| Road Trip | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Todd Phillips |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Mike Simpson |
Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes[3] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 million[4] |
| Box office | $119.8 million[4] |
Road Trip is a 2000 Americanroadsex comedy film[5] directed byTodd Phillips in his directorial debut and written byScot Armstrong and Phillips. The film starsBreckin Meyer,Seann William Scott,Paulo Costanzo, andDJ Qualls, withAmy Smart,Tom Green,Rachel Blanchard, andFred Ward in supporting roles. The film follows Josh Parker (Meyer), who enlists three of his college friends to embark on an 1,800-mile (2,900 km) road trip to retrieve an illicit tape mistakenly mailed to his girlfriend, Tiffany (Blanchard).
Released theatrically byDreamWorks Pictures on May 19, 2000,Road Trip received mixed reviews from critics, but was a box office success, grossing $119.8 million worldwide on a $16 million budget. The film has gathered acult following over the years.
The 2004 DreamWorks sex comedy releaseEuroTrip (originally titledUgly Americans) is considered the film's spiritual successor. Before being released, it had its title changed by DreamWorks to be similar toRoad Trip, since they wanted to capitalize on the film's success.[6] A direct-to-video sequel, titledRoad Trip: Beer Pong, was released on August 11, 2009, with Qualls reprising his role.
Josh Parker and Tiffany Henderson are childhood friends turned high-school sweethearts, who try for a long-distance relationship as he goes to the University ofIthaca and she goes to the University ofAustin. Josh becomes insecure when he cannot regularly reach Tiffany by phone. Fearing infidelity, he begins sending her videotaped messages.
Josh asks his friend and roommate, Rubin, to mail his latest tape to Tiffany before leaving for hisAncient Philosophy class. Josh's Ancient Philosophy professor tells him he needs a B+ on his midterm to pass the class. Josh's best friend, E.L., convinces Josh to stop worrying about Tiffany and notice the beautiful Beth Wagner.
Beth is in love with Josh, much to the chagrin of Jacob, the self-absorbed Ancient PhilosophyT.A. who is obsessed with her. Later, E.L. throws a party where he auctions off several female students, including Beth. Scared of Jacob, she convinces Josh to outbid him. He and Beth escape to his room and record themselves having sex on his camcorder.
The next morning, Josh tells his friends that he slept with Beth and recorded it. They immediately play his camcorder tape, expecting to see them having sex, only to find love letters and songs performed for Tiffany. Josh believes that Rubin mailed the sex tape to Tiffany. He then hears a voicemail from Tiffany saying that she has not called due to the death of her grandfather. With E.L. and Rubin, Josh asksshy loner Kyle to tag along on a road trip to Austin, as they need his car, owned by Kyle's strict father, Earl.
After leaving the interstate inBedford for what they thought was a "shortcut", they find a small bridge collapsed, realizing they will waste five hours backtracking. So, E.L. and Rubin convince them to jump the gap. Kyle objects, but they proceed. They make it across, but the car is wrecked, destroying Josh's philosophy textbooks.
The group continue on foot, stopping at a motel. Rubin tries to buymarijuana from the unsympathetic motel clerk, but is informed that Kyle's credit card is maxed out. Looking for transportation, E.L. persuadesblind woman Brenda, at a school for the blind, into letting him take a bus for 'repairs', and they resume the journey.
After a series of misadventures, the group finally gets to Austin and Tiffany's dorm. Josh intercepts the tape, just as she arrives. Earl also bursts in, furious over the car and the credit card, threatening to drag Kyle back with him. Kyle finally stands up to him, stating that he is going back to school with his friends. Earl assaults him, and a mini-riot ensues.
Josh and Tiffany retreat to talk, then Beth calls to warn him about his midterm. While he talks on the phone, Tiffany starts to watch the tape, which luckily is mostly Barry mooning the camera. She and Josh amicably break up. The group returns to Ithaca just in time for Josh to take his midterm – with a little help from Beth, who called in a bomb threat to delay the start of the exam.
