Just For Fun / McBain

A long-running American action franchise centering on McBain, a musclebound, gun-toting, one-liner dropping, Germanic-accented, possibly spaced-out-on-some-kind-of-decongestant Los Angeles Super Cop who goes up against drug cartels, Commie Nazis, and other assorted scum and villainy, usually backed by McBain's Arch-Enemy, Senator Mendoza. Considered either the Trope Codifier for many Action Hero tropes, or a shameless copycat of earlier films that had already codified those tropes, the franchise is famously heavy on unnecessary violence, quippy dialogue, and senseless explosions, and thus is usually either regarded as classic or utterly reprehensible.

Nonetheless, the first film in particular enjoys a strong cult following in Springfield, ██, where leading man Rainier Wolfcastle was once something of a local celebrity. Indeed, Supreme Court Justice Bartholomew Simpson, who grew up in Springfield, has cited the franchise as a personal favorite in his childhood.

Films in this series

• McBain (1990): When his partner Scoey is gunned down by a hit-man sent by the twisted Senator Mendoza, LA cop McBain calls in some old favors from his special forces days, and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• McBain II: You Have the Right to Remain Dead (1991): Possibly intended as a meta-commentary on the perceived Action movie Cliché Storm of the first film, the sequel involves a young boy discovering that his favorite action hero, McBain, is real. This film has been compared unfavorably to Halloween III: Season of the Witch for dramatically deviating from the series formula, and has been mocked as McBain: The Magic Ticket. The producers were later involved in a lawsuit over similarities between this film and Columbia Pictures' Last Action Hero.
• McBain III: Let's Get Silly (1992): Intended as a return to form after the controversial II. Having retired from breakneck fast-paced action after the events of the first film, McBain has used his newfound fame to start his own comedy talk show, "Up Late With McBain". Our hero is forced to come out of retirement when his studio is attacked, resulting in the death of his music guy, Scoey, Jr. Received enthusiastically upon release, audiences have since turned on it for over-reliance on comedy.
• McBain IV: Fatal Discharge (1994):^note  Originally released as Gunplay on Meatloaf Mountain, which it's still known by in Canada. The Simpsons Guide to Springfield gives Big Flamin' Payback as an alternate title. At one point Troy McClure was in talks to be in the film; this fell through, causing moderate production delays. While delivering Unicef pennies to impoverished children in a non-American loser country, McBain runs afoul of Commie Nazis.
• The Incredible Shrinking McBain: Also known simply as McBain V. Infamous for its undisguised political commentary against Ross Perot and corny mad science plot.
• McBain VI: The Final Chapter: Turned out to be inappropriately named.
• McBain VII: The Droopening (2008)
• McBain VIII through XI: Implied by The Simpsons Guide to Springfield.
• McBain XII: Simon Says Die: Mentioned in The Simpsons Guide to Springfield.

Has nothing to do with the 1991 film of the same name starring Christopher Walken and Michael Ironside. Or the 1988 film Bulletproof starring Gary Busey as Super Cop Frank McBain.

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Dis series contains da following Tropes:

• Action Girl: McBabe, the hero's Distaff Counterpart and former partner in Special Forces, who is just as capable of mowing down Mooks.
• Action Hero: Do you really need to ask?
• A-Team Firing: McBain knows of no other kind of firing.
• Bond One-Liner: The hero drops some iconic ones.
  McBain: [bursting out of an ice sculpture] Ice to see you!
  
