big lebowski trip scene

Our 15 Favorite Big Lebowski Moments To Celebrate The Dude's 15th Anniversary

The Big Lebowski is my favorite comedy of all time. I’ve watched it an uncountable number of times and I’m still sent into hysterics by every plot twist and eccentric character. I can play back the entire movie in my head and I’ll still laugh at every joke. But the truth is that I’m just one in a million.

When The Big Lebowski was first released back on this date in 1998 it was actually a total box office dud. Despite being the Coen brothers ’ follow up to the hit, Oscar winning Fargo , nobody really cared about the adventures of The Dude when the movie was in theaters. Since its release, however, the film has cultivated a cult following and is a bona fide phenomenon, spurring fans to actually create an annual festival .Books have been written about its philosophy . And yes, there’s even a religion based on it called Dudeism .

If you haven’t already done the math, today is the fifteenth anniversary of The Big Lebowski ’s release in theaters, and we couldn’t let the day go by without doing a little bit of celebrating. We’ve searched around to collect our 15 favorite scenes from the legendary comedy, celebrating the greatest hits of The Dude, Walter, Donnie, Jesus, Bunny, Maude, Brent, Uli, Jackie and the rest of the amazing cast of characters. Read on below and head to the comments after to tell us your favorite Lebowski moments!

Opening Narration

The Rug Incident

Within the first five minutes of the movie our protagonist gets his head shoved in a toilet and his favorite rug peed on. It’s both sad and hilarious at the same time, mostly because of the way all of the negativity and scariness of the situation just bounces off The Dude.

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I’m The Dude

Blow On Them

This scene would be hilarious if it were just The Dude and Bunny, but what bumps it up to being one of the best in the film is the spectacularly awkward reaction shot of Brent after Bunny’s special offer. It’s also just great to have two Oscar winners doing a scene with Tara Reid.

Over The Line

Jesus Quintana

John Turturro ’s part in the movie is short, but his impact is infinite. I still can’t be sure what would motivate somebody to lick a bowling ball, but perhaps I’m the strange one. And how great is it to introduce the antagonist to a Spanish version of a song originally sung by a band that the protagonist hates, as established later in the movie? Is that too nerdy an observation?

Making The Drop

Maude Flies In

There are a ton of weird characters in The Big Lebowski , but it’s hard to argue that Maude isn’t in the top tier. Perfectly personifying the odd modern artist of Los Angeles, her language practically comes from another world and it’s amazing to hear it repeated by The Dude later in the film.

Forget About The Toe

Nice Marmot

On a personal level, this is my favorite scene in the movie. The Dude’s freakout in the tub is legendary, the Nilihists bizarre costumes are perfect, and the choice of cricket bat over baseball bat matches the entire tone of the film.

This Is What Happens Larry

I’m Jackie Treehorn

The Coen brothers made this film as a tribute to the stories of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and you can’t have a story like that without your wealthy playboys and palatial mansions. The weird factor is once again taken to 11, The Dude gets a legitimate opportunity to play detective, and the end of the scene delivers a direct tribute to The Maltese Falcon . Brilliant.

Gutterballs

The Police Chief of Malibu

Yes, I realize that between this one and the last two clips you’ve actually watched a good solid segment of the entire film, but how could we not include the fascist Police Chief of Malibu? As seen previously in the movie, The Dude isn’t great with authority figures, and this is really where that becomes a problem.

The Battle Against The Nihilists

As the Narrator says at the end of the film you hate to see Donny go, but this scene has it all. The ultimate death of The Dude’s car, Walter being a total madman, Peter Stormare getting an ear ripped off and Flea taking a bowling ball to the groin. Anyone else wonder what happened to Walter’s undies?

Those are my favorites, but did I miss yours? Let us know in the comments below!

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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15 Behind-The-Scenes Stories From 'The Big Lebowski' That Show Why The Dude Abides

We're absolutely certain you'll abide by these Big Lebowski behind-the-scenes stories. A masterpiece of eccentricity, the 1998 Coen brothers comedy tells the story of Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a perpetually stoned, middle-aged hippie and bowling enthusiast. Some lowlife criminals mistake him for a millionaire of the same name when they come looking to collect money. In the process, they ruin the rug that really tied the room together. The Dude enlists his best buddy, the intense 'Nam vet Walter (John Goodman), in seeking restitution. Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, and John Turturro co-star. 

The making of this cuckoo cult classic is full of mind-blowing tidbits. Aspects of it are based on real people and events, a major action star was once considered for the lead role, and a professional bowler was called in to help the cast members look legit on the lanes.

Which of these making-of stories from The Big Lebowski is the most far-out? Your votes will determine the answer. 

A Music Manager Waived A $150,000 Licensing Fee Because He Liked A Line In The Movie

Music plays a significant role in The Big Lebowski . One of the songs the Coens wanted to use was Townes Van Zandt's cover of "Dead Flowers" by the Rolling Stones. The band's former manager, Allen Klein, owned the rights. He was initially willing to license the tune for $150,000, but decided to give it to them for free after hearing a line of dialogue in the screenplay. 

Upon being shown an early cut of The Big Lebowski , Klein was delighted by the moment when the Dude says, "I hate the f*cking Eagles, man!" Apparently no fan of that popular '70s group, Klein immediately told music supervisor T Bone Burnett that there would be no charge to use the song. 

Before Filming Each Scene, Jeff Bridges Wanted To Know Whether The Dude Was Stoned In It

You've got to hand it to Jeff Bridges - he takes his work seriously. To play the Dude, he wanted to make sure his motivation was correct at all times. To that end, he asked Joel and Ethan Coen whether the character was stoned before filming each scene. 

Explains Ethan, "At the start of shooting every scene, he'd walk up to one or the other of us and ask if we figured the dude burned one on the way over. So thinking about it, usually we'd say, 'Yeah, he probably burned one on the way over,' and Jeff would go over in the corner, rub his knuckles in his eyes to turn them red, and do the scene."

The Briefcase-Throwing Scene Was Filmed In Reverse

The Coens were having trouble filming a particular scene. It required Walter to toss a briefcase out the window of a moving car. The case needed to fly through the air a certain way, and they just couldn't get it to work.

