Film / Hot Shots! Part Deux

Topper: Why did you have to come here now? Of all the missions in all the jungles in the world, you had to come walking into this one.
Ramada: Oh, Topper, I tried to stay away, I thought I was never going to see you again, that you were out of my life. But it's a sequel, I had to come.

Hot Shots! Part Deux is the 1993 sequel to Hot Shots!.

The movie did for Rambo what the original did for Top Gun. This time the story is a near perfect recreation of Rambo III, where Topper has resigned himself to an Asian monk village. His commanding officer Colonel Walters arrives to recruit him for a rescue mission to save American hostages from Saddam Hussein. Topper refuses, but when Walters is captured on the following rescue attempt, Topper agrees to go in and rescue everyone.

Returning cast members include Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, and Jerry Haleva (as Saddam Hussein). (Ryan Stiles also returned but playing a different character.) New cast include Richard Crenna, Brenda Bakke, Miguel Ferrer, and Rowan Atkinson.

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The sequel contains examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo:
  • After running out of arrows (all trying to hit just one guy who is completely oblivious to him) Topper improvises with a nearby chicken.
  • Topper then throws empty casings to kill ten enemy soldiers.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Inverted; Topper's sword breaks when it hits a wax candle.
• Achilles in His Tent: Topper refuses to leave the Buddhist monastery and join the hostage rescue team, because he is still sulking over his breakup with Ramada. He signs up, though, when Walters is captured.
• Action Hero: Played for Laughs with Topper. He kills hundreds of Iraqi soldiers with his M-60 and makes use of some utterly hilarious weapons such as empty casings and a chicken.
• Action Politician: President Benson personally leads another strike team after Topper gets into trouble, and duels Saddam Hussein in a lightsaber match.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Topper Harley and Benjamin Willard meet (and monologue) briefly. "I loved you in Wall Street!"
  • Lloyd Bridges narrating his scuba diving, just like when he was on Sea Hunt.
  • Richard Crenna portrays a parody of his Rambo character (Colonel Trautman), named after his Our Miss Brooks character (Denton Walters being named for Walter Denton).
• Aerith and Bob: During Colonel Walter's torture scene, the interrogater turns towards the soldier assisting him, calling him "Phil".
• Amusing Injuries: The Running Gag of Benson having sustained many of those in the past continues.
  • One Iraqi soldier gets cartoonishly splattered on a wall inside an army compound.
    Soldier: That's one hell of a gun!
• Arrow Cam: In a spoof of a certain scene in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Topper uses a chicken as an arrow to shoot at an enemy soldier. It works.
• Artistic License – Geography:
  • Played for laughs, with the American strike team infiltrating a prison compound in the Iraqi jungles.
  • At one point, a map of the Middle East is shown, with a large portion of eastern Iraq marked as a separate country. It is bordered on one side by "Iraq" and on the other by "A Hard Place".
• Aside Glance: After Ramada tells Topper how she envisions their potential relationship (see Ask a Stupid Question... below).
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Awesomely subverted!
  Topper: Do you have any idea what would happen if you stayed?
  Ramada: Of course I do. Sex. Wild, free, passionate, unbridled sex. I would fondle you in ways you can’t imagine. [Topper emits a Loud Gulp] I would pleasure you at any time, in any place, in any way, for as long as you could possibly desire.
  Topper: [Aside Glance]
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign:
  • In just as full force in the sequel; at one point a startled guard yells out "I'll have a hamburger!" in a thick accent. Later on, a group of not-Iraqis sounds like they're yelling in a foreign language; in fact, they're actually arguing with one another in English over who is following who, but speaking it really fast and with their voices overlapping so it sounds like a different language.
  • During the patrol boat conflict, its captain calls out "Omar Sharif" after seeing Topper stepping atop what's left of the fishing boat.
• Auto Erotica: Based on No Way Out (1987).
• "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody: When Michelle meets Topper at a gala she spoofs this scene. However rather than showing it from Topper's perspective it's shot from behind the chair, and when she recrosses her legs she raises them all the way over her head.
• Battle Cry: Parodied.
  [as soldiers are jumping out of a plane]
  Soldier 1: GERONIMOOOOOO!
  Soldier 2: GERONIMOOOOOO!
  Geronimo: MEEEEE!
• Betty and Veronica: Topper is the Archie, Ramada is the Betty, and Michelle is the Veronica.
