Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam McKay
Produced by	Jimmy Miller Judd Apatow
Written by	Will Ferrell Adam McKay
Starring	Will Ferrell Gary Cole John C. Reilly Michael Clarke Duncan Jane Lynch Amy Adams Molly Shannon Andy Richter Sacha Baron Cohen
Music by	Alex Wurman
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Editing by	Brent White
Studio	Apatow Productions Relativity Media Mosaic Media Group GH One High, Wide, and Handsome Inc. (uncredited) Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (uncredited)
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	August 4, 2006 (2006-08-04)
Running time	108 minutes 121 minutes (Unrated cut)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$72.5 million
Box office	$162,966,177

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 comedy film, directed by Adam McKay and starring Will Ferrell. The film also features John C. Reilly, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Amy Adams, Gary Cole, Jane Lynch, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Various Saturday Night Live alumni also make appearances. Real life NASCAR drivers like Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. also make cameos as themselves, as do the broadcasting teams of NASCAR on Fox (Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip) and NASCAR on NBC (Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. and Benny Parsons).

Racetrack scenes at Texas Motor Speedway were shot at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, using a Porsche Cayenne outfitted with camera mounts on all four corners of the car.

  Plot

Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) was born to go fast, and is raised solely by his strict Christian mother, Lucy (Jane Lynch), while his drunk and alcoholic father, Reese (Gary Cole), is absent. When Ricky was only ten years old, Reese shows up during Career Day at Ricky's school, but after giving his vulgar speech, Reese was thrown out of the school. Before leaving, Reese told Ricky: "If you ain't first, you're last!", a quote that Ricky commits to memory. Fifteen years later, while working as the pit crew of Dennit Racing driver Terry Cheveaux (Adam McKay) at the beginning of the film, Ricky replaces him and ends up finishing in third place, despite starting mid-race in last place. Ricky quickly soars to the top of NASCAR, achieving fame and fortune at Dennit Racing and meeting his future wife, Carly (Leslie Bibb). Ricky eventually manages to allow Dennit to field an additional car to the field and arranges to have his best friend, Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly) on his team. While he and Cal are on top of the racing world, Ricky is challenged by his rival and French Formula One driver, Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen), who outperforms Ricky on the track and becomes Dennit Racing's next top driver. Ricky, desperate to regain his dominance, pushes himself too hard during the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and ends up going airborne and his car lands upside down. While paramedics attempt to take Ricky to the hospital, Ricky ends up running around on the track in his helmet and underwear thinking that he is on fire. While recovering from his injury, Ricky persists in the belief that he is paralyzed, which he certainly is not, a fact that Ricky only realizes after accidentally sticking a knife in his leg while trying to prove that he is paralyzed. Ricky's tests at Rockingham Speedway shows that he has lost his touch and fails to regain a spot on his team. Carly, yearning to be married to another top NASCAR driver, plans to marry Cal before Ricky returns to his old home that evening. Cal invites Ricky to his wedding to Carly, but his invitation is immediately refused by Ricky, who accuses Cal for damaging his life.

Ricky takes his two sons, Walker and Texas Ranger (Houston Tumlin and Grayson Russell) to his old home and takes his job as a pizza delivery boy, but is reduced to use a bicycle and riding the bus after accidentally losing his license for crashing his pick-up truck into a customer's shopping cart and into the Sheriff writing Ricky a ticket for the previous incident. With Ricky's life at its lowest point, Reese suddenly re-enters Ricky's life and attempts to teach Ricky to drive by harnessing the fear he has experienced throughout his life. This includes using unusual methods to get Ricky back to his normal speed, such as placing a live Cougar named Karen in the back seat of his car. With his retraining and the guidance of Reese, Ricky finally regains his confidence, but is taken a back when Reese walks out on him once again. Reese leaves Ricky with the knowledge that the mantra around which Ricky lived his entire life: "If you ain't first, you're last!", was in fact meaningless. When Ricky runs into his assistant, Susan (Amy Adams) at a bar, she convinces Ricky to return to NASCAR not because of his desire to live up to the expectations of those around him, but because of his nature to drive fast. While Ricky heeding Susan's advice to race at the Talladega 500, he and Susan fall in love with each other.

Ricky eventually manages to make small amends with Cal and Girard before the start of the race. Because his pit crew has rebuilt his engine from spare parts donated by other independent drivers, Ricky is forced to start the race from the back of the starting grid. In no time, Ricky manages to pass all the drivers except Girard. Heading towards the final laps, Cal receives orders from Dennit to get Ricky out of the race, but Cal refuses and instead pulls ahead of Ricky, allowing Ricky to slingshot Cal and ends up in the lead along with Girard. On lap 182, the replacement driver of Ricky's original car runs into Cal from Dennit's orders, causing a massive wreck that collects every driver except Ricky and Girard. On the final lap of the race, Ricky and Girard unexpectedly make contact with each other and ends up sommersalt down the front straightaway heading towards the finish line. Determined not to give up, Ricky and Girard sprint their foot to the finish line. Although Ricky wins the foot race, he and Girard are disqualified for getting out of their cars, and Cal wins the race by default, having been in third place by the time of the wrecks. Ricky and Cal finally reconcile their friendship and family. Ricky later meet together with Reese, Lucy, Susan, and Walker and Texas Ranger in the parking lot to reunite for a dinner party during which Ricky and his immediate family plan to get thrown out of Applebee's at the end of the film, referring to an earlier scene where Reese and Ricky leave each other again.

