While trying to hitchhike, Saul pushes his thumb out of his pants and comments on what it resembles. With regard to the latter, though, Saul tries to cut the duct tape binding his hands by rubbing them across Dale’s belt buckle-with obvious overtones of homosexual activity (heightened by Dale’s repeatedly exclaiming, “Yes!”). Most of the movie’s sexual content is verbal, not visual. Of note: Though never explicitly verified, it seems that by showing the 25-year-old Dale dating a high school girl, the film illustrate how his marijuana habit has kept him locked in perpetual adolescence. He apologizes to Angie for being so irresponsible and reaffirms his commitment to making things work with her. Slowly, Dale realizes continually being high isn’t good. Saul also admits he got into selling marijuana to help his grandmother move into a retirement community-a noble motive for his decidedly ignoble “profession.”Īngie confronts Dale for being a pot addict. Saul wants to be an engineer, while Dale longs for a talk-radio gig.
Pondering what they’d do if they weren’t constantly stoned, Dale and Saul talk about career dreams. He tells his friend that marijuana got them into this mess, and he wants to be done with it. But at a critical juncture after days of peril, Dale rebukes Saul for wanting to smoke yet another joint. The final scene finds the beaten, bloody trio in a diner affirming how much they care for one another (“Can we be best friends?” and “I love you guys!”).ĭale and Saul deal with stress by lighting up. When Saul gets captured, Dale recruits Red to help his friend. Dale and Saul’s relationship evolves from a business relationship to a genuine friendship as they depend on each other to evade Jones’ goons. The film’s main theme-besides smoking pot-is friendship. As the not-so-dynamic duo tries to stay one stumbling, paranoid step ahead of their pursuers, they’re drawn into a bloody turf war between Jones and an Asian drug cartel determined to extinguish him.
The discarded blunt quickly leads the drug kingpin back to Dale and Saul.
There’s a problem: Ted Jones is Red’s supplier. In his panic, Dale tosses his lit Pineapple Express joint out the window and speeds away. Dale is biding his time in his car in front of Jones’ house-read: getting high-when he witnesses Jones and a female police officer gun down a man. The pair’s “idyllic” existence, however, is interrupted when Dale tries to deliver a summons to one Ted Jones. Saul is eager to sell Dale the finest product he’s ever procured: a stash of hash dubbed “Pineapple Express” that his supplier-another winner by the name of Red-has given him exclusive rights to distribute. Saul’s only job is “quality control” as he perpetually puffs away in his apartment. The affable, eternally stoned Saul makes Dale look like a Harvard MBA grad. The 25-year-old stoner’s other unlikely love, we learn, is 18-year-old high school senior Angie Anderson.ĭale appears to be leading the Stoned Slacker of the Year race-until we meet his dealer, Saul Silver. The job requires lots of car time-which affords Dale ample opportunity to indulge his love affair with Mary Jane. It was probably only a matter of time before this generation’s R-rated sex comedy king, producer/director Judd Apatow, turned his attention to toking.Īpatow’s go-to doofus-player, actor Seth Rogen, is Dale Denton, a pot-loving “process server” who spends his days delivering legal summons to unfortunate recipients. From Cheech and Chong’s ganja-puffing in the ’70s and ’80s to Harold and Kumar’s marijuana-fueled misadventures in the new millennium, stoner buddy comedies have established a smoky niche in American cinema. Hollywood has a long-running love affair with potheads.
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