History Film / ExtremeMeasures

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also possibly sets back a cure for spinal cord injuries by ''decades''. [[spoiler: However, Myrick's wife gives Guy all her husband's research data in the hope that Guy could finish what Dr. Myrick's started in a more legal and ethical way.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end, Luthan is working at NYU's Neurology Department. How he was cleared of the drug charges is not shown, as otherwise they probably wouldn't hire him (and of course he'd still be facing a trial). Dialog between Luthan and a colleague suggests that there was a time skip between scenes. Jodie is mentioned as starting over again in the Fall, which would indicate a major criminal investigation and trial had taken place with the conspirators pleading out or facing trials of their own.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end, Luthan is working at NYU's Neurology Department. How he was cleared of the drug charges is not shown, as otherwise they probably wouldn't hire him (and of course he'd still be facing a trial). Dialog between Luthan and a colleague suggests that there was a time skip between scenes. Jodie is mentioned as starting over again in the Fall, which would indicate a major legal investigation and trial had taken place.

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also possibly sets back a cure for spinal cord injuries by ''decades''. [[spoiler: However, Myrick's wife gives Guy all her husband's research in the hope that Guy could finish Dr. Myrick's research in a legal and ethical way.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also possibly sets back a cure for spinal cord injuries by ''decades''. [[spoiler: However, Myrick's wife gives Guy all her husband's research in the hope that Guy could find a cure "the right way" which he decides to do.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also possibly sets back a cure for spinal cord injuries by ''decades''. [[spoiler: However, Myrick's wife gives Guy all her husband's research in the hope that Guy could find a cure "the right way".]]

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also possibly stops a cure for spinal cord injuries by ''decades''.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end, Luthan is working at NYU's Neurology Department. How he was cleared of the drug charges is not shown, as otherwise they probably wouldn't hire him (and of course he'd still be facing a trial). Dialog between Luthan and colleague suggests that there was a time skip. Jodie is mentioned as starting over again in the Fall, which would indicate a major legal investigation and trial had taken place.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end, Luthan is working at NYU's Neurology Department. How he was cleared of the drug charges is not shown, as otherwise they probably wouldn't hire him (and of course he'd still be facing a trial). Presumably it came out that he was framed by the dirty cops working for Myrick somehow.

* FrameUp: Luthan has medical cocaine planted in his apartment when it's broken into by the dirty cops, to get him arrested and fired from the hospital so he can't investigated the disappearances further.

* MeaningfulName: Burke and Hare, the dirty cops working for Myrick, share their last names two infamous Scottish murderers that killed people then provided their cadavers for medical research, similarly to the film (although their motives were far less altruistic).

* ArcWords: ''Triphase''

* MaliciousSlander: Luthan gets falsely accused of drug charges after he's been snooping around.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Set in New York, partly filmed in Toronto.

* HarsherInHindsight: Recent medical research has shown it may indeed be possible to regrow nerves as a means of curing spinal cord injuries-at least, it works in mice.

* JustThinkOfThePotential: Myrick to Luthan

* ScienceMarchesOn: Albeit too slowly. See MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness and HarsherInHindsight.

* MeaningfulName: Burke and Hare, the dirty cops working for Myrick, share their last names two infamous English murderers that killed people then provided their cadavers for medical research, similarly to the film (although their motives were far less altruistic).

* BittersweetEnding: Guy exposes Myrick's shady human experiments, but also sets back researches on spinal cord therapies by ''decades''.

* ChekhovsGun: We see Agent Hare leaving his home, being bade farewell by his paralyzed wife, then the second mook leaving his house after waving goodbye to his paralyzed son, by which point, the audience starts to get an inkling of what the conspiracy is all about.

* DirtyCop: Hare, technically. Finances might be his motive, but even then, it's probably to help his wife.
* DisposableVagrant: The film opens with one of those vagrants seeking help from Hugh Grant's character, having escaped from the experiments. Having looked such a man in the eye, he's less willing to accept the later justification that such people were making a HeroicSacrifice to help those paralyzed by spinal damage walk again.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Or rather, "he's ''going'' to know too much"

* INeverToldYouMyName: When the two mooks confront Guy and the homeless men trying to assist another homeless man, they address Guy as "doc" even though he never identified himself as a doctor. Cue Guy's OhCrap reaction as he realizes the guys aren't cops, but hitmen.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Recent breakthroughs have managed to regenerate spinal cord nerves in ''mice''. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10895816
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Trammel]]
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: It's not that he want's to be evil, but he's getting on in his years and really wants work on his research, for the benefit of humankind.

* [[spoiler:PassingTheTorch]]: [[spoiler:Myrick's wife hands all the research data to Luthan at the end.]]

* TheSocialDarwinist: Myrick.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Played with. It's not like he's trying to take over the world, he just doesn't want to be bound by pesky human experimentation protocols.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Well, he admitted so.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: As the two mooks set out to stalk and presumably kill Guy, we see each of them being bid farewell by paralyzed relatives. It's obvious from the looks exchanged that they love these people very much and their desperation to help them is no doubt why they're involved in something so nefarious.

* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Basically why Myrick decided to skip heaps of medical protocol and go straight to human experimentation by using homeless people as guinea pigs.

Creator/HughGrant plays Guy Luthan, a British doctor working at a hospital in New York who starts making unwanted inquiries when the body of a man who died in his emergency room disappears. The trail leads Luthan to the door of the eminent surgeon Dr. Lawrence Myrick (Film/GeneHackman), but Luthan soon finds himself in danger from people who want the hospital's secret to remain undiscovered.

* BritishAccents: Well, Luthan is British.

* BittersweetEnding:

The film also features SarahJessicaParker as Jodie Trammel, nurse and trusted colleague of Guy.

* BittersweetEnding

* INeverToldYouMyName: When the two mooks confront Guy and the homeless men trying to assist another homeless man, they address Guy as "doc" even though he never identified himself as a doctor.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Arguably, everyone that works with Dr. Myrick. After all

* ManipulativeBastard: Myrick. Not really a bastard, but gets people to go along with his plans, with the hopes their love ones will reap the benefits of his research, regardless of how unethical it is.

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: It's not that he want's to be evil, but he's getting on his years and really wants work on his research, for the benefit of humankind.

Hugh Grant plays Guy Luthan, a British doctor working at a hospital in New York who starts making unwanted inquiries when the body of a man who died in his emergency room disappears. The trail leads Luthan to the door of the eminent surgeon Dr Lawrence Myrick (Gene Hackman), but Luthan soon finds himself in danger from people who want the hospital's secret to remain undiscovered.