1994 movie starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson that goes out of its way to lampoon pretty much every single media tactic to get the scoop on the latest breaking news story.Jackson Hammond (Sheen), an escaped fugitive, has stopped for gas and a candy bar in an L.A. convenience store, when two LAPD officers walk in. Spooked, he grabs a woman in the store, takes her hostage, and flees with her in her car. Little does he realize he's just kidnapped heiress Natalie Voss (Swanson), unleashing the biggest police chase Southern California has seen in at least a week.
This film provides examples of:
Accidental Kidnapping: Natalie's kidnapping is the third crime in Jack's Crime After Crime chain, right after escaping a paddy wagon bound for San Quentin and boosting a VW.
Action Girl: By the end of the film Jackson has surrendered to the police. But Natalie uses his discarded weapon to take a television producer hostage, exchanges the hostage with her love interest, hijacks a news helicopter and heads to Mexico. Not bad for a poor little rich girl.
All Part of the Show: When Natalie takes a cop hostage and uses him as a bargaining chip for Jack, her father assumes that it's all just a stupid stunt designed to humiliate him.
Black Comedy: The scene in which cadavers come tumbling out of an ambulance.
Crusading Lawyer: Ari Josephson at least tried for his client. By the end of the movie, he's rooting for Jack to get away.
Ari: Jack, you Anti-Hero. If you're gonna get away, get away now.
Clear My Name: Deconstructed, really: Hammond was accused and convicted of a string of crimes he didn't commit. He ended up being sentenced to San Quentin, and rather than take his chances with a legal system which got him convicted on a technicality, he busts out, steals a car, kidnaps an heiress, steals another car, and makes a mad dash for Mexico.
Cool Car: She's the daughter of a multi-millionaire; of course her BMW is top notch.
Did I Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Natalie looks as surprised as anyone else after she opens fire on a police helicopter, causing sparks to fly, the pilot to flee the craft in a panic, and she and Jack to commandeer another helicopter and make their getaway.
Dramatic Irony: Most of the teevee reports speculate that Hammond planned this kidnapping meticulously, pointing out that he kidnapped the daughter of the richest man in California. The audience, of course, knows that Hammond was spooked by two cops recognizing the car he drove as a car reported stolen, used a candy bar to hold Natalie hostage, and used her car as a getaway because she was the only other one in the store at the time.
Every Car Is a Pinto: And so are the choppers that blow up with one gunshot from a standard issue police pistol.
WHOA! Is that Director Vance doing the blow-by-blow in the helicopter?
Hollywood Driving: Yes, we're pretty sure that having sex behind the wheel is a bad idea.
Hot Pursuit: And pretty exciting for (mostly) being confined to (what is supposed to be) the Golden State Freeway. (This movie was actually filmed in Texas.)
Indulgent Fantasy Segue: At the end, Jack imagines going out in a blaze of glory...but comes to his senses. Astute watchers will note that he lights his cigarette with the car lighter that Natalie threw out the window earlier in the movie.
Actually, this troper is relatively certain he was using a match from the matchbook he uses earlier in the film. He needed the car's cigarette lighter because it's pretty much impossible to drive at eighty miles an hour and light a match at the same time.
First, Natalie speculates that her father is using this for publicity for his potential governor's run. Cut to Voss on the phone with one of his aides instructing him to negotiate for time on all of the big morning shows.
Then, one of the anchors comments that "It's easy to forget that there's a scared little girl in that car." The next scene is the one that leads to sex at 80 miles per hour.
Kent Brockman News: Pretty much every single news network covering the story.
Love Makes You Crazy: Natalie, who shoots at a police helicopter, for Pete's sake! To paraphrase Meat Loaf: I would do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I would not do that.
Non-Ironic Clown: Hammond's job before he was busted was being a clown for birthday parties, which was precisely why he was busted: Some guy had been robbing banks dressed as a clown.
Perpetual Tourist: At the very end of the film, we see that the fugitive lovers have fallen into this lifestyle after fleeing to Mexico.
Pop the Tires: Sheen's character, (an escaped inmate) manages to shoot the tires out on a police car chasing his stolen car by sheer accident as it pulls up alongside him. As this happens at high speed (the tires are popped at 90mph), it sends the police car flying, and it crashes into a series of other cars...
Prison Rape: "You know what they do to guys like you in prison? OH GIRLFRIEND! OH GIRLFRIEND!"
Screaming Woman: Natalie bawls hysterically during the first few moments of her kidnapping, although she eventually toughens up.
Spoof Aesop: Calling all repressed, conservative rich kids! If you disobey your parents, take a lot of stupid risks, and ultimately break the law, you'll end up happier than you've ever been in your life! (Seriously, this is what the film seems to imply.)
Strawman News Media: Every single media outlet in Southern California is vapid. In fact, they go to insane lengths to get scoops (including a reporter hanging onto the side of a moving van just to get a picture inside the car.) It's part of the movie's Drinking Game: Drink whenever some reporter tells you their channel is the first to bring you anything about the chase.
That Woman Is Dead: After Jack tells Natalie that she will have to give up the name "Natalie Voss" if she goes on the lam with him in Mexico, she laughs and says: "Who the hell is she, anyway?"
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