A film Spin-Off of Police Squad!, following Police Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) as he continues to get into trouble. The films serve as parodies of the cop genre, and let nothing, including the blatant warping of reality and breaks in the fourth wall, get in the way of a good gag. The genius of the Drebin character is that Nielsen plays him almost totally straight: he's a buffoon, but he acts like a completely serious film detective even as lunacy explodes all around him, almost as if he's wandered in from a different movie.Features slapstick, Visual Puns and Shout Outs by the bucketful. At three movies, this actually lasted longer than the TV series it was based on. In all three Frank's love interest is Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).The films were:
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) -While trying to clear the name of Officer Nordberg, Drebin uncovers a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II
Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) - Drebin meets the new man in Jane's life, who is involved in a kidnapping scheme.
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) - Drebin comes out of retirement and infiltrates a gang in prison. He must also save his faltering marriage.
A fourth movie, to be titled Naked Gun 4: The Rhythm of Evil was in pre-production, but will likely be scrapped due to the death of Leslie Nielsen on November 28, 2010 (however before his untimely death, Nielsen had claimed that he was not involved in any way with the 4th film).
The Naked Gun series provides examples of:
Accidental Hero: Frank has a habit of pulling this, especially in the second film: He responds to his award for "One Thousandth Drug Dealer Killed" by remarking that he accidentally ran over the last two with his car. In a later scene, he unknowingly saves his colleagues from a crazed gunman.
In the third movie, Drebin is at the store squeezing grapefruits to test for ripeness while looking the other way. A woman in a low cut dress walks by, and Drebin mistakes her breast for a grapefruit and squeezes it. He gets slapped. (For added hilarity, it's the same actress in both scenes.)
Frank Drebin: Hey! The missing evidence in the Kellner case! My god! He really was innocent! Captain Ed Hocken: He went to the chair two years ago, Frank. [box goes back to the drawer].
Joe Grifasi plays the dock worker in the first movie and the Oscar director in the third.
Also, Richard Griffiths in the second movie; justified in that one of the characters he played was actually a professional impersonator, hired specifically to pose as the other one.
Jeff Wright plays three characters: the head usher in the first movie, the sex shop assistant in the second and the grocery store manager in the third. Of course, it could be the same guy holding down different jobs in each movie.
"Weird Al" Yankovic appears in all three movies. In the first and third movies, he plays himself. However, in the second movie, he plays a criminal holding the police station at gunpoint.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: In the third movie, the inmates at the state prison (where Frank has gone undercover) riot in the cafeteria simply because they don't like the food they're being served. As depicted in the film the gag is quite funny, but in fact something like that did once happen at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco (it was known as "The Spaghetti Riot"). In the movie, this culminates in a Funny Moment / Moment Of Awesome when the prisoners make the guards eat the awful food!
Although in this case, Frank's reasoning when yelling to the guards was that it didn't resemble crappy stereotypical prison food enough.
Precisely. Chateau LeBlanc '68 is supposed to be served slightly chilled, not room temperature!
Aside Glance: The standard reaction from characters when another character they are in conversation with says something nonsensical. Which, in this movie series, means almost every conversation.
Baby Carriage: The first scene of the third movie, which includes Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) almost spiking the baby after catching it.
Bait and Switch: Lampshaded in Naked Gun 2½; Frank asks the bartender to give him the strongest thing he's got, to which a muscle-heavy man walks up. Frank says, "On second thought, how about a Black Russian." The bartender looks at the camera and shakes his head, indicating that he's not going to perform the obvious punchline.
Big Bad: Ludwig from Police Squad, Quentin from The Smell of Fear and Rocko from The Final Insult.
Bigger Bad: Papshmir, The Man Behind the Man in Police Squad and The Final Insult is the over-arching antagonist of the series but has less screen time then the main villains of each movie.
Frank: Oh it's all right, I'm sure that we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. (to Quentin) Isn't that right, Mr. Poopy Pants?
Bit Character: Tons of them throughout all three movies, to the point where many characters in the credits are simply identified by the one line they say.
