The Naked Gun

The Naked Gun series
Region 1 DVD cover for the film series box set
Directed by	David Zucker (1 and 2) Peter Segal (3)
Written by	David Zucker Jim Abrahams (1 and 2) Jerry Zucker (1 and 2) Pat Proft Robert LoCash (3)
Based on	Police Squad! by David Zucker Jim Abrahams Jerry Zucker
Produced by	Robert K. Weiss David Zucker (3)
Starring	Leslie Nielsen Priscilla Presley O. J. Simpson George Kennedy Ed Williams
Cinematography	Robert M. Stevens
Edited by	Michael Jablow (1) Christopher Greenbury James R. Symons (2 and 3)
Music by	Ira Newborn
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	1988–1994
Running time	253 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$65 million
Box office	$477 million

The Naked Gun is a series of American crime comedy films, created by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (ZAZ). All three films are based on their earlier television series Police Squad!, which was cancelled after six episodes.

Films[]

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)[]

Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) tries to uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II, who is on a state visit to the USA. The main suspect is Vincent Ludwig, a rich businessman (Ricardo Montalbán), who uses a hypnotic device to turn others into murderers. As with previous ZAZ spoof comedies, the plot was mostly culled from another—more serious—movie. In this case, it was Telefon wherein people were triggered into assassins via hypnotic phone calls (indeed, dialogue in the post-hypnotic suggestion demonstration scene is copied word-for-word from Telefon).

On the case, Drebin falls in love with Ludwig's assistant, Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley). She knows nothing about Ludwig's plot, and after the pair spends the night together, Jane helps with Frank's investigation.

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)[]

Frank discovers that Jane's new boyfriend, Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), is involved in an evil plan to kidnap Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), a scientist whom President George H. W. Bush (John Roarke) has chosen to determine a new national energy policy. Hapsburg plans to kidnap the real Dr. Meinheimer and replace him with a lookalike named Earl Hacker (also portrayed by Griffiths) who will endorse an energy policy according to the dictates of the energy lobby.

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)[]

In the third film of the series, Frank is married to Jane, and he has retired from Police Squad. The film introduces the criminal Rocco Dillon (Fred Ward), who is stuck in prison. He is contacted by someone called Papshmir to be given a target for a bombing. Frank is pulled out of retirement. He goes undercover pretending to be a prisoner named "Nick 'the Slasher' McGurk Jr., III" at the jail where Dillon is being held, and they break out of jail. Outside they are escorted by Dillon's gangster mother (Kathleen Freeman) to his country retreat, where Frank also meets Rocco's voluptuous moll (Anna Nicole Smith). The gang plots to blow up the Academy Awards. When Jane arrives looking for Frank, she is taken hostage.

Future[]

On December 13, 2013, Paramount announced that a reboot of the franchise was in development, with Ed Helms starring as Drebin and Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant co-writing the screenplay.^[1] However, on January 11, 2014, Garant stated that the film will be more of a sequel than a reboot.^[2] In March 2015, David Zucker referred to the film as more of a reboot than a sequel, stating that it will not have the same spoofing style as the original series, while disagreeing with the choice of Helms as the lead, saying "I would want somebody who had never been in a comedy". Zucker was approached by the studio to produce the film.^[3] In August 2015, Helms gave an update on the film stating "You have to make something that a contemporary audience is going to like. We haven't seen many of those slapstick movies in a while, so I'm not sure what the right angle is on it", echoing Zucker's comments on the film's modern take.^[4] Zucker stated in 2017 that he was working on a script for a fourth Naked Gun film with Pat Proft.^[5] He described the film's plot as being about the son of Frank Drebin.^[5]

In 2021, Liam Neeson revealed that Paramount and Seth MacFarlane had approached him about the possibility of a Naked Gun reboot.^[6] Neeson added that he was excited about the project and that MacFarlane himself might direct it.^[7]

Cast of characters[]

Main characters[]

