"That's my sister, baby. And she's a whole lotta woman."
Foxy Brown is a 1974 Blaxploitation film, one of the first to feature a strong female lead—specifically, Pam Grier, the original Action Girl. Following the success of its spiritual predecessor, Coffy, writer/director Jack Hill wanted to create a sequel that would star Pam Grier reprising her famous role. The working script, titled Burn, Coffy, Burn, was changed at the last minute when American-International Pictures decided they didn't want the movie to be a sequel. The script was quickly rewritten, and Foxy Brown was born.
Foxy Brown's boyfriend, Dalton Ford, recently worked undercover to expose a local crime ring. The movie opens shortly after he receives plastic surgery, and he's all set to retire under his new identity, Michael Anderson. Unfortunately, Link Brown, Foxy's drug dealing brother, recognizes Michael for who he is and exposes him to the mob in exchange for leniency regarding his own indescretions. The mob has Dalton/Michael murdered, and Foxy Brown poses as a High-Class Call Girl to get her revenge against and take down the creepy white couple who run everything.
Not to be confused with the rapper of the same name (who is said to have been inspired by this movie when choosing her stage name).
This film provides examples of:
- Action Girl: It was the 70's and it starred Pam Grier. Foxy Brown was one of the first of her kind.
- Afro Asskicker: For much of the movie, Foxy has a big, 1970s afro hairdo (big enough, in fact, to hide a gun), but in other scenes she has long, straightened hair.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: The backwoods hicks shown later in the film are something of a 70's version of this trope. They give Foxy injections of heroin while she sleeps in an effort to get her addicted.
- Baby Carriage: An early fight scene shows a criminal pushing a carriage in front of a car, which fortunately turns before impact.
- Bar Brawl: When Claudia is being aggressively hit upon by a rather butch woman at the lesbian bar, Foxy comes in to rescue her. After an incident with a bar stool (see below), the patrons come after Foxy, who starts kicking ass. The fight escalates quickly, with thrown chairs, broken tables, and at least one lady's head going into a jukebox.
- Battleaxe Nurse: A lighter version of this trope is Dalton's nurse, who breaks up Dalton's romantic moment with Foxy and goes so far as to slap his, um, pitched tent.
- Black Jezebel Stereotype: On the one hand, Foxy Brown has the motive of enacting brutal revenge for the murder of her boyfriend and takes on a drug syndicate single-handedly. On the other hand, her fight scenes are filmed with gratuitous Male Gaze, with Foxy receiving sexualized Clothing Damage. Even scenes of Foxy being brutalized were sexualized to such an extent that critics described it as borderline soft-pornographic.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Katherine Wall and her lover Steve Elias.
- Boom, Headshot!: Foxy shoots Katherine's bodyguards in the head. One gets two shots.
- Butch Lesbian:
- One aggressively hits on Catherine at the bar. Foxy saves her, leading to a brawl.
- Most of the other bar patrons are also butch lesbians.
- Car Fu: Foxy rescues Link by running at a pair of hitmen with her car.
- Chairman of the Brawl: A Butch Lesbian tries to intimidate Foxy by saying that she's a black belt in karate. Foxy just smacks her with a barstool.I got my black belt in barstool.
- Character Title: Foxy Brown.
- Clothing Damage: Foxy's shirt is torn open (and one of her sleeves torn half off) when she is captured by the bad guys. Later her bra gets torn off, too.
- Combat Pragmatist: Foxy's got a black belt. In bar stools. She also can turn wire hangers into lethal weapons.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The corrupt hicks are burnt alive with gasoline and a match and one of Eddie gets shredded into fine paste by a plane engine.
- Cruel Mercy: "Death is too easy for you, bitch. I want you to suffer." This suffering includes the knowledge that Foxy removed the manhood of said bitch's boyfriend. Foxy also let the boyfriend live and suffer.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Foxy against the butch woman in the Bar Brawl.