Dr. Meinheimer and Barbara Bush in The Smell of Fear.
Enrico Pallazzo in the first film. He's Bound And Gaged and impersonated by Frank, and then the TV captions display his name during Drevin's horrible interpretation of the national anthem, adding insult to injury.
In the first film, Frank's dramatic speech is cut short when Ed informs him that the massive crowd gathered outside his plane is actually for Weird Al. They go ecstatic when he departs the plane.
In The Smell of Fear: As a criminal who has taken Ed, Nordberg, and the rest of the station hostage. Frank accidentally incapacitates him when opening a door too fast.
Spoofed by type and position. For type, there's a stick figure and an Egyptian, and for position, there's Chalk Outlines that appear on a building's walls, or roof, or one that appears floating on the water.
In The Naked Gun, when Drebin meets a Mook standing at a distance:
Mook: Drebin! Frank: Yeah, I'm Drebin! Mook: I have a message for ya from Vincent Ludwig! [firing gun] Take that, you lousy cop! Frank: I'm sorry, I can't hear you! Don't fire the gun while you're talking!
Also, in 2½:
[Frank reads a business card] Frank: That's the red-light district. I wonder why Savage is hanging around down there. Ed: Sex, Frank? Frank: (beat) Uh... no, not right now, Ed.
Comically Small Bribe: Taken Up to Eleven. Drebin starts out bribing his informant but he starts bribing Drebin back to find out what Drebin is investigating (Drebin even lends the informant twenty dollars to bribe him with). By the end of the exchange, Drebin is ahead twenty dollars and the informant owes him another 20.
Comic Book Time: There's a bit of it early on in the third movie when the characters remember having seen Tanya Peters in a dance club sometime during the disco era of the late '70s (lets say, 1978). Since Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy were already middle-aged in '78, seeing them looking more or less the same (except for the '70s Hair, of course) in the disco setting isn't too much of a stretch. But when we see Tanya herself, she's blatantly the same age as in the present day (about her mid-20s); if she had aged along with everyone else, she'd be at least 40 years old throughout most of the movie, which she is not. (Interestingly, Tanya's portrayer, Anna Nicole Smith, was not even a teenager when the disco era ended.)
The car Frank and Jane drive in the flashback to their wedding in 33 1/3 is the same solar-powered car that Hapsburg shows to his co-conspirators in the previous film. This scene was meant to be the previous film's ending, hence Nordberg getting dragged with it.
The flashback also features Frank's previous love mentioned in the beginning of the first film.
A deleted scene from the third film (which aired in the TV broadcast) showed Frank walking past a cell in the state prison containing a lion. This could be the same lion that mauled Hapsburg to death at the end of the second film; given the logic of this series, it's conceivable that the lion would've been charged with homicide.
Cosmopolitan Council: In the beginning of the first movie. It includes Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, Ugandan President Idi Amin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, among others.
As of October 2011, all of these people are either dead or no longer in power. That's right, it took 23 years for the opening sequence of The Naked Gun to be completely outdated.
Crazy-Prepared: When Frank and Jane meet in the first movie, they use condoms during their first bedroom encounter to guarantee "safe sex." Not too strange in itself, until you see that the condoms cover their entire bodies.
Creator Cameo: David Zucker (director of the first two films) appears as Davy Crockett and later as the teleprompter operator in 2½ and 33⅓, respectively.
Credits Gag: Happens in all three films. They include people getting credited by their single spoken line, people getting credited for made-up roles like "Second Second Assistant Director," "NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED DURING THE FILMING... HOWEVER, SOME SPECIES DID BECOME EXTINCT DURING PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY", and the safety warning, "In Case of Tornado: SOUTHWEST CORNER OF BASEMENT."
Crush Parade: At the end of the first film, Vincent Ludwig falls off the upper deck of a baseball stadium to the parking lot below where he gets hit by a bus, flattened by a steam-roller, and then trampled by a marching band playing "Louie Louie."
Ed: Oh, Frank! It's horrible. It's so horrible! Frank:(comforting Ed) I know... Ed: My father went the same way...
