Thank You for Smoking
Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is the Vice President of and the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco lobby whose stated purpose is to research the links between smoking cigarettes and health. The group, funded by cigarette companies, never finds any links. Nick’s job requires him to “inform” the public of these results, as well as defend the rights of smokers. The film follows his career as a talking head for big tobacco, appearing in both public speaking engagements and on television programs. Each week, Nick meets with Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) and Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner), lobbyists for the alcohol and gun industries, for lunch and mutual support. The three jokingly refer to themselves as “the M.O.D. Squad” (alluding to both the phrase “Merchants Of Death” and the television show The Mod Squad).
Faced with a bill to add a skull and crossbones to all cigarette packaging, Nick proposes an idea to his boss, BR (J.K. Simmons)—whose initials stand for Bud Rohrabacher, though this is never specifically mentioned in the film—to get actors in films to start smoking on screen again as in the ‘20s and ‘30s, and thus “put the sex back in cigarettes”. BR sends him to Hollywood to meet with producer Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe) and arrange product placement. Nick elects to bring his son, Joey (Cameron Bright), on the sudden conviction that they do not spend enough time together since Joey’s mother gained custody. As Joey asks about the details of Nick’s job during the trip, they bond as Nick teaches him the art of spin.
Nick also plans to appear before the U.S. Senate to fight the packaging bill, as well as Senator Finistirre (William H. Macy), the primary supporter of the bill as well as a long time critic of cigarettes. During an appearance on Dennis Miller’s talk show to debate the issue with Finistirre, a caller threatens to kill Nick. After refusing BR’s suggestion for him to hire bodyguards, Nick is soon kidnapped and transdermal nicotine patches are placed all over his skin, sending high doses of nicotine into his blood stream, triggering a toxic response (nicotine poisoning) and nearly killing him. Luckily, he is found alive, and in a twist of irony, it was his smoking habit and resulting tolerance of nicotine which (as his doctor put it) “saved his life”; however, he can never smoke again because of resultant hypersensitivity to the drug.
In the midst of all of this, Nick has secretly begun having sex with an attractive reporter named Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) (when the film was initially screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2006, it was discovered that a twelve-second-long sex scene featuring Aaron Eckhart and Katie Holmes was “missing” from the reel. Director Jason Reitman explained that when the print had been spliced together in Los Angeles, the scene—which was located at the end of one of the reels—was accidentally cut [3]), revealing many secrets to her during their love making, assuming it was off-the-record. She was preparing a piece about him, promising to be fair to both sides of the issue. She then publishes an article that paints Nick as a heartless monster, including Nick’s dealings with the M.O.D. Squad, bribery of cancer-stricken Marlboro Man Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott), supposed training of Joey to follow in his footsteps, and the behind-the-scenes plan to increase cigarettes in film. When Nick confronts Heather over the phone, she condescendingly states that she’s like him by just working a job to pay the mortgage. Deciding that the article has either removed or completely reversed any sympathy of the public towards Nick after his kidnapping, BR decides that the Academy should distance itself from Nick and fires him. After Nick initially becomes depressed, Joey reminds him of why he does his job: to defend the “defense-less” corporations.
Speaking to the press, Nick promises to clear the names of those linked to him by the article, and reveals his affair with Holloway, ruining her professional journalism career as she watches him live on TV at work with her surprised co-workers. He also reveals his intention to still testify before the Senate in hopes of stopping the bill from passing. Nick ends up performing so well at the Senate hearing that BR asks him to return to the Academy. However, as a reporter asks Nick if he will continue to work with the Academy, he fully realizes BR’s motives for firing and hiring him and decides not to return as an example to his son, completely catching BR off guard before the press. The film ends as the lives of those affected by the entire situation: BR is out of work for the first time in years after the Academy is dismantled, Heather is reduced to working as a weather reporter for a small TV station, Senator Finistirre is still working on his anti-cigarette campaign by digitally removing cigarettes from classic films and the M.O.D. Squad is still meeting weekly—with new lobbyists from the oil, hazardous waste, and fast food industries being invited to the luncheon. Joey wins a school debate, and Nick begins a public relations training firm (which is seen taking on the growing negative public image of cell phones).