Thinking outside the box, the filmmakers decided to film the scene in reverse . Instead of throwing the briefcase out of the window, a crew member stood off-camera and threw it into the vehicle while the driver went backward. Once in post-production, the shot was reversed, and viola - a perfectly executed throw.

The Part Of The Dude Was Initially Offered To Mel Gibson

Once the script was written, the Coen brothers had to decide who could bring the role of the Dude most fully to life. They initially offered the role to Mel Gibson , whose career was at its peak thanks to the popular Lethal Weapon series, the blockbuster Ransom , and the Oscar-winning Braveheart . Gibson, whose sense of humor famously veers more in the direction of the Three Stooges, didn't click with the material.

From there, the Coens met with Jeff Bridges. Unlike Gibson, he not only got the story's humor, but also identified with the character. Of course, it's impossible now to imagine anyone else in the role.

The Rambling Dialogue Was Carefully Scripted And Improv Was Almost Nonexistent

Because of the rambling manner in which the Dude speaks - which is full of stops and starts, as well as awkward pauses - it would be easy to assume there was a fair amount of improvisation in the making of The Big Lebowski . In fact, the opposite is true. The dialogue was carefully scripted , with improv strongly discouraged.

According to Bridges, "I tried to put an extra 'man' in or an extra 'f*ck,' or a pause or something, and it didn't feel as right. It felt undone. It was just written so perfectly."

The Homework In The Stolen Car Was A True Story

One of the most unforgettable scenes occurs after the Dude finds some kid's homework in his car, which had been stolen (with the money-laden briefcase inside it) and was recovered by the police. Finding the money gone, the Dude and Walter drive to the kid's house and confront him about the missing cash. That sequence was not entirely the work of the Coens' imagination. It's a true story told to them by script editor Peter Exline , who was the inspiration for Walter. 

Exline's Mazda had been stolen, eventually landing inside an impound lot. Upon retrieving it, he and a fellow veteran found some math homework belonging to a 14-year-old boy. They made a surprise visit to the kid's home, pumping him for information about the car theft. 

The Coens thought the story was hilarious and incorporated it into their script. Said Joel, "I remember when Pete told us that story and thinking there was something quintessentially L.A. about it. But L.A. in a very Chandler-ian way."

The Coens Wrote The Part Of 'The Stranger' With Sam Elliot In Mind

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , Sam Elliot admits that, when he got the script for The Big Lebowski, the last thing he wanted to play was another cowboy. Elliot may have been disappointed to see that he was playing basically the human ebodiment of the Old West, but he was touched by the fact that the Coens wrote the part specifically with him in mind. Elliot recalls:

I was in Texas doing a thing with John Milius called the Rough Riders . I was playing another guy wearing a hat riding a horse, a military man, a guy named Bucky O’Neill. And I got a script delivered to me from the Coen brothers. My agent sent it to me. Because I felt like I was in that box, I was so excited to get back to the hotel. I’m thinking, the f***ing Coen brothers, man! This has got to be some wacky f***ing character, as far as possible from being a cowboy!  I get in there, and I started reading it, and it’s talking about this voiceover in a southern drawl, and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" is mentioned playing in the background, and this voice "sounding not unlike Sam Elliott." Then he shows up in a bowling alley dressed like a drugstore cowboy looking "not unlike Sam Elliott." [Laughs] So, I went from feeling boxed-in, into just realizing how thankful I was that that was the box I was in, because it just led to all this other great work.

Ironically, Elliott's appearance in The Big Lebowski finally opened the door to some non-cowboy roles. After seeing the film, writer/director Rod Lurie was inspired to hire both Elliot and Jeff Bridges for his 2000 film The Contender.

The Dude's Rug Was Inspired By An In-Joke At A Party The Coens Attended In The '80s

Jeff Bridges gets to deliver many quotable lines in The Big Lebowski . One of his most popular catchphrases from the film is the one about how his rug "really ties the room together." That line stems from a party Joel and Ethan Coen attended in the '80s. 

Their friend and colleague (and Walter Sobchak inspiration) Peter Exline had just acquired a fake Persian rug, which he placed in his living room. According to him, "As I'm barbecuing, every 15 minutes or so I'd look down and say, 'Doesn't this rug tie the room together?' I keep milking this joke, and everyone’s really laughing.”

The Costume Design For The Dude Flowed From Two Words In The Screenplay

Mary Zophres is an Oscar-nominated costume designer with an extensive resume that includes Dumb and Dumber, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , and La La Land . Relatively early in her career, she got the call to work on The Big Lebowski . Determining what the Dude would wear proved surprisingly easy. Her inspiration came from two words contained in the screenplay .

Zophres said, "One of the first lines in this script describes the Dude as 'terminally relaxed.' That says a lot! So I decided the Dude would wear a lot of elastic waists so he doesn’t have to bother with buttons; he never wears a button-down shirt either, just things that pull over his head and a lot of knits."

Jeff Bridges helped by donating some of his own clothes to the cause. As he told Rolling Stone :

My looks and my wardrobe are very important. I kind of work on the exterior and the interior at the same time. They kind of inform each other. So we went up to my closet to see my clothes, kind of match the Dude. And we just found all kinds of stuff. Those jelly sandals, some T-shirts that I had.

Jeff Bridges Abstained From Pot During Filming

Playing a character who is continually stoned should have been easy for Jeff Bridges, right? All he had to do was get stoned for the entire shoot and the Dude would practically play himself. Surprisingly, the actor went in the opposite direction, abstaining from pot during filming .

Bridges said he "wanted to have a clear head" when portraying the Dude. Pot would have clouded his acting instincts, so he avoided the substance for the duration of the shoot.

The Actors Took Lessons From A World-Champion Bowler

Because many of the characters are serious bowlers, it was vital for the actors to look like they knew what they were doing. To achieve this, the Coens brought in Barry Asher , a world-champion bowler who is in two halls of fame, to coach them. 

How did they fare? Asher says Bridges "mostly just asked me how I would bowl if I was The Dude." Steve Buscemi "got where he could look like a bowler," while John Goodman "had one good shot but they didn’t end up using it in the movie."

Incidentally, Asher appears briefly in the film, bowling in the background while Sam Elliott's character concludes his narration to the camera.

