Film / Black Dynamite

DY-NO-MITE! DY-NO-MITE!

"Who the hell is interrupting my kung fu?!"

I wanna tell you a story about a friend I had. He's a mean motherfucker and he's super bad! So grab onto your seats and hang on tight, while we describe the movie starring Black Dynamite!

Black Dynamite is an entirely ridiculous, over-the-top 2009 homage to the Blaxploitation films of The '70s. Michael Jai White plays the title character, a Vietnam vet and former CIA agent who declares war on all drug dealers when his brother, a CIA informant, turns up murdered by the mob. He soon discovers that the conspiracy goes far beyond the local drug dealers and sets his sights on the masterminds behind the scheme.

An animated series premiered on [adult swim] on July 15 2012, with many of the movie's cast reprising their roles. Also has a 2023 Spiritual Successor, Outlaw Johnny Black, which takes the adventures to The Western.

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Provides examples of:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Parodied, like everything else, when Black Dynamite gives us the least reverent and tasteful Vietnam War story ever, featuring a Vietnamese child who he repeatedly repeatedly refers to as Chinese.
• Action Politician: Richard Nixon establishes that he is not a Non-Action Big Bad when he personally fights Black Dynamite at the end. Of course he loses, but anyone who lasts more than a second against Black Dynamite has got some serious moves.
• Aerith and Bob: The brothers Black Dynamite and Jimmy. Yes, Black Dynamite is his actual name.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Blaxploitation films. So much effort is put into making it look like an authentically terrible example of the genre, you could actually mistake it for the genuine article.
• Anyone Can Die: In the film, All of Dynamite's allies who go with him to Kung Fu Island end up dead, with the exception of Cream Corn, who dies when Dynamite goes to the White House.
• Arch-Enemy: Black Dynamite has Fiendish Dr. Wu, a Yellow Peril Diabolical Mastermind whom he's clashed with several times before the film, and turns out to be the one who killed his brother.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Fiendish Dr. Wu, natch. His arrogance is a bit justified, as he effortlessly kills Bullhorn and lasts a bit against Black Dynamite, but he still ends up severely outmatched.

  Wu: Your kung-fu is quite extraordinary, Black Dynamite. But no match for mine.

• Artistic License – History: The film claims Roscoe created chicken and waffles, which started at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in LA. In truth, the chicken and waffles dish was created during the 1920s by Joe Wells, the owner of Well’s Supper Club in Harlem, New York. Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles' actual founder was Herb Hudson, a Harlem native. This was surely intentional.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Black Dynamite says he didn't understand the Vietnamese child's "Chinese" last words, saying it sounding like "some kind of cartoon shit" (the actual line was an insult in Vietnamese). Later, he reveals that he actually does know actual Chinese when talking to Fiendish Dr. Wu. He still doesn't seem to make the connection that the Vietnamese couldn't therefore be Chinese. Additionally, he even seems convinced that the village was Tainan, which is not even in Vietnam, but Taiwan.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Richard Nixon. The guy's got nunchucks with the Presidential Seal inside his desk in the Oval Office.
• As You Know: Played for comedy in Black Dynamite's flashbacks. People helpfully slip their names and ages into their dialogue.

  Black Dynamite: Jimmy, I am 18-year-old Black Dynamite, and you are my 16-year-old brother, and you are high as a kite yet again!

• Backup from Otherworld: The ghost of Abraham Lincoln helps Black Dynamite defeat Richard Nixon, when the latter attempts to use John Wilkes Booth's gun to kill Black Dynamite.
• Badass Boast:
  • Black Dynamite, when one of the militants confronts him.
    Black Dynamite: Listen, sucka. I'm blacker than the ace of spades and more militant than you and your whole damn army put together. While you're out there chantin' at rallies and brow beatin' politicians, I'm takin' out any money-frontin' sucka on a hummer that gets in my way. So I tell you what: when your so-called "revolution" starts, you call me, and I'll be right down front, showin' you how it's done. But until then, you need to shut the fuck up when grown folks is talkin'.
  • He's even given one from Officer Nancy, the policeman investigating Jimmy's death.
