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The Cannonball Run
Plot Synopsis by Rachel Koetje

Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham team up for the fourth time, this time bringing an all-star cast of characters on a cross-country car race in the vein of 1976 release The Gumball Rally. The police are the least of the Cannonballers' worries as they push the pedal to the metal in a race from Connecticut to California. Reynolds stars as J.J. McClure, a speed-loving racer disguised as an ambulance driver to outsmart the police. He is paired up with Dom Deluise, who plays his dimwitted sidekick Victor and who, on occasion, dons the suit of Captain Chaos. Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. join the lineup as Ferrari-driving priests, while martial arts expert Jackie Chan takes on one of his first U.S. film roles driving a souped-up Subaru. Among the many other stars are Roger Moore doing a parody of his 007 character, complete with secret devices and weapons, Farrah Fawcett as Pamela, a woman McClure and Chaos pick up, and Jamie Farr as a deranged Islamic sheik. Jack Elam joins the cast as a crazed proctologist along for McClure's ambulance ride, and Needham makes a cameo as a patient.

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Similar Works
Bite the Bullet  (1975, Richard Brooks)
Cannonball  (1976, Paul Bartel)
The Gumball Rally  (1976, Chuck Bail)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World  (1963, Stanley Kramer)
Smokey and the Bandit  (1977, Hal Needham)
Smokey and the Bandit II  (1980, Hal Needham)
Smokey and the Bandit 3  (1983, Dick Lowry)
Speed Zone  (1988, Jim Drake)
Stroker Ace  (1983, Hal Needham)
Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies  (1969, Ken Annakin)
Other Related Works
 Is followed by:    Cannonball Run II  (1984, Hal Needham)
 Is featured in:    Jackie Chan: Fast, Funny and Furious 
 Is related to:    Around the World in 80 Days  (1956, Michael Anderson)
   Genevieve  (1953, Henry Cornelius)
   Grand Prix  (1966, John Frankenheimer)
   Hooper  (1978, Hal Needham)
   Vanishing Point  (1971, Richard Sarafian)
   Two-Lane Blacktop  (1971, Monte Hellman)
   Gumball 3000: 6 Days in May  (2005, Ruben Fleischer)
   B.L. Stryker: The King of Jazz  (1989, Hal Needham)
   Hostage Hotel  (1999, Hal Needham)
   Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines  (1965, Ken Annakin)