Tommy Boy

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This article refers to the movie "Tommy Boy", for the record company, see Tommy Boy Records.

Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy
Directed by	Peter Segal
Produced by	Michael Ewing Lorne Michaels Barnaby Thompson Robert K. Weiss
Written by	Bonnie Turner Terry Turner
Starring	Chris Farley David Spade Brian Dennehy Bo Derek
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	March 31, 1995
Running time	97 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Tommy Boy is a 1995 comedy movie starring Chris Farley and David Spade.

1 Plot
2 Reaction
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) is a ne'er-do-well prone to drinking binges and bouts of stupidity. After seven years, Tommy graduates from Marquette University and returns to his hometown, Sandusky, Ohio, where his father, "Big Tom" Callahan (Brian Dennehy), gives him a cushy job at the family auto parts plant, where he meets Michelle Brock (Julie Warner).

Later, Tommy's father reveals to him that he is engaged to Beverly Barish-Burns (Bo Derek), and that Tommy will have a step-brother, Paul (Rob Lowe). When Paul arrives, the two of them go out for a night of drinking and cow-tipping.

Unfortunately, Big Tom suffers from a heart attack on his wedding day and dies, just after he was married to Beverly. At a board meeting after the funeral, the bank reneges on Callahan Auto's loans to create a brake pad division. However, Tommy comes up with the idea to give up his inheritance for collateral, and go with Richard Hayden (David Spade), his father's former assistant, to sell the brake pads.

During Callahan Auto's Family Fun night, Paul tells Beverly that her inherited company shares aren't worth anything until the company is sold to Zalinsky Auto Parts (CEO Ray Zalinsky played by Dan Aykroyd) It is also revealed to the audience that Paul and Beverly have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, which arrouses suspicion in Brock.

While Tommy and Richard are on the road, the two are failing at selling brake pads until Tommy has a discussion with Helen, a waitress whom he convinces to open the kitchen and make some chicken wings for him. Richard tells Tommy that the skill and convincing he used there should be focused on selling brake pads. After this discussion, Tommy begins making extremely successful sales, and soon they go over the 500,000 mark that was needed in order for Callahan Auto to receive the loan from the bank.

This doesn't go over well with Paul, who wants the company to be sold to Zalinsky so that the shares will be worth even more. While Tommy and Richard are returning to Sandusky, Paul goes into Michelle Brock's office and sabotages the files and orders stored on her computer. Once Tommy and Richard return, it is revealed that many of the orders were cancelled due to the error in shipping (which was caused by Paul's sabotaging of the records).

When the company is doomed to be sold to Zalinsky Auto Parts at a board meeting in Chicago the following day, Tommy plans to go to Chicago with Richard to convince Ray Zalinsky to not buy Callahan Auto. While at the airport, Richard finds out that there are no more tickets to Chicago for that day, so they disguise themselves as flight attendants to make it onto the plane. Meanwhile, Michelle finds Paul and Beverly kissing at the airport, which arouses her suspicion even more. Michelle then calls her brother, a detective, to look up their information.

Tommy and Richard make it to Chicago, where they meet up with Zalinsky in an elevator. Tommy discusses with Zalinsky and tries to convince him to not buy out Callahan Auto, but Zalinsky refuses, and Tommy and Richard are barred from the board meeting, where they are escorted out of the building by security, but not before noticing Beverly and Paul sitting at the meeting table.

While sitting outside the building, Tommy and Richard meet Michelle, who came to Chicago to tell them that Paul and Beverly were con artists (as revealed by her brother whom she had called earlier) who had planned on inheriting Big Tom's shares and selling them. It is also revealed that they are married, making Beverly and Big Tom's marriage invalid, and therefore revealing that Beverly's shares actually belong to Tommy.

Tommy devises a plan to get into the board meeting - he steals some road flares from a nearby road construction crew, and straps them to his chest passing them off as dynamite. With the supposed "bomb" on his chest, he gains the attention of a television news crew and makes it through security and into the board meeting, where he convinces Zalinsky to buy 500,000 brake pads (the number needed in order for the company to get the loan and survive). Zalinsky agrees under the mindset that the whole company will be his anyways once Beverly sells his shares to him, and signs the contract with Tommy in front of the television news crew. However, Michelle reveals at the meeting that Beverly and Paul are married and that her marriage to Tommy's dad would have been invalid and the shares would go to Tommy not Beverly. Michelle also shows that Paul was wanted in numerous states on a variety of charges including fraud. When Zalinsky finds this out he realises Tommy isn't going to sell his shares thus stopping Zalinsky from buying the company. Tommy returns to the Callahan factory and is made President of the company and is given a hero's welcome back.

[edit] Reaction

Through both well-written comedy and serious, dramatic moments, this movie is remembered as both Farley's and Spade's best work by many, apart from their time on Saturday Night Live.

The film did surprisingly well with both the critics and the movie-going public. The Saturday Night Live partners returned for an equally successful, though critically panned film called Black Sheep (1996), which played on the same format with an almost identical plot (Farley's character is in danger of letting down a family member and is assigned to the corporate slacker Spade. The two cause a number of disasters but eventually come good and save the day).

[edit] Trivia

Brian Dennehy, who plays Tommy's (Chris Farley) father in the movie, later portrayed the father of David Spade's character, Dennis Finch, in the 1997-2003 sitcom Just Shoot Me.
When Tommy sees his father's new girl friend (Bo Derek) for the first time, he calls her a "10". This is a reference to the movie 10, which Derek starred in.
The movie is referenced in the Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates by Dan Aykroyd, co-star of both movies. In the Sandler comedy, Aykroyd mentions that the mental institution at which he is employed is funded by "T.B. Callahan," an auto parts specialist based in Sandusky, Ohio.
The scenes at Marquete University were actually filmed at the University of Toronto.
Despite Sandusky being the setting, the majority of the film was shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The scenes in which Tommy is in his dinghy were filmed in the Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton, Ontario.
The airport scene was filmed at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
In one of the scenes, Michelle asks for a direct flight to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. There is no airport in Cuyahoga Falls.
In the scene at the gas station where Tommy backs up Richard's car and bends the door backwards there is a noticeably large dent in the door. When Richard comes out of the station and opens the door the dent is completely gone.
Chris Farley is actually a graduate of Marquette University.