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Fans of absurdist, relentless comedy, rejoice! Comedy with a capital C has returned to the big screen with The Naked Gun. Directed by Akiva Schaffer and written by Schaffer, Doug Mand, and Dan Gregor, the film is a reboot of the original 1988 Naked Gun: Files From the Police Squad! That film was based on the Police Squad! TV series, which also starred Leslie Nielsen as Lt Frank Drebin. Thankfully, none of that knowledge is necessary to enjoy the new The Naked Gun, which stands entirely on its own and stars Liam Neeson as the new Frank Drebin.
What the 2025 The Naked Gun does have, just like its 1988 predecessor, is wall-to-wall jokes. Both films value making you laugh far above plot and a storyline that makes sense. It’s overflowing with visual gags, double entendres, and comic set-pieces galore. And plenty of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, refer to the 1988 original. Below, we’ve broken down the key references and callbacks the 2025 Naked Gun makes to the original film.
It’s all in the family
Lt Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) is the son of…you guessed it, Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen in the original Naked Gun films. But that’s not all. As revealed in a hysterical gag, the entire police force, including Paul Walter Hauser’s Capt Ed Hocken Jr, is the son or daughter of someone from the original cast.
Yes, even O.J. Simpson
In that same scene, each officer is crying over their dead father, talking about how much they miss them and want to make them proud. But when it gets to the child of Nordberg (Moses Jones)—notoriously played by O.J. Simpson—he doesn’t say he misses his dad, instead turning to the camera with a knowing shake of the head.
Weird Al Yankovic
At the beginning of the ‘88 Naked Gun, Derbin steps off a plane and speaks at a press conference. He naturally assumes it’s for him, but it’s actually for singer/songwriter Weird Al Yankovic, who was on the same plane. In the new film, Weird Al has been hired to perform in the bunkers…
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