Bad Trip is a 2021 Buddy Picture comedy film heavily influenced by Dumb and Dumber and Borat, directed by Kitao Sakurai and starring Eric André, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, and Michaela Conlin.
In pursuit of his high school crush Maria (Conlin), Chris (Andre) takes his best friend Bud (Howery) on a road trip from their small Florida town to New York City in Bud's felon sister Trina (Haddish)'s car. However, Trina has just escaped from jail and pursues them all the way in revenge for taking her car.
In addition to the plot, the film is also a hidden camera show, with extras being unaware that they were shooting for a film and finding out afterwards.
This film provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- Chris accidentally sticks his hand in a blender similar to a prank done on The Eric Andre Show.
- There is also a scene where an art gallery is destroyed and Andre’s character drinks window cleaner, just like two other pranks on the show.
- Ambiguously Bi: Chris fantasizes about making out with the priest at his imaginary wedding to Maria.
- He also tries to get enlisted in the army by asking the recruiting soldier if he could suck his dick.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: When Bud stands up to Trina at the end, she gives him a hug and tells him that she's proud of him for showing some balls.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Why Chris is enamored with Maria; he was bullied in school and she was the only one who defended him.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: When Chris tries to get a selfie with a gorilla (obviously a guy in a suit), the gorilla sexually assaults him in multiple ways in front of a crowd of horrified onlookers.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Maria is surprisingly chill when Chris comes over in her art gallery and professes his love to her, but after Trina crashes a stolen police car into her gallery and starts to destroy everything while trying to beat up Chris, she goes ballistic on Chris when he comes to say goodbye, yelling at him to get the fuck out.
- Big Applesauce: Chris and Bud’s destination, where Chris’ love interest, Maria Li, is hosting an art show.
- Big Bad: Bud's sister Trina is the closest thing the movie has to one, following Chris and Bud throughout their road trip and intending to beat the crap out of them for stealing her car.
- Big Sister Bully: Trina has bullied and intimidated Bud throughout his life, even robbing him at his own workplace - until he stands up to her at the end.
- Black Comedy Rape: Chris gets raped by a gorilla in a zoo after sneaking into his cage to take a picture for Maria. After managing to escape, Chris goes back into the cage to get his phone, only for the gorilla to violently make Chris blow him and then
cums on Chris’ face afterwards. - Butt-Monkey: Chris and Bud; Chris undergoes several physical traumas throughout the movie, including cutting up his hand in a blender, falling on a decorative hut while drunk and vomiting everywhere, getting raped by a gorilla, and being dangled from a building by his shirt; this is mostly because he keeps doing impulsive and stupid shit. Bud is bullied by his thuggish sister, Trina, and keeps getting dragged into Chris’ bullshit because he’s too weak-willed to stand up for himself, at least until the near end of movie, where he calls out both of them.
- Candid Camera Prank: The movie is full of these, but unlike in Borat, the unsuspecting movie extras aren't the butt of the jokes, and most of them thought it was Actually Pretty Funny when they found out what was going on.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Trina is freakishly strong, being able to rip off a car door and hang Chris off a building. According to Bud, she once fried a fish using the warmth of her hand.
- Covers Always Lie: One of the posters depicts Chris and Bud (in their work uniforms) sitting on top of a crashed Bad Bitch on fire in the middle of a country side happily eating ice cream. In the actual film, they crash in a street near Baltimore, bitterly break off their friendship, and only get ice cream after they reconciled and get to New York. Plus, they’re wearing their normal clothes throughout the trip.
- Dance Party Ending: When they crash a party in the Hamptons dressed as white people, Chris, Bud, and Trina make the DJ play, then dance to the DMX song “Party Up” as the credits roll.
- Despair Event Horizon: After accidentally crashing the Bad Bitch, Chris and Bud part ways and Chris, in a deep depression, tries to get enlisted in the army just so that he can get placed in the front lines and get killed.
- Did Not Get the Girl: The whole trip turns turns out to be for naught after Maria reveals that she isn’t interested in Chris, and then after Trina ruins her art show, she burns bridges with Chris out of rage.
