The Cannonball Run - Plot

Plot

Race teams have gathered in Connecticut to start their cross-country race. One at a time, teams drive up to the starters' stand, punch a time card to indicate their time of departure, then take off.

Among the teams are:

• J.J. McClure (Reynolds) and Victor Prinzi (DeLuise) drive a souped-up, but otherwise authentic, Dodge Tradesman ambulance. (In reality, this was Hal Needham and Brock Yates's vehicle in the actual 1979 race.)
• Former open-wheel icon (and Scotch-swilling) Jamie Blake (Dean Martin), and his teammate Morris Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis, Jr.), dressed as Catholic priests drive a red Ferrari 308 GTS. (Based on an entry in the real-life 1972 race, in which three men disguised as priests ("The Flying Fathers") drive a Mercedes 280 SEL sedan, which they claim is "the Monsignor's car" to an ecumenical council of prelates in California.)
• Jill Rivers (Tara Buckman) and Marcie Thatcher (Adrienne Barbeau), two attractive women start the race in a black Lamborghini Countach.
• Jackie Chan and Michael Hui race as drivers of a high-tech, computer-laden Subaru GL Hatchback with a rocket-powered engine.
• A pair of good ol' boys, played by Terry Bradshaw and Mel Tillis, drive a street-legal replica of Donnie Allison's Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored NASCAR Winston Cup Chevrolet stock car owned by Hoss Ellington. (It starts off as '75-76 Laguna but after they paint it, it becomes a '76-77 Monte Carlo.)
• Roger Moore plays "heir to the Goldfarb Girdles fortune" Seymour Goldfarb, Jr., who perpetually identifies himself as actor Roger Moore and signs in to the race under that name; his character behaves similarly to James Bond and only once (by his mother) is referred to by his real name. He drives a silver Aston Martin DB5.
• Jamie Farr portrays an oil-rich Middle-Eastern Sheikh driving a white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

At the starting line, observing from the shadows, is Mr. Arthur J. Foyt (a play on the name of racer A. J. Foyt), a representative of the (Safety Enforcement Unit), who tries to stop the race because of its environmental effects and safety issues. In the car with him is Pamela Glover. Shortly after they leave the starting line, J.J. and Victor (driving their ambulance) come across Foyt and Glover, who have been involved in a minor fender-bender. Glover implores J.J. and Victor to help, but when they tell Foyt to enter the ambulance through the back door, they kidnap Glover and take off without Foyt. As the race progresses, various teams are shown either evading law enforcement, most of which deal with talking their way out of a possible ticket, or concocting crazy schemes to outmaneuver their opponents.

• Jill and Marcie use sex appeal as their weapon, unzipping their race suits to display copious amounts of cleavage during traffic stops. (However, this fails to work on a busty female traffic officer played in a cameo appearance by model / actress Valerie Perrine.)
• In New Jersey, the ambulance is pulled over by state troopers; Dr. Van Helsing drugs Glover, and J.J. and Victor are able to convince the troopers that they're rushing "the Senator's wife" to UCLA for medical treatment (offering the theory that her condition prevents them from flying, or from even driving through Denver).
• The Subaru team is able to turn off their car's headlights and use infrared sensors for racing at night.
• Seymour Goldfarb is frequently shown evading police by using various James Bond-type gadgets (such as oil slicks, smoke screens, switchable number plates) installed in his Aston Martin DB5.
• Mr. Compton (Bert Convy) and "Super Chief" Finch (Warren Berlinger) disguise themselves as a newlywed couple on a motorbike, but Finch's extra weight forces the two to ride cross-country in a permanent wheelie.

The primary rivalry in the film is between the teams in the ambulance and the Ferrari. In Ohio, Fenderbaum and Blake are able to convince Victor to pull over their ambulance in order to bless the patient on board. While Blake carries out the blessing, Fenderbaum punctures one of the ambulance's rear tires with a knife. Later in Missouri, J.J. gets his revenge by convincing a nearby police officer that the two men dressed as priests are actually sex perverts who are responsible for the flashing victim in the ambulance. Meanwhile Foyt, with the help of his government agency, is able to set up a roadblock and catch several teams (though none of the "major" teams featured in the movie). Similar scenes continue to build up to the conclusion of the movie. The remaining teams find themselves stopped on a desert highway, next to a roadside market, waiting for construction work to clear the road ahead of them. While waiting, a biker gang (led by Peter Fonda) shows up and begins harassing Compton and Finch. The harassing quickly gets out of hand and a free-for-all fistfight ensues with everyone getting in on the action. Naturally the Subaru team (Jackie Chan puts his martial arts skills to work) and the remaining teams join in the massive fight. In the middle of the fight, the construction crew announces that the road is open, and the teams sprint back to their cars for the final race to the finish.

The ambulance falls behind the rest of the pack, until Victor changes into his super-hero alter-ego Captain Chaos. The vehicles all arrive at the finish line's parking lot at the same time, and it's a foot race to the finish line (as the clocking time has been reset due to the restart of the race at the road works). In the sprint, J.J. hands his team's time card to Victor, then ambushes the remaining racers, leaving only Victor and one of the Lamborghini women. Just when it appears Victor will reach the time clock first, a scream rings out and a spectator shouts that her "baby" has fallen into the water. Victor, still in his Captain Chaos persona, quits the race and rushes to save the baby (later revealed to be her dog), allowing Marcie to clock in first and win the race. After Marcie won, J.J., mad at Victor for saving a dog instead of winning, says that Victor needs to stop being Captain Chaos, then Victor replies that he doesn't care and he wanted to be Captain USA. Foyt then appeared and asked everyone how happy for ruining the American highway, then Seymour offered him a cigar and told him to use the lighter in his car (which has an ejection seat when pushed) and nothing happened when he told everybody to see what happens next, Seymour then asked how he lit his cigar and pressed the button and his plan backfired sending him flying to the water.