The Gods Must Be Crazy

"The critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop!"

1980 1h 49m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 1,375

ActionComedy

Synopsis

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A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.

“The critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop!”

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Cast

Marius Weyers
Andrew Steyn
Sandra Prinsloo
Kate Thompson
N!xau
Xi
Louw Verwey
Sam Boga
Michael Thys
Mpudi
Nic De Jager
Jack Hind
Fanyana H. Sidumo
Card 1
Joe Seakatsie
Card 2

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jamie Uys
Writers: Jamie Uys
Languages: Tswana, English, Afrikaans
Countries: South Africa, Botswana

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $200M — a 40.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

46 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Tswana, English, Afrikaans.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: South Africa, Botswana.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Gods Must Be Crazy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Jamie Uys, shot by Buster Reynolds. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Boshoff. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jamie Uys shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jamie Uys directs. Buster Reynolds behind the camera. John Boshoff scores. Jamie Uys cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in South Africa, Botswana. Dialogue in Tswana, English, Afrikaans.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $200M — a 40.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
246 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Tswana, English, Afrikaans.
4International production across 2 countries: South Africa, Botswana.
5Part of the "The Gods Must Be Crazy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Jamie Uys, shot by Buster Reynolds. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by John Boshoff. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Jamie Uys shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo and N!xau carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop!".
11IMDB entry: tt0080801 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 11 themes, including "airplane", "africa", "tribe", "botswana".
13Released under 23 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Buster Reynolds
Original score: John Boshoff
Editing: Jamie Uys
Costume design: Mij Reynolds
Makeup / hair: Olga Lombard
Runtime: 109 min · 1h 49m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,000,000
Box office: $200,000,000
Return: 4000% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

Part of

The Gods Must Be Crazy Collection

The Gods Must Be Crazy Collection chronicles the comic adventures of a Kalahari Bushman named Xixo as his world is invaded by modern civilisation. In TGMBC 1 Xixo's life is thrown into turmoil by an object the gods must have sent from the sky (a Coke bottle), a bumbling scientist and a band of revolutionaries. In TGMBC 2 the comedy involves a poacher's truck that his children accidentally stow away in, a city lawyer and scientist whose plane crashes in the desert and two soldiers from opposite sides of a brewing war, all of whom cross paths with Xixo to hilarious ends.

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Jamie Uys

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Peter McGinn2020-10-05
★ 9/10
This is another one of those older movies my wife and I watched together over twenty years ago, and then recently watched again. We enjoyed it just as much as we did the first time. I had forgotten a lot of the details, so that was actually a good thing as it wasn’t overly familiar to me, like watching Groundhog Day yet again would be. The tag line suggests that the laughs never stop, but that isn’t quite accurate. There are a lot of laugh out loud moments, mostly physical humor, and plenty of pockets of humor here and there, but there are also connecting scenes that set up the plot lines and transition from one to another. There are three main plots that thread together and keep the viewers on their toes. The writer/director apparently put in months of long days without a break putting this together, and his effort was rightly rewarded with great success at the box office. Oddly enough, I didn’t recognize any of his other work, except for the more tepid sequel to this modern classic comedy..
CinemaSerf2026-09-18
★ 7/10
"Xi" (N!xau) lives with his tribe on the edge of the Kalahari desert much the way his ancestors have for generations until one of their number discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle. We know it had recently been rather thoughtlessly chucked out of an aircraft window by it's pilot, but they think it might be a gift from the gods. It is a curious and smooth shape, and it even has it's uses for helping to cure snake skins, but gradually it becomes more of a bone of contention so "Xi" decides it's time to give it back. How, though? Well perhaps a trip to the edge of the world might be in order? Enthusiastically, off he sets and along the way encounters biologist "Steyn" (Marius Weyers); schoolteacher "Kate" (Sandra Prinsloo) and also finds himself embroiled with the manic activities of a would-be revolutionary who wants to take her and her children hostage, whilst she has to deal with the hapless and love-struck scientist who goes to pieces every time he sets eyes on her. What ensues now has something of the "Airplane" - if it can go wrong it will - to it, only this time with some added pith from dead-pan narrator Paddy O'Byrne that nicely augments a series of daft antics set amongst the wilderness and it's hungry wildlife. Sure, there are stereotypes galore but I reckoned that was the point. By taking the almost childlike perspective of "Xi", it's actually quite entertaining to look at just how the uninitiated approach the mod-con world of the "West". Some of our gadgets - like jeeps and planes - can only be compared to their nearest animal equivalents; others appear completely useless - and there's some fun to be had as he experiences things for the first time throughout his journey. This isn't presented in any kind of condescending fashion though and auteur Jamie Uys isn't trying to suggest "Xi" is a fool, merely that he compares what he sees with what he knows and often concludes that nature has already provided better than science or mankind. This is also quite keen to send up all things colonial and military too and though it is a bit on the long side, it manages to use parody to question just what does constitute "civilisation" - only in the style of a couple of episodes of "Daktari" stitched together by Laurel and Hardy. It's quirkiness makes it worth a look, but you'd need to leave your political correctness glasses outside if you're to get anything from it.