    Officer Yancy: My God, men! Do you know what this means!? Do you know whose brother... this ghetto is gonna be turned upside down, I tell you, upside down! The streets are gonna run crimson with the blood of the men responsible for his brother's death. Man I'm speaking of is a veritable One-Man Army and if you get on his bad side, brother, you're done for. Now it's only a matter of time before he finds out and when he does, no matter where he is, get ready gentlemen, because hell's a comin', comin', comin', comin', comin'.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Many of the line readings are delivered in an intentionally stilted way to parody the level of acting you might find in a cheap blaxploitation film. In one notable example, Black Dynamite is supposed to be frolicking playfully with his new girlfriend, but instead appears confused and annoyed by the scene, and it ends in an extremely awkward hug.^note Michael Jai White even mentions in the commentary that this was inspired by any love scenes featuring Jim Brown, a tough-guy sort of actor who couldn't play "tender" to save his life.
• Bat Deduction: Black Dynamite's "Eureka!" Moment at a diner, where he figures out the evil plot by some Insane Troll Logic. Starting from M & M's slogan, with an extended trip to Ancient Greece and Rome, which of course everyone is somehow familiar with, and ending up at Little Richard. ^note They are at a diner that serves waffles who melt in your mouth. M&Ms also melt in your mouth (And not in your hand) and are made by the Mars Candy Company. Mars is the Roman God of War, and his Greek counterpart is Ares. Mars backwards without the S reads "Ram", which is the symbol for Aries. Ares' half sister is Athena, who is the namesake for Athens, Greece. Zodialogical Astronomy was invented by the Greeks in 785 BC (everyone around the table knows this). 785 is the area code of Topeka Kansas. Which can be shortened to Code Kansas. Code Kansas backwards without one of the S gives Snake Doc. AKA Snake Doctor. Aesculapius is the Greek Demigod of Medecine who believed snakes' tongues had mystical healing power and whose staff surrounded by snakes is the symbol for medicine. Apollo is Aesculapius' father, and a legend involving him and snakes is in both Greek and Roman mythology - Apollo slew the serpent at Delphi. The Serpent was "a big-ass snake." The South American anaconda is the biggest snake in the world. Anaconda Malt Liquor has the slogan "Anaconda Malt Liquor gives you Whooooooooooo!" "Whooooooooooooo!" sounds like Little Richard. So the motto really is: "Anaconda Malt Liquor gives you Little Richard". Dick is another name for Richard. So the real motto (and the sinister plot) is that Anaconda Malt Liquor gives you a small dick. And their conclusion is immediately proven correct.
• Big Bad: Richard Nixon. Of all people, at that.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: Black Dynamite deals with a variety of villains in his quest to avenge his brother's death.
• Big Damn Heroes: After BD dispatches almost all of Chicago Wind's goons, the last one remaining points a gun at him, letting Wind escape. Almost right afterward, Bullhorn appears, knocking the gun out of the minion's hand, and giving Dynamite a chance to chase after Chicago (if preceded by a significantly lengthy speech).
  Bullhorn: Go get Chicago Wind before he disappears! I'll take care of this gorilla-eatin' goon here.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: This is why Nixon wants to shrink the penises of black men, in order to reduce their population.
• Big "NO!": After a Secret Service agent blows up the helicopter Cream Corn's in, Black Dynamite does one of these.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The phrase that Black Dynamite heard the dying "Chinese" kid speak is actually Vietnamese for "You are full of shit."
  • The rest of the foreign dialog is Cluster F-Bombs.
• Black Is Bigger in Bed: The protagonist manages to somehow have penetrative sex with three women simultaneously, and please all of them equally. And to take the gag up to eleven, it is revealed that three or four more women were asleep next to the bed at the time, already having been pleasured. It's also a rare situation where this becomes a plot point: the villains of the movie are trying to shrink black men's penises to eliminate their, ahem, "racial advantage."
• Blaxploitation Parody: One that really goes all-in when it comes to poking fun at the genre.
• Bottomless Magazines: Black Dynamite's six-shot revolver can fire dozens of rounds without reloading. While having no bullets in the chamber.
• Bragging Theme Tune: With lyrics like "Use kung fu when he want to / have sex when he please".
