Merrill and Vera are given malicious directions and crash. Their car is crushed by a monster truck which they then steal. The brothers catch him and leave him and a stray cow hanging from the balloon's anchor rope. They have a locksmith create a duplicate locker key but he overhears their plan and makes off with the key in a hot air balloon. Having initially agreed not to play, greed takes over and they start to race.ĭuane and Blaine destroy the airport radar, grounding everybody else but wrecking their vehicle so they steal another. The racers consist of con-artist brothers Duane and Blaine Cody, businesswoman Merrill Jennings and her mother Vera, football referee Owen Templeton, Randy Pear and his family, narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini, and no-nonsense attorney Nick Schaffer. Sinclair's guests place bets on who will win. He arranges for six competitors to race the 563 miles (906 km) to Silver City, New Mexico, where $2 million is in a train station locker. Įccentric tycoon Donald Sinclair devises a game to entertain the high rollers who visit his Las Vegas casino. Despite receiving mixed to negative reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, having grossed $85.5 million worldwide against a $48 million budget, and in recent years has developed a cult following. Produced by Fireworks Pictures, Alphaville Films and Zucker's Zucker Productions, the film was released theatrically by Paramount Pictures on August 17, 2001, in the United States and Canada. Each team is given a key to the locker and the first person to reach the locker gets the money. The film centers on six teams of people who are given the task of racing 563 miles (906 km) from a Las Vegas casino to a Silver City, New Mexico train station where a storage locker contains a duffel bag filled with $2 million. Inspired by Stanley Kramer's 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the film features an ensemble cast consisting of Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Lanei Chapman, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Seth Green, Vince Vieluf, John Cleese and Dave Thomas. Rat Race is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Jerry Zucker.

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