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Tropic Thunder

Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Ben Stiller
Justin Theroux
Robert Downey Jr.
743 User reviews
324 Critic reviews
71 Metascore
10 wins & 47 nominations total

Tugg Speedman - Hot LZ

Jeff Portnoy - Hot LZ

Kirk Lazarus - Hot LZ

Snooty Waiter - Fatties Trailer

Platoon Sergeant Shot in Head - Hot LZ

Kevin Sandusky - Hot LZ

Alpa Chino - Hot LZ
Chopper Pilot - Hot LZ

Damien Cockburn - Vietnam Crew

Damien's Assistant - Vietnam Crew

Cameraperson - Vietnam Crew

First Assistant Director - Vietnam Crew

Script Supervisor - Vietnam Crew

Cody - Vietnam Crew
Special Effects Assistant - Vietnam Crew

Studio Executive Rob Slolom - Vietnam Crew

Four Leaf Tayback - Vietnam Crew
Speedman Assistant - Vietnam Crew
(as Jeff Weideman)
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Ben Stiller said nearly all aspects of the Les Grossman character were developed by Tom Cruise , including the dancing and the look of the make-up. Stiller said that in addition to the more obvious make-up effects applied to Cruise's face and head, and the extra hair on his chest and arms, Cruise also decided to play the character wearing oversized prosthetic hands.
Goofs The north Vietnam flag appear early in the film (the read flag with yellow star). But in South Vietnam, it was not used by the VC. However, the Tayback story is set in an NVA (North Vietnamese Army) prison camp, thus it is accurate for them to have a North Vietnamese flag.

Les Grossman : First, take a big step back... and literally, FUCK YOUR OWN FACE! I don't know what kind of pan-pacific bullshit power play you're trying to pull here, but Asia Jack is my territory. So whatever you're thinking, you'd better think again! Otherwise I'm gonna have to head down there and I will rain down an un-Godly fucking firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the fucking United Nations and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I'm talking scorched earth, motherfucker! I will massacre you! I WILL FUCK YOU UP!

Crazy credits Movie begins with advertisement and fake trailers where the "actors" appear.
Alternate versions There is a director's extended cut which is available on the 3-disc special edition in the UK which contains more footage - runtime of overall film is 116 minutes on back of DVD case.
Connections Edited into Yoostar 2: In the Movies (2011)
Soundtracks I Love Tha Pussy Written by Darryl Farmer , Ronald Jackson , Brandon T. Jackson , Cisco Adler & Micah Givens Performed by Brandon T. Jackson

User reviews 743

lucasstupar
Nov 20, 2023
How long is Tropic Thunder? Powered by Alexa
Is "Tropic Thunder" based on a book?
Are any of the characters based on real people?
What is "blackface"?
August 13, 2008 (United States)
United States
United Kingdom
DreamWorks / Paramount (France)
DreamWorks (United States)
Sấm Nhiệt Đới
Kaua'i, Hawaii, USA
Dreamworks Pictures
Red Hour Films
Goldcrest Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$92,000,000 (estimated)
$110,515,313
$25,812,796
Aug 17, 2008
$195,703,351

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes
Dolby Digital

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15 years ago, Tom Cruise revived his career with an uncredited role in Tropic Thunder

After a string of controversies and a split from longtime studio paramount, cruise was slipping out of favour with hollywood. that was, until he suggested the character of a diet coke-guzzling terror of a movie producer for his friend ben stiller’s new film, article bookmarked.

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Fifteen years ago, Tom Cruise took on a role that has since been credited for reviving his career. Now, with the latest Mission: Impossible film just released and Cruise enjoying his time as one of the top 10 highest-grossing lead actors of all time, it’s hard to imagine. But back then, he was falling out of favour due to a spate of controversial public behaviour.

In 2006, Cruise was a PR nightmare dominating headlines for all the wrong reasons. The previous year, he’d caused uproar with his notorious couch-jumping stunt during an interview with Oprah. He was supposed to be promoting Steven Spielberg ’s movie War of the Worlds , but instead decided to declare his love for fellow actor Katie Holmes , in the most over-enthusiastic manner possible.

The clip was viewed millions of times around the world thanks to a new website called YouTube, sparking a reported feud with Spielberg, who apparently believed that Cruise’s behaviour had damaged War of the Worlds ’ success at the box office. (Cruise would later tell Oprah in a 2015 interview that the moment was “real” for him and he was unsure if he’d take it back.)

That same year, Cruise was heavily criticised for his remarks about Brooke Shields, where he accused her of spreading “irresponsible misinformation” about antidepressants. Shields, who struggled with conception, revealed in her book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, that she’d taken medication to help treat her condition.

In a heated discussion on The Today Show, Cruise told then-host Matt Lauer that Shields “didn’t understand the history of psychiatry”, and went so far as to brand her “dangerous”. Shields then wrote a New York Times op-ed, in which she suggested Cruise “stick to fighting aliens”. He was also criticised by medical experts who warned that he risked increasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

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Shields said that Cruise apologised for his remarks in person, and that she’d been impressed by his apology, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “He apologised for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened,” she said.

“And through it all, I was so impressed with how heartfelt it was. And I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it.”

By 2006, Cruise was rapidly falling out of favour with Hollywood, even as he was ranked as the world’s most powerful celebrity by Forbes . His influence and box-office success were indisputable, of course, but industry figures – and the public – appeared to be growing tired of his highly publicised antics.

Evidence of this emerged when Paramount Studios cut ties with Cruise after a 14-year relationship, and Sumner Redstone, then-chairman of the studio’s parent company, Viacom, cited the actor’s public behaviour as one of the reasons behind the decision.

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“It’s nothing to do with his acting ability, he’s a terrific actor,” Redstone said at the time. “But we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”

This shocking upset, which landed after years of success since Cruise first starred in Top Gun in 1986, caused many Hollywood critics to wonder if this was the end of his career. That was, until 2008, when Cruise showed up in a cameo role in his friend Ben Stiller ’s box office hit, Tropic Thunder – about a cast of prima donna actors shooting a movie in Vietnam – as the balding, Diet Coke-guzzling, expletive-uttering movie executive Les Grossman.

Opening up about Cruise’s role in an Esquire interview, director Stiller revealed that it was actually his friend’s idea to play Les. “Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie,” Stiller says. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving.”

Cruise certainly committed to the role. In a 2019 interview with Conan O’Brien, he recalled that his two stipulations for the role were that he wanted “fat hands”, and he wanted to dance. Wearing a fat suit, prosthetic hands and a bald cap, he was virtually unrecognisable as the suave Hollywood star the world knew, dancing to Ludacris’s “Get Back” one moment, screaming at a film crew the next (OK, the latter sounds more familiar after his notorious Mission Impossible diatribe in 2020 ). For many watching Tropic Thunder at the cinema, it wasn’t apparent that Cruise was behind the character until the end credits began to roll.

The film itself was controversial, not least for Robert Downey Jr’s performance, which involved wearing blackface to play method-loving Australian actor, Kirk Lazarus. Cruise’s character was also scrutinised: the New York Times noted how Grossman was “heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish…the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest”.

Yet audiences adored Cruise in the movie, and in the years since, his performance in Tropic Thunde r has been widely credited for “resurrecting” his career, along with proving he could do comedy, as well as action. Since then, fans have been begging Cruise to reprise the role, and it seems they might actually get their wish. Last year, in a Deadline report about him and his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, it was claimed that the duo are “fixated” on the character of Les Grossman, and are working out how best to bring him back.

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Fifteen years later "Tropic Thunder" is a flawed comedy that we're still trying to agree on

Robert downey jr.'s outrageous performance keeps it in the discourse, and asks us to think about why we're laughing, by melanie mcfarland.

It doesn't take much effort to encounter reminders of Robert Downey, Jr.'s work in "Tropic Thunder," no matter what year we're in. Clips featuring Downey as Kirk Lazarus are perennially popular GIFs, especially those featuring rolling transcripts of the character's most outrageous lines. Benign jesters and warty trolls alike offer them up as provocative replies to any issue you can think of.

The memes and references to "Tropic Thunder" were especially prolific over the past week, however, and for reasons having nothing to do with the 2008 film's 15th anniversary, a threshold it officially crossed on Aug.13.

Scroll through a few threads debating whether Bradley Cooper should wear a prosthetic nose to play legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, and there'd be the face of Downey's Lazarus as Black Army Sergeant Lincoln Osiris.

Not long after Cooper's "Jewface" controversy died down, another split shot of Judy Garland in horrendous Blackface next to a photo of her as Dorothy Gale rocketed around the internet, prompting rebuttals in the form of Downey as Osiris next to a picture of him as Tony Stark.

Downey as Kirk Lazarus as Lincoln Osiris bobs to the surface of the online furor stream for any reason whatsoever. A few weeks back, there was a hot debate over whether his work in "Tropic Thunder" is better than his acclaimed acting in " Oppenheimer ," and for a time you couldn't get away from GIFs of a painted Downey growling about being "a dude playin' a dude, disguised as another dude."

In February there was much groaning over Ben Stiller's decision to take a MAGA nut's bait. The man insisted the actor-director stop apologizing for "Tropic Thunder" and Stiller, currently lauded for his Apple TV+ drama "Severance," felt a need to reply that he never did – generating a New York Post headline. Surfacing that image doesn't require any news hook at all, of course, since there's always somebody like Megyn Kelly wondering why she can't get away with supporting blackface on national TV while Downey wore it for a whole movie.

Fifteen years after its release, "Tropic Thunder" holds the strange legacy of being a rallying point for the wrongheaded, and a representation of what not to do and how not to be, both intentionally and thoughtlessly. People with drastically opposing political, social and cultural views share the opinion that it is objectively hilarious.

Where they may differ is which gags they find especially funny and, more to the point, why. This is where the question of whether "Tropic Thunder" truly withstands the test of time or meets satire's quality standard, whatever that is, gets heated.

"Tropic Thunder" was directed, produced and co-written by Stiller, along with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. Stiller also stars as Tugg Speedman, an action star whose fortunes were derailed by his poor choice to play Simple Jack, a man with a mental disability who can talk to animals.

"Tropic Thunder" is now commonly understood as a maximalist shock comedy wrapped in a fig leaf quilt.

To resurrect his career he pulls the classic Hollywood gambit of starring in a bombastic Vietnam War flick, roping in Jack Black's Jeff Portnoy (modeled on Chris Farley) and Downey's Lazarus, the ensemble's multiple-Oscar-winning heavyweight. Very quickly the production goes awry, and the core ensemble finds itself facing down people armed with actual guns instead of props.

