| The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! | |
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 | |
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Starring |
Leslie Neilsen |
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Preceded by |
Police Squad |
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Followed by |
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Release Date |
December 2nd 1988 |
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is the first film of the trilogy.
Plot[]
The film begins in Beirut, where a gang of anti-American leaders including Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gaddafi, Fidel Castro, and Idi Amin meet to plan the ultimate terrorist act against the United States. The man who is later shown to be Pahpshmir is also present. Frank Drebin has been posing undercover as a waiter; he beats up all the attendees, discovering in the process that Gorbachev's famous birth-mark is dyed and various other shocking facts about them, and Frank warns them that they will never attack America as long as he is on the job. In Los Angeles, Officer Nordberg unsuccessfully attempts to bust a heroin drug operation at the docks organized by Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban), and is shot numerous times by Ludwig's henchmen. After being briefed on the case by his boss, Captain Ed Hocken, Frank visits Nordberg in the hospital. Nordberg can provide only a few cryptic clues, including a picture of Ludwig's ship on which the deal had been organized. Frank later meets with wacky police scientist Ted Olsen (Ed Williams), who has invented a cufflink that shoots out a tiny dart which renders the victim unconscious, promptly testing it on Hocken. While discussing Nordberg's case, it is revealed that the police force suspects Nordberg to be corrupt and involved in drug dealings. Hocken gives Drebin 24 hours to clear Nordberg's name. Pahpshmir meets with Ludwig, who announces that he will assassinate Queen Elizabeth II for $20 million. With his beeper, and the victim's wrist-watch, Ludwig demonstrates that he can turn anyone into an unknowing assassin via post-hypnotic suggestion. Later, Drebin visits Ludwig in his office and inadvertently lets slip the information that Nordberg is still alive, which results in an assassination attempt by a hypnotized physician. Frank chases the assassin in a commandeered teen driving school car until the luckless fugitive crashes the car into a gasoline truck, a U.S. Army missile transporter, and a fireworks factory. As Drebin works on the case, he meets and falls in love with Ludwig's assistant, Jane Spencer. It is eventually revealed that she knows nothing about Ludwig's plot, and after Jane learns of her employer's villainy, she helps Frank with his investigation. However, things go awry as Frank breaks into Ludwig's office to get crucial information. In the process of finding that information, Frank ends up setting a fire that completely destroys Ludwig's office. Later, believing he saw Ludwig attempt to kill the Queen at a reception, Frank ends up causing more trouble and is removed from Police Squad.
During the Queen's visit to a California Angels baseball game, Jane tells Frank that one of the team's players will conduct the assassination. While hiding from his fellow policemen, who are now under orders to arrest him, Frank first disguises himself as the (fictional) opera singer Enrico Pallazzo, brutally mangling the U.S. national anthem along the way, then manages to secure the position of the home plate umpire, beginning to call the game, in order to frisk all the players for weapons. Finally, realizing that he is running out of time, Frank goes to great lengths to delay the game, ultimately resorting to interfering with the play, to the ire of the managers of the Angels and the Seattle Mariners. Ludwig activates his 'sleeper', the right-fielder for the Angels, Reggie Jackson. Jane alerts Frank, who chases after Jackson. Frank catches and tackles him, inadvertently triggering a bench-clearing brawl between the Angels and the Mariners, while Ludwig takes Jane to the top of the stadium with him at gunpoint. During the brawl, Jackson emerges from the pile and points his gun at the Queen. Frank fires one of Ted's cufflink darts to incapacitate Jackson, but accidentally hits a fat woman in the upper mezzanine instead. Still, Frank manages to save the Queen's life, because the dazed fat woman falls on top of Jackson, knocking him out.
Frank later moves through the crowd to the top of the stadium, where Ludwig holds Jane with him at gunpoint. Frank shoots Ludwig with the other cufflink dart, causing Ludwig to stagger and fall several stories over the stadium's railing. The USC marching band tromps over Ludwig's steamroller-flattened body, triggering his beeper and thus activating Jane's own post-hypnotic suggestion, which compels her to kill Frank with Ludwig's gun. Frank uses his reverse psychology to try to break Jane's hypnotized state by openly professing his feelings for her, and gives her an engagement ring, after which Jane is freed from Ludwig's hypnosis and finally accepts Frank's marriage proposal. Frank's speech is broadcast on the stadium screen, causing the teams and the audience to burst into tears, fall into each other's arms and make up. Afterwards, Frank and Jane meet Mayor Barkley (Nancy Marchand), who reinstates Frank back to Police Squad, and Nordberg congratulates him. Nordberg, while still wheelchair-bound, seems much better until Frank pats Nordberg on the back and accidentally sends him toppling down the aisle and up over the railing of the stadium's upper deck.
Videos[]
