History Film / Deathwatch2002

* AnachronismStew: Not very overt, but there are some inconsistencies, especially with the weapons. The Lee-Enfield rifles wielded by the soldiers are WWII-era variants of the rifle (the WWI rifle being harder to come by at the time). But the most obvious example by far is the surprisingly small radio receiver they find and repair. No country had military or civilian radios that small and advanced during WWI. It would fit better in the 1920s. In addition, most of the German rifles are actually WWII-era [=Kar98k=]'s, instead of the Gewehr 98s they should have been using.

* AnachronismStew: Not very overt, but there are some inconsistencies. The Lee-Enfield rifles wielded by the soldiers are a later, WWII-era version of the model (the WWI version being harder to come by). But the most obvious example by far is the surprisingly small radio receiver they find and repair. No country had military or civilian radios that small and advanced during WWI. It would fit better in the 1920s. In addition, most of the German rifles are actually WWII-era [=Kar98k=]'s.
%%* AxCrazy: Quinn (Andy Serkis) is about as Axe Crazy as a character can get.

Set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, a group of British soldiers "go over the top" in an assault against German lines. However, in the middle of the battle, a mysterious fog descends upon the battlefield and the night suddenly turns into day. Hours later, they finally stumble upon the German trenches only to find a mere 3 German soldiers, petrified and pointing their guns down their own trenches. The British soldiers call for them to surrender, but the Germans are more scared of something in the trench than them. After murdering two of them and torturing the third, the British troops begin exploring the trench, only to find the bodies of more Germans, seemingly killed by friendly fire. Even stranger, the trenches seem to lead nowhere, simply doubling back on themselves. With a prisoner babbling about demons, impenetrable fog, and a broken radio, they quickly form a defensive position and wait for reinforcements that never come.

* FogOfDoom: Hey, it's UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. Fog of Doom is already all over the damn place.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Unabashedly cynical in it's portrayal of TheSquad, whose members are mostly [[HumansAreBastards bastards]] at best and [[AxCrazy violent]] [[SociopathicSoldier psychos]] at worst. Needless to say, the image of the [[IronWoobie tragic]] [[StiffUpperLip yet cheerful]] "Tommies" seen in British UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne propaganda [[{{Deconstruction}} gets completely shattered]]...

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent[=/=]WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Is Bradford supposed to be Canadian or British ?

* [[RiverOfInsanity Trench Of Insanity]]

** Regards the SMLE, the UsefulNotes/WW1 version (the No.1 MkIII or MkIII*) is not difficult to come by at all: the Australians went on making them until after World War 2.
* AxCrazy[=/=]BloodKnight: Quinn (Andy Serkis) is about as Axe Crazy as a character can get.

* PsychologicalHorror[=/=]SurrealHorror: It's implied that, [[spoiler: rather than 'crazy unexplained barbed-wire magic', [[YourMindMakesitReal the cause of the company's fate may have been collective madness]] - wandering into a maze-like trench filled with dead Germans without contact from your superiors for weeks is bound to do this kind of thing to you.]]
** Or to give the writer a little more credit:[[spoiler: They all died in the initial attack, the trench is a form of Purgatory, and the German is an angel[=/=]demon who's purpose is to test the morality of their characters. Those that fail die and stay in the trench, those that succeed get to leave it. Notice that this makes a lot more sense, given what's mentioned in the Foreshadowing entry.]]

** UpperClassTwit[=/=]TheNeidermeyer: Captain Jennings. Particularly [[{{Narm}} narmy]] when he definitely [[GoMadFromTheIsolation goes off his nut]].

** And if you accept the purgatory interpretation, HellIsWar.

** UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}: private [=McNess=], token stereotypical Black Watch (Highland Regiment) soldier.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne: The setting is the western front, presumably in the later stages of the war (cca 1917). And it's as muddy and [[{{Mordor}} grim]] as ever...

* ADateWithRosiePalms: All Starinski wanted...

* CluelessAesop

* DeathBySex: [[spoiler: Starinski, almost. But only with himself.]]

* GainaxEnding
* GenreBlindness: Both played straight and averted.

* OnlySaneMan: [[KidHero Charlie]] and, to a questionable extent, private Chevasse and doc Fairweather.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent

* PsychoPartyMember: Overtly Quinn, and later [[spoiler: Bradford]].

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The German soldier at the end.]]