Dead Man's Trigger Finger: Performed by one of the mafia goons in 33⅓'s Untouchables parody opening sequence.
Whenever Drebin gets behind the wheel, something bad happens. The scene when Drebin tags along in a driving school car is especially notable, when the driving instructor instructs the student how to flip the bird.
The opening credits are also built on this. A cop car (presumably containing Drebin) viewed from the emergency lights shows absolutely insane or just plain nonsensical driving behavior, including driving on sidewalks, into people's homes, on rollercoasters, into bullfighting arenas, restaurants, hockey rinks, the air, the surface of the Death Star, and prehistoric times.
(to Jane) "After I met you I noticed things I never saw before. Birds singing, dew glistening off a leaf, stop lights.
Driving instructor: All right, Stephanie, gently extend your arm. Extend your middle finger. Very good. Well done.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the second film, the villain (played by Robert Goulet) survives falling out of a window. When he gets up, it seems like Goulet is going to escape. Just then, a lion appears out of nowhere and kills him on the spot. It is however incredibly funny and a great Brick Joke since earlier in the film Drebin released a bunch of animals from the zoo.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Creatively named locations such as "The Hospital" and "The Police Station" are prominently signed as such. Word Of God is that the hospital was supposed to be called "Our Lady Who Never Got The Pickle" but Ricardo Montalban, a devout Catholic, requested the change. The hospital is name dropped as "Our Lady of the Worthless Miracle."
Face Palm: Happens in Naked Gun 33 ⅓ when Frank attempts to get the gun from Rocko while holding on the bomb in the envelope only for them to switch places causing everyone including the audience to facepalm.
Frank: Which button do I press? Jane: No, not that one!
Funny Background Event: The king of this form of humor. For example, in Naked Gun 2½, there's a series of framed pictures in the background of the bar Frank's in, all of which are various disasters (the Hindenburg, the sinking of the Titanic, and....Michael Dukakis).
Fun with Acronyms: In the second film, the three major energy companies (coal, oil, and nuclear) are given incredibly ironic acronyms: Society For More Coal Energy (S.M.O.C.E.), Society of Petroleum Industry Leader (S.P.I.L.), Key Atomic Benefits Office Of Mankind (K.A.B.O.O.M.).
Going Postal: Parodied in the third movie. While Frank is dealing with a number of threats (itself a parody of The Untouchables), a woman screams "disgruntled postal workers!" and he sees a number of mailmen firing assault rifles.note "Disgruntled" was the media's preferred euphemism for going postal at the time.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Drebin has apparently killed at least a thousand drug dealers, any number of fleeing suspects, and an entire Shakespeare In The Park production of Julius Caesar. Throw in his reckless incompetence and inability to drive or park, and he's probably as big a menace as any of the villains.
Hidden Depths - The Queen of England from part 1 throws a mean curve ball.
Also poor Dr. Meinheimer in "Naked Gun 2½." When he and Drebin are tied up in a warehouse, Drebin tries to saw through the ropes binding his hands behind his back by repeatedly scraping them up and down the sharp corner of a shelf. However, the vibrations send all sort of loose objects falling off the shelf and onto Dr. Meinheimer's head. By the end, he's barely conscious when the police come to his rescue.
Innocent Innuendo: A few times in the first meeting with his future love interest Jane, including one right after she climbs up a ladder. Later innuendo gets a lot less innocent.
Drebin: Say, nice beaver. Jane: Thanks, I just had it stuffed. (hands down a literal stuffed and mounted beaver)
Insane Troll Logic: Drebin and Rocko's argument over who should have the gun and who should have the bomb in part 3. The audience actually does a collective Face Fault.
Rocko Dillon:(firing a gun over the heads of the audience) Freeze, and nobody gets hurt! (a grip falls from the rafters into the orchestra) Rocko Dillon: Well... from now on!
Tanya Peters never gets punished (at least not onscreen) for being affiliated with Rocko Dillon's terrorist gang, which is particularly odd since in the end she is the last surviving member of the gang. Sure, we know that she switched sides to the good guys by telling Frank where the bomb had been hidden, but that shouldn't absolve her from punishment for having knowingly collaborated with killers.
