Movies about Vomiting in a toilet
Y ou might not want to read this over breakfast. Not long ago, in the course of a single day, I watched four films. The first three featured projectile vomiting, while the fourth showed a woman throwing up into a toilet bowl, after which she had to fish her mobile phone out of the puke. And, as an afterthought, her chewing gum as well.
Vomit has become such a recurring motif in today’s cinema that it has almost ceased to make an impact, unless it comes with a gimmick, like the turbo-powered, Pepto-Bismol-coloured puke in Gentlemen Broncos, or someone being sick on a squirrel in Hot Tub Time Machine.
At what point did vomiting cease to be a movie taboo? The first instance of explicit vomiting I could think of was in The Wages of Fear (1953), though even there it was more a case of aural than visual effects when Charles Vanel overdoes the liquor at the start of his voyage into hell.
John Waters called Ingmar Bergman «the king of puke», and it’s true Ingrid Thulin retches repeatedly and painfully in The Silence. Then again, Bergman never actually shows us what she’s regurgitating, though I’m sure that if he had, Sven Nykvist would have lit it beautifully. Waters, clearly an authority in this area, wrote in Film Comment that Mai Zetterling’s Night Games was «one of the first Swedish films to feature incredibly realistic vomiting», though I have yet to track down a DVD to see it for myself.
In the 1970s the barf gates opened, with the pope of trash himself in the vanguard with Pink Flamingos. It was «the cheapest special effect ever», he told David Hochman of Entertainment Weekly. «A can of creamed corn, and presto!» In the same year, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie introduced the world to an Australian variation, the Technicolor yawn. Dustin Hoffman puked in Papillon. There’s chucking up in La Grande Bouffe, though it got a bit lost amid all the farting and incontinence. And The Exorcist put an entire generation of filmgoers off pea soup for life.
After that, it was gastrointestinal regurgitation a-go-go. The six main causes of vomiting are pregnancy, inebriation, illness (including poison-induced), gluttony, shock and demonic possession, with bulimia a recent addition. The gross-out bar was set high in the 1980s by Mr Creosote’s one wafer-thin mint too many in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, challenged only by Lardass’s blueberry pies in Stand By Me, until Team America: World Police gave us the drunken puppet puke-a-thon.
Novelty upchucking includes cherry stones (The Witches of Eastwick), doughnuts (The Fly), parasitic dairy dessert (The Stuff), gourmet nosh for aliens (Bad Taste) and entrails (City of the Living Dead). Honourable mentions are due to invisible Chevy Chase regurgitating a Chinese takeaway in Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Bill Paxton spewing in zero gravity in Apollo 13 and Hugh Grant’s vomit-encrusted jacket in An Awfully Big Adventure.
In 1998 Waters remarked to Hochman: «Vomit hasn’t been done to death in the movies.» But his observation no longer applies; nowadays it’s rare to encounter a film in which someone doesn’t blow chunks. And they nearly always make it look unfeasibly quick and easy. Thulin in The Silence conveyed all the debilitating awfulness of vomiting. Admittedly, that was Bergman, who specialised in the debilitating awfulness of life in general, but more common today is the cheerful chunder of comedies such as Date Night, where Steve Carell pauses to vomit almost casually before picking up where he left off. I’m afraid the next stage is inevitable: it’s only a matter of time before someone throws up in 3D.
Bridesmaids, The Sandlot, Monty Python: Hollywood Movies’ 10 Funniest Puking Scenes
One of the most hilarious scenes in Bridesmaids, the all-female gross-out comedy in theaters Friday, concerns a group of couture-clad women vomiting all over one another in the bathroom of a high-end bridal shop. From carnival nausea in The Sandlot to The Exorcist’s pea soup expulsion, Marlow Stern brings you the craziest vomiting scenes in movies.
Marlow Stern
Updated Apr. 24, 2017 3:34PM EDT / Published May 12, 2011 9:50PM EDT
Družičky: With a Little Help From My Friends
It started out innocently enough: facing mounting pressure from the patrician Helen (Rose Byrne), maid of honor Annie ( Kristen Wiig) attempts to impress her soon-to-be-married best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), by taking the entire bridal party out to lunch at a sketchy churrascaria on the outskirts of their native Chicago. If the stray dog wandering through the garage or its proximity to a check-cashing outpost weren’t big enough warning signs, as the ladies try on their bridesmaid gowns hours later at a high-end bridal boutique, the hefty Megan ( Mike & Molly’s Melissa McCarthy) unleashes a ghastly noise from an unidentified orifice. The ladies all begin sweating and turning blue, and, realizing they’re experiencing food poisoning, Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey) bursts into the fancy bathroom and vomits all over the toilet. She’s soon followed by Megan, who sits on the sink and expels the food through her other end, and Becca ( Kancelář je Ellie Kemper), who pukes all over Rita’s head. Lillian, meanwhile, trapped in a designer wedding gown, stumbles into the oncoming traffic outside, squats down in the middle of the road, and, well….