• BFG:
  • Colonel Walters splatters a man against a wall through the use of a handheld grenade launcher. Even the guard has to comment while a pasty mess on the wall: "That's a hell of a gun."
  • The amount of times Topper is shooting a firearm that is not his M-60 could be counted with one hand with fingers to spare.
• Big Good: President Benson. In fact, when he hears that the mission is going south, he personally leads the reinforcements into battle.
• Big "YES!": Saddam gets one, with fist pump, when President Benson swings into Hussein's palatial fireplace. Saddam's then disappointed when Benson walks out of the fire unscathed.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • Lampshaded later on in the form of the various ridiculous weapons used to silently take down the guards, including a literal Rocket Punch launcher, a mallet on the end of a sniper rifle, and two extended fingers mounted on a rifle's bayonet lug.
  • Topper misses every single shot with his bow during an attempt to take down a random Mook, only to then hit him with a chicken. And he also "kills" some soldiers by merely throwing some empty casings at them with his hand.
  • The shots that Topper does hit with his guns use squibs to create bullet holes on the actors' clothes, but no blood is shown from any of the hits.
• Body-Count Competition: Spoofed by comparing a shootout scene to the body counts of RoboCop (at 144) and Total Recall (at 191), ending with "BLOODIEST MOVIE EVER". The numbers flashing up are high and were mostly just made up. The actual bodycount of 114 really was a record for a western action movie (using a very loose definition of "action movie") at the time, although they're bloodless.
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • Used as well as hilariously subverted. While on board a patrol boat, when Topper fires so much ammo that he's buried up to his waist in shell casings and the boat starts sinking from the weight.
  • Running up an insane body count far beyond the ammo he should have on him, Topper runs out only to see a group of bad guys gather behind him. Seeing a stockpile of empty casings, he throws a handful at them with equal effectiveness.
• Bowdlerise:
  • One of DVD releases cuts out all of the funny foreplay and the sex scene between Topper and Michelle, similarly to how the 9½ Weeks-inspired foreplay scene from the first film was cut out from some television broadcasts.
  • One television broadcast cut out the chicken-arrow scene.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": Topper to Harbinger when he's wary of a mole on the strike team.
  Topper: I'm not saying that I don't trust you or that I do trust you, but I don't.
• The Cameo:
  • Bob Vila appears as himself, installing insulation in Topper's hut.
  • As part of the American Gladiators portion of the ending, Gladiators Zap and Siren appear to impede Michelle and Ramada with the blocking pads from Human Cannonball.
• Cardboard Prison: Colonel Walters slips completely through the bars to grab the keys to unlock his door.
• Casting Gag:
  • Setting Colonel Walters as the analogue to Colonel Trautman from the Rambo movies is helped by being played by the same actor.
  • Martin Sheen appears as Captain Willard in his PT boat, and reciting Willard's lines.
• Celebrity Casualty: Saddam Hussein is frozen and then smashed to pieces. He revives a la the T-1000 only to be crushed by a falling piano.
• Celebrity Paradox: Martin and Charlie Sheen recognize each other—though as former co-stars, not as father and son.
  Both: I loved you in Wall Street!
• Celebrity Resemblance: Ramada mentions she's frequently mistaken for Gabriela Sabatini, "and ironically I haven't touched a racket in years".
• Censor Shadow: When Michelle ascends to the diving board above her bed during the sex scene, she is wearing nothing but a pair of panties. But her nudity is hidden by the dim lighting.
• Character as Himself: Saddam Hussein.
• Chase-Scene Obstacle Course: (Parodied) When Michelle is exposed as The Mole, she tries to run away, which leads to Ramada giving chase to start the Designated Girl Fight. The chase quickly devolves into several American Gladiators-themed obstacles that the girls have to pass, complete with the theme song playing in the background.
• Clapper Gag: The Clapper Saddam Hussein has installed on his manor is used in a quick gag.
• Clothing Damage: Ramada rips part of her shirt off to make a bandage for one of the male soldiers, so several other soldiers also start faking nonexistent cuts and injuries to get her to rip more of her shirt off.
• Cloudcuckoolander: President Benson seems to have more screws loose now as President than admiral. He gives an insulting and nonsensical speech in front of the Japanese Prime Minister, is constantly distracted and annoyed by things going correctly, and leads a scuba team with a helium-filled air tank.
• Continuity Nod: A subtle one: Remember when President Benson brought up having stainless-steel ear canals in the first film? He uses one of them as a pencil sharpener while aboard Air Force One.
