the matter with you, can't ya hit me!?" followed by him pulling out and looking at the bullet with a definite Oh, Crap! expression.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Yes, Ace is a lunatic; but there's no denying he's good at his job.
• Bus Crash: His absence from Ace Ventura Jr. was explained away by him possibly dying in a plane crash years ago.
• Cassandra Truth: The local cops don't listen to anything Ace says and dismiss and ridicule him as just a kooky animal lover. Justified with Lt. Einhorn, because s/he is the Big Bad.
• Catchphrase: He's got quite a few:
  • "Alrighty then!"
  • "Like a glove!"
  • "Loser!" (extended as "Lu-hoo… zu-her.")
  • "Really?" (extended as "Ree-hee-hee-hee-HEEEEAAAAALLY…")
  • "Spank you!" (His way of saying "Thank you".)
  • "Take care now. Bye-bye then."
• Caught on the Jumbotron: Ace beats the crap out of a bird-suited mascot on a Jumbotron at the end of the first movie. The reason? He shooed away a runaway pigeon that had a cool reward of $25,000 on its head. Good news is, it was the opposing team's mascot; and the Dolphins were yukking it up, along with Melissa. This gets coupled with Description Cut since the announcer introduced him as a lover of all life's creatures just before he got caught.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his constant goofy, idiotic behavior, he repeatedly demonstrates an astounding amount of knowledge regarding anything related to animals, is shown to work very diligently on his cases (at one point, he notices a picture of the Dolphins team that has one more player, Ray Finkle to be exact, than the picture he was given earlier, and is quick to inquire about him), can put up a decent fight, even if he loses, and is apparently quite the lover as evidenced by Melissa's astounded "THREE times?", and his apologetic, "I must be tired."
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's loud, wild, has an affinity for animals, and literally talks out of his ass. You can tell he has more than a couple of screws loose.
• Cuckoosnarker: As sharp tongued as he is insane.
• Deadpan Snarker: While more sarcastic than deadpan, half his dialogue is put downs towards others and he's quite snarky in general.
• Delivery Guy Infiltration: Used in the very first scene of Pet Detective, specifically Ace dressing as an Expy of a UPS man to infiltrate the apartment of the ex-boyfriend puppy-napper.
• Destructo-Nookie: When Ace gets to bed Melissa in the first film, he is REALLY WILD in bed, banging the headboard against the wall. The animals watching and reacting adds to the comedy. As does "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" being used as nookie music.
  Melissa: [exhausted] Oh my God! Three times?
  Ace: I'm sorry, that's never happened to me before. I must be tired. [beat] Okay, I'm ready again!
  Melissa: [delighted] Oh!
• Drives Like Crazy: In both films, more so in the second.
• Everyone Has Standards: He may be a maniac who behaves in bizarre ways around others, but is seriously creeped out when he sees how much anger and malice Ray Finkle has towards Dan Marino.
• Friend to All Living Things: He loves all animals. Except bats.
• Good Is Not Nice: He's a send-up of this sort of character, whether intentionally or otherwise. He literally talks out of his backside, is inherently immature and even sociopathic, but losing someone he was trying to save drives him into seclusion in a monastery. Said someone was a raccoon… a notable subversion if you realize where his loyalties lie. He's a PET detective and thus, the ones he is nicest to are ALL animals.
• Incredibly Long Note: In the first movie, Ace has some fun with a soundproof glass door. He starts his psuedo-opera note, and opens and closes the door about six times, just to prove that the door was soundproof, and to annoy Einhorn.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ace is a annoying and clownish jerk to pretty much everyone, but he is a lot nicer to his animal friends. He gets along with fellow animal lover Woodstock, for example, perfectly well.
• Large Ham: Every moment Ace is on screen, Jim Carrey doesn't just chew scenery, he swallows every scene whole and goes back for seconds.
  • "Do NOT… go in there! WHOOO!"
  • Also, when he punches out the Monopoly Guy and wears him like a stole.
  • "I CAME TO CONFESS! I was the second gunman on the grassy knoll!"
  • "That's what you stepped in, that's what was on your shoe, and THAT EXPLAINS THE ABRASION ON YOUR PALM! DAMN I'M GOOD!!"
• Let's Get Dangerous!: He may be a fool, but he is the last guy you want near you if you intend to harm an animal.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: Yeah, he's a total lunatic, but he truly cares about animals.
• Mistaken for Gay: In the sequel:
  Ace: I represent the Princess.
  Ouda: "I am a Princess."
  (The Wachootoo tribe murmur in confusion. One of the tribesmen rises up and smiles.)
  • It also happens in the first film when Ace is trying to sneak a peek at a former Miami Dolphin's championship ring while he uses the urinal. The football player, however, is far from offended and Ace makes a hasty retreat from his new "friend."
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Ace catches a bullet in his teeth while driving his car and leaning out the window.
  • One episode of the cartoon has Ace filling in for a James Bond-Expy. As he comes under fire while chasing the villain down in the requisite Cool Car, he notes his ability to catch bullets in his teeth, and prepares to do so. The villain launches a missile at Ace. He still catches it.
• Put on a Bus: He does not appear in Ace Ventura Jr. According to the movie he disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle while escorting several geese south and is presumed dead, possibly making it a case of Bus Crash.
• Really Gets Around: He has this reputation, first with the rich lady that he rescued the dog for in the opening. Then, there was Melissa Robinson and almost Lois Einhorn. Finally, the sequel implies that Ace took the virginity of the Wachati princess.
• Sex God: He's so much this that even when he's "tired", he still manages to make passionate love three times in a row. Melissa's astounded at his stamina.
• Sherlock Scan: "Except of course for that spot of blood on the railing over there!"
  • When he searches the Bat's hut in the second film, he does an extensive version of this one.
• Shower of Angst: After realizing the woman he kissed used to be a man. He also chews an enormous wad of gum, burns all his clothes, uses a toilet plunger on his face, and vomits his entire stomach contents.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: He can understand and speak to most animals.
• Trash Landing: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Ace falls and lands on his back on a pile of garbage from a roof of a two story building when trying to catch the rare albino pigeon.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Bats are the only animals that terrify him and simply can't stand.

