The Naked Gun

If you only see one movie this year... you've got to get out more often.
Naked Gun 2½ trailer

A film Spin-Off of Police Squad!, following Police Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) as he continues to get into trouble. The films serve as parodies of the cop genre, and let nothing, including the blatant warping of reality and breaks in the fourth wall, get in the way of a good gag. The genius of the Drebin character is that Nielsen plays him almost totally straight: he's a buffoon, but he acts like a completely serious film detective even as lunacy explodes all around him, almost as if he's wandered in from a different movie.

Features slapstick, Visual Puns and Shout Outs by the bucketful. At three movies, this actually lasted longer than the TV series it was based on. In all three Frank's love interest is Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).

The films were:

  • The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) -While trying to clear the name of Officer Nordberg, Drebin uncovers a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II
  • Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) - Drebin meets the new man in Jane's life, who is involved in a kidnapping scheme.
  • Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) - Drebin comes out of retirement and infiltrates a gang to find out what is the target they are going to destroy. He must also save his faltering marriage.

A fourth movie, to be titled Naked Gun 4: The Rhythm of Evil was in pre-production, but will likely be scrapped due to the death of Leslie Nielsen on November 28, 2010 (however before his untimely death, Nielsen had claimed that he was not involved in any way with the 4th film).


Tropes used in The Naked Gun include:

Frank: Oh by the way, I faked every orgasm.

Frank: Oh it's all right, I'm sure that we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. (to Quentin) Isn't that right, Mr. Poopy Pants?

Frank: Yes. Well, when I see five weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards. That's *my* policy.
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar, you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones.

  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Or in Frank's case, burglary, arson, and sexual assault with a concrete dildo. Though the last one was Not What It Looks Like, so it falls somewhere between this trope and Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking.
  • Brick Joke: The zoo animals in the second movie.
    • In the first film, "Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo!"
    • Also in the first film, the body from the meat factory? The still-ringed finger is found later in a hot dog at the baseball game.
  • Butt Monkey: Nordberg.
    • Dr. Meinheimer in The Smell of Fear.
  • The Cameo: Weird Al Yankovic in all three films.
    • In the first film, Frank's dramatic speech is cut short when Ed informs him that the massive crowd gathered outside his plane is actually for Weird Al. They go ecstatic when he departs the plane.
    • In The Smell of Fear: As a criminal who has taken Ed, Nordberg, and the rest of the station hostage. Frank accidentally incapacitates him when opening a door too fast.
    • The Final Insult: As Himself as Vanna White's escort at the Oscars.
    • Thanks to the above-mentioned Oscars, the third movie has a whole pile of these.
    • In the first movie, Reggie Jackson is the one brainwashed into trying to assassinate the Queen.
  • Casual Danger Dialog: Usually Drebin, but the driving instructor in the first movie puts Hindu cows to shame.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Anna Nicole Smith also appears on a Playboy cover in the third movie... which lampshades this at the same time by giving Anna's character a Gag Penis. Think about it for a second.
  • Chalk Outline: Spoofed by type and position. For type, there's a stick figure and an Egyptian, and for position, there's Chalk Outlines that appear on a building's walls, or roof, or one that appears floating on the water.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The cuff links in the first movie.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: During the romance montage of the first movie, Frank and Jane come laughing out of a movie only for it to turn out to be Platoon.
  • The Comically Serious: The villain often fills this role.
    • Drebin as well, since Leslie Nielsen's shtick is saying the most absurd lines with a straight face.
  • Comically Small Bribe: Taken Up to Eleven. Drebin starts out bribing his informant but he starts bribing Drebin back to find out what Drebin is investigating (Drebin even lends the informant twenty dollars to bribe him with). By the end of the exchange, Drebin is ahead twenty dollars and the informant owes him another 20.
  • Continuity Nod: The car Frank and Jane drive in the flashback to their wedding in 33 1/3 is the same solar-powered car that Hapsburg shows to his co-conspirators in the previous film.
  • Cosmopolitan Council: In the beginning of the first movie. It includes Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, Ugandan President Idi Amin, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, among others.
    • As of October 2011, all of these people are either dead or no longer in power. That's right, it took 23 years for the opening sequence of The Naked Gun to be completely outdated.
  • Creator Cameo: David Zucker (director of the first two films) appears as Davy Crockett and later as the teleprompter operator in and 33⅓, respectively.
  • Credits Gag: Happens in all three films. They include people getting credited by their single spoken line, people getting credited for made-up roles like "Second Second Assistant Director," "No Animals Were Harmed DURING THE FILMING... HOWEVER, SOME SPECIES DID BECOME EXTINCT DURING PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY", and the safety warning, "In Case of Tornado: SOUTHWEST CORNER OF BASEMENT."
  • Crush Parade: At the end of the first film, Vincent Ludwig falls off a high ledge onto a street below where he gets hit by a bus, flattened by a steam-roller, and then trampled by a marching band playing "Louie Louie."

