Line #15 Film/TheChase1994


1	%%
2	%%
3	%%
4	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. And no "See this" examples; trope entries need to stand on their own.
5	%%
6	%%
7	%%
8	%%
9	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thechase_9112.jpg]]
10
11	A 1994 action-comedy movie starring Creator/CharlieSheen and Creator/KristySwanson that goes out of its way to lampoon pretty much every single media tactic to get the scoop on the latest breaking news story.
12
13	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.
14
15	The plot resembles that of the 1955 movie ''The Fast and the Furious'' (not to be confused with the [[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious modern movie franchise of that name]]). And while there are some key differences, this movie also borrows liberally from the early Creator/RonHoward film ''Grand Theft Auto'' - yes, the same film which [[InNameOnly (very loosely)]] inspired [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto the mega-successful, hookercidal video game series.]]
16
17	----
18	!!This film provides examples of:
19
20	* AccidentalAimingSkills: At one point Jackson points his gun at a police car next to his. We don't know if he intended to fire, because he hits a bump that jars his hand, pointing the gun down and making him fire. The cruiser's front tire explodes and the car flips.
21	* AccidentalKidnapping: Natalie's kidnapping is the third crime in Jack's CrimeAfterCrime chain, right after escaping a paddy wagon bound for San Quentin and boosting a VW.
22	* ActionGirl: By the end of the film Jackson has surrendered to the police but [[spoiler: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 [[spoiler: a poor little rich girl]].
23	* AllPartOfTheShow: When [[spoiler: Natalie takes the documentary director hostage and uses him as a bargaining chip for Jack, her father]] assumes that it's all just a stupid stunt designed to [[ItsAllAboutMe humiliate him]].
24	* AmbiguouslyJewish: Jack's lawyer, Ari Josephson, has a very Jewish-sounding name. Ari and Joseph are, of course, both Hebrew names, and Ari especially is uncommon in the United States among non-Jews.
25	* AreWeGettingThis: Said repeatedly by the director of the ''Series/{{Cops}}'' expy who happens to be riding in a patrol car on the chase...even when ''[[spoiler:he himself is taken hostage by Natalie.]]'' Said sparingly by news reporters; the helicopter reporter (who doubles as his own cameraman) favors "Did you see that?"
26	-->''"You're makin' my Emmy!"''
27	* AutoErotica: Natalie has sex with Jackson in the front seat ''while he's still driving.''
28	* BabiesEverAfter: In the closing scene, Natalie is pregnant while she and Jack are living it up in Mexico.
29	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Double-subverted. Natalie copiously vomits out the window of the BMW (just after hearing that she's being taken to Mexico) and even literally pukes her lipstick off in the process. But even without her makeup she's as sexy as you've ever seen.
30	* BlackComedy: The scene in which cadavers come tumbling out of an ambulance.
31	* BrandishmentBluff: Yes, Natalie, he kidnapped you with a candy bar.
32	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Jack accuses Natalie of being this - and, to her credit, she admits that it is true.
33	* BullyingADragon: Perhaps not thinking clearly but desperate to do ''something'', Natalie makes the wrongheaded decision during the early stages of her kidnapping to [[ImprovisedWeapon remove the cigarette lighter from the front of her car and push it into Jack's neck]], hideously burning him. He screams, flies into a rage, and shoves his gun into her face, [[LampshadeHanging pointing out how that was a really stupid thing to do]].
34	* TheChase: The police chase Hammond from Los Angeles to the Mexican border.
35	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Natalie Voss]].
36	* CrusadingLawyer: Ari Josephson tried for his client. By the end of the movie, he's rooting for Jack to get away.
37	-->'''Ari''': Jack, you AntiHero. If you're gonna get away, get away now.
38	* ClearMyName: 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.
39	* CoolCar: She's the daughter of a multi-millionaire; of course her BMW is top notch.
40	* DramaticIrony: Most of the TV 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.
41	* DriverFacesPassenger: In this case, because the passenger has climbed into the driver's lap and proceeded to have sex with him...while driving 80 miles per hour down the freeway, and the police in hot pursuit.
42	* DrivesLikeCrazy: As it's a high-speed car chase, naturally. Bonus points for Jack getting it on with Natalie (with Natalie climbing into his lap and sitting ''in front'' of him) at one point in the chase.
43	* EveryCarIsAPinto: So are the choppers that blow up with one gunshot from a standard issue police pistol.
44	* FaceHeelTurn: More like {{Face}} to LoveableRogue turn for [[spoiler:Natalie]].
45	* HollywoodLaw: Jack Hammond is convicted of bank robbery after evidence that would exculpate him is excluded on the grounds that it was improperly collected from the crime scene by the police. This is an obvious absurdity: first, improper actions by the police can only prejudice the prosecution, not the defense. Second, mere errors in collection of the evidence would not normally raise constitutional (or statutory issues) that would lead to exclusion of the evidence. That is, if the evidence (blood left by the actual thief at the scene of one of the robberies) had been contaminated, that would not be grounds for its exclusion even if brought by the prosecution, unless the contamination was total so the evidence had no probative value whatsoever. The other side would be able to challenge the evidence, and the jury would have to sort it out. And finally, the defense could still point to the fact that this evidence was improperly collected as having given enough reasonable doubt to acquit their client... and this could also be brought up at the ''actual'' Red-Nosed Robber's trial, were they to ever catch him. In other words, if the police screwed up that badly, they would have just jeopardized ever actually bringing the culprit to justice. In the scene where this is explained Josephson (Jack's lawyer) is clearly aware of how messed up this is and is using it as an example of how his client was railroaded through the courts. The prosecution's only piece of evidence seems to have been that Jack owns a clown outfit.