• Brick Joke: After a shootout that ruins his chili and donuts restaurant, Roscoe remarks that the odd combination wasn't working out anyway. Nearly an hour later, Cream Corn scoffs at a waitress' ridiculous offer of chicken and waffles. Upon hearing this, Roscoe jumps up in the background, shouts "That's IT!" and runs out of the diner, the implication being that it gave him the idea for Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
• The Cameo: Arsenio Hall, Brian McKnight, Tommy Davidson, Cedric Yarbrough. All the girls shown topless on-screen are real-life porn stars.
• Captain Obvious:
  • "These children are orphans, and orphans don't have parents!"
  • Also this hilarious exchange:
    Militiaman: How did you get here?
    Black Dynamite: I walked in...
• The Casanova: Black Dynamite, who per movie tradition flirts with becoming a Ladykiller in Love by the end.
• Casting Gag: One of the government agents in the warehouse (the one injected with truth serum) is played by John Kerry, who played the corrupt Detective Mitchell in Dolemite.
• Character as Himself: Inverted, as the main characters are "played" by equally fictional "actors":
  • Baltimore Colts All-Star Running Back Ferrante Jones (Michael Jai White) as Black Dynamite.
  • Ebony Fashion Fair Model Tambula Qatar (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) as Gloria.
  • William T Michaelson (Mykelti Williamson) as Chicago Wind.
  • Ronnie Sinatra (Kevin Chapman) as O'Leary.
  • Little Tiny Tiggs (Tommy Davidson) as Cream Corn.
  • June Bug (Arsenio Hall) as Tasty Freeze.
  • Bo Willy Peters (Buddy Lewis) as Gunsmoke.
  • And that bad Bullhorn (Byron Minns) as Himself; making him, paradoxically, both a straight example and an inversion of the trope at the same time.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: An actual bladed boomerang, which returns to the target if it misses the first time. The Fiendish Dr. Wu throws it offscreen to kill Bullhorn, then throws it again at Black Dynamite to distract him twice, giving Fiendish Dr. Wu enough time to flee. Black Dynamite throws it the third time, while offscreen, to have it home in on Fiendish Dr. Wu later on.
  Black Dynamite: HAHA! I threw that shit before I walked in the room!
• Chewing the Scenery: Black Dynamite's tirade when confronting Fiendish Dr. Wu and when Bullhorn dies by his hand.
  Black Dynamite: Bullhorn! At long last, a friendship bonded by the struggle against The Man has been brought to an end by KUNG-FU TREACHERY! Brother, your death will not go unavenged. Fiendish Dr. Wu, you done fucked up now!
• Classically-Trained Extra: The actor playing Black Dynamite's brother Jimmy as an adult delivers his lines with an absurdly stagey, snobbish delivery that borders on British, which just makes them even more ridiculous to hear.
  (With impeccable diction) "Come on, you jive turkeys, what kind of run-down is this? Look, man; I've got to get BACK to the STREETS, WHERE I COME FROM, ssssucka."
• Comically Invincible Hero: Black Dynamite is a parody of the blaxpoitation action hero, being the meanest, most badass black dude in this world and the next. Secondary characters keep dropping like flies around him but any opponents at best just momentarily inconvenience him personally.
• Crazy-Prepared: BD already threw that shit (a boomerang) before he walked in the room!
• Curse Cut Short: Also interrupting one of Bullhorn's rhymes no less, just as he was about to get it on with a woman.
  Bullhorn: Man, who DARE knock when I'm plannin' to plant my—
  [Black Dynamite enters the room]
  Bullhorn: —main man Black Dynamite!
• Deadpan Snarker: Black Dynamite in the hospital after being shot in the shoulder by Raffeli's hitmen.
  Black Dynamite: So how's my x-ray?
  Black Dynamite's doctor: Well, no fragments. In and out. You're lucky, Black Dynamite. Three inches to the left and we wouldn't even be having this conversation!
  Black Dynamite: Three inches to the right, it woulda missed my black ass.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The movie doesn't shy away from parodying some of the rather... dated aspects of the Blaxploitation genre.
• Destination Defenestration: If there's a window nearby, it's pretty much a guarantee that Black Dynamite will throw someone through it. Even twelve-year old Black Dynamite!
• Deus ex Machina: The ghost of Abraham Lincoln arriving to save Black Dynamite from being shot by Richard Nixon.
