A 1989 Biographical film directed by Larry Peerce that follows the life and death of John Belushi (Michael Chiklis).
The movie also stars Ray Sharkey, J. T. Walsh, Patti D'Arbanville, Lucinda Jenney, Alex Rocco, Gary Groomes, Jere Burns, and Clyde Kusatsu.
It was released on August 25, 1989.
Tropes for the film:
- Artistic License – History:
- The film depicts an unnamed John Landis punching out Belushi during the filming of The Blues Brothers. To this day, Landis denies such a thing ever happening.
- In the movie, Dan Aykroyd is shown scolding Belushi for his drug habit. The real Aykroyd was, by his own admission, also a drug user at the time (although not as heavy of one as Belushi).
- Author Avatar: A literal example. J. T. Walsh portrays the book's author Bob Woodward as a main character, interviewing all of Belushi's family and associates to get the story behind the comedian's life. Reportedly when the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival with Woodward in attendance, most of the questions fielded at him were about his inclusion as a character.
- Black Comedy: In general, the film attempts this by making light of John's death whenever it can. It's little wonder why many people, especially those who were close to John, were repulsed by the film.
- Bland-Name Product: Belushi and Aykroyd perform as "the Brothers Blues."
- Brownface: The Puerto Rician cab driver Angel is portrayed by the Italian Ray Sharkey.
- Chess with Death: Belushi's fate is decided on a game of pinball with Angel. Belushi loses.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Belushi attempts to clean up during the filming of Continental Divide, which leads into a scene of him being driven crazy as he goes to a bathroom and hallucinates cocaine everywhere.
- Desecrating the Dead: Getting John's coffin on a plane proves to be difficult, forcing the transporters to take John's body out of the coffin and put him on one of the seats because his coffin won't fit through the door.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The coach who trains John in comedy for some reason is portrayed as this: he literally screams in John's ear to make the audience laugh as hard as possible, implying that John's background put extreme pressure on him to be funny until he literally dropped dead.
- Drugs Are Bad: Hoo boy. The film never lets up on reminding you of this and framing Belushi in the worst possible light for his addictions, treating him as little more than a depraved hedonist who would sell his own mother for his next line of cocaine. Seriously, Requiem for a Dream wasn't as heavy-handed as this film in making drug use out to be bad.
- The Film of the Book: Based on Bob Woodward's book of the same name.
- Gainax Ending: The third act sees Bob Woodward visiting the hotel room where Belushi spent his final days. As he walks through the place, he seems to start experiencing visions of Cathy Smith giving Belushi his fatal speedball. At the same time, Belushi's ghost is challenged to a pinball game by Angel, with the prize being that he gets to live again. He loses, and simultaneously, appears to Woodward himself. The two have a final conversation before Belushi seemingly passes on in Woodward's presence. Then the film abruptly cuts to Belushi as Joe Cocker performing "You Are So Beautiful" on SNL before closing on the title.
- Guardian Angel: Belushi's is a wise-cracking Puerto Rican cab driver named Angel Velasquez. Seeing as he just died of an overdose, Belushi thinks he's pretty lousy at his job.
- Happily Married: Pretty much the only saving grace about Belushi in the movie, in that he was deeply in love with Judy.
- The Hedonist: Belushi is depicted as a man who lives in constant pursuit of pleasure regardless of the consequences.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The movie was universally reviled by Belushi's friends and family as a glorified character assassination of the beloved entertainer. The film glosses over most of Belushi's short-but-illustrious career to focus almost exclusively on his drug addictions, and on top of that, he is portrayed as a boorish, violent, unprofessional, adulterous, openly racist hedonist who cares nothing for the harm his actions cause and cares only about his next high. In real life, while he did struggle with heroin and cocaine addiction, John Belushi was a kind, compassionate, generous man who took his work seriously, lamented the harm his addictions had caused and made a genuine (albeit sadly unsuccessful) effort to clean up his life.
- I Coulda Been a Contender!: As a Mythology Gag to John's impressions of Marlon Brando, the autopsy scene includes John reciting the Trope Namer in regards to how his drug use prematurely ended his life before he could do more.
- Magical Realism: The movie's approach to the Biopic genre is... unique to say the least. The whole movie is basically John Belushi's ghost being taken through a recap of his life by his guardian angel before being forced into playing Chess with Death in the form of a pinball machine game.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Characters representing Belushi's agent Bernie Brillstein, his Noble Rot writing partner Don Novello, and John Landis appear but are not identified as such in the film, with the former two being re-christened as "Armie Fromson" and "Tom Perino", respectively.
- The filmmakers weren't given permission to re-enact real Saturday Night Live sketches, forcing them to create multiple fake sketches for the film, including a "Samurai Baseball" take on Belushi's Samurai character, a Coneheads segment where Belushi plays Bob Woodward interviewing a Conehead version of Nixon played by Dan Aykroyd, and a fictitious Cold Open of the Blues Brothers meeting Elvis Presley and Colonel Sanders.
- One-Word Title: Wired.
- Rage Against the Author: Wired's book author, Bob Woodward, appears as a character in the film, and we get several scenes of John cursing him out for writing a book that aims to use his drug use to slander him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Most of Angel's dialogue is him badgering John on how much he wasted his life and his talent.
- Woodward tells off John for his drug use... while the man's dying on his bed.Bob Woodward: Why'd you take the needle? You were America's Guest, everybody loved you!
- Tagline: "For John Belushi, every night was Saturday Night".
- This Is Going to Be Huge: After a series of flops, Belushi starts writing a movie called Noble Rot, intending it to be his comeback. The very next scene is Belushi's agent telling him that the script is crap.
- Warts and All: Judy expresses a desire for Woodward's biography to give a fair and balanced portrayal of John, acknowledging his substance abuse but also emphasizing some of his softer side. Considering the disdain the movie has for John and it's disinterest in anything but his drug use, Woodward didn't seem to listen.
- Wham Shot: For the first few minutes, Wired appears that it's going to follow a typical biopic formula of looking back on a beloved figure before and after their death, up to the moment Belushi's corpse is wrapped up and placed in a mortuary... only for him to wake up post-mortem and begin freaking out.
