Brian: You call this going straight?
Brian Hope and Charlie McManus are two gangsters unhappy with their new boss. But their new boss has also made it clear that death is the only way out, and they wisely deduce he is going to kill them anyway. So they decide to keep the money they steal in their latest job, and run off.
But Brian forgot to fill up the tank enough to get to the airport, so they are forced to hide the money, and themselves, for the time being... and the closest place is a nunnery. So they temporarily become Sister Inviolata of the Immaculate Conception and Sister Euphemia of the Five Wounds, while trying to find a way to get out of the country safely, and deal with Faith, Brian's girlfriend who witnessed their crime.
This 1990 comedy was directed by Jonathan Lynn and stars Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle. It was the last film produced by George Harrison's Handmade Films.
"Tropes on the Run":
- Backseat Changing Room: Done as a scene change gag. At one point Brian Hope and Charlie McManus take a taxi back into London whilst they're still both in disguise as nuns. The two use the offscreen ride to ditch the outfits, leading to the scene cutting to them arriving and the taxi driver's utter bewilderment when they get out.
- Church Going Villain: Charlie is a practicing Catholic and a low-level member in a criminal organization.
- Double Entendre: Several, including the above quote.
- Extended Disarming: There's a scene where Eric Idle's cohorts meet with some Japanese Yakuza types. The cohorts demand the Yakuza remove all their weapons, and so they collectively produce a small pile of knives, cleavers and machetes. One Brit motions with his gun and says something like "Come on, let's have the rest," whereafter they add about twice as many more blades.
- Fanservice:
- The shower scene.
- Also a scene where a police officer, convinced that he is facing a man dressed up as a nun, forcefully pulls off the nun's clothes... only to discover that it is in fact a woman who has been dressed up as a nun. A woman who is herself not a nun, and who also happens to be wearing some very skimpy black underwear.
- Genre Throwback: The film was meant to be a throwback to the Ealing comedies of the 1950s.
- Lampshade Hanging: To the silliness of the plot, in prayer form.Sister Superior: My Lord, thou hast always moved in mysterious ways thy wonders to perform, but this latest wonder takes some beating even from you.
- Larynx Dissonance: Brian and Charlie don't even attempt convincing female voices.
- London Gangster: The main characters want to leave their gang after their new boss turns out to be too much like this.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Brian and Charlie fool everybody that they're nuns simply by wearing habits.
- Pop-Star Composer: Swiss electronic duo Yello provide the film's score, lifting material from a rough cut of their 1988 album Flag.
- Resignations Not Accepted: At least not without spending a couple weeks crossdressing and then outrunning your boss to get to the airport.
- Rhyming Title: Nuns on the Run.
- Stealth Pun: The two lead characters along with Brian's girlfriend are collectively Faith, [Brian] Hope, and Charlie.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Who they steal the money from.
- Trash Landing: Brian and Charlie attempt to escape from Faith's apartment by climbing down some piping on the side of the building. They end up falling several stories onto a pile of trash, suffering no injuries.
- Wrong Bathroom Incident: Brian and Charlie are in disguise as nuns in an all-girls school/nunnery. Charlie is the gym teacher, and reluctantly goes into the locker room to oversee the girls as they shower and dress. Charlie is a devout Catholic and is sure he's going to Hell for this (plus all that other stuff).
