History Film / FreddyVsJason

* NailedToAWall: In his opening dream, Jason a girl through the forest and pins her to a tree with his machete.

* PlotHole: The protagonists somehow manage to leave Springwood in a van with a drugged-up Jason Voorhees in the back despite the fact that Sheriff Williams had set up 24-hour roadblocks.

* ReligionOfEvil: An early script featured a deranged cult that worshipped undead serial killer Freddy Krueger. They were called the "Fredheads".

* LosingYourHead / OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Freddy is decapitated at the end of the film. His head winks at the audience during the final shot when Jason carries it out of the lake.]]

* OffscreenTeleportation: During the fight between Jason and Freddy at Camp Crystal Lake, Jason is propelled to a construction site by a propane tank projectile. Freddy then shows that he's standing on top of it, somehow having moved past Jason.

* TheCameo: Robert Shaye, who was a producer on every ''Elm Street'' film (as well as ''Freddy vs. Jason''), appears as high school principal [[TheDanza Mr. Shaye]]. There is also a cameo by an uncredited [[Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr Óscar Gutiérrez]][[note]]according to the IMDB. He served as Creator/RobertEnglund's stunt double twice - first, under the layers of "Demon Freddy" makeup during the dream sequence when Lori wanders around Camp Crystal Lake (specifically, when Freddy rockets out of the lake and onto the pier) and second, during the second fight scene, where [[WrestlerInAllOfUs Freddy demonstrates some unusual dexterity.]] He may also have been [[TeensAreShort one of the extras]] during the rave sequence, but that part is unconfirmed as of 2016[[/note]].

* ItsPersonal: This is part of the reason why Lori ultimately decides to stay behind to watch Jason fight Freddy, as she recently discovered that [[spoiler:Freddy [[YouKilledMyFather killed her mother]], which indirectly resulted in Will getting committed at Westside as part of Springwood's conspiracy to erase Freddy from public memory.]]

** The characters end up helping Jason even though he's killed ''seventeen times as many people as Freddy.

** In the final battle, sadistic [[DreamWalker dream stalking]] SerialKiller [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]] looks like he's about to [[BringMyBrownPants wet himself]] when he realizes that he's been pulled into the real world - where an extremely [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge pissed off]] [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] is approaching him with a machete.

''Freddy vs. Jason'' spent ''years'' in DevelopmentHell before its eventual release in 2003. Despite mixed reviews from both critics and fans (of either franchise -- or both of them), it's the most successful film in both franchises' histories: it raked in more money at the box office than any prior film in ''either'' franchise, and of the reboots that followed, only ''Nightmare'' made more (and that's only when factoring in worldwide gross).

* InfernalRetaliation

* ManOnFire: When Jason attacks a rave, one of the teens throws grain alcohol on him, then lights it with a torch -- which results in a '''flaming''' unstoppable killing machine. Additionally, Jason averts the common theme of running around like a maniac while on fire. With his entire body engulfed in flames, he uses the same slow, deliberate, lumbering walk he's known for-- presumably either ignoring the pain or not feeling it at all. [[FlamingSword His machete also ends up covered in flames.]] Every time he swings it, it leaves a wake of fire behind it.

For a brief period, the plan works: after hearing the name "Krueger" from a police officer, a group of teenagers connected to Jason's first few victims spread Freddy's name around town, which soon allows the Springwood Slasher to regain his powers. However, a cop on transfer from Crystal Lake claims that the murders are remarkably reminiscent of the Crystal Lake Killer, and says it looks like a copy-cat. But when Jason ends up killing one of Krueger's intended victims, an enraged Freddy decides to take Jason out. As the supernatural serial killers battle with each other in both dreams and reality, the teens search for a way to stop both Freddy and Jason for good.

* AnArmAndALeg: In the beginning of their Dream World battle, Jason effortlessly slices off Freddy's arms. Freddy hams it up as horrible injuries before demonstrating he can simply heal. [[spoiler:In the real world, Freddy loses his right arm after Jason tears it off and is not happy about it at all.]]

** The girl skinny-dipping at the opening. In an alternate opening, she was watching the little kids at Camp Crystal Lake, and decides to leave when a boy wakes up from a nightmare. She just tells him to go back to sleep. Later, as she's being chased, she runs back to the cabin and tries to get inside but it's locked and the boy just gives her the finger. After Jason kills her, she comes back to life (via Freddy's dream) saying that she (and other teen counselors) should have watched the kids.

* BroadStrokes: The movie takes this approach to both franchise's canons to make the match-up between its two villains possible. For ''Nightmare'', Springwood was basically destroyed by [[Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare the chronologically last movie]] and Freddy killed off (''[[Film/WesCravensNewNightmare New Nightmare]]'' doesn't count as it's a RealWorldEpisode plot). For ''Friday'', Jason was either [[Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday dragged off to hell after his body was blown up by the FBI]] or [[Film/JasonX he was kept and cryogenically frozen and wound up in space]]. Instead, Springwood found a way to block off Freddy's access to their kids by shutting the whole thing up and Jason is buried somewhere in the woods around Camp Crystal Lake after his last outing (?). Also, Lori's house is implied to be the same house that Nancy lived in, and her mother was killed in a similar way to Nancy's mom, so the implication is that Lori and her friends were the first generation of teens previously affected by Freddy.

