Australia’s high-impact answer to Marlin Perkins moves from the Animal Planet channel to the big screen in this wild and wooly comedy-drama. Conservationist and hyper-enthusiastic outdoorsman Steve Irwin (playing himself) and his wife and partner Terri (Terri Irwin) spend their days monitoring wildlife in the rugged plains of Australia, with Steve rarely passing up an opportunity to go head to head with a rambunctious animal who could seemingly kill him without breaking a sweat.
Steve has learned that a rogue crocodile has been attacking the livestock of Brozzie Drewitt (Magda Szubanski), an eccentric rancher with no love for the big reptiles. Steve has decided to capture the troublesome crocodile and take it to safer waters, but as it turns out, the beast has been eating more than Brozzie’s cattle — the grapefruit-sized remnant of an American spy satellite has crashed to Earth in Australia, and the hungry crocodile has swallowed it whole.
A pair of serious-minded but half-bright CIA agents, Vaughan (Kenneth Ransom) and Wheeler (Lachy Hulme), have been ordered to recover the satellite, which still has highly important data inside, and when they discover Steve has the croc with the satellite in its belly, they’re convinced Steve and Terri are international spies, and they set out to wrestle the big critter away from him, which is no simple task. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course was directed by John Stainton, who directed most of Irwin’s television documentaries; Stainton reportedly never had Irwin read the script, so he would give a more naturalistic and spontaneous performance with the film’s animal cast.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is a 2002 adventure comedy film based on the nature documentary series The Crocodile Hunter. It stars Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin and was directed by frequent Irwin collaborator John Stainton. The film was released in between the 4th and 5th seasons of the series. The film follows Steve and Terri who attempt to save a crocodile from “poachers” not knowing that the two men are actually American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents who are after them because the crocodile in the Irwins’ possession has accidentally swallowed an important satellite tracking beacon.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002)
Directed by: John Stainton
Starring: Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Magda Szubanski, David Wenham, Lachy Hulme, Aden Young, Kate Beahan, Alyson Standen, David Franklin, Robert Coleby
Screenplay by: John Stainton, Holly Goldberg Sloan
Production Design by: Jon Dowding
Cinematography by: David Burr
Film Editing by: Suresh Ayyar, Bob Blasdall
Costume Design by: Jean Marashlian, Jean Turnbull
Set Decoration by: Chrissy Feld
Art Direction by: Jon Dowding
Music by: Mark McDuff
MPAA Rating: PG for action violence/peril and mild language.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (United States), 20th Century Fox (international)
Release Date: July 12, 2002
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