  Cast

• Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby, a NASCAR driver who only believes in winning after childhood advice given to him by Reese. Ricky drives the #26 Wonder Bread car during his soar to the top of NASCAR and the #62 "ME" car during the race at the AMP Energy 500. The number of Ricky's Wonder Bread car, #26, was also the number used by Jamie McMurray (who cameos as himself in the movie) during his time at Roush Racing from 2006 to 2009.
• John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton, Jr., driver of the #47 Old Spice car, Ricky's best friend and teammate until events following Ricky's career downturn that ended their friendship. By coincidence, Reilly played a car chief in Days of Thunder, another NASCAR film, while Cal's sponsor, Old Spice, sponsored Tony Stewart from 2001 to 2010. Cal's car number, #47, is currently used in Sprint Cup racing by Bobby Labonte. Reilly would later attempt to reunite with Ferrell to co-write in another comedy film entitled Step Brothers.
• Sacha Baron Cohen as Jean Girard, the homosexual French Formula One racer and Ricky's rival. Girard is described as "talented, eccentric, dominating" on the Formula One circuit in a SPEED broadcast segment. Girard spends time before each race with his world-class horses, who are also gay. In the film, Girard drives the #55 Perrier car, which is the car number currently used by Michael Waltrip and Mark Martin. Girard's appearance bears a loose resemblance to that of former French Formula One World Champion Alain Prost, circa the early 1990s.
• Michael Clarke Duncan as Lucius Washington, Ricky's pit crew chief and close friend.
• Leslie Bibb as Carly Bobby, Ricky's wife. Carly plans to marry Cal after Ricky fails to regain a spot on his team at Rockingham Speedway.
• Gary Cole as Reese Bobby, Ricky's drunk and alcoholic father. Reese attempts to teach Ricky to drive with the fear by using unusual methods to get Ricky back to his normal speed.
• Jane Lynch as Lucy Bobby, Ricky's strict Christian mother.
• Amy Adams as Susan, Ricky's assistant. Susan falls in love with Ricky and helps him to get back to NASCAR.
• Houston Tumlin and Greyson Russell as Walker and Texas Ranger Bobby, Ricky's two sons.
• Adam McKay as Terry Cheveaux, a member of Ricky's pit crew and driver for which Ricky replaces him at the beginning of the film.
• David Koechner, Ian Roberts, and Jack McBrayer as Hershell, Kyle, and Glenn, Ricky's three pit crew members.
• Andy Richter as Gregory, Girard's husband and a world-class trainer of German Shepherds
• Pat Hingle as Larry Dennit, Sr., original owner of Dennit Racing and Ricky's team. His son, Larry, Jr. takes over the team halfway through Ricky's career.
• Greg Germann as Larry Dennit, Jr., the new owner of Dennit Racing who hires Girard to make up Ricky's costly on-track antics during the race at the AMP Energy 500.
• Ted Manson as Chip, Ricky's long-suffering father-in-law
• Molly Shannon as Mrs. Dennit, Larry, Jr.'s alcoholic wife
• Rob Riggle as Jack Telmont, Speed Channel commentator

Cameos as themselves

• Greg Biffle in a Special Feature but is not credited
• Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in a crowd asking for Ricky's autograph. He tells Ricky not to tell the other drivers his opinion of Ricky. He also appears in a deleted scene at the garage in Talladega.
• Jamie McMurray, who loses to Ricky at Texas Motor Speedway when Ricky eventually wins by driving in reverse, after which Ricky gives McMurray the finger, commenting that he got it at Target, which was a sponsor of the team McMurray had raced for at the time, now Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.
• Mike Joy, NASCAR on Fox commentator
  • Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, NASCAR on Fox color analysts. The FOX team appears during Ricky's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Waltrip comments on the likeliness that Ricky will be black-flagged for driving around the track with a giant view-obstructing Fig Newtons sticker on his windshield.
  • Dick Berggren, NASCAR on Fox field reporter, seen interviewing Ricky in pit lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Bob Jenkins, SPEED News anchorman
• Bill Weber, NASCAR on NBC commentator
  • Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach, Jr., NASCAR on NBC color analysts. They appear with Weber at the Talladega race. Parsons is heard commenting about a reporter who first claims to have spotted Kenny Rogers in the stands (which none of them believe), and Parsons believes the reporter has had a stroke when he mistakes a black man for Larry Bird
• Elvis Costello and Mos Def are guests at Girard's party. Girard introduces Mos Def to Ricky as his brother-in-law
• Rick Benjamin, then-Speed News correspondent

  Release

  Critical reception

Reviews for the film were positive. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 72% of critics gave the film a positive review, with the consensus being "Though it occasionally stalls, Talladega Nights' mix of satire, clever gags, and excellent ensemble performances put it squarely in the winner's circle."^[1] It has a 69 rating at Metacritic.^[2]

  Box office

  Ferrell at the premiere of Talladega Nights, September 12, 2006.