* CannotDream: The parents of Springfield use the drug Hypnocil to supress the dreams of the quarantined teenagers who were exposed to nightmare monster Freddy Krueger to destroy every memory of him, as he feeds off of fear. It keeps them safe from Krueger's dream invasions, at least temporarily.

** ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' is a maybe case; shots from it are used in the montage at the beginning, but the whole "All kids in Springfield are dead, all adults are insane" thing is ignored. While that movie states that it takes place "Ten years from now", so it would possibly be like ''Jason X'' in that it just hasn't happened yet, in the original theatrical cut of ''Freddy's Dead'', Maggie is introduced turning 28, and given when Freddy died, the movie has to have already happened.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Freddy's powers are diminished thanks to Springwood preventing kids from learning about Freddy (and by keeping those who know of Freddy locked up at Westin Hills on anti-dream drug Hypnocil). [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly Freddy Needs Fear Badly]].

* CompensatingForSomething: Kia tries to distract Freddy by trash talking him. Among others things, she says that the knives on Freddy's glove are probably his way of compensating for the obvious. She also notes that in contrast to him, Jason wields [[BiggerIsBetterInBed a huge machete]] instead. [[spoiler: She meets said machete a few moments later]].
* ConstructionZoneCalamity: During the final battle at Crystal Lake, Freddy and Jason stumble upon a construction zone where Freddy makes a creative use of various things he finds there to mangle his opponent.
* ContinuityNod: Given the nature of the film and the characters, there's quite a few of these, but one of the best is the Hypnocil drug -- Nancy took the drug in ''A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors'' and recommended it to the doctors at Westin Hills.

* CreepyCemetery: This is where Lori ends up in her first nightmare, and finds the spectres of Freddy's child victims playing and singing his warning rhyme.

** Earlier in their rematch, Freddy falls victim to a more elaborate version of this. After pinning Jason to the spot by impaling him with some falling rebar, Freddy sends a heavy container full of sand on a rope swinging around to smack Jason several times. While Jason is being pummeled by the container, Freddy tries to push a cart full of sand down a ramp at him, but it gets stuck, much to his frustration. He gets on the ramp to try to dislodge it, but eventually the first container swings by, hits the ramp, and causes Freddy to fall and get his pant leg caught on the container, leaving him hanging upside down and utterly defenseless as he swings towards a now ''supremely pissed Jason.'' To add insult to injury, the cart eventually does get dislodged, hitting them both.
* HomeFieldAdvantage: Lori and co. lure Freddy and Jason to Camp Crystal Lake with this trope in mind.

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: This is Freddy's primary attitude with Lori during her dreams. He starts out by kissing her, then puts her in a nightgown, calls her pet names like "Princess" and ultimately [[spoiler:shares a scene evocative of attempted rape.]]

** According to Website/TheOtherWiki, one planned yet scrapped ending had Jason and Freddy finding themselves in Hell and about to continue their fight there, only to have hooked chains spring in from nowhere to pin them both in place. As both struggle, they hear a familiar (to us) voice: "Gentlemen, is there a problem?" In walks [[Franchise/HellRaiser Pinhead]], end scene.

* OpeningMonologue: Freddy gets one of these to recap his origin and purpose, and a montage of clips from the first six ''Nightmare'' movies accompanies part of it.

* PapaWolf: Lori's father does genuinely want to protect her. His secret drugging of her orange juice, lies, and general overbearing nature do a fair job of keep this from being positive, however.
* PlotHole: The protagonists somehow manage to leave Springwood in a van with a drugged-up Jason Voorhees in the back despite the fact that Sheriff Williams had set up 24 hour roadblocks.

** A raver tries to assault Jason for killing his brother, and gets killed on the spot.

* ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou: Kia starts trash talking Freddy to distract him from the others, and he starts advancing toward her. At one point it seems that the tide has turned and her attempted intimidation is working, as he starts to back up himself. Then he points behind her with a wicked smile and she sees he was backing up because Jason is right behind her.

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:When Freeburg sees a monster bug show up, he thinks it's awesome when it takes out a hookah, and decides to follow it when it runs off. This might be explained by the fact that he's stoned out of his mind, but getting high in the first place while knowing that they're on the run from ''two'' undead serial killers was his own decision as well, so he still qualifies.]]

