'Tropic Thunder 2008'

The Story

The film begins with a series of fake movie trailers setting up our three lead actors: Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Downey), and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). Tugg's a fading action movie stud verging on has-been status who needs a hit or else he'll be bumped to the D-list. His one attempt at serious drama, Simple Jack – a film which was supposed to be a heartwarming story of a man with mental retardation – turned out to be more of a misfire than Ishtar.

Aussie Kirk has five Oscars under his belt and is aching to add a starring role in what's supposed to be the biggest war movie of all time to his resume. Kirk, a Method actor who's so caught up in his craft he actually believes the meaningless philosophy he spouts ("I don't read the script. The script reads me."), undergoes a medical procedure to play an African-American. Jeff's claim to fame is a series of gross-out fart comedies centering on the flabby fictional 'Fatties' family.
Rounding out the group of actors selected to bring the true story of Vietnam war hero John 'Four Leaf' Tayback (Nick Nolte) to life on the screen is rapper-energy drink spokesperson-wannabe actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) and the only guy who bothered to read the script and go to the training camp, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel).
Just days into shooting, the biggest budgeted war movie ever to head into production is weeks behind schedule and director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) must face the wrath of a studio head (Tom Cruise) known for his explosive temper and R-rated language. Threatened with the loss of his job if he doesn't keep his big-name cast in check and get the film back on schedule, Damien does something he shouldn't do under any circumstances. He listens to the obviously out of his mind Tayback and sends his coddled actors out into the jungle to film the movie guerrilla style.

Pampered, clueless, and totally outside their element, the cast of the war movie has no idea they've actually left the set and have stumbled upon real drug lords carrying real guns that shoot real bullets. But then, slowly and reluctantly, the actors begin to catch on to the fact they're no longer tucked safely in the world of make-believe. That is, all of them start to figure it out except for Tugg who stands firm in his belief that the drug lords are all just extras and/or stuntmen.


It's not until Tugg's captured and taken back to their camp that he figures out these guys don't respect the meaning of 'Cut'. Now it's up to his fellow actors to come up with a plan to free Tugg from the bad guys and save the day. And Kirk, being a Method actor extraordinaire, is determined to not break character once while doing it.