In the first movie Frank is searching Ludwig's office for clues, opens a drawer and shouts "Bingo!"... Has he found a smoking gun? No, he's found a literal bingo card.
In the second movie, when the big bad is described as having "a moustache, about six-foot-three", Frank retorts with "awfully big moustache."
In the third movie, when asked by Frank to "start at the beginning," the scientist in the forensics lab starts to describe the creation of the universe.
Los Angeles Doubling: The baseball scenes in the first film, which take place at an Angels home game, were actually filmed in Dodger Stadium. (Los Angeles is doubling for Anaheim here.)
The Man Behind the Man: Papshmear from parts 1 and 3 who was a liaison for a mysterious organization who's only purpose is to spread mayhem around the world. You can hear him utter "Gaddafi" over the phone in the 3rd movie.
May-December Romance: Jane and Frank. Leslie Nielsen was 20 years Priscilla Presley's senior.
"The problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans, but this is our hill and these are our beans."
Mistaken for Gay: When trying to gain access to the baseball field in part 1, Drebin knocks out one of the umpires so he can steal his outfit. He throws the unconscious umpire on a table and undoes both their pants, when a cleaning guy happens to walk in. He just shrugs it off with "sorry, fellas," and continues his rounds.
The second movie homages the four-foot shootout from the series.
Nebulous Evil Organisation - Drebin beats up the world's most evil men in the first movie. Also, whoever Papshmear is working for.
Negative Continuity: Played for laughs, of course. In the second film, Frank crashes through the villain's window and is shown appropriately dirty and battered. But in the very next shot, he stands up and is completely clean.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: At the beginning of the third movie, Frank has a nightmare (which at first is presented as if it's really happening) in which he's at a train station and finds himself trying to stop a Mafia shootout. Things quickly become even more complicated when President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II wander into the crossfire....and then a gang of deranged postal workers show up....
Frank: Cheer up, Ed, this is not goodbye; it's just I won't ever see you again.
Noodle Incident: In 2½, after surviving an assassination attempt:
Jane: Oh Frank! Who would want to kill you? Frank: Before tonight? Only the cable company...
Not Helping Your Case: In the second movie, all three major energy companies (coal, oil, and nuclear) produce commercials that defend their energy brand. However, all are filled with ironic imagery that, if it weren't played for comedy, wouldn't convince people that their energy policy is the way to go. (for example, the nuclear ad features a mutated, two-tailed dog).
Not What It Looks Like: In the first film, Frank is swapping clothes with the knocked out umpire. The janitor walks in and assumes something sexual (understandably so, since the umpire's ass is propped up on the table) and says, "Whoops. Sorry, fellas." and backs out.
Also, the aforementioned "sexual assault with a concrete dildo" incident. See Accidental Pervert.
Once per Movie: A visit to the lab to view the new Q-worthy gadgets
Only a Flesh Wound: Nordberg is shot up in the beginning of the movie, but luckily "The bullets missed every major organ". He spends the movie recovering and is just fine in the next movie.
Police Brutality: Hilariously averted in part 2 when Ed tries to beat up a goon whom he thought beat up Prof. Meinheimer.
Police Code For Everything: A deleted scene from the first film (which is seen in most TV airings) involves Frank informing the front desk of the hospital that they've got a 411 in progress. The woman replies, "411? Oh my God, fire!" Frank corrects her: "No no, 1411." She replies, "My God, a poison gas leak!" Frank tries again, "No no, a 1414." The woman screams and jumps out the window.
Prison Rape: Played for laughs and averted in the third movie.
Race Lift: Nordberg, who is played by O.J. Simpson in the movies, was white in Police Squad!.
Ransacked Room: Frank wreaks havoc when he sneaks into Ludwig's office.
Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Done in the third film when Frank is on stage with Raquel Welch. Amusingly, he not only reads the stage directions, but also Raquel's lines as well as his own.
Red Herring: The Swiss Army Shoe from the 1st film never gets used.
