44 Fun Facts About Tropic Thunder

In Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus declares he is 'a dude playing a dude, disguised as' what?

Another dude: Lazarus barks it at a brainwashed Tugg, then adds, 'You a dude that don't know what dude he is!'

Ben Stiller got the idea for Tropic Thunder while playing a small role in which Steven Spielberg film?

Empire of the Sun gave Stiller a bit part in 1987, just as actor friends were coming home from war-film shoots talking like real veterans. That vanity became his target.

Which British comedian plays Damien Cockburn, the overwhelmed director in Tropic Thunder?

Steve Coogan's Cockburn, told by the studio to control his stars or be shut down, drops them into the jungle to film them with hidden cameras.

In Tropic Thunder, which action franchise made Tugg Speedman the world's highest-grossing star?

Scorcher made Speedman a star, but the fake trailer for its sixth chapter, Global Meltdown, admits the fatigue: 'Here we go again. Again.'

What is the title of Tugg's box-office bomb in which he played a farm boy who can talk to animals?

Simple Jack flopped, yet deep in the jungle it has devoted fans: Tugg's kidnappers adore the film and make him re-enact it several times a day.

Robert Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus is a method actor of what nationality?

The script made him Irish until Downey said he could improvise better as an Australian, as he had in Natural Born Killers.

Kirk Lazarus stays in character until he's done what?

DVD commentary: that is Lazarus's deadpan reply when asked why he is still in character, moments after insisting there is no film left to shoot.

What is the name of the Black soldier Kirk Lazarus plays in Tropic Thunder's film-within-a-film?

Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris put a white actor in dark makeup, a risk Stiller took seriously enough to screen the film for the NAACP before release.

Robert Downey Jr. said he modeled Kirk Lazarus on Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Farrell and which other actor?

Russell Crowe completed the recipe; when Stiller first pitched the part, Downey called it 'the stupidest idea I've ever heard', then took it anyway.

Which actor cameos as the other monk in Satan's Alley, Kirk Lazarus's fake trailer in Tropic Thunder?

Tobey Maguire plays himself as the second monk, a nod to Wonder Boys (2000), in which he and Downey had shared the screen.

Jack Black's Jeff Portnoy is famous for which family comedy franchise?

The Fatties: Fart 2 trailer spoofs Eddie Murphy playing every member of a family.

Which character does Brandon T. Jackson play in Tropic Thunder?

Alpa Chino, a pun on Al Pacino, is a swaggering rapper with a secret: he is gay, and gives himself away by naming his crush, Lance.

What is the name of the energy drink that the rapper character keeps plugging in Tropic Thunder?

Booty Sweat gets plugged everywhere: the film opens with a fake ad selling it with Bust-A-Nut bars 'at concessions now', and its owner pushes it mid-interview.

Which comedian has said he turned down Tropic Thunder's rapper role because the character was gay?

Kevin Hart said in a 2015 interview that he passed on the part because of what people might think, putting it down to his own insecurities.

In Tropic Thunder, Kevin Sandusky is the only cast member who did what before the shoot?

Went to the boot camp, and read the script and the book too: that homework is why Lazarus turns to him to read the map once the stars are lost.

In Tropic Thunder, Nick Nolte's Four Leaf Tayback claims to have lost what in Vietnam?

His hands, he says, were lost in Vietnam, the loss at the centre of his memoir; once the gang captures him, he is revealed to have both.

In Tropic Thunder, where did Four Leaf Tayback really serve, as he confesses to Cody?

The Coast Guard sanitation department was as close as he got: Four Leaf admits he has never left the United States and wrote his war memoir 'as a tribute'.

How does director Damien Cockburn die in Tropic Thunder?

He steps on an old land mine moments after dropping the actors in the jungle, and Tugg insists the death was a stunt to sharpen their performances.

What is the name of the heroin-producing gang the actors stumble into in Tropic Thunder?

Flaming Dragon's ransom call falls flat: studio boss Les Grossman takes the gang for a rival talent agency poaching his star and curses them out.

Which TV host tells Tugg Speedman he is 'childless and alone'?

Tyra Banks, playing herself, tells him he is on the wrong side of 40 and that someone close to him has said, 'One more flop and it's over.'

What contractual perk does Tugg's agent fight Les Grossman over?

A TiVo, in the end, saves the day: the agent bursts from the jungle clutching one and hurls it into the path of a rocket fired at the escaping helicopter.

In Tropic Thunder, what does Les Grossman offer Tugg's agent, besides money, to let Tugg die in the jungle?

A Gulfstream jet, a G5, is the bribe: Grossman would rather file an insurance claim on his fading star than pay the kidnappers a ransom.

Who plays Tugg's agent, Rick 'The Pecker' Peck, in Tropic Thunder?