John Turturro Was 'Embarrassed' Of His Role As Jesus

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter , John Turturro revealed that he was "kind of disappointed" in his role of Jesus Quintana. After receiving the script for the film, he lamented, "There's nothing here!"

Despite his misgivings, Turturro says the Coens allowed him to do whatever he wanted with the character. THR writes, 

The Coen Brothers allowed Turturro to make the character completely his own, and a lot of Jesus’ trademark behavior ended up being the actor’s own ideas as a result. The backwards dancing and the many sexualized encounters with bowling balls were all the actor’s inclinations for the character. He was even allowed to come up with Jesus’ purple-clad bowling outfit.

Even so, Turturro still felt he'd made a fool of himself. “The first time they showed [my scenes] to me, I was really embarrassed,” he said. “I didn’t even get the movie when it came out. When I saw it, I thought [Jeff Bridges] was great, but it went over my head.”

As the film's reputation improved over the years, Turturro warmed to the character, and in 2019, he reprised the role in the pseudo-sequel  The Jesus Rolls .

The Dude And Walter Are Both Based On Real People

The characters in The Big Lebowski are colorful, to say the least. How did the Coens come up with them? It turns out both the Dude and Walter were based on real people . The Dude was inspired by Jeff "the Dude" Dowd, a film producer whose credits include FernGully: The Last Rainforest and Zebrahead . He is also a noted political activist. Dowd met the Coen brothers while they were promoting their debut film Blood Simple . 

Walter, meanwhile, is a hybrid of two people. Behaviorally, he's  inspired by Peter Exline , a script editor they also met while making Blood Simple . The Coens liked to refer to him as "the philosopher king of Hollywood," in part because of his frequent diatribes about the Vietnam War. Sartorially, he was inspired by John Milius , a legendary tough-guy writer/director who made Conan the Barbarian and the original Red Dawn . 

The Film's Producer Wanted The Dude To Get His Rug Back

The Dude's rug is what sets the whole plot in motion, and for most of the film, he is intent on being compensated for it. This plot thread, like so many loose threads in the movie, eventually disappears - which the Dude, of course, abides. 

But the fact that the Dude never gets a new rug, or is compensated for one, bothered producer Joel Silver . In a "Making Of" feature on the Big Lebowski blu-ray, Ethan Coen comments on this :

We gave the script to Joel Silver, the producer, who gave us a really interesting note, which we actually ignored, but maybe shouldn’t have. He said that the movie should have ended with him getting his rug back, or some mention of the rug, which would have been a nice resolution, but we never did do it. 

The Film Was (Loosely) Inspired By The Detective Story 'The Big Sleep'

The Coen brothers have stated that The Big Lebowski was inspired by the novels of Raymond Chandler, whose private detective Phillip Marlowe codified many of the tropes that appear in detective fiction. As Joel Coen explains in a "Making Of" feature on the Big Lebowski blu-ray:

[Chandler's novels] usually follow the main character as he encounters these different characters on a journey to uncover a mystery, or find a missing person, or whatever it may be in the novel. In this case, that was the model for this story.

The film is most prominently influenced by The Big Sleep , the first Marlowe novel, in which the detective is hired by a wealthy, wheelchair bound socialite to deal with a case involving his wayward daughter. 

In both The Big Sleep and The Big Lebowski , the plot is considered secondary to telling a good story. Chandler himself said he cared more about writing engaging scenes than tying everything up with a neat bow; in other words, "the scene outranked the plot, in the sense that a good plot was one that made good scenes.”

Joel Coen says basically the same thing in his interview:

With this [movie] we sort of figured, you know, if things become a little bit too complicated or unclear, it really doesn’t matter. I mean, the plot is kind of not the... and again, this is similar to Chandler. The plot is sort of secondary to the other things that are sort of going on in the piece. I think that if people get a little confused it’s not necessarily going to get in the way of them enjoying the movie.

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‘the big lebowski’: thr’s 1998 review.

On March 6, 1998, the Coen brothers unleashed the Jeff Bridges film in theaters.

By Duane Bygre

Duane Bygre

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On March 6, 1998, the Coen brothers unleashed The Big Lebowski in theaters, where it would become a cult hit and gross $46 million globally. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below. 

The Coens travel from Fargo to L.A. by way of Arizona in this cracked comedy about a deadbeat Los Angeleno that played to standing ovations in its sneak preview during the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. Starring Jeff Bridges as an L.A. loafer named “The Dude” and featuring John Goodman and Steve Buscemi as his two Stooge-like sidekicks, The Big Lebowski  is a deliriously fractured film, ambitiously packed with bowling, bimbos and other great inspirations of latter-day thought. Closest in style and temperament to Raising Arizona , this Gramercy release should roll box office strikes with select-siters and score some winning spares with mainstream viewers.

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Too old to be a slacker, the Dude wiles away his days propped up in his tiny abode, knocking back White Russians and getting in the right frame of mind for his next bowling-league tournament. He’s not exactly active and is greatly befuddled and upset when two brigands break into his dump, mistaking him for some big-shot named Lebowski, and take a warning piss on one of his rugs. It’s the sort of occurrence that inspires the Dude to action. He seeks out Lebowski — a wheelchair-bound, bitter rich guy — trying to get restitution for his rug. Not surprisingly, Lebowski has little patience for the spaced-out Dude, but coincidentally, Lebowski’s trophy wife has disappeared and he receives a ransom note. He enlists the Dude to make the drop; there’s 20 grand in it for him.

It’s a very straightforward assignment, and the Dude endeavors to fulfill. However, the Dude’s utter lack of ambition troubles his bowling buddy (Goodman), a paranoid Vietnam vet with a talent for misreading situations. Naturally, they screw things up, and all sorts of berserkos are now on their tail. Worse, the bowling is not going well.

Usually, one would have to take public transit in L.A. to encounter the kind of dangerous weirdos and offramp losers the Coens have crammed into this delirious ditty. Every form of human screwup seems to make an appearance, from nihilists to neo-Nazis. Like the Dude’s life, there’s not a lot of sense to be made of it all — which, of course, is the film’s thematic game plan.

