History Film / RealSteel

* MadeOfIron:
** Atom's biggest advantage - literally, too.
** Charlie in his career as a professional boxer, as explained by Bailey. Somewhat subverted in that he was knocked out in nearly the last round, but still managed to piss off his opponent, a well-known world champ.

* GroinAttack: Midas does this to Noisy Boy in their fight. They might be robots, but it still made all the men in the room wince.

* SerkisFolk: The robots.

* KillerRobot: Averted; people do not seem at all worried about getting into a ring with giant robots.

* SuicidalOverconfidence: Charlie loses not one, but ''two'' of his robots through his own hubris and errors. He loses his first robot, Ambush, when he actually turns his back to the arena ''during the fight'' in order to flirt with a woman, and he loses his second robot, Noisy Boy, when he puts him into a main event bout without even bothering to learn all of the commands first.

* KickTheDog: Ricky and his men had already done quite a number on Charlie, but then when he learns from Max that he's beating up Max's father, he then decides to supply him with even less life than he promised (in other words, less than an ''inch'') before kicking his neck.

* CurbStompBattle: Zeus knocks down Atom with his firs blow. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Atom then gets back up.]]]]

* ActorAllusion HughJackman [[Film/XMen has driven a truck to participate in underground fights before.]]

* AsianAndNerdy: Tak Moshido, Zeus's creator. It's also mentioned that he was exceptionally intelligent as a young boy. BackStory on the film's website also reveals that he was the original creator of Noisy Boy, Charlie's second robot, and was also one of the revolutionary inventors of robot boxing.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:After a long and arduous fight, Zeus retains his title of champ but his reputation is tarnished, and Charlie and Max have won the hearts of everyone in the world, earning them and Atom the title of the People's Champion.]]
* BloodSport: In-universe, the use of robots has turned boxing into something like this. There are no more restrictions on where the fighters can hit, and fights in less legitimate venues are often to the death.

* ABoyAndHisX: Charlie initially has no interest in Atom; it is his son who does most of the initial work, and fights all of the fights except the last one. Ironically, it reflects on his and Max's relationship.

* CranialProcessingUnit: Most of the robots seem to have these, justified as the robots are built to simulate human boxing.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Round 2 of Atom vs. Metro, mainly due to the OneHitKill]].
** Subverted with Atom vs. Zeus.

* DavidVersusGoliath: Atom is significantly smaller than most of the opponents he faces. {{Lampshaded}} and used by title in the fight promos between Atom and Zeus, and is also integrated into Atom's fighting routine (he has to punch up at all times).
* DisappearedDad: Charlie, who's been out of Max's life for nearly all of his eleven years of living. Needless to say, his late girlfriend's sister and husband dislike him for it.

* DerelictGraveyard: Charlie goes to one of these to look for spare parts. [[spoiler: He finds Atom.]]

* EvilDebtCollector: Charlie has a run-in with one, Ricky. [[spoiler:He and his goons drive Charlie to the DespairEventHorizon, but during Atom's fight with Zeus, is hoist by his own petard by trying to renege on a deal with one of Charlie's old buddies.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Bailey sits down in the bar to watch Atom's fight with Twin Cities, the guy next to her clearly tries to get ready to hit on her, but can't even get a word out before she completely turns her attention to the fight.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Bailey tells a story about Charlie's fight against a major championship contender an tells about how Charlie fought him relentlessly, pushed him to the limit, and tired him out -- and ultimately lost in the final round, despite taking major losses himself.]]
** Atom's [[AWorldwidePunomenon Foreshadow boxing function]].
* GadgeteerGenius: [[ChildProdigy Max]] manages to greatly enhance Atom overnight.

* GratuitousJapanese: Appears on Max's shirt at one point. Max also apparently knows how to speak Japanese, as shown when he tries to control Noisy Boy ([[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Noisy Boy is of Japanese origin). [[{{Handwave}} Handwaved]] by the fact that Max plays Japanese bootlegs of video games.