The film grossed $47,042,215 in its first week, becoming the #1 film at the box office. It is the second-biggest opening weekend ever for an original comedy, after Bruce Almighty, and the biggest opening for a film starring Will Ferrell. As of April 26, 2007, the film has grossed an estimated $162,966,177 worldwide.^[3]

  Home media

Blu-ray was released on November 17, 2006 and standard DVD and PSP UMD on December 12, 2006. The menu gives the viewer the choice of Super Speedway (with footage of the film used as intros when special features, scene selection, etc. is chosen) or Short Track (without video intros.) The film is presented on standard DVD in four different configurations, giving consumers the choice between either theatrical or unrated versions and anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1 aspect ratio) or pan & scan presentations. As for the audio, each standard DVD carries Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French with optional English and French subtitles.

Extras for the standard DVD editions include a retrospective '25 Years Later' commentary track featuring most of the main cast, deleted and extended scenes along with bonus race footage, featurettes, interviews with Ricky, Cal, and Carley, a gag reel, a 'line-o-rama' feature with alternate dialogue from the film, and DVD-ROM content. The unrated disc contains additional deleted scenes ("Cal Calls Ricky" and "What'd You Do Today?"), an interview with Jean and Gregory, and commercials. The "Unrated & Uncut" DVD omits two scenes and one part that shows that are present in the theatrical version; the scene where young Ricky steals his mother's station wagon, and the scene which shows what happened to Ricky's pit crew. The scenes are not present in the deleted scenes either.

The Blu-ray release is available on a dual-layer disc with the majority of features presented in high definition including: nine deleted/extended scenes, three interviews, gag reel, line-o-rama, bonus race footage, Ricky & Cal's Commercials (However, Cal is not seen in any of the commercials), Ricky & Cal's PSAs, Walker & Texas Ranger, Will Ferrell Returns to Talladega and a theatrical trailer. There are also three extras not presented in high definition: Daytona 500 Spot, NASCAR Chase for the Nextel Cup Spot, and Sirius and NASCAR Spot. In terms of technical aspects, this edition carries the unrated cut and presents the film with a widescreen transfer at its 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio and includes Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and French and an uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio track in English, along with English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.

The first 1 million 60GB and 20GB PlayStation 3 units included a free Blu-ray copy of the film.

  Reaction

In homage to Talladega Nights, on the final lap of the 2009 Aaron's 499 (one of two Sprint Cup races at Talladega Superspeedway), Carl Edwards climbed out of his wrecked automobile after Brad Keselowski made contact with his car on the final lap. Edwards turned backwards, went airborne, bounced off and destroyed Ryan Newman's hood, then flew into the catch fence, before skidding to a stop in the middle of the track as Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. crossed the finish line. Edwards then climbed out of his car, and jogged to the finish line to a standing ovation from the crowd. NASCAR on Fox play-by-play commentator Mike Joy commented how it was "shades of Ricky Bobby."^[4] Edwards was later asked about this on Larry King Live; he responded, "I'm kind of a Will Ferrell fan. He did that at the end of Talladega Nights."^[5]

In 2011, the video game Saints Row the Third spoofed the scene where Ricky has to drive with a live cougar in the passenger seat so he can learn to ride with fear. In Saints Row, the main character (referred to as "The Boss") is forced to drive a jeep with a tiger in it so he could learn to overcome his fear.

In 2012, Kurt Busch ran his #51 car with the "ME" paint scheme used by Ricky Bobby at the end of Talladega Nights during the 2012 Aaron's 499 at Talladega, right down to the cougar painted on the hood and the rear bumper tag "I Wanna Go Fast". Busch had spent the majority of the season with little or no sponsorship after leaving racing powerhouse Penske Racing and joining James Finch's underfunded Phoenix Racing. Busch's girlfriend Patricia Driscoll spent months getting permission from Sony and Will Ferrell as well as other trademark and license holders. Busch's real-life fall from grace during the 2011-12 Sprint Cup off-season after being fired from Penske has been compared to Ricky Bobby's.^[6]

  References

  External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

• Official website
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at the Internet Movie Database
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at AllRovi
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at Box Office Mojo
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby at Rotten Tomatoes
• RICKY BOBBY Facebook