Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder is a 2008 satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director (Steve Coogan) drops them in the middle of a jungle and dies in an accident, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger. Tropic Thunder parodies many prestigious war films (specifically those based on the Vietnam War), the Hollywood studio system, and method acting. The ensemble cast includes Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise.

Stiller developed Tropic Thunder's premise during the production of Empire of the Sun in the spring of 1987, and later enlisted Theroux and Cohen to complete a script. The film was greenlit in 2006 and produced by Stuart Cornfeld, Stiller, and Eric McLeod for DreamWorks Pictures and Red Hour Productions as an international co-production between the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Filming took place in 2007 on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi over thirteen weeks and was the largest film production in the island's history. The extensive marketing campaign included faux websites for three of the main characters and their fictional films, a fictional television special, and selling the energy drink advertised in the film, "Booty Sweat".

Tropic Thunder was released in the United States on August 13, 2008. It received generally positive reviews for its characters, story, faux trailers, and cast performances, with Downey Jr. being the most positively praised for his performance. However, the depiction of people with disabilities and the use of blackface makeup attracted controversy. The film opened at the top of the American box office and retained the number-one position for three consecutive weeks, ultimately grossing more than $195 million worldwide before its release on home media on November 18, 2008. Downey was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, while both he and Cruise received nominations for a Golden Globe.

Tropic Thunder, the memoir of Vietnam veteran John "Four Leaf" Tayback, is being made into a film. Except for supporting actor Kevin Sandusky, the cast — faded action hero Tugg Speedman who is failing to do more prestigious work, overbearing five-time Academy Award-winning Australian extreme method actor Kirk Lazarus, closeted gay rapper Alpa Chino, and drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy — all cause problems for the inexperienced director Damien Cockburn, who cannot control them, resulting in a $4 million pyrotechnics scene being wasted. With the project months behind schedule, studio executive Les Grossman gives Damien an ultimatum: get the cast under control, or the project will be canceled.

On Four Leaf's advice, Damien drops the actors into the middle of the jungle, with hidden cameras and rigged special effects explosions to reshoot the film "guerrilla-style." The actors have guns that fire blanks, along with a map and scene listing that will lead to a helicopter waiting at the end of the route. Unknown to the actors and production, the group has been dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang. Just as the group is about to set off, Damien inadvertently steps on an old land mine, and is blown up, stunning the actors. Tugg, believing Damien faked his death to encourage the cast to give better performances, assures the others that he is alive and that they are still shooting the film. Kirk is unconvinced but joins them in their trek.

When Four Leaf and pyrotechnics operator Cody Underwood try to locate the deceased director, they are captured by "Flaming Dragon" guards. Four Leaf is revealed to have hands; he confesses to Underwood that he actually served in the Coast Guard sanitation department, has never left the United States, and that he wrote his "memoir" as a tribute.^{[of what?]} As the actors continue through the jungle, Kirk, and Kevin (the only actor who bothered to properly prepare for his role), discover that Tugg is leading them in the wrong direction. The resulting argument ends with Kirk leading the rest of the cast back toward the resort they were based at, as an increasingly delirious Tugg is captured by the Flaming Dragon guards. Taken to their base, Tugg believes it is a POW camp from the script. He is then brought forward to the gang's boss, the 12-year-old Tran, who discovers that Tugg is the star of their favorite film, his first attempt at a serious movie (and box-office bomb), Simple Jack, and forces him to reenact that film, several times a day, leaving him brainwashed.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Tugg's agent, Rick "Pecker" Peck, confronts Les over an unfulfilled term in Tugg's contract, which entitles him to a TiVo. Flaming Dragon calls during the discussion and demands a ransom for Tugg, but Les instead delivers a profanity-laden death threat, believing them at first to be a rival talent agency. Les is uninterested in rescuing Tugg, instead delighting by the prospect of a large life insurance payout, if the actor dies. He attempts to bribe Peck with the promise of a Gulfstream V jet and "lots of money, playa..."

Kirk, Alpa, Jeff, and Kevin discover Flaming Dragon's heroin factory. After witnessing Tugg being tortured, they plan a rescue attempt, which is based upon the planned film's script. Kirk impersonates a farmer towing a "captured" Jeff on the back of a water buffalo, distracting Tran and his guards so Alpa and Kevin can infiltrate, and find the prisoners. Kirk's insistence on following the script's poor writing causes his story to quickly fall apart. Knowing their cover has been blown, the actors begin firing their blanks, fooling the gang members into surrendering. Jeff grabs Tran and forces him, at gunpoint, to lead him to the heroin supply, just before their control of the gang falls apart.