• Credits Gag: Many of them in the closing credits, such as "Secret of The Crying Game: She's a guy", FUN FACT: Actor Richard Crenna invented tartar sauce and listing a song named "I GOT A LOT OF HAIR FOR A BALD GUY AND IF I WEAR IT LIKE THIS YOU WON'T NOTICE" by Michael Bolton.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Benson might be the biggest Cloudcuckoolander out of the entire film, but he still manages to face against Saddam and beats him.
• Death as Comedy: Dexter's fate. He backs off a cliff by accident while trying to line up a memorial photograph of Topper and Ramada. And he doesn't even realize he's falling!
  Topper: He really was a wiener.
  Ramada: Don't get me started.
• Death of the Hypotenuse: Ramada goes from a married woman in love with another man to a widow free to be with the man she loves after her husband accidentally kills himself in an utterly moronic manner in the last scene.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Saddam does this as part of his odd speaking habits.
  Saddam: Now, I will kill you until you die from it!
• Designated Girl Fight: Ramada and Michelle's battle becomes an episode of American Gladiators, complete with theme music. They do the reverse treadmill and handbikes from the Eliminator, then end with Joust.
• Disappointed by the Motive: Michelle explains why she's The Mole in a conversation with Ramada that insinuates she's a Psycho Lesbian angry Ramada ditched her after college experimentation - and then it's revealed they were talking about bungee jumping, to the dismay of Colonel Walters listening in.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Michelle committed high treason and sacrificed the lives of many American soldiers... because one of her friends in college decided that bungee jumping was too dangerous, and both overtightened her rig and decided not to jump more than once. In fact, these multiple failed missions were an orchestrated effort so that said friend and her friend's boyfriend would both end up behind enemy lines and hopefully killed. Ramada calls her out on her crap and rightfully bludgeons her with an American Gladiators jousting staff.
• Distracted by the Sexy: A running gag in the monk village, where all of the celibate monks keep being distracted by Michelle waltzing through their village, to amusingly painful results. By the end of the scene, they've stopped what they're doing and are lined up attempting to impress her, and after one of the attempts you can even hear her call out "Next!"
• Dope Slap: Topper receives one from Ramada, for his clumsy attempt to fetch the prison cell key with the broom stick.
• Double Entendre: "You give Uncle Topper a nice big blow."
• Dual Wielding: Not-Saddam dual-wields machine pistols with Bottomless Magazines at the beginning of the movie as he blindly rampages through the front yard.
• Electric Torture: Parodied by having it cause a Big Blackout and pop popcorn inside Colonel Walters's shirt.
• Emergency Cargo Dump: After the rescue mission, a couple of Navy helicopters are used by soldiers and agents to escape from pursuit by Iraqi forces. When the pilot reports their chopper is carrying too much weight, there is an absurdist slapstick stunt as the heroes drop a grand piano on Saddam to lighten the chopper's load.
• Enemy Mine: Topper and a random Iraqi soldier team up to take out a blue Energizer Bunny.
• Everyone Has Standards: After finding out that Colonel Walters has been previously married, twice, his torturer exclaims "Oy" in sympathy, while Phil actually puts his hand up to his mouth in shock.
• Everyone Knows Morse: Doubly subverted as radio operator simply writes down, “Dit dit dah, dit dah dit,” but nevertheless understands the message—which makes sense, since he is a military radio operator.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Parodied. When Saddam initially battles with Benson, he speaks with a Darth Vader-esque voice. He then uses an inhaler and speaks with a softer voice.
• Exact Words: Ramada tells Topper to kiss her like he's never kissed her before - he puts his mouth over her nose to kiss her.
• Failed Future Forecast: Benson references Japan's growing economic dominance, which was a major US concern in the 1980s and early 1990s. Yet, today Japan is still recovering from its "Lost Decade," and China is the United States' major economic--and military--competitor.
• False Teeth Tomfoolery: Parodied to heck and beyond. After losing his lunch to the sight of dinner, President Benson recovers his dentures from the bile and accidentally deposits it into the the Japanese Prime Minister's wine glass. He then (unsuccessfully) attempts to retrieve it, which results in the Prime Minister freaking out when he sees said dentures in his glass. It doesn't end there; President Benson picks up his dentures and puts them back in, on the wrong side giving him a sharp-jawed appearance. The Prime Minister is then so startled by this development, he leaps into the arms of his wife from sheer terror.
