Action movie star Tugg Speedman is on the downslide of his professional career. He wants to be considered a serious actor, but his latest serious role as the title character in "Simple Jack" resulted in negative reviews and ridicule. Comedian Jeff Portnoy is best known for his leading roles in sophomoric comedies, and may be less well known for his rampant drug use. Five time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus is a serious method actor, who immerses himself in whatever the role. On location in southeast Vietnam, they are the stars of "Tropic Thunder", based on Vietnam war veteran 'Four Leaf' Tayback's memoirs of his rescue during the war, that rescue which was considered a near suicide mission for the assigned army force and resulted in him losing both hands. For his role, Caucasian Australian Lazarus even went through a controversial surgical skin dying procedure so that he could convincingly play a black man. Production is not going well since rookie director Damien Cockburn is unable to ...Written by
Huggo
During the battle scene near the start of the "film within the film", Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), yells, "You call in that snake and nape and get us some boom-boom NOW!" Used extensively by American forces during the Vietnam era, "snake and nape" was a close air support ordnance made up of 250-pound MK-81 "Snake-Eye" bombs, and 500-pound M-47 napalm canisters. Essentially, Jeff Portnoy's character "Fats" was telling the radio operator to call for airplanes to come in and drop a combination of conventional bombs and napalm on the enemy, so the wounded could be evacuated. See more »
Goofs
In the opening moments, we are told the location is "South East Vietnam." Later the specific setting is Quang Tri. During the Vietnam War, Quang Tri was South Vietnam's northernmost province. However, it is specified that Quang Tri was the location of the "set" of Tropic Thunder, not that it was the location of the events on which the film was based. See more »
Quotes
Alpa Chino:
[Cody and Four-Leaf are tied to a post]
What're you guys doing here?
Cody:
He has hands!
Four Leaf Tayback:
He killed Damien!
Cody:
Bullshit!
Four Leaf Tayback:
He blinded Jamie Lee Curtis!
Cody:
Almost!
Alpa Chino:
What're you talking about? Damien stepped on an old land mine.
Cody:
Oh, sweet, thank God!
See more »
Crazy Credits
Tom Cruise (as Les) dances and the end credits start. Scenes from the movie are mixed in. See more »
Alternate Versions
Tugg Speedman spitting multiple times at Byong (Reggie Lee) isn't on the region 4 (Australia/New Zealand) DVD. Also Robert Downey Jr's monologue about actors going full retard is slightly edited. The region 4 DVD for some reason doesn't include the line referring to Peter Sellers in Being There. See more »
I couldn't believe the credits when it rolled. He is the man.