''Welcome to Woop Woop'' is a 1997 Australian screwball comedy film directed by

Stephan Elliott Stephan Elliott (born 27 August 1964) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. His best-known film internationally is '' The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' (1994). Career Elliott began his career as an assistant director ...

and starring Johnathon Schaech and Rod Taylor. The film was based on the novel ''The Dead Heart'' by Douglas Kennedy. " Woop Woop" is an Australian colloquialism referring to an inexact and extremely rustic and uncivilised location, usually in rural or remote Australia. Equivalent terms include "

the boondocks Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas. Boondocks may also refer to: * The Boondocks (comic strip), ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder ** The Boondocks (TV series), ''The Boondocks'' (TV series), the television s ...

" and "out in the sticks" in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

or "the back of beyond" in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

. The film centres on an American traveller in Australia who is abducted and held captive in a

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

. Similarly to the extremely over the top way the

Coen Brothers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, together known as the Coen brothers (), are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Among their most acclaimed works are '' Blood Simple'' (198 ...

' film '' Fargo'', and its spin-off TV series mocks stereotypes about the culture of Minnesota, ''Welcome to Woop Woop''s characters are wildly exaggerated and parodied stereotypes of Anglo-Australian Bogans from

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

desert communities.

Plot

Teddy ( Johnathon Schaech) is a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

con artist A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...

, womaniser, and exotic animal smuggler who travels to Australia after a deal goes awry, his latest shipment of rare tropical birds escapes, and must be replaced. While driving through an arid desert in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, he picks up a hitchhiker, Angie ( Susie Porter), who seduces him and asks him to drive her to the beach, as she has never seen the ocean before. After a brief and sexually ravenous 'courtship', Angie proposes marriage after they reach the seaside and when Teddy pretends to accept, Angie knocks him unconscious. When he awakes, he finds himself stranded in Woop Woop, a rusty, desolate, and dilapidated hamlet within a crater-like rock formation in the desert of central Australia. Angie's father, Daddy-O ( Rod Taylor), explains that as he has "poked her" more than once, Teddy and Angie are now considered "married" and no objections will be tolerated. Furthermore, no one ever leaves Woop Woop, on pain of death, without Daddy-O's permission, "and that is never given." As he listens and observes, Teddy learns that Daddy-O runs Woop Woop in a brutal,

-like, and

n manner, that he disguises as a commune (he and the other town elders keep the best luxuries for themselves in secret while doling out only canned

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

and sub-par

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

to the other members). Woop Woop's only income source is the sale of canned dog food made from the ground-up meat of road-killed kangaroos. The only entertainment permitted by Daddy-O are old Rodgers & Hammerstein films, whose soundtracks play constantly over a loudspeaker. Meanwhile, Daddy-O and the other elders have working televisions and secretly watch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games and drink expensive beer. Comparing Daddy-O in an angry

soliloquy A soliloquy (, from Latin 'alone' and 'to speak', ) is a speech in drama in which a character speaks their thoughts aloud, typically while alone on stage. It serves to reveal the character's inner feelings, motivations, or plans directly to ...

to the Fundamentalist Mormon cult leaders with private arsenals of assault weapons that he has heard about in the past, Teddy, who had thought he was having a meaningless hookup "with the best f--- in the Southern Hemisphere", is enraged that she instead, "set me up." After he angrily stands up to Daddy-O, Teddy learns the truth. Woop Woop was an

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

town before an accident in 1979. The mine was closed down, Woop Woop was abandoned, turned into an Aboriginal Reserve, and literally "erased" from the map. Not content with the deal given to them by both the government and the mining company (resettlement in Australia's heavily populated southern coastal cities), they secretly returned to the

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

of Woop Woop. At first, they repopulated themselves incestuously, but this caused wide mental instability. A rule was then enacted ("Rule #3: Don't diddle your cousins", which Daddio enforces by both

corporal punishment A corporal punishment or a physical punishment is a punishment which is intended to cause physical pain to a person. When it is inflicted on Minor (law), minors, especially in home and school settings, its methods may include spanking or Padd ...

and the

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of re ...

of all disabled babies following birth). Since then, outsiders like Teddy have been occasionally kidnapped and kept against their will to deepen Woop Woop's otherwise extremely shallow gene pool. Although other commune members now admire him for being the only person who dares to stand up to Daddy-O, Teddy hates living in Woop Woop and finds his "marriage" to the needy, overly controlling, and possessive Angie, even though she is also a blonde sex addict who looks like a model, both physically and emotionally exhausting. Seeking to escape, Teddy repairs his VW van, which has been vandalised by the locals, only to have it vandalised once again by Daddy-O. Seeking to accept his situation, he befriends an

Australian Cattle Dog The Australian Cattle Dog, or simply Cattle Dog, is a breed of herding dog developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. This breed is a medium-sized, short-Coat (dog), coated dog that occurs in two main ...

, which is shot and killed by a child who is celebrating 'Dog Day.' After witnessing, 'Midget,' the Woop Woop town hairdresser, also being fatally shot by Daddy-O during an attempted escape. Teddy becomes completely determined to find a way out. He befriends a couple of locals, including the scruffy, affable Duffy and Krystal, Midget's widow and Angie's sister, who help Teddy arrange an escape plan. Duffy, having been beaten by Daddy-O for breaking 'Rule #3,' nevertheless elects to stay in Woop Woop. Noticing Teddy's romantic interest in Krystal, Angie runs away sobbing and later announces that she is pregnant with twins. As Krystal and Angie's mother lies dying, she advised Teddy that he has a bright future in Woop Woop and that he will replace Daddy-O when the latter dies. She then urges Teddy to come closer and whispers a secret in his ear. Afterwards, Angie asks Teddy what their twins' names should be and he indifferently suggests

Sonny and Cher Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector. The pair first ac ...