• Fartillery: An enemy boat appears overhead above President Benson and his scuba team. The president lets loose a visibly BIG fart that floats up to enemy boat above, and, with the stench still in the bubbles, knocks out the enemy soldiers on the spot.
• Feed It a Bomb: The patrol boat's captain swallows a grenade thrown by Topper.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • Colonel Walters is not easily fazed by torture.
    Interrogator: I see you are no stranger to pain.
    Colonel Walters: I've been married.
    Interrogator: [nods in understanding]
    Colonel Walters: Twice.
    Interrogator: [horrified look] Oy!
  • Also includes Dexter's shoelaces getting tied together.
    Topper: A knot. Those bastards!
• Fight Clubbing: A hilarious version with gags like putting sprinkles on gloves, getting kicked in the nuts causing one to spit out walnuts, food vendors moving among the crowd and ringside announcers.
• First-Step Fixation: During Colonel Walters' escape from his Iraq jail cell, Topper throws him the keys, but they land just a bit short. Walters slips between the Widely-Spaced Jail Bars to exit his cell and grab the keys—then he slips back into his cell so he can unlock the door and exit that way.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The Disneyland-like map of Saddam's compound.
• Fridge Logic: invoked
  • Played for Laughs with the monk village: "These men have lived their lives in strict celibacy, just like their fathers and grandfathers before them."
  • The "Sarahan Wrap" joke - wait a second, Iraq is not in the Sahara desert.
  • More a case of Fridge comedy. Ramada has to disguise herself as a man because women aren't allowed on fishing boats. She's later caught because she (still disguised as a man) goes into the ladies room. (So... why do fishing boats have ladies rooms?)
• Funetik Aksent: The alarm in the prison is labeled "Hälarm."
• Funny Background Event: Another ZAZ trademark. These include:
  • Several ex-presidents getting the crap beaten out of them, topped off with Gerald Ford falling over, despite having been completely untouched in the carnage^note Possibly a reference to Ford's reputation for clumsiness.
  • Monks taking turns to impress the first girl they have seen in centuries.
  • The governor of Nebraska making a public apology for his state being so flat.
  • When Saddam goes over his to-do list for the day, you can see a framed picture of him being given a 10 million dollar check from the United States.
  • Whenever the camera pans across during Topper and Ramada's Italian dinner, we see another table, where Michael Corleone is eating with Sollozzo and McClusky, the last thing we see is him getting up to go to the bathroom...
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: When Ramada and Michelle confront each other over the latter's status as The Mole, they describe in detail the physical passion they shared with each other in college. Colonel Walters is interested in hearing more, but it turns out their "passion" was bungee-jumping.
• Gratuitous French: The title uses the French word for "two", and one tagline riffs on Nike's slogan to show how it's pronounced ("Just Deux It").
• Groin Attack: Everyone cringes in pain when Topper defeats his Bloodsport fight opponent... and walnuts come out of the guy's mouth.
• Handwraps of Awesome: Topper Harley wears these in his Dim Sum match early in the movie. Covered in caramel, sprinkles, and gummy bears.
• Happy Ending Override: The first one ends with Topper and Ramada together. This one begins with Topper in a Buddhist monastery, mourning his breakup with Ramada.
• Harmless Liquefaction: Colonel Walters shoots an enemy soldier with a grenade launcher, which flings the soldier a dozen feet backwards and literally splatters him all over a wall. Aside from being turned into a splash of goo with a human face, the soldier doesn't seem to mind, and is even awed about the gun Walters used.
  Soldier: That's one hell of a gun!
• Heavy Sleeper: The guard that Topper steals the keys from, as poking him in the face with a stick and accidentally turning on the loud radio don't wake him. Subverted when a mouse crawls by and quietly sneezes; this finally wakes up the guard.
• Helium Speech: Occurs after the president equips SCUBA tanks filled helium instead of oxygen to go diving.
• Hooking the Keys: When Topper Harley has to rescue Colonel Walters from a jail cell, he uses a broom to lift the keys from a table next to the sleeping jailer.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Averted, amazingly enough. Pay close attention to the way everyone handles weapons; nearly everyone is holding their weapons correctly and following the safety rules for handling firearms, unless there is a hilarious gag to be made by using a weapon incorrectly.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • Topper extends the antenna of a cordless handphone to fence with Saddam. Walters later uses a fly swatter to knock out a guard, having quickly selected it from a pile of weapons including a several handguns, knives, and grenades.