For those of you who forgot how good Bridges was in The Fisher King , here is a reminder. As the gung-ho Nam veteran, Goodman’s tenacious, tightly coiled demeanor is smartly explosive and very funny, while Buscemi as the third Stooge brings a fitting Larry-like befuddlement to the role. As the frisky trophy wife, Tara Reid is a killer bimbo.

As ever, it’s the screwy textures, from Carter Burwell’s blowsy music to costume designer Mary Zophres’ wiggy duds, that make The Big Lebowski  a richly rancid enjoyment. The raucously rattletrap musical selections add a fitting, pungent quality to this delirium. Praise to musical supervisor T-Bone Burnett for the screwy selections in this big laugher. — Duane Byrge, originally published Jan. 20, 1998. 

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The Big Lebowski Ending Explained: The Dude Abides

Since its release in 1998, the cult appeal of the Coen Brothers' " The Big Lebowski " has become self-evident among its many aficionados. Often perceived as a slacker parable, "The Big Lebowski" follows the merry misadventures of Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) as he is enlisted by a millionaire who shares his name (David Huddleston) to hand off the ransom payment in a kidnapping exchange. Jeffrey's slightly unhinged friend Walter (John Goodman) insinuates himself into the drop, trying to convince Jeffrey that the kidnapping victim — Lebowski's wife, Bunny, played by Tara Reid — was enacting a scam. So convinced is Walter, that he swaps out the ransom for his laundry.

Jeffrey then, unaimed, drifts out into L.A.'s criminal underworld, unwittingly finding himself in the role of a Raymond Chandler detective. Jeffrey, it should be noted, is a terminally relaxed, low-rent semi-burnout who long ago devoted his life to the simple creature comforts of bowling, cocktails, and the consumption of weed. A good film noir detective must be sharp and determined. Jeffrey is neither of those things. Indeed, Jeffrey seems resolutely unable to connect any dots in the kidnapping of Bunny Lebowski, with supporting figures often approaching him, the dupe of the film, with information he can barely synthesize.

The final catharsis of the movie has less to do with the solving of the mystery. Jeffrey does manage to put a scant few things together, finding that the Big Lebowski was indeed trying to scam Bunny's kidnappers from the jump. In fact, Walter's laundry coincidentally stood in for another ringer, something that Jeffrey finally realizes very late, his role in the story. 

Jeffrey's catharsis

The climax of " The Big Lebowski " takes place in the Big Lebowski's mansion. Jeffrey has come to the conclusion that Walter replaced a ringer for a ringer, and goes to confront the offending party. Yes, Bunny, we find, was perfectly safe this whole time. Much younger than her husband, and a sexual free spirit, Bunny had merely taken an unexpected trip out of town, and a team of German nihilist/porn star kidnappers (led by Peter Stormare) took advantage of her absence from L.A. to fake her kidnapping and blackmail Lebowski.

In true Chandler-like fashion, this goes to a larger scheme involving Lebowski's attempts to embezzle money from his own charity and passing the "missing" cash onto Jeffrey, who would be too stupid to realize he had been duped. The high point of the scene, however, comes with the following exchange: 

Jeffrey: "You thought that Bunny had been kidnapped and you were f***in' glad, man. You could use it as an excuse to make some money disappear. You'd just met me ... You human paraquat ! You figured 'Oh, here's a loser. A deadbeat, someone the square community won't give a s*** about." Lebowski: "Well, aren't ya?" Jeffrey: [a pause] "Well, yeah!"

That brief pause says everything. In that moment, Jeffrey realized that, yes, he was the dupe. He wants to be outraged by Lebowski's dishonesty and natural assumption that he'll be ignored by the world around him, but has to admit that, yes, he is indeed a deadbeat that the "square" community doesn't give a s*** about. The audience also realizes that, despite how Jeffrey had been exploited, there will be no reward — monetary, moral or otherwise — for his catharsis. In the Socratic sense, his fleeting moment of self-examination will have to suffice.

The hippie's dream

Jeffrey was a child of the hippie movement — Bridges was 49 in 1998 — and lived out the hippie's dream of never "buying into" The System. It's easy to see why so many are drawn to Jeffrey as a character, as he is, in a very real sense, living the dream. He has few cares, lives modestly, and seems content to bowl, drink, and smoke weed. He is no hedonist, but a stoic, accepting that the world around him cannot be changed, but his reaction to it can. Nor can he impart wisdom, because he has none to impart. Jeffrey's oft-quoted final line sticks in the mind: " The Dude abides ," he says, making use of his nickname. One cannot change the world. Indeed, the world punishes you for merely existing. But one can survive and abide as a human. 

The brief pause in the above-transcribed climactic scene is Jeffrey realizing that he is indeed the fool of this story, but it's also the moment he realizes that's all he's ever aspired to be — and all he's ever really wanted. He doesn't long to be admired by what he calls "the square community." He doesn't want wealth or fame. He's found his niche. He does indeed realize that his position is derided and dismissed by a great number of people, and that society at large accepts him as a deadbeat ... and he's come to peace with that. The Dude abides, which is more than ambitious people can say. 

Did the hippies "win" in the corporate sense? No. They won in that they discovered a modest, stoic life. Constructive? No. But constructive people, we see, are the corrupt ones.

L.A. and Elsewhere

To backtrack a bit, and to stress: Bunny was safe the whole time. She was simply not in Los Angeles .

It seems the Coens were making a comment about the short attention span of Los Angeles denizens. If someone isn't in L.A., they may as well not exist. Jeffrey, inspired by real-life L.A. citizen Jeff Dowd , might be an avatar for the city at large. Los Angeles — warm, expensive, and choked with welcome artifice — is a blissful, sun-bleached haven of vanity and self-absorption. This is a place that invites ambition, but encourages relaxation. One can climb the showbiz ladder ... or one can saunter ever gently toward being a beach bum. After a while, anything that doesn't happen in Los Angeles doesn't very much matter. While pursuing a lazy life of stoic acceptance, one falls into the pit of thinking L.A. is the center of the universe. 

Jeffrey embodies both attitudes. Bunny is missing, in that she's out of town. There are two places on the planet: L.A. and Elsewhere. 