Each man embodies a version of Hollywood's self-aggrandizing pompousness. Portnoy is best known for a series of movies featuring him as an assortment of flatulent characters in fat suits, reminiscent of Eddie Murphy's Klumps franchise – if that starred Chris Farley. Speedman's "Simple Jack" lampoons award season-bait like "Rain Man," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "Forrest Gump," albeit with none of the care Stiller and the writers devote to Downey's role.

By the way, this aspect of the never-ending cycle dragging us back to all "Tropic Thunder"-related discourse demonstrates why likening Cooper's appearance in "Maestro" to Downey's character is a spurious act of trolling. Cooper is making an honest effort to approximate Bernstein's physical appearance, consulting the artist's family as he developed the part.

Downey's Kirk Lazarus is a fiction based on terrible and encouraged behavior, and it is meant to shock and offend. Stiller mitigates his awfulness by having Brandon T. Jackson's rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino remind Lazarus time and again that he isn't Black, that what he's doing is immoral — the aspect of the character Downey has previously explained he was drawn to.

Lazarus' whole being satirizes the obscene extremes to which method actors go. Not content to don makeup, he undergoes a surgical procedure to darken his pigmentation all over his body. Later the white Australian actor cosplaying as a Black person lectures his actual Black co-star on how denigrating the N-word is to "their people," a jaw-slackener completed by him quoting the lyrics to "The Jeffersons" theme song.

It's all an extreme exercise blackface's monstrosity — including here — and to remind the audience that Hollywood normalizes it. To a large degree that works. But not completely since, at the end of the day, it's still playing blackface for entertainment.

"It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie," Downey told Joe Rogan when he asked the actor about "Tropic Thunder" on a 2020 episode of his podcast. "And 90% of my Black friends are like, 'Dude, that was great.'"

As for the other 10%, Downey said, "You know, I can't disagree with them. But I know where my heart was."

This conversation, along with all the others that keep recurring, is a residual effect of the equal opportunity offender age of comedy, a time when Stiller thrived as part of the group colloquially dubbed the Frat Pack.

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In 2008, Stiller broadcast far and wide that he screened "Tropic Thunder" for representatives of the NAACP and a few Black journalists. A decade and a half later that detail is cited as a shield among those who allege to have asked their Black friends (who may or may not also be their Canadian girlfriends) if they have permission to do and say things they shouldn't.

A few beats before Downey utters that quote, he also jokes that the role allowed him "to be Black for a summer, in my mind, so there's something in it for me." That lands differently now than it did in January 2020, months before the names Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor changed what it meant to "be Black for a summer."

Changing eras recast our interpretations of some entertainment. Like other movies created and executed with the best of intentions in their day that show their cracks in the fullness of time, "Tropic Thunder" is now commonly understood as a maximalist shock comedy wrapped in a fig leaf quilt. The question is whether you're in on the joke.

Scoffing at that observation is natural since it is overwhelmingly embraced as hilarious, including by many Black folks, but certainly not all. Also, as Jamie Foxx points out to Rogan in an earlier appearance on his show, "Here's the thing: we f**k with Robert Downey Jr. Like, that's our guy." (Also: Jamie Foxx is one guy speaking on behalf of millions he didn't consult.)

What's most telling about the movie's legacy is that both boosters and detractors keep returning to the actual poster model of film's controversy, Downey Jr. in blackface, while conveniently skipping over intentional fouls like Tom Cruise's Les Grossman, a pitch-perfect send-up of a greedy egomaniacal studio boss that also drew "Jewface" accusations, or overlooking choices like the script's two-dimensional Asian thugs or a whiff of gay panic played for laughs late.

"Tropic Thunder" remains the uncommon broad comedy that invites consideration of both the jokes that were considered as thoroughly as three privileged white guys could, and the ones they failed to.

The bit deemed most offensive in 2008 that barely comes up in 2023 is the grotesque rendering of Simple Jack, and Lazarus' often-quoted speech summing up why it killed Speedman's career.

That monologue uses a slur referring to people with developmental disabilities multiple times on top of describing roles of its ilk in pejorative terms including calling him slow and stupid. But the line that pops up most frequently is the kicker: "Never go full (expletive)."

Somehow, though, "Tropic Thunder" remains the uncommon broad comedy that invites consideration of both the jokes Stiller, Theroux and Cohen considered as thoroughly as three privileged white guys could, and the ones they failed to. One might also ponder the moral incongruity of Downey embracing an Oscar nomination for a performance designed to skewer such validations of reprehensible acts committed in the name of exercising one's craft.

This is part of the reason that "Tropic Thunder" fans celebrate and lament that it could never be made in 2023, and reactions to Cooper's "Maestro" trailer back up that claim. Holding space for all artistic possibilities, however, means considering the more layered conversations people are having today outside of angry social media arenas might yield something just as outrageous, provocative and more thoughtful than whatever passed for edgy thinking 15 years ago.

People would be offended by that rendering too.

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That is dark comedy's lot when it's taken to extremes. Channeling loathsome behavior and practices into comedy can never be acceptable to some regardless of the intent behind the action. Others will twist the joke's objective to validate their prejudice or use it to call other artists hypocrites, which is enough of a reason to steer clear of no-go areas "Tropic Thunder" dove into face-first.

Many more people can simply take the movie for the mixed comedy bag that it is, enjoying the sure-shot laughs while examining why we're laughing or why the filmmakers believe we should be.

Maybe that can take some of the the oxygen out of future furors over who gets to play whom unless the choice is truly egregious. There will always be some dude playin' a dude, disguised as another dude people don't want him to play, and doing it poorly. "Tropic Thunder" gives the world an illustration to point to that we can all understand, subject to vastly disparate interpretations.

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Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

Robert Downey Jr. on ‘Tropic Thunder’ blackface: ‘90 percent of my black friends were like, “Dude, that was great” ’

When Robert Downey Jr. first got the call about possibly starring in “ Tropic Thunder ,” the 2008 Hollywood parody helmed by actor-director Ben Stiller, the “Iron Man” lead was conflicted. Downey was slated to play the character of Kirk Lazarus, a five-time Oscar-winning Australian actor who undergoes “pigmentation alteration” surgery to portray a black soldier in the satirical film-within-a-film, and the job carried a major risk: wearing blackface makeup.

“I thought: ‘Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll do that after ‘Iron Man,’ ” Downey, 54, said during a recent appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, recalling his conversation with Stiller. “And then I started thinking, ‘This is a terrible idea.’ ”

Downey’s hesitation was brief.

“I thought: ‘Hold on, dude. Get real here. Where is your heart?’ ” he said earlier this month. “My heart is a) I get to be black for a summer in my mind, so there’s something in it for me. The other thing is I get to hold up to nature the insane, self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion.”

“Tropic Thunder” received positive reviews for its scathing commentary on Hollywood, but also raised eyebrows with its blackface and drew criticism for its depiction of people with mental disabilities. The actor’s reflections on his decision to join the cast circulated widely Tuesday after IndieWire reported on the Jan. 15 podcast segment. By early Wednesday, the roughly 11-minute clip had been watched nearly 4.5 million times and garnered thousands of comments as fans praised Downey’s performance, which earned him an Oscar nomination in 2009.

“Ninety percent of my black friends were like, ‘Dude, that was great,’ ” Downey said.

Appearing on the show to promote his new film, “ Dolittle ,” Downey found himself looking back on “Tropic Thunder” after host Joe Rogan asked whether he thought the 2008 movie — replete with uses of a derogatory label associated with mentally disabled people — could be made today.

“Tropic Thunder,” which was released in August of that year, was described by The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday as “a rude, crude, over-the-top satire about rude, crude, over-the-top action movies” with a “hall-of-mirrors sense of humor” sure to “effectively weed out the easily offended even before the movie — or, more accurately, the movie-within-the movie — gets started.” The movie maintains an 81 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an online review aggregator.

The film stars Stiller, who also directed and co-wrote the script; Downey; and Jack Black, and it features a cameo from an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise. In the flick, the actors are playing actors cast in a big-budget adaptation of a Vietnam War memoir, but things take a turn when their director (Steve Coogan) decides to drop them into a jungle with the hopes of sparking more authentic performances.

Downey told Rogan that his mother cautioned him against playing the part of Lazarus, a method actor who at one point in the movie says, “Man, I don’t drop character till I done the DVD commentary.”

“My mother was horrified,” Downey said, before slipping into an imitation of his mother. ” ‘Bobby, I’m telling you, I have a bad feeling about this.' I was like ‘Yeah, me too, mom.’ ”

But Downey’s decision paid off as he went on to receive nominations from the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for his performance. In past interviews, Downey emphasized that his character differed from more egregious portrayals of blackface.

“At the end of the day, it’s always about how well you commit to the character,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2008. “I dove in with both feet. If I didn’t feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I’m just C. Thomas Howell in [the 1986-movie ‘Soul Man’], I would’ve stayed home.”

At the time, he credited “people who are high-minded enough to not be racist or offensive” for the film’s ability to toe such a fine line, Reuters reported .

On Rogan’s podcast this month, the actor reiterated his praise for the people behind the movie, namely Stiller.

“Ben, who is a masterful artist and director — probably the closest thing to a Charlie Chaplin that I’ve experienced in my lifetime,” said Downey, comparing Stiller to other film greats such as David Lean and Francis Ford Coppola. “… He knew exactly what the vision for this was. He executed it. It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie.”

While Downey’s black friends may have told him his performance was acceptable, others did not share that view. A 2009 essay in the Root, an African American-oriented online magazine, criticized Downey’s Oscar nomination: “A century after D.W. Griffith’s ‘classic’ The Birth of A Nation , some white folks still think it’s OK to parade around in blackface. Hell, many feel empowered in the march to the post-racial America. Whoa Nellie! It’s not OK! It’s obnoxious, easy and pathetic.”

Addressing such critiques, Downey said: “I can’t disagree with them, but I know where my heart was. It’s never an excuse to do something that is out of place and not of its time, but to me it was just putting … a blasting cap on.”

Rogan noted that “Tropic Thunder” would probably be the last movie of its kind, citing recent controversies involving blackface that sparked fierce condemnation of public figures, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who faced backlash last year after images surfaced of him appearing in brownface and blackface makeup when he was younger.

“It’s an interesting and necessary meditation on where is the pendulum. Why is the pendulum right?” Downey said. “… But again, there’s a morality clause here on this planet, and it’s a big price to pay. And I think having a moral psychology is job one, so sometimes you just got to go, ‘Yeah I effed up.’ Again, not in my defense, but ‘Tropic Thunder’ was about how wrong that is, so I take exception.”

The actor went on to stress how seriously he took the role, telling Rogan that he reviewed his lines “a thousand times” before shooting.

