The film centers around a workaholic named Walter Davis (Willis) who goes out with his sister-in-law's cousin named Nadia Gates (Basinger). The date goes OK at first, but after she has some alcohol, things go wrong, as her drunken escapades quickly wrecks Walter's life. And on top of this, Nadia's ex-boyfriend David Bedford (Larroquette) stalks them everywhere they go, with the intent of winning back Nadia.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Happens to Walter when Nadia runs off to the bathroom to the disco with Walter peeking around looking for her until a bouncer approaches him and Walter explaining his story to him.
- Actor Allusion: John Larroquette's David Bedford is like a psychotic version of Dan Fielding.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: David might be a psychotic stalker who's willing to kill just to get Nadia back, but when Walter pulls a gun on him, he screams and tells him "I am not worth it".
- Amoral Attorney: David is a defense attorney who also happens to be a psychotic stalker.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Invoked when David blackmails Nadia into marrying him just to secure Walter his freedom. Then gets defied at the end of the film when Nadia, drunken over spike chocolates via Walter rejects him.
- Angry Guard Dog: Rambo the guard dog at the Bedford household, who won't quit barking since Walter arrived. Both Harold and the Butler, Jordan, struggle to keep him quiet, even with the dog chasing the latter off.
- As Himself: Jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan appears in a scene and plays for Walter and Nadia. They used to be jamming buddies when Walter played guitar himself.
- Bad Date: Oh, yeah.
- Berserk Button: For David, who blows up when Walter lets Nadia drink and thinks he's going out with her just for sex.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty:
- During the wedding, Rambo still won't stop barking, which drives Judge Bedford to declare Jordan kill the dog. Shortly after, a gunshot is heard and the barking ceases.
- Also the morning before the wedding, a guest asks why David is smiling cheerfully, with the maid responding she hasn't seen him like that since he killed the cat.
- Blackmail: David does this first to Nadia when he proposes marriage in exchange for Walter's freedom, which she reluctantly accepts. To do this, he convinces the judge (his father) in exchange for Walter's freedom and having the wedding at his house, he'll move to another state and will never have to see him again. The Judge accepts. Unfortunately that leads to....
- Blackmail Backfire: ...when everything falls apart all thanks to chocolates spiked with brandy via Walter.
- Blind Date: Not only is it part of the main plot, it's also the name of the film.
- Break the Cutie: Walter goes through hell on his blind date with Nadia, from dealing with her behavior, getting fired from his job, getting his car destroyed, being mugged, and stalked by Nadia's psychotic stalker ex, David.
- Bullet Dancing: Inverted. Walter gets a gun (that was left in the car from the robbery) and pulls it on David, making him dance and moonwalk. After he screams, "I HATE THAT SHIT!!!", he fires at his feet as cops appear and arrest Walter.
- Butt-Monkey: Walter, very much so. He gets attacked by David, gets fired from his job, gets mugged, gets his car damaged, arrested and nearly sent to jail, all during his date.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Nadia has an allergy to alcohol that gets her extremely drunk as if she went on a huge binge, just by drinking ONE glass of champagne.
- Car Meets House: A variant, with David crashing his car into a pet store, a paint store and a flour shop during his stalking of Walter and Nadia.
- Chase Fight: A small one starts when David rams into Walter's car, with him ramming back. It ends shortly with Walter escaping and David crashing into the flour shop.
- Chekhov's Gun: When the cops scare away the women mugging Walter, they throw their gun into his care before they run off. Later on at the party, when Walter and David fight, Walter finds it and aims it at David and shoots at him right before his arrest.
- The Chew Toy: While Walter goes through hell on his date, David has it rough while stalking Walter and Nadia, leading him to crash his car three times into a pet store, a paint store (that one caused by a monkey from the previous crash and covered his eyes), and a flour store. He doesn't have it much better afterwards with a father who despises him, gets locked outside his home at one point, and getting rejected by a drunken Nadia at their wedding.
- Cock Fight: A drunken Walter and David have a brief one at the party before Walter finds the gun in his car.
- Deadpan Snarker: Judge Bedford, with his barbs being targeted at David.
- Determinator: During the date, no matter how hard Walter and Nadia try, David ALWAYS finds them. He even says to Walter "you can't get rid of me that easily" before their fight.
- Dinner with the Boss: Walter and Nadia meet the former's boss at a fancy restaurant. Unfortunately for Walter, that was when Nadia's drunkenness kicks in, ruining everything and getting Walter fired.
- Dysfunctional Family: Judge Harold Bedford really hates his son, David. David's not too fond of him either.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite the fact the date with Nadia ruins Walter's life, Walter continues to pine for her after she convinces David to grant Walter's freedom in exchange for marriage. In the end, Walter gets the girl.
- Emerging from the Shadows: A Justified version when Walter meets Nadia at her apartment while she's finishing getting ready, then the lights go out and Walter lights a match when Nadia comes closer to reveal herself. And it was Love at First Sight, or at least it was at first...
- Every Man Has His Price: David catches up to Walter and Nadia at a disco and attacks the former and when the bouncer steps in, David gives him a sum of cash and continues his attack.
- Evil Is Petty: As part of the deal for Judge Bedford to never see his son for the rest of his life, David wants to have the wedding at his house.
- French Jerk: the waiter at the restaurant played by Armin Shimerman, who sneeringly corrects Walter's pronunciation of the food he;s trying to order, causing Nadia to start fighting with him.
