Wile E. Coyote, as usual, is chasing the Road Runner, but eventually stops to a warning sign from the surgeon general claiming that chasing roadrunners may be hazardous to one's health. The coyote shrugs it off as a joke and laughs at the sign, only to be startled into a precipice by the Road Runner, where he finds a second sign admonishing him for mocking the surgeon general. Nonetheless, the coyote concocts some new schemes to snatch the bird... and you can guess how they all end...
Tropes:
- Accordion Man: Wile E. gets squashed into an accordion when he lands on the pavement headfirst at the end of the first gag. Then at the end of the coil spring gag, he gets distorted into a coil shape after the spring's boulder falls on him.
- Attack the Tail: The giant mouse gets his tail caught in the mouse trap, and returns the favor to Wile E. by snapping it on his tail!
- Binomium ridiculus:
- ROAD RUNNER (BOULEVARDIUS-BURNUPIUS)
- COYOTE (DOGIUS IGNORAMII)
- Can't You Read the Sign?: At the beginning, Wile E. encounters a sign at the end of the road that reads "WARNING: The surgeon general has determined that chasing road runners may be hazardous to your health". Then after crashing into a precipice courtesy of the Road Runner, he finds another one that reads "It's not cool to laugh at the surgeon general".
- Deliberately Painful Clothing: The ACME Trick-or-Treat Cactus Costume that Wile E. wears to catch the Road Runner. He can even be seen wincing with pain when he puts it on, and gets more pain when he misses the bird and wraps his arms around himself.
- Didn't Think This Through: Whatever Wile E.'s plan with the instant road was, he didn't put enough thought into it, because we never even get an inkling of what he had in mind before he rolls it right off a cliff. He even holds up a sign on the way down asking "In heaven's name - what am I doing?"
- Exact Words: That giant mouse trap really works...if you're trying to catch an actual giant mouse. Unfortunately, Wile E. was trying to catch the Roadrunner.
- Eye Pop: Wile E.'s eyes detach from their sockets as their owner flees from the lightning bolt chasing him. They even panic and bump into each other before going back into their sockets.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Two of them.
- First, when Wile E. Coyote gets tangled up in a giant spring and falls off a cliff.
- And second, when he rolls down some ACME Instant Road to the bottom of a canyon.
- Great Bow: The coyote uses one in an attempt to reach his target... but it doesn't work like he expects it to.
- Hidden Depths: When the stretched bow inexplicably remains frozen in place instead of acting as a released bow should, Wile E. takes the opportunity to play a brief burst of harp music on it. He apparently has the soul of an artist.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Duh.
- Idea Bulb: When the Coyote gets the idea to disguise himself as a cactus, a light bulb appears over his head, and it flashes from "Idea" to "Cactus".
- In the Back: Wile E.'s first attempt to catch the Road Runner is to distract him with bird seed and strike him from behind with his utensils. He fails because the Road Runner extends his neck way across the screen to scare him into the air.
- Long Neck: In the first gag, the Road Runner is somehow able to detect Wile E. behind him and stretches his long neck so that it's on the other side of the screen and beeps behind his predator. Road Runners are extremely flexible, indeed.
- Mouse Trap: Wile E. uses a giant one baited with seeds in hopes of catching the Road Runner. Guess what he catches instead...
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Involving Wile E. being chased by a lightning bolt that repeatedly zaps his posterior.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: "Frühlingsstimmen" by Johann Strauss Jr. briefly plays as Wile E. gets tangled in the giant spring, falls off a cliff and gets flattened by the rock the spring is attached to.
- Pun-Based Title: Of the 1981 British historical drama sports film, Chariots of Fire.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: Wile E. ends up catching a monster-sized mouse with the giant mouse trap instead of the Road Runner.
- Seesaw Catapult: Wile E. tries one to get to the Road Runner, who is standing on the other side of a canyon. You can guess what happens next...
- Shock and Awe: The cartoon's last gag has Wile E. using ACME Lightning Bolts to zap his prey. At the end of the cartoon, the Road Runner tricks one into chasing Wile E., leaving the poor coyote to run off while getting zapped in the behind by it.
- Spring Coil: While it isn't used for bouncing, Wile E. uses a giant spring to launch himself to the Road Runner. Instead, he gets tangled up in the spring and becomes a victim to gravity. Again.
- He gets two more blows for the price of one. The rock attached to the spring dislodges and hurtles right toward him ("Have Mercy!"). And finally, he sulks off, his body in the coil variant of an Accordion Man.
- Talking with Signs:
- After scaring Wile E. from behind in the first gag, the Road Runner then claims that "Road Runners are extremely flexible".
- Just before he is smashed by the rock in the third gag, Wile E. displays a "Have mercy" sign.
- Near the end of the ACME Instant Road gag, "In heaven's name - what am I doing?" and "BYE!".
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The Coyote gets a gander at whom the Mouse Trap actually hit...
- Toon Physics: When Wile E. lets go of the bow to get launched to the bird, he remains in place and the bow's string remains frozen. As Wile E. tries to fix it, he ends up making a harp out of the bow and decides to play it like one. But when he takes a bow after finishing his performance, the string finally unjams and slingshots him into a cactus.
- Wrap Around: As Wile E. is sneaking up behind the Roadrunner, the Roadrunner suddenly stretches its head offscreen and peeks out the other side to scare Wile E. from behind.
- Written Sound Effect: Played with in the cactus costume gag, where the smoke left behind by the Road Runner forms "!!YEE-OOWW!!" as Wile E. inadvertently wraps his arms around himself - in the cactus costume.
