Warning: SPOILERS for The Bare GunThe Bare Gun is a joyful reboot-slash-legacy sequel that doesn’t require viewers to have seen the unique trilogy of slapstick spoof movies–and, apparently, that’s all due to a small act of rebel by its writers. Directed by The Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer, the film was co-written by him, Doug Mand, and Dan Gregor.
The film is packed wall-to-wall with humorous moments, however one among The Bare Gun’s most surprising sequences includes Liam Neeson’s Frank Drebin, Jr. being carried by way of the air by an owl that’s supposedly his father, the unique Frank Drebin performed by Leslie Nielsen.
As half of a bigger ScreenRant interview discussing The Bare Gun, writers Doug Mand and Dan Gregor revealed how they landed on the thought of the unique Frank Drebin showing in owl type. It seems that one of many film’s wackiest moments was a response to a studio observe requesting that Drebin senior be extra current within the story:
ScreenRant: One factor that I significantly thought was a hoot was the Frank Drebin Sr. cameo. How did you determine how to try this and why did you need to try this?
Dan Gregor: Very intelligent.
ScreenRant: Thanks.
Dan Gregor: The studio saved giving us this observe the place it is like, “We would like a deeper relationship with Frank Drebin Sr. We would like him to have extra about his dad,” and I believe that, for us, that is in some methods a demise knell–to be too up the ass of the previous films. You do not need the viewers to have to come back in and should continuously be fascinated with, “Do I do know these previous films effectively sufficient?”
We have been like, “We do not need to try this. We do not need to should make Frank Sr. a extremely central a part of the plot.” And so we’re like, “How can we try this in a means that’s actually silly?” So, that type of was our tackle, “Okay, okay. No, so he’s within the plot, however he is a f**king owl and it is actually, actually dumb.”
Doug Mand: And everyone knows that we’re all simply attempting to endlessly please our fathers and make them happy with us. How can we blow that concept out, and the place does poisonous masculinity come from? [It’s] this concept that this macho man could possibly be like, “I simply need to see you once more. I simply need you to like me.”
Simply Liam Neeson saying “daddy” in such a real means is one among my favourite issues as a result of it’s so harmless. And it is so clear, once you’re watching these macho males, there are simply little boys in there who simply really want a f**king hug, and that is in all probability why they’re so violent. They simply want somebody to f**king hug them.
Dan Gregor: We went forwards and backwards. We had two totally different variations [of the ending to that]. [There’s] the one which’s in there, after which there’s one other one the place after he type of rode the owl and had the s*** assault, [Frank’s] like, “Thanks, daddy. Thanks,” after which we lower to the owl and he is simply consuming a rat on the bottom and also you understand, “Oh, it was simply an owl. There was no metaphor there.”
Doug Mand: I believe the opposite joke was that Paul Walter Hauser could be like, “That is my dad,” and he is taking part in with a lion that escaped a zoo, after which that lion assaults him and he is like, “It is not my dad!”
Dan Gregor: However they did not need to pay for a lion, a lot to our unhappiness.
Doug Mand: Hollywood.
Dan Gregor: Anyway, so it was one thing that took place in a great way. We received a really type of regular studio observe about paying extra homage to the unique, having extra emotional grounding with pathos, and we have been like, “How can we try this in a silly means?”
What This Means About The Bare Gun
Dan Gregor and Doug Mand clearly have loads of love for The Bare Gun’s supply materials, however their strategy to a observe about tying the movie again to its predecessors is a superb instance of how effectively they struck a stability between previous and new. As ScreenRant’s assessment places it, The Bare Gun neatly “focuses on the laughs”, not legacy.
As a substitute, The Bare Gun reintroduces audiences to Liam Neeson as a comic book actor and Pamela Anderson as a real film star with few references to the unique movies. The truth that Mand and Gregor fought to ensure their film did not depend on ties to a 30-plus-year-old movie trilogy proves their intent to make a movie for all audiences.
Our Take On The Bare Gun’s Frank Drebin Sr. Cameo
I’m unsure if Leslie Nielsen’s The Bare Gun films would have included Frank Drebin hanging from the legs of an owl because it defecated onto dangerous guys, however the reality-breaking gag actually feels of the spirit of the unique trilogy. That Mand and Gregor crafted that sequence in response to studio stress is even higher.
The joke is one of some that really feel distinctive to this The Bare Gun–the tangent sequence taking viewers by way of the complete scope of a relationship with a snowman is one other–however it’s simple to think about that Leslie Nielsen himself would approve of his character returning on this means. That is the man whose tombstone reads “Let ‘er rip”, in spite of everything.
The Bare Gun is in theaters now.
The Bare Gun
8/10
- Launch Date
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August 1, 2025
- Director
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Akiva Schaffer
- Writers
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Akiva Schaffer, Doug Mand, Dan Gregor
- Producers
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Erica Huggins
- Franchise(s)
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The Bare Gun