Bad Trip (film)


Bad Trip is a 2020 American hidden camera comedy film directed by Kitao Sakurai. The film follows two best friends who take a road trip from Florida to New York City so one of them can declare his love for his high school crush, all the while being chased by the other's criminal sister, whose car they have stolen for the trip.
The film was accidentally released on Amazon Prime Video on April 17, 2020 and subsequently pirated prior to its official release.

Plot

In small-town Florida, Chris is working at a car wash. A woman, Maria, gets out of her car and enters the car wash. Chris tells the man whose car he's washing that Maria is his high school crush. He begins to vacuum the car but the overpowered vacuum sucks his clothes off, leaving him naked. He panics once Maria comes out of the car wash and hides in the man's car. The man has a conversation with Maria and attempts to get her number for Chris, but she declines and leaves. Chris' best friend, Bud, is working at a computer shop. His sister, Trina, parks up in her car. After having a conversation with two customers, she begs Bud for money but he declines. Although she's on house arrest, she robs the store and unchains her ankle tag, giving money to the two customers and warning them not to snitch. Later, Chris and Bud have a conversation about Trina, Maria, and going on big adventures.
One year later, a plumber enters Chris' house and is surprised when Chris comes out of his resting place. Chris finds out he's late and runs to his new job at a smoothie shop, causing chaos along the way. Maria comes into the restaurant and they have an conversation, where she reveals she is an art gallery curator in New York City. She gives him an invite to the gallery, which he accepts. Chris looks at the card, causing him to lose focus and accidentally put his hand in a smoothie blender, splattering blood everywhere. He later seeks advice from an old man, who tells him to chase Maria in New York. Chris then sings a musical number called "I Saw a Girl Today" to the confusion of everyone around him. He has a talk with Bud on the subway, with the ultimate plan to take a road trip to New York. Chris gets the idea to steal Trina's car, which Bud first opposes, but Chris reminds him that Trina's in jail.
Bud pays to remove the car from an impound. Meanwhile, Trina escapes from jail. She finds out her car was taken and plans to kill Bud and Chris, stealing a police car to hunt them down. Chris and Bud wreck a petrol station pump, go drinking at a bar where Chris vomits uncontrollably and falls off a high ledge after having too many shots, and visit a zoo where Chris is raped by a gorilla after breaking into its enclosure to take a picture with it. The two later crash Trina's car and get into a big argument, ending their friendship until an army recruiter tells Chris some words of wisdom. Chris finds Bud on a bus back to Florida and the two make up, finally making it to Maria's art gallery. Trina sees her damaged car and finds Marie's business card covered with Chris' blood, so she continues to hunt them down. After Chris declares his love for Maria, she turns him down before Trina drives through the art gallery wall and attacks Chris with various pieces of art.
Trina chases Chris down and dangles him off the gallery roof, but Bud saves him by finally standing up to Trina. She embraces him, proud that he finally stood up for himself. Chris and Bud return to Maria's gallery, but she is distraught at the chaos and demands that they leave. The film ends with the two deciding to cross-dress as white women at a environmentalism-focused fundraising gala, which they had discussed while reviewing White Chicks earlier in the film, with Trina joining them as a white man. They perform the DMX song "Party Up" on stage, much to the discomfort of everybody else. Behind-the-scenes footage plays during the closing credits, showing the reactions of the people who appeared throughout the film upon being told they are part of a hidden camera prank.

Cast

During the conceptualization of the film, André attended Robert McKee's story seminars and consulted comedians Jeff Tremaine and Nathan Fielder. When the film was finished, André screened it before release for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, a veteran of hidden camera prank shows.

Release

Bad Trip was scheduled to have its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2020, but the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was also scheduled to be released theatrically by MGM's Orion Pictures on April 17, 2020, but it was pulled from the schedule due to the movie theater closures because of the pandemic restrictions. It had previously been scheduled for a theatrical release in October 2019, as well as February 2020. The film was accidentally released digitally on Amazon Prime Video for a brief time on April 17, but was taken down soon afterwards. Despite this, it subsequently leaked onto file-sharing platforms such as The Pirate Bay.
In May 2020, it was announced that the people behind distributing the film were not bothered by the pirated leaks, and that the film was sold to Netflix.

Score

+ - Indicates it's by Prentis Goodwin
^- Indicates it's SJAE ft. Cam and China