When a writing assignment lands journalist Raoul Duke and sidekick Dr. Gonzo in Las Vegas, they decide to make it the ultimate business trip. But before long, business has been forgotten and trip has become the key word. Fueled by a suitcase full of mind-bending pharmaceuticals, Duke and Gonzo set off on a fast and furious ride through nonstop neon, surreal surroundings and a crew of the craziest characters ever. But no matter where misadventure leads them. Stars Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz, Christina Ricci, Christopher Meloni, Craig Bierko, Ellen Barkin, Flea, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, Johnny Depp, Katherine Helmond, Laraine Newman, Lyle Lovett.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS is a whirlwind of a movie, a wacky, drug-laden story backed by a fist-pumping rock & roll soundtrack featuring everything from Wayne Newton and Tom Jones to Combustible Edison and Dead Kennedys. Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) heads to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, bringing along his Samoan lawyer, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro), in this furious adaptation of the book by Hunter S. Thompson. It is 1971, and Duke and Gonzo are on their way to Sin City with a frightened hitchhiker (a nearly unrecognizable Tobey Maguire) and a trunkful of drugs, which they ingest nonstop. Depp is terrific as Duke, Thompson's alter ego, and Del Toro is a riot as the crazy lawyer. To perfect his Thompsonian performance, Depp spent a lot of time with the good doctor, and it paid off in a film that captures the frenetic pace of the counterculture novel. Director Terry Gilliam, a master of complex, bizarre visual imagery, has a field day interpreting the drug-hazed world in which Duke and Gonzo reside. An all-star cast chimes in with wonderfully offbeat bit parts, including Harry Dean Stanton, Gilliam regular Katherine Helmond, Flea, Cameron Diaz, Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Gary Busey, Lyle Lovett, and others.
Theatrical release: May 22, 1998.
Filmed on location in Las Vegas, southern Nevada, and Los Angeles and at Warner Hollywood Studios.
The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 1998.
Estimated budget: $21 million.
Hunter S. Thompson's book was based on a trip he took with Oscar Zeta Acosta.
Benicio Del Toro gained nearly 40 pounds to play Dr. Gonzo.
Shooting lasted about 50 days.
One of the wardrobe production assistants was Amy Rainbow Gilliam, one of Terry's daughters.
The film includes music by Robert Goulet, Tom Jones, Combustible Edison, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Lennon Sisters, Elmer Bernstein, Wayne Newton, the Yardbirds, Jefferson Airplane, Three Dog Night, Bob Dylan, the Youngbloods, Ohio Express, Buffalo Springfield, the Rolling Stones, Booker T. & the MGs, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Debbie Reynolds, and Dead Kennedys.
The film's illustrations are by Ralph Steadman, who illustrated the original novel; he is thanked in the credits "for inspiring ...
1011 
A great movie with great extras.
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