  • After running out of arrows because the guard kept moving (picking up coins, etc) Topper resorts to shooting him with a chicken.
• Innocent Innuendo: It certainly doesn't sound like Ramada and Michelle are talking about bungee-jumping - even the Colonel does a double-take at that particular reveal. He seems rather disappointed.
  Walters: Bungee jumping? That's what this is about?
• Instant Soprano: Following an extreme Groin Attack.
  Fighter: You win.
• Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: Multiple examples:
  • Topper has to use a grappling hook and several seconds of difficult climbing to get over a knee height stone fence; even more hilarious, not five feet away is a path leading around the fence.
  • The commando team is stymied by a wooden fence whose lock (which is a simple latch they could easily reach over) they can't blow, because "it's not our property."
  • One of the POW's is imprisoned with twist ties, and later the Chinese finger trap. Another prisoner can't run because they've tied his shoelaces together.
    Topper: [in shock] A knot!
• Invincible Villain: Saddam is back as the Big Bad despite in the previous film having a bomb dropped on him and being caught in an explosion in a nuclear power plant. Here, he also manages to survive being frozen alive and shattered into a hundred pieces a la the T-1000. One wonders if being crushed by a piano at the end of this film really did anything to finish him off.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: When Saddam gets frozen by President Benson, he falls onto his dog. Both shatter, but when they thaw out, the dog's genes are mixed into Saddam's body.
• I Warned You: In the Offscreen Breakup flashback, a train attendant cries out "BOARD! BOARD!", with a newspaper reader ignoring him and shaking his head. A few seconds later, a carpenter walks back and smacks the guy with a 2x4. The attendant's response? "Told ya. Warned ya twice."
• I Will Fight No More Forever: Harbinger undergoes a 10-Minute Retirement, lasting the entire span of a tender heart-to-heart with Harley, leading directly into War Is Glorious.
• Just Following Orders: The reason why Ramada never told Topper the truth is because she was ordered not to tell anyone about the mission. It still didn't make Topper feel any better.
• Laser Blade: There's a random Star Wars parody when the fireplace pokers President Benson and Saddam Hussein are using suddenly turn into lightsabers during their climactic duel.
• Lascivious Beauty Mark: Parodies the trope. Michelle is The Mole with a literal mole on her cheek and she is the most sexually active character in the movie: she makes out with Topper in a limo and later they have sex. When she goes to the monk village to find Topper after he went on a sabbatical, the monks in the background all stop and stare at her, to amusing results.
• Last Breath Bullet: A dying mook musters his last strength to shoot at the heroes and hits Ramada but her Pocket Protector locket saves her.
• Laughably Evil: Saddam. He's arguably as silly and clueless as President Benson.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Energizer Bunny appears in one scene, only it's blue and not quite a rabbit. Still recognizable, and the voiceover is there. After a stunned moment, both sides in the ongoing battle combine fire to blow it up before going back to shooting at each other.
• Leg Focus: Michelle stretches and flexes her legs when she's trying to seduce Topper at the party. She even brags that she works hard to keep her legs shapely.
  Topper: Now I know what to get you for Christmas.
  Michelle: Make it a Thighmaster. I've broken my last three.
• The Load: This is parodied with Rowan Atkinson playing a hostage who can't walk — because his shoelaces are tied together. He insists that he be carried by Topper, and berates him for jiggling too much — while being shot at, then he taunts the attackers — including shouting "You missed!" when they hit Topper, not him, in the arm — and insisting on getting a drink from a nearby drinking fountain. And then he complains it's not cold enough, and might not be filtered.
  Topper: He really was a wiener.
  Ramada: Don't get me started.
• Made of Iron: As was the case in the first film, President Benson mentions some of the interesting injuries he's suffered, including having his original intestines replaced with hemp-based replacement (after taking a torpedo in the North Atlantic).
• Major Injury Underreaction: Topper's response to getting a bullet through his leg? "Ow!" and then just carrying on after killing the offending enemy soldier.
• Martial Arts Headband: Topper dons one early in the movie. Over his eyes. He promptly runs face first into a pole.
• Medium Awareness: As indicated in the page quote, the characters are at least somewhat aware that they're in a movie.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Ramada rips off a piece of clothing to patch up Topper. The rest of the members of Harley's squad immediately start complaining about their minor injuries hoping to get her to rip off more clothing pieces.
• The Mole: Michelle, who fittingly has a detachable mole.
