Canadian Bacon

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This article is about the film. For other uses, see Canadian bacon (disambiguation).
Canadian Bacon (the movie)

Directed by Michael Moore

Produced by Michael Moore

Written by Michael Moore

Starring Michael Moore

Music by Michael Moore

Cinematography Michael Moore

Editing by Michael Moore

Distributed by Michael Moore

Release date(s) September 22, 1995

Running time 91 minutes

Country United States

Language English

Budget $11 Million

This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help
improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise.

A former employee of R. J. Hacker (G. D. Spradlin) named Roy (Kevin J. O'Connor),

nicknamed Roy Boy, attempts to express his grudge against Hacker for closing down the
factory where he worked by duct taping himself up inside a car and taping a piece of
paper reading "SEE YA IN HELL, HACKER!" to the windshield. He tries to drive over
the edge of Niagara Falls but is stopped by the fence. He then climbs out of the car and
hops over to the fence to jump over, but the duct tape catches on and sticks to the fence,
keeping him at the top.

Meanwhile, at the bottom are US sheriff Bud B. Boomer (John Candy) and his deputy,
Honey (Rhea Perlman). They have been assigned to convince former employees of
Hacker who were laid off when the factory closed down out of jumping over the edge.
They will be awarded $25 for every success and, absurdly, $50 for every failure if they
manage to retrieve the body.

Needless to say, instead of talking them out of committing suicide, Boomer and Honey
try to get them to take the plunge until they spot Roy Boy at the top and recognize him as
their buddy. Honey stops him by shooting him in the shoulder. They pick up Roy Boy at
the top and take him to a presidential speech.

When they get there, instead of the president, there is someone auctioning off war
weaponry the U.S. no longer has any need for, and Boomer meets up with his friend
Kabral Jabar (Bill Nunn). Roy Boy buys a grenade launcher from the auction right before
Hacker shows up and takes control to make his speech declaring that he's just as upset
about closing the factory as the former employees are and that they shouldn't be so upset.

Soon after, the president (Alan Alda) arrives, flanked by his National Security Advisor
Stuart Smiley (Kevin Pollak) and General Dick Panzer (Rip Torn). He begins making his
speech that they should continue to scrap military armaments to fund further education.
He is interrupted when Roy Boy accidentally activates his launcher which is supposedly
aimed at the President, but Boomer manages to jump on the President in time.

The event increases the President's popularity, but he needs it to go higher, so he

summons Soviet President Vladimir Kruschkin (Richard Council) to the White House,
hoping to get Russia to go into a cold war with them, but Kruschkin declines because
Russia is still repairing itself. He tries to see himself out, with the U.S. President and his
henchmen following him and trying to change his mind. However, on his way back to the
helicopter, he gets tackled outside the White House by Smiley and Panzer.

The fight gets broken up, and Kruschkin bids adieu. Now out of rivals, the federal staff
begins brainstorming, but most of the people they root through are either dead or no
longer a threat, much to the President's disappointment.

Meanwhile, at a Canadian hockey game, everyone is singing the National Anthem,

except for Boomer and company, who are growing impatient. Unaware that he's hitting a
nerve, Boomer takes a sip of beer and says, "Man, this beer sucks!". The game stops
instantly, and a player climbs out of the rink and attacks Boomer, causing pandemonium
all throughout the stadium. Smiley watches footage of the scene and decides to follow up
on the President's suggestion, so he rings up the Canada desk at the CIA.

He goes to the Canada desk and meets up with his friend Gus (Brad Sullivan), who
presents his "research" about the negative effects of Canadian work and their impact on
the U.S., including a blackout of New York, their supposed plots to destroy capitalism,
and all of the free rights Canada offers its citizens. Smiley is convinced, and begins his
efforts to pass on the information to the President.

At first he, along with the other Cabinet members, are skeptical, disbelieving that the
American people would think of Canada as anything below a civilized, generous,
altruistic nation. Smiley reminds them that Canada is growing as a colonizing power and,
provided with the evidence, the Americans will buy in to the thought of a revolution
between Canada and the U.S.

