History Film / MrMonksLastCaseAMonkMovie

** In the novels, Monk went right on solving cases after he caught Trudy's murderer and even showed Natalie working on getting her PI license so she could be a more equal partner to him. Here, it's implied that Monk retired not long after solving Trudy's murder, and Natalie is now a realtor living in Atlanta.

** Molly isn't particularly important in the novels despite being Trudy's daughter. Here, it's shown that she adores Monk like a second father and even moved in with him during the Covid pandemic to keep him from going insane.
* CharacterDevelopment: Although a lot of Monk's mental health progress was undone by the COVID-19 Pandemic, one sign that he hasn't completely backslid is that he doesn't recoil from physical contact with others nor does he reach for wipes or sanitizer as constantly as he used to during the main series. [[spoiler:He even adopts a dog by the end of the film.]]

* ContinuityNod: Randy's musical past as a member of the Randy Disher Project is brought up when Stottlemeyer pranks him by getting some security guards to pretend they are fans of his music.

* TheGhost: Julie, Benji, Steve Albright, and Monk's old rival Harold Krenshaw are all mentioned, but do not appear. Sharona technically qualifies as well, since she only appears in a brief flashback via footage from the series premiere.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Monk points out that Eden instantly identified Lucas Kubrick as one of his delivery drivers even though he has over a million employees and Monk never told him what Kubrick's specific job was.
* InsaneTrollLogic: As usual, Randy concocts an ... interesting theory to explain how Eden could have killed Griffin. In this case, he suggests that Eden put the bridge that Griffin was bungee jumping from on hydraulic pillars so that he could lower it on demand. He even builds a Lego replica of the bridge to demonstrate. When pressed, he suggests that billionaires lower bridges all the time because they like to go fishing and doing so makes it easier. [[note]]This is probably a reference to the now-infamous incident wherein a company that was constructing a luxury superyacht for Jeff Bezos asked the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historic bridge so that they could move the vessel out to sea, since its masts would be too high for it to pass under the bridge. The city government put its foot down after widespread outcry from citizens, despite the company offering to pay to have the bridge reassembled.[[/note]]

* PetTheDog: Of course, those close to Monk still love him. [[spoiler:Dr. Bell kept treating Monk two months after he retired because he was THAT worried about him. Just when it looks like Monk is gonna take the [[SuicideByPills easy way out]], the spirits of Trudy and those whose murder cases Monk solved show up and get him not to. One of them is from an unsolved case. Homicide division's Capt. Rudner dangled 22 unsolved cases in front of Monk hoping it would make him come back. It worked.]]

* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Griffin turns down Eden's attempted bribe of becoming chief editor at the ''San Francisco Dispatch'', a job that would be worth $600,000 a year plus perks. Later on, Eden offers Monk a cool ''billion'' dollars to walk away from the case, and Monk turns him down, because seeing justice done for Molly and Griffin is more important to him. Likewise, Stottlemeyer doesn't hesitate to help Monk nail Eden for the murders even though he has an incredibly cushy job as the man's chief of security (though he does tell Eden he's keeping the $20,000 watch that the former gifted him).
--> '''Eden:''' A billion dollars. What were you thinking?\\
'''Monk:''' I was thinking about my wife. Molly was her baby. You broke her baby's heart.

-->'''Monk:''' You think money can buy anything?\\
'''Eden:''' I do, because it can.

* StatusQuoIsGod: Most of the progress Monk was seen making at the end of the original series was undone by the COVID-19 Pandemic, as the disease and isolation brought his neuroses back with a vengeance. It didn't help that Natalie and Julie moved to Atlanta and Stottlemeyer retired.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: For a person as neurotic and paranoid as Monk, something as life-shattering as the COVID-19 Pandemic--which was enough to mentally break even some well-adjusted people, much less an obsessive germophobe--manages to basically reset the progress he seemed to be making at overcoming his issues at the end of the original series run. As it turns out, a lifetime of mental disorders doesn't magically become immune to extreme outside influences just because you finally solve your wife's murder case.
* ThemeMusicWithholding: Music/RandyNewman's "It's a Jungle Out There" until the end title card. After TheStinger, Jeff Beal's Monk Theme plays over the rest of the credits.

* {{Tuckerization}}: The publisher who closes Monk's contract is named Beth Landow, based on Andy Breckman's wife, and is played by Brooke Adams, the [[Main/RealLifeRelative wife]] of Tony Shalhoub.

Adrian Monk (Creator/TonyShalhoub) is called back into service for one last case when his stepdaughter Molly Evans (whom he found about in met in the GrandFinale of Monk) loses her fiancée under suspicious circumstances. The film premiered on Creator/{{Peacock}} on December 8, 2023.

Adrian Monk (Creator/TonyShalhoub) is called back into service for one last case when his friend Molly Evans (the daughter of his late wife) loses her fiancée under suspicious circumstances. The film premiered on Creator/{{Peacock}} on December 8, 2023.

* EurekaMoment: When Monk is talking to the twin funeral directors [[spoiler:in preparation for his suicide]], he makes a note that they are identical, save for a slight difference in the size of their heads. Upon looking at the slightly different tape measures they used to measure, he realizes Eden killed Griffin [[spoiler:by having Lucas swap the tape measure used to cut his bungee cord with one longer by an imperceptible millimeters.]]

