Film / The Pink Panther (2006)

Get a clue!

The Remake of The Pink Panther, released in 2006, directed by Shawn Levy. Steve Martin stars as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, a bumbling detective assigned to solve the murder of a famous football coach and the theft of the famous Pink Panther diamond.

It received a sequel in 2009, The Pink Panther 2.

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Tropes applying to both films

• Adaptational Heroism: The Dreyfus in these films never becomes a murderer like his original counterpart and is at worst a glory-obsessed opportunist. The closest we get to an acknowledgement of the original version's murderous tendencies is an offhand comment in the second about wishing he had shot Clouseau.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: For anyone unfamiliar with the original movies, one might wonder why the diamond is named the Pink Panther or why the Pink Panther was featured in both of the opening credits. The original film has a scene explaining the backstory of the diamond, saying that it got its name from a defect within the gem that resembled a panther.
• Adaptational Intelligence: The original Clouseau was a Clueless Detective who solved cases more through dumb luck than any ingenuity on his part. This version of Clouseau at first seems to be just as much of a buffoon as his original depiction but shows occasional flashes of brilliance and the climax of each film has him solving the case through his own intelligence.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the original movies, Dreyfus often tried to keep Clouseau away from any important cases in order to avoid embarrassing the police because he knew Clouseau was a Walking Disaster Area whose success rate was more due to dumb luck than anything else. Both The Return of the Pink Panther and Trail of the Pink Panther had Dreyfus protesting the decision to send Clouseau to Lugash because he feared Clouseau could potentially cause an international incident and damage France's global reputation. The Dreyfus in the 2000s films puts Clouseau on the Pink Panther case in the first movie simply to use him as a distraction for the media while he quietly works on breaking the case himself to bolster his public image. In the sequel, he places Clouseau on a wild goose chase in the form of an undercover traffic duty assignment to keep him away from any important cases so the detective doesn't upstage him again. And while the original Dreyfus seemed to have some respect for police work — which was the primary reason for his hatred of Clouseau's antics — this version only cares about fame and recognition.
• Animated Credits Opening:
  • The first film has one directed by Bob Kurtz at Kurtz and Friends. And it's a good one, too!
  • The Pink Panther 2 also features one by Imaginary Forces.
• Continuity Reboot: Set in an entirely new era and timeline, with no connections to the previous films.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • The Pink Panther (2006): Ponton expresses bafflement at Clouseau not labelling Bizu a prime suspect and arresting him despite Bizu openly admitting he has a strong motivation for wanting to kill Gluant (which Ponton sees as an indirect confession). Clouseau, in his "jigsaw puzzle" speech, basically points out that they don't have the whole story of Gluant yet and it's best to investigate the case from every angle they can even if the evidence initially leans toward a particular suspect. This is a perfectly sound decision as Bizu turns out to not be the killer.
  • The Pink Panther 2: Pepperidge expresses concern that the thief is going to fence the stolen items but Clouseau points out that most of the items are too famous to be sold on the black market. The only fencible item is the Pink Panther which can be cut down into smaller gems. This is precisely Sonia's plan.
• Genius Ditz: Inspector Jacque Clouseau isn't necessarily the brightest protagonist ever put to film. He has a long history of hit-or-miss cases in his hometown, is often Sarcasm-Blind, takes euphemisms and metaphors literally, will often try to apply genre tropes in mind whenever the predictable happens, claims to know karate but is never shown to have any talent in it and has a speech impediment. That said, he has a rather hyper-focused attention to details some may overlook, understands Chinese and was able to uncover both Pink Panther thefts (and all murders involved) with way more accuracy than two separate teams, the first the Chief Inspector's team, the second a Dream Team of international detectives with way more impressive wins under their belts.
• Glory Hound: In both films, Dreyfus is less concerned with police work and more concerned with fame and recognition. He even tries (and fails) to take credit for Clouseau's solving the case in the climaxes of both films.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • The Pink Panther (2006): Apparently applies to Nigel Boswell, AKA Agent 006 (Clive Owen), who states that he is in the casino on a case that requires his discretion, to the extent that he takes out the notorious Gas Mask Bandits in a manner that lets Clouseau take the credit so nobody will know Boswell was there.
  • The Pink Panther 2: The other members of the Dream Team have their own histories and careers as detectives. Part of the reason they come to despise Clouseau so much is that his stupidity is making them look bad on an international stage and could bring ruin to their reputations.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dreyfus suffers this in both films.