After saving the day, Drebin being mistaken for a celebrity. In the first, Enrico Pallazo. In the third, Phil Donahue.
Say Your Prayers: In the second movie, a punk points a gun at multiple police officers and says this. Luckily, he's knocking out by Frank opening the door and knocking the punk unconscious in the process. Amusingly, Frank doesn't even realize he thwarted a crime when thanked for it.
The scene revealing the induced hypnosis is almost identical to a similar scene from the Charles Bronson classic Telefon: Same setup, dialog, camera angles, you name it.
In the second film, there is a parody of the sexual pottery scene from Ghost. Ghost was directed by Jerry Zucker, who co-created Police Squad and co-wrote the first film.
After experiencing marital problems, Jane goes with a girlfriend on a Thelma & Louise-style road trip in the third movie. The friend is even named "Louise" and dresses just like Susan Sarandon did in that movie, in case you couldn't catch the reference.
Also in the third movie, the Dillon gang go to a bunker to test their atomic weapon. After the detonation, the explosion blows their hair straight up, making them look like the main characters from Beavis And Butthead, which Rocko himself further alludes to by muttering: "Huh-huh-huh, huh-huh-huh, cool..."
"I shoot the bastards. That's *my* policy." is a parody of a similar scene of Dirty Harry about Cowboy Cop antics.
Frank describing the creation of the universe when he's asked to "start at the begining" is a nod to ZAZ's earlier masterpiece, Airplane!, which has a similar scene after Jonny is asked for a summary of what's happened so far.
Sickbed Slaying: A Vorpal Pillow against Norbert is thwarted by Frank, but not without inflicting some damage to the target.
Slip into Something More Comfortable: Parodied in the first film. After Frank Drebin arrives home late at night, he finds Jane (then working for Ludwig) wearing one of Drebin's shirts. After some suggestive dialog, Frank, who is wearing a collared shirt, slacks, and a tie, says that he will go slip into something more comfortable. He emerges wearing a suit.
Status Quo Is God: played straight in 2½ (Frank's promotion to Captain and proposal to Jane didn't stick) but averted in 33⅓ (not only are they married, but he's left the force).
Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded or subverted depending on how you want to look at it - In 2½ Frank and Jane are having a heartwarming moment when Ed reminds Frank about the huge bomb that's set to explode any second
That Came Out Wrong: In the second film, Jane walks out on Frank at the restaurant, and Frank replies with:
Frank: I'm single! I, I love being single! I haven't had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader! [Music and conversation stops; everyone stares] Frank: I mean, at the time, I was dating a lot.
Tranquillizer Dart: Frank Drebin's cufflink tranquilizer darts in the first movie. However, they're not quite instant enough, since the bad guy staggers around long enough to fall over a railing to a Cruel and Unusual Death.
Could Have Avoided This Plot: Dr. Meinheimer would have delivered his environmental address at President Bush's dinner, if Frank hadn't made such a ruckus.
Western Terrorists: The Dillon gang in the third movie. Granted, they are secretly taking their orders from Arabs, but they're obviously plotting bombings more for the money than for hatred of the United States.
What Happened to the Mouse?: In the first movie the Queen seems to be entirely forgotten about after the assassin is foiled. Technically she doesn't need to appear since she's out of danger but it's strange that we don't see her reaction to Frank talking down a hypnotized Jane despite multiple reaction shots from the other people in the stadium.
To say nothing of the fact that Nordberg was never actually cleared of the crime he was accused of.
Who Are You?: At the beginning of the first Naked Gun movie after beating up the various Arab leaders, Idi Amin and Mikhail Gorbachev:
"I'm Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Police Squad! And don't ever let me catch you guys in America. (Drebin then falls out the window)
Whole Plot Reference: Romantic subplot aside, 33⅓ is basically a comedic retelling of White Heat. A police officer infiltrates a prison, befriends a violent criminal who loves his mother, and helps him escape in order to determine the site of his next crime.
You Are Too Late: Two of the henchmen in the second movie tell this to Frank as he interrogates them.
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