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Thank You for Smoking

  • 2005
  • R
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
234K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,098
94
Thank You for Smoking (2005)
Home Video Trailer from Fox Searchlight Pictures
Play trailer2:31
8 Videos
99+ Photos
Dark ComedySatireComedyDrama

Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his 12-year-old son.Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his 12-year-old son.Satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his 12-year-old son.

  • Director
    • Jason Reitman
  • Writers
    • Jason Reitman
    • Christopher Buckley
  • Stars
    • Aaron Eckhart
    • Cameron Bright
    • Maria Bello
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    234K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    4,098
    94
    • Director
      • Jason Reitman
    • Writers
      • Jason Reitman
      • Christopher Buckley
    • Stars
      • Aaron Eckhart
      • Cameron Bright
      • Maria Bello
    • 458User reviews
    • 184Critic reviews
    • 71Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 13 wins & 32 nominations total

    Videos8

    Thank You for Smoking
    Trailer 2:31
    Thank You for Smoking
    Thank You for Smoking
    Clip 1:06
    Thank You for Smoking
    Thank You for Smoking
    Clip 1:06
    Thank You for Smoking
    Thank You for Smoking
    Clip 0:46
    Thank You for Smoking
    Thank You for Smoking
    Clip 0:50
    Thank You for Smoking
    Thank You For Smoking Scene: Marlboro Man
    Clip 0:21
    Thank You For Smoking Scene: Marlboro Man
    Thank You For Smoking Scene: Cigarette Slap
    Clip 0:32
    Thank You For Smoking Scene: Cigarette Slap

    Photos204

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    + 198
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    Top cast67

    Edit
    Aaron Eckhart
    Aaron Eckhart
    • Nick Naylor
    Cameron Bright
    Cameron Bright
    • Joey Naylor
    Maria Bello
    Maria Bello
    • Polly Bailey
    Joan Lunden
    Joan Lunden
    • Joan Lunden
    Eric Haberman
    • Robin Williger
    Mary Jo Smith
    Mary Jo Smith
    • Sue Maclean
    Todd Louiso
    Todd Louiso
    • Ron Goode
    Jeff Witzke
    Jeff Witzke
    • Kidnapper
    J.K. Simmons
    J.K. Simmons
    • BR
    Marianne Muellerleile
    Marianne Muellerleile
    • Teacher
    Alex Diaz
    • Kid #1
    Jordan Garrett
    Jordan Garrett
    • Kid #2
    Courtney Taylor Burness
    Courtney Taylor Burness
    • Kid #3
    • (as Courtney Burness)
    Jordan Orr
    Jordan Orr
    • Kid #4
    David Koechner
    David Koechner
    • Bobby Jay Bliss
    Kim Dickens
    Kim Dickens
    • Jill Naylor
    Daniel Travis
    Daniel Travis
    • Brad
    William H. Macy
    William H. Macy
    • Senator Ortolan Finistirre
    • Director
      • Jason Reitman
    • Writers
      • Jason Reitman
      • Christopher Buckley
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews458

    7.5233.7K
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    Featured reviews

    8jak_wonder

    Entertaining and Honest...

    Just saw this as it premiered in Toronto - awesome cast, very funny dialog, and more than skin deep. First time director does a nice job - and the opening credits are noteworthy. RECOMMENDED. Pokes fun at the smoking industry (and lobbyists), but at others as well, and its hard to disagree with the sharp satire. Rob Lowe's small role is priceless, the casting was perfect across the board. Nick Naylor's (Eckart) relationship with his son is center and keeps some genuine qualities through all the laughs. My friend and I both rated this near the top or at the top of the 7 films we saw in Toronto last weekend. Not sure what its distribution / release schedule is yet, as there was still some debate over who had actually purchased the rights to it. Eckart in person came across as very genuine and is also in another great upcoming movie - Neverwas.
    8filmquestint

    Coughing And Laughing In Another Planet

    Ivan Reitman must be so proud. I'm not kidding, his son Jason has come out with a caustic original comedy all his own. I don't know what people outside Los Angeles may make of this. They may think is science fiction when, in fact, most people who have spent any time there knows that this is as normal as going to church in the Vatican. The scenes inside the CAA like agency are even underplayed if you believe that. Aaron Eckhart is as perfect as they come. The charming monster with human sides. William H Macy, Rob Lowe and the rest of the cast are great fun to watch. I'm rooting for this movie to make a zillion bucks. It'll be nice to have more good writing, good acting and good direction in March for a change.
    Chrysanthepop

    'Argument Or Negotiation?'