• Disc-One Final Boss: O'Leary being the first disc final boss and Fiendish Doctor Wu being the second.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Black Dynamite has some anger issues, to put it mildly. 12 year-old Black Dynamite gets mercilessly teased by a few kids for being an orphan. He tosses them out of a window.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-universe, of course. Black Dynamite — a stern, violent, murderous pimp — appears as himself on the faux-kids show Ding Dong Roar to deliver a PSA to children about how Drugs Are Bad; the way they choose to spread the word, however, is through a song confusingly titled "Drugs are Fun", almost entirely about how drugs have street names that sound like nice things.
• Double Entendre: "Anaconda Malt Liquor gives you 'oooo'." Sounds innocent enough, but after a "Eureka!" Moment you realize it means it gives you a tiny penis.
• The Dragon: Fiendish Doctor Wu.
• Driving a Desk: The rear projection shows Chicago Wind's car making some pretty big turns, despite him not looking at the road. Then subverted when he turns to look at the road — he instantly screams as he's about to run over a cliff that wasn't in the rear projection.
• Drugs Are Bad: From which we get this gem:
  Black Dynamite: From now on, I'm declarin' war on anyone who sells drugs to the community!
  Chocolate Giddy-Up: But Black Dynamite, I sell drugs to the community!
• Dwindling Party: As the movie approaches its climax, Black Dynamite's comrades are killed by his enemies. When Cream Corn's helicopter is blown up, Black Dynamite finds himself facing White House security alone.
• "Eureka!" Moment: A ridiculously circuitous, 3-minute long one that also counts as Insane Troll Logic.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He might be a bad guy, but Richard Nixon still loves his wife and goes ape-shit when she is hurt.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Everyone in this world knows Kung-fu for some reason, despite its seemingly limited actual uses, including President Richard Nixon and Abraham Lincoln's ghost.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: The Stock Footage used takes this up to eleven - the cars that Black Dynamite destroy actually explode before they hit anything.
• Eye Scream: The mook of Fiendish Dr. Wu who was told to keep his eye on Black Dynamite.
  Black Dynamite: Do you see where I'm coming from, you jive mothafuckaaa!?
• Fanservice Extra: Done, as with everything else, in the style of old blaxploitation movies.
• Fight Scene Failure: invokedWhile most of the fight scenes involving Black Dynamite himself are surprisingly good, the other actors tend to be visibly clumsier, throwing punches that clearly miss. In one scene simulating a badly covered bad take, Bullhorn even accidentally punches a guy for real, at which the visibly pissed-off guy advances on him, and then a cut replaces him with a different guy that Bullhorn easily beats up.
• Final Boss: Richard Nixon.
• Flashback: Black Dynamite has one to Vietnam. It is the least respectful and tasteful Vietnam War story ever, complete with a Vietnamese child who he repeatedly refers to as Chinese and whose last words are actually telling him "you're full of shit" in Vietnamese.
• Flash Step: Black Dynamite pulls off an impressive one in the dojo scene, although it might have been an intentional error.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Throughout the opening commercial for Anaconda Malt Liquor, Leon St. James is never shown taking a sip, or even raising the bottle to his lips. Clearly, he's not willing to risk the side effects on his love life.
  • The scene with the zodiac love-making positions; the Greek zodiac later plays a role in deciphering the true purpose of Anaconda Malt Liquor.
  • Black Dynamite swears on the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, who helps him to defeat Richard Nixon. That's what Nixon gets for using John Wilkes Booth's derringer.
• Framing Device: The story is implied to be told by Bullhorn in the afterlife.
• Freudian Excuse: A heroic inversion: the reason why Dynamite jumps at the chance to help out orphans is because he didn't exactly have the best childhood growing up after he became one himself.
• Friendly Neighborhood Gangster: Parodied to hell and back; the pimp council scene mines a lot of jokes out of the fact that, although they're a frequent choice for protagonists in the blaxpoitation genre, most pimps in real life aren't exactly nice people. Even Black Dynamite, despite ostensibly being a neighborhood hero, is still a pimp himself, and shouts violent threats at one of his prostitutes when she interrupts him (revealing in the process that one of the pimps on the council, Crenshaw Pete, tortures his own girls with "hot-ass coat hangers").
  BD: From now on, I'm declarin' war on anyone who sells drugs to the community!
  Chocolate Giddy-Up: But Black Dynamite, I sell drugs to the community!
