The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is a 2002 Australian comedy-adventure film based on the nature documentary series The Crocodile Hunter, starring Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin. The Irwins play themselves filming an episode of The Crocodile Hunter while trying to protect a crocodile. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer logo has a crocodile in place of the usual lion.

Plot
People inside a headquarters in Mojave, California launch a satellite. Some others in Canberra, Australia track down the same satellite. Due to mechanical failure, the satellite explodes and the beacon lands in North Queensland, Australia and a crocodile swallows it. The film then shows Steve Irwin chasing a reptile. Steve runs around the sand dunes chasing it. The reptile then runs in a tunnel and Steve is disappointed. Steve then finds a white lizard feces containing, lizard skin, snake skin, and a lizard claw. Steve puts the feces in his pocket to save it for later. Terri Irwin shows up and hops in the truck with Steve and Suey. The film then shows a CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two agents named Archer and Wheeler walk into a room. The boss of the headquarters tells Archer and Wheeler a satellite beacon landed in Queensland and he forces them to go to northern Queensland and find the beacon. Meanwhile a rancher is shooting a crocodile because it ate some of her cattle. A law enforcer tells her that its illegal kill a crocodile. She says its unfair that the crocodile can kill her cattle but she can't kill the croc. She pulls out her shotgun and tells him to leave while she cocks the shotgun. After he leaves she says its croc killing time. The film then shows Steve Irwin saying its croc saving time. He says he got a call from the fishery department saying a rancher woman is mad because a croc is eating her cattle. He, his wife Terri, and his dog Suey set out in a boat and go in a cave. He finds the crocodile and starts wrestling it. He puts it in the boat saying that was too easy. Meanwhile a CIA headquarters boss tells a woman named Joe Buckley to go to Queensland and get the beacon before Archer and Wheeler do. Archer and Wheeler are then seen packing their suitcases with weapons getting ready to leave. Archer says nothing is gonna hurt you in Australia. The film shows Steve Irwin holding a snake. He mucks (harasses) with the snake. He then says flys are coming near his eyes to drink liquid because its hot in the outback. The film then shows the law enforcer in front of the mad rancher's house. She sets out traps such as planks with nails sticking out of them. He then goes through the fence which makes a banging noise and the rancher's dogs hear him; they run after him. The law enforcer throws his hat to the dogs and they play with it. Another dog urinates on the hat. The law enforcer walks in the mad rancher's yard. The rancher holds out her shotgun once again threatening to shoot him if he doesn't leave. He then sees the rancher's dogs come after him again and he says "oh sugar". Steve Irwin then holds up a goliath bird eating spider. He is terrified that the spider might bite him and fill his veins with syrupy, sticky, venom. Steve and the CIA agents collide and fight. Steve wins and he is happy.

Reviews
The film received mixed reviews, with a score of 53% freshness from review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave a positive review, stating "You see a couple of likable people journeying though the outback, encountering dangerous critters and getting too close for comfort, while lecturing us on their habits and dangers and almost being killed by them." while Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune said "Irwin and his director never come up with an adequate reason why we should pay money for what we can get on television for free."

Box office
The film made over $28.4 million (USA) at the American box office, with a worldwide gross of over $100,000 million.

Film Aspect Ratios
Collision Course is relatively unique among feature films in that it was shot in two film aspect ratios, 1.85:1 for the scenes with Steve and Terri and 2.35:1 for the plot about the Australian farmer and the CIA and their efforts to find the tracking drone. In theaters and on DVD, the 1.85:1 image appears with pillar boxing, a format usually reserved for 1.33:1 ratio content appearing within 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 frames.