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Raising Arizona
Directed by	Joel Coen
Produced by	Ethan Coen
Written by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen
Starring	Nicolas Cage Holly Hunter William Forsythe John Goodman Frances McDormand Randall 'Tex' Cobb
Music by	Carter Burwell
Cinematography	Barry Sonnenfeld
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	6 March 1987
Running time	94 min.
Language	English
Budget	$6,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Raising Arizona is a 1987 Coen Brothers comedy film starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, William Forsythe, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, and Randall "Tex" Cobb. Not a blockbuster at the time of its release, it has since achieved the status of a cult film. Typical Coen Brothers fare, the movie is replete with pseudo-symbolism, visual gags, yodeling folk music, unconventional characters, flamboyant camera work, and idiosyncratic dialogue. The movie ranked number 31 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Laughs and number 45 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 2 Symbolism 2.1 Connections between H.I. and Smalls 2.2 Allusions to Childbirth 3 Cast 4 Quotes 5 Trivia 6 External links

Arizona petty criminal Herbert "H.I." or "Hi" McDonnough (Cage) and police photographer Edwina "Ed" McDonnough (Hunter) meet after she takes the police mugshots of the recidivist Hi during his many trips through her station. They fall in love and get married, and Hi promises to reform.

They move into a desert mobile home outside of Tempe, and Hi gets a job drilling sheet metal. After serious and ongoing attempts at procreation, Ed discovers that she is infertile. The couple cannot adopt because of Hi's criminal record. Upon learning of the birth of the "Arizona Quints", sons of locally-famous unpainted furniture magnate Nathan Arizona Sr. (Trey Wilson), Hi and Ed decide to kidnap one of the five babies. Hi successfully sneaks into the babies' room, but when he tries to steal one of them from their joint crib, the babies escape and crawl off in all different directions, and he is nearly discovered by Mrs. Arizona. Hi hurries back to the car telling Ed that it was an impossible mission. She refuses to let him into the car unless he goes back and gets a baby. He re-enters the house and abducts a promising one (T. J. Kuhn). Since there are five Arizona babies - all male - no one is entirely sure which one was actually taken, but it is assumed to be Nathan Junior.

Hi's new family life goes well until he is visited by his former inmate chums, Gale Snoats (John Goodman) and his brother Evelle (William Forsythe), who have just tunneled their way out of prison. Under the two brothers' influence, Hi threatens to revert to his felonious ways, leading him to believe that Ed and he are not well suited for each other. Their problems are only worsened when Hi's supervisor, Glen (Sam McMurray), tries to arrange a wife swap between the two of them, and Hi assaults him.

Now out of a job, Hi steals diapers from a convenience store and is sucked into a wild chase around the local neighborhood with the police, gun-toting cashiers and a pack of dogs. Ed drives off without Hi because she has had enough of his criminal ways, but finally relents and picks him up, leading to a tense ride home.

Back at the McDonnough residence, Glen stops by and reveals that he has discovered Nathan Junior's true identity and gives Hi an ultimatum: give up the baby to be raised by Glen and his wife, or Glen will turn Hi in for the reward money. He also demands that Hi pay his medical bills from Hi's previous assault. During this conversation, Gale and Evelle are eavesdropping in the background.

Gale and Evelle decide to betray Hi and take Junior themselves for the reward money. Gale and Hi's ensuing fight wrecks most of Hi's mobile home before Hi is subdued and tied to a chair. Gale and Evelle leave to rob a "hayseed" bank with Junior in tow. When Ed comes home, she finds the battered and bound Hi and learns that the baby is gone. Despite their disintegrating relationship, Ed and Hi arm themselves and set out to retrieve their child together.

Meanwhile, Nathan Arizona Sr. is approached by the menacing and heavily armed biker/bounty hunter Leonard Smalls (Randall 'Tex' Cobb) who offers to find the child for $50,000, twice the amount of the reward Nathan Sr. has posted. Even though he considers police efforts to locate his son totally inadequate, Nathan Sr. refuses to partake of Smalls' services. Smalls decides to recover the child anyway and sell him on the black market, as was done to himself when he was a baby. He begins tracking Gale and Evelle, using the scent of the brothers' hair pomade. He breaks into the deserted and trashed McDonnough mobile home, and finds a newspaper clipping concerning the targeted bank, which the brothers had shown earlier to Hi.

Gale and Evelle successfully rob the bank, but end up leaving Junior behind in his infant car seat. Their miseries are compounded when one of the bank's anti-theft dye canisters explodes in their loot sack, coating them and the interior of their car. Back at the bank, Smalls has arrived. Right before Ed and Hi can reclaim the baby, Smalls beats them to it, mounts Junior's car seat on the front of his bike, and turns around to fight the couple. Ed goes for the baby while Hi distracts Smalls. Hi and the evil Smalls have it out: Hi is able to fend Smalls off for a short time, but then the biker begins to methodically brutalize him. He has thrown Hi to the ground and drawn his matched pair of shotguns to finish the job, when Hi shows him that he has pulled the pin from one the many working hand grenades which dangle from Smalls' outfit. Unable to drop the guns and get rid of the grenade in time, the flatfooted Smalls is blown to pieces. One of these pieces is a set of bronzed baby shoes, which Smalls had worn on his vest; as they lie amidst the rest of the flaming debris, the viewer can hear the cries of an infant.

