History Film / Overboard

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/overboard_251.png]]

A 1987 RomanticComedy film directed by Creator/GarryMarshall, starring Creator/KurtRussell and Creator/GoldieHawn.

Joanna (Hawn) is a RichBitch living with all the creature comforts on a yacht with her husband Grant. While bored during a stopover for repairs in the small town of Elk Cove, Oregon, Joanna hires a local carpenter, Dean (Russell), to remodel her closet. Despite the closet being exactly what she asked for, she declares it to be sub-par, stiffs him on the bill, and throws him and his tool box overboard.

After leaving port that night, Joanna goes up on deck to retrieve her wedding ring. She falls overboard and washes up near Elk Cove with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia amnesia]]. Her husband, although he comes to see her, does not retrieve her, instead taking the yacht for an extended party with younger women. Dean, however, sees Joanna on the news and decides that a little payback is in order: he tells her that her name is Annie and that she is his wife and the mother of his four sons, and plans to have her WorkOffTheDebt by doing domestic chores.

Unfortunately for him, she has never so much as touched a kitchen or cleaning implement in her life. HilarityEnsues.

Not to be confused with the newspaper comic strip ''Overboard.'' Or the pirate game ''Overboard!''

A GenderFlipped [[Film/Overboard2018 remake]] starring Creator/AnnaFaris and Creator/EugenioDerbez was released in 2018.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* AbductionIsLove: Played for laughs, but Dean exploits the amnesia of Joanna/"Annie", unlawfully takes her from the hospital with the intent of using her for manual labor, with her eventually falling in love with him.
* AccidentalMisnaming: "Annie", at first, calls Travis "Roy" repeatedly.
* AllMenArePerverts: Averted. Dean not only asserts that he would never touch Joanna due to her vile personality (no matter how good she looks), but refuses to sleep with "Annie" until after the two of them truly fall in love. He actually goes the extra mile and does everything he can to put her off sex, such as pouring a shot of cheap booze on his shirt and pretending to be completely wasted.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: The film starts with Joanna hiring Dean to make a shoe closet. She describes her current situation as catastrophic. And that's just the shoes she keeps on her yacht.
* AmnesiacDissonance: Averted. "Annie" may not have Joanna's memories, but she is still every inch a RichBitch.
* AmnesiacLover: Played with, while Dean and Annie were never married, she and he do fall in love with each other.
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Dean and Joanna, when they swim out to one
another in the ocean.
-->'''Joanna''': Dean, I love you! I'll never leave you again!
-->'''Dean''': I won't either! You're my "Annie" and you'll always will be!
* BabiesEverAfter: At the end, faced with the prospect of him and his sons now in the lap of luxury, Dean asks in lament what he could ever give Joanna that she doesn't already have. Her response: "A little girl."
* BecomingTheMask: Over time, Dean acts like such a loving husband to his wife "Annie" that his feelings for her start to become real and he also begins to feel guilty.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Dean and Joanna spar constantly at one another. It isn't until after she's lost her memory and he creates a fake life for her do they genuinely fall for one another.
* ChekhovsGun: A minor one, but Dean points out that it's a little hard for him to ''not'' hear Joanna and Grant talking about him when they're directly above him. Shortly thereafter, the entire ship hears ''him'' as he gives Joanna a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The principal tells Dean that his boys are completely without supervision, to which Dean misinterprets and remarks how lucky they are.
* DeadpanSnarker: Joanna has her snarky moments, especially when she acts like a RichBitch:
-->'''Joanna''': What's my maiden name?
-->'''Dean''': Annie...Goolihy.
-->'''Joanna''': Annie...Goolihy? Where in God's name did I grow up? Dog Patch?
%%* DefrostingIceQueen: Annie.
* DisappearedDad: It's never discussed, but we never see heads or tails of Annie's father.
* DreamSequence: During "Annie's" first night at Dean's house, water drops hitting piano keys from a leaky roof cause her to dream of being at a New Year's Eve party (with the pianist playing the same tune the water drops make).
* {{Fainting}}: "Annie"'s reaction to learning she's had children.
* FindingABraInYourCar: At one point, Annie finds her own lacy panties in Dean's glove box. They're not only miles above the quality of her current underwear, but also monogrammed with her real initials. She naturally assumes Dean is having an affair.
