# Up in Smoke
**Up in Smoke** (released as *Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke*) is a 1978 American comedy film directed by [Lou Adler](https://www.edgepedia.org/lou-adler) and starring the comedy duo [Cheech Marin](https://www.edgepedia.org/cheech-marin) and [Tommy Chong](https://www.edgepedia.org/tommy-chong), whose characters drift through Los Angeles and Tijuana in search of marijuana and end up unknowingly smuggling a van made of the drug across the Mexican border. It was the feature film debut of both comedians and is widely credited with launching the stoner comedy genre.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) • [2](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-46-first-release/systematically-stoned-the-stoner-film-as-genre/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 29 September 1978; R-rated comedy, 87 minutes, distributed by Paramount Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) |
| Director and writers | Produced and directed by Lou Adler; written by Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) |
| Origin | Based on the duo's stand-up comedy act; Adler discovered them at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles in the early 1970s[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) |
| Budget troubles | Paramount supplied the initial $1 million budget but refused an additional $800,000; Adler finished the film with his own money[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) |
| Box office | More than $44 million in theaters, one of the biggest hits of 1978 and the most successful of the eight Cheech and Chong films[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jun-27-la-et-mn-up-in-smoke-cheech-chong-film-independent-20130626-story.html) |
| Genre standing | Called "the first stoner comedy"; critics write that "Cheech & Chong created the genre"[2](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-46-first-release/systematically-stoned-the-stoner-film-as-genre/) |
| Reception | 45% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (20 reviews) against an 82% audience score; a Metascore of 57 on Metacritic[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_smoke_1978) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
Cheech Marin plays Pedro de Pacas, an unemployed Chicano who picks up Tommy Chong's character, an unemployed slacker and amateur drummer, in his low-rider van. The two are arrested for marijuana possession, released on a technicality, and drift through a string of misadventures before competing in a battle of the bands at Los Angeles's Roxy Theatre, where they perform the song "[Earache My Eye](https://www.edgepedia.org/earache-my-eye)."[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_smoke_1978) The central device has Pedro and Chong's character, deported to Mexico, agreeing to drive a van constructed entirely of marijuana back across the border to Los Angeles while the narcotics officer Sgt. Stedenko ([Stacy Keach](https://www.edgepedia.org/stacy-keach)) pursues them.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/)
The supporting cast includes [Tom Skerritt](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-skerritt) as [Strawberry](https://www.edgepedia.org/strawberry), a [Vietnam veteran](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-veteran) having flashbacks; Strother Martin and Edie Adams as Chong's parents; and June Fairchild as a woman who snorts a line of Ajax cleaning powder by mistake.[6](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/up-in-smoke/) Chong's character is listed as "The Man" in the onscreen credits but is called "Anthony" and "Alex" by different characters in the film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239)
## Production
The film grew out of Marin and Chong's stand-up act. Adler, their manager, had discovered the duo at the [Troubadour](https://www.edgepedia.org/troubadour) in the early 1970s, and before their film debut they had made five comedy albums that sold more than ten million copies.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) The project was originally titled *Pedro and the Man* and was set up at Toonerville Films; principal photography began on 2 May 1977 in Los Angeles on a seven-week schedule.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239)
**Financing nearly sank the film.** Paramount provided the initial $1 million production budget but refused to invest the additional $800,000 needed to complete it, so Adler used his own money. According to a 2005 report, Paramount's president at the time, [Michael Eisner](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-eisner), was unhappy with the film after seeing a rough cut, and Adler bought it back from the studio. After a finished cut screened to enthusiastic audience reaction, Eisner changed his mind and Paramount released it.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239) Adler, a record producer, was directing a film for the first time, as were his two stars; he later recalled forgetting to call "action" on the first setup.[7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cheech-and-chong-up-in-smoke-40-years-later/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i) Adler's original title for the film was *Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit*.[8](https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/an-oral-history-of-up-in-smoke-on-its-40th-anniversary)
## Genre significance
Marijuana had appeared on screen long before 1978: a cowboy smokes the first on-screen joint in *Notch Number One* (1924), the anti-drug propaganda film *Reefer Madness* followed in 1936, and *Easy Rider* (1969) depicted drug use within the broader counterculture. *Up in Smoke* was the film that first presented marijuana in comedy as its central subject, and genre scholars Halperin and Bloom call it "the first stoner comedy," adding that "Cheech & Chong created the genre."[2](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-46-first-release/systematically-stoned-the-stoner-film-as-genre/) The Guardian similarly describes it as "the first true stoner comedy, built on routines honed as veterans of the post-hippie standup circuit."[9](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/25/back-with-a-bong-why-we-need-stoner-movies-more-than-ever) In the genre's formula, the stoner is an endearing figure rather than a menace, and the illegality of marijuana is largely sidestepped.[2](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-46-first-release/systematically-stoned-the-stoner-film-as-genre/)