Ed: Oh, Frank! It's horrible. It's so horrible!
Frank: (comforting Ed) I know...
Ed: My father went the same way...

Frank: Which button do I press?
Jane: No, not that one!

Drebin: Say, nice beaver.
Jane: Thanks, I just had it stuffed.
(hands down a literal stuffed and mounted beaver)

Rocko Dillon: (firing a gun over the heads of the audience) Freeze, and nobody gets hurt!
(a grip falls from the rafters into the orchestra)
Rocko Dillon: Well... from now on!

  • Karma Houdini:
    • Tanya Peters never gets punished (at least not onscreen) for being affiliated with Rocko Dillon's terrorist gang, which is particularly odd since in the end she is the last surviving member of the gang. Sure, we know that she switched sides to the good guys by telling Frank where the bomb had been hidden, but that shouldn't absolve her from punishment for having knowingly collaborated with killers. Then again, this is a spoof, after all.
    • Subverted in the case of Hapsburg in the second film; see Dropped a Bridge on Him above.
  • Lame Comeback: In the third movie, Jane is so mad with Frank she calls him a "white Anglo male!"
    • Jane's subplot is a massive spoof of feminist tropes and one big Shout-Out to Thelma and Louise, so such insult is only to be expected.
  • Last-Name Basis: Even Nordberg's wife doesn't seem to know his first name.
  • The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Burglary, arson, and sexual assault with a concrete dildo.
  • Lethal Klutz: The third movie shows that Drebin has accidentally killed his fiancee, a fact he remains unaware of.
  • Letting the Air Out of the Band: "The president of the United States!" No it's not.
  • L Is for Dyslexia
  • Los Angeles Doubling: The baseball scenes in the first film, which take place at an Angels home game, were actually filmed in Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles is doubling for Anaheim here).
  • The Man Behind the Man: Papshmear from parts 1 and 3 who was a liaison for a mysterious organization who's only purpose is to spread mayhem around the world. You can hear him utter "Gaddafi" over the phone in the 3rd movie.
  • Meaningless Meaningful Words

"The problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans, but this is our hill and these are our beans."

  • Mistaken for Gay: When trying to gain access to the baseball field in part 1, Drebin knocks out one of the umpires so he can steal his outfit. He throws the unconscious umpire on a table and undoes both their pants, when a cleaning guy happens to walk in. He just shrugs it off with "sorry, fellas," and continues his rounds.
  • Move Along, Nothing to See Here: In front of an exploding fireworks factory.
  • My Girl Is Not a Slut: Sadly, she is (we're talking about Drebin's first girl).
  • Mythology Gag: Dozens, the best known of which would be the Automobile Opening.
    • The second movie homages the four-foot shootout from the series.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: At the beginning of the third movie, Frank has a nightmare (which at first is presented as if it's really happening) in which he's at a train station and finds himself trying to stop a Mafia shootout. Things quickly become even more complicated when President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II wander into the crossfire....and then a gang of deranged postal workers show up....
  • Noodle Incident: In , after surviving an assassination attempt:

Jane: Oh Frank! Who would want to kill you?
Frank: Before tonight? Only the cable company...

"I'm Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Police Squad! And don't ever let me catch you guys in America. (Drebin then falls out the window)

  • Whole-Plot Reference: Romantic subplot aside, 33⅓ is basically a comedic retelling of White Heat. A police officer infiltrates a prison, befriends a violent criminal that loves his mother, and helps him escape in order to determine the site of his next crime.
  • You Are Too Late: Two of the henchmen in the second movie tell this to Frank as he interrogates them.
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