• More Dakka: Topper is literally up to his waist in spent shells by the time he's done shooting at an Iraqi patrol boat.
• No Fourth Wall:
  • Early in the film, Walters introduces Michelle and another character as "She's CIA; the other man's an extra."
  • Later, Ramada tells Topper that she had to come back because it's the sequel, and Topper retorts that the critics will hate the movie as a result because it's just a rehash of the same romantic plot from the first movie.
  • When Benson and Saddam are swordfighting, they move off camera and we only see their shadows... and then we see their two actors walking through the shot drinking water and taking a break.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Topper has this reaction after completing his perilous skydive.
  Topper: That's right, Cindy, it's 20 minutes past the hour, and now here's The Buckinghams with "Kind of a Drag". [thud]
• Offscreen Breakup: Topper and Ramada, complete with flashback. The actual revelation why only comes after the two meet again, though.
• One-Handed Shotgun Pump: Parodied by Ramada. She pumps her shotgun twice this way without technically even having to. The third time, however, the gun rips off the grip and flies away. Her reaction is to knock out another opponent by throwing the grip at him.
• One-Man Army: Of course parodied. Topper takes out several hundred bad guys by himself, including a kill count at the bottom of the screen.
  • According to MovieBodyCounts.com, Topper has the fourth highest kill count (103) for any single character in movie history. Hilariously, the three characters that beat him all appeared in movies made after this one, so it really was the bloodiest film ever as it claimed (minus the actual blood of course).
• Only a Flesh Wound: Topper is shot in the leg while rescuing Dexter, but he merely responds with a small grunt, and then fires back at the shooter, all while carrying Dexter on his shoulders.
• Out of the Inferno: Parodied.
  President Benson: My skin's made of asbestos. Tanning parlor accident at Dien Bien Phu.
• Our Presidents Are Different: Presidents Tug Benson and Saddam Hussein are a combination of President Buffoon and President Action, with Hussein also being President Evil of course.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: At one point, the main characters are masquerading as fishermen. Horribly. The enemy mook watching them sees nothing wrong until a cross-dressing, mustache-wearing Ramada goes into the women's restroom on the boat.
• Parachute in a Tree: Happens to Topper early on. He proceeds to cut himself free... with a chainsaw knife.
• Pass the Popcorn: The limo driver takes increasing voyeuristic pleasure with Topper and Michelle getting busy in his backseat, including taking out popcorn at one point.
• Pepper Sneeze: While Topper is trying to get some keys to free Colonel Walters, he spills some pepper. A small mouse wanders by, sniffs the pepper, and lets out a barely audible, high-pitched sneeze that wakes the guard up.
• Personal Raincloud: Topper gets one of these at the train platform after getting dumped by Ramada.
• Pin-Pulling Teeth: While standing atop what's left of the fishing boat—out of ammo literally up to his waist in bullet casings—he pulls out a grenade's pin in this manner.
• Plank Gag:
  Train Conductor: Board! Board!
  [a passenger looks at watch, sees that it's not nearly time to leave, scoffs, then gets hit by a passing man with some wooden boards, twice]
  Train Conductor: Told ya. Warned ya twice.
• Porky Pig Pronunciation: Or writing in this case:
  On October 15, the President of the United States ordered a covert mission in the Persian Gulf for the purpose of rescuing soldiers taken hostage during Desert Storm. Only a handful of our highest government officials were aware of the operation, as it included an attempt to assasssan [backspace backspace backspace] assisss [backspace backspace] kill a guy.
• Pocket Protector: A locket saves Ramada from a bullet; upon examination, it still has the unmarred large-caliber cartridge lodged in it.
• Pretty in Mink: Michelle wears a white mink coat◊ in a scene based on No Way Out (1987).
• Pulling Themselves Together: Saddam Hussein manages to reform himself after being shattered from being frozen. Unfortunately this happens with his small, yappy dog at the same time...
• Rank Scales with Asskicking:
  • Saddam Hussein can melt down and reconstitute himself like the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Hussein and President Benson duel with lightsabers.
• Retcon: Saddam Hussein is killed at the end of the first film, yet is alive and well in the second. Rule of Funny of course. The fact that he's a T-1000 helps.
• Reference Overdosed: Like the first film, this one uses a well-known movie as a base (Rambo this time, instead of Top Gun), but will happily spoof any other that occurs to them.
• Red Herring: Harbinger is suspected of being the saboteur, due to abandoning his teams in the previous missions to save the soldiers. But it turned out he simply had a case of burnout, which Topper helped him out of. The real saboteur was Michelle, who had ill will toward Ramada.