  McBain: [throws Mendoza out of a high rise office building onto a fuel truck, which promptly explodes] Meeting adjourned.
• Bottomless Magazines: Zig-zagged. McBain fires an absurd number of rounds from his submachine gun while killing Mendoza's mooks, but ejects an empty magazine afterwards.
• The Cartel: Strongly implied to be Mendoza's backers.
• Da Chief: McBain's superior is constantly haranguing him about his maverick methods. Though to his credit, he does cut McBain's probation short to allow him to investigate Scoey's death. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice a bit of Actor Allusion here, as the uncredited actor playing Da Chief had previously played a similar role on popular crime show McGarnagle.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Mendoza's actor is an accomplished member of the London Philhomarnic Orchestra, even touring with Cypress Hill, despite being originally supposed to play with Peter Frampton.
• Commie Nazis: The bad guys in Fatal Discharge. It's explained that, despite McBain's simplistic name for them, they are a fringe Eastern German movement which follows Strasserist^note A left-leaning branch of Nazis which advocated for the overthrow of capitalism, which were ruthless purged by Hitler in 1934 doctrine, indicating that the writers did in fact do a little research. However, most of the scenes that explain this were cut for time.
• Corrupt Politician: In addition to being the leader of The Cartel, Mendoza is also a Senator.
• Cowboy Cop: He was already playing it fast and loose before, but after Scoey's death, McBain goes full loose cannon to bring Mendoza down.
  Da Chief: I don't wanna hear it, McBain! That... that cannon of yours is against regulations! In this department, we go by the book!
  [McBain shoots the book out of the Chief's hands, blowing out a huge chunk of it as well as the wall behind him]
  McBain: Bye, book.
• Critic-Proof: An In-Universe example for the Simpsons universe. If Jay Sherman's scathing commentary is anything to go by, critics despise the McBain series. It's still hugely popular with moviegoers and makes Rainier Wolfcastle one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Mendoza goes up in a mushroom cloud after being thrown out of a skyscraper and landing on what is presumably a gasoline tanker.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Senator Mendoza, a madman who controls a massive portion of the global drug trade.
• Disney Villain Death: McBain finally defeats his enemy, Mendoza, by tossing him out the window of his building, where he plummets hundreds of feet to his death before landing on a truck full of gasoline, which then blows up.
• Fantastic Drug: Senator Mendoza's brainchild is "Swank", a drug ten times more addictive than marijuana.
• Fight Scene Failure: Played for Laughs - Scoey's death sees him accidentally shot by a hit-man who was aiming for McBain...repeatedly, even after Scoey has recoiled away from McBain and left the hit-man a clear line of fire to the guy he was actually aiming for. Some of the shots, after the camera angle changes a second time after the shooting begins, also strangely seemed to have been fired from behind Scoey despite the hit-man being in front of him. McBain meanwhile fails to do anything during the thirteen times that Scoey was shot, only shooting ineffectually at the hit-man after he's already made his escape on a motorcycle.
• For the Evulz: Senator Mendoza deals drugs not just to make money, but to see people suffer. When he introduces "Swank" to his minions, they have a toast "to human misery."
• Hand Cannon: McBain wields a massive revolver the size of his head that goes against proper regulation. He doesn't care; he needs all the firepower he can get to avenge Scoey's death, and the standard-issue police pea shooters just won't cut it.
• Little Useless Gun: Da Chief tries to foist a pea shooter off on McBain that he can hold between his thumb and forefinger. Our hero, of course, is having none of it.
• Retirony: In one of the most tragic and dramatic examples in the history of film, Scoey's death at the hands of Mendoza's goons comes a mere two days before his planned retirement.
• Say My Name:
  • Possibly the most iconic part of the first film.
    Scoey: Just... do one thing for me. Get... Mendoza...
    McBain: MENDOZAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
  • Flipped around near the end when Mendoza is defeated:
    Mendoza: AAAAAAAAAUGH! MCBAAAAAAAAAIN!
• Skyward Scream: McBain's shout of "MENDOZAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" after Scoey's death is shot this way.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Scoey is shot a whole thirteen times by a hit-man, practically making him being even able to deliver his Last Words improbable.
• Those Wacky Nazis: Obergruppenfuhrer Wolfcastle, who insists on wearing his old uniform but has apparently rejected his former Nazis ways.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Mendoza is tied to a vast drug dealing conspiracy, but as far as most people know he's merely an upstanding pillar of the community.

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