• Funny Afro: Countless, but Cream Corn's takes the cake, as not only is it gigantic, but it is shaped like a pimp hat.
• Gilligan Cut: Cream Corn claims to know nothing about Jimmy's murder, and the movie cuts immediately to Cream Corn held upside-down over the side of a building, offering to tell Black Dynamite what he knows.
• Guns Akimbo: Black Dynamite's modus operandi as parachutes down to the White House, laying waste to Secret Service members all the while.
• Hammerspace: Black Dynamite can produce his nunchucks at will and put them away somewhere afterwards, even when there's nowhere he could conceivably fit them in his clothes or they'd be clearly visible if they were there.
• Hidden Depths: Everyone seems to know a great deal about Greek and Roman mythology. And Kansas area codes.
• High-Altitude Interrogation: How Black Dynamite gets Cream Corn to spill the beans about Chicago Wind.
• Historical Beauty Update:
  • Remember, the white babe who Leg Clings to Black Dynamite at the end of the movie is supposed to be First Lady Pat Nixon, who in real life was 62 by the end of her husband's presidency.
  • Richard Nixon actually doesn't look as harsh as he did in real life.
• Historical Domain Character: Richard Nixon and his wife and the ghost of Abraham Lincoln appear in this movie.
• Historical In-Joke: Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles (a real place) was inspired by a totally random lunch order. His previous venture was Roscoe's Chili & Donuts.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Needless to say, the real Richard Nixon never tried to emasculate black men.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Non-lethal example, when Fiendish Dr. Wu get his left arm cut off by his own boomerang, thrown at him by BD himself.
• Homage: Black Dynamite's look and signature kiais are modeled on Jim Kelly, a martial arts-fighting blaxploitation star, with a couple of inevitable homages to Bruce Lee, in whose film Enter the Dragon Kelly had his debut.
• Human Shield: When Gloria and Black Dynamite are ambushed by assassins, the latter uses the mascot of Roscoe's Chili & Donuts as one of these to provide himself cover while he guns down their assailants.
• Hypocritical Humor: Black Dynamite speaks of how he's out to stop drugs from being sold to kill in the neighborhood, before stopping to furiously insult and verbally threaten one of his prostitutes after she finishes his catchphase. This is then followed by an awkward silence from everyone present.
• Insistent Terminology: It's not just "Dr. Wu", it's Fiendish Dr. Wu.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Played for comedy. While Black Dynamite is busy recalling a flashback of a child he saw during the Vietnam War, he keeps referring to him as Chinese rather than Vietnamese. Even better, the child's village was supposedly in Tainan, which is a city in Taiwan and actually adds up with the kid being Chinese.
• Jive Turkey: The makers noted that most of the old blaxploitation movies were actually written by white men, and contained slang that didn't really resemble the way black people talked even in the seventies. One said that he had never in his life heard a black man call someone a "jive turkey," but of course Black Dynamite had to be full of that kind of thing.
• Just Following Orders: O'Leary when explaining why he was the one who ordered Jimmy dead.
• Kiai: Black Dynamite's deep "oooo-weee!" kiais sound like Jim Kelly's, such as in Three the Hard Way.
• Kids Are Cruel: BD was bullied as a kid for being an orphan.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Cream Corn. The most he blurts out before dying is "Son of a biiiiiii—"
• Large Ham: BD becomes this a number of times.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Whenever the boom mike brushes his afro, or another cast member delivers a line incorrectly, Black Dynamite can often be seen glancing meaningfully at the off-screen director to end the scene. Also happens in a few purposefully sloppy edits.
• Leg Cling: The final pose of the film, pictured above. The white lady is First Lady Pat Nixon, to boot.
• Leitmotif: After watching this movie you'll have "Dy-no-mite! Dy-no-mite!" playing over and over in your head.
• Luke, You Are My Father: A girl mentions that her father is called Black Dynamite. Her friend, surprised, says her father is too. Black Dynamite, awkwardly trying to cover it up from his Love Interest, argues that many guys have that name.
• The Man Behind the Man: Who is it? Of course! We should have known! It was Richard Nixon all along!
• Mercy Kill: Gunsmoke would rather accept this than live on with a shrunk Johnson.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The death of a CIA informant at the hands of the mob ends up revealing a government conspiracy to shrink black men's penises.
• The Mole: O'Leary.