46	* HotPursuit: And pretty exciting for (mostly) being confined to (what is [[CaliforniaDoubling supposed to be]]) the Golden State Freeway. (This movie was actually filmed in Texas.)
47	* ImagineSpot:
48	** After Jack tells Natalie about his job as a clown and it leading to his arrest in a case of mistaken identity, there's a brief moment where we see him from her perspective and in full costume.
49	** At the end of the chase, Jack imagines himself leaving the car to face the cops, flipping his hand at them sarcastically, and getting shot to death in a SuicideByCop scenario.
50	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Jack shoots out the tire of a cop car driving at 90 MPH. Of course it really was improbably as Jack fired ''accidentally'' after hitting a pothole while pointing the gun. The shot causes the helicopter reporter to speculate that he was a Marine sharpshooter.
51	* IndulgentFantasySegue: At the end, Jack imagines [[SuicideByCop going out in a blaze of glory]]...but comes to his senses.
52	* IronicEchoCut: Several.
53	** After Natalie learns how Jack was arrested in the first place, she tells him she couldn't picture him as a clown...following an ImagineSpot she's doing ''just that''.
54	** 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.
55	** 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.
56	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Jack, an escaped fugitive (although for a crime he didn't commit), and Natalie, who destroyed a police helicopter with one shot, escape to Mexico]].
57	* KentBrockmanNews: Given that the chase is the very kind of frivolous news story that networks love, there's a bit of an example in every one of the news stations carrying the story. Many of the examples are undercut by {{ironic echo cut}}s back inside the car, with Jack and Natalie acting the very opposite way that the news team posits.
58	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: [[spoiler: Natalie]], who shoots at a ''police helicopter'', for Pete's sake! To paraphrase Music/MeatLoaf: I would do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I would not do ''that''.
59	* AMatchMadeInStockholm: Because Jack isn't such a bad guy after all. But it's an interesting case, because much of Natalie's actions later in the film stem more out of spite toward her parents than sympathy for Jack. Of course, they end up together in Mexico in the end.
60	* MiscarriageOfJustice: What got Jack sent to San Quentin in the first place: an old lady saw him in a clown outfit, thought he was the "Red-Nosed Robber", and got him arrested. A crucial piece of evidence that would exonerate him was disallowed, and he was convicted. Obviously, Jack is no longer taking his chances with the justice system.
61	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Voss is specifically referred to as "California's version of Creator/DonaldTrump". By extension, this would make Natalie a (somewhat older) fictionalized Ivanka Trump.
62	* NonIronicClown: 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.
63	* PerpetualTourist: At the very end of the film, we see that [[spoiler:the fugitive lovers have fallen into this lifestyle after fleeing to Mexico]].
64	* PopTheTires: Sheen's character, (an escaped inmate) shoots 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...
65	* PrisonRape: "You know what they do to guys like you in prison? OH GIRLFRIEND! OH GIRLFRIEND!"
66	* PutDownYourGunAndStepAway: Hammond despite being unarmed at the time. He uses a [[ProductPlacement Butterfinger]] as a stand in. It works, way too well.
67	--> ''"Makes a handy weapon in a pinch."''
68	* RunForTheBorder: Escaping over the borders to Mexico.
69	* ScreamingWoman: Natalie bawls hysterically during the first few moments of her kidnapping, although she eventually [[TookALevelInBadass toughens up]].
70	* SignatureHeadgear: Natalie's chic white sun bonnet....[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic which is blows off as Jack is spiriting her away from civilization]].
71	* SpoofAesop: Calling all repressed, conservative rich kids! If you [[spoiler: disobey your parents, take a lot of stupid risks, and ultimately break the law]], you'll [[spoiler: end up happier than you've ever been in your life]]!
72	* TheStinger: In a scene that is [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment detached from the rest of the film]], Jack Hammond suddenly pops up in clown makeup, delivering Colonel Kilgore's famous monologue from ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' - in a ''dead-on'' Robert Duvall accent. It's also a BrickJoke: An earlier scene had Natalie imagining Jack as a clown when she learned about how he got arrested.
73	* StrawmanNewsMedia: Every single media outlet in Southern California is vapid. 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 DrinkingGame: drink whenever some reporter tells you their channel is the first to bring you ''any''thing about the chase.
74	* [[ThatManIsDead 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?"
75	* VanityLicensePlate: Natalie's BMW has the California plate "4NATLEE".
76	* VomitDiscretionShot: We don't actually ''see'' Natalie blow chunks...
77	* VomitIndiscretionShot: But we ''do'' see the vomit ''completely cover the windshield'' of a pursuing police car.
78	--> '''Hammond''': [[CaptainObvious That's a lot of puke.]]

Context Film / TheChase1994