Hooper is a 1978 American action-comedy directed by Hal Needham.
Burt Reynolds is Sonny Hooper, an aging stuntman. Sonny, widely regarded as the best stuntman around, is the stunt coordinator for an under-production action movie with Adam West. However, the years have taken a toll on Sonny. He often finds himself needing an assortment of painkillers after getting hurt at work. His body sports various scars and, worse, he has damaged his spine. Does Sonny still have what it takes? Can he avoid getting crippled for life before he retires from stunt work? He'll find out after the movie's director, Roger Deal (Robert Klein) elects to end his film with a highly dangerous car jump.
Also starring are Sally Field as Sonny's girlfriend Gwen, Jan-Michael Vincent as Ski, a younger stuntman who comes under Sonny's wing, Brian Keith as Jocko, Gwen's father and himself a veteran movie stuntman, and John Marley as Max, the movie's producer.
It was released on July 14, 1978.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Sonny shows a reel of prior stunts he performed in one scene. One of said stunts (and the only one actually performed by Burt Reynolds) is the scene from Deliverance in which the raft rolls over in white rapids.
- The Alcoholic: Sonny, Ski and the other stunt performers drink liquor like it was going out of style. With Hooper it's outright stated that it's to help him deal with the pain of his multiple injuries, and with the other performers it's obviously implied.
- Artistic License – Film Production: The climactic sequence of the movie (and The Spy Who Laughed at Danger) is an astonishing barrage of chaos that brings an entire town down, involves dozens of stunts and controlled demolition (including one bridge, one fuel station and two smokestacks that must very nearly hit Hooper and Ski as they drive under them) and is all filmed in one single take. The justification given is that the whole damned thing is one more whim of Prima Donna Director Roger Deal (the film's writer actually quits over it, too), with the production company actually trying to put a stop to it because it's bloating the budget too much (Deal manages to get it authorized by allowing them to cut other parts of the film and browbeating Max).
- As Himself: Adam West, as he plays a fictional version of himself working on The Spy Who Laughed at Danger with Sonny.
- Aside Glance: Two right at the end. Sonny gives an apologetic look at the camera right before punching Roger, then at the end as the gang is leaving he looks at the camera again and grins, as the movie ends on a freeze-frame.
- Bar Brawl: Sonny and his buddies start a brawl at a bar with some beefy cops, seemingly because they're bored.
- Bragging Theme Tune: The end credits song, "Nothing but the Life (of a Hollywood Stuntman)", us about how Hooper will happily risk his life for his own little piece of silver screen fame.
- Character Title: Hooper, as the plot deals with a stuntman working on an action film.
- Cool Car: The entire third act revolves around Hooper and Ski utilizing a highly modified Pontiac Firebird fit with a rocket booster for an attempt at the longest jump over a ravine ever filmed... and running away from a DUI.
- Everybody Smokes: This film was made in the late '70s at a time when this trope was becoming less true. There's a scene where the doctor who tells Sonny that he could be paralyzed in his next stunt is smoking in the office, but Hooper calls him out for being a hypocrite who smokes "coffin nails."
- Fanservice Extra: The very busty stripper who pops out of a cake for Roger Deal, as a gag.
- Going Commando: Sonny is disturbed to hear that his fellow stuntman "Hammerhead" isn't wearing underwear, especially since Hammerhead is dressed up as a Roman centurion, with a skirt, for the chariot race.
- Head Smashes Screen: During a bar scene, a drunken Hooper is told by an angry rival to stop the song Hooper selected. Hooper puts on a helmet and smashes his head through the front of the jukebox, demolishing it. He even gives the quarter the jukebox coughes out to the rival. And then he begins a Bar Brawl.
- Jumping Out of a Cake: The cast and crew bring Roger a birthday cake which actually contains a busty, topless stripper.
- Life Will Kill You: Jocko, the older stuntman and Hooper's mentor, has lived his life just as dangerously as Hooper has, but the thing that forces him to quit for good is slipping on his shower and break his leg (which itself would not have been so bad if not for the other injuries in his body).
- Lock-and-Load Montage: The movie starts with a long scene of stuntman Sonny Hooper donning protective gear.
- Low Clearance: In-Universe, the stunt that Hooper does in the opening scene has him ride a motorcycle under the cab of a semi-truck.
- One Last Job: Despite having a spine that's held together with Scotch tape, Sonny accepts a $50K fee to do a death-defying car jump. The idea is to retire from the business and pay off his horse ranch.
- One-Word Title: Hooper.
- Prima Donna Director: Roger Deal. He is absolutely committed to his frequently-chaning vision of the Film Within a Film "The Spy Who Laughed at Danger". In particular, he demands more (and more dangerous) stuntwork, and frequently plays people against each other to get what he wants. In the end, Roger semi-apologizes to Hooper, confident that he'll accept. Hooper replies. "As usual Roger...you're wrong." and punches him out.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: A bar brawl is about to break out. Hooper punches a hulking SWAT cop (Terry Bradshaw) in the mouth. The cop smiles and spits out a tooth. Hooper leans over to Jocko and says "We may be in trouble." Hooper then knees the cop in the groin and the cop doesn't even flinch. Hooper leans over to Jocko and says "We're definitely in trouble." Commence bar brawl.
- Sexy Sweater Girl: Gwen (Sally Field) is introduced wearing a tight top and, quite obviously, no bra.
- Shout-Out: Roger the pretentious prima donna, contemplating a shot in his silly spy movie, says "It has a nice grayness, like La Strada."
- Show Within a Show: The Spy Who Laughed at Danger, the movie starring Adam West that Hooper and his friends do stuntwork for. Without seeing the rest of the film production, it's just a barrage of stunts without much rhyme or reason (how the heck does an earthquake make sense in a James Bond copycat film?). Although it also seems that there is not much rhyme or reason In-Universe either thanks to Roger Deal's work, considering that we see the film's writer actually quit in the third act and a minor subplot is Roger cajoling the production company to grant him the funds for the climactic rocket car jump (even cutting another action sequence entirely, which leads to Jerry Reed's character being fired from the production, to Hooper's shock).
- Tagline: "It just ain't summer without Burt!".
- Take This Job and Shove It: The final act begins with the writer of The Spy Who Laughed at Danger (who has tolerated Roger Deal's whims so far) storming off Roger's trailer, getting in his car, and deliberately backing up on Roger's director's chair before driving off the set like a bat out of hell. And then it's revealed that he quit the production because Roger got it in his head to end the film with a disaster sequence that he will get come hell or high water.
- Video Credits: Typical of Hal Needham. The end credits showcase a montage of the film's events and the real-life stuntwork that went into the fictional stuntwork set to "Nothin' Like the Life (of a Hollywood Stuntman)" by Bent Myggen.