  • The Pink Panther (2006): Dreyfus places Clouseau on the case of Gluant's murder and the Pink Panther theft, intending for Clouseau to draw the attention of the media and the culprit while Dreyfus quietly conducts his own investigation and uncovers the culprit. However, Clouseau turns out to be smarter than Dreyfus and the audience are lead to believe, and ends up being the one to close the case. Worse, Clouseau is awarded the Legion of Honour which Dreyfus had been trying to win for seven years. Clouseau himself innocently acknowledges that if not Dreyfus, he never would have been given the chance to solve the case.
  • Pink Panther 2: Dreyfus places Clouseau on traffic duty to keep him out of any important cases. Clouseau's records of the cars he has ticketed prove vital in him solving the case of who stole the Pink Panther. When Dreyfus tries to take credit for this, Clouseau denies that Dreyfus was the one who put him traffic duty, as Dreyfus himself had specifically ordered.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Inspector Clouseau's interaction with Nicole...
  Nicole: Would you like me to stay behind and help you?
  Clouseau: That is a generous offer, Nicole. But I am quite sensitive to office gender politics. And in today's world, the slightest gesture can be misinterpreted as harassment. And it is late, and I would prefer not to put you or me into that delicate situation. Agreed?
  Nicole: Yes, I agree.
  Clouseau [kisses Nicole]: Well, lets seal it with a kiss. And I'll get back to work.
  [A moment later, Clouseau casually slaps Nicole on her butt as she leaves]
  • Inspector Clouseau admits to finding Yuri's mild Russian accent hilarious. This coming from Steve Martin's "impression" of a French one.
  • From The Pink Panther 2:
  Italian Reporter: Mr. Pepperidge, was the Dream Team asleep when the theft occurred?
  Pepperidge: No comment.
  Italian Reporter: Do you think they will recover the ring?
  Pepperidge: If I gave a comment, when I said "no comment", I would look like a complete ass, wouldn't I?
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Played for Laughs. Inspector Clouseau is not "prejudiced" per se, but he tends to make a lot of off-color remarks out of ignorance. He clears the air about "office politics" with Nicole before giving her a kiss and a Flirtatious Smack on the Ass. He admits to never having had a hamburger because it is "disgusting American food", only to fall in love with it at first bite when he finally has one. In the sequel, he makes various off-color remarks towards Asians, Italians, women, blondes and so on, much to the frustration of the station's manners teacher Mrs. Yvette Berenger as well as his teammates Vincenzo and Kenji who are Italian and Japanese respectively.

The Pink Panther (2006)

• Actor Allusion: Clive Owen's character is codenamed 006 prompting Clouseau to ask him if he wasn't good enough to be 007. Clive Owen was at one point considered for the role of James Bond.
• Advertised Extra: Beyoncè Knowles as Xania. She’s prominently featured on the home release cover, and was heavily featured in the trailers and promos at the time of release. She only has about six minutes of screen time.
• Asshole Victim: Yves Gluant, the murder victim, comes across as this for most of the film, as he cheated on his girlfriend and apparently verbally abused and belittled most of the other coaches; Yuri explicitly states that Gluant took credit for his own brilliant French defence plan and treated Yuri like he was dead.
• Big Bad: The murderer of Yves Gluant is revealed to be Yuri the trainer, who sought revenge for Gluant stealing credit for his game plans.
• Bilingual Bonus: Anyone who understands Cantonese will find out that the old Chinese lady is basically asking Clouseau why she's being interrogated and that she's busy and has other things to do. Clouseau somehow believes she tells him to look for soccer trainers for their knowledge of poisons.
• Boom, Headshot!: Bizu, a soccer player on Gluant's soccer team is executed with a very fatal shot to the head, specifically aimed to target the occipital lobe, which leads Clouseau to realize that Yuri, the trainer who trains, is the killer, since that specific technique is practiced by Russian military marksman.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • A key piece of evidence is only revealed to Clouseau because he can speak Chinese (although this fact isn't definitively revealed to the audience at first); soccer trainers are required to have knowledge of Chinese herbs, prompting Clouseau to start considering Yuri the trainer as a suspect.
  • Dreyfus dismisses the fact that the coroner's report mentions Bizu was killed with a perfect shot to the occipital lobe; Yuri learned to make a shot like this while in the Russian army.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  Dreyfus: Well, this is a glorious day for France.
  Clouseau: How so, Chief Inspector?
  Dreyfus: Because a stupid idiot named Clouseau is going to be stripped of his rank while I take over his case.
  Clouseau: You have a second man named Clouseau?
