Tango and Cash

You almost want to take it seriously.

Tango and Cash is a 1989 Andrei Konchalovsky action-comedy starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

The story centers on two rival Los Angeles policemen: dapper, straitlaced cop "Ray" Tango (Stallone), and aggressive, rough-around-the-edges cop "Gabe" Cash (Russell), and their attempts to outdo each other. But when an arch-enemy of theirs, drug lord Yves Perret (Jack Palance), decides to even the score and frames them for murder, Tango and Cash suddenly find themselves among the same prisoners they had put away themselves. It doesn't take long before they realize they're going to have to put aside their differences and work together in order to get even with Perret and clear their names, even if it ends up killing them.

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This film contains examples of:

• Actor Allusion / Celebrity Paradox:

Tango: Rambo is a pussy.

• Ambiguously Gay: Tango. Just listen to some of his lines. Unless he's being particularly ironic.
• Arch Enemy: As noted above, Perret sees Tango and Cash as a two-man thorn in his operations' side: "If it isn't Tango, it's Cash! Tango, Cash; Cash, and Tango..."
• Badass Boast: Tango stops just short of prefacing the above statement with "compared to me".
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Tango all the way. He is even called on that by his commander.
• Bad Cop, Worse Cop
• Bilingual Bonus: "Requin" is French for "Shark".
• Bring My Brown Pants
• Buddy Cop Show
• Bungling Inventor: Owen
• Chekhov's Gun: Cash's backup weapon is used to frame him.
• Clear My Name
• Click Hello: Done twice in one scene where Cash is investigating Requin's house. Requin gets the drop on Cash, but immediately after Requin utters a one-liner, Tango gets the drop on him.
• Combat Pragmatist: Cash, particularly the manner in which he dispatches The Dragon.
• Cool Car: A fashionably-militarized 1988 Chevrolet Silverado 2500.
• Cool Guns: Cash's revolver with laser sight.
• Cowboy Cop: Tango and Cash
• Deadpan Snarker: Cash
• Disguised in Drag: Cash
• The Dragon: Requin.
• Dueling Stars Movie: Sylvester Stallone vs. Kurt Russell? Oh hell, yes!
• Executive Meddling: Andrei Konchalovsky, the director, was eventually fired from the film by producer Jon Peters who wanted to movie to be a spoof wile Konchalovsky wanted it to be a buddy cop movie. He was fired MID-SHOOT and replaced, and then a different director was in charge of the editing.
• Fake Brit: Brion James as "Requin".
• Fan Service: Despite heavily targeting a male demographic, seeing the backsides of Stallone and Russell in the shower scene likely helped many a girlfriend sit through this film.
  • Meanwhile, plenty of Fan Service is also provided for the male viewers, mainly in the form of several topless women.
• Fun with Acronyms: F.U.B.A.R.: F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition.
• Glory Hound: Tango initially pegs Cash as this.
• Groin Attack: In this case, Cash killing Requin by shoving a live grenade down his pants.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Lopez is Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo).
  • Robert Z'Dar makes an appearance as vengeful prison inmate who, for obvious reasons, is listed in the credits only as "The Jaw".
• High Altitude Interrogation: Used by Tango and Cash, though the victim is unfazed and even taunts them to let go.
• Ho Yay: Tango and Cash
• Improbable Weapon User: Cash has a gun built into his boot, with the barrel in the heel, causing him to take an unusual stance when firing. It comes in handy whenever he is knocked off his feet and needs to get counterattack quickly.
• Improvised Zipline: How they escape prison, using their belts and the prison's electrical cables.
• Innocent Innuendo: The back massage scene.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Cash sitting in a chair on the throat of a suspect, despite him having already asked for an attorney.
• Large Ham: Perret.
• Ms. Fanservice: Tango's sister, Katherine (played by Teri Hatcher).
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Tango's, see above.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Tango. Cash refers to him as "Armani with a badge".
• Odd Couple
• One-Liner: Maybe the most one liner-ridden script ever written.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Requin has probably the worst Cockney accent this side of Dick Van Dyke.
• Role Association: Basically, Rambo and Snake Plissken team up to fight crime led by Carl Grissom and his top henchman Leon Kowalski, and eventually have to rescue Rambo's sister, Susan Mayer.
• Sexophone: Played for Laughs during Cash's "drag scene".
• Shower Scene: Complete with Slippery Soap gag.
• Troubled Production: As mentioned on Executive Meddling, the original director was fired mid shoot, the first cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld was fired before production started, budget went over by 20 million dollars, a third director took over editing... Stallone was often said to be the man who actually held everything together.