Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson see some action (not that kind) in The Naked Gun trailer

Akiva Schaffer's The Naked Gun premieres in theaters August 1.

By Mary Kate Carr  |  June 16, 2025 | 11:10am
Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures
Film News The Naked Gun
Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson see some action (not that kind) in The Naked Gun trailer

The new Naked Gun trailer opens with an argument in favor of Liam Neeson playing the lead, in case you weren’t already on board. He’s seen in full Taken mode, rushing to enact justice and facing down a villain over dramatic music. “Once you kill a man for revenge, there’s no going back,” he warns. “A voice in your head saying over and over… that was awesome.” Taken mode gets flipped on its head; suddenly Neeson is beating the villain with his own arms, which Neeson has ripped off of his body. Ridiculousness ensues. 

The Naked Gun synopsis further pokes fun at Neeson’s history as Taken‘s action hero: “Only one man has the particular set of skills… to lead Police Squad and save the world!” It reads. Neeson plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., son of the character played by Leslie Nielsen in the original franchise. Paul Walter Hauser, meanwhile, plays the son of Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and something of a straight man to Drebin Jr.’s outrageousness. Frank is supposedly “the best of the best” (as described by his boss, a perfectly cast CCH Pounder), though his bodycam footage shows him firing his gun around civilian footage to cut the bathroom line during an urgent diarrhea situation. You don’t want him to ruin another suit, do you?

The Naked Gun trailer also finally introduces Pamela Anderson as the bombshell Beth, who believes her brother has been murdered. Anderson gets some good gags straight out of the ZAZ handbook, as when Frank urges her to take a chair and she drags one noisily out of his office. Anderson and Nielsen are an unexpected duo, but an entertaining one nevertheless. Hopefully they manage to solve the case before the Police Squad gets turned into a Spirit Halloween. The Naked Gun, which is directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer, premieres in theaters on August 1. 

 
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