History Film / GetShorty

* KickTheDog: Ray establishes that he's just just an asshole but a real villain when he punches Leo's wife.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Ray is introduced as a self-important moron by leaving his table to deliver a bad insult and then laugh at his own joke twice, with his lackies assuring him that it was a real zinger. This establishes Ray as a dumb jerk who is hostile to Chili.

* ActorAllusion:
** Alex Rocco receives a body massage in a similar manner to [[Film/TheGodfather Moe Green before his assassination]].
** When Karen says Chili could be an actor, he replies that, while he could imagine himself in gangster movies, "I couldn't see myself in them movies where like the three guys get left with a baby, and they don't know how to take care of it, so they act like three grown-up assholes." While specifically the plot of ''Film/ThreeMenAndABaby'', it's not hard to see this as a dig at the (reasonably similar) ''Film/LookWhosTalking'' series Travolta starred in.

* TheAllegedCar: Chili Palmer's Oldsmobile Silhouette, which he's not too happy to wind up with on the rental car lot after he requested a Cadillac. "It's the Cadillac of minivans!"

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Ray might have just been a JerkAss until he punches Leo's wife in the face.
* EveryoneHasStandards: When Ray goes to his boss to have Chili whacked for punching him in the nose and then shooting him in his hair when he tries to take revenge, his boss tells him off for not only because Chili is protected by Momo, taking Chili's ex-wife's leather coat was way over the line.
* ExactWords:
** When going over to Ray's house to confront him over stealing his coat, Chili assures his partner that he "won't say any more than he has to, if that". When he gets there, he breaks Ray's nose, grabs his coat and leaves, not saying a word.
** In both this and [[Film/BeCool the following movie]], Chili specifically requests a Cadillac (as in the brand) from the car rental. In both instances, he is given a car that is most definitely ''not'' a Cadillac but is explained away as "the Cadillac (as in has a similarly good reputation) of" whatever kind of car (a minivan in this film, a hybrid in "Be Cool") he is given.

* FriendlyEnemy: Of a sort; Ray Bones's goon is tough and intimidating towards Chili when Bones is in the room, but as soon as he leaves loosens up and seems to agree with Chili that his boss is a dick.
-->'''Goon:''' ''[Intimidating]'' This man is the man. You get what I'm saying? This here is ''Mr.'' Bones. You speak to ''Mr.'' Bones from now on.\\
''[Bones leaves the room]''\\
'''Chili:''' C'mon, you can do better than him.\\
'''Goon:''' ''[Casually]'' Not these days. Not less you speak Spanish.
* GambitPileup: Everybody but Karen and the Bear has an agenda in the movie, and those agendas collide with one another more often than they work out as planned. Chili plays them all like a finely-tuned piano.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Ray takes Chili's jacket, which had Chili's car keys in it, at the start of the film. In retaliation, when Chili goes to retrieve the coat, he punches Ray in the face and breaks his nose.

* NobodyPoops: Averted. Ray Bones reads Martin Weir's book on the toilet.

** Bones' black bodyguard is stuck working for him because better jobs are hard to come by unless you speak Spanish. When Bones isn't in the room, he's perfectly casual and civil towards Chili.

* RailingKill: Bo does this to Yeyo, and considered killing Chili by getting him to lean against loose railing.

* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: This trope is subverted when Ronnie mocks Ray Bones' choice of weapon (AMT Backup, a small but effective pistol). Ronnie, perhaps thinking he's GenreSavvy, says "What's that, a Wop 9? The Fiat of guns, always jammin' on you at the wrong time". Bones just shrugs and happily demonstrates his gun's effectiveness by popping 4 bullets in Ronnie's chest.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Averted. During the scene where Ray is threatened with a revolver by one of Bo's thugs (see PantsPositiveSafety), the thug reckons that Ray's automatic will jam. It doesn't.
* RunningGag: People referring to Chili's rental minivan as "the Cadillac of minivans."
* ScreamingWoman: Karen Flores's claim to fame in Harry's low-budget monster movies when she was a young woman. She reveals that even in her late thirties she can still belt one out. [[spoiler: this ends up being both a ChekhovsGun and ironic as the only time she screams is late in the movie which alerts Bo to her presence and he subsequently [[HandGagging puts his hand over her mouth]] and [[DamselInDistress kidnaps her]].]]
** In the book it's more of a ChekhovsSkill, as [[spoiler:her scream is loud enough to distract Bo and make him miss his shot.]]

