Ace Ventura: Pet Detective


Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994 American comedy film starring Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, an animal detective who is tasked with finding the abducted dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team. The film is directed by Tom Shadyac, who wrote the screenplay with Jack Bernstein and Carrey. The film co-stars Courteney Cox, Tone Loc, Sean Young, and then–Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and features a cameo appearance from death metal band Cannibal Corpse.
Morgan Creek Productions produced the film on a budget of, and Warner Bros. released the film on February 4, 1994. It grossed $72.2 million in the United States and Canada and $35 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $107.2 million. It received generally unfavorable reviews from critics. However, Carrey's performance led to the film having a cult following among male adolescents. In addition to launching Carrey's film career, it started a franchise, spawning the sequel film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, the animated television series Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and later, standalone made-for-television sequel Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective.

Plot

Ace Ventura, an eccentric and offbeat private detective in Miami, is known for rescuing tame or captive animals and is frequently subjected to mockery from the Miami Police Department. After a Bottlenose dolphin named Snowflake is stolen from Joe Robbie Stadium, Ventura is hired by Melissa Robinson, the Miami Dolphins' beautiful publicist, to find the team's mascot before the upcoming Super Bowl.
Investigating the kidnapping, Ventura finds a rare amber stone in Snowflake's tank, leading him to suspect billionaire Ronald Camp, a collector of exotic animals. Attending a social gala at Camp's mansion with Melissa, Ace searches for the dolphin and instead finds a dangerous man-eating shark. Upon leaving, Ventura notices Camp wearing a 1984 AFC Championship ring that features the same amber stones. He theorizes that a member of the 1984 Dolphins is the culprit, but after investigating the recipients in public events and shower rooms, he discovers all the rings have their stones intact.
Roger Podacter, the Dolphins' head of operations, falls mysteriously to his death from his apartment balcony, and while the police believe it was suicide, Ventura proves it was murder and mocks all the other officers on site. As he and Melissa investigate further, they discover another member of the 1984 team that wasn't on the original roster, a former Dolphins placekicker named Ray Finkle, who missed a 26-yard field goal in the final seconds of Super Bowl XIX, costing the Dolphins the game and ending his career in disgrace.
Realizing that Finkle may be after Melissa next, Ace takes her back to his apartment for protection and they wind up having have sex four times as Ace's pets watch.
The next morning, Ace travels to Finkle's hometown of Collier County and learns from his parents that Ray went insane and blamed quarterback Dan Marino for holding the ball with the laces in prior to the kick. Finkle was committed to a psych ward shortly after being released by the Dolphins, only to escape years later with no clue to his whereabouts. When Marino is subsequently kidnapped as Ace races back to Miami, he suspects Finkle is behind it.
Ace and Melissa visit the psych ward where Finkle escaped, and Ventura discovers a newspaper clipping in Finkle's belongings about a missing hiker named Lois Einhorn. He informs his police detective friend Emilio, who snoops around Einhorn's desk and finds a love letter from Podacter. Ventura realizes that Einhorn is actually Finkle disguised as a woman, which causes him to vomit uncontrollably and burn his clothes since she kissed him days earlier.
On the day of the game, Ventura shadows Einhorn to a yacht storage facility where Marino and Snowflake are being held hostage. As he attempts to free Marino, Einhorn corners him at gunpoint and declares that she will kill both of them and frame Ace for the kidnapping. After Ace pleads with Einhorn to shoot Marino instead of him, he disarms her in a fierce physical struggle, but she regains the upper hand just as other officers arrive on the scene. Einhorn orders them to shoot Ace as the kidnapper, but with help from Marino, he exposes Einhorn's hidden genitals, causing all the other officers, along with Snowflake, to vomit uncontrollably.
Einhorn attempts to stab Ace, but he flips her into the water and removes the AFC Championship ring on her hand, exposing the missing stone which subsequently leads to her arrest.
Marino and Snowflake return to the Super Bowl in time for the second half, and Ace begins a relationship with Melissa as he is hailed a hero on the jumbotron. The event is capped off by Ventura beating up the Philadelphia Eagles mascot Swoop after it chases away a rare albino pigeon he was searching for, earning him a standing ovation from the crowd.