• Convenient Photograph: Near the end, Clouseau reveals that he uncovered whereabouts of the Pink Panther diamond after looking at a newspaper photo of himself getting arrested at the airport. He noticed, in the background, the diamond visible on an x-ray monitor as Xania's purse was being screened.
• Conveniently Timed Distraction: While chasing the gunman who tried to kill Xania, Clouseau and Ponton decide to split up to cut him off. When Ponton catches up to the man and holds him at gunpoint, Clouseau shows up and accidentally slams a door open in front of Ponton, knocking him down. While Clouseau checks to see if Ponton is okay, the killer resumes running away.
• Crazy-Prepared: Clouseau figures out that the killer will strike again at the Presidential Palace, and just so happens to have a bag in his deserted office marked "Presidential Palace" with everything he could possibly need to break in undetected. This includes a body suit for both him, and his assistant, with different camouflage on the front and back identical to the wallpaper and drapes (respectively) found in the palace.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For all that Clouseau comes across as an idiot, he has a detailed knowledge of obscure rules and legislations that helps him crack the case, such as knowing that all soccer trainers must have a knowledge of Chinese herbs or that all Russian army members must know the location of the occipital lobe.
• Darker and Edgier: A minor example but there were never any murders in the original film. The villain was simply a jewel thief, not a murderer.
• Dead Star Walking: Yves Gluant, whose murder kicks off the plot, is played by an uncredited Jason Statham.
• Decoy Protagonist: Clouseau is basically promoted to serve as this in the first film; as Dreyfus doesn’t want to risk becoming a scapegoat if he fails to solve the case or let someone else take credit for solving it, he gives the task to Clouseau on the grounds that Clouseau is an incompetent who can publicly get nowhere while Dreyfus assembles a team to tackle the case himself in a more discreet fashion.
• Demoted to Extra: Xania. Most of her scenes were cut from the final release due to the film undergoing extensive edits and reshoots to eradicate its intended racy tone to a family friendly PG one. In the original version, she was a bit more promiscuous and actually sleeps with Clouseau.
• Disaster Dominoes: Clouseau nearly get to hook up with Xania, but he ends up dropping his vasodilator pill down her bathroom's sink. He opens the pipe by kicking it, but causes water to spray everywhere. He manages to blow the pill out of the sink, but it lands in his flaming cocktail, causing a huge fire ball and setting the curtains on fire. The bathroom is flooded at this point as Clouseau tries to put out the fire with the removable shower handle (which isn't working because all the water is going elsewhere) and accidentally pulls it out of the wall, causing more water to flood the room; during the chaos, Clouseau accidentally grabs a plugged in hairdryer that electrocutes him because he's soaking wet an holding a metal shower handle. The water starts to soak through the floor to the lobby below and causes the floor to collapse under Clouseau, causing him to fall onto the help desk.
• Dub Name Change: Yu, the old Chinese lady is subject to this in foreign dubs to accommodate the pun which gets her interrogated (Oh, it's just you.). Most of them, such as the Czech one (which changed her name to 'Yenti') don't even bother with making it seem like a Chinese name, just As Long as It Sounds Foreign.
• Electric Torture: Clouseau threatens Bizu with a device called "the Box" while interrogating him, despite Bizu having already given Clouseau a lead when Clouseau played "good cop" with him. Clouseau ends up demonstrating the box on himself, shocking his own groin.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Dreyfus comes to believe that the murderer is Dr. Lee Pang, a man whose money Gluant lost in a gamble. Pang being in the VIP seat when Glaunt was murdered and the poison from the dart that killed Gluant being Chinese certainly make this theory seem very plausible. It turns out to be a red herring. The real killer is Yuri.
• Fainting: Nicole swoons and faints during Clouseau's closing speech about love in film's climax.
• Fun with Subtitles: Whenever Yu is talking, her dialogue isn’t translated on-screen. On the DVD release, her dialogue is translated on-screen during a brief flashback to her scene, but not when that scene first happens.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The reveal that the Pink Panther was never stolen by the killer is foreshadowed in the opening soccer game when Gluant jumps in the air after his team wins; looking at his fists show that he wasn't wearing the ring the diamond was set on before getting killed.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Clouseau ignorantly does both the "good" and "bad" cop routine when he aggressively questions Bizu, only to go out of the room and return, acting more pleasant and sympathetic towards Bizu and winds up getting the name of Gluant's business partner who had reason to kill him. However, in typical Clouseau fashion, he returns to Bizu in "bad cop" mode, carrying a device to torture answers out of him, in spite of already getting what he wanted to know from the soccer player; Clouseau ends up electrocuting his own balls demonstrating the device.