Josh passes the philosophy course and begins a relationship with Beth (happily making videos); Jacob eventually dies as a result of leading a cult staging a mass suicide, which no one but he carried out; Rubin becomes a successful marijuana cultivator; E.L., inspired by his sperm donation, begins dating a pre-med student; and Kyle starts dating Rhonda and reconciles with Earl.
The fictional 'University of Ithaca' is based on bothIthaca College andCornell University, each located inIthaca, New York. Filming took place from October 16, 1999, to December 27, 1999, on the campuses ofWoodward Academy,Georgia Tech,Emory University, and theUniversity of Georgia.[7][8] The university seen in a flyover in the opening scene is actuallyHarvard University; the same footage was later used in the 2003 DreamWorks releaseOld School. The diner scene was shot inLawrenceville, Georgia at the Gwinnett Diner, as it says on the coffee mugs. One of the final scenes of the tour was filmed at Founders Park at theUniversity of Southern California.
The film opened on May 19, 2000, alongsideDinosaur andSmall Time Crooks. It was ranked No. 3 at the North American box office behindGladiator andDinosaur, makingUS$15,484,004, in its opening weekend.[9][4]
Review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes givesRoad Trip an approval rating of 59% based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Some humor is hit or miss, depending on the audience tastes, but the movie is funny overall. Mixed reviews for the cast, especially for MTV's Tom Green."[10]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11]
At the 2000Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Green won both Worst Supporting Actor and Most Unfunny Comic Relief for his role in both this film andCharlie's Angels. The film itself also received a nomination for Oldest Looking Teenagers, but lost toRemember the Titans.[12]
In an article by Rotten Tomatoes, it rankedRoad Trip as the 79th best film of 2000, based on its score on their website. This ranking took into account audience scores for the films on the list, in addition to critic scores.[13]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Bogey Awards | Bogey Award | Road Trip | Won |
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Comedy | Nominated | ||
| Choice Movie Liar | Tom Green | Won | ||
| Choice Movie Sleazebag | Andy Dick | Nominated | ||
| Choice Movie Chemistry | Amy Smart,Breckin Meyer | Nominated | ||
| Stinkers Bad Movie Awards | Worst Supporting Actor | Tom Green | Won | |
| Most Unfunny Comic Relief | Won | |||
| 2001 | Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Favorite Supporting Actor – Comedy | Nominated | |
| MTV Movie & TV Awards | Best Comedic Performance | Nominated | ||
| Breakthrough Male Performance | Nominated | |||
| Best Cameo in a Movie | Andy Dick | Nominated | ||
| Best Music Moment | "I Wanna Rock" bus scene | Nominated | ||
| Golden Trailer Awards | Best Comedy | Road Trip | Nominated |
The film's R-rated and unrated cuts were released onDVD andVHS byDreamWorks Home Entertainment during December 2000.[14] The unrated cut featured stronger nudity, including additional shots of bare-naked breasts, as well as shots of women's bare vaginas.[15] In February 2006,Viacom (now known asParamount Skydance) acquired the rights toRoad Trip and all 58 other live-action films DreamWorks had released since 1997, following its $1.6 billion-dollar acquisition of the company's live-action assets.[16][17][18] The deal included the rights to the film's successorEuroTrip, another live-action DreamWorks release.[17]Paramount Home Entertainment subsequently releasedRoad Trip on Blu-ray on May 12, 2012.[19]Kino Lorber were later sublicensed the home video rights for a4K UHD edition of the film, which was released on June 24, 2025.[20] This release included the film's R-rated cut and unrated cut, with the unrated cut having a new Blu-ray master byParamount Pictures.[21]
The film was made available on Paramount's subscription streaming serviceParamount+, which launched in 2021, in addition to being made available on their free streaming servicePluto TV.[22][23]
A loose follow-up entitledEuroTrip was released on February 20, 2004. The film received mixed reviews and ultimately flopped at the box office.
Adirect-to-videosequel entitledBeer Pong was released on August 11, 2009, by Paramount Famous Productions.[24] Only two of the original cast or crew appear in the sequel film,DJ Qualls as Kyle Edwards andRhoda Griffis as Tour Group Mom.
Films like Todd Phillips'sRoad Trip (2000) use the road movie genre as a narrative framework for the kind of gross-out sex comedy of the late 1970s and early 1980s ...
