Line #9 Film/DCCab


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1983_dc_cab_poster11.jpg]]
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3	''D.C. Cab'' is a 1983 movie co-written and directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher. It featured an ensemble cast including Creator/GaryBusey, Paul Rodriguez, [[Series/NightCourt Marsha Warfield]], Creator/BillMaher, Creator/AdamBaldwin (in his second major role after ''MyBodyguard''), Creator/MaxGail (in his first role after eight years of [[Series/BarneyMiller Wojciehowicz]]), and Creator/MrT (though only T is [[BillingDisplacement featured on the cover]]).
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5	The movie focuses on a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits down-on-their luck]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin cab company in Washington, D.C.]] as they attempt to make their way to respectability, fighting City Hall and rival cab companies all the way. After a kiss with that respectability, a [[HalfwayPlotSwitch kidnapping]] knocks them back down to earth, and the boys have to rescue one of their own and a couple of cute kids, fighting City Hall and rival cab companies all the way.
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7	The movie was a modest earner, making $16 million domestically. It was critically panned, however; many people complained about the movie's heavy use of Creator/MrT (who was coming off of ''Film/RockyIII'' at the time) in its advertising, despite his character [[BillingDisplacement being just a small part of the ensemble]].
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10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* AdvertisedExtra: Creator/MrT is so associated with this movie, it's called ''Mr. T and Company'' in some markets, despite the small amount of screen time he actually gets. It's so bad that in some markets, the poster solely consists of ''[[https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4082/4923761987_e4cafe598b_b.jpg a picture of Mr. T]]'', without even so much as hinting at the actual plot.
13	* CarFu: Actually, multiple cars doing this.
14	* CasanovaWannabe: Xavier.
15	** Dell is another one, repeatedly hitting on his boss Harold's wife Myrna in exceedingly vulgar fashion. ''While they're eating breakfast together at the same restaurant table.''
16	* ChekhovsGun: Two, in fact: a violin and Albert's cowboy boots (they were his dad's, and they were too big for him).
17	** Harold's flamethrower also.
18	** The prominently placed above ground pool in Harold's back yard was a subtle one.
19	* ConspiracyTheorist: '''Dell'''.
20	* CoolCar: Mr. T has his cab pimped out so that the teenagers who've been hanging around a drug dealer's fancy car will admire him instead of a no-good pusher.
21	* FakeOutOpening: The first few minutes before the opening credits play out as if they belong in a horror or thriller picture, as the cabbies seem to be hunting Tyrone down before cornering him. The movie reveals the whole thing to be just a game the cabbies are playing as Tyrone loses one of the rollers in his hair and the cabbies go looking for it, only to have Tyrone call them "suckers" and escape in his own cab.
22	* GivingThemTheStrip: When the cabbies haul Albert from the kidnappers' van and his captors keep hold of his feet, Tyrone asks him if he's still wearing his father's oversized cowboy boots. Albert confirms this, so Tyrone swerves the cabbies' vehicle sideways and Albert's feet slip loose, leaving the baddies clutching his footwear.
23	* HadTheSillyThingInReverse: Tyrone covertly sets the hack inspector's shift lever into reverse, so he drives the wrong way and crashes into an Asian restaurant's front window. The Barbarian Brothers have to drive their cab to the shop in reverse because it's broken.
24	* HalfwayPlotSwitch: Turns from a standard struggle to survive as a cab company plot to a kidnapping plot for the third act.
25	* HenpeckedHusband: Harold has shades of this, being an easygoing and all around nice guy. It makes the scene of him standing up to his domineering wife all the more awesome.
26	* InnocentSwearing: 'Cuz a ten-year-old girl calling a kidnapper a "pitiful bitch" is funny!
27	* MistakenNationality: Albert innocently assumes Bongo is Jamaican. He's not.
28	* NaiveNewcomer: Albert Hockenberry (Creator/AdamBaldwin).
29	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Invoked by ''Tyrone'' of all people. He did go to college at some point, but he wants people to think him to be dumb. Later on (and [[SharpDressedMan dressed in a suit]]), he comes up with the plan to save Albert and the children.
30	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Bravo, the hack inspector, and later the FBI.
31	* PoliceAreUseless: The FBI agent's attempts to interrogate the nanny about the kidnapping.
32	* PrepositionsAreNotToEndSentencesWith: When Bravo admonishes Samson for ending "a sentence with a preposition," Tyrone responds: "Oh, so where you at, asshole?"
33	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The cabbies, oh so much. One wonders how these people can tie their own shoelaces, let along work together.
34	* RailroadTracksOfDoom: Albert and Tyrone confront this in "the Run."
35	* RedundantRescue: After being kidnapped, Albert tries to get out of being tied up so he can untie the kids he was kidnapped with. It takes him awhile, and when he finally manages to get free, the kids (already free of their restraints) applaud him.
36	* TheRival: Emerald Cab Company. They even have the hack inspector in their pockets.
37	* SeenItAll: The ambassador's kids...at least when it comes to being kidnapped.
38	-->'''Girl''': Is this your first time being kidnapped?
39	-->'''Albert''': Yeah.
40	-->'''Boy''': This is our third.
41	* TheStinger: A man gets into Tyrone's cab claiming to be the Angel of Death, demanding to be taken to Hell. Tyrone blithely asks if he has luggage.
42	* TheTaxi: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
43	* RunningGag: Ophelia keeps getting robbed by the same ski-masked robber.
44	* UglyGuyHotWife: Harold and Myrna. Still in effect when [[spoiler: Harold implies later that he and Miss Floyd (the dispatcher) got together after Myrna kicks him out.]]

Context Film / DCCab