The film's success shaped the genre's conventions, and later stoner comedies such as *[Half Baked](https://www.edgepedia.org/half-baked)* (1998) and *Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle* (2004) are routinely placed in its lineage.[10](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/57370/1/37.pdf) The LA Weekly history of the genre states that *Up in Smoke* "set the framework for the stoner film" and notes it as the first instance of women getting high in a big-name Hollywood movie.[11](https://www.laweekly.com/the-evolution-and-revolutions-of-the-stoner-film/)
## Reception and legacy
Contemporary reviews were mixed. [Variety](https://www.edgepedia.org/variety-magazine) found the film lacking "cohesiveness in both humor and characterization" and wrote that director Lou Adler let it degenerate into "a mixture of fitful slapstick and toilet humor."[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/) Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called it "fairly consistently funny."[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/) On aggregate measures the split persists: 45% among critics on Rotten Tomatoes against an 82% audience score, and a Metacritic Metascore of 57 based on 11 reviews.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_smoke_1978) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/)
Commercially the film was a major hit, earning more than $44 million and ranking among the biggest films of 1978; it remained the most successful of the eight films Cheech and Chong made together.[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jun-27-la-et-mn-up-in-smoke-cheech-chong-film-independent-20130626-story.html) The Los Angeles Times has called it "the granddaddy of stoner movies" and credits it with influencing drug-fueled slacker comedies over the following decades.[3](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jun-27-la-et-mn-up-in-smoke-cheech-chong-film-independent-20130626-story.html) A contemporary government study of drug imagery in film noted that the advertising for *Up in Smoke* encouraged drug use with slogans such as "Don't go straight to see this movie" and "Just what we all need—a really good hit."[12](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/147278NCJRS.pdf)
The film's cultural footprint has endured. The Grammy Museum mounted an exhibit, *Cheech & Chong: Still Rollin'—Celebrating 40 Years Of Up In Smoke*, curated with Lou Adler, for its 40th anniversary.[13](https://grammymuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cheech-and-Chong-Announcement_FINAL-b8967c1ec5.pdf) Pop-culture histories credit the film with launching the stoner comedy genre, which portrays marijuana mainly as harmless and humorous.[14](https://www.startribune.com/pot-in-pop-culture-through-the-ages/601860634) In a 2025 interview, the Associated Press described the duo's films, including *Up in Smoke*, as having made them "ubiquitous stoner archetypes."[15](https://apnews.com/article/d23255357a07f204129b29ed83e1116f)
## References
1. [Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56239)
2. [Systematically Stoned: The Stoner Film as Genre, Screening the Past](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-46-first-release/systematically-stoned-the-stoner-film-as-genre/)
3. [Film Independent at LACMA goes 'Up in Smoke' on July 25, Los Angeles Times (2013)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jun-27-la-et-mn-up-in-smoke-cheech-chong-film-independent-20130626-story.html)
4. [Up in Smoke (1978), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_smoke_1978)
5. [Up in Smoke, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-in-smoke/)
6. [Review: Up in Smoke, Slant Magazine (2007)](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/up-in-smoke/)
7. [Cheech & Chong's "Up in Smoke," 40 years later, CBS News (2018)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cheech-and-chong-up-in-smoke-40-years-later/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i)
8. [An Oral History of 'Up In Smoke' on Its 40th Anniversary, Leafly](https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/an-oral-history-of-up-in-smoke-on-its-40th-anniversary)
9. [Back with a bong: why we need stoner movies more than ever, The Guardian (2014)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/25/back-with-a-bong-why-we-need-stoner-movies-more-than-ever)
10. [Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control](https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/57370/1/37.pdf)
11. [The Evolution and Revolutions of the Stoner Film, LA Weekly (2018)](https://www.laweekly.com/the-evolution-and-revolutions-of-the-stoner-film/)
12. [Drug imagery in film, National Criminal Justice Reference Service](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/147278NCJRS.pdf)
13. [Cheech & Chong: Still Rollin'—Celebrating 40 Years Of Up In Smoke, Grammy Museum](https://grammymuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cheech-and-Chong-Announcement_FINAL-b8967c1ec5.pdf)
14. [A brief history of cannabis in pop culture, Minnesota Star Tribune](https://www.startribune.com/pot-in-pop-culture-through-the-ages/601860634)
15. [Cheech and Chong ride once more, Associated Press (2025)](https://apnews.com/article/d23255357a07f204129b29ed83e1116f)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1970s › Released 1977 to 1979*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license