    Jason Reitman's 'Thank You For Smoking' is a remarkable satire about successful 'B***S***ting'. Oh the things one can get away with, the things one can turn around and twist just through words, charisma and a smile. All the characters are/were hypocrites. Even in the relationship between Nick and his son, we see how his own traits brush off on his son. Not only that, he teaches his own son how to get away with things just by using words. Reitman's execution and screenplay are very intriguing. He uses clever humour and the lines spoken by the actors are absurdly amazing and hilarious. The multiple meanings of the lines particularly stand-out. Also, Reitman's intentions in making this successful satire seem very genuine as the film is not pretentious nor condescending (as is the case with many of the so-called recent satires). There's a stellar cast of which all the actors (except Katie Holmes) naturally fit their parts. Aaron Eckhart carries the film. It's difficult to describe his performance in words as the actor seems to pulls it off with ease. Nick Naylor was meant for him. Acclaimed actors like William Huffman Macy, Maria Bello, Rob Lowe and Robert Duvall all do nothing short of excellence in their acting. Even Adam Brody provokes laughter. Katie Holmes is the weakest link but this can be easily overlooked as she's not there for long and the other actors compensate enough. The cinematography and background score are very effective and the visuals are impressive. The sepia tone and brightness gives the feeling of a classic movie where things are positively exaggerated. While some people find the film offensive because they think it promotes smoking but 'Thank You For Smoking' is not really about smoking. It's pretty much about politics. Political Incorrectness. I'll be watching this movie again because it deserves so.
    7MovieAddict2016

    A witty satire that doesn't take sides on the smoking controversy.

    A clever satire of the spin-world (thanks largely to its cast and a witty script by Jason Reitman), Thank You For Smoking comes on like Wag the Dog via The Insider – it's a painfully honest insight into the tobacco industry, led by the narration of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), the Big Tobacco corporation's chief spokesman. His narcissistic self-infatuation ("Charles Manson kills people; I talk.") and sleazy tactics land him in trouble when he finds himself bribing a lung cancer victim in front of his pre-teen son, who is not yet old enough to smoke but is being influenced by his money-driven father.

    Nick has a lot on his mind. He's got pressure from an anti-smoking Senator (played brilliantly by William H. Macy), his boss, his ex-wife, fanatical groups on homicidal missions, a double-crossing reporter (Katie Holmes) and a Hollywood producer (Rob Lowe) trying to cast the perfect Hollywood glamorization of smoking (Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones are offered as the leads).

    The movie, directed by the son of Ivan Reitman (the "Ghosbusters" director/producer extraordinaire), balances absurdity with realism; moments of the film come across as poignant reflection while following scenes are completely the opposite. This balance is thrown off a bit sometimes – David Koechner's portrayal of an NRA lobbyist is great but feels out of place, as if it belongs in a comedy in the vein of "Anchorman." And ultimately this uneven mix of the deadly serious (literally) with off-the-wall gags does catch up with the film; it eventually falls back upon its very strong script, which supports it (a lesser film might be affected more drastically with a weaker screenplay), but some scenes probably should have been toned down a bit to comply with the subtler and more realistic scenes. For what it's worth, the wacky scenes are extremely hilarious, but they seem to contradict other portions of the material.

    Jason is a better director than his father, though, and shows a lot of potential here: I'd say the direction is almost deserving of a more serious film. I'd love to see what he could do with a drama in the future.

