History Film / Maverick

* RecycledSoundtrack: For Danny Glover's cameo, Music/RandyNewman did not actually incorporate [[Music/MichaelKamen Michael Kamen's]] and Eric Clapton's Martin Riggs leitmotif from ''Lethal Weapon''. Rather, the score during this sequence is an excerpt of the music cue [[https://youtu.be/qWFVuO96ARo?si=LsE8dcxexEOyhoSv "Man's Best Friend / Lorna's First Fight"]] from the ''Film/LethalWeapon3'' soundtrack (specifically when Riggs is trying to "negotiate" with the hostile rottweiler).

* RecycledSoundtrack: For Danny Glover's cameo, Music/RandyNewman did not actually incorporate [[Music/MichaelKamen Michael Kamen's]] and Eric Clapton's Martin Riggs leitmotif from ''Lethal Weapon''. Rather, the score during this sequence is an excerpt of the music cue [[https://youtu.be/qWFVuO96ARo?si=LsE8dcxexEOyhoSv "Man's Best Friend / Lorna's First Fight"]] from the ''Film/LethalWeapon3'' soundtrack (specifically when Riggs is trying to "negotiate" with the hostile rottweiler).

* {{Leitmotif}}: Meta example. For Danny Glover's cameo, composer Randy Newman snuck in a brief reprise of Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton's Riggs theme from ''Lethal Weapon''.

The three share a stagecoach (whose driver dies at full gallop), agree to help a wagon train of migrant evangelist settlers who have been waylaid by ruffians (for a fee which Maverick in the end is too big-hearted to accept), and are headed-off by a troop of Indians (who, unbeknownst to his companions, are good friends with Maverick), who agree to help Maverick collect the rest of the fee (by swindling a Russian Grand Duke). After this, though, Maverick's adventures get a little crazy, especially since somebody has good reason to make sure Maverick never makes it to the poker game...

* AscendedExtra: An interesting take on this trope. Listen to the theme song of [[Series/Maverick the original series]], and you'll hear a reference to "Annabelle"--presumably a former love Maverick left because "Luck is the lady that he loves the best". In the film, Annabelle is a prominent character.

** Cooper, [[spoiler: aka Bret's father]], is played by James Garner, the actor who played Maverick in the [[Series/Maverick original tv series]]. Could be seen as a symbolic case of PassingTheTorch.

* LastPlanStanding: After surviving (and winning) the whole demented situation involving the card tournament, Bret's winnings are stolen [[spoiler:by Annabelle, who took one look at that same mess and decided to keep her head down, walk in on Bret as he's taking a bath with a gun, take the money and leave]]. Bret [[spoiler:and Bret's father, who was part of the tournament con and also taking a bath]] call it fair cop, [[spoiler:Bret reveals to his dad that Annabelle only took half of the loot because, expecting something like this to happen, Bret hid the other half in his boots]], and end the film looking forward at how fun it's going to be getting the money back.

%% * TheFilmOfTheSeries

%% * FriendsAllAlong:
%% ** Maverick and the Indian tribe.
%% ** Maverick and the bank manager he pulls a gun on.
%% ** [[spoiler:Maverick and Cooper]].
* GambitPileup: In a movie about conmen, hustlers, gamblers, cheats, thieves, and lawmen each with their own goals and plots, there are a lot of collisions between the forces. All Maverick wants to do is enter the game and prove himself to be a top level poker player. In the end, it is revealed [[spoiler:Angel and the Commodore are working together to make sure either of them win, as the Commodore and Cooper plan to steal the money if the Commodore loses, and finally Cooper and Maverick to steal from the first two, in addition to proving his skills in poker]].

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Chief Joseph to Maverick after [[spoiler:Maverick was hunted by the Russian Duke with real bullets and not the bow and arrows agreed upon. And also when Maverick decides to show Joseph his massive stash of money, only to find it replaced with a big wad of newspaper.]]

* GunTwirling: Maverick uses his flashy gunplay largely as part of a double-bluff. The twirling makes him look capable, which he subverts by [[ObfuscatingStupidity pretending that he can't actually shoot]] when he's pretty good when it comes down to it. It doubles as {{foreshadowing}} as well; at the tournament, we see that Maverick and [[spoiler: Cooper's gun twirling is exactly the same]].
* HaHaHaNo: Maverick does this to intimidate Angel after winning a fight against five other men - previously Angel had called him a gutless cheat and after the fight, tried to tell Maverick he was only teasing.
-->'''Maverick:''' Teasing? Ah, hahahaha-''I don't like being teased''.
* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: During the encounter with the tribe of Indians, Maverick speaks their language just fine (and the Indians know English) and he "translates" for the rest of the group who don't understand the native language, saying that they have trespassed on sacred ground, and the Indians' gods demand a sacrifice. Meanwhile, the subtitles relate the actual conversation: the chief just wants to know if Maverick has come for the money he owes him.

