Osmosis Jones Information

Osmosis Jones is a 2001 live-action/animated comedy film directed by Tom Sito and Piet Kroon for the animated segments and the Farrelly brothers for the live-action ones. Unusual in this genre, the animated characters are inside the live-action ones.

It is set in a fictionalized version of the human body in which resembles a large city, where micro-organisms or any being based in organisms are anthropomorphic and centers on Frank Detorre, a slovenly zookeeper. Osmosis Jones, a white blood cell teams up with Drix, a cold pill, against Thrax, a deadly virus, who plans to kill Frank within a matter of hours and other characters living within him.

It met with mixed reviews, and was a failure at the box office, earning under $14 million against a budget of $70 million. Despite the lack of accolades, the film sold well in home media. It spawned a Saturday morning cartoon television show, Ozzy & Drix, which aired on Kids WB from 2002 to 2004, albeit being completely animated and more emphasis on Osmosis and Drix's partnership in a different body. Limited merchandise was created due to the film's financial failure.

Plot

Frank Detorre is a widowed, slovenly zookeeper in Rhode Island's Sucat Memorial Zoo, which upsets his young daughter, Shane. He eats compulsively unhealthily and has no regard for germs or disease. While trying to eat a hard-boiled egg with mayonnaise and salt before a chimpanzee drops it in its filth, Frank picks it up and eats it, using the "ten second rule" as a justification for the unsanitary act.

Inside Frank's body, Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones, an agent of the FPD, is a funny, adventure-seeking white blood cell and a rebel cop, frequently disobeying authority to do what he thinks is right. He grew up poor on the "South Side" of Frank and is often mocked by his fellow cops due to his rebellious nature. He has been relocated to the mouth to fight against germs entering the body via ingestion after he induced Frank to vomit all over Shane's teacher, Mrs. Boyd, which was considered a false alarm because he had been the only one to suspect an incoming pathological threat. After several newcomer germs, believed to be gingivitis, hijack a "squad car" there, Ozzy and his senior partner, who is piloting their helicopter, are pulled into the lungs by a massive yawn while in pursuit. After the germs evade capture and pass into "Immunity's" jurisdiction, Ozzy disobeys direct orders while pursuing the germ on foot and accidentally triggers a major cramp in Frank's leg.

Meanwhile, as Frank's saliva cells work in the mouth to clear out the egg, a virus named Thrax emerges and goes to the left armpit to recruit some sweat germs for his big plan to launch a deadly infection with posing as a common cold while plotting something bigger. Meanwhile, Mayor Phlegmming is preparing for re-election, campaigning with the promise of more junk food and a trip to Buffalo, New York. His reckless policies are largely responsible for Frank's deteriorating health. In an attempt to cover up the severity of situation, Phlegmming "tells" to take a cold-suppressant pill which nicknamed Drix (short for Drixobenzometapetramine and his brand name Drixenol), arrives in the body and covers Frank's infected throat with a disinfectant to soothe the irritation. Ozzy is assigned as Drix's partner, much to his chagrin.

In the nose, Thrax starts his plan by flooding the nose with snot after Jones accidentally let a pollen ball get away. Back at Cerebellum Hall, the mayor threatens to send Jones down the next nosebleed if he can't keep quiet about a virus in the body. While Drix is offered a different partner, he decides to stay with Ozzy who has bad times and discovers why. Years ago, Frank ate some oysters off a kid's project at his daughter's science fair. Jones saw some remaining bacteria emerge, but feeling there wasn't time to call for back up, he instead hit the "puke" button. The results were bad: Frank lost his job, the teacher he puked on issued a 200-yard restraining order, and Osmosis got suspended and has been placed on out-of-the-way patrols ever since. Drix says that Jones was justified in his decision as oysters are a breeding ground for dangerous bacteria of any type.

They later learn from a reformed Influenza germ that Thrax is more dangerous than the average germ. His current whereabouts are a zit on the forehead. Posing as germs, Ozzy and Drix enter and discover Thrax's plot to overheat Frank's body, killing him from the inside. He wants to become the nastiest new virus, attempting to kill each new victim faster than the previous. His plan for Frank's death within 48 hours, breaking all of his previous records. Ozzy and Drix confront him in The Zit, where Ozzy launches a grenade of medication at him and his cronies, popping the skin blemish, killing nearly all of his men, and seemingly ending his siege. Frank, meanwhile, tries to persuade Mrs. Boyd to lift the restraining order so he can go on a school camping trip with Shane, but the zit pops onto her lip, making her refusal official. Back at the precinct, Phlegmming (over the objections of the police chief) argues with Ozzy and Drix who are fired, and ordered to leave Frank's body, respectively. (Ozzy loses his gun and badge).

