Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is a 2008 American stoner film, and the second installment of the Harold & Kumar series. The film was written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.

The story continues where Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle leaves off, with Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) flying to Amsterdam, but they are imprisoned after being mistaken for terrorists, and end up on a series of comical misadventures when they escape from Guantanamo Bay. The film also stars Paula Garcés, Neil Patrick Harris, Jon Reep, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms, David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jack Conley, Roger Bart, Danneel Harris, Eric Winter, Adam Herschman, and Richard Christy.

The film was released on April 25, 2008, by Warner Bros.; this film was the first New Line Cinema title to be distributed by Warner Bros. since New Line Cinema became a division of Warner Bros. It is also the first Harold & Kumar film made in association with Mandate Pictures. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 29, 2008.

Plot
After returning home from White Castle, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel decide to travel to Amsterdam, Netherlands so Harold can surprise his neighbor and newfound girlfriend Maria. At the airport, Kumar argues with a TSA agent for searching him “because of the color of his skin” despite the agent being black. The duo encounter Kumar's ex-girlfriend Vanessa Fanning, who is engaged to Colton Graham, a college friend of Harold's whose family has political connections. The plane passengers mistake Kumar's bong for a bomb and the duo are apprehended by sky marshals. Ron Fox, a neurotic and extremely racist Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, believes the duo are agents of a joint Al-Qaeda and North Korean conspiracy and send them to Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. After narrowly avoiding a sexual assault by a guard at the detention camp, Harold and Kumar escape and board a Cuban refugee boat to Miami, Florida where they begin their trek to Texas, hoping Colton can clear their names.

Harold and Kumar endure several misadventures on their way to Texas, such as staying at the home of an incestuous sibling couple and their inbred son; escaping a Ku Klux Klan rally; and visiting a brothel with Neil Patrick Harris, who helps them evade capture from Fox but is shot. When they reach Texas, Colton agrees to help exonerate the duo. However, upon seeing Kumar reconnect with Vanessa, Colton instead delivers Harold and Kumar to Fox. On the flight back to Cuba, Harold and Kumar subdue Fox’s men. When Fox tries confronting them, he is knocked out by Dr. John Beecher (the Vice Chairman of the NSA) after Fox repeatedly treated him poorly. Dr. Beecher accidentally loses his footing, opens a door and falls to his death. Harold and Kumar escape via parachute, and Fox falls to his death while pursuing them. Harold and Kumar land in President George W. Bush's estate. After smoking cannabis with Harold and Kumar, Bush pardons them. Harold and Kumar are escorted to Vanessa and Colton's wedding by the Secret Service. They then expose Colton's betrayal to Vanessa and the guests. Colton attempts to attack them, but Harold punches him out. Kumar consoles a furious Vanessa by reciting a poem he wrote for her in college; they reconcile. Harold, Kumar, and Vanessa travel to Amsterdam where Harold finds Maria, and the couples happily tour the city together while getting high on cannabis.

Soundtrack
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: Original Soundtrack was released on April 15, 2008. It contains 13 songs used in the film.

Songs that appear in the film, but are not on the soundtrack album, include:
 * Track list
 * 1) "Ooh Wee (Remix)" – Mark Ronson featuring Nate Dogg, Ghostface Killah, Trife, and Saigon
 * 2) "My Bag" – Mickey Avalon
 * 3) "Cappuccino" – The Knux
 * 4) "Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)" – Ice Cube
 * 5) "My Stoney Baby" – 311
 * 6) "Chinese Baby" – Viva la Union*
 * 7) "Nothin' But a Good Time" – Poison
 * 8) "Pussy (Real Good)" – Jacki-O
 * 9) "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" – Boyz II Men
 * 10) "In the Beginning" – K'Naan
 * 11) "Gospel Weed Song" – Bizarre
 * 12) "All That I Want" – Curtis Murphy Syndicate
 * 13) "The Merkin Medley" – George S. Clinton
 * 14) "I Love My Sex" – Benny Benassi
 * 1) "Whiplash" – Metallica
 * 2) "Something About That Woman"–- Lakeside
 * 3) "I Love Ganja" – Rastaman Ivan
 * 4) "Sippin' on Dat" – Victor Rubio
 * 5) "The Donque Song" – will.i.am featuring Snoop Dogg
 * 6) "Mr. Shadowmaker" – Jeff Cardoni
 * 7) "Toca Me Lo" – Lucci & Cruz
 * 8) "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" – Elvin Bishop
 * 9) "Laugh at Us" – Transcenders
 * 10) "Danger Zone" – Kenny Loggins
 * 11) "Hey Joe" – Jimi Hendrix
 * 12) "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" – Belinda Carlisle
 * 13) "I've Been Around Too Long" – Marmalade
 * 14) "Stick It" – Great White