This is underlined by the fact that The Dude is distracted. Indeed, he is distractible. The film itself is distractible. Even the film's narrator (Sam Elliott) gets distracted during his opening narration, admitting he lost his train of thought. This is the short attention span of the City of Angels personified. Everything is gorgeous and shallow, and there's nothing one can do but hunker down with your hobbies. One might say —  in the Camus sense  — that Jeffrey's rock is his thing, but Jeffrey is not struggling in a world of futility.

Are you a Lebowski achiever? What's the opposite of that? That's what Jeffrey is.

Screen Rant

The big lebowski ending explained.

The ending of The Big Lebowski forces the Dude and his friends to leave their uneventful lives behind and face plenty of absurd situations.

The ending of The Big Lebowski is a hot mess unraveled in the tidiest way possible. A succession of absurd storylines collide in the final moments of the 1998 Coen brothers film, and the trio Walter, Donny, and the "Dude" are drastically pushed out of their uneventful lives to deal with millionaires, nihilists, pederasts, and even their own selves. Given its chaotically aimless nature, The Big Lebowski can be labeled as a "plotless" movie with not many relevant conflicts going around; the film's trump card is precisely dealing with a series of seemingly irrelevant issues as they push the characters into an unrelenting state of disarray.

The Big Lebowski is an impeccable genre exercise that challenges conventional storytelling in an accessible fashion, and the film's ending showcases the feat perfectly by flirting with tear-jerking dramas without giving up on its slacker comedy. Moreover, crime films seem to be the Coen brothers' specialty, and The Big Lebowski explores many of the genre's elements without fully jumping into it, quickly turning into a satire as the threats and foes nearly get as close to accomplishing the damage the protagonists make to themselves, building up interesting character dynamics that reach their boiling point once the ending forces the characters to contemplate the mess their thoughtless actions resulted in.

Related: Why The Jesus Rolls Isn't Called The Big Lebowski 2

What Happens In The Big Lebowski Ending And Why

The Big Lebowski' s ending is a typical case of multiple people trying to get the upper hand over one another until the situation snowballs into a point of no return. The Dude stands in the middle of all the confusion completely unaware of the treachery that prompts him into the absurd adventure that follows. After learning from Maude that the rich (big) Lebowski might not be who he seems, the Dude begins to suspect he's been played this whole time by all parties, starting with the millionaire, causing him to summon Walter and head to Lebowski's house where the truth unravels swiftly and, since it's The Big Lebowski , quite stupidly.

As soon as the Dude walks into Lebowski's house, he stumbles upon Bunny fooling around the place and goes straight to Lebowski's office to make things clear. There, he learns the nihilists only came into the picture because they wanted to use Bunny's disappearance as an easy escape to take money from Lebowski, who, in turn, took advantage of the confusion to embezzle money from his own charitable institution, using the Dude as the courier of a transaction that turned out to be as fake as Walter's bag. The truth is revealed, but the Dude knows he can't get anything from it and simply goes back to his routine.

The Big Lebowski ends sadly with one final conflict, which involves the so-called nihilists, the group of Germans who threatened the Dude with a marmot, now back to claim the ransom money that never really got into the Dude's hands. In a hilariously pathetic confrontation, Walter fights the men off in a brutal fashion and triumphs, but Donny suddenly dies from a heart attack. And then there were two, the Dude and Walter, with nothing to do but go bowling. In a final narration from the puzzling Stranger, he tells the audience that Maude did end up getting pregnant, which means there's a little Lebowski on the way.

What Happened To Bunny?

The way The Big Lebowski makes fun of its audience is one of the main reasons it is one of the Coen brothers' best movies . At first, Bunny's disappearance seems to be the film's biggest mystery, and the characters constantly argue about what really happened to her. Theories range from Bunny kidnapping herself in order to extort Lebowski a little more or being held hostage by the unpredictable German nihilists, who proved themselves to be somewhat dangerous. In the end, it's revealed that Bunny simply went out of town without warning anyone, returning unscathed after the nihilists used her disappearance to blackmail Lebowski.

Related: What Movie The "Am I The Only One Around Him?" Meme Comes From

According to the Dude, the severed toe sent by the Nihilist seems to confirm Bunny is in danger, while Walter is sure it could be anyone's missing toe and the Germans are just bluffing. In a later scene, The Big Lebowski 's biggest mystery is solved through a tiny detail that can easily be missed: as the nihilists discuss their plan in a diner, there's a quick shot of the female member's foot covered in bandages and with a missing toe. Since Uli Kunkel knew Bunny well, he took advantage of her days out and painted the fake toe just like she used to paint hers.

Was Lebowski's Bag Also A Ringer?

After the Dude is assigned to act as the courier of Bunny's ransom money, Walter decides to exchange the bag of money for a ringer containing his underwear, convinced that Bunny kidnapped herself. The plan was to keep the money for themselves rather than the small courier fee, but the two end up losing the original bag, preventing the Dude and Walter from checking it and realizing it was also a ringer. With the "original" ringer gone, the two are pushed into a state of suspicion knowing they wouldn't have the money if the nihilists came after it, unaware that they wouldn't have it either way.

For starters, Jeffrey Lebowski didn't care about Bunny's fate because he was done with her, which prompted him to hand the Dude a ringer and let the Dude deal with the blackmailers himself, secretly keeping the $1 million and solving two problems at once. Since the original bag didn't contain money and never came to shore, Walter's suspicions over Larry , the teenager whose homework was found in the Dude's car, were unfounded and only made their situation more difficult. Even with all the confusion, the plan comes full circle as the German nihilists turn against the Dude in search of the money as the big Lebowski leaves the situation unharmed.

The Nihilists Explained

The movie's major antagonists, the German nihilists, see Bunny's disappearance as the perfect opportunity to demand money from Jeffrey Lebowski in exchange for the girl, but since all they get is a bag of Walter's underwear, they turn their attention to the Dude and his friends. They are led by Uli Kunkel, played in The Big Lebowski by Peter Stormare , who once starred in a porn video produced by Jackie Treehorn alongside Bunny, which explains the connection between the two. Before getting into crime and nihilism, the group was part of an electronic music band called Autobahn, which they play on the radio during the parking lot fight.