Cast

  • Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, a private investigator who specializes in rescuing and recovering animals
  • Sean Young as Lt. Lois Einhorn / Ray Finkle, a disgraced field goal kicker who underwent a sex change, now a Miami detective seeking revenge against Dan Marino
  • Courteney Cox as Melissa Robinson, the publicist for the Dolphins football team
  • Tone Lōc as Emilio, a police detective connected to Ace
  • Dan Marino as Himself
  • Noble Willingham as Riddle, the owner of the Dolphins
  • John Capodice as Sgt. Aguado, a Miami detective known to hassle Ace
  • Raynor Scheine as Woodstock, a club owner connected to Ace who secretly runs an underground animal activist movement
  • Frank Adonis as Vinnie
  • Tiny Ron as Roc
  • Troy Evans as Roger Podacter, head of operations for the Miami Dolphins
  • Udo Kier as Ronald Camp, a wealthy tycoon known for collecting exotic animals
  • David Margulies as Doctor
  • Bill Zuckert as Mr. Finkle, Ray's father
  • Judy Clayton as Martha Mertz
  • Alice Drummond as Mrs. Finkle, Ray's mother
  • Rebecca Ferratti as Sexy Woman
  • Mark Margolis as Mr. Shickadance, Ace's landlord with a zero-tolerance stance for animals
  • Randall "Tex" Cobb as Gruff Man
  • Cannibal Corpse as themselves

    Production

The chairman and CEO of Morgan Creek Productions, James G. Robinson, in the early 1990s, sought to produce a comedy that would have wide appeal. Gag writer Tom Shadyac pitched a rewrite of the script to Robinson and was hired as director for what was his directorial debut. Filmmakers first approached Rick Moranis to play Ace Ventura, but Moranis declined the role. They then considered casting Judd Nelson or Alan Rickman, and they also considered changing Ace Ventura to be female and casting Whoopi Goldberg as the pet detective. David Alan Grier also turned down the offer to play Ace Ventura. Ultimately Robinson noticed Jim Carrey's performance in the sketch comedy show In Living Color and cast him as Ace Ventura. Lauren Holly turned down the role of Melissa Robinson, which eventually went to Courteney Cox.
Carrey helped rewrite the script, and filmmakers allowed him to improvise on set. Carrey said of his approach, "I knew this movie was going to either be something that people really went for, or it was going to ruin me completely. From the beginning of my involvement, I said that the character had to be rock 'n' roll. He had to be the 007 of pet detectives. I wanted to be unstoppably ridiculous, and they let me go wild." He said he sought comedic moments that would be unappealing to some, "I wanted to keep the action unreal and over the top. When it came time to do my reaction to kissing a man, I wanted it to be the biggest, most obnoxious, homophobic reaction ever recorded. It's so ridiculous it can't be taken seriously—even though it guarantees that somebody's going to be offended."
The death metal band Cannibal Corpse performed their song "Hammer Smashed Face" in the film at the request of Jim Carrey, who personally selected the band for the film; the band originally had scheduling conflicts with a European tour, but the crew adjusted their filming schedule to accommodate the band to be able to participate in the film. Their appearance in the film significantly increased their visibility, attracting a broader audience beyond their typical fan base.
The filming took place in Miami, Florida in the second quarter of 1993. The film was produced on a budget of.

Music

The film score was composed by Ira Newborn. The soundtrack, produced by Morgan Creek Records, included a variety of songs by other musicians.

Release

Warner Bros. released Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in in the United States and Canada on February 4, 1994. The film grossed on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box office and outperforming other new releases My Father the Hero and I'll Do Anything. Opening-weekend audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on a scale of A to F. For its second weekend, it grossed and ranked first at the box office again, outperforming newcomers The Getaway, Blank Check, and My Girl 2. Variety reported of Ace Venturas second weekend in box office performance, "The goofball comedy defied dire predictions by trackers, slipping just 20% for a three-day average of $5,075 and $24.6 million in 10 days." The Los Angeles Times reported, "Audiences are responding enthusiastically to Carrey's frenzied antics... is especially a hit with the 10- to 20-year-old age group it was originally targeted for. Box-office grosses indicate that many fans are going back to see the film again." It grossed in the United States and Canada and in other territories for a worldwide total of. The film's US box office performance led Variety to label it a "sleeper hit". Its best performance overseas was in Italy. On home video, Ace Ventura sold 4.2 million home videos in its first three weeks, which Los Angeles Times called "just as powerful a draw" as its theatrical run.
Carrey also starred in The Mask and Dumb and Dumber later in the year. The three films had a total box office gross of, which ranked Carrey as the second highest-grossing box office star in 1994, behind Tom Hanks.
The Hollywood Reporter said before Ace Ventura, Jim Carrey was "seen mainly as TV talent" and that the film's success "firmly him as a big-screen presence". The film's success also led Morgan Creek Productions to produce the 1995 sequel Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls with Carrey reprising his role. Author Victoria Flanagan wrote that Carrey's performance "generated cult success for the film among adolescent male viewers". The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it "gained a loyal cult following through frequent TV airings". NME wrote in retrospect that the film was a "cult 1990s comedy".
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was released on VHS on June 14, 1994, on DVD on August 26, 1997, and Blu-ray on September 3, 2013, by Warner Home Video. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray in a 25th Anniversary Edition in April 2019. Shout! Studios released the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 29, 2025.