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During the filming of Vietnam veteran John “Four Leaf” Tayback’s memoir Tropic Thunder, the actors—fading action hero Tugg Speedman, five-time Academy Award-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, rapper Alpa Chino, and drug addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy—behave unreasonably (with the exception of newcomer supporting actor Kevin Sandusky). Production is going poorly: rookie director Damien Cockburn is unable to control the actors while filming a large war scene and just five days into shooting, filming is reported to be a month behind schedule. Cockburn is ordered by studio executive Les Grossman to get the production back on track or risk having it shut down.

Acting on Tayback’s advice, Cockburn drops the actors into the middle of the jungle, where he has installed many hidden cameras and special-effect explosions rigged so he can film “guerrilla-style”. The actors have guns that fire blanks, along with a map and a scene listing that will guide them to the helicopter waiting at the end of the jungle route. Unbeknownst to the actors and the production, the five actors have been dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang. Shortly after the group is dropped off, the actors are stunned to see Cockburn blown up by a land mine. Speedman, believing Cockburn faked his death, attempts to convince the other actors that it was a hoax. The gang, believing the actors are DEA agents, are about to ambush them. However, the actors scare away the gang as they aimlessly fire their guns and Speedman persuades Chino, Portnoy, and Sandusky that Cockburn is alive and that they are still shooting the film. Lazarus is unconvinced that Cockburn is alive, but joins the other actors in their trek through the jungle.

When Tayback and pyrotechnics operator Cody Underwood attempt to locate the now-dead director, they are captured by the gang, at which point Tayback is exposed as a fraud when Underwood pulls off his prosthetic hooks to reveal fully functioning arms. Meanwhile, the actors continue to forge through the hostile jungle. After Lazarus and Sandusky discover that Speedman is leading them in the wrong direction, the four actors, tired of walking through the jungle and hoping to be rescued, part ways from Speedman who leaves by himself to follow the film’s scene listing.

The next day, Speedman is captured by several members of Flaming Dragon and is taken to their heroin factory. Believing it is the prisoner-of-war camp from the script, he continues to think he is being filmed. The gang discovers that he is the star of the box office bomb Simple Jack and force him to reenact it several times a day. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Speedman’s agent, Rick Peck, is trying to negotiate with an uninterested Grossman an unfulfilled term in Speedman’s contract that entitles him to a TiVo. Flaming Dragon calls the two and they demand a ransom from them, but Grossman instead curses out the gang. Despite the threats he made to the Flaming Dragon, Grossman then tells Rick that they can benefit more by collecting the insurance claim on Speedman’s death, even offering the agent a share of the profits along with his own personal Gulfstream V.

Lazarus, Chino, Portnoy and Sandusky stumble upon Flaming Dragon’s heroin factory. After seeing Speedman being tortured, they plan an ambush based on the film’s script. Lazarus impersonates a farmer bringing in a captured Jeff, distracting the armed guards so Chino and Sandusky can sneak in to where the captives are held. After the gang notices inconsistencies in Lazarus’ story, the actors open fire on the gang, temporarily subduing them. When the gang realizes that the suspected DEA agents are only actors using guns filled with blanks, they begin firing on the actors.

Chino, Portnoy, Sandusky, and Lazarus locate Speedman and attempt an escape in Underwood and Tayback’s recaptured helicopter. After rejoining with Tayback and crossing a bridge that Underwood has previously rigged to detonate, they meet up with Underwood at the helicopter. Speedman asks to remain behind with the gang which he considers his “family”, but he quickly returns with the murderous gang in hot pursuit. Tayback detonates the bridge just in time for Speedman to reach safety, but as the helicopter takes off, the gang fires an RPG at their helicopter. Rick unexpectedly stumbles out of the jungle carrying a TiVo box and throws it in the path of the RPG, saving them all. Footage from the hidden cameras is compiled into a feature film, Tropic Blunder, which ends up becoming a major critical and box office hit and a multiple-Academy Award winner.

Starring – Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Steve Coogan, Bill Hader
Director – Ben Stiller
Screenplay – Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen
Official Site – http://www.tropicthunder.com/
IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_Thunder

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