• Retired Badass: Topper has retired from the military but keeps in shape to participate in public fights for money.
• Rocket Punch: The fist bazooka.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Charlie Sheen Is About to Shoot You With a Chicken!
• Sequelitis:
  • Lampshaded and parodied. invoked
    Topper: Out of all the jungles in all the world, you had to walk into mine.
    Ramada: I didn't want to, Topper, but I had to come. It was the sequel.
    Topper: Do you have any idea what the critics will say? The same warmed-over characters?
    Ramada: Oh, Topper. You're just using this whole casting thing as an excuse to hide what's really hurting you.
  • Ramada's Action Girl upgrade is done shamelessly to fit her into the second movie. In the first movie, she is only a psychiatrist (well that and the lounge singing, welding, trick horseback riding, and performing gymnastics), here she knows kickboxing. Of course, Topper goes from being a pilot to a commando, so this is about being funny instead of consistent.
• Serious Business: Bungee jumping is the entire reason behind why the mole betrays the team.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Gender reversed. Yes, you heard us correctly. A rather buff Topper Harley, in his lover's (rather lacy) gown, brushing his (long and silky) hair in front of a vanity mirror and smoking a Victoria Slim in a cigarette holder. It's all very masculine.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  • Saddam vs. Topper:
    Saddam: I will kill you until you die from it!
  • Benson vs. Saddam:
    Benson: We'll settle this the old navy way: The first guy to die, LOSES!
• Share the Male Pain: Topper Harley smacks an opponent in the 'nads in a duel. The entire crowd winces and holds their balls in sympathy.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rambo III most obviously, but also Casablanca and The Guns of Navarone, among others.
  • The scene with Topper and Michelle making out in the limo is from No Way Out (1987). Their sex scene afterwards references Basic Instinct, albeit the icepick is replaced by a screwdriver.
    • And then they redo the Top Gun love scene parody. A lot raunchier, as well.
    • In both parts, "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters acts as the "love theme". And the limo driver is peeping on them.
  • The romantic plot between Topper and Ramada mimics the Casablanca relationship between Rick and Ilsa, but with a happier ending.
  • All female characters have the middle name "Rodham". Once, they don't even try to hide the target ("It's your wife, Hillary Rodham Hussein").
  • Topper's fishing vessel passes by Captain Willard's PT boat. Both father and son take time off their internal monologues to greet each other.
    Topper/Willard: I loved you in Wall Street!
  • President Benson and Saddam Hussein have a lightsaber duel which ends when Benson freezes Saddam with a fire extinguisher, then pushes him over in front of a fire before he shatters and reconstitutes himself.
  • Not only that, but a dog was frozen and shattered together with him, and he came back fused with dog-like properties.
  • The scene where Topper dips his hand wraps in caramel then candy is a parody of a scene in the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer where the final fight has them dip their hand wraps in glue then glass to make their punches more lethal.
  • When the "fishermen" are questioned by the Iraqi guards, Ramada has disguised herself with a small mustache, and when confronted by a much taller soldier, she does a full Chaplin routine.
  • After being crushed by a piano, it's revealed that Saddam is wearing striped stockings, which then roll up under the piano. The piano even falls down the same way as Dorothy's house and towards the camera.
  • They even make a reference to Airplane II: The Sequel by having the American hostage give the jerk-off gesture, prompting the sign language interpreter to do the same.
  • The cover parodies Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
• Spaghetti Kiss: The dinner scene with Topper and Ramada is lifted from Lady and the Tramp, complete with Topper pushing a meatball with his nose and the singing chefs being dead ringers for their animated counterparts.
• Special Effects Failure: Invoked. The heroes apparently arrive at base in a toy helicopter, which an officer immediately orders removed before someone trips on it.
• Spoof Aesop: After disposing of a few soldiers, Harbinger turns directly to the camera and with a big smile on his face, announces "War! It's fantastic!"
• Spy Speak: Parodied. The other guy has no clue what he's talking about.
• Stalker with a Crush: Ramada's husband Dexter is pretty much one of these, from what her story of how they met sounds like. He was an adult man who visited her at the school she was attending. Her parents issued for a restraining order.
• Stealth Pun:
  • THE MOLE HAS A MOLE
  • Also, the final action takes place on the border of Iraq and A Hard Place.