Sandlot: Tequila! It’s the summer of 1962, and the diminutive Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) and his family have just moved out to a suburb of Los Angeles. He initially struggles to make friends, but soon falls in with a group of local boys—including de facto leader Benny Rodriguez—who play pick-up baseball games on the neighborhood diamond that they’ve dubbed “the sandlot.” After narrowly edging out a win against their neighborhood rivals, the gang of kids decides to dip tobacco for the first time, and then go on The Trabant (now called ‘The Wipeout’)—a carnival ride that spins you around in circles and dips you up and down. The boys start to feel queasy, and before long, they’re unloading tobacco-colored puke all over the other passengers, onlookers, and themselves, set to The Champs song “Tequila.” Kids, don’t dip and ride.
Hodně špatné: Boys’ Night Out In this coming-of-age teen comedy from the screenwriting team of Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are two high school seniors who, two weeks before graduation, are desperate to lose their virginity. Evan has his eyes on longtime crush Becca (Martha MacIsaac), and when Becca asks Evan how his weekend was, the dorky virgin weaves a tall tale about crashing adult parties and crushing beers, when in reality, Evan, Seth, and their friend-by-default, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), spent their time watching porn, getting tipsy and embarrassing themselves at a family cookout, and then, getting kicked out of a strip club, at which point Evan, the lightweight that he is, unleashes a deluge of puke all over Seth’s chest.
Monty Pythonův smysl života: Making Room for Dinner Na rozdíl od Svatý grál a Život Briana, this 1983 film from the Monty Python troupe features a series of comedy sketches examining the various stages of life. One of the most infamous sketches occurs in «Part VI: The Autumn Years,» where Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones), an impossibly fat man dressed in a tuxedo, hobbles into a ritzy restaurant. When the fish in the tank see him, one of them utters, “Oh s—, it’s Mr. Creosote!” and they swim away for cover. When the French waiter asks how he’s doing, Mr. Creosote replies, “Better get a bucket, I’m going to throw up,” and proceeds to fill the bucket with a stream of puke, vomit on the floor, the menu, the cleaning woman, the waiter, and himself. After he clears some space, Mr. Creosote devours an epic meal, and despite his protests that he’s full, is convinced to eat “a wafer-thin mint” by the waiter. He does, and suddenly explodes, causing all of the remaining people dining to join in on the regurgitation.
Tým Amerika: Světová policie: The Most Epic Barf Ever Before they conquered Broadway with Kniha Mormon, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone unveiled their 2004 action-comedy Tým Amerika: Světová policie. Made entirely with marionettes, the movie was a cheeky satire of Hollywood action films and U.S. politics, concerning a fictional team of political paramilitary police who attempt to save the world from an evil plot by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. After ‘”Team America” is blamed by the Film Actors Guild for terrorists blowing up the Panama Canal, their leader-aspiring actor, Gary, becomes a depressed alcoholic. When he’s reminded of his worldly responsibility by a homeless drifter, Gary vomits all over the bar top. He gets kicked out of the bar, stumbles outside and violently pukes over and over again—a good 56 seconds total—to increasingly swelling music, before passing out in a pool (more like a lake) of his own vomit.
Stand By Me: Revenge Is a Dish Best Served… This 1986 bildungsroman from the Rob Reiner fantasy factory follows four young outcasts—Gordie (Wil Wheaton), a storyteller neglected by his dad; Chris (the late River Phoenix), who descends from a line of crooks; Teddy (Corey Feldman), who is regularly abused by his father; and Vern (Jerry O’Connell), who gets picked on for being the pudgy one. The rascals embark on an adventure in search of a dead boy’s body they believe to be in the woods. One evening, Gordie tells the campfire tale of “Lardass” Hogan. Bullied to pieces by his entire community—close relatives included—Hogan, seeking sweet revenge, enters a pie-eating contest. Just prior to the contest, he chugs an entire bottle of castor oil and tops it off with an egg. The contest begins, and, after Hoovering several pies, Hogan stands up, and proceeds to hurl purple pie remnants all over his competition setting off a chain of regurgitation—or, as Gordie calls, it, “a complete, and total, barf-o-rama.” Exorcista: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Demon Scorned Arguably the most famous regurgitation scene of all-time, spawning a hilarious plethora of puke in Scary Movie 2, this 1973 horror classic centers on Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), a 12-year-old child who has been possessed by the devil. The faithless Father Karras (Jason Miller) is sent in to try and prove that Regan is not possessed by Satan, and is taunted by Regan, who, in her demonic voice says, “Your mother’s in here with us, Karras. Would you like to leave a message?” Karras smirks, and replied, “If that’s true, then you must know my mother’s maiden name. What is it?” Regan replies by dousing Karras in a stream of green vomit. Apparently, the devil doesn’t take kindly to sarcasm.
