"No hesitation. No surrender. No man left behind!"
— The Gang
The gang set off to see "Thunder Gun Express" the year's biggest action movie, but thanks to an ill-timed Presidential visit they encounter a series of obstacles that test just how far they're willing to go to get to the theater in time.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Charlie and Dee take a shortcut through the sewers, where they're able to stand upright and move around freely in the cavernous space.
- Affectionate Parody: The episode is basically an homage to 24, using a ticking clock and mostly in Real Time.
- Ambiguously Bi: Dennis is as excited to see the male lead of the movie "hang dong" as Dee is. The police officer who describes the movie also notes the lead actor "hangs dong" when he tells the Gang it's the greatest movie he's ever seen.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Frank bluffs the entire tour group on a boat into thinking he's the captain by standing at the front of the craft and saying the real skipper was a drug addict.
- Blatant Lies: Every time the gang leaves somebody behind, the others insist that they'll come back for that person. Lampshaded on one occasion:Charlie: We'll come back for you!Mac: That's what I told Dennis and Frank, and I was lying!Dee: I know! So are we!
- Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Frank suggests calling in a fake bomb threat to the theater in order to delay the start of the movie. He eventually ends up doing just that to keep the rest of the gang from seeing it without him.
- Broken Heel: Dee gets her heel caught in a sewer grate as a wall of sewage approaches.
- Call-Back:
- It's mentioned once again that Mac has a habit of watching Dennis have sex.
- The gang annoy people with their appalling manners in the movie theater.
- Chekhov's Gun: Frank mentions at one point early in the episode that he left his wallet behind and he only has a quarter to his name. Upon being arrested at the end of the episode, he uses the quarter to pay for his One Phone Call to call in a fake bomb threat to the theater.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie states that he's familiar with the sewers as he and Frank go down there all the time.
- Dennis checks Elena's ID to make sure she's legal before pursuing her.
- While posing as a riverboat tour guide, Frank passes the time by regaling some very confused tourists with tales of the gang's past exploits, including events from "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom", "Who Pooped the Bed?", "Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare, "The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby", and "The Nightman Cometh".
- Dennis mentions his system after Mac barges in on the sex tape he's listening to.
- Convenient Escape Boat: Frank hijacks a tour boat in order to get to the theater, although he gets arrested almost as soon as he gets off of it.
- Disappeared Dad: As Dennis listens to one of his sex tapes, he mentions (on the tape) that the father of the girl he's trying have sex with left the girl and her family.
- Dwindling Party: The group is whittled down throughout the episode, as Dennis gets stuck in traffic, Frank can't run fast enough to make it onto the train, Mac is too fat to fit down the storm drain and Dee gets her heel stuck in a grate, leaving Charlie alone. With the exception of Frank, however, all of them make it to the movie theater on time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dennis starts listening to one of his sex tapes in the car, and both present-day Dennis and tape-Dennis are shocked when the girl says she's only sixteen. He might still be a creep, but it seems that he does have his limits.
- Evil Is Petty: Frank gets arrested for stealing a ferry and impersonating a captain. He uses his one phone call to call in a bomb threat at the theater the Gang managed to get to so that they can't enjoy the movie either.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The gang neglect to get Frank a ticket for the movie and repeatedly question why he's tagging along with them anyway.
- Hands Play In Theater: Dennis ends up getting a handjob in the theater from Elena, the hot girl whose car he crashes into.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Subverted. After Charlie and Dee ditch him, Mac attempts to steal a motorcycle before realizing that he doesn't actually know how to ride one. He keeps the helmet, though.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Frank claims that the previous boat captain turned out to be "a goddamn junkie" when the tour group questions where he went.
- Kick the Dog: After being arrested for hijacking a tour boat, Frank calls in a bomb threat to the movie theater just so the rest of the Gang can't see the movie without him.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Dennis receives a handjob from the woman he just met in the movie theater.
- Moment Killer: Mac apparently has a habit of doing this with Dennis's dates. He also bursts back into the car just as Dennis and Elena are about to kiss.
- Nightmare Fetishist: The tour group seem to be quite intrigued when Frank tells them that the Schuykill river is filled with strange creatures and the bodies of Philadelphia's murder victims.
- No One Gets Left Behind: The tagline of the movie is "No hesitation. No surrender. No man left behind." Thoroughly averted by the gang, however, who ditch each other at every available opportunity.Dee: We didn't hesitate, we didn't surrender...
Charlie: We did leave a couple of men behind, though.
Mac: That's true.
Dee: But we didn't hesitate to leave those men behind.- And to be fair to Frank, while he did surrender to the police as soon as he got off his stolen tour boat, he certainly didn't hesitate to surrender.
- Oh, Crap!: Dee's reaction as the wall of sewage approaches while she's stuck in a grate.
- One Phone Call: Frank uses his phone call after he's arrested for stealing a riverboat to phone in a fake bomb threat to the movie theater.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Frank doesn't use ANY disguise when he's stealing the tour boat, and even uses his real name as "Captain Frank." He just acts like he's supposed to be there.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frank blames immigrants for the bad traffic. Also, Mac refers to Elena as "the brown girl".
- Race Against the Clock: The gang have exactly twenty-eight minutes to get to the movie theater in time. A ticking clock with the remaining time on is shown during the establishing shots.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The rest of the gang waste no time bailing out of Dennis's car after Frank points out that they could walk faster than he's driving.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After everything they go through in order to ensure they make it to the theater on time, the gang still don't get to see the movie.
- Dennis, who everyone left behind in the car, manages to get to the theatre on time in spite of the traffic and a slight detour with Elena. If everyone had just stayed in the vehicle, they wouldn't have had to jump on a train, steal a tour boat, traipse through the sewers, etc.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Dee and some random police officer state that the male lead of the movie "hangs dong".
- Teeny Weenie: Dee and Charlie imply that Mac has one.
- Toilet Humor: Dee ends up covered in sewage by the time she gets to the theater, and cheerfully informs the woman sat next to her that there's literal shit in her hair.
- Too Much Information: Frank telling the tour group that one of his favorite past-times is banging whores.
- Universal Driver's License: Subverted when Mac tries to steal a motorcycle, he can't get it started and basically fumbles with it from a street corner and leaves it in the intersection.
- You Are Fat: Dee and Charlie gleefully mock Mac for being too fat to fit down the storm drain, and a passing motorcyclist calls him a "fat dickhead".
- What You Are in the Dark: Dennis is all by himself when he listens to the tape of his trying to approach a girl who he soon finds out is underaged, and then throws out the tape. As awful as he is, he truly has standards concerning the age of consent, even without others around to judge him.