And within one week, according to Smiley's request for permission to begin the
operation, he has infiltrated the American television network system with anti-Canadian
propaganda. Americans all over the nation are watching and, suffice to say, the plan is
working. However, Boomer is also watching and takes what he sees too literally, thinking
that Canada has already begun measures to sink the U.S. into rehab, and that he and his
friends have to be ready to stop them.

He gets his cohorts organized with machine guns, so everyone has to be inspected before
they can enter such places as a bowling alley or a bingo hall. They destroy signs with the
word "Canada" on them, post signs against Canada, and even arrest people for carrying
Molson.

Smiley tells Hacker about the progress of the operation, but Hacker is still unsatisfied. He
believes that it will take more than a little mass media manipulation to make the
Americans believe that they are truly under attack and that they should actually go to war,
even if it's just for excitement. He tells Smiley about an incident of when Lyndon
Johnson assigned to have a naval ship bombed and Vietnam framed for it.

Back at the White House, Smiley shows the President a video of maple syrup pouring
over a map of the U.S. as a metaphor for Canadian influence. Promptly, he receives a call
from Prime Minister Clark MacDonald (Wallace Shawn), but is quick to dismiss his
plight about the propaganda, denying that he had anything to do with influencing
anything. Smiley then follows up on Hacker's story about Vietnam and suggests they
propose to have a facility destroyed by Americans disguised as Canadians, and the
President agrees.

The proposed team goes to a Niagara hydro plant to carry out the destruction, but
although the plan doesn't fail, it doesn't go as expected when they are apprehended by
Boomer and his gang, who, obviously, mistake them for Canadians, and the incident
appears on the news.

One night, Smiley is playing chess with Hacker, while informing him that his latest
project, the "Hacker Hellstorm", has been installed at the top of the CN Tower. Smiley is
curious about it, so Hacker tells him that the Hellstorm can launch missiles from any silo
within the U.S., but he's kept the operating passcodes under wraps, so the Canadians have
no militant use for it. In fact, they believe they are instead meant to use it to forecast
weather patterns.

Meanwhile, Kabral has headed to Honey's house and discovers several pictures and
models in her house of the CN Tower, and her in the process of making another one. He
tells her that Boomer has a job for all of them: they are going to cross into Canada and
litter the place with trash and, by accident, Boomer's laundry. They are in the middle of
doing so when they are spotted by two Mounties on horseback, and they retreat,
accidentally leaving Honey behind them. Once they realize it, they start to panic, then
decide that she'll be all right, then start to worry again when they see fireworks exploding
behind them.

The President, who has been informed of the activity, makes a White House demand that
"Hostage Honey" be released, saying, "Surrender her pronto, or we'll level Toronto." He
also says that he's alerted his armed forces for "Operation Canadian Bacon". Boomer
watches it on TV and begins worrying for her, imagining her making friends with tough,
bad-ass Canadian men and defeating them in arm wrestles.

Then a video clip of Honey, currently detained at RCMP headquarters, getting steamed at
Boomer for having abandoned her comes on the news, and anchor Edwin S. Simon
(Stanley Anderson) reports that the Canadians are deciding to kill her. Boomer drops
everything and decides to head off with his pals to rescue her. After one more round of
beer, that is.

They cross back into Canada and enter a Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant. They enter the
main control room and find two elderly people who claim to be the only two in charge.
He ties them up and interrogates them to find the power switch for the RCMP
headquarters. One of the elders gestures to the master switch, which Boomer flicks,
cutting off all of the power in the entire country and triggering the generator lights.
Boomer and his cronies exit, leaving the two elders tied up in their rocking chairs.

At the Presidential office, Panzer shows the President what is happening in Canada. He
receives a call from Prime Minister Clark MacDonald and denies that they had anything
to do with it again, but Clark tells him that Boomer was the one who caused the
nationwide blackout. Panzer believes it's just a Canadian tactic meant to throw them off.

