History Film / Pig

* CoolPet: Robin and his truffle pig, naturally.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Robin delivers an absolutely ''[[TearJerker brutal]]'' one to [[StepfordSmiler Derek]], the chef at Eurydice who gave up on his dreams in order to please the more superficial members of the culinary world. However, unlike other examples of this trope, Rob is actually trying to help his former colleague [[WhatTheHellHero realize what he's become]] rather than simply [[BreakThemByTalking spite the man]] [[DisproportionateRetribution out of some cruel form of retribution]]. By the end of his speech, Derek is no longer smiling and [[DrowningMySorrows downs an entire wineglass]] in front of his customers.
-->'''Robin:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Derek, why do you care about these people?]] [[BrutalHonesty They don't care about you]]. None of them. They don't even know you. Because you haven't ''shown'' them. Everyday you'll wake up, and there'll be less of you. [[IJustWantToBeSpecial You live your life for them, and they don't even see you]]. You don't even see yourself. (''Beat'') [[TearJerker We don't get a lot of things to really care about]].

Robin (Creator/NicolasCage) lives contently by himself in the Oregon woods with only his beloved pig for company. They hunt for valuable truffles which Robin then sells to Amir (Creator/AlexWolff), his only contact with the outside world. One day Robin is brutally attacked and his pig kidnapped. He recruits Amir to bring him to the nearby city of Portland and its high dining scene, where's he's forced to confront the ghosts of his past in his search to recover his only friend.

-->'''Robin:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Derek, why do you care about these people?]] They don't care about you. None of them. They don't even know you. Because you haven't ''shown'' them. Everyday you'll wake up, and there'll be less of you. [[IJustWantToBeSpecial You live your life for them, and they don't even see you]]. You don't even see yourself. (''Beat'') [[TearJerker We don't get a lot of things to really care about]].

-->'''Robin:'''

* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Amir's face goes slack as Derek’s description of the frightening pig thief makes him think of his father.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of RoaringRampageOfRevenge flicks, particularly ''Film/JohnWick'' in the abduction[=/=]abuse of an animal kickstarting the plot. Especially with [[Creator/NicolasCage Nick Cage]] in the spotlight and a marketing campaign that steered into the skid, ''Pig'' is poised to unravel like any other action-revenge flick. In its first act, Robin even visits some kind of underground fight club to with which he was supposedly involved in the past. After this plot point serves its purpose, however, it's dropped and never mentioned again. This sets up a theme that most of Robin's DarkAndTroubledPast is largely irrelevant, and he never flies of the rails in an ActionHero rage (except to cause some petty, mundane damage to Amir's car in a short burst of irritability). [[spoiler:The whole film culminates in Robin cooking a meal for the BigBad instead of just kicking his ass like a revenge flick would inevitably require him to do. See SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism below]].

* BaitAndSwitch: Done several times to subvert the idea that the film was going to be a Film/JohnWick esque action thriller. Notably, at one point Robin infiltrates a shadowy fighting ring run by the Portland culinary scene. [[spoiler: Rather than kicking ass, Rob gets beaten severely, but does get the info he needs.]]

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