Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a 1998 American psychedelic black comedy road film adapted from Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, and stars Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro as Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, respectively. The film details the duo's journey through Las Vegas as their initial journalistic intentions devolve into an exploration of the city under the influence of psychoactive substances.
The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a financial failure, but has since become a cult classic among film fans. Depp briefly reprised his role as Duke in a cameo appearance in Rango (2011), in addition to voicing the title character.
Plot[]
In 1971, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo speed across the Mojave Desert. Duke, under the influence of mescaline, complains of a swarm of giant bats, and inventories their drug stash. They pick up a young hitchhiker and explain their mission: Duke has been assigned by a magazine to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race in Las Vegas. They bought excessive drugs for the trip, and rented a red Chevrolet Impala convertible. The hitchhiker flees on foot at their behavior. Trying to reach Vegas before the hitchhiker can go to the police, Gonzo gives Duke part of a sheet of "Sunshine Acid" (ultra-purified LSD), then informs him that there is little chance of making it before the drug kicks in. By the time they reach the strip, Duke is in the full throes of his trip and barely makes it through the hotel check-in, hallucinating that the clerk is a moray eel and that his fellow bar patrons are draconians lizards.
The next day, Duke arrives at the race and heads out with his photographer, Lacerda. Duke becomes irrational and believes that they are in the middle of a battlefield, so he fires Lacerda and returns to the hotel. After consuming more mescaline, as well as huffing diethyl ether, Duke and Gonzo arrive at the Bazooko Circus casino but leave shortly afterwards, the chaotic atmosphere frightening Gonzo. Back in the hotel room, Duke leaves Gonzo unattended, and tries his luck at Big Six. When Duke returns he finds that Gonzo, high on LSD, has trashed the room, and is in the bathtub clothed, attempting to pull the tape player in with him as he wants to hear the song better. He pleads with Duke to throw the machine into the water when the song "White Rabbit" peaks. Duke agrees, but instead throws a grapefruit at Gonzo's head before running outside and locking Gonzo in the bathroom. Duke attempts to type his reminiscences on hippie culture, and flashes back to San Francisco where a hippie licks spilled LSD off his sleeve.
The next morning, Duke awakens to an exorbitant room service bill and no sign of Gonzo (who has returned to Los Angeles while Duke slept), and attempts to leave town. As he nears Baker, California, a patrolman stops him for speeding, and advises him to sleep at a nearby rest stop. Duke instead heads to a payphone and calls Gonzo, learning that he has a suite in his name at the Flamingo Las Vegas so he can cover a district attorney's convention on narcotics. Duke checks into his suite, only to be met by an LSD-tripping Gonzo and a young girl called Lucy, who Gonzo explains has come to Las Vegas to meet Barbra Streisand, and that this was her first LSD trip. Duke convinces Gonzo to ditch Lucy in another hotel before her trip wears off.
Gonzo accompanies Duke to the convention, and the pair discreetly snort cocaine as the guest speaker delivers a comically out-of-touch speech about "marijuana addicts" before showing a brief film. Unable to take it, Duke and Gonzo flee back to their room, only to discover that Lucy has called. Their trips mostly over, Gonzo deals with Lucy over the phone (pretending that he is being savagely beaten by thugs) as Duke attempts to mellow out by trying some of Gonzo's stash of adrenochrome. Duke has a bad reaction to the drugs and is reduced to an incoherent mess before he blacks out.
After an unspecified amount of time passes, Duke wakes up to a complete ruin of the once pristine suite. After discovering his tape recorder, he attempts to remember what has happened. As he listens, he has brief memories of the general mayhem that has taken place, including Gonzo threatening a waitress at a diner, himself convincing a distraught cleaning woman that they are police officers investigating a drug ring, and attempting to buy an orangutan.
Duke drops Gonzo off at the airport, driving right up to the airplane, before returning to the hotel one last time to finish his article. He then speeds back to Los Angeles.
Cast[]
- Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke
- Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo
- Ellen Barkin as The Waitress at North Star Cafe
- Craig Bierko as Lacerda
- Gary Busey as The Highway Patrolman (H. Sulliven by name tag)
- Cameron Diaz as The Blonde TV Reporter
- Flea as Hippie
- Mark Harmon as The Magazine Reporter at Mint 400
- Katherine Helmond as The Desk Clerk at Mint Hotel
- Michael Jeter as Dr. L. Ron Bumquist
- Lyle Lovett as The Road Person
- Tobey Maguire as The Hitchhiker
- Chris Meloni as Sven, Flamingo Hotel Clerk
- Christina Ricci as Lucy
- Harry Dean Stanton as The Judge
- Tim Thomerson as Hoodlum
- Larry Cedar as Car Rental Agent - Los Angeles
- Richard Riehle as Dune Buggy Driver
- Richard Portnow as Wine Colored Tuxedo
- Steve Schirripa as Goon
- Larry Brandenburg as Cop in Back
- Jennifer Elise Cox as Shopper
- Kim Flowers as Lizard Performer
- Tane McClure as Lizard Performer
- Michael Lee Gogin as Uniformed Dwarf