* {{Padding}}: On of the InUniverse problems with Monk's book and why the publisher pulls the plug. He puts so much focus on things like the minutia of the stove he used to own and it being recalled/discontinued or the fact that he and a suspect both owned the same type of vacuum cleaner that it drowns out the details on his investigations, which is what readers would want to actually read about.[[note]]In the publisher's words, Monk has two paragraphs about the suspect and nine ''pages'' about the vacuum cleaner.[[/note]]

* ParanormalEpisode: Of a sort. The television series never demonstrated that any genuine supernatural forces existed in its world. Any conversations Monk would have with the deceased Trudy were typically framed as dreams or hallucinations, like when he got buried alive and imagined her there with him. This episode initially suggests that he is experiencing much the same thing, brought on by his worsening mental health as a result of the pandemic. However, at the end of the film, he is visited by all of the previous victims whose cases he's solved...and one whose has yet to be solved. Since he has never seen her, and thus has no frame of reference for what she might look like, this implies that she, at least, is a genuine supernatural presence.

* SayingTooMuch: Part of what attracts Monk to Lucas Kubrick is that when describing to a bystander what happened to Griffin, he says that Griffin cut his line 6 feet too long, instead of a more random number or just saying "too long".

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Griffin notes that this is Rick Eden's default attitude toward life. He tries to buy Griffin off by offering him the editorship of a prestigious San Francisco newspaper, a job which he notes is worth $600,000 a year. Later, when he finds Monk in his beachfront mansion, he offers him a billion dollars to walk away from the case.

* UncattyResemblance: Monk and Natalie visit an animal shelter an meet Watson, a black-haired poodle that is afraid of everything and compulsively cleans his pen. [[spoiler:Natalie adopts Watson for Monk, believing it will be good for the both of them.]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Although a lot of Monk's mental health progress was undone by the COVID-19 Pandemic, one sign that he hasn't completely backslid is that he doesn't recoil from physical contact with others nor does he reach for wipes or sanitizer as constantly as he used to during the main series.

* SequelHook: Early on in the film, Captain Rudner mentions that there are twenty-two cases open -- [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall coincidentally the exact number of an episode for an "average" season of American television.]] [[spoiler: The film ends with Monk going off to solve them.]]

* VerySpecialEpisode: It's downplayed, since the series never shied away from serious topics, but the movie has a subplot devoted to Monk's depression, loneliness, and [[spoiler:suicidal ideation]] and has a noticeably more somber tone. It even concludes with a title card encouraging viewers to seek help if they are feeling the same way.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Neven Bell, Monk's new psychiatrist, is writing a new book about his experiences with patients. Monk deduces that Bell is only writing about him. [[spoiler: It's revealed, several scenes later, that Monk is the ''only'' patient he's been seeing; he retired two months prior to the events of the movie.]]

* SpiritAdvisor: Trudy appears to Monk throughout the movie, trying to talk him out of the malaise he's been in for the last several years [[spoiler:and stop him committing suicide. At the end of the movie, she, Griffin, and the many, ''many'' victims whose murders he's solved appear to him and motivate him to get back to doing what he does best]].

* FreezeFrameBonus: Monk's publisher's name is briefly glimpsed on the outside of her office -- "Beth Landlow". A name that [[NamesTheSame the victim from "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" shares.]]

* SuicideByPills: This is how [[spoiler:Monk is planning to end his own life. He's been hoarding his lorazepam prescription.]]

* EurekaMoment: When talking to the twin funeral directors [[spoiler:in preparation for his suicide]], he makes a note that they are identical, save for a slight difference in the size of their heads. Upon looking at the slightly different tape measures they used to measure, he realizes Eden killed Griffin [[spoiler:by having Lucas swap the tape measure used to cut his bungee cord with one longer by an imperceptible millimeters.]]

* TheGhost: Julie, Benji, Steve Albright, and Monk's old rival Harold Krenshaw are all mentioned, but do not appear.

* InsaneTrollLogic: As usual, Randy concocts an ... interesting theory to explain how Eden could have killed Griffin. In this case, he suggests that Eden put the bridge that Griffin jumped from on hydraulic pillars so that he could lower it on demand. He even builds a Lego replica of the bridge to demonstrate. When pressed, he suggests that billionaires lower bridges all the time because they like to go fishing and doing so makes it easier. [[note]]This is probably a reference to the now-infamous incident wherein a company that was constructing a luxury superyacht for Jeff Bezos asked the Dutch city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historic bridge so that they could move the vessel out to sea, since its masts would be too high for it to pass under the bridge. The city government put its foot down after widespread outcry from citizens, despite the company offering to pay to have the bridge reassembled.[[/note]]
* InterruptedSuicide: Twice. [[spoiler:Monk is all set to kill himself and is picking out a coffin when he has his EurekaMoment and solves the case. Then, after Eden has been arrested, he goes to his favorite park and again prepares to down his hoarded sedatives, only to be interrupted by Trudy, Griffin, and the many other victims whose murders he's solved, who remind him of all the good he's done]].

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: When Monk and Natalie are investigating an animal shelter that's been receiving threatening notes, they're introduced to an dog named Watson who is "unadoptable" because he's elderly, losing his vision, and just keeps rearranging and cleaning his enclosure. Natalie and Monk start bickering about whether the shelter shouldn't just put him down because he's old, sad, and alone. It quickly becomes clear that while Natalie is talking about Watson, Monk [[spoiler:is talking about himself, because he's planning to commit suicide]].

* SpiritAdvisor: Trudy appears to Monk throughout the movie, trying to talk him out of the malaise he's been in for the last several years [[spoiler:and stop him committing suicide. At the end of the movie, Griffin and the many, ''many'' victims whose murders he's solved appear to him and motivate him to get back to doing what he does best]].