“It was a piece of work I was doing, and I cared about doing it as professionally and as honestly as I could,” he said.

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Tropic Thunder rewatched and reconsidered, 10 years later

The summer of 2008 broke history, and rebuilt it. America suffered through a bitter presidential election on the road to a globewrecking financial crisis. In theaters, cinematic generations were rising — and falling. Superheroes, Will Smith, George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro, Emma Stone, Mike Myers, Sisterhood s and Step Brothers , Batman, and ABBA, adaptations of TV shows we still tweet about, new installments of movie franchises studios won't stop rebooting: everything Hollywood was before, alongside everything it still is.

In our weekly column Two Thousand Late , we'll explore the big hits and curious flops from a summer that has never really ended. Next week: Summer ends and a new era dawns with The House Bunny . This week: critic at large Leah Greenblatt and TV critic Darren Franich on Tropic Thunder .

DARREN: We've revisited a lot of movies this summer, Leah. But I have to admit, nothing made me more anxious than the prospect of rewatching Tropic Thunder.

For director-star Ben Stiller, this was magnum opus territory: A big-budget comedy about big-budget excess, stuffed with hard-R ultraviolence and offensive-on-purpose material. Stiller was an influential cult-comedy voice in the '90s before he became a full-blown franchise-launching megastar across the 2000s. On Thunder , he assembled an all-star lineup from across the cinematic universe of humor: fellow comedy star Jack Black, Apatow-adjacent Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride, stand-up Brandon T. Jackson, eternal "he's much more popular in Britain" talking point Steve Coogan. And that's not to mention Tom Cruise under heavy makeup, Robert Downey Jr. under heavy makeup, and Matthew McConaughey in the wilderness years.

Tropic Thunder was a phenomenon upon initial release. It was the movie that finally pushed The Dark Knight off the top of the box office, maintaining a No. 1 position in domestic theaters through Labor Day. And thanks to Downey, it became the rare comedy hit to receive Oscar attention, earning the star a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Downey's role-within-a-role might be the big talking point here. As a vaguely Crowevian method actor Kirk Lazarus, Downey spends most of the movie exhibiting "pigmentation alteration" — meta-blackface, basically.

It seems impossible that any actor would play a role like that today, though on some level "wouldn't happen today" is the vibe of the whole movie. Tropic Thunder opens with a comedy assault, fake trailers, fart symphonies, a Brokeback ish Oscar parody, the sight of Stiller's hands exploded into Sarlacc-y stumps. The opening scene openly quotes Platoon and Apocalypse Now , two films which symbolize an earlier era of auteurist overreach.

You're primed for a scathing satire of Hollywood…and then the film never really lives up to that prologue. There are some isolated bits in Tropic Thunder I really enjoy. I forgot just how fully committed and semi-psychopathic Jack Black was in the part of a druggy tabloid star. On some deeply pathological level, I will always think it's hilarious when Tom Cruise says bad words. But there's something a little backpatty in the film's tone, halfway to Entourage. You feel everyone's very proud of everything they're getting away with — and the fact that Stiller ends Tropic Thunder with his character's Oscar victory feels like meta-narcissism falling backwards into light egomania.

What was your experience watching Tropic Thunder this go-round, Leah?

LEAH: Mine was the same honestly, though maybe I enjoyed it just a smedge more than you did? Or the first 45 minutes at least; much like Ben Stiller's biceps, the last hour is the kind of swole that you makes you think, "That is a whole lot of effort, for my mere mild amusement." Especially when you remember that this is the same director who made his debut less than 15 years earlier with Reality Bites , where his character purposefully represented all the smash-cut emptiness of modern pop culture that Winona and her scrappy little band of gas-station bohemians were trying to get away from. The student has become the blaster.

But there are so many moments in Thunder that I still love, too: the loony cameos (don't tell me that Tobey Maguire's performance as the homoerotic priest in the Kirk Lazarus trailer-within-a-trailer doesn't deserve at least a Cable Ace award), Jack Black and his jellybeans; Danny McBride's reverse lightning-bolt mullet; RDJ's "never go full retard" speech. And you're so right, even rewatching that speech scene alone on my laptop, I felt uncomfortable; I don't feel great even typing the words now. But there is real Academy wisdom in that speech too — and his delivery is perfect.

I actually enjoy this Downey performance way more than anything he's done in spandex over the last few years; it's so goofy and free. But to me the biggest revelation in this movie is probably Tom Cruise — not strictly because of the acting, necessarily, or the fat suit, though he works hard for both, but just that this is the last time I remember him distinctly not playing himself. He's a hairy-knuckled bear-daddy Diet Coke-head with a nuclear rage problem, and he looks like he's having so much fun. I don't know that I've enjoyed him this much as a pure actor, and not as a dude playing the dude who is always Tom Cruise™, since Magnolia .

I also just realized, is there a lady in this movie with a line of dialogue besides "Please hold"? Not that every script has to pass the Bechdel test , but man that is a low ratio, when secondhand Maria Menounos on a closed-circuit TV beamed over the hotel breakfast buffet is your main female.

DARREN: You've also got Tyra Banks, Christine Taylor, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Alicia Silverstone in steadily more cameo-ish cameos. Which could be the point! Like the same summer's Step Brothers , the overriding vibe here is dudely self-destruction. Stiller wrote the screenplay with Etan Cohen and (hello!) Justin Theroux, and it almost feels like they aligned their core characters with the Seven Deadly Sins. Stiller's Tugg Speedman envies Lazarus. Lazarus is a white actor prideful enough to think he can play a black man. Black's Jeff Portnoy is a glutton, like a chocoholic, but for heroin. Grossman's greedy. Brandon Soo Hoo's teen guerilla Tran is all wrath. And, um, is that seven yet?

In a lot of ways, this movie seems like the apex of a particular moment in comedy, sitting alongside 2005's dirty-joke shockfest The Aristocrats and 2006's Borat feature. Back then, it felt like the point of movie comedy was to push past every possible barrier of good taste. (This was also the era when the horror genre slipped into torture porn, a correlation proving nothing except that the 2000s were a weird, dark time.) It's a kick to see how far Tropic Thunder wants to push itself, no doubt. Along with the "full retard" speech (god help me, I laughed again!), there's that bit when Grossman decides the best business move is to let his lead actor die.

We're halfway to Network territory there — but you feel the kid gloves come on after that, like the movie can't get too sharp in its showbiz satire, like there's this quality of safely laughing with instead of dangerously laughing at . I guess it's a tricky question of our age, Leah. Even when a movie explicitly sets out to deconstruct powerful Hollywood men, will it inevitably wind up celebrating them? It looks fun to be a powerful asshat! It's like that old Francois Truffaut line, how there's no such thing as a truly anti-war film, because war inevitably looks awesome on the big screen. I know, I know, quoting Truffaut now are we? , but that could be some ultimate point of Tropic Thunder , too. These dudes go to the jungle looking to make a sober war epic, lose their movie, lose their minds, and still wind up with awards-y financial success. Huzzah for failing upwards!

Cruise as Grossman is a delight. Also, maybe we're just all the way through the rabbit hole here, but I forgot how much I enjoyed McConaughey as Stiller's agent! I've just seen a lot of his Serious Face stuff post-McConaissance, so it's a kick to watch his anxiously fratty agent face off against magisterial Grossman. Can we reunite these two characters in a spinoff? Written by, like, Tina Fey?

LEAH: Darren, this is in my top-three McConaughey performances for sure; my Mconaugh-three. He's not doing Kate Hudson romance or gaunt Oscar bait, but he is acting out the perfect flipside of his '90s John Grisham types: he has a noble cause and he will fight to the death for it! Except the cause is the Tivo clause in his client's set rider , and he will fight unless the death of that client means he gets his own G5.

It's funny what you say about the movie pivoting from satire to self-congratulation, because as two people who work adjacent to show business (and by "adjacent" I mean, like, the seagulls in the dumpster behind the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion), do you think you and I are more susceptible in general to this kind of inside-baseball shenanigans?

Thunder 's whole plot obviously hinges on some knowledge of Hollywood self-regard, but it's not setting a super high bar: Any steady pop-culture consumer would recognize those tropes (like the opening string of fantastically bad fake trailers); they're like an action-movie amuse-bouche that Stiller and Theroux gave us eight years before Deadpool .

Now that you brought up Tina Fey though, the script does feel like a sort of feature-length cousin to one of her and Amy Poehler's Golden Globes monologues: a big, winky pin in the bloated balloon of industry ego. I think they might be better at it than Justin Theroux — but of course 10 killer minutes onstage is not the same as sustaining a whole movie. (And 10 great minutes is about exactly what Sisters had.)

As far as men being both the only target and, in the end, the only heroes here, Cruise's turn did make me think for a minute about another one of my favorite left-field casting coups: Tilda Swinton's ruthless lad-mag editor in Trainwreck . She's just pure, venal joy with no real redemption arc at all, and I loved that.

I'm not really sure how to end this thing, so I'll give you the one of the seven deadly sins you missed: Sloth! I'm tapping out. But I'm glad this assignment made us rewatch and reconsider a movie I probably wouldn't have gone back to without, say, a long weekend in a log cabin with a very limited DVD collection.

My final takeaway is: Brandon T. Jackson is underrated. Cruise and McConaughey definitely need to get weird more often. And if there's going to be any kind of spin-off, I vote for RDJ and Kate McKinnon just jabbering their crazy Australian accents at each other for two straight hours. Fin.

Complete Summer 2008 Schedule:

May 2: Iron Man and Made of Honor

May 9: Speed Racer

May 16: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

May 22: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull

May 30: Sex and the City

June 6: Kung Fu Panda

June 13: The Happening

June 20: The Love Guru

June 27: WALL-E

July 2: Hancock

July 11: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

July 18: The Dark Knight

July 25: Step Brothers

Aug. 1: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Aug. 13: Tropic Thunder

Aug. 22: The House Bunny

When Asked About Tropic Thunder 2, Robert Downey Jr. Makes A Good Point About Himself And Tom Cruise

“I don’t read the script, the script reads me.”

Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise's Tropic Thunder characters

Although Iron Man was the biggest movie Robert Downey Jr. starred in during 2008, as it kicked off his 10-movie run as Tony Stark and propelled him to new levels of popularity, let’s not forget he also played Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder that same year. The comedy saw him playing an extremely method Australian actor who inappropriately donned blackface to inhabit the role of Lincoln Osiris, and one of Downey’s costars was Tom Cruise , who played the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered studio executive Les Grossman. However, Downey and Cruise never shared any actual screen time in Tropic Thunder , and the former brought that up when he was asked about Tropic Thunder 2 .