* HollywoodNatives[=/=]InjunCountry: Lampooned. Joseph, Maverick's Indian friend, and his tribe play the role to the hilt... and when Maverick asks what all the drums and other such nonsense are about, Joseph explains that, due to hardships experienced by the tribe (implied to be caused by overhunting by whites), they're putting on a paid performance for a wealthy Russian archduke who came to America seeking a stereotypical "Wild West" experience. When not obligated to play to an audience, Joseph is at least as modern and worldly as Maverick, not only speaking perfectly fluent English but also being fluent in French. It's also lampshaded when Joseph says if they get forced to move again, he's going to find some godforsaken swampland that nobody wants in the hopes white men will leave his people the hell alone. ([[HistoricalInJoke That won't]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} work.]])

* HustlingTheMark: Maverick's signature move, especially when playing poker but really just ''all of the time.'' He is constantly [[SelfDeprecation Self-Deprecating]] - feigning innocence, incompetence, foolhardiness, and even [[ObfuscatingStupidity stupidity]] - only to later reveal that he has actually been holding the best cards all along.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler: After Maverick completes his Royal flush, Angel has the audacity to call Maverick a cheat even though HE'S the one that was getting cards from the bottom of the deck to set up his own straight flush hand]]
* IAmOneOfThoseToo: Bret Maverick wants to expose/embarrass the con woman "Mrs. Bransford".

** When [[spoiler: Annabelle steals half of Bret's winnings at the end of the film, he wonders why he left it in the satchel in the first place. His dad says he knows exactly why and Bret agrees – because getting it back will be fun and it's an excuse to see Annabelle again.]]

%% * BankRobbery: One occurs while Bret is visiting a banker friend. At first, Bret's practical joke on Maverick is a bystander.

* BigBad: [[spoiler: As it turns out, Commodore Duvall. He hired Angel to keep Maverick from reaching the game, had Cooper as a back-up plan in case he lost, and after Cooper steals the money for him, he intended to kill Cooper after Angel and his gang were killed, and keep all the money to himself.]]
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: The title character does this to some robbers. Doubles as a MythologyGag, as James Garner would frequently do this in the series.

* CallBack: In the beginning Annabelle ruins Maverick's shirt by shrinking it in the wash after mending it. [[spoiler:At the end, she brings him a new shirt, as she robs him of half of his winnings.]]
** In both [[spoiler: The first game they play, and the last game they play, Angel calls Maverick a cheat before attempting to get violent. Both times, Angel is lying, and the second time, he pays for it with his life.]]

** A bank robber (who states that he's "getting too old for this") is played by Creator/DannyGlover, who co-starred with Gibson in ''Film/LethalWeapon''.

** AmazingFreakingGrace sung by Bret, Annabelle, and Cooper. [[spoiler:Both Cooper and Bret sing the same wrong words to the song, which clues Annabell into the fact they are more than they seem]].

* DeadfootLeadfoot: Maverick, Annabelle, and Coop are riding a stagecoach, when the driver dies, and the horses, left without input keep running at full speed, straight toward a cliff. The others make Maverick climb up on top to stop the horses, which, since the reins are dragging on the ground, he has to do by jumping onto the team's lead pair and pull back on them.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: The movie occasionally seems to use SourceMusic, but never calls attention to whatever is playing it. This is briefly broken when Maverick whistles part of the tune that was playing during the poker game at the start of the movie - suggesting that the music was actually played by a real band in the saloon where the game took place, and that it simply had an EarWorm effect on Maverick.

** This is invoked off-screen. One of the men Bret sought to collect a debt from had died before the debt could be paid. Out of respect to his friend's widow, he let her keep the money for the funeral. Turns out, there wasn't one as the man's body wasn't found.
** After finally stopping the stagecoach, Bret, Cooper, and Annabelle bury the coachman at the cliff they almost crashed over. Having not known the man at all, and a lose for some decent words for him, the three start singing "Amazing Grace" to honor him.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: A non-lethal variation and played for comedy with the second cardsharp who gets caught during the Tournament. While he's also thrown overboard (and in a direct contrast to the first cheater's undignified ejection), the second cardsharp's actually calm and polite about his impending swim. He even, by his own request, is allowed to keep his dignity and jump overboard himself rather than forcing Cooper to physically give him the boot.
* FakeDangerGambit: Maverick beats several baddies in a fist fight to scare Angel. It turns out he promised them money for throwing the fight.
%% * FakeUltimateHero: Marshal Zane Cooper.

* AscendedExtra: An interesting take on this trope. Listen to the theme song of the series, and you'll hear a reference to "Annabelle"--presumably a former love Maverick left because "Luck is the lady that he loves the best". (There's also a reference to a riverboat...)

%% * BankRobbery: Maverick is a bystander.