• Mundane Solution: Nixon tries simply shooting Black Dynamite... but Abe Lincoln kung-fu'd the derringer out of Nixon's hands.
• Neck Snap: Parodied in the dojo training scene, where after Black Dynamite beats down a bunch of his trainees, he then stomps his foot on the neck of a downed opponent offscreen, with audible sound of breaking bones (said scene seems to be a Shout-Out to a moment in Enter the Dragon when Bruce Lee steps on O'Hara's neck offscreen - even BD's facial expressions and body gestures are played out the same way). But the following scene when a phone call from BD's mother interrupts his training, all the trainees, including the necksnap victim, are alive and well.
• Noodle Incident: Unlike the rest of the pimps, who don't seem that afraid of Black Dynamite when he walks in — with Osiris even greeting him like an old friend — Chocolate Giddy-up is absolutely terrified and completely deferential to BD, suggesting that he's faced his wrath in the past.
• N-Word Privileges: Being a Blaxploitation pastiche, it's only natural that this gets a little bit of exercise. While most of the cast uses the word at least once, there are several notable examples:
  • In the small amount of screen time he gets, Chicago Wind throws it around quite frequently as a means of insult.
  • The security guard at the Anaconda Malt Liquor plant is definitely not allowed to use the pejorative "coon", with the militia members striking him in the head every time he does so. Eventually, he slips into a coma with a slur still on his lips.
  • Nixon's wife, rather than use any particularly offensive term, instead refers to Black Dynamite by the weirdly archaic "moon cricket".
• Off with His Head!: Bullhorn, who is killed by Fiendish Dr. Wu's Precision-Guided Boomerang.
• Offhand Backhand: Black Dynamite shoots a Secret Service agent who comes up behind him while assaulting the White House.
• Oh, Crap!: The entire group in the pool hall. They threaten Black Dynamite, and he turns to leave. They start throwing out insults, when Dynamite simply flips the sign and then slides the burglary gate shut. Everyone goes silent. Then the asskicking ensues.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Most of the supporting cast. Black Dynamite, however, seems to actually be the man's name.
• Opening Monologue: Bullhorn's rhyming at the top of this page. Since he dies mid-story, knows events he's not involved in, and refers to his friendship in the past tense, he might be telling the story in the afterlife.
• The Other Darrin: In-universe. A stuntman is replaced mid-action scene after he's accidentally struck in the face by Bullhorn and gets angry; his replacement looks nothing like him.
• Our Presidents Are Different: They plan conspiracies to shrink the penises of black men and fight with nunchucks when their plans are discovered.
• Overly Long Gag: The aforementioned "Eureka!" Moment, which is about 4 minutes in length.
• Pimp Duds: The scene with the pimp council, which has all the pimps seen with at least one part of the uniform (Tasty Freeze's sunglasses; Chocolate Giddy-Up's fur coat; Willie's cane; etc.).
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Richard Nixon, who hatches a plot to shrink the penises of black men in order to keep them from out-breeding the white race.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • When Black Dynamite encounters Richard Nixon in the White House, Nixon pulls out a pair of nunchucks and yells "Showtime, motherfucker!", though his speech becomes a minor Cluster F-Bomb afterwards.
  • Fiendish Dr. Wu pulls one as well, in Chinese even. He also performs another one in English, when a mook follows him:
    Fiendish Dr. Wu: What the fuck!? Keep your eye on Black Dynamite!
  • And after Bullhorn is killed by Fiendish Dr. Wu's boomerang.
    Black Dynamite:Fiendish Dr. WU, YOU DONE FUCKED UP NOW!
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Substantially more illogical than that trope usually is, since here the boomerang automatically returns to the target rather than the user. Of course, This was the point.
  Black Dynamite: HAHA! I threw that shit before I walked in the room! [kick]
• Protagonist Title
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: One of the militants does this frequently."The militants turn, startled. This is private... Sarcastically, I am in charge." Much later in the film, he mentions what he's going to do when he goes home: "retire, shows picture..."
• Really Gets Around: Black Dynamite, of course. When one of his lady friends introduces himself to two random little girls on the street, both of them mention that both of their fathers are named Black Dynamite. Worried, Black Dynamite tells them that a lot of guys are named Black Dynamite.