Boomer and his pals reach the RCMP headquarters. They enter and find a Mountie
addressing thank-you notes to criminals. They threaten him and interrogate him as to
Honey's whereabouts, but he claims not to know anything. He shows them the three
criminals he has detained in cells in the headquarters until Boomer describes her, and he
tells them that she was taken to "the capital" for a mental health exam. They believe he's
talking about Toronto, but he tells them that the capital is Ottawa, at which they all just
laugh, still set for Toronto. They propose to steal a truck from the driveway, and Roy Boy
takes a canister of spray paint, telling Boomer that "he has an idea".
In the meantime, the Cabinet staff tries to figure out a plan to stop Boomer from ruining,
or worse, elevating the war. Smiley suggests that they call in the Omega Force, to which
they object, as it is prohibited by presidential code. They learn that Boomer's actions and
Honey's capture have caused Americans to rebuke Canadians even more, burning Molson
trucks, Canadian flags and various Canadian merchandise, and forging anti-Canada
picket signs in an all-out revolt. This causes the President to consent to Smiley's
recommendation, and the Omega Force is engaged.

The Omega Force makes their way to the RCMP HQ, interrupting a game of Go Fish,
and ask the Mountie where Boomer is. He tells them that they are headed for Toronto,
and they leave post-haste. Boomer, on his way to Toronto, is stopped and pulled over by
a policeman, who shows him the spray-paint writing on the side of the truck. He makes
no remark about the writing being derogatory to Canadians, but he requires that it be
rewritten in French, and fines him.

At the capital (Ottawa), Honey wakes up in a hospital, surrounded by get-well notes and
giant stuffed animals. She is approached by two candy stripers who tell her that won't
need medical attention for over a decade. She beats them up and steals their clothes, finds
her gun and leaves the hospital, stealing a mink jacket on her way out.

While Boomer and company stop and make camp for the night, Hacker is on his
computer, using the Hacker Hellstorm program to activate the seven missile launch sites,
with the rockets aimed at the Soviet Union and set to launch within twelve hours. This
puts the Presidential office on red-alert, DEFCON-4 status. Smiley deduces that the
missiles were set by the Hellstorm, and the President summons Hacker.

Honey has left Ottawa and reached the CN Tower in Toronto. Boomer, Jabar and Roy
Boy have also made it to Toronto and are searching for Honey, while simultaneously
marvelling at how clean the city is. They also notice that there's nobody around. They
finally spot a girl who tells them that everyone is at the Tower because of some crazy
American woman with a big gun. Boomer realizes it's Honey and drives off on the
double.

Hacker has been called into the Presidential office and reminds Smiley that he has the
codes and that the Hacker Hellstorm is unusable by Canada. The President asks if Canada
has control over all of America's missiles. Hacker tells him that when the President
cancelled the Hellstorm project, he left Hacker in the dust, costing him half a billion
dollars, so he sold control of the missiles to the Canadian government, and it's now
installed at the top of the CN Tower.

Boomer has made it to the crowd at the Tower, and pushes his way to the Tower, enters
it, and begins climbing the stairs to the top, where Honey is right now.

Hacker continues to inform the President about the Hellstorm project, saying that the
missiles are controlled by Hellstorm 1. He also says he created Hellstorm 2 as a defense
against Hellstorm 1 should someone else acquire it. He offers to sell Hellstorm 2 for $1
trillion, but Panzer tries to negotiate with him, reminding him of his American patriotism.

There is now half an hour left until the missiles launch, and the alert has grown more
severe. At 7 minutes, the President is trying to figure out what is going on. As Hacker
gets up to leave, Smiley chases after him, having realized that Hacker was the one who
commanded the missile launch. He steals the passcodes from Hacker and punches him in
the face, knocking him over the railing, landing him on the President's desk and killing
him. Smiley holds up the passcodes triumphantly, but the President orders his arrest, in
spite of his protests.

The Omega Force has made it to the Tower and begins climbing the stairs after Boomer,
who is about halfway up the Tower now.

Panzer tells the President that he can wipe out Canada at the President's request, but the
President protests, until the government loses contact with the Omega Force. With only
two minutes left, the President calls up Clark MacDonald to negotiate with him.

Honey, at the top of the Tower, is readying her gun when she hears the Hacker Hellstorm
saying that the missiles will launch in 1:50. She finds the central computer within the
Tower and blasts open the door to it. She finds it and blasts away at the machinery, which
topples onto the computer and destroys it, aborting the missile launch sequence, much to
the delight and relief of the American government.

Boomer, who has finally reached the top, finds Honey, and they take the elevator down.
They ride off and take a boat back to the U.S.