Allies

Melissa Robinson

Played by: Courteney Cox

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Melissa doesn't appear in When Nature Calls.
• Love Interest: For Ace in the first film.
• Tuckerization: She was named after the original writer's daughter, Melissa.

Spike

• Ascended Extra: In the first movie, he's just one member of Ace's menagerie. In the sequel and the animated show, he's Ace's animal sidekick.

Antagonists

Lois Einhorn/Ray Finkle

Played by: Sean Young

• Ambiguously Bi: At least two of the officers Einhorn seduced to manipulate her way to the top were female. On the other hand, her gun was digging into Ace's hip.
• Berserk Button: Anything that reminds her of the '84 Super Bowl, especially Dan Marino and hearing the commentator mention it.
• Big Bad: She turns out to be the one who kidnapped Snowflake. Along the way, she also kidnaps Dan Marino wishing to murder him.
• Complexity Addiction: You would think a person who is legally declared to be murderously crazy and obsessed with getting revenge on Dan Marino would just go and kill the dude, but the events of the film involve a multi-year scheme to make it hurt before the kill that includes, among other things, becoming a cop and going up the ranks to become a Detective Mole, kidnapping Snowflake the dolphin, assuming the name of a hiker that conveniently disappeared shortly before Ray escaped the asylum, and undergoing a sex change.
• Crazy-Prepared: When Dan offers Roc and Vinnie double whatever "psycho woman" was paying them, they decline, explaining that the only terms of their employ was the promise to avoiding prison. Clearly, Finkle had anticipated that Marino would try this, and thus picked his henchmen as such.
• Creepy Crossdresser: While he goes to Transgender levels of "becoming a woman", it's pretty clear Finkle only became Einhorn to go inconspicuous in his revenge plot.
• Detective Mole: She became a member of the Miami P.D. precisely to take charge of the inevitable investigation of Snowflake's and Marino's disappearance.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Miss a field goal? For Ray Finkle, that means working almost a decade on a plot to get revenge on the team that fired you by stealing (and maybe killing) their mascot and kidnapping (with the intent to kill him later) the player that didn't put the ball with the laces facing the right way. The hatred Finkle and his family got simply because he missed that goal also counts.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Though not immediately obvious, Einhorn's voice has a slightly lower register than the other women in the film. It's actually a clue that the lieutenant is a man disguised as a woman.
• Fair Cop: Clearly presented as such, as her introduction is scored with a Sex O Phone and Ace is impressed when she appears. Although she's not "Fair" in the case of "good", given Einhorn is using her attractiveness to go beyond suspicion – on just about the entire precinct, if the amount of disgusted cops in the Unsettling Gender-Reveal scene says anything.
• Femme Fatale: She behaves this way towards Ace at one point.
• Foreshadowing: Numerous clues foreshadow Einhorn's true identity as Ray Finkle:
  • Her hair and eyebrows are not the same color, hinting that her hair is dyed.
  • Her voice has a lower register than the rest of the women in the film.
  • When she arrives at Podacter's apartment, Podacter's dog starts barking and growling at her, which Ace suggests is because "animals can sense evil" (or rather, it's barking because it's recognizing the killer of its owner).
  • When Ace points out the blood stain on the balcony railing, Einhorn touches it with her bare finger, contaminating the evidence.