* InstantAIJustAddWater: [[spoiler:Averted, while there are hints to Atom's sentience, he is for the most part just a robot with a few extra features.]]

** Max also has no qualms about dancing right in front of Atom, with the latter repeating all his movements, even though a wrong hand swipe can crush all of Max's bones.
* JerkAss: Ricky. He rigged the bullfight against Charlie, ignores his calls to quit the match when his robot is badly damaged, and the beats Charlie and his son up and steals their winnings (and proceeds to KickTheDog even further when he learns from Max that Charlie is his father by deciding that he is going to leave an even less amount of life to Charlie than before (note, he previously promised him that he'd beat him to an ''inch'' of his life). Fortunately, [[LaserGuidedKarma karma hits back]] when [[spoiler:he makes a large bet that Atom doesn't even last the first round against Zeus while insulting Finn and his crew. He tries to make a hasty retreat when Atom does survive the first round, but Finn and crew stop him and takes him away]].

* KickTheDog: Ricky and his men had already done quite a number on Charlie, but then when he learns from Max that he's beating up Max's father, he then decides to supply him with even less life than he promised (in other words, less than an ''inch'') before kicking his neck.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Ricky stole money from Charilie and his kid (not to mention kicking the dog by leaving Charlie with even less life than before when learning that Max is Charlie's son), and soon bets that money that Atom won't last the first round against Zeus. [[spoiler: When Atom does make it past the first round, people come looking for him to pay up. [[{{Irony}} Exactly what he had been doing to Charlie for the entire film]]]].
* LightningBruiser: The majority of the boxing robots. They're at least as agile as their human precursors and they hit hard enough to knock each other's parts off. Atom himself is a lightning bruiser amongst the 'bots. Charlie frequently extols Atom's speed and agility as his key advantages over the other bots.

* MeaningfulEcho: "You do realize you're talking to a machine." Man.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Let's face it: Atom got his ass kicked when he went up against Metro. [[spoiler: The tides quickly turn to his favor in Round 2]].

* NoSell: Atom seems to shrug off most hits. {{Justified}} as it's built as a Sparring Robot.

** Zeus executes a robot by squashing its head into tin between his fists.
* OlderThanHeLooks: Max. Charlie even asks him to clarify if he really is 11 years old. Might have to do with his intellect.

** Earlier in the film, [[spoiler: Atom punches Metro in the jaw ''with both fists'', causing it to malfunction and eventually collapse and catch fire]].

* ProductPlacement: Not overly blatant, but definitely obvious, considering that, erm, corporations do spend tons of money naming and sponsoring arenas and sports. Of particular note is an ad in the arena for the [[spoiler: Championship Fight]] advertising the Xbox 720, and most of the holographic controls being manufactured by HP.
** Not to mention the Sprint ads around the scoreboard, the frequent use of Dr. Pepper, and the '''GIANT''' Bing over the stadium entrance.

* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming:
** Zeus ("King of the Robots") and Midas ("The [[IncrediblyLamePun Gold-Blooded]] Killer").
** Atom, seeing as none of the characters ever seem to notice his name has a ''t'' in it, not a ''d''.
* SecretArt: [[spoiler: Atom's Shadow Mode, which allows him to mimic a person's moves exactly. It's apparently a skill only older robots had.]]

** Don't forget the [[TRON Tron-esque]] outfits the referees in the WRB are wearing, man.

* StoneWall: Atom in his initial function as a sparring robot. He needed to survive even the champions' best hits (that are shown to be easily capable of ''shattering'' the parts of actual fighters) but he lacked offensive [[IncrediblyLamePun punch]], presumably to minimize the repairs needed by said champions after a session. Max's upgrades and Charlie's training turn him into a LightningBruiser.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: Charlie loses not one, but ''both'' of his robots by taking it to an underground fight club and getting it the main event match, without bothering to learn all of the commands. He somehow managed to decide that it was a good idea to turn his robot's back on a ''2000-pound bull'' just because he felt like showing off. The second time, he manages to [[EpicFail get a former heavyweight champion turned into complete scrap.]]
* SuperPrototype: Atom is a generation two sparring robot, yet manages to outperform both of Charlie's other robots, Ambush and Noisy Boy, [[spoiler: and manages to knock down Zeus for nine seconds [[hottip:*:An extra second and they would have won the match]], who is a very powerful robot.]] {{Justified}} in that Max fixed Atom up so that he packs a punch.

