Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 American comedy film about NASCAR racing. The film is directed by Adam McKay, who co-wrote the film with actor and former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Ferrell. The film stars Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Michael Clarke Duncan, Amy Adams, Sacha Baron Cohen and Leslie Bibb. Various Saturday Night Live alumni also make appearances.
The film was primarily shot in North Carolina including Charlotte, Huntersville, Cornelius, and Cabarrus and Gaston counties. Additional filming was done at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Racetrack scenes at Texas Motor Speedway were shot at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, using a Chevy El Camino outfitted with camera mounts on all four corners of the car.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby tells the story of a NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) whose “win at all costs” approach has made him a national hero. He and his loyal racing partner and childhood friend Cal Naughton, Jr. (Reilly), are a fearless duo—dubbed “Shake ‘N’ Bake” with the ability to finish most races in first and second place, with Cal always in second. When a homosexual French Formula One driver, Jean Girard (Baron Cohen), challenges “Shake ‘N’ Bake” for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing’s top driver.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Ricky Bobby was born to “go fast”. He was born in the back seat of his race car-driving father’s car in the town of West River, North Carolina. He was raised by his mother Lucy Bobby (Jane Lynch). Reese Bobby (Gary Cole), his alcoholic, pot-dealing father, wasn’t around. One morning, while his mother goes into the grocery store to “cry and get some milk”, Ricky climbs into the driver’s seat and, using a whiffle ball bat to press the pedals, takes his mother’s station wagon on a high-speed joy ride.
After ten years, Ricky finally meets his father when he shows up for Career Day at Ricky’s school. He tells Ricky, “If you ain’t first, you’re last”, a motto that sticks with Ricky for the rest of his life.
Ricky Bobby never outgrows his love of racing. In 1996, while working on a pit crew as the jackman for a race team (the no. 26 car, sponsored by Laughing Clown Malt Liquor), he replaces an uninterested driver named Terry Cheveaux (McKay) and ends up finishing third despite starting mid-race in last place. Ricky soars to the top of NASCAR very quickly, achieving both fame and fortune with his ride in the no. 26 Wonder Bread car at Dennit Racing. He is able to get a ride for best friend Cal (Reilly), who encouraged him to replace Terry in the first place, in the no. 47 Old Spice car. Ricky uses Cal as the starter of a slingshot move which lets Ricky pass cars easily. His pit crew consists of crew chief Lucius Washington (Michael Clarke Duncan), a stern African American man; Glenn (Jack McBrayer), who constantly annoys Ricky and Lucius; Kyle (Ian Roberts), who thinks that jazz music sounds like “a tape of somethin’ dyin’ or something”; and Hershell (David Koechner), a stocky, balding fellow who enjoys fried chicken. While on top of the racing world, Ricky is challenged by a Formula One driver named Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen). Girard is an effeminate gay Frenchman (sponsored by Perrier in the no. 55 car) who reads the French existentialist novel The Stranger by Albert Camus and sips macchiato as he races. He also smokes women’s cigarettes.
Girard outperforms Ricky on the track and becomes NASCAR’s top driver. Ricky, desperate to regain his dominance, pushes himself too hard and ends up in a spectacular wreck, after which Ricky runs around the track in his underwear, thinking that he is on fire. After this, he persists in the belief that he is paralyzed, though he clearly isn’t. During a stay at the hospital, Ricky ends up stabbing himself in the leg to prove that he is paralyzed. Fortunately, Cal and Lucius, visiting Ricky at the hospital, are able to pry the knife out of Ricky’s leg with another knife. Though he eventually recovers from his crash, he loses his ride at Dennit Racing after a disastrous testing session, that echoes the wreck prior, where he runs around in his underwear and helmet thinking his teammates are ninjas “trying to get” him. Carley (Bibb), Ricky’s wife, yearning to be married to a top NASCAR driver, divorces Ricky before he gets home that night and marries Cal, whom Ricky refused to let finish first in races. Cal then tells Ricky that he’s finally getting the chance to become #1, dropping the “Shake ‘N’ Bake” nickname for “The Magic Man.”
Ricky takes his two kids, Walker (Houston Tumlin) and Texas Ranger (Grayson Russell), and moves back home with his mother and takes a job as a pizza delivery driver for Hugalo’s Pizza, being reduced to a bicycle after his recent loss of confidence has effectively stopped him from controlling a car, causing him to lose his license. With his life at a lowpoint, Reese suddenly reenters Ricky’s life. With the retraining and guidance of his father, Ricky gains his confidence back, but still refuses to race after Reese walks out – and then confesses that he was high when he told Ricky’s class “If you ain’t first, you’re last!”. Ricky then runs into his former assistant, Susan (Adams), at a bar. Susan convinces Ricky to get back into racing at the Talladega 500. Susan then professes her love for Ricky, and they end up having sex in the bar, as Ricky warns the other customers to look away, because “we’re gonna start making animal noises”. Ricky later meets with Jean Girard, who is having tea with Elvis Costello and Mos Def. Girard confesses that he wants to retire to Stockholm with his husband Gregory. (Andy Richter) to “design a currency for dogs and cats to use”, but before he does, he wants Ricky to beat him. However, he refuses to simply let Ricky win. Ricky returns to the track and tells Cal he’s sorry for always making him come in second. But Cal is confused by Ricky’s “tactics”, and vows to “keep actin’ tough” until he figures it out.
Despite being un-sponsored, underfunded, and starting last, Ricky quickly climbs through the field and passes Cal (who barely notices him because of his confusion over the apology), moving into second place behind Girard. As Ricky unsuccessfully attempts to pass Girard, his former owner orders Cal to wreck Ricky. Cal refuses, and does the traditional slingshot move to get Ricky side by side with Girard. Larry Dennit, Jr., (Greg Germann) the owner of Girard and Naughton’s cars, orders his third driver, Brian Wavecrest (who replaced Ricky in the Wonder Bread car), to wreck Cal. The ensuing wreck destroys the rest of the field, leaving only Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard. On the final lap, the two drivers slam into each other numerous times, until they both have a long, spectacular wreck in the tri-oval. So long, in fact, that the race goes to a commercial for Applebee’s while the wreck is still taking place. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Jr., and Benny Parsons (the television broadcast team), seeming disinterested, declare the race over.
However, Girard and Ricky both get out of their cars and race on foot to the checkered flag, to the tune of Pat Benatar’s “We Belong”. They both dramatically dive for the finish line. Ricky’s fingers cross the line, while Girard comes up a bit short. Girard wishes to shake Ricky’s hand, but Ricky kisses him passionately instead. Both drivers are disqualified for violating race procedures (the NASCAR rule is drivers must drive their own cars, by their own power, to the finish line on the last lap) and Cal wins the race by finishing third. Ricky and Cal make up, again. Reese watches from the distance, and walks away, satisfied. The family, including Susan, Ricky’s new “lady”, meets Reese in the parking lot, and all climb into his old Chevelle to go get kicked out of Applebee’s.
Spoilers end here.