Related: The Big Lebowski: How The Dude Afforded His Apartment (& Not Through Unemployment)

The Real Meaning Of The Big Lebowski's Ending

In its all absurd way, The Big Lebowski seems to encapsulate all the trends and idiosyncrasies that dominated the early '90s in the figure of the Dude, who vividly embodies the slacker culture that grew in the streets and in art simultaneously. In the film's ending, all the oddities of the decade collide in favor of a clever satire that, regardless of all the random atrocities going on, certainly doesn't happen by chance. The nihilist philosophical chain is there for a purpose; it represents the absolute opposite of what the Dude preaches , which is the passivity to the absurdity of life.

The Big Lebowski 's nihilists stand for the generational hypocrisy that finds comfort in finding loopholes to exploit people, while the Dude finds peace in his individual vicious cycle, returning to his routine at ease after the circus went down. Such hypocrisy applies to all the peculiar characters the Dude encounters along the way, from Maude's pregnancy scheme to Jeffrey Lebowski's treachery. The Dude passively accepts his burden as if they're mere distractions. In the end, there are those who use, those who accept to be used, and those who die trying to make up their minds. As the Stranger narrates , the Dude " is takin' 'er easy for all us sinners ."

More: Every Unmade Coen Brothers Movie (& Why They Didn't Happen)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

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Where Was The Big Lebowski Filmed?

Helmed by the creative minds of Joel and Ethan Coen , ‘The Big Lebowski’ is a cult classic black comedy that needs no introduction to cinephiles. This is the film that introduced to the world the laidback and suave genius of “the Dude,” a modern-day Hamlet with a penchant for White Russian. Featuring Jeff Bridges in the titular role, the story revolves around a stolen rug, which brings two contrasting men named Jeff Lebowski at a peculiar conundrum.

The wife of the titular character is kidnapped, and the other Lebowski is given the ordeal of rescuing her from a bunch of thugs. But as the conflicting interests of characters collide, the story spirals out of control too fast, too soon. If you are here feeling like walking the same paths trodden by the latter-day Dude, we shall be happy to abide.

The Big Lebowski Filming Locations

‘The Big Lebowski’ was filmed in its entirety in the US, especially in California. Filming began on January 27, 1997, and wrapped up by April 25, 1997. Let us now take you to the places where the film was shot!

Los Angeles, California

The beginning track shot of the tumbling tumbleweed was filmed at Pearblossom in the middle of the Mojave Desert in northern Los Angeles County. Then, the camera moves forward to show the city of Simi Valley brimming with night lights.

In the opening sequence, we see the Dude strolling at a supermarket. The scene was filmed at Ralphs Supermarket, a grocery store located at 1745 Garfield Avenue in South Pasadena in California.

After shopping, the Dude comes back to his crib located at 606 Venezia Avenue, a private home located just south of Venice Boulevard, in Venice, Los Angeles.

After being threatened by a bunch of goons, Dude goes to his regular bowling club to meet his friends, shell-shocked army vet Walter and the often dismissed Donny. This is a place the film returns to time and again. The bowling alley scenes were filmed over a period of three weeks at Hollywood Star Lanes, a bowling alley featuring futuristic Googie architecture. Once located at 5227 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, the bowling club was demolished in 2002 to make room for an elementary school.

Encouraged by Walter, the Dude goes to meet the millionaire Lebowski to ask for compensation. The scene featuring the exterior shots of the Lebowski mansion, where Dude meets Bunny, was filmed in a property at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills, California.

On the other hand, the interior scenes were filmed at Greystone Park and Mansion, a Tudor Revivalist mansion and adjacent estate located at 905 Loma Vista Drive, in Beverly Hills. This is the same mansion that was used as the Green Goblin’s home in ‘ Spider-Man .’

Later, in flashback, we see bowling opponent Jesus knocking at his neighbors’ doors and confessing that he is a pederast. The scene was filmed at 812 North Kenmore Avenue, southeast of the location of the bowling club.

After he is given the duty of handing off the money, Dude picks up his volatile friend Walter from his security store. The sequence was filmed not far from the location of the bowling alley at 6757 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.

After picking up Walter, the two drive towards Simi Valley. After Walter’s ingenious plan goes awry, he jumps out of the window with a spectacular commando roll while Dude crashes his car at a pole. The scene was filmed at the bridge on Torrey Road in Piru, over Santa Clara River north of Simi Valley. Originally an asphalt bridge, wooden boards were added by the production crew to make the place look more rustic.

In a scene, the Dude goes to meet Maude, the eccentric artist daughter of Lebowski. The loft where she lives is actually located above Hollywood Palace Theater at 1735 Vine Street in Downtown LA. Originally a theatre, the venue has now been transformed into a nightclub called Avalon.

Later in the film, Dude and Walter talk about the credibility of Bunny’s severed toe in a coffee shop, and Walter creates a scene. The sequence was filmed at the historically significant site of Johnie’s Coffee Shop, one of the lasting examples of Googie architecture. Located at Wilshire Boulevard, the famous Los Angeles café is now only used for cinematic productions.

The Dude later picks up his smelly car from an impound lot. The scene was filmed at a lot on West 18th Street at St. Andrew’s Place in LA.

After going through surgery at the request of Maude, Dude crashes his car into a dustbin while trying to extinguish his joint. The scene was filmed at 6333 La Mirada Avenue, in Los Angeles.

Landlord Marty’s heartfelt dance cycle was filmed at the Ivar Theatre, a movie theatre located at 1605 Ivar Avenue in LA.

Later in the film, Dude and his friends go to Little Larry’s house, who presumably procured the suitcase and spent all the money on a new car. After giving the car a bashing, they find out that the car does not even belong to Larry. The scene was filmed at 1824 Stearns Drive in Fairfax in Los Angeles.

In a later sequence, we meet the pornographer and loan shark Jackie Treehorn. The bonfire party scene was filmed at Point Dume in the beach city of Malibu in California.

However, Jackie Treehorn’s Malibu-themed house is actually the Sheats-Goldstein Residence, an exemplary architectural beauty in the posh neighborhood of Hollywood Hills in the City of Angels. The property is designed by John Lautner, a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The bowling dream sequence of the Dude was filmed at a repurposed airplane hangar. The scene was filmed at Santa Monica Airport, a major air terminal located at 3223 Donald Douglas Loop South, in Santa Monica, California.