15 years after Tropic Thunder ’s release, every now and then, there’s still chatter about releasing some kind of follow-up, whether that be a direct sequel or the long-talked-about spinoff centered on Grossman . The former was specifically brought up while Downey was talking with ExtraTV about his new show Downey’s Dream Cars (which can be streamed with a Max subscription ), with the interviewer mentioning that Cruise is interested in doing another Tropic Thunder movie, and then asking if Downey was game. That led to the following interaction:

Robert Downey Jr .: Look, alls I’ll say is this. Tom Cruise and I have not done a project together, and that’s kind of a yes. And hen we’ll figure out what the title is. Interviewer: What about Iron Man 4? RDJ: Does he want to do that? Tom! Don’t take it, don’t take it!

Given how Kirk Lazarus spent the majority of Tropic Thunder trapped in the Vietnamese jungles with Ben Stiller ’s Tugg Speedman, Jack Black ’s Jeff Portnoy, Brandon T. Jackson’s Alpa Chino and Jay Baruchel ’s Kevin Sandusky, while Les Grossman was back in Hollywood verbally abusing those around them and threatening to go scorched earth on Flaming Dragon, naturally there wasn’t any opportunity for Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise’s characters to hang out. Sure, the two actors may have crossed paths during the press tour, but that’s not the same as starring in a movie together, and Downey is definitely game to make that happen, whether that be in Tropic Thunder 2 or some other kind of project.

Ben Stiller Set The Record Straight On His Feelings About Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller Apparently Gave A Heads Up About One Of Robert Downey Jr.'s Most Controversial Tropic Thunder Joke

Well, there is one exception, as he’s clearly determined to keep Cruise away from Iron Man 4 . That’s especially amusing considering that before Downey was cast as Tony Stark, which Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has described as “probably one of the most significant decisions in the history of Hollywood,” Cruise has turned down the role of the Armored Avenger . Then in 2022, it was rumored that Cruise would appear as a Tony Stark variant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , though that obviously didn’t end up being true. Given how Cruise is keeping busy with various projects, including now wanting to play Mission: Impossible ’s Ethan Hunt for another two decades , not to mention there being no indication that Downey will return to the MCU following Tony’s death in Avengers: Endgame , I think we can safely take an Iron Man 4 starring the two of them off the table.

Needless to say CinemaBlend will let you if/when the day comes that Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise decide to tackle Tropic Thunder 2 or something else together. As for what they have going on separately, Cruise will be back in action as Ethan Hunt for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , which opens on July 12, while Downey will be seen as a member of Oppenheimer ’s extensive cast when that movie comes out on July 21.

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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Robert Downey Jr. was so committed to method acting as the method actor Kirk Lazarus in 'Tropic Thunder' that he even peed in character, his co-star said

Robert Downey Jr. stayed in character for "Tropic Thunder" while off-camera, his costar Danny McBride said.
Downey Jr. played method actor Kirk Lazarus in the satire about a war film.
McBride told GQ that he overheard Downey Jr. method-acting as the method actor on set.

Robert Downey Jr. was so committed to method acting his part as the method actor Kirk Lazarus in "Tropic Thunder'" that he went to the toilet in character, according to his costar Danny McBride.

In the satirical movie about the making of a war film, Downey Jr. plays an Australian actor who is so committed to method acting that he surgically darkens his skin and pretends to be African-American. Downey Jr. wore blackface for this role, a decision that has been criticized in recent years because of its racist history .

McBride , who played an explosion director in the movie, told GQ in an interview published on Wednesday that Downey Jr. was so committed to his "Tropic Thunder" role that he method acted too.

McBride said he was given an earpiece in the scene where his character is in a watchtower above the set, so that the director could communicate with him. But the earpiece also allowed him to hear the mics of the other actors.

"I guess during one of the takes, they had left Downey's mic on, and so I'm sitting up there, and I'm like, 'Oh shit, I can hear what he's saying,'" McBride said. "He was talking to people, and he was in character the whole time. And then I even watched him walk back to his trailer and saw it from down there, and he was talking to himself."

McBride said he heard Downey Jr. saying in character: "I'm gonna go drain the snake."

Robert Downey Jr. has defended wearing blackface in 'Tropic Thunder'

During an appearance on the " Literally! With Rob Lowe " podcast in January, Downey Jr. said that Stiller, who directed the movie, created Lazarus to criticize the blackface trope.

"The spirit that Stiller directed and cast and shot 'Tropic Thunder' in was, essentially, as a railing against all of these tropes that are not right and had been perpetuated for too long," Downey Jr. said.

In 2020, Downey Jr. told " The Joe Rogan Experience " podcast that he saw the role as an opportunity to "be Black for a summer" and show the "insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists."

"It was impossible to not have it be an offensive nightmare of a movie, and 90% of my Black friends were like, 'Dude, that was great,'" Downey Jr. said before comparing the movie to "White Chicks," a film where two Black actors pretend to be white women.

Downey Jr.'s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Main content

Tom Cruise's Les Grossman Character Is Finally Returning In The Best Way Possible

Released in 2008, "Tropic Thunder" is one of the more polarizing comedy flicks to come out of the era. Sure, it boasts a stacked cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and more, and the idea of a bunch of actors ending up stranded in a dangerous jungle while filming their latest movie certainly has comedy potential. Although, things like RDJ's character, Kirk Lazarus, wearing blackface for most of the film , and the portrayal of Tugg Speedman's (Stiller) Simple Jack character , have led many to take a second, more critical look at the film.

Still, Tom Cruise 's Les Grossman is as funny as ever.

A gruff, money-hungry studio executive stationed in Los Angeles, California, Grossman spends much of the film overseeing Speedman, Lazarus, and the rest of the crew's progress — or lack thereof. All the while, he throws child-like temper tantrums and shows next to no respect for those beneath him. Nevertheless, he's among the most fondly remembered parts of "Tropic Thunder" thanks to Cruise's eccentric approach to the character coupled with the makeup and prosthetics that make it hard to tell it's the "Mission: Impossible" star in the first place.

While a "Tropic Thunder 2" hasn't materialized up to this point, as it turns out, Les Grossman is finally going to make a comeback in the near future. Here's what we know.

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are eager to bring Grossman back

As reported by Deadline on August 8, 2022, Tom Cruise and producer Christopher McQuarrie are putting together a handful of new projects. The first aligns more with Cruise's typical cinematic efforts since it's an action flick with the potential to become a franchise, and the second is an original song and dance-style musical that would give Cruise a nice break from his usual endeavors. As for the third, it will supposedly focus on Les Grossman in some form or fashion. Time will tell if this will put the character front-and-center in a production of his own or if he'll merely appear as a supporting player.

Talks of a Les Grossman spin-off date back to the early 2010s, with "Barry" star Bill Hader confirming in 2011 that it was even written (via MovieWeb ). However, as time went on, it never came to fruition, though Cruise has been vocal about wanting to return to the role in some form. "I don't know. I did Les Grossman for the MTV Awards...We'll have to see. That could be fun," he told ComicBook.com in May of 2022 of giving Grossman another shot, which, bearing in mind Deadline's report about Cruise and McQuarrie's next efforts, means we could be closer than ever to Grossman's triumphant return to the silver screen.

One can only hope that in the coming months, we hear more about all of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie's upcoming collaborations — the Les Grossman title, especially.

Ben Stiller Reflected On The Blackface Controversy Surrounding “Tropic Thunder” And Said He Has “No Apologies”

“It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

BuzzFeed News Staff

Ben Stiller has no regrets when it comes to Tropic Thunder .

The 2008 satirical comedy focuses on a group of actors who find themselves lost in a jungle while shooting a big-budget war film and are ultimately forced to survive using only their acting skills when they come up against real danger in a live warzone.

Perhaps most notably, Robert Downey Jr. appeared in the movie as an Australian method actor who undergoes “pigmentation alteration” surgery in order to darken his skin tone, allowing him to play a Black character.

The performance earned Robert an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2009. Among the ensemble cast was Ben — who also directed the film — along with the likes of Jack Black and Steve Coogan. Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey also made cameos.

It goes without saying that featuring a white actor in blackface stirred up a huge amount of backlash at the time of the film’s release, and it still remains a controversial movie to this day.

On top of this, Tropic Thunder was widely criticized for its depiction of characters with disabilities — prompting more than 20 disability advocacy groups to speak out when the movie opened to condemn the use of the word “retard.”

So, 15 years after the film was released, Ben assured fans this week that he has no regrets after one Twitter user asked him to “please stop apologizing.”

Benny S. @BennySings @BenStiller Please stop apologizing for doing this movie. It was and still is funny AF... Even funnier now with cancel culture the way it is. It's a MOVIE. Ya'll can just get over it. I was DYING laughing when I first saw it back in the day and so was everyone else. 02:44 PM - 21 Feb 2023 Reply Retweet Favorite

“I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder . Don’t know who told you that,” the actor tweeted in response.

Ben Stiller @BenStiller @BennySings I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it. 🙏✊😊 07:49 PM - 21 Feb 2023 Reply Retweet Favorite

“It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it,” he concluded.

Interestingly, the fan replied by bringing to Ben’s attention a tweet of his from 2018 where he was forced to issue an apology after Olympian Shaun White sparked controversy by dressing as a character with disabilities from the movie.

“ Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologized then,” the old tweet read. “It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards.”

Ben Stiller @BenStiller Actually Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologized then. It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards. I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics. https://t.co/RqID5jIXP1 09:26 PM - 30 Oct 2018 Reply Retweet Favorite

He finished by acknowledging the Special Olympics , which was among the advocacy groups to speak out against the project back in 2008.

“I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics,” he said.

Back in 2020, Robert Downey Jr. defended the use of blackface in Tropic Thunder , saying he believed it served a purpose within the context of the movie.

“I think that it’s never an excuse to do something that’s out of place and out of its time, but to me it blasted the cap on [the issue],” the actor said in January of that year. “I think having a moral psychology is Job 1. Sometimes, you just gotta go, ‘Yeah, I effed up.’ In my defense, Tropic Thunder is about how wrong [blackface] is, so I take exception.”

Robert also said that he had been hesitant to take on the role in the first place, revealing that Sean Penn had “possibly wisely” passed on the part before him.

“When Ben called and said, ‘Hey, I’m doing this thing’ — you know I think Sean Penn had passed on it or something. Possibly wisely. And I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that and I’ll do that after Iron Man .’ Then I started thinking, ‘This is a terrible idea, wait a minute,’” he said.