• Stupid Surrender: Played for Laughs. Topper is searching for the last hostage with a giant machine gun and knows how to use it. When Saddam shows up with a tiny hand gun, Topper surrenders immediately despite having blown away tons of guys earlier.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Played straight, parodied, drawn, and quartered in every way possible. Notable scene would be the climax of the PT boat battle.
• Sympathy for the Hero: When Walters tells the Iraqi interrogator who has been torturing him that he's been divorced twice, the interrogator winces in sympathy.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Harley has the coolest knife ever.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Ish. Topper is sword-fighting Saddam with a phone with its antenna extended. Saddam is carrying a broadsword, for reference. Then the phone rings.
  Topper: [holds out a hand and answers the phone as Saddam waits obligingly] Butcher of Baghdad, hello? [Beat] Uh-huh. [Beat] Oh, hello!
  Saddam: Who is it? Who is it?
  Topper: It's your wife, Hillary Rodham Hussein.
  Saddam: Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I'm so stupid! I was supposed to pick her up at the gym. No, no, no, I'm out of town... on business, bombing, gassing, a last-minute execution. Tell her something, make it up!
  Topper: [to Saddam's wife] I'm sorry, you just missed him.
  Saddam: Ah. I owe you one. [lunges with sword]
• Too Broken to Break: Played for Laughs, when the Qurac Torture Technician tries to interrogate Colonel Walters but discovers that his torture has no effect whatsoever. Walters then reveals that he had been married twice, earning a respectful nod from the torturer.
• Took a Level in Badass: Topper and Ramada. Ramada becomes an Action Girl and Topper is basically a Rambo parody.
• Train-Station Goodbye: Parodied. After Topper's fiancee leaves him (in a parody of Casablanca), it starts raining at the train station... but only on him.
• A Truce While We Gawk: Two — one at the beginning while both American and Iraqi soldiers stop to look at Saddam Hussein bumbling around the backyard they are in, shooting at nothing with Guns Akimbo and getting multiple Amusing Injuries, and at the climax where Topper and an enemy soldier notice that their shootout scene has somehow segued into an Energizer bunny ad parody and blow the bunny away together.
• Typecasting: Fun fact: If you've ever seen an actor portray Saddam Hussein, its probably the guy who played him in this movie. He pretty much did them all.
• Underwater Fart Gag: When President Benson and his team are scuba diving and notice an enemy boat, Benson lets out an enormous fart and the gas bubble rises to the surface and actually kills everyone on the boat.
• The Vamp: Michelle. She seduces Topper early in the film and later we find out that she's The Mole.
• Villain Respect: Colonel Walters captors are legitimately impressed when he refuses to break under torture—"I see you're no stranger to pain"—especially when he explains why—"I've been married. ''Twice"—actually nodding and wincing in sympathy.
• Visual Pun: The film, like the others from these creators, is full of these. Examples:
  • When the train conductor shouts, "Board! Board!", a passenger gets plunked with a plank.
    Conductor: Told ya. Told ya twice.
  • A map of the operation shows that Saddam's country is located between the countries Iraq and Iran, except that Iran is renamed "A Hard Place".
  • A Iraqi interrogator with a Holiday Inn towel wrapped around his head.
  • When Harley says he smells a rat, guess what crawls over his shoulder.
• War Is Glorious: Harbinger says this directly to the camera after getting his nerve to fight back.
  Harbinger: War: It's fantastic!
• War Is Hell: But after a tearful talk with Harley, they think the opposite.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Colonel Walters is imprisoned inside a cage. He slips through the bars, grabs a set of keys, and slips back inside the cage. He then unlocks the door and leaves normally.
• With Catlike Tread: Parodied in the key scene. A series of loud noises is not enough to wake the guard... but a sneeze by a mouse is.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: The Iraqi torturer, exclaims "Oy", in sympathy when Colonel Walters explains his high pain tolerance is from having been married, twice.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Similar to the phrase is "You're joking", used twice, as demonstrated by:
  Ramada: I'm married. I was married before you and I ever met. I'm still married today.
  Topper: You're joking.
  Ramada: I'm not.
  Topper: You've got to be.
  Ramada: If I was joking, I would say: "A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'Why the long face?'"
  Topper: You are married.
• You Know What to Do: Again, parodied.
  Topper: You're the only one that knows how to get to the copter pad. If I'm not there in 15 minutes, you know what to do.
  Colonel Walters: Yeah, we get the hell out of here!
  Topper: No! Wait another 15 minutes!

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