Miluju tě, člověče: Drinking Games, Not for the Faint of Stomach Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd), the effete, air bass-slappin’, Rush-loving groom-to-be, has no male friends. On the eve of his wedding, he goes on a frantic search for a best man and, at his wife’s behest, makes a trip to her girlfriend Denise’s place to engage in a “guy’s night in” with her manly husband, Barry (Jon Favreau), and his fratty pals. Peter soon finds himself wrapped up in a game of “boat racing,” where two teams of three line up across from one another and chug a stein of beer against the opponent facing them, one after the other. After Peter summons the manliness to beat Barry, sealing the victory for his squad, he taunts him, and then proceeds to projectile vomit all over his host. The film’s director, John Hamburg, called it “the greatest vomit scene in the history of cinema,” and you can read about how they pulled off the stunt here.
Detroit Rock City: Sealed With a KISS This underrated slice of 1970s nostalgia centers on four high schoolers in a KISS cover band who try to score tickets to see their idols in Detroit. Hawk (Edward Furlong), the de facto leader of the gang, is convinced by a scalper to enter into a strip contest to help raise money for tickets. Drunk and stoned out of his mind, he stumbles toward the strip club stage to the tune of “Boogie Shoes” by KC and the Sunshine Band, but, as soon as he gets on stage, senses the vomit coming. He grabs an empty pitcher off a cocktail waitress’ tray, and proceeds to fill it to the brim, as the presenter, played by Ron Jeremy, looks on in stunned silence. However, Hawk proceeds to strip down, to KISS’ “Strutter 78,” and soon wins over the crowd with his awkward, pelvic-thrusting routine.
Fly: Acid Indigestion David Cronenberg’s 1986 science fiction-horror film, a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, concerns scientist Seth Brundle ( Jeff Goldblum) who accidentally merges himself with a housefly during a drunken teleportation experiment gone awry. At first, he appears normal—his sexual prowess even improves—but his girlfriend, Veronica (Geena Davis), starts to suspect something is up when he experiences violent mood swings. Brundle’s body starts deteroriating, and he soon becomes a hybrid creature that he refers to as a “Brundlefly,” who can cling to walls, and must vomit digestive enzymes over his food in order to dissolve it. After Brundle kidnaps a pregnant Veronica, her editor and former lover, Stathis Borans (John Getz), arms himself with a shotgun and goes to rescue her. However, the now almost fully transformed Brundlefly has other ideas, crippling him by vomiting his corrosive enzymes all over Borans’ hand and foot.
Plus: Check out more of the latest entertainment, fashion, and culture coverage on Sexy Beast—photos, videos, features, and Tweets. Marlow Stern works for The Daily Beast and has a master’s from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has served in the editorial department of Blender magazine, as an editor at Amplifier magazine, and, since 2007, editor of Manhattan Movie Magazine.
‘Triangle Of Sadness’ team break down infamous vomit scene: “It was like a ballet”
Ruben Ostlund is no stranger to talking-point moments in his films — but he has raised the bar with the vomiting sequence in Trojúhelník Smutku. Screen talks to the key team members who aimed for the best puke scene in film history.
Source: Fredrik Wenzel / EMPIRE-MAG / Plattform Produktion
‘Triangle Of Sadness’
The shit is flying — and so is the vomit. It is the sequence in Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner Trojúhelník Smutku that enthralled audiences in Cannes and has become arguably the most talked about scene of any movie this year. The film has been one of the few festival titles to catch fire at the box office, earning more than $3.5m in the US for distributor Neon and $11.8m worldwide at press time.
Wealthy passengers aboard a luxury cruise ship are beginning their special dinner with the ship’s curmudgeonly, boozy captain (Woody Harrelson). A storm brews. The ship is listing. Passengers’ faces turn paler. And then the carnival of vomiting begins. All that black truffle, caviar, grilled squid, oysters and champagne is regurgitated in spectacular fashion.
Those involved in the film’s production talk with justifiable pride about a sequence that combines slapstick and pathos, grotesquery and magical choreography.
“I knew this could possibly be ο scene of the movie,” says producer Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform Produktion, recalling his reaction on first reading the screenplay. He has been working with Ostlund for almost 20 years — from early shorts and features Nedobrovolné a Hrát to breakout hits Vyšší moc a Náměstí — and knew his ambitious director collaborator would be aiming for “the best puke scene in film history… it was all about seeing how far can you push something”.
It takes a lot of planning to organise screen vomiting on this scale. The filmmakers met early on with the SFX team. “We made a dummy test early on with a smaller set just to see what it looked like,” the producer recalls.
