History Film / MichaelJacksonsThisIsIt

# "Jackson 5 Melody" (I Want You Back/The Love You Save/I'll Be There)

* {{Rockumentary}}

* WillfullyWeak: Non-combat example. Jackson admits on-camera that he's saving his voice for the actual concerts.[[note]][[http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3A896617 As one reviewer observed]], MJ was only performing at sixty percent at most.[[/note]] The one time he's shown singing at full strength, during the "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" segment, he catches himself, and playfully chastises the crew and backup dancers (who were cheering him on) for making him sing at full strength.

Being Jackson's first significant concert event since the [[Music/HIStoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI HIStory World Tour]] in 1997, it was touted as pop music's greatest comeback, and the biggest concert series ever held inside the O2, breaking the record set by his rival {{Music/Prince}}'s ''21 Nights In London: The Earth Tour'' concerts. Overnight, sales of Jackson's discography skyrocketed, with sales of ''{{Music/Thriller}}'', ''{{Music/Dangerous}}'', ''{{Music/Bad}}'' and other albums rising 100% or more, and millions of people around the world all tried to buy tickets for ''This is It'', selling all 750,000 seats in less than four hours. In the months leading up to the first concert, Jackson and his troupe rehearsed nonstop at the Staples Center and The Forum in Los Angeles to prepare for ''This is It''.

* GreenAesop: "Earth Song," obviously. But made more poignant here by having backup singers dress in tattered clothing joining Jackson on stage, and a video featuring a menacing earth mover plowing through a forest and seemingly [[WouldHurtAChild crush]] an innocent girl trying to protect its remains. Said mover would also join Jackson on stage, coming up behind him and stop as the finale of the piece.

* SameLanguageDub: Since he was "saving" his voice for London (see WillfullyWeak below), some of Michael's lead vocals were lipsynched during rehearsals. Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson%27s_This_Is_It#Songs_performed_in_the_film has specifics]] on what songs were lip-synced.

In the late summer of that same year, footage of Jackson performing "They Don't Care About Us" from the rehearsals leaked online, leading to many fans clamoring for more rehearsal footage of Jackson. So AEG Live and Columbia Pictures, with the approval of Jackson's estate, enlisted ''This Is It'' director and Jackson's personal friend Kenny Ortega to compile and condense over 100 hours worth of behind the scenes footage into a 111-minute movie.

** "The Drill" / "They Don't Care About Us" contains references to "Bad," "Dangerous," "Mind is the Magic" (an obscure tune written by Jackson for Siegfried & Roy), "[=History=]," "She Drives Me Wild," and "Why You Wanna Trip On Me."
** The "Thriller" segment also features clips from "[[Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts Ghosts]]" and "Threatened".

* TheStinger: Two of them. The first was a clip of Michael rehearsing "Human Nature" a couple of weeks before his death. The other was a video of the little girl who appeared in "Earth Song" holding the earth with the words "Heal The World" above her, followed by Michael's signature, and his final message to his fans: "I love you."

* WritingAroundTrademarks: During the brief snippet of "[=HIStory=]" that played during "They Don't Care About Us", a piece of music heavily resembling "Great Gate of Kiev" is played. In the original clip of the rehearsal that was leaked online, the original "Great Gate of Kiev" is played, but was replaced in the film due to sample clearance issues.

* ShowStopper: Subverted during the [[Music/TheJacksonFive Jackson 5]] medley. The music dramatically halts between songs, and Jackson says, "You guys, I gotta tell you this..." He then goes on to complain, in detail, how uncomfortable and loud his in-ear monitors are, and asks to have them turned down a little.

** Michael sings a snippet of "Speechless" during "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".
** The dance sequence for "Jam" contains an instrumental excerpt of "Another Part of Me".
** "The Drill" / "They Don't Care About Us" contains references to "Bad", "Dangerous", "Mind is the Magic", "[=History=]", "She Drives Me Wild", and "Why You Wanna Trip On Me".

* SecondVerseCurse: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Since ''This Is It'' was planned to have a ''much'' bigger set list than what was shown on the film, several songs had verses cut or truncated due to time constraints.
* ShowStopper: Happens during the [[Music/TheJacksonFive Jackson 5]] medley. Jackson stops midway to complain that his in-ear monitors are too loud.

Alas, [[AuthorExistenceFailure MJ died on June 25, 2009, less than a month before he was set to take the stage at London]].