• Groin Attack:
  • A subtle example - during the Animated Credits Opening, as the Pink Panther is tangoing with Clouseau he winds up kneeing him in the groin. Clouseau's expression is what makes it.
  • Clouseau accidentally does this to himself in the film proper when trying to demonstrate Electric Torture to Bizu.
• Harmless Electrocution: Clouseau repeatedly hurts himself this way three times: first, by cutting a wire in a lamp, mistaking it for a bug, then, he shocks his own groin while demonstrating a torture device, and finally, he electrocutes himself after accidentally flooding Xania's hotel bathroom and grabbing a plugged-in hair dryer during the chaos.
• Humble Pie: After being demoted and chewed out for being an over-zealous dunce by Dreyfus, Clouseau apologizes to Ponton when the latter returns him to his apartment, saying that he's sorry if he had ever embarrassed Ponton during the case.
• In Name Only: While it is indeed a Pink Panther film, there is very little resemblance between this and the original. Rather, it resembles later installments, Dreyfus's presence and Clouseau's role as protagonist being the biggest examples. There is no Charles Litten, Clouseau is unmarried and while the Pink Panther diamond is never actually stolen like in the original film, the plots differ with the original being climaxed with the attempted theft and a chase scene while this remake centers around the perceived theft. Also, there were no deaths in the original.
• Instant Taste Addiction: Ponton offers Inspector Clouseau a hamburger. He initially dismisses it as "disgusting American food," but after a single bite, he's absolutely in love with them. His love for them gets him in trouble with airport security when he tries to sneak some burgers in his pockets and the security dogs start sniffing him because of the food and the security thinks he's trying to smuggle weapons.
• Likes Older Men: Both Xania and Nicole are attracted to Clouseau. Xania has an ill-fated dinner date with him, whereas Nicole is the one who wins his heart. In the original cut of the film before it was altered to earn a PG rating, Xania and Clouseau indeed slept together. This does not occur in the final cut.
• Literal-Minded: Do not enter room when red light is flashing. Clouseau hastily enters when light switches. Entire interaction with Yuri the trainer who trains.
• Logo Joke: We see Leo the Lion roaring the MGM logo as usual... and then the logo opens up like a door and we see the animated Clouseau, who looks around for a second, then walks off, revealing that the Pink Panther is behind him. The Panther gives the audience a smirk and slams the "door", then Leo reacts in a Pythonesque way.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Pink Panther:
    • During the Animated Credits Opening, the Pink Panther dresses as a conductor and begins to conduct an offscreen orchestra. He did the very same thing in the title sequence of the original 1963 film.
    • The Animated Credits Opening begins with the Pink Panther dancing under a spotlight, just like the title sequence of The Return of the Pink Panther.
  • Clouseau plans to randomly attack Ponton without warning, a reversal of A Shot in the Dark when he asks Cato to randomly attack him when he least expects it. Ponton manages to foil Clouseau's attacks, prompting Clouseau to respond with "Good one!" In The Pink Panther 2, Ponton's sons Louis and Antoine attack Clouseau without warning when he's trying to rest up.
  • The bit in the airport where Clouseau unknowingly reveals several weapons and ends up being detained and taken away? Taken from a very similar scene in Alan Arkin's Inspector Clouseau, though Clouseau is trying to get back to France instead of arriving from there.
• Naked People Are Funny: At one point during the Animated Credits Opening, we see the Pink Panther enter a room wearing a police uniform like Clouseau's. Once the Panther exits, Clouseau enters... and realizes that he's naked and covers himself.
• Noodle Incident: The opening scene of the first film has Dreyfus reflecting on Clouseau's history. This includes a case where Clouseau somehow believed that a man named Pierre Fuquette had been murdered and slammed open three different doors to accuse the resident of being the murderer, resulting in him accusing a dog, a baby, and the not-dead-at-all Pierre Fuquette of the crime. After recognizing the third, Clouseau just declared the case closed. Then after that, he's seen getting chased by goats down an alley for some reason.
• Not Me This Time: Despite bitterly confessing to the murders, an annoyed Yuri, the trainer who trains, tells Dreyfus (who's trying one last time to one-up Clouseau) that he did not steal the Pink Panther; Clouseau then reveals that Xania had it all along. She was given the ring with the diamond as an engagement ring before Gluant was killed. She didn't tell anyone this because she feared she would be the prime suspect if she did.
• Once More, with Clarity: The scene with a Chinese lady is played twice, the second time with subtitles revealing the vital information she had to offer.
