Dude, Where's My Car?
| Dude, Where's Elvis Madore | |
|---|---|
 Dude, Where's My Car? film poster | |
| Directed by | Danny Leiner |
| Written by | Philip Stark |
| Produced by | Gil Netter, Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove |
| Starring | Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date | 10 December 2000 |
Running time | 83 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$13,000,000 |
Dude, Where's My Car? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Danny Leiner. Jesse and Chester (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) are two stoners who wake up from a night of wild partying to find out their car is missing. This film tells the story of their journey to find the car.
This movie received poor reviews from critics. Despite this, Dude, Where's My Car? was a modest box-office success, and has managed to develop a cult following after its DVD release.
The title of the film has become a benchmark of popular culture of the time of its release. It is referenced widely, an example being the title of Michael Moore's political book entitled Dude, Where's My Country?. Dude, Where's the Party? is a film with a similar title, but is unrelated to this film. It also spawned a porn movie, Dude, Where's my Dildo? which appears as number 7 in The 100 Worst Porn Movie Titles.
Cast
- Ashton Kutcher - Jesse
- Seann William Scott - Chester
- Jennifer Garner - Wanda
- Marla Sokoloff - Wilma
- Kristy Swanson - Christie Boner
- David Herman - Nelson
- Hal Sparks - Zoltan
- Charlie O'Connell - Tommy
- John Toles-Bey - Mr. Pizzacoli
- Christian Middelthon - Alien Nordic Dude #1
- David Bannick - Alien Nordic Dude #2
- Turtle - Jeff
- Mitzi Martin - Alien Jumpsuit Chick #1
- Jodi Ann Paterson - Super Hot Giant Alien
Plot
At the movie's outset, Jesse (Kutcher) and Chester (Scott) awaken with hangovers and no memory of how they got there. Their house is filled (quite literally) with containers of pudding, and there's an angry message from their girlfriends on the answering machine. They emerge from their home to find Jesse's car missing, and with it their girlfriends' one year anniversary presents. This prompts Jesse to ask the film's title question: "Dude, where's my car?"
The duo begins retracing their steps in an attempt to discover just where they left the car. Along the way, they encounter a transgender stripper, a belligerent Chinese food drive-in restaurant speakerbox, UFO cultists, a Cantonese-speaking Chinese tailor, a couple of hard-nosed police detectives, and a reclusive ostrich farmer. The film continues as a buddy film, but takes on a few elements of science fiction when the protagonists meet two groups of aliens searching for the "Continuum Transfunctioner", a device capable of destroying the universe.
Adding "save all of existence" to their list of tasks, Jesse and Chester trek onward. In an arcade, they discover that the Continuum Transfunctioner was a Rubik's Cube that Chester has been working hard to solve, and eventually does (thus activating it). Once the five lights had stopped flashing, the universe would be destroyed. Jesse and Chester must determine which of two sets of aliens, a duo of Schwarzenegger-like men and a group of self-described "hot alien chicks" is entitled to the device.
One of the groups protects the universe, the other is there to destroy it. Both claim to be the protectors of the universe, state that they were with Jesse and Chester last night (which Jesse and Chester still cannot remember) and ask for the Transfunctioner. The two correctly choose the men.
Balked, the five alien women merged together to become a Super Hot Giant Alien who wreaks havoc. The duo manage to destroy the behemoth by activating the Transfunctioner's annihilator beam. The protectors erase everyone's mind concerning the events. By the end of the film, though, the youths have recovered their car, salvaged their relationships, and discovered just where all the pudding came from. The protectors left a little gift for their girlfriends (and, indirectly, for the two young men!): Breast Enhancement Necklaces.
In one scene, Jesse and Chester french kiss to one-up a rival hunk and his girlfriend.
Fate of the car
What truly happened to Jesse's titular car is never revealed. It was possibly lost or stolen. It was certainly impounded by the police, then accidentally tagged for auction by a bumbling police officer with poor eyesight. It was later sold at the aforementioned auction to a militant French ostrich farmer. Jesse and Chester are captured by the farmer for trespassing, but he later agrees to let them go and give Jesse his car. However, when the ostrich farmer arrives at his garage (where he parked the car 5 minutes before) the car has disappeared without a trace. At the time, Jesse and Chester were more concerned with getting their girlfriend's anniversary presents from the car, but the ostrich farmer tells them that the only thing in the car was a set of keys to a storage locker, which he gives them. Realizing the presents must be in the locker, the duo stop their search for the car and the plot moves on without mentioning it again.
When the climax of the movie occurs, the benevolent aliens rewind time so that everything resets to the events of the beginning of the movie, except this time Jesse's car is parked in front of his house.
How the car disappeared from the ostrich farmer's garage in the original timeline and where it went is left completely unexplained.
Shibby, and other quotes
Jesse and Chester repeat the catchphrase "Shibby" throughout Dude, Where's My Car? while leaving it undefined. At times, it seems to be used as a euphemism for smoking marijuana (Jesse says, "I hate to say it, Chester, but maybe we need to cut back on the shibbying.") and at times, it is a general exclamation intended in place of words like "awesome" or "cool." Other memorable quotes from the film - apart from the title phrase - include "Dude... it's a llama" when the two discover an ostrich, the entire "Dude! You got a tattoo!" sequence, and the repeated "And then?" from the annoying Chinese Food drive-thru woman.
The aforementioned "Dude! You got a tattoo!" routine is similar to "Who's On First?" with their repective tattoos being a phrase that sounds like a response: "Dude" and "Sweet". Dude, what's mine say? Sweet, what's mine say? Dude, what's mine say? Sweet, what does mine say ? Seriously DUDE, what does mine say?, with the potential to continue without end.
Another comical quote is the protectors' threat to use the power of the Continuum Transfunctioner to banish the giantess (Jodi Ann Paterson) "to Hoboken, New Jersey." An effortless swing with the back of her arm knocks the protectors out and puts paid to their plans. The line is a tribute to Hoboken, the real-life hometown of director Danny Leiner.