  • While she usually reacts with snarky disgust at Ace's antics, his sound test on Podacter's back door leaves her momentarily paralyzed.
  • An accidental, out-of-universe case is in the group photo where Ace first finds out about Ray Finkle, his chest is somewhat more prominent than the other players… because Finkle is Sean Young with a wig and a mustache.
  • Finkle's nickname as a kicker was "The Mule"; a mule is the offspring of a female horse and a male donkey.
  • When Einhorn tells Ace to leave her office after Dan's kidnapping, he says he figured everything out. When she snarks, he asks if she's ever heard of Ray Finkle, making her stop being cruel and listen to him.
  • When Ace pitches his theory about Finkle to Einhorn, there's a banana between two apples sitting on her desk, and the banana is pointing at Einhorn.
  • Perhaps the most infamous clue is when Einhorn kisses Ace: "Your gun is digging into my hip."
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: All the viewers know about the real Lois Einhorn is that she's a missing hiker whose identity was stolen by Ray Finkle.
• Madness Mantra: "Laces Out".
• Mask of Sanity: For years, she's managed to suppress her psychopathic tendencies; but after learning about Snowflake being given her number, she decided to strike back at the Dolphins and Dan Marino.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's played by the lovely Sean Young so it's inevitable they'd draw attention to it.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Ray Finkle missed a single field goal at the Super Bowl, costing the game for the Miami Dolphins. This lead to his family being relentlessly harassed and Finkle constantly being reminded of his failure to the point of suffering a mental breakdown.
• Room Full of Crazy: Ray Finkle's room is covered with scrawls of "Laces Out" and "Die Dan Die," leaving Ace (and the audience) with no doubt that Finkle lost his mind following the disastrous missed field goal that cost the Dolphins the Super Bowl and that he's got some rather ugly designs on Dan Marino, whom he blames for the whole thing. Ace would later say of the room, "Cozy, if you're Hannibal Lecter." It gets even creepier when you remember that his parents' house is covered in graffiti that degrades and vilifies him. It's hatred within hatred.
• Sanity Slippage: Einhorn appears to undergo this while Ace is revealing her deception (and stripping off her clothes in the process) as she begins making strange faces and inexplicable, jerky gesticulations.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: "Oh my God! Einhorn is a man?!"
  • This is the reason why Podacter died. He found "Captain Winky", realized Einhorn is Finkle and let out a scream, resulting in Einhorn pushing him off the balcony.

Vincent Cadby

Played by: Simon Callow

• Big Bad: He's the one behind the giant bat's kidnapping, intending to stir up conflict between the tribes.
• Cool Car: He drives a 1960 Bentley S2.
• Corrupt Politician: He's the Consul General for Great Britain and he uses his position to set two tribes against each other so he can personally claim their lands and profit off them.
• Evil Brit: Played straight. He's a regal, upper class, British diplomat who serves as the film's Big Bad.
• Upper-Class Equestrian: He's first seen riding a polo pony.
• War for Fun and Profit: He wants to cause a war between the Wachati and the Wachootoo to take their land after they wipe each other out.

Gahjii & Mick Katie

Played by: Bruce Spence and Andrew Steel

• The Bogan:Both of them are Australian, unscrupulous and greedy.
• Co-Dragons: To Cadby.

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