** SergeantRock: sergeant Tate

** TheEngineer[=/=][[spoiler: TheFundamentalist[=/=]BewareTheNiceOnes]]: [[CanadaEh private Bradford]]
** PsychoForHire: private Quinn
** ColdSniper: private Starinski
** TheMedic[=/=]MauveShirt: Doc Fairweather

** RedShirt[=/=]SacrificialLamb: private Chevasse

* WarIsHell: Oh yes. By miles.

* WorldOfHam: All of the soldiers, with the possible exception of the German.

* [[spoiler: GainaxEnding]]

* [[spoiler:OurGhostsAreDifferent]]

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Averted, even though it's not a war movie in the traditional sense.

** Regards the SMLE, the WW1 version (the No.1 MkIII or MkIII*) is not difficult to come by at all: the Australians went on making them until after World War 2.

Set during WorldWarOne, a group of British soldiers "go over the top" in an assault against German lines. However, in the middle of the battle, a mysterious fog descends upon the battlefield and the night suddenly turns into day. Hours later, they finally stumble upon the German trenches only to find a mere 3 German soldiers, petrified and pointing their guns down their own trenches. The British soldiers call for them to surrender, but the Germans are more scared of something in the trench than them. After murdering two of them and torturing the third, the British troops begin exploring the trench, only to find the bodies of more Germans, seemingly killed by friendly fire. Even stranger, the trenches seem to lead nowhere, simply doubling back on themselves. With a prisoner babbling about demons, impenetrable fog, and a broken radio, they quickly form a defensive position and wait for reinforcements that never come.

* FogOfDoom: Hey, it's WorldWarOne. Fog of Doom is already all over the damn place.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Unabashedly cynical in it's portrayal of TheSquad, whose members are mostly [[HumansAreBastards bastards]] at best and [[AxCrazy violent]] [[SociopathicSoldier psychos]] at worst. Needless to say, the image of the [[IronWoobie tragic]] [[StiffUpperLip yet cheerful]] "Tommies" seen in British WorldWarOne propaganda [[{{Deconstruction}} gets completely shattered]]...

* WorldWarOne: The setting is the western front, presumably in the later stages of the war (cca 1917). And it's as muddy and [[{{Mordor}} grim]] as ever...

!!This movie provides examples of :

* AnachronismStew : Not very overt, but there are some inconsistencies. In one scene, Charlie picks up and wields a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP_18 Bergmann MP 18]] SMG - unless the film is set in 1918, this early example of a machine pistol can't possibly be found on the front, since the Germans started using it in the last year of the war. The Lee-Enfield rifles wielded by the soldiers are also a later, WWII-era version of the model (the WWI version being harder to come by). But the most obvious example by far is the surprisingly small radio receiver they find and repair. No country had military or civilian radios that small and advanced during WWI. It would fit better in the 1920s.

** Actually, the Bergman was first fielded by 1916 in small numbers
* AxCrazy / BloodKnight : Quinn (Andy Serkis) is about as Axe Crazy as a character can get.
* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough : Jennings and Tate fit this, but it's subverted by Tate being somewhat more sympathetic and AFatherToHisMen than Jennings.

* DaylightHorror : Most of the movie, but the night scenes are almost equally long as the day ones and the daylight itself is consistently gloomy.

* {{Foreshadowing}} : Connected to the FogOfDoom above. [[spoiler:The protagonists were fighting off the Germans from their trench in the middle of the night, but got knocked out and awoke in a somewhat different location, surrounded completely by thick fog. And the night suddenly changed to ''[[FridgeHorror day time]]''.]] One or two of the characters even [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] the unusualness of this.

* GenreBlindness : Both played straight and averted.

* LastNameBasis : A subversion, since in the script and credits, the characters are mentioned by their full names. But the only personal name used on screen regularly is Charlie's.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane : [[spoiler:The whole haunting and supernatural phenomenna going on in the abandoned trench. Including ''living barbed-wire''.]]
* MercyKill : Charlie does this to Chevasse [[spoiler:after he discovers rats are eating his legs]].
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent / WhatTheHellIsThatAccent : Is Bradford supposed to be Canadian or British ?
* NothingIsScarier : The earlier portions of the movie, before the squad members start getting killed off in mysterious ways by unknown forces or themselves under suspicious coincidences.
* OfficerAndAGentleman : Averted by Jennings and Tate, both of them enormous {{JerkAss}}es. This trope is also [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] by Tate, since he's oficially [[SergeantRock a sergeant]] and acts pretty jerky, but shows some signs of being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* OnlySaneMan : [[KidHero Charlie]] and, to a questionable extent, private Chevasse and doc Fairweather.

