Frank Drebin is a menace. Honestly, there isn’t a better way to describe the protagonist of Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear. He’s a walking disaster area with a badge, a man who manages to crash a SWAT tank into a city zoo and then wonders why the lions are loose. Most sequels fail because they try too hard to be "bigger" or "deeper." This movie? It just leaned into the stupid. And that is exactly why we are still talking about it thirty-five years after it hit theaters in 1991.
If you grew up on a diet of Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery, you know the vibe. It’s that specific brand of comedy where the world is ending, but the lead character is more concerned with how to properly eat a lobster at a White House state dinner. People call it "slapstick," but it’s smarter than that. It’s dense. You can watch this movie ten times and still find a new gag hidden in the background of a crime scene.
The Weird Physics of Naked Gun 2 1/2
Basically, the plot is a thin excuse for jokes. It involves a conspiracy to suppress renewable energy, featuring a villainous Robert Goulet as Quentin Hapsburg. He’s trying to replace a pro-solar scientist, Dr. Albert Meinheimer, with a look-alike double. It’s very 1990s "eco-thriller" stuff, but David Zucker (who directed and co-wrote) doesn't care about the message. He cares about the timing.
Remember the scene where Frank tries to comfort Jane (Priscilla Presley)? He says, "How are the children?" She replies, "We never had any children, Frank." It’s such a simple, dumb exchange, yet it hits perfectly because Nielsen plays it like he’s in a Tennessee Williams play.
The movie had a budget of around $23 million. That’s peanuts today, but it grossed $86.9 million domestically and nearly $192 million worldwide. In 1991, it even knocked Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves off the top of the box office. People were hungry for this kind of relentless absurdity.
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Why the Gags Stick
You’ve got visual puns, like "cold case" files literally being kept in a refrigerator. Then there are the cameos. Zsa Zsa Gabor shows up just to slap a police siren—a direct nod to her real-life arrest for slapping a cop a few years prior. Mel Tormé sings at a blues bar. Even "Weird Al" Yankovic pops up, though unlike his appearance in the first film, he’s playing a criminal here.
There’s a specific rhythm to the ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) style.
- A joke every 60 seconds.
- Background gags that require a second viewing.
- Total commitment from the actors.
- Zero "winking" at the camera.
The legendary Roger Ebert once noted that the dialogue is so dumb you laugh twice: once because it's stupid, and again because you actually fell for it. That's the secret sauce. If the actors acted like they were in a comedy, it would fail. But when Leslie Nielsen fights a man with a giant concrete dildo while maintaining a look of grim professional determination, it becomes high art.
The Smell of Fear vs. The Original
Kinda controversial opinion: some fans actually like the sequel more. While the first film (From the Files of Police Squad!) is a tighter parody of noir, Naked Gun 2 1/2 feels more like an "event" movie. It’s messier. It goes to Washington D.C. It parodies the pottery scene from Ghost (which was actually directed by Jerry Zucker, keeping it in the family).
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It also gave us the "Savage" chase sequence. Frank drives a tank through a house, then a playground, then the zoo. The sheer escalation is ridiculous. By the time the villain is thrown out of a window, bounces off an awning, and gets eaten by an escaped lion, you’ve basically surrendered your brain.
Production Trivia You Might Have Missed
The filming actually happened at the same time and often in the same studios as Hot Shots!, which was directed by Jim Abrahams. It was a factory of spoofs. They were churning out these movies with a surgical precision that we just don't see anymore.
One detail most people miss: the electric car shown in the secret meeting of the "energy lords" was a real 1986 Pontiac Fiero prototype. It was never mass-produced, making it a weirdly authentic piece of tech in a movie that is otherwise entirely fake.
Is the Humor Dated?
Well, sort of. O.J. Simpson is in this movie as Nordberg. Seeing him as the "butt-monkey" who constantly gets brutally injured (falling off a boat, getting hit by a bus) feels very different now than it did in 1991. You can’t really separate the actor from the history, which makes his scenes a bit of a time capsule of a pre-1994 world.
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But the rest? The "Blue Note" bar where the pictures on the wall are all of famous disasters? The scene where Frank accidentally beats up the First Lady? That stuff is timeless. It taps into a universal love for seeing authority figures be absolute morons.
Why We Need This Energy Now
With the 2025/2026 reboot starring Liam Neeson, people are looking back at Naked Gun 2 1/2 to see if the magic can be recreated. Neeson is following the Nielsen blueprint—the dramatic actor turned comedy legend.
The lesson from The Smell of Fear is that you don't need a massive plot. You just need a character who is 100% confident while being 100% wrong. Frank Drebin is the patron saint of the confidently incorrect.
Actionable Insights for Movie Buffs:
- Watch for the Background: Next time you stream it, ignore the main characters during the police station scenes. The real jokes are happening in the hallways and on the desks behind them.
- The "Police Squad!" Connection: If you love this movie, find the 6 episodes of the original TV show. Half the jokes in the movie were actually "tested" there first.
- Study the Deadpan: If you’re a writer or performer, watch how Nielsen never smiles. Not once. That is the hardest thing to do in comedy, and he was the undisputed king of it.
If you want to understand why modern parodies often feel "off," it's usually because they lack the discipline found here. They try to be snarky. Naked Gun 2 1/2 isn't snarky; it's just gloriously, unapologetically silly.