 * Vito Altamura (Harold) is the lead singer of Viva la Union and wrote the song "Chinese Baby" from this soundtrack.

Development
Hurwitz and Schlossberg—who wrote the original Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle—were to direct the follow-up from their original script. On January 31, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter announced that David Krumholtz, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry, Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Paula Garces, Jack Conley, Roger Bart, Danneel Harris, and Eric Winter will join John Cho and Kal Penn in Harold & Kumar 2.

Filming
Filming began in the third week of January 2007 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Filming concluded in March 2007, after which Kal Penn was able to start guest teaching some courses at University of Pennsylvania for their Spring 2008 semester.

Post-production
Warner Bros.' spokesman said that this film was originally produced as a direct-to-video film until a decision was made to release it theatrically.

The film cost $12 million to make.

Promotion
In October 2007, a "coming soon" poster featuring Neil Patrick Harris began circulating on the Internet. Showing Harris astride a unicorn, the advertisement poses the question "What would NPH do?"

Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 52% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It may not equal its predecessor, but Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is still good for some laughs -- and food for thought." Metacritic reported the film had an average weighted score of 57 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"".

Daily Variety declared it "Animal House meets Dr. Strangelove" and called it "one of the ballsiest comedies to come out of Hollywood in a long time." The Guardian (which rated the movie 7 out of 10) noted that despite having a "total nonsense" story, its screening was "one of the most raucous screenings I've ever attended. Even the opening credits were wildly applauded, and much of the dialog was inaudible over the laughter."

Not all reviews were so glowing; Richard Roeper of At the Movies lamented that although he enjoyed the "pot-fueled laughs and the sheer energetic lunacy of the original, I was really let down by this uninspired sequel." The New York Daily News said that "the movie forgets to stay true to their characters or to itself." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote that you "find yourself smiling at some of the bits, wincing through many, many others, and ultimately wondering if the pacing would've improved had either H or K developed a terrible cocaine habit." Amnesty International USA commented by saying that "Guantanamo is no joke." They have encouraged their membership to hand out fliers at movie theater screenings to promote awareness about the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $14.9 million in 2,510 theaters, in the United States and Canada, averaging $5,939 per theater and ranking #2 at the box office behind Baby Mama. The film performed much better at the box office than its predecessor which grossed $23.9 million worldwide after opening at #7 in the United States and Canada with $5.4 million. As of July 17, the international theatrical gross stood at $43,327,445. The US DVD Sales totaled $23,872,890 as of 22 March 2009. The budget of the film was $12 million.

Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc July 29, 2008 featuring a single-disc theatrical edition, an unrated edition, or a 2-disc unrated edition. The unrated edition was featured for Blu-ray disc. The 2-disc version features a "dude change the movie" feature which lets the viewer access alternate scenes and an alternate ending including "Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam". By February 2009, the film had earned $24,255,691 from DVD sales in the United States. By 2013, the DVD release had sold 1,231,397 units and grossed $24,948,849 in the United States. The film went on to gross $30,395,809 in DVD sales.

Sequel
Kal Penn and John Cho returned in their title roles in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Danneel Harris reprised her role of Vanessa and Paula Garces returned as Maria. Neil Patrick Harris also returned for a cameo in this sequel. Eddie Kaye Thomas and Bobby Lee also reprised their roles from the previous films. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas was released on November 4, 2011.
 * US: New Line Cinema
 * UK: Warner Bros. Pictures/Pathé Pictures