Plot
Big and Little Enos Burdette offer retiring Sheriff Buford T. Justice a wager, betting $250,000 against his badge on his ability to transport a large statue shark from Miami to Austin, Texas. Buford rejects the wager and retires, but after realizing retirement is not all it is cracked up to be he reconsiders and accepts the Burdettes' wager. Buford picks up the shark and starts driving with his son, Junior.
Big and Little Enos set many traps, but after Buford dodges all of them, they decide to hire Bo "Bandit" Darville to intercept him. However, he was due to being too hard to manage, it's unknown that Bo/Bandit and Carrie/Frog are doing something together. So instead, they hire Cledus Snow, to become the new Bandit to intercept Buford. Cledus parks his semi truck at his house, puts on a disguise as the Bandit, and leaving Fred with Freida for his company. Cledus went to Bo's garage and sets off by driving the Bandit's new black and gold 1983 Pontiac Trans Am.
Cledus picks up Dusty Trails, who quits her job at a used car dealership at the town's Autorama. (Similar to how Bo picks up Carrie from the first movie) Cledus catches up with Buford, as he steals the shark with his rope and Dusty greets Buford as he realizes that the Bandit is back, thus Buford goes on hot pursuit, while another local officer (named Purvis R. Beethoven), attempts to take charge of the situation. Both police cars are disabled in the chase.
Buford catches up after Cledus and Dusty make their stop at the Gator Kicks Longneck Saloon as he tries to give her a cheeseburger from the bikers that kicked him out and got his revenge from them. The chase then creates mass chaos in a local town. Cledus escapes when an 18-wheeler blocks the alleyway where he sped through. While trying to get the truck out, Buford's car is towed as the police woman gave Buford a ticket, but he reverses the car and escapes. The police woman and the tow truck driver chases him, while Junior is spinning on the hook. As Buford keeps on going with the chase, he makes the tow truck ram the cars and tipped over, as Junior falls down and got scared as he quickly climbed up to the tree as the other car crashed into a pile-up.
Buford chases Cledus in the Mississippi Fairgrounds. Buford's car is thrown up on two side wheels by an incline, but he continues the pursuit while driving on two wheels.
That night, Cledus and Dusty stop at the hotel called the Come On Inn, where people are involved in an orgy. Buford sees the Trans Am parked there and searches for the shark, which he finds. Buford also thinks he finds Cledus in the sauna, but it turns out to be a muscular woman (named Tina), who bonds with him.
The next day, one of Buford's tires is blown by the "Enos Devil Darts". Cledus retakes the shark. Buford pursues on the remaining two tires, first through a herd of cattle, then through parked boats, then a nudist camp, then through a field where the Burdettes set off explosions, one of which destroys the car except the engine, seat, and lights, the latter of which Junior is holding above his head.
Cledus intends to surrender the shark (while Junior bravely gets it back, carefully) and takes first place, while Buford takes second place, and the Burdettes take third place as they arrived at Burdette's ranch. As Buford collects his money from Little Enos, he sees Cledus. Thinking he is dealing with the real Bandit, he resists as the Bandit (imagined as Bo Darville) attempts to talk him out of arresting him before Junior reminds him of his retirement. Buford and the Bandit both separately come to the same conclusion that they need one other in order for their lives to have meaning, and Buford gives Cledus a five-minute head start and, with Tina joining him, takes off after him on yet another chase, again leaving Junior behind to run after him, dropping all the money on the way. (Similar to the end of the first movie)
Reception
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 received negative reviews by critics and the film was generally regarded as the weakest of the three Bandit films in terms of both storyline and revenue. [7] [8] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 17% based on reviews from six critics. [7]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review: "The already skimpy running time of Smokey and the Bandit, Part 3 is padded by an opening montage of earlier Smokey scenes, including shots of Burt Reynolds lounging in a zebra-print hammock. He is grinning, as well he might, because he has been able to sit out Part 3 altogether. What has he missed? An interminable car chase punctuated by dumb stunts and even dumber dialogue, plus the well-worth-missing sight of Paul Williams in a dress". [8] Variety magazine staff wrote: "The sense of fun in that original is missing and the countless smashups and near-misses are orchestrated randomly". [9]
Despite the enormous financial success of the original film (grossing over $300 million on a budget of less than $5 million), coupled with respectable (though significantly lower) numbers generated by the sequel, the third installment was both a critical and box office flop, grossing only $7 million against the film's $9 million production budget. [1] [2]