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Movie Review | Tropic Thunder

War May Be Hell, but Hollywood Is Even Worse

By Manohla Dargis

Aug. 12, 2008

Despite what you may have read lately, the biggest target of ridicule in “Tropic Thunder,” a flashy, nasty, on-and-off funny and assaultive sendup of the film industry, is not the mentally retarded. Rather, the true targets of this extreme comedy’s free-flowing contempt are the stars, makers, brokers, miscellaneous supplicants and even die-hard fans of the movies, who are all portrayed as challenged in some fashion: intellectually, ethically, aesthetically, sartorially, chemically, longitudinally, you name it.

“Tropic Thunder” was directed by one of its stars, Ben Stiller, a professional offender and sometimes very funny man who also shares the movie’s writing credits with Etan Cohen and the actor Justin Theroux (missing in on-screen action here). Over the past decade or so Mr. Stiller has carved out a lucrative niche in the comedy of humiliation, his and everyone else’s. Though this is familiar comic turf (the joke has to be on somebody), he has made it a particular specialty by playing variations on the emasculated patsy the guy with the penis literally stuck in his zipper in “There’s Something About Mary” and figuratively caught in other roles who either triumphs over adversity or violently succumbs to it.

The joke is most definitely on, at least initially, Tugg Speedman, the preening, hard-bodied, soft-minded action star Mr. Stiller plays with such intimate knowing in “Tropic Thunder.” A blockbuster sensation who has maxed out the audience’s love with too many sequels and one misbegotten attempt to bait Oscar with a weepie called “Simple Jack,” in which he played a bucktoothed retarded man, Tugg is hoping to resuscitate his career by going gung-ho and grunt in a Vietnam War movie also called “Tropic Thunder.” With his co-stars notably Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus, an awards-laden Australian, and Jack Black as Jeff Portnoy, a comic partial to fat suits and flatulence Tugg is headed, yup, into the heartless darkness.

That’s old territory for Mr. Stiller, whose most triumphant excursion into comedy’s dark places remains “The Cable Guy,” a scabrous, much-maligned 1996 riff on mass culture with Jim Carrey at his creepy greatest. “Tropic Thunder” is far slicker than “The Cable Guy” and, given the new film’s obviously lavish budget (the aerial shots alone could bankroll the next Sundance slate), understandably more eager to please.

Mr. Stiller has to seduce the audience he once skewered, which he tries to do by giving it Bruckheimer-size pyrotechnics (the lead actors go AWOL in the jungle) and crude laughs wrung from a host of human frailties. But ever the maximalist, he doesn’t just slice and dice his characters and their weaknesses; he tears them limb from limb, blowing both to smithereens.

And he does it with gusto, especially during the hyperviolent opening movie-set war scene in which body parts go flying, and one actor-soldier attempts to keep his innards from spilling out of his stomach wound. Though this bit is played for obvious laughs and is intentionally phony-looking (the soldier looks as if he had been hit with a big pot of cassoulet rather than mortar), the scene skews more yucky than yukky because Mr. Stiller has so little sense of modulation. He isn’t content simply to decapitate a character, the way, say, Graham Chapman hacked limbs in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”; he also has to play with the stringy bits hanging from the bloodied neck. Mr. Stiller doesn’t kill jokes: he stomps them to death.

That’s how he ends up blowing what might have been the film’s sharpest scene, involving Kirk’s explanation for why Tugg’s performance as a retarded man in “Simple Jack” doomed his chances for an Oscar, an elucidation that includes a clever taxonomy of all the ways it’s permissible to play intellectually challenged in Hollywood (“Forrest Gump” is statuette-worthy, though not “I Am Sam”) and a grindingly unfunny repetition of the word retard. If Mr. Downey who at this point in his career apparently can do no wrong, even in blackface can’t make this bit work, it’s because the bit is unworkable. The pomposity of the Oscars is the hook, but it’s the word retard that provides the squirm.

There’s a lot of bait-and-switch throughout “Tropic Thunder,” including its use of blackface, which, along with the promiscuous deployment of the word retard, has earned it much of its advance publicity. Though Mr. Downey’s character, who has undergone a skin-darkening procedure to play his part, has been cut from moldy Fred Williamson cloth, he’s also the most recognizably human character in a lampoon rife with caricatures. One of those is played by an actual black man, Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino, a rap entrepreneur who peddles an energy drink called Booty Sweat and is mainly around to mock Kirk’s impersonation, which is the filmmakers’ way of having their chocolate cake and eating it too.

What’s most notable about the film’s use of blackface is how much softer it is compared with the rather more vulgar and far less loving exploitation of what you might call Jewface. Hands down the most noxious character in “Tropic Thunder” is Les Grossman, the producer of the movie-within-a-movie, who’s played by an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise under a thick scum of makeup and latex. Heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish, the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest. At one time Mr. Stiller wanted to adapt Budd Schulberg’s brutal satire about a Hollywood hustler, “What Makes Sammy Run?,” to the screen, a long dormant and now perhaps lost project that haunts this otherwise safe film like a wrathful ghost.

“Tropic Thunder” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Extreme carnage and language.

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Funny or offensive? Robert Downey Jr.'s controversial 'Tropic Thunder' performance turns 15.

Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing debate over downey's use of blackface in the 2008 comedy..

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2008 really was a Hot Robert Downey Jr. summer. After laying the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the original Iron Man in May , the once-unemployable actor completed his career comeback with an Oscar-nominated role in Ben Stiller's take-no-prisoners Hollywood satire, Tropic Thunder .

But that movie also plunged Downey into a maelstrom of controversy that persists to this day. Fifteen years after its release, Tropic Thunder is frequently cited on social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, as an example of a recent movie that could never be made now, while new and returning viewers still find it wild what Downey was specifically asked to do. Here's a rundown on the tempest that Tropic Thunder continues to kick up.

The Backstory

After years of leading rom-coms like Along Came Polly and family-friendly fare like Night at the Museum , Stiller came into Tropic Thunder with all guns blazing in an effort to get back to his Ben Stiller Show sketch comedy roots . A send-up of self-important Oscar bait, the film follows the making and unmaking of a Platoon -esque Vietnam War movie. Besides serving as co-writer, director and star, Stiller assembled an absurdly A-list cast — including Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise — who were tasked with playing heightened versions of themselves and other Hollywood types, from the screaming studio exec to the respect-hungry actor coming off an ill-advised bomb .

Stiller entrusted Downey with the role of Kirk Lazarus, Australia's answer to seriously Method actors like Daniel Day-Lewis or Jeremy Strong . Lazarus is so committed to his latest role as a Black sergeant that he darkens his skin via a cutting-edge "pigment alteration" procedure. That means that Downey spends much of the movie performing in blackface — a now-taboo practice that has its roots in racist 19th century minstrel shows . Lazarus also adopts the voice and mannerisms of '70s-era Black actors for much of his screentime to further demonstrate his level of immersion in the part. "I don't drop character until I've done the DVD commentary," he says at one point.

It should be noted that Tropic Thunder goes out of its way to emphasize that Downey is satirizing the kind self-absorbed actor who assumes its acceptable to employ hurtful techniques — like blackface — in the name of art. And Lazarus's own performative excesses are regularly ridiculed by the rest of the cast, most notably Brandon T. Jackson, who plays rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino. "They had one part for one Black man, and they gave it to Crocodile Dundee," he tells Lazarus at one point, and also calls him out on appropriating the term "you people."

But speaking with this writer for an interview published in Giant magazine in 2008, Jackson described the mixed feelings he experienced acting opposite Downey while he was in blackface. "I’m the only real Black dude in the movie, so I tried to express the situation as much as I could," Jackson said at the time. "I think Robert felt my frustration and egged me on to make it more real. There’s a scene where he goes 'Are we cool?' and I say, 'Not really!' That was all improv. I wanted to let the audience know Robert knows that this movie is just playing around, and we’re going to laugh together. But it ain’t cool."

The Crisis Point

Downey's use of blackface was a talking point that the actor made sure to address prior to Tropic Thunder 's release on Aug. 13, 2008. "I felt like, I want to work with Ben and Jack [Black], but my way into the movie is I’ve got to be tarred and feathered for three months and maybe have my reputation destroyed," the actor told Entertainment Weekly at the time. "That was my fear." In that same interview, Stiller credited Jackson with providing a gut check for certain moments, like a scene where Downey's character uses the "N" word that ended up being cut.

"We got to that scene and I said to him, 'What do you think of this?'" Stiller recalled. "Brandon said, 'This feels wrong.' It was definitely a constant process of feeling it out. But [in general] what Robert was doing was so genuine and funny, it felt OK. I didn’t know if it would feel OK when we saw the movie, but it felt like he was in a groove, and this character was just really likable and enjoyable."

Upon release, the praise for Downey's portrayal largely outweighed the criticisms, as evidenced by the fact that he received a rare Best Supporting Actor nomination for a comedic performance. (He lost to the late Heath Ledger, who was awarded the statue posthumously for his performance in The Dark Knight .) Former category winner, Cuba Gooding Jr., saluted Downey at the ceremony, while also calling out the elephant in the room. "To be a white actor playing a white Australian actor playing a Black man in blackface. I'll say it: Are you out of your mind?"

More people started asking that question around the time of Tropic Thunder 's 10th anniversary in 2018, when social media "re-discovered" Downey's appearance in blackface — as well as Stiller's equally divisive jokes about mental disabilities — and added it to the list of evidence for why the movie could never be made in the present climate. Two years later, Downey himself fueled a fresh round of controversy during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast where he made it clear he had no regrets.

"Ninety percent of my black friends were like, 'Dude, that was great,'" the actor said in that interview. Those remarks generated backlash online, especially amidst the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and put a renewed spotlight on Hollywood's handling of race. Jimmy Kimmel , Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon were among those performers who apologized for using blackface in their previous material.

Stiller, on the other hand, won't be saying "Sorry" anytime soon. In February, the Tropic Thunder director stated in a tweet that he makes "no apologies" for the film. "It's always been a controversial movie since when we opened," Stiller wrote. "Proud of it and the work everyone did on it."

I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder. Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it. 🙏✊😊 — Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) February 21, 2023

Downey's performance in Tropic Thunder has generated 15 years' worth of commentary. Here's a sampling of some of the reactions that were written when the film was first released, as well as after it grew further back in the rearview.