* PsychologicalHorror / SurrealHorror : It's implied that, [[spoiler: rather than 'crazy unexplained barbed-wire magic', [[YourMindMakesitReal the cause of the company's fate may have been collective madness]] - wandering into a maze-like trench filled with dead Germans without contact from your superiors for weeks is bound to do this kind of thing to you.]]
** Or to give the writer a little more credit :[[spoiler: They all died in the initial attack, the trench is a form of Purgatory, and the German is an angel/demon who's purpose is to test the morality of their characters. Those that fail die and stay in the trench, those that succeed get to leave it. Notice that this makes a lot more sense, given what's mentioned in the Foreshadowing entry.]]

* PsychoticSmirk : Quinn most of the time. [[spoiler:By the end of the movie, Bradford has an even creepier smile on his face when threatening Charlie.]]
* TheReveal : [[spoiler:The German soldier at the end.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Charlie's persistent and mounting refusal to kill anyone seems to be what separates him from his squadmates [[spoiler:until he does, is apparently sucked into the underworld, escapes, is then held at gunpoint by the prisoner, and is released. . . BecauseYouWereNiceToMe.]]
* SinisterMinister : [[spoiler: [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Bradford]] ]] slowly morphs into this because of his gradual SanitySlippage. [[spoiler:He was quite TheFundamentalist before as well, just not insane yet.]]
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism : Unabashedly cynical in it's portrayal of TheSquad, whose members are mostly [[HumansAreBastards bastards]] at best and [[AxCrazy violent]] [[SociopathicSoldier psychos]] at worst. Needless to say, the image of the [[IronWoobie tragic]] [[StiffUpperLip yet cheerful]] "Tommies" seen in British WorldWarOne propaganda [[{{Deconstruction}} gets completely shattered]]...

* TheSquad :
** NewMeat / TheHero : private Charlie [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous Shakespeare]]

** UpperClassTwit / TheNeidermeyer : Captain Jennings. Particularly [[{{Narm}} narmy]] when he definitely [[GoMadFromTheIsolation goes off his nut]].
** TheEngineer / [[spoiler: TheFundamentalist / BewareTheNiceOnes]] : [[CanadaEh private Bradford]]

** ColdSniper : private Starinski
** TheMedic / MauveShirt : Doc Fairweather

** RedShirt / SacrificialLamb : private Chevasse

* WorldWarOne : The setting is the western front, presumably in the later stages of the war (cca 1917). And it's as muddy and [[{{Mordor}} grim]] as ever...

* ADateWithRosiePalms: All Starinski wanted, [[SarcasmMode poor dear]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: Most of the cast are commonly seen on British TV (but perhaps not to the point that everyone knows their names without looking them up).
** [[BillyElliotPlot Billy Elliot]] and [[Film.TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] wade through the mud of a haunted trench on the western front.

British [[GenreBusting war horror movie]] made in 2002. It was the directorial debut of Michael J. Bassett, who later went on to direct the movie [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/SolomonKane SolomonKane]].

** BonnieScotland: private [=McNess=], token stereotypical Black Watch (Highland Regiment) soldier.

British [[GenreBusting war horror movie]] made in 2002. It was the directorial debut of Michael J. Bassett, who later went on to direct the movie [[SolomonKaneFilm Solomon Kane]].

British [[GenreBusting war horror movie]] made in 2002. It was the directorial debut of Michael J. Bassett, who later went on to direct SolomonKane.

British [[GenreBusting war horror movie]] made in 2002.

Needless to say, it [[ItGotWorse starts getting worse]] from there.

Though their radio can't send messages, it can still RECIEVE them. High command seems rather sure that the attack failed and there were no survivors....

* OfficerAndAGentleman : Averted by Jennings and Tate, both of them enormous {{JerkAss}}es. This trope is also [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] by Tate, since he's oficially [[SergeantRock a sergeant] and acts pretty jerky, but shows some signs of being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* OnlySaneMan : [[KidHero Charlie]] and, to [[YourMileageMayVary a questionable extent]], private Chevasse and doc Fairweather.

* SinisterMinister : [[spoiler: [[NotSoHarmless Bradford]] ]] slowly morphs into this because of his gradual SanitySlippage. [[spoiler:He was quite TheFundamentalist before as well, just not insane yet.]]

''For the entry on the Warhammer 40,000 game that used to be here, see TabletopGame/{{Deathwatch}}.''

''For the entry on the 1966 film, see Film/{{Deathwatch}}.''

[[quoteright:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathwatch_3358.jpg]]