Rat Race (film)

Rat Race
DVD cover
Directed by	Jerry Zucker
Written by	Andy Breckman
Produced by	Jerry Zucker Jay Firesone
Starring	John Cleese Rowan Atkinson Cuba Gooding, Jr. Whoopi Goldberg Jon Lovitz Seth Green Kathy Najimy Breckin Meyer Amy Smart Vince Vieluf Lanai Chapman Kathy Bates Paul Rodriguez Wayne Knight Dave Thomas Brody Smith Silas Weir Mitchell Jillian Marie Hubert Smash Mouth Rance Howard Colleen Camp Dean Cain Gene LeBell Gloria Allred Chris Myers Kevin Frazier
Music by	John Powell
Distributed by	Paramount
Release date	2001
Running time	112 min
Country	USA
Language	English

Rat Race is a 2001 comedy film (not to be confused with The Rat Race of 1960) directed by Jerry Zucker. It is an updated retelling of the 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The story is about six teams of people given a task of racing from a casino to a train station in New Mexico, where a storage locker contains a large amount of money; the first team to reach the locker wins.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Donald Sinclair, the multi-millionare owner of a hotel in Las Vegas (played by John Cleese) devises a new game to entertain his wealthy patrons. Six special tokens are placed in the slot machines, and the winners of the tokens are gathered together and told that $2,000,000.00 in U.S. cash are hidden in a locker in a train station in Silver City, New Mexico. They are told they are in a race to get there first and claim the money. Each winner is given a key that will open the locker and they are sent on their way. Meanwhile, Sinclair's patrons place bets on who will end up with the money.

The film follows the contestants and the gamblers as they try to make their way to the locker. In the end, the money goes to charity, and the gamblers are forced to match all money raised at a charity concert.

Major Characters

The Codys

The two inept Cody brothers, Duane (Seth Green) and Blaune (Vince Vieluf who talks indecipherably because of a newly pierced and infected tongue), are the first characters to find a token. They are at the casino to attempt to get rich by faking an injury and suing the casino. Instead they end up racing for $2,000,000.00. They decide to split up and go separately to increase their chances of winning, so they decide to get a second key made. They are not very bright, however, and the keymaker rips them off giving them two unmade keys while keeping the real one (because they do not speak about their plan discreetly).

Vera and Merrill

The second team is a mother, Vera Baker, (Whoopi Goldberg) at the casino to meet her daughter, Merrill Jennings, (Lanai Chapman), who was put up for adoption as a baby, and who is struggling to start a business.

Templeton

The much-hated NFL referee, Owen Templeton (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), is accused of making the "biggest bonehead call in the history of football". He is stranded in the desert by an irate cabbie (Paul Rodriguez) and hijacks a busload of Lucille Ball look-alikes on the way to a convention.

The Pears

Randy Pear (Jon Lovitz), works at Home Depot. He is on a family vacation and, desperate to get rich so he doesn't have to work at Home Depot any more, he joins the race without telling his wife (Kathy Najimy) why they are rushing across the country. He instead informs her that he has a job interview.

Pollini

The narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini (Rowan Atkinson in a best Mr. Bean–like manner) falls asleep for a few hours in the hotel lobby. When he wakes up, he gets a ride with an ambulance driver (Wayne Knight), who is carting a human heart for a transplant.

Schaffer

The final race member, Nick Schaffer (Breckin Meyer), is a straight-laced future lawyer who at first declines to participate in the race, but re-thinks his position after he meets a smart, beautiful woman, Tracy Faucet (Amy Smart), who is flying a helicopter to New Mexico. Template:Endspoiler

Trivia

• While waiting for the winner, Sinclair's friends pass the time by making various different types of bets, such as "which chocolate will Sinclair's assistant randomly choose" and "how much money will a prostitute ask to please a man with a very outrageous fetish". The prostitute scene is important later in the plot.

• The climactic railroad station scenes for Silver City, New Mexico were filmed at the restored train station at East Ely, Nevada, a popular tourist destination.

• Donald Sinclair is the name of a deceased hotel owner from Torquay. He is what John Cleese got the idea for his famous comedy series Fawlty Towers.

External link

• Rat Race at The Internet Movie Database