After having a really bad day, Dude gets kicked out from a cab over differences in musical taste. The scene was filmed at Jefferson Boulevard on Duquesne Avenue, in Culver City, California.

The scene where the German nihilists enjoy their pancakes was filmed at Dinah’s Family Restaurant, a diner located at 6521 South Sepulveda Boulevard in Westchester, Los Angeles.

Additional filming was carried out in Culver City and West Hollywood. Finally, Dude and Walter go to scatter Donny’s ashes, and like always, Walter messes up. The scene was filmed at Point Fermin Park, a coastal park located at 807 West Paseo Del Mar in San Pedro, south of LA. The location is restricted to the public.

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A Tribute To The Most Fascinating Characters In ‘The Big Lebowski’

The Big Lebowski is, among other things, a movie about crazy people. Just about every character we meet is either totally off their rocker or still on their rocker, but teetering dangerously close to disaster. The Dude is an unemployed adult who appears to subsist entirely on White Russians and an occasional cheeseburger. His buddy Walter is an unhinged madman with violent tendencies and a fuzzy sense of right and wrong. Jeffrey Lebowski is a wheelchair-bound fraud with a taste for fast young women. Maude Lebowski is, well, just a piece of work, in general. And none of those characters are the one who cut off a toe in a failed attempt to extract a borderline cursed ransom. You get the idea.

But despite this collection of eccentrics and sociopaths, none of the film’s main characters — individually or as a collective — fascinate me more than another group of people: the regulars and paying customers in the bowling alley where so many of the classic Big Lebowski scenes take place. We’ll get into exactly why they fascinate me so deeply in a minute, but let’s set it up with this: It takes a lot to impress these people. A whole, whole lot.

Let’s start at the beginning and take them one-by-one.

What is happening here: The Dude’s rug has been peed on. He is upset and explaining it to Walter. After some back and forth, Walter yells, “The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude! I’m talking about drawing a line in the sand!”

So first of all, I choose to believe the guy sitting behind them is named Verne, but all the people at the bowling alley call him “Big Verne.” He’s a regular. Everyone loves Big Verne. We’ll start with that.

Second of all, look at Big Verne. There is a large Vietnam veteran sitting maybe 10 feet away from him who is engaged in a heated conversation about rugs getting peed on and is using non-preferred nomenclature for minority groups and Big Verne could not possibly care less. Like, think about that. Think about if you were at a bowling alley and someone in the next lane was telling a story about intruders peeing on his rug. That’s a good story! You’d probably at least, like, glance over in that direction, right? Especially if one of them started yelling. If that happened to me, I would eavesdrop on it and tell everyone I know.

Not Big Verne, though. He’s just lounging in his chair and minding his business.

What is happening here: During an argument about bowling, Walter pulls out a gun and starts shouting, “Mark it zero!” You can only see a glimpse of the guy sitting directly behind Walter as Walter pulls a gun on Smokey for a minor rules violation, but trust me when I tell you that he is remarkably unconcerned for someone who is that close to a raving armed maniac. He should be diving under a table or scurrying toward an exit. But no, he sits there at that table for the entire scene, without even really looking up. As far as I can tell, there are three possible things going on here:

• He is drunk
• Walter does this so often that people are inured to it now
• He is really, really drunk

And it’s not just this guy who is very chill about Walter brandishing a firearm inside a bowling alley, because even though someone calls the cops on him and there are plenty of people in there who can identify him, he is right back there a few scenes later with no repercussions. The management of this establishment is almost recklessly lenient.

These ladies

What is happening here: The Dude and Walter are discussing, among other things, Bunny Lebowski and Vladimir Lenin. At various points in their discussion, Walter shouts, “That f-ckin’ bitch!” and “I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so this f-cking strumpet, this f-cking whore…” I realized something when I was re-watching The Big Lebowski for this post, and the thing I realized was that these three little old ladies in matching pink jackets are my favorite characters in the entire movie. Walter is right next to them losing all of his mind about war and strumpets and what have you, and they just keep right on bowling, completely unbothered. And this is the very next bowling scene after the gun thing! You know they’re aware of the gun thing, too, because if there’s one thing in this world you can be certain of, it’s that old ladies have all the gossip. All of it.

And if this wasn’t enough to impress you, well…

… that’s them in the background later in the scene, after the audience is introduced to John Turturro as Jesus and he is yelling at Walter about taking his gun away from him and sticking it in his rectum and pulling the trigger “until it goes click.” There’s a lot going on there! I mean, even before we get to the threats of violence. An aggressive, flamboyant man wearing all purple — who just licked a bowling ball! — should be enough to get the nervous attention of three women who are more or less the Golden Girls. But nope. Grandma got frames to roll.

I’ve been thinking about them a lot recently and I have decided that if some cable network chooses to do a Fargo -style series very loosely based on The Big Lebowski , it should start with these three ladies leaving the bowling alley after this scene and driving off in a huge pink Cadillac. Maybe they’re running a local organized crime operation. Maybe that’s why none of this is bothering them. I’m just spitballing here. But I would definitely, definitely watch that show.

What is happening here: Two things. The Dude is expressing his non-whispered concerns that the kidnappers are going to kill Bunny Lebowski (“Who gives a sh-t? They’re gonna kill that poor woman!”), and Walter, having just been informed that his bowling schedule will conflict with his religious belief, is yelling “Shomer Shabbos!” at the top of his lungs. It’s important to note that the guy in the background here is basically the only background character at the bowling alley who ever acknowledges our main characters. And it’s also important to note that he does so not when the Dude is voicing his concerns about a kidnapping victim getting murdered, but when Walter starts yelling about the league bowling schedule. Priorities.

These people

What is happening here: Ongoing non-whispered conversation, now taking place directly in front of the crowded counter area, about Bunny Lebowski getting murdered. So let’s really break down what’s happening here: Walter, a man who has recently threatened someone with a firearm and who just spent a solid 30 seconds screaming about Judaism, is walking in close proximity to a crowded counter area with the Dude, a man who has been talking about his rug getting urinated on and some mysterious woman who appears to be in great peril, and the two of them are repeatedly using the words “kill” and “woman,” and exactly zero of the people they are walking past do so much as raise an eyebrow.