Downey's performance is certainly bold

"Whatever political spin people will want to put on it, the audacity of Downey’s performance reps the best reason to see the film. Always a brilliant mimic and quicksilver vocalist, Downey dons matted hair, beard, ghetto-spiked rasp and nearly Olivier-as-Othello makeup to play a grandly self-confident thesp who will take no crap from anyone about his impersonation." — Todd McCarthy, writing in Variety in 2008

But bold isn't enough

"If Mr. Downey — who at this point in his career apparently can do no wrong even in blackface — can't make this bait work, it's because the bit is unworkable. Though Mr. Downey's character has been cut from moldy Fred Williamson cloth, he's also the most recognizably human character in a lampoon rife with caricatures. One of those is played by an actual Black man, Brandon T. Jackson, who ... is mainly around to mock Kirk's impersonation, which is the filmmakers' way of having their chocolate cake and eating it too." — Mahnola Dargis, writing in the The New York Times in 2008

The ugly history of blackface can't be laughed away

"You can sugarcoat it all you want, but blackface is blackface. The fact of the matter is that top actors, like Downey, have given performances in blackface in successful films since the birth of filmmaking. Many of them have gotten laughs. Many of them have been done rather skillfully. And all of them have been justified by their practitioners as acceptable for one reason or another. The passage of time and the growth of understanding in this country have helped us to recognize that the vast majority were not." — Scott Feinberg, writing for The Feinberg Files in 2009

There's also historical precedent for Downey's performance

"I was more receptive to the [blackface] joke at the time, because firstly, it was parodying Hollywood’s obsession with a certain stereotype of Blackness, and two, because Robert Downey’s father was one of the great patrons of Black filmmakers and actors in his heyday as the director of Putney Swope . It felt like a well-considered bit of satire." — Davie Schilling speaking to Mel Magazine in 2021

Tropic Thunder is ultimately about Hollywood, not race

"It's clear on viewing that Tropic Thunder is making a firm statement against how Black characters are both portrayed and overlooked in mainstream action movies of the era. The brilliance of Tropic Thunder is that nothing is sacred. This includes holding up a mirror to the lengths some actors will go to land that career-defining role — and the ethical considerations some will readily put to the side in taking it." — Yenny Coll writing for Screen Rant in 2023.

But it's still better to leave it in the past

"The movie shows in its narrative that it does have good intentions with the criticism it makes towards Hollywood and how it helped perpetuate racism with blackface and token characters. Despite its good intentions, though, Tropic Thunder is a movie that wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't be made nowadays ... Comedy reaches its limit the moment it begins to offend anyone, and that happened with Tropic Thunder , unfortunately." — Julio Bardini writing for Collider in 2023

Tropic Thunder is available to rent or purchase on most VOD services, including Prime Video.

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Why Ben Stiller’s Comments About ‘Tropic Thunder’ Are Still Controversial

Suffice it to say, the film has not aged well.

Every few years, Tropic Thunder reemerges and becomes a topic of conversation again. As of this week, the 2008 comedy is back due to Ben Stiller 's recent comments defending it from criticism against Robert Downey Jr. 's character Kirk Lazarus, a white actor who literally becomes a Black person to play his part in a movie. The director and star took to Twitter to state he "makes no apologies" for Tropic Thunder and that he's aware it's been "a controversial movie" since its opening, but is proud of it. As if blackface weren't enough, Stiller's comments have now further stirred the pot.

In Tropic Thunder , Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, an actor who's trying to distance himself from his one successful role by making a war movie set and filmed in Vietnam, in a big satire of Hollywood itself . The movie takes jabs at many common practices in the industry, like talent agencies, location filming, the obsession with practical effects, and, of course, whitewashing. Representing that, Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a white actor who undergoes genetic treatment to literally change his genes and become Black. Everything about Lazarus changes, including his blue eyes, blonde hair, and white skin. And his mannerisms, too, which he sustains even when not filming. When work is complete, Lazarus reverts to his usual white self.

Why Is 'Tropic Thunder' So Controversial?

Being in 2023, it should go without saying that blackface is hideous in itself. It consists of white people painting their skins, in any part of their bodies, to look black. Everywhere, but especially in countries that have the stain of slavery in their histories, blackface is seen as extremely offensive and racist, as it perpetuates racial stereotypes through caricatures and evokes the terrible history of racial prejudice. These countries — like the USA and Brazil, for example — are often places where racism is still present in their very social structures, manifesting even politically and financially.

In Tropic Thunder , though, blackface is used to take a jab at Hollywood for another racist thing it does, whitewashing — when studios hire white people to play characters who are people of color, be them Black, Asian, etc. The producers for the movie that's being made in Tropic Thunder didn't even consider hiring a Black actor to play a Black person, choosing instead to fund a whole genetic treatment for a white actor to do it.

Kirk Lazarus is then the perfect character to do so because he is also the embodiment of yet another Hollywood trope that creates controversy every time someone mentions it: method acting. Method actors love talking about it , undergoing extreme physical changes for specific roles, and never leaving characters while on set, even if they are not filming at that moment. Remember Jared Leto using a wheelchair on the set of Morbius ? That's the perfect example.

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'Tropic Thunder' Reflects an Ongoing Problem in Hollywood

Plainly put: it's still wrong. But the movie does pose a unique case for analysis, using racist practices to criticize themselves and show the audience how ridiculous they really are. Kirk Lazarus going through all that to become Black for a role and then reverse to whiteness again is indeed ridiculous and does expose how bizarre it is for Hollywood to keep hiring white actors to play the roles of characters of color. Even after Tropic Thunder came out in 2008, these things kept on happening, like Scarlett Johansson playing the lead in the live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell or Emma Stone playing the Asian female lead in Aloha .

As we mentioned, Tropic Thunder is a big satire of Hollywood, and there is another racist trope it uses, having one Black actor as a token of diversity. That's what Brandon T. Jackson 's character, rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino, is all about. In an attempt to dodge criticism for Kirk Lazarus' blackface, the production for the movie-within-the-movie hired an actual Black person just so they can say "but, hey, we're a diverse cast!" But Alpa Chino's is still a minor supporting role, with the leads belonging to three white men, one of them going so far as portraying the black lead in the movie.

These two things then pose an equally relevant question that's also been making the rounds over the last few years, which is what the limits are for a comedy to make use of such things. Racism isn't funny by any definition, and Hollywood has a history of racial prejudice that it still seems to struggle to overcome. White people still dominate the Oscars and other awards ceremonies, and white actors are still the first option to star whenever a studio plans a blockbuster. In 2008, though, the world was very different from today. Crucial social causes, like racial equality and representativity, were already important, of course, but they didn't have the same treatment by the major media outlets as they have today, so a movie like Tropic Thunder didn't make the thunderous noise it would've done nowadays.

Is There a Limit To What Comedy Can Do?

What Tropic Thunder did was, essentially, test the boundaries of comedy back when it came out. The movie shows in its narrative that it does have good intentions with the criticism it makes towards Hollywood and how it helped perpetuate racism with blackface and token characters. The fact that people are still talking about it 15 years later is a testament to how spot-on it addresses these issues.

Despite its good intentions, though, Tropic Thunder is a movie that wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't be made nowadays. We can understand Ben Stiller standing by his movie — he's the artist behind it, and he knows the message he wanted to convey. That doesn't mean he also doesn't have a responsibility to understand how his movie can be deemed racist, because, especially by today's standards, it is. Comedy reaches its limit the moment it begins to offend anyone, and that happened with Tropic Thunder , unfortunately.

One could even argue that there are other more blatantly racist movies out there for us to focus on, and one would be right, but if we don't question who we are and what we did, we can't move forwards as an inclusive and equal society. So let's just take Tropic Thunder for what it became: a good example of how not to do a movie nowadays, both on and off-screen.

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The Most Hilarious 'Tropic Thunder' Quotes

The best quotes from Tropic Thunder make you realize how funny the movie really is, even if you haven't seen it in a while. Let's rank the greatest quotes from Tropic Thunder , with the help of your votes. Starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black, Tropic Thunder was directed by Ben Stiller and released in 2008.

What are your favorite lines from Tropic Thunder ? One of the memorable one-liners was when Kirk Lazarus said, "I know who I am! I'm a dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude!" Another great line from Tropic Thunder is, "I got the TiVo!" spoken by Rick Peck who was played by Matthew McConaughey.

Vote up your top Tropic Thunder quotes, regardless of which character they come from.

Tugg Speedman : What is with you people?!

Kirk Lazarus : Huh?! What do you mean, "you people?"

Alpa Chino : What do you mean, 'you people?'

Kirk Lazarus : Huh?

Dude Playin' The Dude

Kirk Lazarus : I know who I am! I'm a dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude!

It's A Theme Song

Alpa Chino : As for why I'm in this movie, maybe I just knew I had to represent. Cause they one good part in this movie for a Black man and they gave it to Crocodile Dundee.

Kirk Lazarus : Pump your brakes, kid. That man's a national treasure.

Alpa Chino : I just wanted to throw another shrimp on your Barbie.

Lazarus : That sh*t ain't funny.

Alpa Chino : I'm just f*cking with you, Kangaroo Jack. I'm sorry if a dingo ate yo baby.

Lazarus : You know that's a true story? Lady lost her kid. You about to cross a f*cking line.

Kevin Sandusky : Hey guys could we just cool it...

Alpa Chino : You know what, f*ck that, I'm sick of this koala-hunting ni**a-

Lazarus : For 400 years, that word has kept our people down.

Alpa Chino : ..what the f*ck!?

Lazarus : Took a whole lot of tryin, just to get up that hill, but now we up in the big leagues...

Alpa Chino : That's the theme songs from The Jeffersons.

Lazarus : Just cause it's a theme song doesn't mean it's not true.

Take A Step Back

Les Grossman : Okay, Flaming Dragon. F*ckface. First, take a big step back... and literally f*ck your own face! Now, I don't know what kind of pan-Pacific bullsh*t power play you're trying to pull here, but Asia, Jack, is my territory. So whatever you're thinking, you'd better think again. Otherwise I'm gonna have to head down there and I will rain down an ungodly f*cking firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the f*cking United Nations and get a f*cking binding resolution to keep me from f*cking destroying you. I am talking scorched earth, motherf*cker! I will massacre you! I will f*ck you up! (hangs up and asks assistant) Find out who that was.

Full Retard

Kirk Lazarus : (speaking about Simple Jack) You went full retard man, never go full retard.

DVD Commentary

Kirk Lazarus : I don't drop character 'til I've done the DVD commentary.

Tugg Speedman : I killed one, Rick... the thing I love most in the world.

Rick Peck : A hooker. Oh Jesus, you killed a hooker!

A Nutless Monkey

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : Wow. Eight Oscars, 400 million dollars at the box office, and you saved Tugg Speedman's career.

Les Grossman : I couldn't have done it without you.

Slolom : Really?

Grossman : No, dickhead. Of course I could. A nutless monkey could do your job. Now, go get drunk and take credit at all the parties.

Slolom : I wouldn't do that.

Grossman : Ah... joking.

Slolom : Ah, there he is! Funny. You're a funny guy.

Grossman : Yeah. But seriously, a nutless monkey could do your job .

Trained Actors

Alpa Chino : But they're trained soldiers.