** When Creator/HarveyKeitel is mentioned, Chili says that he was good in ''Film/{{Fingers}}''.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: In Florida and Hollywood! Vesuvio is an Italian restaurant that while might not be owned my the Mafia, they let Ray Bones do whatever he wants there. Rich's Barber Shop, has the barber actually cutting hair, but the backroom is a loan shark office. Even legitimate patrons know it's a front and tip off Chili Palmer when someone is coming by coughing. Bo Catlett runs a limo service that is a front for a small-time drug ring. And one could say the point of the movie is all of Hollywood is a front for organized crime calling themselves Producers.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: In Florida and Hollywood! Vesuvio is an Italian restaurant that while might not be owned my the Mafia, they let Ray Bones do whatever he wants there. Rich's Barber Shop, has [[TheBarber the barber]] actually cutting hair, but the backroom is a loan shark office. Even legitimate patrons know it's a front and tip off Chili Palmer when someone is coming by coughing. Bo Catlett runs a limo service that is a front for a small-time drug ring. And one could say the point of the movie is all of Hollywood is a front for organized crime calling themselves Producers.

A 1990 novel by Creator/ElmoreLeonard, ''Get Shorty'' was adapted into a 1995 film directed by Creator/BarrySonnenfeld, starring Creator/JohnTravolta as Chili alongside an all-star cast including Creator/GeneHackman, Creator/DannyDeVito, and Creator/ReneRusso. Both the novel and movie are an AffectionateParody of the film industry, and both so well-received that Leonard wrote a rare sequel, ''Be Cool'', which also received a [[Film/BeCool film adaptation]], though neither managed to repeat the success of the original. In 2017, a [[Series/GetShorty television adaptation]] loosely inspired by the original premiered on Creator/{{ePix}}, with an original cast and story.

* ClusterFBomb:
** Bones. To everyone. All the time.

** Precisely 50% of [[spoiler:Harvey Keitel]]'s dialogue.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot / [[RealitySubtext Reality Subtext]]: If you listen to the [[DVDCommentary commentary]] and watch the Making Of specials on the DVD, you will learn that what the book is making fun of how movies are made actually happened in this movie, to an extremely funny and ironic level. Examples include:
** Creator/DannyDeVito bought the rights to the movie before actually reading it, just like Chili Palmer in the book/film.
** Creator/DannyDeVito was originally going to play the role of Chili Palmer, but he and other producers thought he'd be too short for the role, which is the ending punch line of the movie!
** Creator/DannyDeVito was asked a question in the Making Of interviews and starts rambling in an arrogant way and then admits that he forgot what the original question was, totally as his character Martin Weir would do.
** Creator/DannyDeVito, and other actors admit to ordering totally off-menu and not knowing their own address just like Martin Weir.

* TheAllegedCar: Chili Palmer's Oldsmobile Silhouette, which he's not too happy to wind up with on the rental car olt. "It's the Cadillac of minivans!"

* UncreditedRole: [[spoiler: Creator/BetteMidler and Creator/HarveyKietel]]

* HorribleHollywood: ZigZaggedTrope: there's plenty of plain jerks and dim people, but there's also plenty of people who are very nice and wanting to make an artistic project that only take a SeinfeldianConversation to convince... and then there's the people who are ''murderous'' jerks and take a "no" in any context as a homicide-worthy offense.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: In Florida and Hollywood! Vesuvio is an Italian restaurant that while might not be owned my the Mafia, they let Ray Bones do whatever he wants there. Rich's Barber Shop, has [[TheBarber the barber]] actually cutting hair, but the back room is a loan shark office. Even legitimate patrons know its a front and tip off Chili Palmer when someone is coming by coughing. Bo Catlett runs a limo service that is a front for a small time drug ring. And one could say the point of the movie is all of Hollywood is a front for organized crime calling them selves Producers.

** Creator/DannyDeVito, and other actors admit to ordering totally off menu and not knowing their own address just like Martin Weir.

* ScreamingWoman: Karen Flores's claim to fame in Harry's low-budget monster movies when she was a young woman. She reveals that even in her late thirties that she can still belt one out. [[spoiler: this ends up being both a ChekhovsGun and ironic as the only time she screams is late in the movie which alerts Bo to her presence and he subsequently [[HandGagging puts his hand over her mouth]] and [[DamselInDistress kidnaps her]].]]

* VertigoEffect: Used when Yayo is looking at the airport locker with the money in it and trying to decide whether or not to go for it and get the money by risk getting caught by the DEA agents in the terminal. In the end he can't bring himself to do it.

** Chili himself is affable to the point of being the nicest guy on the planet, even though he's a loan shark and shakedown artist extraordinaire. He'll only hit you if he has to, and even then he'll help you get back on your feet.

-->''Martin'': I'm doing Shylock instead of ''a'' shylock.

-->Karen: "You broke in to apologize for breaking in before?"