• Redshirt Army: The militia. Lampshaded by Black Dynamite himself, in response to the previous quote.
  Black Dynamite: If you were in charge, you might as well surrender to whitey right now cause your survival skills ain't worth a damn.
• Refuge in Audacity: The entire film. Arguably the viral marketing for the film did this too, setting up a fictional charity ("Fight Smack In The Orphanage") and fictional public service announcements across Youtube. One bizarre PSA had Black Dynamite appearing on a fictional 1970's children's show that warned children against drug use. The PSA's title? "Drugs Are Fun".
• Real Trailer, Fake Movie: How the movie came to be. The original trailer (made up mostly of scenes from real blaxploitation films combined with a few scenes of original footage) was used to sell the idea to producers.
• Retirony: Complete with Fatal Family Photo. Lampshaded by BD:
  "Who saw that comin- I mean-WHO SAW WHERE THAT CAME FROM?!"
• Retraux: The entire movie. It goes through so many lengths to look like an authentic '70s film that even Roger Ebert admitted that you could easily mistake it for one.
• Revenge Porn Blackmail: The real reason behind the Watergate break-in was that Richard Nixon was trying to steal and destroy pornographic photos of himself in bondage gear. Black Dynamite gets ahold of these photos and threatens to leak them unless Nixon promises to stop interfering with the black community.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: BD fires off 18 rounds without reloading.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Black Dynamite declares war on the drug dealers, one of them, outraged, asks "now who you supposed to be?" Another leans in and, in a helpful tone of voice, says "oh, that's Black Dynamite."
• Rhymes on a Dime: Lots of characters, but particularly Bullhorn.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: BD goes on one after he finds out about his brother Jimmy is killed.
• Sacrificial Lion: All of Black Dynamite's friends die, with the exception of Honeybee.
• Saving the Orphanage: After seeing how badly smack has ravaged the children at Gloria's orphanage, Black Dynamite vows to make whoever's responsible for the drug pay.
• Self-Disposing Villain: Played for laughs; Chicago Wind spends so much time looking back to gloat at Black Dynamite that his car runs off a cliff and explodes.
• Serious Business: Suicide is preferable to having a small penis.
• Sharp-Dressed Man
• Shout-Out:
  • Black Dynamite himself is several blaxploitation stars rolled into one. His predilection for Kung Fu and Kiai screams is taken from Jim Kelly, his purpose as a ridiculously over-the-top womanizing badass and tough as nails detective has echoes of both Dolemite and Shaft. Him being "Played by former Football star Ferrante Jones" is a reference to Fred Williamson, a Blaxploitation star who likewise was a former pro American football athlete.
  • Jimmy, Black Dynamite's brother, speaks in a very clear theater-like dialect, referencing black Shakespearean actors who acted in Blackxploitation films, most famously William Marshall in Blacula.
  • The "Dyno-mite! Dyno-mite!" riff in the soundtrack is a clear reference to the similar "Dole-mite! Dole-mite!" riff in Dolemite. Bullhorn's Rhymes on a Dime shtick is also very similar to Rudy Ray Moore's in his comedy acts.
  • The line "Suddenly I'd like to leave your island!" is from Bruce Lee's 1973 film Enter the Dragon. It was said by Williams, another black kung fu guy played by Jim Kelly. Black Dynamite also does a one-legged but otherwise identical version of the O'Hara stomp.
  • "Where is Bucky, and what has he had?" is a direct reference to Rudy Ray Moore's famous line from Avenging Disco Godfather.
  • Black Dynamite's "I'm taking any any front-money sucker on a humble that gets in my way" is from Hammer, another blaxploitation classic.
  • Black Dynamite's fight with Fiendish Dr. Wu (himself a clear riff on Doctor No.) on Kung Fu Island (and the black spy turtleneck he wears there) is partially a take-off on the climax of That Man Bolt, starring Fred Williamson. The villain is even dispatched with a throwing star - though Bolt merely had it stick in his hand and leave him vulnerable to a shot from behind, whereas BD slices off Wu's entire arm and sets him on fire.
  • The pimp meeting is essentially a slightly more ridiculous version of the pimp gathering in Willie Dynamite and not coincidentally, one of the Pimps in the meeting is called "Willie".
  • One of the pimps is "Captain Kangaroo Pimp."
