All the while, 21 Jump Street has a blast sending up action-movie tropes. Hill got his wish — they did, indeed, blow shit up — but the over-the-top sequences never felt excessive. And the film even managed to do a twist on one of the genre’s worst clichés — the “diving in front of your partner to take a bullet for them” bit — and managed to make it funny. But because Lord and Miller cared about their characters, a real bond grows between these two dummies, both of them dealing with adolescent angst in adulthood. For Morton, it’s about re-experiencing the trauma of being a nerd — and having to deal with your overbearing parents — and for Greg, it’s the terror of worrying that, without his coolness, he doesn’t have anything. 21 Jump Street didn’t overdo the psychoanalysis, but there’s something real at the core of all this movie’s great laughs: that terrible fear of wanting to be liked.
21 Jump Street was a huge hit, prompting a sequel, which was also really funny. But its impact wasn’t just felt at the box office. Lord and Miller were suddenly seen as a fresh new comedic voice, quickly moving on to The Lego Movie. (Alas, they were fired from Solo, but they helped bring Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse into the world, winning an Oscar as producers.) A few months after 21 Jump Street, Hill got Oscar-nominated for Moneyball, further proving he wasn’t just that obnoxious dude from Superbad, while Tatum earned acclaim for Magic Mike, parlaying 21 Jump Street’s success into other comedic roles, such as in this year’s The Lost City. And 21 Jump Street created a template for other tongue-in-cheek remakes — albeit ones that weren’t nearly as satisfying. (I’m thinking, of course, of the terrible Dwayne Johnson Baywatch, which is like 21 Jump Street without any brains or soul.)
Nobody would have expected all of those ripple effects when 21 Jump Street premiered way back in March of 2011. In fact, people weren’t expecting much of anything. That’s how Lord and Miller like it. “Everything we’ve ever done has been riding on low expectations,” Miller joked when 22 Jump Street opened. “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs? What a terrible idea. Doing 21 Jump Street as a movie is a terrible idea. The Lego Movie sounds like a terrible idea. If people think (22 Jump Street) is a good idea, we’re screwed.”
Ten years later, 21 Jump Street doesn’t sneak up on anyone — we all know how good it is. But the damn thing still plays so well — not only does it hold up, it’s still funny. The film’s so good, you may not even mind that Johnny Depp cameo.