Spy Hard is a comedy
spoof on Bond, True Lies, and Die Hard movies of the past. The
principle character is Dick Steele, Agent WD40, a covert agent
for the U.S. After losing his partner and lover, Victoria
Dahl, on their last mission, Steele retires from the spy
business. However, fifteen years later, he is called back to
duty when Victoria's daughter, Barbara Dahl, is captured by
General Rancor. Rancor is the man that Steele thought he
destroyed on that fateful mission when he lost Victoria.
Steele now feels compelled to rescue Barbara's daughter from
the clutches of that evil predator.
While searching for
General Rancor, Steele meets a young woman, Agent 3.14, and
shortly thereafter she is captured by Rancor. Rancor wants a
micro chip that her father, professor Ukrinsky, has developed.
It can be used for world peace or world disaster depending on
whose hands it falls into. Rancor knows that Steele will lead
him to Agent 3.14's father because part of Steele's mission is
to find the chip and keep it from falling into Rancor's
possession. While Steele is rescuing Agent 3.14 Rancor's men
discover where Steele is hiding the professor and they kidnap
him. When Steele and Agent 3.14 arrive to pick up Ukrinsky,
they discover him missing. Now the real action starts as
Steele with the help of Agent 3.14 go to Rancor's headquarters
and attempt to rescue the world from the evil clutches of a
mad man.
Animal Action:
There is a scene
where Steele is being pursued by Rancor's men through the
park. He fails to notice a policeman and his horse beside a
park bench. As the policeman is bending over to tie his shoe
Steele jumps onto the bench and onto the back of the
policeman. When the policeman stands up-right he shoots Steele
into the air and he lands on the back of the horse. The horse
rears and takes off at a gallop through the gardens of the
park with Steele still aboard. Slice, one of Rancor's men,
steals a lawnmower from a gardener and pursues Steele. Horse
and rider then cross the street and proceed into the lobby of
a hotel where the horse jumps over a wooden flower bed and
heads for the elevator. The horse stops in front of the
elevator. When the elevator door opens, another guest exits on
a horse before Steele and his horse enter. A couple is on the
elevator and to the disgust of everyone on board, the horse
decides to relieve himself. This scene was shot in several
cuts. A trained rearing horse was used for the scene in the
park when Steele is shot from the policeman's back onto the
horse. When Steele catapults over the policeman and onto the
horse, the actor is actually hooked up to a wire attached to a
crane and is pulled up in the air where he somersaults and is
placed on the horse's back. The trainer is standing off camera
in front of the horse to keep him on his mark. Prior to the
stunt of jumping over the flower bed, the rider had allowed
the horse to familiarize himself with the wooden flower bed
which was 3ft high and 1 1/2 ft. wide. When Slice is chasing
Steele and the horse through the park, the lawnmower scenes
were actually filmed in separate cuts with no horse present.
Steele and the horse
are seen exiting the elevator onto the roof. Slice, still on
the lawnmower, exits the adjacent elevator and begins chasing
Steele across the roof-top. The horse runs towards the other
side of the building where Steele pulls on the reins to stop
the animal, but the horse encounters a brick wall which
crumbles and horse and rider fall over the side. The horse
lands in a swimming pool on the roof top of the adjacent
building below. This scene was shot in several cuts. When the
horse and rider exit the elevator, the real horse was used.
Barium had been applied to the shoes of the horse to prevent
him from slipping. When the horse is seen running through the
wall and falling into the pool, an animatronic horse was used.
When Steele and
Agent 3.14 arrive at Rancor's headquarters, a remote island, a
large snake is seen sitting on a tree branch. Steele is then
seen having a fight with Slice and when he reaches behind him
to grab a tree branch for defense he actually grabs the snake.
Steele proceeds to swing it at Slice's head and the snake
coils himself around the man's neck. While he is still holding
onto the tail of the snake, Steele pulls Slice off of his feet
and he falls into a pit. The snake uncoils and Steele drops
the snake to the ground. A real and a fake snake was used for
this scene. The wrangler placed a real snake on the branch and
retrieved it at completion of the establishing shot. A
mechanical snake was used for the rest of the scene.
Other animal action
consists of a scene at a convent where Steele sees a penguin
under a nun's skirt. A trainer in costume, playing the part of
the nun, placed the penguin under her skirt and then lifts the
skirt at the appropriate moment. After being captured and
taken to Rancor, Steele is being disarmed and a cat is seen
supposedly falling out of his clothing and landing on the
floor. The cat screeches and runs off. The trainer who was
just off camera, dropped the cat from just a few feet and then
used verbal and hand signals to cue him to run off. The sounds
of the cat screeching was later added in post-production.