My new working theory is that everyone who frequents this establishment has warrants or is in witness protection, and in either case, doesn’t want to know anything.

All of these people

What is happening here: Jesus has found out about the schedule getting changed to accommodate Walter’s religion, and he charges up to them and begins shouting things like, “What’s this day of rest sh-t? What’s this bullsh-t?” and “I was gonna f-ck you in the ass on Saturday, I’ll f-ck you in the ass on Wednesday instead.” Nope. No one even looks up from their coffee. It’s almost enough to make you think the Dude, Walter, and Donny are living in their own little world, or that the Dude is like Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and Walter is like Bruce Willis, and the reason no one reacts is because he’s secretly been dead the whole time.

I say almost because…

What is happening here: Walter and The Dude are in a diner discussing the severed toe they received that supposedly belonged to Bunny. See, here is where that theory falls apart. Because shortly into Walter’s typically profane rant about severed toes and the relative ease which with he can acquire one, the woman working the counter at the diner interrupts him with what is really a pretty reasonable request.

It’s funny: Walter spent so much time ranting with little to no resistance that even a very polite “please stop swearing about severed toes in our restaurant” is almost jarring to him. It’s like watching a wild animal trying to survive outside its natural habitat. And it drives home just how fascinating those other people in the bowling alley are, because this particular spiel is like a soft six on the Walter meter and it causes a scene. They’ve seen him at a 10 — multiples times, one would assume — and just let it roll right off them.

All of which is to say this: I must know more about these people. I must know how they became this way. I’ll start by asking Big Verne. I know Big Verne has stories.

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Map: The Big Lebowski filming locations

Spoiler alert!

The classic cult flick The Big Lebowski celebrates the 20th anniversary of its 1998 release today, and the early-1990s Los Angeles period piece has probably never been more popular. The tale of The Dude, a conscientious objector, unrepentant slacker, and bowling obsessive who gets caught up in a complex high-society kidnapping, the movie shows off the highs and lows of Los Angeles real estate, from the one-bedroom Venice bungalow inhabited by the protagonist to the stunning Lautner-designed mansion owned by "known pornographer" Jackie Treehorn—the still-amazing Sheats-Goldstein House. Check out all the highlights—but watch out for spoilers—on the map below.

· The Big Lebowski film locations [Movie Locations] · Filming locations for The Big Lebowski [IMDb] · Sheats-Goldstein House [Curbed LA]

• Open in Google Maps

The Dude's Bungalow

The Bowling Alley

Big Lebowski's Mansion (exterior)

Big Lebowski's Mansion (interior)

Sobchak Security

The Wooden Bridge

Maude's Loft

Crane Jackson's Fountain Street Theater

Larry seller's house.

Jackie Treehorn's Garden Party

The Dumpster

Jackie Treehorn's Mansion

Coffee Shop

Nihilist Pancake House

Donny's Funeral

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Olivia Wilde says the The Big Lebowski inspired the Booksmart drug-trip scene

Samantha is a writer based in Los Angeles. Television is her one true love, and she tweets about it. A lot.

What is an epic night out without an accidental drug trip?

In Booksmart , Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy’s (Kaitlyn Dever) attempt at partying is slightly derailed when Gigi (Billie Lourd) slips them a little something. The result is a hilarious scene in which Molly and Amy become Barbie-esque dolls and … sort of like it? EW sat down with Booksmart director Olivia Wilde and stars Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever to discuss one of the film’s most memorable scenes.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did the drug scene come together? OLIVIA WILDE: I felt very strongly about that piece and it was one of those things where I couldn’t quite explain what it would be until it was done. It was actually very much inspired by Lebowski and that Busby Berkeley tripping sequence, that amazing bowling-viking sequence. I thought, “I want one of those in this movie!” I love what that says about him and the tone of the film. The dolls were a way to illustrate what the greatest nightmare of two young ardent feminists would be. They’ve become the literal manifestation of everything that’s wrong with the patriarchy and then the further nightmare is: what if one of you starts to like it? KAITLYN DEVER: That was the most fun part [of the film] for me. WILDE: It’s very hard to do animation and all that but what is incredible is that these two [ gestures to Feldstein and Dever ] voiced it without seeing anything and we animated to their voices. So we had a script that kept shifting based on what we could fit in the film and half the time, they’d be recording it on their phones and sending me voice notes separately. DEVER: I’d always go into my closet.

Once, they came in together and just improvised a ton of stuff that we ended up reanimating for. It was an incredibly challenging process that they were all in for and they were so available to go on that journey as we figured out how to put that thing together. They have such vivid imaginations, so they were able to put themselves in the mindset of the dolls without seeing them which was really great. DEVER: It was very fun. There was one moment we got to go in together to the studio and that was fun because we could riff off each other live. BEANIE FELDSTEIN: They wanted us to do it together but also for the animation, they needed us to not overlap our lines. WILDE: I’ll never forget the, “I need you to put your heel in my hole.” “My what?” “My hole.” “My what?” And that was just them playing. FELDSTEIN: I was so proud “where’s my chub” made it in [the movie]. I was in London right after Booksmart so I would get texts from Liv being like, “Can you just do a few doll things” So I’d be like, “No you’re a f–king doll” on the street. WILDE: Which was even more impressive because she was in a deep, immersive accent dive. In this film she plays a woman from a very specific town in … FELDSTEIN: Wolverhampton, England. WILDE: So she had been immersed in speaking in this accent and I was like, “F–k I have to ask Beanie to break out of this accent and send me doll lines” and she just did it. FELDSTEIN: I didn’t even stay in the accent on set. WILDE: You didn’t? Perfect. Thank god! I was worried I was f–king up your whole process. FELDSTEIN: Kaitlyn’s [doll] looks so much like her. WILDE: Kaitlyn’s is creepily like her. DEVER: It freaks me out. WILDE: We have to give it to you. DEVER: I would love that.

Booksmart is in theaters now.

Related content:

• Toasting Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut with the stars of Booksmart
• Booksmart offers riotous, loopy-sweet teen comedy: EW review
• Booksmart director Olivia Wilde says Beanie Feldstein was her only choice for Molly

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