- Did Not Think This Through: The reason why Chris keeps getting in trouble throughout the movie.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Trina, despite her bullying of Bud, reveals that it was partly done so that she could toughen him up. She also loved her deceased grandmother, who have gave her the Bad Bitch.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Downplayed, but some flames burst out from the Bad Bitch after it crashes.
- Excuse Plot: Chris goes on a cross-country road trip to confess to the girl of his dreams, all while being pursued by Bud's psycho older sister. The plot basically exists entirely in service of the pranks.
- From Bad to Worse: When Chris finally meets Maria in New York, he professes his love for her only for her to reject him, since she barely knows him aside from limited interactions in high school. Then, she ends wanting nothing to do with him after his trip to meet her accidentally leads to Trina destroying her art gallery when she tries to kill Chris.
- Groin Attack: After a drug trip, Chris and Bud wake up with their penises stuck together via a Chinese finger trap. Hilarity Ensues.
- Also, Chris is grabbed by the balls by Trina when she finds and tries to kill him.
- Identical Stranger: After a fight with Bud, Chris starts stopping guys that look like him, mistaking them for Bud.
- Meaningful Name: Bud's primary narrative role is to be Chris' loyal best friend; in other words, his bud.
- Mushroom Samba: Chris finds what he thinks are mints in the glovebox of the car, that turn out to be some kind of hallucinogen. A wild drug trip ensues that consists mostly of wild shenanigans in a supermarket, and ends with Chris and Bud getting their penises stuck in the Chinese finger trap. It Makes As Much Sense In Context.
- Naked People Are Funny: In the opening scene, Chris accidentally gets his coveralls sucked off by an industrial strength vacuum cleaner.
- Nice to the Waiter: When Chris is rushing to work at the beginning of the movie and causing all sorts of collateral damage, he still manages to establish himself as a fundamentally well-meaning guy by stopping what he's doing to help an old lady load groceries into her car and holding the door for another woman.
- Pet the Dog: Chris helps an old woman putting groceries in her car while running late for work.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Chris and Bud fight with each other after Chris crashes Trina’s car when Bud finds out that Trina is going after them and Chris tries to stop him by grabbing onto the wheel.
- The Precious, Precious Car: The Bad Bitch, Trina’s customized, pink Ford Crown Victoria that was a gift from her grandma. Unfortunately for her (as well as Bud and Chris), it gets wrecked when Chris tries to stop the car when Bud tries to back out of the trip.
- Road Trip Plot: Chris and Bud are road tripping from Florida to New York to visit Chris' high school crush.
- Shout-Out: Many to Dumb and Dumber and Borat in particular:
- While driving, Chris has an Imagine Spot about Maria that is very similar to Lloyd's fantasy about Mary. It even ends with him almost hitting a semi head-on. All that's missing is "I Love the Flower Girl" by The Cowsills.
- After a major setback, Chris and Bud have a falling out and Bud decides to go home, only for Chris to catch up to him and reconcile.
- The movie ends with Chris, Bud, and Trina at the Hamptons Disguised in Drag (and whiteface) in an outright stated shout-out to White Chicks.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After hearing that Trina is looking for them, Bud attempts to go back home, only for Chris to grab the wheel— and crash into two cars and flip over.
- So Proud of You: When Bud stands up to Trina when she tries to drop Chris off a building, she’s so proud that she hugs and (mostly) forgives him for wrecking her car.
- Tempting Fate: When trying to convince Bud to use his sister’s car to help Chris see Maria, Chris brings up that Trina’s in jail and that she’s never getting out. Cue a scene where Trina escapes prison by hiding under a bus.
- Time Skip: The opening is set one year before the events of the movie. In it, Chris tries to talk to Maria who happened to stop by at the auto detailing place where he worked, only to miss his chance due to an accident with a vacuum cleaner stripping him naked, forcing him to hide. The prologue also reveals how Trina got arrested, which is because she robbed Bud’s workplace and took off her house arrest tracker.
- Underside Ride: How Trina escaped prison.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: In his dream of dating Maria, Chris imagines that another man flirts with her on a date, and she beats the shit out of him, clearly turned on at the spectacle.
