Rat Race

Rat Race
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jerry Zucker
Produced by	Jerry Zucker Janet Zucker Sean Daniel
Written by	Andy Breckman
Starring	John Cleese Breckin Meyer Amy Smart Rowan Atkinson Cuba Gooding, Jr Whoopi Goldberg Seth Green Vince Vieluf Jon Lovitz Lanai Chapman Kathy Najimy Dave Thomas Wayne Knight
Music by	John Powell
Cinematography	Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by	Tom Lewis
Studio	Fireworks Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 17, 2001 (2001-08-17)
Running time	112 minutes [1]
Country	‹See Tfd› Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$48 million
Box office	$85,498,534[2]

Rat Race is a 2001 comedy film directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Andy Breckman, and stars an ensemble cast, including Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jon Lovitz, Lanei Chapman, Seth Green, Kathy Najimy, Dave Thomas, Vince Vieluf, John Cleese, Breckin Meyer, Kathy Bates, Wayne Knight, Dean Cain, and Amy Smart.

The main plot revolves around six teams of people who are given their task of racing 563 miles from a Las Vegas casino to a Silver City, New Mexico train station, where a storage locker contains two million dollars. The first team to reach the locker wins and gets to keep the money. The film has a similar plot to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Scavenger Hunt.

Plot

Donald Sinclair, the eccentric owner of The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, devises a new game to entertain the high rollers who visit his hotel. Six special tokens are placed in the casino's slot machines, and the winners of them are gathered together and told that $2 million in cash is hidden in a duffel bag in a train station locker in Silver City, New Mexico. They are told they must compete in a no-holds-barred race to get there first and claim the money. Each winner is given a key that will open the locker and they are sent on their way. What they do not know is that Sinclair's wealthy patrons are placing bets on who will win the race. Among the racers are scheming twins Duane and Blaine Cody, businesswoman Merrill Jennings and her estranged mother Vera, disgraced football referee Owen Templeton, the Pear family led by opportunistic father Randy, eccentric Italian tourist Enrico Pollini, and no-nonsense attorney Nick Schaffer.

Duane and Blaine destroy an airport radar with their pickup truck, before deciding to split up to double their chances of winning by creating a replica key. However, a locksmith overhears their plan and makes off with the key. The brothers chase the locksmith who tries to escape in a hot air balloon, only for the brothers to steal back the key and leave the locksmith dangling from the balloon with a cow for company. The brothers later steal a monster truck after being distracted by a woman with numerous piercings. Merrill and Vera lose their car thanks to a crazed squirrel owner, forcing them to steal a rocket car which races across the desert until it runs out of fuel, the women dizzly stumbling onto a bus full of mental patients which drives through Silver City

Owen is left stranded in the desert by a vengeful cab driver, but he comes across a coach filled with women going to an I Love Lucy convention and disguises himself as the driver. Numerous shenanigans happen on the coach until it crashes thanks to the hot air balloon. Owen breaks down, reveals he is not a coach driver and is forced to flee from the women. The Pear Family visit a museum dedicated to Nazi Klaus Barbie, but after the Codys cut their car engine, they steal Adolf Hitler's Mercedez-Bens car. Randy accidentally insults a biker gang, who attack the car, causing the Pears to crash into a meeting for World War II veterans with Randy's injuries causing him to sound like Hitler. Randy later drugs his family and loads them onto a truck to reach Silver City.

Nick at first refuses to participate until he meets helicopter pilot Tracy Faucet who offers him a lift to Silver City. On the way, they pass over Tracy's boyfriend's house but find he is with his ex-girlfriend, enraging Tracy to the point that she chases him in the helicopter until it runs out of fuel, causing her and Nick to steal her boyfriend's truck. Enrico, who is narcoleptic, falls asleep at the start of the race but awakens hours later and receives a lift from ambulance driver Zack Mallozzi, who is delivering a heart to El Paso. The heart gets lose in the van, and Enrico accidentally throws it out the window. Zack considers removing Enrico's heart to replace the first, but Enrico flees onto a passing train, only for Zack to restart the first heart by touching an electric fence.

All the racers reunite in Silver City, but Enrico arrives at the train station first only to fall asleep as he reaches the locker. Sinclar's assistant Mr. Grisham and callgirl Vicky steal the money bag, but lose it when the locksmith ties it to the balloon, only for the three to crash their car. The racers follow the balloon until it lands at a charity concert hosted by Smash Mouth. All the racers are persuaded to give the money to charity, Nick forcing Sinclair and his fellow gamblers to pay double the prize money.