- Funny Background Event: After the mugging, Walter lets some cops know what happened but they mistaken him for being drunk, so they make him do a sobriety test (i.e. walk in a straight line balanced, lean his head backwards, touch his nose and hold his foot in the air for 10 seconds). While Walter does all this flawlessly, Nadia is seen doing all this in the background, and struggling with it. She even falls down while holding her foot in the air.
- During the Opening Credits, while Walter is getting dressed, you hear a radio ad for "The James Brown Auto Alarm"(Aiow!Aiow!Aiow!Aiow!Aiow!Aiow!...).
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the movie has Walter trying to survive the date itself. The second half has him rescuing Nadia from marrying David.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Doubly subverted as Walter was warned prior to not letting her drink and her reluctant to have a glass of champagne, but when she does, she gets wild.
- Hated by All: David is despised by everyone, including his own parents, due his psychotic behavior. When representing Walter in court, his father, who is the judge, agrees to dismiss the charges as long David agrees to move out of the state, even saying if he’s breaking the law for the first time, but it will be worth it. Everyone attending the wedding agrees that Nadia shouldn’t marry David, especially since she doesn’t love him.
- Heroic BSoD: Everything that happened on the date does this to Walter, making him snap, going on a drunken escapade himself, which culminates in him attacking David and pulling a gun on him, leading to his arrest.
- Innocent Bystander: When David arrives at the disco to attack Walter, he ends up strangling a guy there after the aforementioned bribe of the bouncer.
- Karma Houdini: While Walter would get the girl at the end, David was at worst humiliated by the rejection and could easily go back to stalking Nadia and trying to kill Walter.
- Lady in Red: Nadia wears a red dress during the date and turns into quite the wild one after having a glass of champagne.
- Language Fluency Denial: The wife of the Japanese client Walter's boss has dinner with does this to a drunken Nadia when she tries to talk to her, constantly saying "I no speak-uh English". But then gets subverted when Nadia tells her about California divorce laws where she's entitled to 50% of her husband's assets, to which she replies "50%?".
- Left Stuck After Attack: David after his first meeting with Walter at the museum when he attempts to punch him but gets stuck in a structure.
- Obvious Stunt Double: When Walter sneaks around the Bedford Mansion and has to hide in a bedroom, he slips over a golf ball and falls, and you can tell that is clearly not Bruce Willis taking the pratfall.
- Pet the Dog: David has a teddy bear he sleeps with, and he promises they'll be gone from his father soon.
- Poor Communication Kills: Nadia's condition means she reacts in an extreme way to any alcohol. Walter is only told "Don't get her drunk", so he naturally assumes she can handle one glass.
- Powder Gag: One of the scenes added in the uncredited rewrites is that of a character crashing into a bakery and becoming caked in flour.
- Psychopathic Manchild: David is both a Stalker with a Crush and still sleeps with a teddy bear.
- Rule of Pool: Happens a few times in the film.
- Happens to a waiter during Walter's drunken meltdown at the party.
- When Walter sneaks around the Bedfords' mansion, he jumps into the pool to avoid an attack dog.
- After Nadia rejects David at the wedding, they argue and when the priest tries to intervene, David pushes him into the pool.
- Running Gag
- When David crashes his car into the aforementioned buildings while stalking Nadia and Walter.
- A minor one. With Walter sneaking around the Bedfore household trying to find Nadia, he knocks on her door, calling her name, but someone else comes up and he hides. But when Nadia opens the door, David is standing right by her. Nadia was not amused. Happens twice.
- Sanity Slippage: Ironically, at the time Nadia sobers up, Walter is already driven nuts by her drunken antics and ends up crashing a party hosted by an acquaintance of Nadia and eventually attacks David after being fed up with his own antics which led him to be briefly jailed.
- Slasher Smile: David does this at the start of the aforementioned Chase Fight after yelling at Walter "I'll kill you!".
- Slipping a Mickey: Walter spikes some chocolates with brandy and leaves them for Nadia, which she eats the morning of the wedding, making her intoxicated and rejecting David in front of everyone.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Walter's brother, Ted, is a car salesman who is presented as one of these.
- Stalker with a Crush: David is so smitten with Nadia, he stalks her, which causes her to move twice and during her date with Walter, he cannot be shaken off; not matter where they go, he'll always pop up sooner or later.
- Tempting Fate: After losing his job, getting attacked by David several times, and having his car ransacked, Walter says "it couldn't get any worse". After that, he gets mugged, though cops arrive and scare them off. Unfortunately for him, after he rants on about the muggers, the cops think he's drunk and making him do a sobriety test.
- Translation with an Agenda: Ted repeats his wife's warnings, but makes Nadia sound alluring. When his wife says not to get her drunk, she's gets completely out of control, Ted repeats it in as suggestive tone as possible, making it sound like she's easy.
- The Unfavorite: David, despite being an only child, is absolutely despised by his father, Judge Harold Bedford (the judge who oversees Walter's case).
- Vomit Discretion Shot: After Walter's brother Ted chews him out over getting Nadia drunk and Walter's drunken escapades and mocking him, Walter throws up in his car to spite him. When he does, we only see Ted's reaction.
- Workaholic: Walter is one at the beginning of the film, with barely a social life and a disheveled appearance in work clothes. It ends after he gets fired.
- World of Ham: This film is so full of the ole' Blake Edwards Screwball Comedy Slapstick that Nadia (while drunk), David and even Walter get into the Large Ham Chewing the Scenery.
- Yandere: David wants to win Nadia's heart, even if it means stalking her and trying to kill whoever she's going out with.