* TenMinuteRetirement: Zeus's designer came out of retirement to build him. Judging by his age and having been a world-renowned designer, he can't have been retired for very long.

* TrailersAlwaysLie:
** The trailers make it look like Charlie uses the robot's "shadow function" to control the robot for his fights. [[spoiler: This is actually only done as a last resort in the final round of the fight against Zeus when Atom's other control functions are knocked offline by Zeus.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Atom's discovery was revealed in the extended trailer as is the destruction of Charlie's more formidable looking robots, rendering some of the viral videos slightly redundant. Most of the film's publicity also has Atom in the spotlight so the only surprises left for Noisy Boy and co. are the details of how they get taken out.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Aside from the fact that robots have taken over boxing, [[{{Zeerust}} everything looks pretty much like present day.]] The film is set in 2020.
* UnderdogsNeverLose: [[spoiler: Averted. Neither Zeus nor Atom get the knockout. Zeus wins in points at the end of the fifth round, but the fact that Atom put up such a strong fight got him the support of the crowd.]]

** Also, Ricky ends up panicking when he realizes that Atom won the first round, and tries to leave... only to discover the two people he harassed earlier waiting and trapping him, before leading him away to presumably beat him up.
* WeakButSkilled: This appears to be Atom's edge over the bigger, shinier robots it's put up against in the trailers. A featurette describes how Atom can mimic what it sees perfectly -- and Charlie Kenton, the one who found Atom, just happens to be a retired boxing champion.

** YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The despaired look of the spectators with losing bets, along with the whole prospect of the Atom vs. Zeus match-up.

* AsianAndNerdy: Tak Moshido, Zeus's creator. It's also mentioned that he was exceptionally intelligent as a young boy. BackStory on the film's website also reveals that he was the original creator of Noisy Boy, Charlie's second robot, and was also one of the revolutionary figures in the World Robot Boxing world.

* AsianAndNerdy: Tak Moshido, Zeus's creator. It's also mentioned that he was exceptionally intelligent as a young boy.

* ShoutOut: Atom's name is a twofer. It belongs to both the robot hero AstroBoy and the [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero
[[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica The Atom]], a diminutive scrapper who was taught to box, and proceeded to outfight thugs much bigger than him.

** Don't forget the [[Tron Tron-esque]] outfits the referees in the WRB are wearing, man.

* ShoutOut: Atom's name is a twofer. It belongs to both the robot hero AstroBoy and the [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero [[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica The Atom]], a diminutive scrapper who was taught to box, and proceeded to outfight thugs much bigger than him.

* MeaningfulName: Atom. The small and invincible.

* JerkAss: Ricky. He rigged the bullfight against Charlie, ignores his calls to quit the match when his robot is badly damaged, and the beats Charlie and his son up and steals their winnings. Fortunately, [[LaserGuidedKarma karma hits back]] when [[spoiler:he makes a large bet that Atom doesn't even last the first round against Zeus while insulting Finn and his crew. He tries to make a hasty retreat when Atom does survive the first round, but Finn and crew stop him and takes him away]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Ricky stole money from Charilie and his kid, and soon bets that money that Atom won't last the first round against Zeus. [[spoiler: When Atom does make it past the first round, people come looking for him to pay up. [[{{Irony}} Exactly what he had been doing to Charlie for the entire film]]]].

** YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The despaired look of the spectators with losing bets

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Evangeline Lily's character sits down in the bar to watch Atom's fight with Twin Cities, the guy next to her clearly tries to get ready to hit on her, but can't even get a word out before she completely turns her attention to the fight.

* GadgeteerGenius: Max manages to greatly enhance Atom overnight.

* HeroicSecondWind.