• Signature Shot: In every movie Michael Jai White is in, there is always a scene with a mascot being beat up. This movie has the most visible example.
• Sleazy Politician: Congressman James.
• Soft Glass
• Sophisticated as Hell: The insanely convoluted deduction scene where Black Dynamite and co display a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of Greco-Roman mythology, history, zodialogy, and zoology...while still talking like stereotypical 70s jive turkeys.
  Saheed: That's right! Apollo slew the serpent at Delphi, which was a big-ass snake!
• Soul Brotha: Everyone.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: Saheed does exactly that. To a cartridge case, no less, licking it for powder residue.
• Special Effect Failure: Often and obviously intentionally invoked. Notable examples include shuriken on strings and a car driving off a cliff and exploding before it hits the ground.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: When Black Dynamite receives a phone call from his mother informing him of his brother's death.
• Stock Footage:
  • Recreating a 70s car chase would be expensive, but there's plenty of old unused car chases from back then. And editing all that footage together makes for hilarious discontinuities. The same car explodes twice in different scenes, while resembling neither of the two cars that were supposed to explode.
  • Also used in some battle scenes on Kung Fu Island.
• Storming the Castle: Both Kung Fu Island and the White House.
• Stunt Casting / Non-Actor Vehicle : In-universe, in the "fake" trailer. Black Dynamite is apparently played by "all-star running back Ferrante Jones", referencing sportsmen-turned-actors Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. "That bad Bullhorn" also appears As Himself. The movie plays with this by having Pat Nixon (or rather the "actress" playing her) gently coaching "Ferrante Jones" on acting in their scenes together, implying that she is an experienced professional amidst a cast of amateurs.
• Stylistic Suck: The film is presented as a shoddy blaxploitation film with 70s-era Deliberate Values Dissonance and low production values. There's plenty of obvious stock footage, rough edits, bad acting and visible boom mikes.
• Super Villain Lair: Kung Fu Island.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Black Dynamite's brother Jimmy is killed when he denies being a snitch despite no one accusing him of being one.
• Teeny Weenie: The gruesome fate of all who drink Anaconda Malt Liquor, as demonstrated by Gunsmoke's cruelly "shrunk Johnson". (The prop shown was fashioned out of a rubber baby pacifier.)
• Tempting Fate: Cream Corn's first appearance; he's inside a salon getting his hair done, bragging all about how good of a pimp he is and how nobody better mess with him. Then he turns around, sees BD, and completely freaks out.
• Timeshifted Actor: Parodied; while in the flashback with Jimmy, "18-Year-Old Black Dynamite" looks so little like his adult counterpart (with Scott Sanders mentioning in the commentary how Neill Lewis is "several shades lighter" than Michael Jai White) that he still has to state who they both are, just for clarity.
• Truth Serums: Gunsmoke uses one to make the Anaconda Malt Liquor worker reveal the basic details of Code Kansas. However, he ends up giving him too much, causing him to freeze.
• Villainous Valour: Nixon doesn't hesitate to take on Black Dynamite in hand-to-hand combat, especially after BD accidentally hurts his wife.
• Visible Boom Mic: Intentionally, obviously. Black Dynamite even looks visibly distracted by it.
• Voice Clip Song: BD briefly discusses with Gloria, saying that the people of the ghetto don't understand what she or Congressman James are talking about, but at least they can put his to a beat.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Certain plot points involving Congressman James, such as him being in league with Raffelli and getting incriminating documents heisted from his office by BD's crew, are only explained fully in deleted scenes. Of course, the somewhat disjointed nature of the final product only makes it feel even more authentically cheesy.
• The White House: Called "The Honky House".
• Who Dares?: Bullhorn after BD accidentally interrupts a moment between him and a ho:
  Bullhorn: Man, who dare knock when I'm plannin' to plant my— (Dynamite!)
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Averted and subverted on different occasions. In the latter case BD apologizes afterwards. The struck woman is confused, seeing as how she was trying to shoot him to death.
• Yellow Peril: Fiendish Doctor Wu.

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"Whenever there's injustice, wrongs to be righted, innocents to be defended, Black Dynamite will be there, delivering ass-whuppings. And I will not hesitate to lay the hammer down on any clown that comes around. Cause if they want a fight, they best come see me. Cause I'm Black Dynamite!"

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