* Hypocrite: [[spoiler: After Maverick completes his Royal flush, Angel has the audacity to call Maverick a cheat even though HE'S the one that was getting cards from the bottom of the deck to set up his own straight flush hand]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

''Maverick'' (1994) is a Western comedy {{film}} based on the [[Series/{{Maverick}} 1950s television series of the same name]], created by Roy Huggins. The film was directed by Creator/RichardDonner from a screenplay by Creator/WilliamGoldman and features Creator/MelGibson, Creator/JodieFoster, and Creator/JamesGarner.

* CrazyPrepared: Possible example during the final round of the Tournament. [[spoiler: When Maverick realizes the dealer's cheating (at the behest of the Commodore and Angel), he requests a new deck, a new cut, and a new shuffle. The Tournament rules, however, don't permit those options and only allow a player to change dealers if they'd like. It's not explicitly stated, but it's also not hard to imagine that the Commodore set up these specific rules just in case someone realized cheating was underway in the Tournament's climax and the tried to do something about it.]]

** Several cheats in the big riverboat championship are thrown overboard. The first is Music/ClintBlack, who is also the singer of the song over the very montage he's tossed out in.
* CheatersNeverProsper: The two cheaters at the big game in the film's climax are caught, and summarily and unceremoniously thrown off the boat into the river. The second one tries to keep his dignity and jump.

** Maverick's attempts to pull a specific card out of deck. Introduced in the beginning as something he practices regularly, but it never works.

*** First, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardin John Wesley Hardin]] (a famous RealLife gunfighter) tells Maverick that a hand of poker Maverick won shouldn't count. Instead of starting a gunfight, Maverick backs down and lets Hardin take the pot. He then demonstrates his lightning fast quick draw skill, thus making it clear that if there had been a gunfight, he could have shot Hardin before his gun cleared his holster.

* KissOfDistraction: This is a favorite technique of Annabelle, which she usually uses to steal things. Maverick is very wise to it. An ArentYouGoingToRavishMe moment leds him to say, "Are you crazy? I'm not going to sleep with you! I'd wake up with all kinds of things missing!"

* LastPlanStanding: After surviving (and winning) the whole demented situation involving the card tournament, Bret's winnings are stolen [[spoiler:by Annabelle, who took one look at that same mess and decided to keep her head down, walk in on Bret as he's taking a bath with a gun, take the money and leave]]. Bret [[spoiler:and Bret's father, who was part of the tournament con and also taking a bath]] call it fair cop, [[spoiler:Bret reveals to his dad that Annabelle only took half of the loot becuase, expecting something like this to happen, Bret hid the other half in his boots]], and end the film looking forward at how fun it's going to be getting the money back.

* MaliciousMisnaming: Anabelle addresses Bret as "Bert" when she's annoyed with him (which is most of the time).
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler: When Cooper asks Maverick how he drew the Ace of Spades to complete the Royal Flush, Maverick earnestly responds by saying it was "magic," and we did indeed see him try earlier in the film and fail, but after the tournament, he seems to do it again after Annebelle leaves, and the card he draws is the Queen of Hearts. When he asks if Cooper believes him, Cooper honestly says he does.]]

* OneSteveLimit: Near the end, when someone calls out, [[spoiler:"Maverick?" both Brett and Coop answer "Yes?"]]

* PlayingCardMotifs: Certainly expected in a movie based on TabletopGame/{{poker}}. During a scene where Maverick tries to choose which card he draws from a deck, he picks the Queen of Hearts – a foreshadowing of his romantic encounter with Annabelle Bransford.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: While Cooper's accidental dropping of his gun when trying to re-holster it while describing the rules of the game to the poker players is good for a laugh, and makes the players and audience question how good he is, Creator/JamesGarner actually did fumble the gun and drop it, and simply kept the scene going rather than break the take, allowing for it to be used as a humorous moment in the film, as it suited the character of a potentially past-his-prime lawman.

* SlapSlapKiss: Maverick's relationship with Annabell Bransford.

** [[spoiler:It backfires when Maverick interrupts the meeting between Duvall and Cooper and steals the money back. He and Cooper had been running a gambit of their own to get the prize, one way or another.]]

* HonorBeforeReason: When Maverick [[spoiler:realized they were playing with a fixed deck, he wanted a new shuffle, new deck, and new dealer. This is despite him understanding TheMagicPokerEquation and the fix could work in his favor]].

* FreezeFrameBonus: Also an AnachronismStew and a combined ShownTheirWork[=/=]CriticalResearchFailure. When the camera zooms in on the clock striking five, the patent number reads 19701. While the patent number is indeed for a clock, it was not issued until the year 1900, 25 years after the film is set.

* EngineeredHeroics: Maverick beats several baddies in a fist fight to scare Angel. It turns out he promised them money for throwing the fight.