    The movie also boasts an excellent lead performance by Aaron Eckhart, who oozes with sleaze, greed, corruption and a hidden sense of morals. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he's not a stereotypical Hollywood motion picture "good guy" – even the closing of the picture, without spoiling it, isn't the moralistic cop-out I had expected; the movie isn't a black-and-white painting of the smoking controversy; it doesn't take sides on either side of the debate.

    This is really being marketed incorrectly as the next "40-Year-Old Virgin" right now, but the film – for the most part, anyway – really isn't as hilarious as it is thought-provoking and engaging. Apart from a few aforementioned moments of utter absurdity, the majority of the film's duration involves some pretty serious topics, and it handles them well. It's not a bust-your-gut-funny movie, and it's perhaps not as strong as some reviews would lead you to believe, but it's one of the better satires in recent memory and certainly one of the more effective since Wag the Dog.
    8ArizWldcat

    Funny movie: looks at ALL sides of the debate

    I saw this at Sundance last night (actually it was a Salt Lake screening, and thus the filmmakers didn't bother to drive 30 miles to talk to us...not that I am bitter...) At first I was a bit worried that this was going to be the old hat anti smoking movie that makes all smokers victims of the eeeeevil tobacco companies, but then I saw that it was based on a Christopher Buckley novel and I relaxed a bit! This pokes fun at all sides of the issue, from the tobacco lobbyist's insistence that there has been "no conclusive proof" that tobacco is harmful, to the legislator's thinking that putting a warning label on cigarettes will actually make someone pick up a cigarette package, read the label, and decide not to smoke...as if ANYONE with half a brain doesn't know that inhaling smoke into your lungs will harm you.

    Aaron Eckhart did a fine job in his role, as did Sam Elliot, Rob Lowe, Katie Holmes...I could go on and on. It's fascinating to watch Eckhart's character spin and spin so that he brings people around to his way of thinking. He has to be representing one of the most hated industries in the United States, yet he is able to convince people as to the opposite! I highly recommend this film!

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    Related interests

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sian Clifford in Fleabag (2016)
    Dark Comedy
    Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
    Satire
    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      As part of the message the movies promotes, no one is shown smoking a cigarette throughout the entire movie. In fact, except in the black and white film that Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) watches, no one is seen even holding a cigarette. Naylor holds an empty packet, The Captain (Robert Duvall) holds an (unlit) cigar, and at about the 18:35 mark as the camera is panning around the club, a man on the right can be seen putting a pipe in his mouth although it is not clear if it is lit or not.
    • Goofs
      During the MoD squad meeting, when Polly takes a bite of the pie she messes the cheese up, but in the next scene it's fine. Also, when Nick sees the cheese on top of the pie it is not melted, but when he pauses to think and stares at the pie, the cheese is clearly melted around the edges.
    • Quotes

      Joey Naylor: [eating fast food, next to Ferris wheel, at the Santa Monica Amusement Pier] ... so what happens when you're wrong?

      Nick Naylor: Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.

      Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...

      Nick Naylor: Well, if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong.

      Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?

      Nick Naylor: OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say...

      Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.

      Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?

      Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.

      Nick Naylor: Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?

      Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.

      Nick Naylor: Well, I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the definition of liberty.

      Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about

      Nick Naylor: Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.

      Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...

      Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.

      Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me

      Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them.

      [points into the crowd]

    • Crazy credits
      The opening credits are styled to appear as cigarette boxes.
    • Connections
      Featured in Today: Episode dated 3 June 2005 (2005)
    • Soundtracks
      Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette!
      Written by Merle Travis and Tex Williams

      Performed by Tex Williams and The Western Caravan

      Courtesy of Capitol Records

      Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

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    FAQ21

    • How long is Thank You for Smoking?Powered by Alexa
    • Did the real Marlboro Man die of cancer?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 14, 2006 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Gracias por fumar
    • Filming locations
      • The Prince - 3198 W 7th St, Los Angeles, California, USA(Bert's)
    • Production companies
      • Room 9 Entertainment
      • TYFS Productions LLC
      • ContentFilm
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $6,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $24,793,509
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $262,923
      • Mar 19, 2006
    • Gross worldwide
      • $39,323,027
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 32m(92 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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