• Leslie Nielsen as Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Sergeant Lieutenant of Police Squad. He is the protagonist of all three films and the former TV series Police Squad!. In the first film, he meets Jane Spencer and they fall in love; in the second film, they resume their romance; in the third film, they are married, and Frank is retired from the force.
• Priscilla Presley as Jane Spencer (Jane Spencer Drebin in the third film). In the first film she is Vincent Ludwig's assistant, but knows nothing about his world domination plans. After she spends the night together with Frank, she helps him with his investigation. In the second film, her relationship with Frank has ended and she has a new boyfriend, Quentin Hapsburg. This is the second time she falls for a man with evil plans. She and Frank make up at the end of the second film. In the third film (in which she is married to Frank, who is retired from the force) she is now a lawyer. At the end of the third film, Jane gives birth to a son, who looks like Nordberg, leading Frank to believe the two had an affair and chases after his colleague. However unbeknownst to him, Frank was in the wrong room and he fails to see Ed escorting Jane to her room, holding her and Frank's real baby.
• O. J. Simpson (Peter Lupus, TV series) as Officer Nordberg, one of Frank's colleagues and friend. He and Frank are partners for about five years, and he is Frank's best friend. Nordberg always gets himself in very painful situations in all of the films. He finds himself being chased after by a resentful and enraged Frank when he believes that Nordberg had an affair with Jane. In a deleted scene from 21⁄2 the following dialogue occurs: "Bloodstains, Nordberg?" "No, the wife and I are redecorating..."
• George Kennedy (Alan North, TV series) as Captain Ed Hocken, Frank's boss and friend. Ed encourages Frank to talk to Jane in the second movie. In the first film, he is married to a woman named Ethel, although in the second film his wife of 30 years is called Edna.
• Ed Williams as Ted Olson, a scientist who works at the lab. In Police Squad!, Ted was always giving a questionable lesson to a child, in a parody of Watch Mr. Wizard. In the films, Ted provides Frank with gadgets in a parody of Q from the James Bond films. Ted, Frank Drebin, and Al are the only characters who each appeared in both Police Squad! and the Naked Gun films portrayed by the same actor.^[8]
• Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor as Al, a very tall colleague of Frank, whose head is always out of frame. Al was a recurring character on Police Squad! but only made a cameo in the first film.

Main villains[]

Notable cameos[]

Recurring cameos[]

Reception[]

Box office performance[]

Critical and public response[]

Other notable appearances[]

Bruce Barbour as Leslie Nielsen's stunt double and Leslie Hoffman as Jeannette Charles' (Queen Elizabeth) stunt double made their famous slide down the banquet table.

In the original film, veteran sports broadcasters Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Dick Enberg, Dick Vitale, Tim McCarver, and Jim Palmer are among those in a crowded booth. The baseball game features former Major League players like Jay Johnstone and, as an unexpected assassin, Reggie Jackson, as well as umpire Joe West.

In the second film, Zsa Zsa Gabor has a cameo as herself, slapping the police car siren featured in the intro, a reference to her 1989 arrest. Singer Mel Torme dances with Jane. And veteran character actors Lloyd Bochner, Tim O'Connor and Peter Mark Richman attend the climactic banquet, Bochner spoofing a classic Twilight Zone episode of his called "To Serve Man".

In the third film, at the Academy Awards, a musical number is performed by Pia Zadora and an award presented by Raquel Welch. Others seen at the ceremony include James Earl Jones, Olympia Dukakis, Elliott Gould, Mariel Hemingway, Mary Lou Retton, Florence Henderson, Morgan Fairchild, Shannen Doherty, and Vanna White. "Weird Al" Yankovic also made cameo appearances in all three movies.

Video game[]

The Naked Gun: ICUP, a point and click and adventure game, was released by Gamecentric Media and Paramount in 2012.^[23] The story and concept were penned by Robert LoCash, a writer of the third Naked Gun film. A press release by Gamecentric about the read "Spoofing modern crime dramas and lampooning popular video games, THE NAKED GUN: ICUP is designed as a continuation of the classic film franchise for the digital age. The game will be serialized over six episodes starting this fall with a new episode debuting monthly. Each episode will be fully voice-acted by top Hollywood talent to deliver a classic story-driven adventure supported by the itemized incentive structure of current popular social network games."^[24] Due to Leslie Nielsen's death in 2010, voice actor A.J Locascio took over as Frank Drebin's long lost son, Frank Drebin Jr.

The game received an average score of 60 on the review aggregator Metacritic.^[25]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Naked Gun

• The Naked Gun series at AllMovie
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! at IMDb
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! at AllMovie
• The Naked Gun 21⁄2: The Smell of Fear at IMDb
• The Naked Gun 21⁄2: The Smell of Fear at AllMovie
• Naked Gun 331⁄3: The Final Insult at IMDb
• Naked Gun 331⁄3: The Final Insult at AllMovie