- Dirty Cop: The bad guys have bought off most of the police force, and also keeps a number of judges friendly by supplying them with prostitutes. We are explicitly shown some cops guarding the air strip where a drug delivery is taking place; they take orders from Steve and promise not to let anybody in until the transaction is finished.
- Dirty Coward: Link, who sells out Foxy's boyfriend to save his own ass. The only reason Foxy doesn't kill him outright is because he's her brother.
- Dirty Harriet: Foxy is posing as a High-Class Call Girl to infiltrate Katherine's organization. She succeeds in making some damage but this leads to her cover being blown and she has to use more direct methods later.
- Ear Ache: Foxy shoots Link in the ear when she finds out what he's done. He's seen later with his ear bandaged.
- Fanservice: As in most films in the genre, this is very heavy on fan service. Foxy, in particular, but also many other women are shown in revealing clothes or completely nude.
- Fanservice Extra: All the topless hookers at the party where Foxy goes to service a judge, porn star Colleen Brennan among them.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Once Katherine has figured out who Foxy is and why she has been undermining her operations, she decides to have her hooked on Heroin and sent to "The Ranch" and from there to the islands to be pimped out instead of killing her outright. Foxy manages to get free, burn the ranch and the two men down and escape.
- After putting a bullet through a few henchmen and dropping Katherine to the ground with another shot: "Death is too easy for you, bitch! I want you to suffer!" Cue anguished cry.
- Finger in the Mail: In a particularly
squicky (and badass) example of this trope, Foxy delivers Steve Elias' severed genitalia to Katherine Wall in person. - Grievous Bottley Harm: Foxy hits Eddie in the face with a glass from a trashcan. He later breaks a bottle and intends to return the favour, but is stopped.
- Groin Attack: Foxy has Steve Elias pinned out and rips off his dick (slightly off-screen), and later presents it to the guy's girlfriend.
- Hammerspace Hair: Foxy hides a gun in her hair.
- Head Smashes Screen: One of the participants in a Bar Brawl gets thrown head-first into a jukebox.
- High-Class Call Girl: Foxy poses as one. As with Coffy, this is a standard means of both allowing Pam Grier's character to get to the top for revenge and take off her clothes in the process.
- Honey Trap: Foxy and Claudia pull this one on their first client.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Claudia.
- I Know Karate: A very butch lesbian at the bar feels it's fair to warn Foxy that her hands are deadly weapons. Foxy has her own warning, given only after she uses it: "I've got my black belt in barstools!"
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After Foxy lets Claudia stay at her place, she's so shaken that she heads over to a bar.
- Impersonating an Officer: Two of Oscar's Black Panther allies disguise themselves as cops to captures Steven.
- Improbable Weapon User:
- "I've got my black belt in barstools!"
- Foxy turns a bunch of wire hangers into a deadly weapon.
- She also uses an airplane propeller as a meat grinder.
- The Infiltration: This is the backstory behind Dalton Ford, before he's given plastic surgery and becomes Michael Anderson. After his death, Foxy does the same thing to avenge him.
- Jive Turkey: Lots of it, even more than Coffy.
- Lingerie Scene:
- In Foxy's very first scene in the movie, she gets out of bed wearing a see-through nightie, which she takes off, leaving her in just her panties. She then puts on her bra and hides a gun in it.
- Foxy and Claudia strip down to their bras and panties when setting up the corrupt judge for his humiliation scene.
- When Foxy is captured by the bad guys her shirt is torn open, exposing her bra. It is left that way for several scenes. Then one of the bad guys tears her bra off, as well.
- Magic Plastic Surgery: At first played straight, but then averted. The movie opens after the surgery takes place, so the audience is not shown what Dalton Ford looked like before he became Michael Anderson (except for a small newspaper photo). One of his colleagues comments on how effective the procedure was. Despite this, Foxy's brother is able to recognize Dalton/Michael and report him to the gangsters.