Kirk Lazarus : Yes. But we are trained actors.

Master Blaster

Kirk Lazarus : What about you, Master Blaster? You got a certain someone you trying to get with back in the States?

Kevin Sandusky : What, Alpa Chino? He's like ten girls deep, 24/7.

Kirk Lazarus : No, you missin' me, man. I'm talking about something special. Big difference. How about it?

Alpa Chino : Yeah. Yeah, there is.

Kirk Lazarus : Well? What's the skinny? Y'all been on a date or what?

Alpa Chino : No. I mean... I always wanted to, but, I guess I just never had the courage to ask. It's...it's complicated.

Kirk Lazarus : No! It's simple as pie, man. You plant your feet on the ground, you look her square in the eyes, you say, "Hey. Baby, you and me's going on a date." That's the end of the story. What's her name?

Alpa Chino : ...Lance.

Kirk Lazarus : "Listen here, Lance..." Lance? What the f*ck did I just hear? Lance?

Kevin Sandusky : Did you say, "Lance?"

Alpa Chino : No!

Kevin Sandusky : That sounded like "Lance."

Alpa Chino : No, I said "Nance."

Kevin Sandusky : It sounded like "Lance."

Alpa Chino : Look, I'm Alpa Chino, okay? I love the p*ssy, all right? Lay your *ss back down and look at the stars.

Kirk Lazarus : When you wrote "I Love Tha P*ssy", was you thinking of dangling your dice on Lance's forehead?

Alpa Chino : Naw, hell no! What? Come on, look...

Kirk Lazarus : Man, everyone's gay once in a while!

Alpa Chino : I'm not gay!

Textile Factory

Jeff Portnoy : So, what's the plan, man? You gonna talk Vietnamese to those dudes?

Kirk Lazarus : No, no. Mandarin Chinese. What I can tell, it's what they're speaking down there.

Jeff Portnoy : How the hell do you know Chinese?

Kirk Lazarus : Land of Silk and Money with Gong Li. Second Globe, third Oscar. I prepped for that one by working in a Beijing textile factory for eight months.

I Don't Read

Kirk Lazarus : I don't read the script. The script reads me.

Suck My Unit

Tugg Speedman : This is insane. Are you really going to abandon this movie? We're supposed to be a unit!

Kirk Lazarus : Suck my unit.

Kirk Lazarus : God dammit! We lost! We fuckin' super lost, man!

The Money-Bed

Les Grossman : Which one of you f*ckfaces is Damien Cockburn?

Damien Cockburn : Uh, that's me, sir. It's an honor to finally meet you. Get some face time.

Grossman : And who here is the key grip? You? You! Hit that director in the face, really f*cking hard!

Key Grip : (walks to Damien) Sorry, man. ([punches Damien in the face)

Grossman : This is all your fault, you Limey f*ck! You sh*t the money-bed, my friend.

A Blind Kid

Rick Peck : It was like pistol-whipping a blind kid.

Kirk Lazarus : There ya go, get him chugging on some of Alpa's "*ss-Water" that will bring him around, it's a cure all.

Rick Peck : Let me get this straight. You want me to let my client of fifteen years, one of my best friends, die in the jungle alone for some money and a G5.

Grossman : Yes.

Pecker : A G5 airplane.

Grossman : Yes. And lots of money. Playa....

Slolom : Yeah! Smack it up, flip up, rub it down, hoo!!

Tugg Speedman : It's just corn syrup you guys! Blood flavored...corn syrup.

Blow The Bridge

Tugg Speedman : I was wrong! Blow the bridge! Blow the f*cking bridge!

Damien : Crisis meeting? What does that mean, exactly? I mean, you know, are we in a crisis?

Rob : He's the head of the studio. He's reaching out. We're 10,000 miles away. He just wants a little face-time.

Damien : I know. It's just you said he called it a crisis meeting. So, you know...

Rob : It's Les Grossman. He throws these words around. "Crisis," "explosion," "not rolling," "fired." These are just words.

She Walked Past

Alpa Chino : Hell nah, I ain't pee on that girl. No no listen, here's the story she was in the way when I was peeing she walked past.

Writers Lie

Cody : Dude, dude, what the hell is going on here? Where are we?

Four-Leaf Tayback: I have no idea, I've never been outside the States.

Cody : Wait what?! Are you f*cking kidding me?! Did you make this whole goddamn thing up?! Dude you weren't even in the f*cking service?!

Tayback : Yes! Of course! Coast Guard!

Cody : Coast Guard.

Tayback : Sanitation Department.

Cody : Oh my God! You're a f*cking garbage man! Dammit! F.L. Tayback lies to me and the whole goddamn U.S. of A.

Tayback : I wrote the book as a tribute! I'm a patriot.

Cody : Yeah, you're the Milli Vanilli of patriots okay? You lied about fighting in the Vietnam War. It's like - It's like punching the American flag in the face goddammit! God, to think I believed you!

Tayback : Writers lie all the time!

Cody : Can I be tied to another post please?

Rick Peck : I got the TiVo!

Damien Cockburn : This walkie talkie goes to the helicopter, and the helicopter is God. And I am Jesus Christ. And you are my chosen disciples.

Tropic Thunder
Movie Quotes
Weird History

The greatest, funniest, and most iconic movie and TV quotes from your all-time favorite comedies (and a few you probably haven’t seen).

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Tropic thunder 2: will it happen everything we know.

Tropic Thunder 2 has been rumored for over a decade, but the original cast is talking about it more and more, and it could be close to development.

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Tropic thunder 2 recent news, is tropic thunder 2 confirmed, tropic thunder 2 cast, tropic thunder 2 story.

Tropic Thunder is one of the smartest and most controversial comedies of the 2000s, and a decade since its release Tropic Thunder 2 news is becoming more frequent. 2008's Topic Thunder, directed by Ben Stiller, follows a group of very different fictional actors on set while filming an epic Vietnam War movie — only to then become embroiled in an actual conflict. The characters are parodies of the stereotypical popular actors working in Hollywood. The fictional Tropic Thunder actors include action hero Tugg Speedman (Stiller), who is trying to be respected for his dramatic performances, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an intense Australian method actor, and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a slapstick comedy actor with a drug addiction.

While almost all the cast have spoken about a Tropic Thunder 2 return, most interest stems from an unusual place — Tom Cruise. Arguably the most entertaining character in Tropic Thunder is Les Grossman (Tom Cruise), the terrifying and ill-tempered studio executive who answers to nobody. It's almost impossible to tell the character is played by Cruise without looking at the credits, as Cruise is caked in make-up, including a bald cap. Ever since Tropic Thunder's release, there have been rumblings about a Tugg Speedman spinoff movie or a Tropic Thunder sequel with Speedman front and center. Though there's still a way to go before any Tropic Thunder 2 release date, it's looking more and more likely whenever it comes up in conversation.

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The most recent Tropic Thunder 2 news comes from Robert Downey Jr., who addresses his potential return to the sequel and reprising his role as Kirk Lazarus. On the red carpet for his new show, Downey's Dream Cars, available on Max, when asked if he would do Tropic Thunder 2 , the actor responded, " Tom Cruise and I have not yet done a project together, and... That’s kind of a yes, and then we will figure out what the title is ." Actors generally respond positively to any hypothetical project they're asked about on the red carpet. However, the question clearly brought some excitement out of Downey, and the actor obviously wants to work with Tom Cruise.

Les Grossman and Kirk Lazarus never actually shared any screen time in Tropic Thunder , so to see the two over-the-top characters on screen together in a Tropic Thunder sequel would deliver the one thing the original movie didn't. Kirk Lazarus was a controversial role for Robert Downey Jr., as his character Kirk Lazarus does blackface for the fictional Vietnam movie (but is introduced as a Caucasian character in Tropic Thunder — RDJ was playing a white actor donning blackface, not a Black American character, and the distinction is important). The whole joke was based on the fact that Kirk was so ignorant when it came to method acting, poking fun at Hollywood actors who do that sort of thing. It will be interesting to see which controversial move Kirk Lazarus will have made next to for a new acting endeavor in Tropic Thunder 2.

Unfortunately, Tropic Thunder 2 is not confirmed yet and there is currently no Tropic Thunder 2 release date. However, there's definitely movement when it comes to the project based on the original Tropic Thunder cast's comments. Tom Cruise mentioned in August 2022 that he wants to make a Les Grossman spinoff , and that was following years of rumors. The celebrated Mission: Impossible actor even revealed that he wants Christopher McQuarrie to direct the Tropic Thunder sequel. McQuarrie has directed Cruise in the three Mission: Impossible movies including the upcoming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One , and he'll direct the follow-up too.

As it's unconfirmed, there obviously isn't a cast Tropic Thunder 2 cast yet. However, based on some of the original cast's comments, it's easy to understand who is likely to return for the cast of a Tropic Thunder sequel. Firstly, Tom Cruise would likely be on board for Tropic Thunder 2 . He wasn't at all adverse to the idea when asked about reprising his role for Tropic Thunder in May 2022, explaining, " I don't know. I did Les Grossman for the MTV Awards ... We'll have to see, that could be fun " (referring to his appearance at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards as Les Grossman alongside Jennifer Lopez)

It's likely that Robert Downey Jr. would return for the Tropic Thunder sequel cast too if the movie gets confirmed, especially if Tom Cruise were attached given his comments. According to LADbible , Matthew McConaughey has also discussed reprising his role as Rick "The Pecker" Peck, which would make sense if the sequel is Grossman-centric, as Rick is an agent who constantly locks horns with Grossman. In that respect, it would also make sense if Bill Hader returned for the Tropic Thunder 2 cast to reprise his role as Rob Slolom, who was Grossman's assistant and right-hand man.

Ben Stiller not only starred in the movie, but he also co-wrote and directed Tropic Thunder , so there'd clearly be a missing piece to Tropic Thunder 2 if he didn't return. Stiller hasn't been that vocal about a Tropic Thunder sequel, but Stiller did defend the Kirk Lazarus character in February 2023 (via NY Post ). The actor explained, " I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder... It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it. " However, Stiller is hesitant to make Dodgeball 2 based on the reception of Zoolander 2, and he could feel the same way about a Tropic Thunder sequel.

There hasn't been anything revealed about the Tropic Thunder 2 story, but Bill Hader did mention that the Tropic Thunder sequel screenplay has been completed (via MTV ) and that there are some " really funny scenes ." However, that was in 2011, and the story could have changed dozens of times in the time since. Anything about the Tropic Thunder 2 story is purely speculative, but given that it seemingly revolves around Les Grossman, the sequel will likely focus more on the inside-baseball goings-on in the movie industry.