. Angie then tries to seduce him, but Teddy, as revenge for earlier, knocks ''her'' out, gags her, and ties her up. During the funeral of Angie's mother, Teddy, Krystal, and Krystal's pet

cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...

climb out of the crater and try to escape in a repaired truck. Angie escapes from her ropes and runs frantically into the funeral with news of the escape attempt. Daddy-O and Angie chase after Teddy and Krystal in Daddy-O's prized kangaroo road-killing pickup truck and are about to catch them when they see the giant kangaroo that Duffy had earlier described from

Aboriginal mythology Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the Aboriginal Australian languages, language groups across Australia in their Aboriginal c ...

. Daddy-O, as he always does when he sees live kangaroos, hits the accelerator and screams, "Farfangulah!" Instead of becoming road kill, the giant kangaroo completely totals Daddy-O's truck. Angie sobs inconsolably as Teddy and Krystal drive away. Krystal admits that she feels bad about Teddy abandoning Angie while she is pregnant, but Teddy explains that the secret their dying mother whispered to him is that Angie's pregnancy is a lie to keep him from choosing Krystal instead. They both drive across the desert to freedom to the sound of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''

You'll never walk alone "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical '' Carousel''. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and e ...

''. More than a decade later, Teddy and Krystal are living in a New York City apartment when, in a

post-credits scene A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually ...

, they unexpectedly are visited by a now teenaged Sonny and Cher.

Cast

* Johnathon Schaech as Teddy * Rod Taylor as Daddy-O * Susie Porter as Angie * Dee Smart as Krystal * Richard Moir as Reggie * Maggie Kirkpatrick as Ginger *

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeare ...

as Blind Wally * Mark Wilson as Duffy *

Paul Mercurio Paul Joseph Mercurio (born 31 March 1963) is an Australian actor, choreographer, dancer, TV presenter and politician. Mercurio is best known for his lead role in the 1992 film ''Strictly Ballroom'' and his role as a judge on TV series ''Danci ...

as Midget * Baden Jones as Leon *

Rachel Griffiths Rachel Anne Griffiths (born 1968) is an Australian actress. List of awards and nominations received by Rachel Griffiths, Her accolades include a Golden Globe Award, three AACTA Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award and four Primetime Em ...

as Sylvia * Tina Louise as Bella *

Felix Williamson Felix Williamson (born 29 May 1969) is an Australian actor. Early life Williamson is the stepson of playwright David Williamson. From age 13–17, he trained at the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, Australia, learning the foundat ...

as Jerome * Chelsea Brown as Maude

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. # " Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" -

Cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

# " There is Nothin' Like a Dame" - Reel Big Fish # "Timebomb" - Chumbawamba # " I Can't Say No" - Poe # "Welcome to Your Life (Woop, Woop)" -

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham a ...

# " I Got You Babe" - Merril Bainbridge and Shaggy # " Bali Ha'i" - Moodswings and

Neneh Cherry Neneh Mariann Karlsson (; born 10 March 1964), better known as Neneh Cherry, is a Swedish singer, songwriter, rapper, occasional disc jockey, and broadcaster. Her musical career started in London in the early 1980s, where she performed in a numb ...

# "Dog's Life" -

eels Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order (biology), order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 Family (biology), families, 164 genus, genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the earl ...

# "

You'll Never Walk Alone "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical '' Carousel''. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and e ...

" - Robin S. # " Climb Every Mountain" - Peggy Wood and Junior Vasquez

Release

Critical reception

Elliot's earlier film release, ''

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens (played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) and a transgender woman (Terence S ...

'', had been a

1994 Cannes Film Festival The 47th Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 23 May 1994. American filmmaker and actor Clint Eastwood served as jury president for the main competition. French actress Jeanne Moreau hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. American fil ...

hit. The uncompleted ''Welcome to Woop Woop'' was screened "out of competition" at the

1997 Cannes Film Festival The 50th Cannes Film Festival took place from 7 to 18 May 1997. French actress Isabelle Adjani served as jury president for the main competition. Jeanne Moreau hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The Palme d'Or was jointly awarded to Iran ...

, an experience Elliott described as "excruciating". Australian film critic Michael Adams later included ''Welcome to Woop Woop'' on his list of the worst ever Australian films, along with '' Phantom Gold'', '' The Glenrowan Affair'', '' Houseboat Horror'', '' The Pirate Movie'', '' Les Patterson Saves the World'' and '' Pandemonium''. It has become a cult classic in the years following its release, notably loved by

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and has received List of awards ...

Box office

''Welcome to Woop Woop'' grossed $489,725 at the box office in Australia.''Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office''
/ref>

References

External links

* * *
Welcome to Woop Woop at the National Film and Sound Archive''Welcome to Woop Woop''
at Oz Movies * {{DEFAULTSORT:Welcome To Woop Woop 1997 films Australian adventure comedy films 1997 independent films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Stephan Elliott 1990s adventure comedy films Films about cults Films based on American novels Films set in the Northern Territory Films set in New York City Films shot in the Northern Territory Films shot in Oregon Australian independent films The Samuel Goldwyn Company films Films scored by Guy Gross 1997 comedy films Films set in the Outback English-language independent films English-language adventure comedy films