FUBAR (film)

FUBAR is a 2002 Canadian comedy film directed by Michael Dowse and written by Dave Lawrence, Dowse and Paul Spence, following the lives of two lifelong friends and head-bangers, Terry Cahill and Dean Murdoch. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Since its release, it has gained a cult status in North America, particularly in Western Canada.

Filmed and set in and around Edmonton, Alberta, it was shot on a Canon XL1, on a shoestring budget; Lawrence maxed out his credit card, and his father refinanced their family home, to complete it.

The film features characters created by Lawrence and Paul Spence that they developed based on the head-banger subculture. Terry Cahill, one of the main characters, played by Lawrence, was based on a character he created at Loose Moose Theatre in the mid-'90s. Many people who appear in the movie (including the fist-fighters) were bystanders who thought that the filmmakers were shooting a documentary on the common man. FUBAR did not have a fully-written script, only a rough outline from which the actors improvised.