Matthew McConaughey landed the part late; in Ben Stiller's first plan for the film, Stiller himself was going to play the agent.

Which actor was cast as Tugg's agent in Tropic Thunder but withdrew in 2007 after a personal crisis?

Owen Wilson dropped out in August 2007, asking to be allowed to 'heal in private'; the part was recast within weeks, with the film already shooting in Hawaii.

Tom Cruise was originally going to cameo as which character before Les Grossman was created?

Tom Cruise was first lined up to cameo as agent Rick Peck, then suggested adding a studio-head character, which became Les Grossman.

Which feature of Les Grossman's look in Tropic Thunder was Tom Cruise's own idea?

Oversized hands were Cruise's request. His role was meant to be a surprise, kept out of the trailer, until leaked photos of him in costume spoiled it.

Which actor plays Rob Slolom, Les Grossman's studio assistant?

Bill Hader plays Slolom as the boss's eager echo: when Grossman dangles a bribe before Tugg's agent, he chimes in, 'Welcome to the goodie room.'

Which rapper's 'Get Back' plays as Les Grossman dances through Tropic Thunder's end credits?

Ludacris's 'Get Back' closes the film, and the routine stuck: Cruise revived it on stage two years later, dancing beside Jennifer Lopez.

On which Hawaiian island was Tropic Thunder mostly filmed?

Kauaʻi's jungle plays Southeast Asia here, as it once played Jurassic Park's island; no bigger production had ever been staged there.

What wrap gift did Ben Stiller give Tropic Thunder's crew?

Survivor T-shirts, reading 'I survived Ben Stiller's Comedy Death Camp', closed a 13-week shoot in which centipede bites sent a couple of people to hospital.

At the end of Tropic Thunder, what does Tugg Speedman finally win?

An Academy Award, at last: the hidden-camera jungle footage is released as Tropic Blunder, a hit that takes eight Oscars and saves his career.

In Tropic Thunder, Cody Underwood's reputation as a pyromaniac stems from nearly blinding which Freaky Friday actress?

Jamie Lee Curtis is the near-miss Cody fears will ruin him, and when it is later thrown back at him as a blinding, he protests: 'Almost!'

What was the title of the fake making-of mockumentary released to promote Tropic Thunder?

Rain of Madness follows a German documentarian around the troubled set. Paramount held it back until two weeks into the film's run, then gave it away on iTunes to keep the buzz going.

Which organization's chairman, Timothy Shriver, called for a boycott of Tropic Thunder in 2008?

Special Olympics and other disability groups objected to the film's repeated use of a slur; the studio pulled a promo website but said no cuts would be made.

Tropic Thunder ended which film's four-weekend run at the top of the US box office in August 2008?

The Dark Knight had led for four straight weekends until the R-rated comedy opened with $25.8 million, then held first place for two more weekends itself.

Who was Ben Stiller's first choice to play fading action star Tugg Speedman in Tropic Thunder?

Keanu Reeves was the plan, with Stiller himself in a supporting part; he later changed his mind and took the lead.

Who won the Oscar for which Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for his role in Tropic Thunder?

Heath Ledger won posthumously for playing the Joker; Paramount had campaigned for Downey with joke 'For Your Consideration' ads for his fictional actor, Kirk Lazarus.

In Tropic Thunder's rescue plan, Jeff Portnoy is led into the gang's camp tied to the back of which animal?

A water buffalo carries the 'captured' Portnoy while Kirk poses as the farmer who caught him, a ruse that unravels when the gang's boss spots holes in the story.

Tom Cruise brought Les Grossman back on stage at which 2010 event?

The MTV Movie Awards put Cruise back in character as Grossman, dancing with Jennifer Lopez to 'Get Back', the song from the film's closing credits.

Which Marine Corps base hosted an early Tropic Thunder screening, with its stars flown in by helicopter?

Camp Pendleton's Marines drove Stiller, Downey and Black from the airstrip in armored Humvees, helmets and flak jackets required, in place of the usual premiere limousines.

Which actor co-wrote Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Etan Cohen?

Justin Theroux, later the star of HBO's The Leftovers, also turns up on screen, as a helicopter gunner in the film and as the German director in its spoof making-of documentary.

Which animated 2008 release did Tropic Thunder beat to the top of the box office on its opening weekend?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars opened the same weekend of August 15, 2008 and finished third, while Tropic Thunder took $25.8 million for first place.

Tropic Thunder's tie-in mockumentary spoofed which real documentary about a famously troubled film shoot?

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) recorded Francis Ford Coppola's chaotic Apocalypse Now shoot, one of the Vietnam epics Tropic Thunder itself sends up.

The actors in Tropic Thunder think they are in Vietnam, but which opium-growing region have they strayed into?

The Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet: after hours in a helicopter, one of them works out they are 'most likely Myanmar or Laos'.