** Even when Freddy has Jason trapped in a dream, it takes him awhile to realize that Jason can just fucking ''[[NighInvulnerable tank]]'' everything Freddy does to him, until Freddy starts digging into Jason's most deep-rooted psychological issues (having drowned/almost drowned as bullied child).
* UnflinchingWalk: This trope combined with the ImplacableMan and MegatonPunch tropes sum up Jason's fighting style.
* TheUnmasquedWorld: Jason Voorhees's rampage throughout Springwood inadvertently exposes Freddy Krueger's existence and destroys the four year cover-up. Unlike most examples of this trope, the authorities had a perfectly good reason to prevent the public from catching on, due to Freddy only becoming an active threat if people know he exists.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Springwood decided to deal with Freddy by censoring any possible mention of him. This includes locking up any still-living kids that know his name and drugging them with unapproved anti-dream medicine that rendered dozens of kids comatose from overdose when it failed to work. [[TheExtremistWasRight They successfully stopped him for four years]].
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Lori asks Gibb what does she see in her boyfriend Trey, who is rude and uncaring to everyone around him and demands sex from her.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Jason has a fear of water, Freddy has a fear of fire. This is discussed by Lori:

* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Freddy and Jason both use wrestling inspired moves when fighting each other, befitting the framing of the matchup as effectively a massive bloody wrestling match between two superstars. Freddy even pulls out an elbow drop!

* JiggleShow: Lori provides one of these at the end of the film.

* DudeMagnet: Lori. Aside from her boyfriend, other men who have shown an interest in her are Blake, Linderman and Freddy (the latter's interest is more [[spoiler:to murder her than romance, but he makes some very disgusting comments which, depending on the interpretation, could easily land him on this list as an attempted rapist]]). Given actress Monica Keena's [[BuxomIsBetter charms]], this is wholly understandable.

** The red cap worn by Gibb is a shout-out to PJ Soles' character Norma in ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}'', who also wore a red cap; Creator/KatharineIsabelle, who played Gibb, also co-starred in a 2002 remake of ''Film/{{Carrie|2002}}''.

* AmbiguousEnding: The movie ends with [[spoiler:Jason rising from the lake while holding the decapitated head of Freddy, who then [[BreakingTheFourthWall winks at the audience]] and starts laughing]]. However, the [[ComicBook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh comic book sequel]] verifies that [[spoiler:Jason won the (physical) fight, leaving Freddy trapped in Jason's mind and in need of the [[Franchise/EvilDead Necronomicon]] to properly resurrect]].

* CompensatingForSomething: Kia tries to distract Freddy by trash talking him. Among others things, she says that the knives on Freddy's glove are probably his way of compensating for the obvious. She also notes that in contrast to him, Jason wields [[BiggerIsBetterInBed a huge machete]] instead.

* HonorBeforeReason: Mark refuses to assist Freddy in passing on a message, even though Freddy promises to leave him untouched for the moment. Mark refuses to do so, even though it would make precious little difference to Freddy's plans. Freddy kills him horrible for it to pass on the message himself.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[TagLine Winner Kills All.]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[Franchise/MortalKombat ROUND ONE... FIGHT!]]'']]

->''"Winner Kills All."''
--> -- '''{{Tagline}}'''

* DeathBySex: No film with Freddy or Jason would be complete without this trope.
** This is averted in Lori's nightmare. In an alternate ending, [[spoiler:Lori and Will finally have sex, but when it starts gets rough, Lori realizes Will isn't who she's making love to…]]

* ShesGotLegs: The scene where Lori's legs are shown would normally be this trope, but it isn't so sexy since [[spoiler:Freddy is attempting to murder her]].

* AmbiguousEnding: The movie ends with [[spoiler:Jason rising from the lake while holding the decapitated head of Freddy, who then [[BreakingTheFourthWall winks at the audience]] and starts laughing]]. However, the [[Comicbook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh comic book sequel]] verifies that [[spoiler:Jason won the (physical) fight, leaving Freddy trapped in Jason's mind and in need of the [[Franchise/EvilDead Necronomicon]] to properly resurrect]].

** Goes both ways--after realizing that Jason's fear is water, Freddy throws him into a nightmare where he's forced to relive his traumatic childhood memories, being relentlessly bullied and picked on and then pushed into Camp Crystal Lake to drown.

* NeckSnap: Jason does the "180 Degree Neck Snap" variant to some jock during the rave who told him to fuck off, all while poking him. Then it becomes a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when Jason nonchalantly ''pokes'' the still standing corpse, pushing it to the ground in front of the jock's friend.

* NighInvulnerable: Jason is MadeOfDiamond, while Freddy is FightingAShadow. When he's dragged into the real world, Freddy is significantly weaker, although [[BroughtDownToBadass he's still pretty good competition]] for Jason.

* OhCrap: Freddy has this reaction when he realizes he's been pulled into reality -- and '''Jason is waiting for him.'''
** This happens again when [[spoiler:he sees Lori about to cut his head off. Killing her mother, getting her boyfriend committed, killing her friends, and nearly raping her wasn't a good idea after all.]]
** Freddy gets caught on a piece of swinging construction equipment and is helplessly careening toward the waiting (and angry) Jason.
-->'''Freddy:''' Oh no. OH NOOOOOOO!

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, one planned yet scrapped ending had Jason and Freddy finding themselves in Hell and about to continue their fight there, only to have hooked chains spring in from nowhere to pin them both in place. As both struggle, they hear a familiar (to us) voice: "Gentlemen, is there a problem?" In walks [[Franchise/HellRaiser Pinhead]], end scene.