Thrax survives the explosion and, after killing off his remaining henchman for suggesting they lay low until they recruit help in larger numbers, decides to launch a lone assault on Frank's hypothalamus gland (the portion of the brain that controls temperature) by disabling its self-regulative capabilities. Arriving there, he uses his virus infecting finger to destroy the protoplasmic barrier around it, and retrieve a DNA bead. Soon after, Leah Estrogen, the mayor's less-oblivious secretary and Ozzy's love interest, discovers his work and alerts security. He manages to evade them; taking Leah hostage and escaping from the brain to the mouth. At the same time, Ozzy, in a movie theater showing dreams from the brain, discovers that Thrax is alive and in the brain when the screen colors turn a feverish red, and the dream he's watching becomes a nightmare with everyone laughing at Frank. He rushes to stop Drix from leaving the body and manages to convince him to help stop Thrax once and for all. Meanwhile, the temperature continues to rise, causing destruction all over the City of Frank.

Frank is taken to the hospital under the influence of Thrax's attack. Ozzy and Drix rescue Leah and confront him, who leaves Frank's mouth after causing confusion using pollen bombs. Ozzy is launched out after him by Drix. They fight for the DNA chain on one of Shane's eyes and end up in her false eyelashes, which she was wearing atop her natural ones. During the fight, Thrax threatens to break his own record by killing off Shane, but Osmosis causes him to get stuck on the false eyelash and escapes onto Shane's eye while Thrax falls into a vessel of alcohol below, where he dissolves.

During this time, the situation becomes even more dangerous when the temperature hits 108 degrees, causing Frank to go into cardiac arrest. Just as doctors give up, he is revived when Ozzy returns to him via one of Shane's tears with the chain that holds Frank's missing hypothalamus chromosome. Ozzy is reinstated into the "Immunity Force" with full privileges, he and Drix are declared heroes with the Chief of Police (Joel Silver) rehiring him, and Leah tells Ozzy that she loves him. Drix is allowed to stay in Frank's body with him. (Ozzy plans to get Drix a lawyer at the hemorrhoid in order to extend Drix's time in the body).

Sometime later, Frank and Shane spend some long needed father-daughter time together on a hike. Frank has also since begun to improve his diet and personal hygiene. Meanwhile, Phlegmming has lost his position as mayor and now has a new job, cleaning the bowels as a janitor, giving his campaign rival, Tom Colconic, the role as mayor to make a new clean Frank. He accidentally ejects himself from the body via the rectum by touching a button that is marked "DO NOT TOUCH!" which triggers flatulence. To this, Frank makes a joke on his health by saying, "Out with the old, in with the new."

Cast

Animation

• Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones (Chris Rock):

A funky, urban, over-zealous white blood cell (specifically a natural killer cell) with little respect for authority. Since he was discredited, he was suspended for unnecessary force and placed in out-of-the-way patrols. Therefore he seizes any opportunity to be able to make a difference. He is able to combine his eyes into one, to ooze under doors, and to contort his body. He is blue.

• Thrax (Laurence Fishburne):

A tall, extremely virulent, and unusually powerful pathogenic agent. He claims loudly, "Ebola is a case of dandruff compared to me!", and has killed numerous people before arriving in Frank. He carries a chain consisting of numerous chromosomes removed from other victims' hypothalamus as a trophy. His left index finger is a long claw, which can melt the cellular equivalent of steel, consume cells and other viruses in flames, and alter the properties of other cells. Thrax is referred to as "The Red Death" but does not cause an existing disease. His name is a play on the bacteria anthrax.

• Drix (David Hyde Pierce):

A cold pill and a red and yellow, boxy, and robotic. His right arm is a cannon used to shoot an assorted variety of medication, including one that freezes any target. He is a follower of written rules and compensates for his doubts of himself by acting haughtily. He is intelligent and clever, but has no sense of humor. Straight-laced and by-the-book, he disagrees with Osmosis' methods, but respects him for continuing to fight illness. He is his best friend.

• Leah Estrogen (Brandy Norwood):

Mayor Phlegmming's secretary, greatly relied upon by him for her skills. She is one of few inhabitants of Frank who realize the flaws of the current administration, and one of the few willing to believe Osmosis' claims of a large-scale infection. She is his love interest.

• Mayor Phlegmming (William Shatner):

The short, overweight, and self-centered mayor of the "City of Frank". He is constantly preoccupied with everything but his job, except when it concerns planning his re-election. His name is a pun on the word phlegm.

Live action

• Mrs. Boyd (Molly Shannon):

Shane's science and P.E. teacher. Having had her reputation and those of her three children ruined after her embarrassment by a vomiting accident Frank caused due to a misunderstanding about oyster consumption, she has a 200-yard restraining order against him to prevent any further embarrassment.

• Shane Detorre (Elena Franklin):

Frank's 10-year-old daughter. Due to her father's shortcomings, his health is very important to her. She has become somewhat depressed after her mother's death, and as a result her grades and relationships with other people are suffering.

• Bob Detorre (Chris Elliott):

Frank's brother and coworker, who got him his job at the zoo.

• Frank Detorre (Bill Murray):

A 40-year-old widower who works as a zookeeper. He is prone to eating junk food, behaves laconically, and disregards his health. It's inside his body that the animated part of the film takes place.