* ForgottenBirthday: Played with. Dean is trying to come clean to Annie, but just can't work up the nerve, so he covers by telling her that the important revelation is that he forgot her birthday.
* {{Gaslighting}}: While the film is definitely a "product of its time", and it's clearly played for laughs, what Dean does to Joanna IS gaslighting, convincing her that her reality is something different than it actually it. Were it not for him going out of his way to NOT take advantage of her sexually, it would fall into rape-by-omission territory.
* HeroicBSOD: "Annie" goes into one just after the first day of trying to do chores. Dean coms home to find her sitting in a chair, completely catatonic, with the kids around her. The boys inform Dean of her day, so Dean decides to prompt a response out of her by asking her what's for dinner. When she replies with "Buh buh buh buh buh..." with no end in sight, Dean picks her up, carries her outside, and tosses her into the water barrel to snap her out of it.
* HiddenDepths:
** As it turns out, the youngest brother Joey doesn't know how to read. As opposed to an "Ignorance is Bliss" mindset, he's painfully aware of it and ashamed of his short-coming as well. Thankfully, his new "mother" Annie teaches him to read.
** Joanna/"Annie" shows a lot of creativity coming up with the miniature golf course theme. She also shows artistic talent by drawing drafts of each hole. She also reveals (to herself and others) she's fluent in French, so she doesn't just lounge around the various places she visits.
* IAmWho: Dean initially withholds the information about Annie's real past out of spite, but as he grows closer to her it becomes more out of fear of losing her.
* IgnoredConfession: When Annie finds her own monogrammed panties in the truck and accuses Dean of cheating, he uses the opportunity to confess the whole scheme to her. She completely ignores it, thinking he's just trying to talk his way out of the affair. It helps that his sons have grown to love Annie and refuse to acknowledge the reveal. Dean's best friend then "admits" that the panties belong to a hooker he slept with his Dean's truck. When Dean asks why, the friend says that Annie is the best thing that ever happened to Dean.
* IntimateMarks: Dean is able to convince the doctors caring for her that he's her husband because he could describe a buttock tattoo he saw when she was wearing a thong bikini.
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Grant, who possibly crosses over into MagnificentBastard territory when he abandons his ''amnesiac'' wife to a mental hospital so he can run off with the [[spoiler:or rather ''her'']] money and play with young "actresses."
** Dean, at first, until he starts to like "Annie."
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Joanna and the principal both remark on Dean not supervising his children and raising them essentially without discipline. A JustifiedTrope, though, as Dean works several jobs to provide a home for them.
** Dean's rant to Joanna about inventing things to complain about just so she has something to do. Even, to an extent, his scheme to get her to work off easily several hundred dollars in tools and several thousand dollars in carpentry work.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Joanna loses all of her memories, but still retains all her previous skills and attitude.
* MamaBear:
** Annie becomes one to the boys.
** To an extent, Ms. Minz is this to Joanna. After roughly a month of being told by Grant she's [[BlatantLies out shopping or unavailable]], she's had enough and threatens that he better produce her or she will hunt him down.
* MeaningfulName: Dean '''Proffitt'''.
* MissingMom:
** Dean's first wife and mother of his boys is only briefly mentioned. Dean informs the principal that she passed on three years ago.
** [[spoiler:When Joanna regains her memories and goes home, she becomes this for the boys, who heartbeakingly cry "You said Moms don't leave!" at her limo as they drive off.]]
* MsFanservice: Joanna when she's wearing her revealing swimsuit, though it's subverted by her snobbish attitude. Dean's MaleGaze makes it plot-relevant.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Played for CharacterDevelopment. Before her accident, Joanna is a spoiled, tempestuous diva to her long-suffering butler and the other staff. After her accident, when she returns to her former life she finds she is able to connect much better with them than her old friends and family, and [[HeelRealization expresses remorse for her previous cruelty and thoughtlessness to them]].
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Joanna's string bikini. [[{{Subversion}} Though Dean's eyes do linger at one point]].
* OnlySaneMan: Billy not only tries to talk Dean out of his scheme, but implores him to come clean later. Zig-Zagged later when he tells an elaborate lie while Dean is trying to tell "Annie" the truth because Dean "belongs with her".
* OperaGloves: Only on the movie poster, pictured above.
