Plot
Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War.

Release Year: 1985

Rating: 6.0/10 (18,347 voted)

Director: John Landis

Stars: Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest

Storyline
Two totally incompetent applicants, Emmett Fitzhume and Austin Millbarge, are chosen from a CIA recruitment program. They are parachuted into Pakistan and eventually end up in Afghanistan, chased by the Russians, where they learn they are being used as decoys to draw out the Sovet defenses. Two real spies are sent in. Their mission is to Hijack a soviet Missile launcher, launch the Soviet missile and test the new US orbital defence laser. The missile is fired and while heading for an American City, the laser system misses it's target. The contingency plan for this scenario, as set out by the Pentagon Nuts who planned it from deep within a secret underground bunker, is to let the 3rd World War happen anyway.

Writers: Dan Aykroyd, Dave Thomas

Cast:
Chevy Chase - Emmett Fitz-Hume
Dan Aykroyd - Austin Millbarge
Steve Forrest - General Sline
Donna Dixon - Karen Boyer
Bruce Davison - Ruby
Bernie Casey - Colonel Rhumbus
William Prince - Keyes
Tom Hatten - General Miegs
Frank Oz - Test Monitor
Charles McKeown - Jerry Hadley
James Daughton - Bob Hodges
Jim Staahl - Bud Schnelker
Vanessa Angel - Russian Rocket Crewperson
Svetlana Plotnikova - Russian Rocket Crewperson
Bjarne Thomsen - Russian Rocket Crewperson

Taglines: With spies like these who needs enemies?

Release Date: 6 December 1985

Filming Locations: Lancaster, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $8,614,039 (USA) (8 December 1985)

Gross: $60,088,980 (USA)

Runtime: 102 min

Trivia:
The Russian phrase spoken by Dan Aykroyd to the Russian agents is: "Chem men'she znaesh', tem lushche." This translates as: "The less you know, the better."

Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: The chevron of the Soviet Missile Troops clearly visible on the left sleeve of one of the soldiers walking by the rocket launcher (globe with flying rocket) is a fantasy of the film makers.

Quotes:
General Sline: When we commissioned the Schmectel Corporation to research this precise event sequence scenario, it was determined that the continual stockpiling and development of our nuclear arsenal was becoming self-defeating. A weapon unused is a useless weapon.

Comedians like Us

Rating: 8/10

Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd were at the height of their professional careers with the 80's "masterpiece" Spies Like Us. The cast alone makes this movie a triumph the 80's comedy. Although the same cast today would find itself on the video shelf and not the movie theaters, for the mid 80's this was a GIANT of a Hollywood cast. Second to only Doctor Strangelove, what other comedy is funnier when dealing with American / Russian relations during the cold war? Chevy and Aykroyd have terrific chemistry together that has been molded to perfection from their success on Saturday Night Live. The physical comedy in the first half of the movie is as funny as any Marx Brother film of its time. The comical situations that occur in the second half are as funny as any Blake Edwards production. Together, the movie is as funny as it gets for the 1980's.

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