Cast

Main

• John Cleese as Donald P. Sinclair, a billionaire quick to find his next opportunity at a bet. He is the one that sends everyone to find the $2 million prize in New Mexico. The antagonist of the film.
• Breckin Meyer as Nick Schaffer, a logically-thinking, uptight attorney, and the main protagonist of the film.
• Amy Smart as Tracy Faucet, an amiable and attractive helicopter pilot; Nick's love interest
• Rowan Atkinson as Enrico Pollini, an eccentric foreigner from Italy with narcolepsy who is quick on his feet.
• Whoopi Goldberg as Vera Baker, a kindhearted mother
• Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Owen Templeton, a publicly disgraced football referee.
• Seth Green as Duane Cody, a materialistic con artist.
• Vince Vieluf as Blaine Cody, Duane's less selfish brother and partner-in-crime with an infected tongue piercing and is difficult to understand.
• Jon Lovitz as Randall "Randy" Pear, a devoted family man.
• Kathy Najimy as Beverly "Bev" Pear, Randy's wife.
• Lanai Chapman as Merrill Jennings, a career-oriented woman with a temper, and Vera's long-lost daughter.
• Dave Thomas as Harold Grisham, an emotionless right-hand to Donald Sinclair.
• Wayne Knight as Zack Mallozzi, an uptight and overweight man committed to delivering a heart to a dying patient.
• Brody Smith as Jason Pear, Randy's level-headed son.
• Jillian Marie Hubert as Kimberly Pear, Randy's bratty and foul-mouthed daughter.

Minor

• Paul Rodriguez as Gus the cabbie
• Dean Cain as Shawn Kent
• Brandy Ledford as Vicky
• Silas Weir Mitchell as Lloyd (The Hardware Store Guy)
• Colleen Camp as Rainbow House Nurse
• Deborah Theaker as Lucy
• Gloria Allred as herself
• Kathy Bates (uncredited) as The Squirrel Lady
• Diamond Dallas and Kimberly Page (deleted scenes) as themselves

Production notes

• Rat Race is the first film to feature two African American actors who had previously won Academy Awards: Gooding, Jr. (for Jerry Maguire) and Goldberg (for Ghost).
• Lawyer Gloria Allred is featured in two scenes; the first is when she happens to be nearby when a woman slips on an overturned empty shot glass (meant for Blaine Cody) and injures herself after falling down a flight of stairs, prompting her to decide to take up the woman's case against the hotel; and the second is when she is sitting on her balcony when Enrico Pollini is hit by Zack, during which she tries to take up Pollini's case against Zack.
• Sinclair and the gamblers' eccentric gambling habits are even further exaggerated in deleted scenes, where they partake in many more ridiculous bets, including playing Monopoly with real money. In another scene, one of the high rollers pretends to find what they are doing as immoral.
• Professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page and his wife, Kimberly, had a cameo in the film that was cut when test audiences failed to give his appearance any reaction. The scene is available on the DVD release.
• Vieluf lost billing when his agent attempted to secure him star-billing. As a result, Vieluf was left out of all promotional material, even though his character was seen in a majority of the film. Vieluf has since fired that agent.
• Director Zucker's late mother, Charlotte, made a cameo appearance as one of the Lucille Ball impersonators.
• Cleese's character of Donald Sinclair may be based on the hotelier of the same name and the main inspiration for Basil Fawlty, Cleese's character in his show Fawlty Towers.
• This is the fourth film that actresses Goldberg and Najimy were cast in together with their previous efforts Soapdish, Sister Act and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
• This is the second film actors Meyer and Smart worked together in, and were also each other's love interest; the first being Road Trip.

Filming locations

• The climactic railroad station scenes for Silver City, New Mexico were filmed at the restored train station at East Ely, Nevada, a popular tourist destination, as Silver City has no real train station.
• The scene with the coin toss by Owen Templeton was filmed at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Reception

Box office

Rat Race was released in both Canada and the United States on August 17, 2001 and took in USD$11,662,094 in its opening weekend at the U.S. Box office, landing at #3 behind American Pie 2 and Rush Hour 2,^[3] and ultimately making approximately $85.5 million worldwide,^[2] based on a budget of an estimated $48 million.

Critical reviews

Rat Race opened to mixed reviews; on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 44% "rotten" rating; the critical consensus is that "Rat Race moves from one sight gag to another, but only a handful of them are genuinely funny."^[4] On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film holds 52/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[5]

See also

• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
• Scavenger Hunt
• The Cannonball Run

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rat Race (film)

• Rat Race at the Internet Movie Database
• Rat Race at the TCM Movie Database
• Rat Race at AllRovi
• Rat Race at Box Office Mojo
• Rat Race at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rat Race at Metacritic