Though there's nothing confirmed about the Tropic Thunder 2 story, it will likely be just as boundary-pushing as the original movie, otherwise, it won't be anywhere near as exciting. Justin Theroux, who has two small roles in the movie as a UH-1 Huey gunner and a DJ (though that scene was cut), explained why Tropic Thunder is so funny . The actor mentioned, " It doesn't seem that controversial to me because of who the jokes are aimed at. You know what I mean? It's aimed at a bunch of dumb actors. That remains funny to me " The Tropic Thunder 2 story will likely continue that very theme in a different way.

From Tom Cruise breakdancing to Spice Girls reuniting, reports from Victoria Beckham's bash capture imagination

Tom Cruise breakdancing, a Spice Girls reunion and tons of A-list celebrities gathering in one location have social media and the general public in awe over Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party.

Beckham, who celebrated half a century over the weekend, posted about the luxurious soiree Sunday on Instagram.

But some of the most buzzworthy moments went intentionally unrecorded.

"I don’t think I’ve ever felt as loved as I did last night," Beckham's post said. "Thank you all for coming from near and so far!! X"

In the post, Beckham shared pictures of her with actor Eva Longoria, celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay, her husband, soccer star David Beckham and some of the couple's children.

In another Instagram post, Beckham shared a picture of her and the four other members of the English pop group, the Spice Girls.

"The best gift to be reunited!! Thank you to all my friends and family for celebrating with me. Kisses! xxx," Beckham's post about the Spice Girls said.

Guests 'absolutely dumbfounded' by Tom Cruise's dancing, reports say

Not included in either post were other famous attendees who came to celebrate with the Beckhams at Oswald’s, a private member’s club owned by Robin Birley in London's Mayfair district.

Oswald's is strict about taking photos and allowing social media within the venue , according to the club's member's privacy notice.

Actors Tom Cruise and Salma Hayek both made an appearance at Beckham's party and while one left an impression with their outfit, the other left it all on the dance floor, the Daily Mail reported.

Cruise, who turned 61 in July 2023, stunned guests when he began demonstrating "a series of breakdancing moves, culminating in splits," the outlet said.

"People were absolutely dumbfounded," one guest told the Daily Mail.

Social media reacts to Tom Cruise's 'split mania' and not receiving an invite to Victoria Beckham's party

While no photos or videos of Cruise dancing exist online, social media users continue to poke fun at the expense of the "Mission Impossible" movie star. An X user who goes by @Douggernaut_2 posted a clip of actor Mike Myers dancing in the film "Austin Powers" and said, "Tom Cruise arriving at Victoria Beckham's bday."

Several social media users hearkened back to when Cruise played the Les Grossman character in the 2008 comedy movie "Tropic Thunder." Cruise would hilariously reprise the character during the 2010 MTV Movie Awards and dance to rapper Ludacris' song "Get Back."

"Remember when Tom Cruise did this," X user @charletty_ said Monday in a post reacting to the video of Cruise's full dance routine at the awards show.

During the routine with singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, Cruise does a split on stage. X user @danilo_parks said Monday in a post, "It's real Tom Cruise does the splits mania out there today."

In addition to seeing Cruise do splits and the Spice Girls perform, guests also received goody bags full of Beckham's branded products, including a candle and a fragrance, the Telegraph reported.

All the fun has people wondering where their invite was to Beckham's birthday party, including X user @StaceyVaselaney who said, "I’m sitting here shaking my head wondering why wasn’t I invited to Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday party."

Why Tom Cruise ‘absolutely dumbfounded’ guests at Victoria Beckham’s star-studded 50th birthday party

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Tom Cruise brought down the house at Victoria Beckham’s star-studded 50th birthday party .

The “Top Gun: Maverick” star, 61, “absolutely dumbfounded” guests Saturday night by breakdancing and doing splits, a fellow partygoer told the Daily Mail Monday.

Cruise, who has known Victoria and her husband, David Beckham, for nearly two decades, has been living in the UK while filming “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two,” which is expected to hit theaters next year.

Tom Cruise at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party.

The “Risky Business” star was dressed to the nines for the occasion in a classic black tuxedo with a bow tie and shiny black shoes.

Cruise was far from the only A-lister who attended Victoria’s grand fête in London.

All of the fashion designer’s fellow Spice Girls — Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie “Mel B” Brown — also showed up for the festivities.

The girl group even staged an impromptu reunion to perform their 1997 hit song “Stop” for the attendees.

Victoria had her party at the private members’ club Oswald’s and stunned in a celestial sheer mint gown featuring ruffled details along the hem.

The guest of honor arrived on crutches after breaking her foot during a workout earlier this year, but she did not let the injury stop her from going all out for her milestone birthday.

Victoria Beckham, Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie “Mel B” Brown

She was joined by her athlete husband, who was dressed in a tux, as well as their four children: sons Brooklyn, 25, Romeo, 21, and Cruz, 19, and daughter Harper, 12.

Other stars at the soirée included Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria.

Notably absent from the momentous occasion was Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola Peltz, who instead spent time with her grandmother .

David and Victoria Beckham with their four kids: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz, and Harper.

The “Bates Motel” actress, 29, shared a photo with her grandma on her Instagram Story but also made sure to send her mother-in-law some birthday love.

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“Happy Birthday to my beautiful MIL @victoriabeckham,” she wrote in another Instagram Story. “I’m so sad I’m not there to celebrate you and hug you! Sending all my love from me and Naunni.”

Peltz and Victoria were rumored to have feuded during the former’s 2022 wedding to Brooklyn .

David and Victoria Beckham with Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana.

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They allegedly butted heads over wedding planning, and tensions were also high after the bride decided to wear a wedding gown not made by Victoria’s fashion house.

However, Peltz denied she had any beef with the former pop star and explained that she could not wear a dress by Victoria’s eponymous brand due to timing issues.

“I was going to and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress,” she told Variety at the time.

David and Victoria Beckham celebrating her 50th birthday.

“She didn’t say ‘you can’t wear it;’ I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it. That’s where it started, and then they ran with that.”

Brooklyn also denied there was any bad blood between his wife and mom.

Victoria and Peltz appear to have mended their relationship, as they have posted sweet messages about each other on social media numerous times since.

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How Tom Cruise’s Glitzy Appearance at Victoria Beckham’s 50th Birthday Sparks Controversy Over Suri Cruise Relationship

A s Suri Cruise rang in her 18th birthday in the heart of New York City, her father, iconic actor Tom Cruise, was conspicuously absent. TMZ covered Suri’s celebration, noting that she spent the day touring city highlights with a close friend. Katie Holmes, though not captured in photographs with her daughter on the day, is widely known to share a tight bond with Suri, so a private family celebration may have taken place separately. However, for her father Tom, who has been distant from Suri following a high-profile divorce from Holmes over a decade ago, there was no indication of such a personal moment.

According to Page Six , the lack of a father-daughter relationship is longstanding, with their last known meeting dating back fifteen years to a Disneyland outing in 2006. Beyond that encounter, reports suggest the two have had no further contact. This information emerged alongside Tom’s comments from a 2012 lawsuit, where he acknowledged the three-month absence from Suri’s life shortly following his divorce, highlighting the deep personal impact of such events. “Listen, when there is a divorce … things change,” Tom explained during the suit, underscoring the complexity and challenge of the situation.

FAQs About Tom Cruise and Suri Cruise’s Relationship

When did tom cruise last see his daughter suri.

Tom Cruise last saw his daughter in a reported visit to Disneyland in 2006.

Why is Tom Cruise estranged from his daughter Suri?

The estrangement is believed to be the result of Tom Cruise’s divorce from Katie Holmes and possibly associated with his involvement with Scientology, although exact reasons have not been confirmed publicly.

Did Tom Cruise attend Suri’s 18th birthday?

No, Tom Cruise did not attend Suri’s 18th birthday celebrations.

Has Tom Cruise commented on his relationship with Suri?

Yes, Tom Cruise has made comments in the past acknowledging periods of absence from Suri’s life after his divorce.

The controversy surrounding Tom Cruise’s decision to skip his daughter Suri’s birthday celebration while attending other high-profile events continues to draw public and media attention. This ongoing narrative sheds light not only on the personal dynamics within one of Hollywood’s most high-profile families but also on the broader implications of parental relationships and the effects of divorce on family connections.

Tom Cruise is the perfect gentleman as he helps fallen paparazzi at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party

The paparazzi was knocked to the ground at the entrance to a private member's club in mayfair, london.

Mission: Not Impossible! Tom Cruise was a willing agent on Saturday April 20 as he helped a photographer who had fallen in the shuffle as Tom arrived at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday party.

Amid the melee, the photographer was knocked to the ground at the entrance to Oswald's, the private member's club in Mayfair, London.

Pictures show that Tom was quick to lend a helping hand, keeping a firm hand on the photographer's arm as he helped him to his feet, and keeping hold of him to ensure he was safe. "Are you okay?" Tom could be heard asking in video footage, before collecting items on the floor that had also been dropped.

Victoria's lavish 50th birthday party was attended by A-listers including her former Spice Girls' Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, and Melanie Brown.

But Victoria herself, who wore a semi-sheer mint-green gown, was forced to arrive on crutches as she is still recovering from a broken foot.

The Beckhams have been friends with Tom for over a decade; in 2015 David, Tom and Guy partied together to celebrate David's then-recently-launched whisky brand, Haig Club. "Here's a pic of me with my dear friends Guy Ritchie and Tom Cruise from my Haig Club dinner this past Sunday. #HaigClubLondon," David wrote alongside the selfie.

The party looked incredibly swanky and HELLO! has all the best photos of the guests, including Guy Ritchie and Jackqui Ainsley, Gordon Ramsey and wife Tana, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham, and Eva Longoria and husband Jose Baston.

Ahead of Victoria's party, however, the fashion designer took to Instagram and shared a gorgeous carousel of photos featuring her husband David, and their four children, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper, dressed to the nines for the event.

Even though all the Beckhams shone in the photo, it was budding fashionista Harper that completely stole the show in an ivory satin dress that came from her mother's current fashion collection.

Romeo Beckham with Cruz Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Harper Beckham, David Beckham and Brooklyn Beckham

The Beckham boys looked suave in black tuxedos, while Cruz stood out from the crowd in an eye-catching white number.

Victoria Beckham

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Tom Cruise's generous birthday gifts revealed ahead of Suri Cruise's 18th birthday

Gallery nhl fever: celebrity hockey fans cheering on their favourite teams through the years, gallery nhl fever: celebrity hockey fans cheer on their favourite teams, david beckham's extreme selfie: star scaled london landmark for photo with tom cruise and guy ritchie, kisses from daddy: david beckham and daughter harper cuddle up as family reunite with tom cruise.

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