Hi and Ed sneak Nathan Jr. back into his home. As they are putting him back in his crib, Nathan Sr. confronts them, learns why they took his son, and is surprisingly understanding. When they say that they are breaking up, he advises them to not act rashly; perhaps someday medical science will catch up with them, just as it did with him and his own beloved wife. Hi and Ed go to sleep in the same bed, and Hi dreams: Gale and Evelle return themselves to prison. Nathan Jr. grows up happy and prosperous. Glen gets what's coming to him. And maybe, just maybe, Hi and Ed will remain married for many years to come, have lots of children, and live together in a better place. "Maybe it was Utah." The credits roll with a rendition of Bob Nolan's folksong Way Out There and a bluegrass version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony Ode to Joy.

There are three scenes of H.I. and Smalls that imply they are alike:

• A shot where H.I. pulls a baby out from underneath the crib and a scene (shot at the same angle) where Smalls drags H.I. out from underneath a truck.

• A scene where H.I. opens Smalls' shirt, revealing the same tattoo of Mr. Horsepower as he has on his own arm.

• Smalls scoops up Nathan Jr. from the center of the road in roughly the same way that H.I. had previously picked up the diapers after the convenience store robbery.

• When H.I. pulls the pin from one of Smalls' many grenades, he apologizes "Sorry, sorry" as if he knew Smalls.

Smalls may be either a symbol of H.I.'s own evil and bad attributes, or of what baby Nathan will become if H.I. does not return him.

Gale and Evelle's escape from prison resembles the birth of twins. Gale emerges from the ground head first and Evelle comes out breech.

• Nicolas Cage- H.I. McDonnough
• Holly Hunter- Ed McDonnough
• John Goodman- Gale Snoats
• William Forsythe- Evelle Snoats
• Frances McDormand- Dot
• Randall 'Tex' Cobb- Leonard Smalls (The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse)
• Trey Wilson- Nathan Arizona Sr.
• Sam McMurray- Glen
• T.J. Kuhn- Nathan Arizona Jr.
• Lynne Dumin Kitei- Florence Arizona
• Warren Keith- FBI Agent

• H.I.: I'll be taking these Huggies, and whatever cash you got.
• H.I.: The doctor explained that her insides were a rocky place, where my seed could find no purchase.
• H.I.: Now, I don't know where you come down on the incarceration question, whether it's for rehabilition or revenge. But I was beginning to think, revenge is the only argument that makes any sense.
• Glen: I said, five years?!? Healthy white baby?!? What else you got?
• Ed: (sobbing) I love him so much!!
• H.I.: I know you do, honey
• Man In Truck: Son, you got a panty on your head.
• Large Incarcerated Black Man: Sometimes I get the menstrual cramps real hard.
• H.I.: You ate sand?
• Evelle & Clerk: You got any balloons that blow up into funny shapes? | Only if you consider round funny.
• Gale to H.I.: "I know you're partial to convenience stores, but God damn it, Hi, the sun don't rise and set on the corner grocery."

Grossed $22,800,000 in the box office.

In several scenes, including when H.I. meets with the parole board, a portrait of Barry Goldwater is visible in the background. Goldwater ran for President in 1964 as a Republican and was a U.S. Senator from Arizona for many years. He is considered one of the most famous people in Arizona history. Goldwater was famously supported by Ronald Reagan; the film takes place early in Reagan's presidency, and the narrator criticizes Reagan's economic plan.

The baby on the movie's international poster is Max Bemis, lead singer of the punk rock group Say Anything (band). His father designed the poster and used him as a model.

The police station scenes were filmed at the Tempe, Arizona police station on 5th Street next to Sun Devil Stadium on the Arizona State University campus.

The family picnic where H.I. punches Glen was filmed at the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona.

When H.I. McDonnough goes to work in a factory, his chatty co-worker (a cameo by M. Emmet Walsh) can be seen wearing a jumpsuit with the label, "Hudsucker Industries", which may have been an inspiration for the title of the Coen brothers' later film, The Hudsucker Proxy.

The line "you warthog from hell" comes from the Flannery O'Connor short story "Revelation", where a young lady yells at the main character "Go back to hell where you belong, you old wart hog."^{[citation needed]}

Although Nathan Sr. frequently uses the catchphrase "Or my name ain't Nathan Arizona!", during a FBI interrogation the morning after the abduction it is revealed that he was born Nathanial Huffhines. When asked if he could "give any indication why" he said: "Yeah, would you buy furniture at a store called Unpainted Huffhines?"

After Evelle and Gale break out of prison, they clean up in a gas station restroom with "P.O.E." and "O.P.E." spraypainted on the walls, a reference to the film Dr. Strangelove, where it stood for both "Peace on Earth" and "Purity of Essence".

Leonard Smalls shares the name of Lennie Smalls, from Of Mice and Men. Both are physically powerful men who damage things smaller and weaker then themselves, though only Leonard does so intentionally. Lennie wants to take care of rabbits, while Leonard kills one with a grenade.

While probably not intentional, Leonard Smalls bears similarities to Surtur, a powerful fire giant(like a demon), in Norse mythology.

The text of the second-to-last screen of credits, which shows acknowledgement of several Southwestern U.S. Native American tribes, is arranged in the shape of a large clay pottery jar, a craft piece historically made by such tribes.

• Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers
• You Know, For Kids! Raising Arizona page
• Raising Arizona at the Internet Movie Database
• Box Office Report: The Coen Brothers
• Script
• Symbolism and Imagery in Raising Arizona

Films directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Blood Simple • Raising Arizona • Miller's Crossing • Barton Fink • The Hudsucker Proxy • Fargo • The Big Lebowski • O Brother, Where Art Thou? • The Man Who Wasn't There • Intolerable Cruelty • The Ladykillers • No Country for Old Men