Anatomy of a Scene: Acid lizard orgy in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
The undoubted greatest portrayal of the legendary writer Hunter S. Thompson came in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a picture based on Thompson’s 1971 novel of the same name. Johnny Depp plays Raoul Duke, a journalistic alias of Thompson, while Benicio del Toro plays Dr. Gonzo, Duke’s wild drug-loving “attorney”.
Duke and Gonzo travel to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race for a sports magazine. However, the temptations of Sin City prove to be too much to bear, and the pair become wrapped up in all manner of psychedelic misadventures, making Gilliam’s movie one of the best of the 1990s.
One of the film’s most extraordinary scenes arrives relatively early and sees Duke and Dr. Gonzo make it to their hotel, having taken a sheet of ‘Sunshine Acid’ (extra-strong LSD) on the car journey. Gonzo had hoped that the pair would have arrived by the time the drugs had kicked in, but upon their entrance to their lodgings, they were both in the midst of a serious trip.
Duke already struggles with the hotel valet, whose eyes begin to bulge out of his head. “There is no way of explaining the terror I felt,” he thinks, not knowing the horrors that are about to arrive inside the hotel in just mere moments. The camera pans down underneath the valet, offering the alternative perspective that LSD provides.
With Dr. Gonzo at his side, Duke somehow checks into the hotel, letting his faithful “attorney” do all the talking. Sweat drips from his face persistently with a friendly glow, giving some sort of peace to the scene. “Be quiet, be calm,” he tells himself. But that becomes incredibly hard to do when the patterned carpet starts swirling around and up onto a nearby gentleman’s trousers.
Because their suite is not yet ready, the pair head for the bar, clearly tripping off their respective heads, for the absolute carnage to unfold. Duke simply cannot keep things together, uttering complete nonsense from beyond his usual lucid comprehension. He’s momentarily captivated by his reflection in the mirror before Dr. Gonzo decides it’s time to help his friend by getting him some peanuts.
Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini’s camerawork is wonderful here, and his tracking shot provides a quick glimpse into the other weird and wonderful characters that inhabit Las Vegas whilst always keeping the main action on Duke and Gonzo. Equally impressive is Pecorino’s special effects, which accurately depict the mind-spinning visuals of psychedelic intoxication.
Somehow, Duke’s half-torn cigarette still offers plumes of smoke into the dark bar room. Paranoia begins to kick in in full swing, and the laughs of the patrons suddenly seem to be directed at Duke before things grow increasingly erotic, and not in a good way. “Terrible things were happening all around us,” the Duke notes to himself.
Blood suddenly seeps out of the ground, and a bright red glow gives the scene even more intensity. Duke swings around in his chair to find Dr. Gonzo gone-zo. Wind chimes sound from nowhere, and suddenly Duke feels alone and afraid. Pretzels turn to maggots in a bowl on the bar as an inhuman fist reaches into it to grab a few.
The patrons have all turned into lizards. But these lizards are not just enjoying a bar drink and a conversation – which might have been remotely bearable – but have taken to copulating with one another, and their orgiastic and orgasmic moans bloat the room, sending Duke into a frenzy of sheer terror.
“I was right in the middle of a fucking reptile zoo,” he thinks, “And somebody was giving booze to these goddamn things. It won’t be long now before they tear us all to shreds.” It’s too much to handle for the journalist, and he shouts out, “Please!” It’s a dreaded moment on psychedelics when you think everyone in the room is looking at you, and that’s the unfortunate reality Duke faces, but thankfully, it seems to bring him back around to his proper senses.
Dr. Gonzo takes Duke out of this god-awful scene, and they head on their way into the madness of the night. The bar room lizard orgy scene is one of the most memorable in a movie that’s absolutely dripping in iconic moments, and it shows the brilliance of Gilliam, Pecorino, Depp and del Toro in equal measure.
Check it out below.