• Pet the Dog: After the film spends most of the time depicting Yves Gluant as an abusive boss, an adulterer, a compulsive gambler, a thieving business partner, and indebted to a Chinese official, with no way to pay the latter back, Xania reveals that his last act before his murder was asking her to marry him and giving her his prized diamond to seal the deal.
• Product Placement: As Clouseau tries a hamburger for the first time and falls in love with the taste, the McDonald's logo is very prominently featured behind him.
• Repetitive Name: More like nickname, but Yuri, the Russian soccer trainer, is repeatedly referred to by Clouseau as "Yuri, the trainer who trains", even when he exposes Yuri as Gluant's murderer.
• Red Herring: Bizu fingers Raymond Laroque as Gluant's murderer, however, Clouseau reveals that Bizu was blackmailing the real killer, Yuri, the trainer who trains, leading the latter to kill him.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Clouseau is a fan of Xania's music and carries around a tiny, pink Swiss Army Knife.
• Running Gag:
  • As a Mythology Gag, Clouseau tries to keep Ponton on his feet by randomly trying to attack him, only for Ponton to counter him every time. This is a Mythology Gag referencing how Cato would randomly attack Clouseau in the original films.
  • Recurring scenes of marathon cyclers getting injured in various slapstick ways, often by Clouseau's bumbling antics.
  • Clouseau's paranoia; in several scenes, upon entering a room, he goes off on tangents about the weather, on the off-chance someone is listening and goes around karate-chopping what he thinks are people hiding behind something and/or cutting what he believes are bugs using scissors from a pink Swiss Army Knife (in reality, he ends up cutting an electrical wire for a lamp, electrocuting himself, and a cable holding up a chandelier in a fancy hotel).
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Xania is a sweet, pretty pop star, but acts very shady throughout the film, suggesting she had something to do with Gluant's murder and the theft of the Pink Panther. The end reveals that she is connected to the case, but she didn't kill anyone or steal the diamond: Gluant gave her the diamond as an engagement ring as a promise not to cheat on her anymore, but Gluant's murder made her realize that she'd be the number one suspect if she was caught with the diamond, so she had it sewn into her vintage purse. As for the murders, it turns out it was Yuri, the trainer who trains, who killed everyone and attempted to kill Xania herself for rejecting him.
• Shout-Out:
  • Bizu is a reference to a French soccer player named Zinedine Zidane, who's also known as "Zizou".
  • Nigel Bosewell is an Affectionate Parody of James Bond. His appearance and portrayal by Clive Owen are an in-joke to how Owen was once considered to play Bond until Daniel Craig got casted; Owen not getting the part is teased when Clouseau asks 006 if he wasn't good enough to be 007.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Clouseau and Nigel Bosewell both go on tangents about the weather to look unsuspicious, leading to the former to identify the latter as an MI6 agent.
• Stealing the Credit: Yuri's motive for killing Gluant was the latter taking credit for the former's game plans.
• This Is Going to Suck: When Dreyfus is accidentally sent rolling out in his hospital bed towards a window, Clouseau remarks: "This is going to hurt."
• Who Murdered the Asshole: The investigation into Yves Gluant's death leads to a long list of suspects who all had possible motive for killing him.
  • Xania, a famous pop star and Glaunt's girlfriend/fiancée, whom he had repeatedly cheated on and was once heard yelling "I will kill you" at him when she caught him with another woman. Xania turns out to be innocent of Gluant's murder and is actually keeping the diamond in secret; Gluant gave it to her before his death as an engagement ring and promise to be faithful to her. Xania withheld this knowledge out of fear she would be implicated in his death.
  • Bizu, a French soccer player who resented Gluant for "stealing" Xania.
  • Raymond Laroque, Gluant's business partner. The two opened up a restaurant together, from which Gluant embezzled money to feed his gambling habit.
  • Vainqueur, Gluant's assistant coach who became the head coach following his death. Gluant was verbally abusive towards Vainqueur who is unsurprisingly not saddened by his death.
  • Dr. Lee Pang a Chinese man with whom Gluant had some dalliances with. Pang would send Gluant large sums of money to invest on his behalf only for Gluant to gamble them away.
  • It is ultimately revealed that the true murderer of Gluant is Yuri, the Russian trainer whose game plans Gluant took credit for.
• Who's on First?: When Clouseau learns that Bizu's last words were "Oh, it's you," he tells Ponton to find somebody named Yu to interrogate.
• Yandere: Xania is targeted by Yuri, the trainer who trains, after she dated Bizu, then Gluant, and according to Yuri, treated him like he was nothing; Clouseau then mocks him for this.

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