Make-up and hair designer Stefanie Gredig divided the captain’s dinner scene into three sections: before, during and after the meal. The guests start out clean, tidy and happy. Then the storm begins. “They’re slowly getting sick. The tan fades from their face. They’re getting pale and greenish around the nose; really rough, getting red eyes and sweating,” explains Gredig. “And then they start to throw up.”
Prvek překvapení
Source: Tobias Henriksson
‘Triangle of Sadness’, Henrik Dorsin, Mia Benson, Ruben Östlund, Woody Harrelson
Actors were equipped with tiny nozzles to put in their mouths, which were attached to tubes operated by the effects team who could pump fluid whenever needed. This meant the performers had no control over precisely when they would vomit. “It just sprays out — you cannot hold it in,” explains Hemmendorff. They could feel the vomit spewing up just “a split second” before it came out — and audiences could see the panic in their eyes.
Gredig and her team also gave actors who were not vomiting so heavily their own “vomit to go” bottles that allowed them to swig and spew on their own.
The idea was to capture the carnage as much as possible in-camera — and not rely on VFX in post-production. It took around a fortnight to complete the sequence, shot on a set at Trollhattan film studios — about 70km north of Gothenburg — where the interior of the cruise ship had been constructed.
“We built two gimbals,” explains special-effects supervisor Johan Harnesk. “One set was 200 square metres, another set was 100 square metres.” The sets may have been complex but the biggest challenge was “ensuring the actors would feel safe and comfortable with this stuff in their mouths”.
“It’s a strange feeling. You’re on a set with a lot of people you don’t know and someone is putting stuff in your mouth and pushing a button and out comes litres of fluid,” the SFX specialist says, summing up what the actors were facing.
At least the vomit they were spewing was made out of a “fruit soup” concoction that did not taste too bad. “They made a mix of different fruit soups and made them a bit different depending on the character,” says production designer Josefin Asberg. “Some had a little bit of pink vomit of red wine, some others had pieces of octopus. We made tests of the texture and colour both of the vomits and also the shit exploding out of the toilets.”
Fortuitously, the Switzerland-born German actress Sunnyi Melles, who plays the wife of the Russian oligarch and throws up more than anybody else, already had experience of puking as a performer. She helpfully guides Screen International to a clip on her website of her retching violently during a German stage production of Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage. “I’ve played this piece 99 times,” she volunteers.
In Trojúhelník Smutku, Melles is also shown falling off the toilet bowl and sliding around on the bathroom floor covered with water and bodily fluids. “I was bumping sometimes on my head because the toilet was [made] from porcelain. I was a little bit dizzy but I was so satisfied to give him [Ostlund] this scene,” Melles notes of her performance.
“I’ve never met an actor prepared to go as far as Sunnyi,” marvels cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel. “It was kind of beautiful to watch, like a ballet. It has a baroque feeling with the colours. Originally, I think she was supposed to sit on the toilet and feel it [the vomit] coming, not knowing where to put it. Then she puked on the floor. She started to float around in that. I think it was one of those things that happened. It wasn’t really planned but we just realised it was quite beautiful when she was just sliding on the floor like that.”
Klíčový moment
As soon as he read the screenplay, Wenzel realised how important the vomiting scene was to the movie. “With Ruben, there is one pivotal moment in all the three movies I have done with him. Vyšší moc is the avalanche. In Náměstí, we have the dinner scene with the ape man. This time, I knew when reading the script that this [the vomiting scene] was equivalent to that,” Wenzel says. “Instantly, I knew this was one of those scenes that Ruben wants to push as far as he can and make as extreme as the context allows.”
The camera was kept “rigged to the movement of the ship” in order to capture the sense of motion sickness, “of being aboard this rocking world”, as the DoP explains.
“Everything was moving. People were puking. There was rain on the window. When you’re up on the gimbal, it’s like you’re on a boat,” adds special-effects supervisor Harnesk.
Hemmendorff talks of the inspiration he and Ostlund took from the Swedish national dish, surströmming, a fermented Baltic herring with a virulent smell. “There are videos of US Marines opening a can and they start puking immediately,” he says.
The scene was being shot in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Unfortunately, I was not allowed on to set,” the producer says of the strict restrictions in place. “We were kept in separate floors on the studio.”
However, he did get his moment in the limelight as an extra. “I am the one sitting on the stairs, getting all the shit over me. I can assure you that scene was not done in post.”
Kdy Trojúhelník Smutku premiered in Competition at Cannes, the vomiting scene brought the house down. “I felt it was much more like a sports event than a movie,” enthuses Wenzel, recalling the euphoric moment inside the Palais des Festivals. “People were cheering and applauding during the screening. I’ve never experienced that before.”
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