* PrincessInRags: The central joke of the film, although Annie isn't really consciously aware of what she's lost. Ultimately subverted when [[spoiler:it looks like she chooses her new family over her wealth, but in actuality, the fortune was always hers, not her husband Grant's.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Due to being up on deck and the acoustics of the ship, Dean's rant is quite audible to most of the rest of the crew. The servants break out in applause.
-->'''Dean''': You know what your problem is? Huh? You're so goddamn bored, you gotta invent things to bitch about. You haven't got a single thing to do except for your hair. Yeah! The closet was fine! You just needed somethin' to take up your useless, empty, nail-polishing, toe-polishing, rich-bitch, sun tanning days!
** Joanna gets her turn later, when she calls out Dean as a bad father who fails to notice how uncared for and undisciplined his children are. She also calls out the kids' teacher, who thought that they were faking being sick to get out of the test, and somehow missed that they all had massive rashes from poison oak.
* RichBitch: Joanna and her mother. The former gets better, though.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: All of Joanna's family, but especially apparent with Joanna, who has no idea how to prepare food or clean a house. Her time as "Annie" becomes a crash course in that "sense".
* SecondLove: Joanna becomes this for Dean, as Dean has lost his high school sweetheart three years prior and eventually falls for Joanna/"Annie".
* SleepMask:
** Joanna's mother is wearing one of these when the yacht is turned around in the middle of the night.
** Annie also uses one of the boys' costume masks as one.
* StarCrossedLovers: The story of Katarina and Arturo, which becomes a MeaningfulEcho at the film's climax. Made more meaningful considering it's just another instance of Dean's masterful off-the-cuff bullshit that's defined their relationship.
* StealthPun: When Dean says that he bought "the good stuff" for her birthday, Annie remarks that she's never had anything like it. She thinks it's because the champagne is expensive, but it's really because at "seven dollars a pop" she's never drunk anything so ''cheap''.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: After regaining her memory, Joanna realizes she doesn't enjoy the rich life like she used to. She finds her wardrobe tacky, she's unfamiliar with her old smoking habits, and her work ethic feels out of place among her company.
* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: After preventing Grant from shooting Joanna and Dean during their reunion by dumping him overboard, Andrew promptly quits as his butler. (Then again, who knows if he'll continue on as ''Joanna'''s butler.)
-->'''Andrew''': I am giving my notice, sir!
* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: Joanna treated Dean poorly after hiring him to do carpentry work for her, eventually manufacturing an excuse to stiff him on the bill. When Dean sees her amnesia story on the news, he seizes the opportunity to claim her as his wife and put her to work raising his kids (admittedly while he works two jobs) as retribution.
* TookALevelInKindness: Joanna is no less of a bitch after she loses her memories, but in her time as "Annie" she warms up to Dean and his children and she develops empathy that she had never displayed before. Her new outlook stays with her even after she regains her memories.
* TogetherInDeath: The love story of Katerina and Arturo which Dean tells Joanna/"Annie" ends with this between the two lovers.

* AbductionIsLove: Played for laughs, but Dean exploits the amnesia of Joanna/"Annie", unlawfully takes her from the hospital with the intent of using her for manual labor. But it's [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop all okay because she falls in love with him and they all live happily ever after]].

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Dean and Joanna, when they swim out to one another in the ocean.

* HiddenDepths: As it turns out, the youngest brother Joey doesn't know how to read. As opposed to an "Ignorance is Bliss" mindset, he's painfully aware of it and ashamed of his short-coming as well. Thankfully, his new "mother" Annie teaches him to read.

* AnguishedDeclaratioOfLove: Dean and Joanna, when they swim to one another in the ocean.

--->You know what your problem is? Huh? You're so goddamn bored, you gotta invent things to bitch about. You haven't got a single thing to do except for your hair. Yeah! The closet was fine! You just needed somethin' to take up your useless, empty, nail-polishing, toe-polishing, rich-bitch, sun tanning days!

* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" is playing in a scene where it becomes obvious Dean is falling for Annie.

* FakeNationality: Hector Elizondo, a Puerto Rican American of Spanish descent uncredited as the Portugese immigrant captain of a garbage scow.