- Man on Fire: Foxy escapes from the ranch by setting fire to it, ensuing that Hays goes up with it.
- Ms. Fanservice: Foxy. When she isn't wearing skimpy and/or skintight clothes, or just lingerie, the bad guys arrange for some convenient Clothing Damage.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: Foxy Brown and Claudia, her new call girl friend, strip their first client (a corrupt judge) naked, make fun of his genitals, then throw him out into the hotel hallway without pants. A group of middle aged women catch him struggling with an innocent bystander, and batter him with their purses and umbrellas.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Foxy wears a red dress with cleavage all the way down to her waist in one scene. For some reason, this scene is used in lots of the movie posters and publicity shots.
- Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: Katherine comes at Foxy with a knife. Foxy just shoots her in the arm.
- Pervy Patdown: When Foxy approaches Katherine for their final confrontation, the bad guys frisk her for weapons. They pay special, very thorough, attention to her breasts and crotch area (but miss the gun hidden in her hair).
- Police Are Useless: When they are not corrupted, police officers are nearly useless, as when at the beginning of the movie they do not understand that Link is trying to have them stay.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Foxy casually uses the word "faggot" on a couple of occasions.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Steven Elias establishes himself as a villain by casually dropping a couple of "n" bombs.
- Psycho Lesbian: The woman who makes the very direct advances on Claudia while at the lesbian bar certainly qualifies for this trope.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Foxy's mission turns into this after she is caught and abused by the bad guys.
- Sassy Black Woman: Foxy.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The opening credits sequence ends with Foxy turning to the camera with a gun and shooting it.
- Slashed Throat: Link's girlfriend Brandi is murdered this way.
- Slasher Smile: Katherine smiles a lot, usually at someone else's misfortune.
- Son of a Whore: Claudia, the call girl Foxy befriends early in the movie, has a husband and a son. They both want her to come home, but the evil pimp couple won't let her.
- The Stool Pigeon: Link does this to make money. He rats out Michael Anderson to the gangsters.
- Teeny Weenie: Foxy and Claudia pose as High Class Call Girls to allow them to get up close to a corrupt judge at a hotel sex party. After they strip him before sex, they immediately point and laugh at his genitals, asking him if there was a meat shortage. He laughs and plays along thinking this is all just part of the foreplay, until he's pushed out of the room naked into the hallway crowded with people, and they tell him to take his wet noodle somewhere else while they go find a real man to please them.
- The Teetotaler: When Steven Elias reckons that his henchmen might have been stoned, Eddie replies that he doesn't drink or smoke.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Used a few times by Foxy herself.
- This Is Reality: Turbyn says that he took care of Dalton Ford by "zapping him between the blades" and he fell like in the movies. Eddie replies that he probably got up again like in the movies.
- Turbine Blender: One poor bastard gets sliced up by a biplane's propeller.
- Unholy Matrimony: Steve Elias and Katherine Wall, a passionate couple who are also drug kingpins and pimps. At least, the relationship is passionate on Katherine's side; Steve seems to take a more pragmatic attitude to it, using it as a way to ascend from being The Dragon to actually running the operation, and keeps flirting with Katherine's call girls.
- Unorthodox Holstering: In the beginning of the movie, we see Foxy carrying a gun in her bra (under the band beneath her armpit, not in her cleavage).
- Vapor Wear:
- Katherine instructs one of her call girls in how to use this look to her advantage: her dress should hug her breasts, showing off her nipples.
- Katherine herself is obviously braless, as are most of her call girls.
- While Foxy wears a bra for most of the movie, she has a few scenes where she quite obviously doesn't.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Foxy's bra doubles as a holster for a small handgun, though she carries it under the band at her side and not in her cleavage.
- Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: The film features a scene in a lesbian bar. (Specifically, it's a Butch Lesbian bar, where a bunch of hard-looking ladies in short haircuts complain about working in factories.)
- Vigilante Woman: Foxy Brown, like Coffy, deals out her own brand of justice.
