History Film / SouthlandTales

*** On a related note, [[WordsOfGod Richard Kelly]] pointed out that Creator/LouTaylorPucci's character, Martin Kefauver, is named after of Tennessean politician Estes Kefauver, who took an issue with ''Kiss Me Deadly'' when it released in theaters.

Imagine if you will the skewed artistic sensibilities of Creator/AndyWarhol filming a Greatest Hits version of Creator/PhilipKDick's body of work, written with the esoteric denseness of [[Music/ThePixies Pixies]] lyrics, and you'll have something approximating the, er, ''experience'' that is Southland Tales. The film's cast is an eclectic group, led by names like Wrestling/DwayneJohnson, Creator/SarahMichelleGellar, Creator/SeannWilliamScott, and narrator Music/JustinTimberlake, while the secondary cast is filled with character actors and comedians, specifically ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' veterans.

*** On related note, [[WordsOfGod Richard Kelly]] pointed out that Creator/LouTaylorPucci's character, Martin Kefauver, is named after of Tennessean politician Estes Kefauver, who took an issue with ''Kiss Me Deadly'' when it released in theaters.

* DreamSequence Pilot Abilene has a drug-induced daze after shooting [[FantasticDrug Fluid Karma]]. In it, he lipsyncs to the outro of Music/TheKillers' "I've Got Soul But I'm Not A Soldier" with sexy female dancers in {{Naughty Nurse Outfit}}s swirling around him doing a downplayed BusbyBerkeleyNumber.

* JustBeforeTheEnd: The movie is a big dystopia comedy-satire about the last three days on earth in Los Angeles.

* ViewersAreGeniuses: The film is drenched in references to literature and politics that range from punishingly obvious to downright impenetrable. Everyone watching the film can tell that it's certainly supposed to be about ''something'', but what the hell is actually going on or what it's all supposed to mean in the end generally baffles most audiences. Ultimately the director certainly had a lot of faith in the audience that they'd be able to follow his thought processes. Or he just intended to make a longer film with more explanation, or thought more people [[AllThereInTheManual would read the prequel comic]]. Though the longer cut at Cannes got similar, if not even more negative responses than the final cut.

* {{Yubitsume}}: When the Prime Minister of Japan offers a finger for access to Fluid Karma. But instead [[AnArmAndALeg his whole hand gets chopped off]].

* AlternateUniverse: WordOfGod places the story in an AlternateUniverse. His prequel script directly namedrops Philip K. Dick's ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'', one of the defining works of the genre.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The story is set in 2008, but everything looks quite futuristic. Justified, as WordOfGod places the story in a [[AlternateUniverse Tangent Universe]].

* PlayingWithSyringes: The secret tests done on U.S. soldiers using Fluid Karma. Covered mostly in the graphic novels, but the movie shows what happens when these syringes get out into the general populace.

* TheWalrusWasPaul: Director Richard Kelly (who also did the equally convoluted ''Film/DonnieDarko'') has admitted that he made the plot so convoluted that almost no meaning can be extracted from it. It includes TimeTravel, the impending end of the world, Orwellian dystopia, revolutionary new energy sources which will change the world, Neo-Marxist terrorists, an actor who seems destined to be the new Messiah, and a government conspiracy all colliding in Los Angeles aka the Southland.

* FakeVideoCameraView: Subverted. The filmmakers gave a camera to an actual family to record their 4th of July celebration. That's true shock in the lady's face when she hits the camera with a squirt gun.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The ground-to-air missile, which is used to destroy the Mega-Zeppelin the climax, killing most of the main characters, including the Decoy Protagonist Boxer Santaros. Also all that other stuff that made no sense.]]

* BerserkButton: Don't tell Zora to get the fuck out of your ice cream truck and don't call her a "Cro-Magnon bitch".

* GroinAttack: Vaughn Smallhouse gets his balls tazered... twice!

** Also of note is the scene where Bookman fatally shoots the Neo-Marxists. It was originally staged for Roland to "kill" them by firing blanks from his gun, and the actors would react with remote-triggered squibs going off at the appropriate moment. However, Bookman shows up to "investigate" the crime, but since he's a racist cop that doesn't give a damn, he kills both the actors with zero remorse. What makes it this trope is that Bookman shoots them with high-powered ammo that doesn't leave immediate traces... But when Bing triggers the squibs his reaction time is hilariously delayed from the actual shots, making the tragic deaths we witnessed take on the feeling of a cheap sophomoric drama production instead.

* CreepyMonotone: ''"Do you wanna fuck... or watch a movie?"''

* DiegeticSwitch: In reverse. With Bai Ling dancing. In a megazepplin.

* FriendOrFoe: Abilene is scarred from a friendly fire grenade. [[spoiler: Taverner was the one who did it. This is surprisingly extremely significant to the plot, as Taverner can't forgive himself for it]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ronald Taverner, stemming from his tour in [[{{MyGreatestFailure}} Fallujah.]]

* NervousTics: Boxer Santaros has a habit where he taps his fingertips together whenever he's nervous (which is pretty often).

* SexSells: When Senator Frost questions why one of the Baron's commercials has two [=SUVs=] "porking", Vaughn Smallhouse reassures him that "that's the European version".
* ShoutOut:

* TheVonTropeFamily: Baron Von Westphalen and his mother Inga are of German descent. There is also Starla Von Luft.

* WeAREStrugglingTogether: The Neo-Marxists.

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: One of the big differences between real 2009 and parallel universe 2009 is the presence of massive perpetual-motion powered Zeppelins.
** Almost all the chapters are allusions: ''Two Roads Diverge'' is an allusion to Creator/RobertFrost, ''Fingerprints'' likely to Music/LeonardCohen, ''Temptation Waits'' to Music/{{Garbage}} and ''Memory Gospel'' to Music/{{Moby}}. The final chapter is called [[Music/ThePixies Wave of Mutilation]]. ''The Mechanicals'' is named after an improv group that Kelly took a liking too and who had bit parts in the film.
** Also of note is the scene where Bookman fatally shoots the Neo-Marxists. It was originally staged for Roland to "kill" them by firing blanks from his gun, and the actors would react with remote-triggered squibs going off at the appropriate moment. However, Bookman shows up to "investigate" the crime, but since he's a racist cop that doesn't give a damn, he kills both the actors with zero remorse. What makes it this trope is that Bookman shoots them with high-powered ammo that doesn't leave immediate traces... But when Bing triggers the squibs his reaction time is hilariously delayed from the actual shots, making the tragic deaths we witnessed take on the feeling of a cheap sophomoric drama production instead.
** Assuming that the war is ''only'' with the five countries named (Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Afghanistan) and no other countries are participating (either allied with or against the US), it wouldn't ''be'' a World War.
** Creator/AmyPoehler's [[TheDitz ditzy image]] becomes a neo-Marxist poet who [[spoiler: thinks she can mouth off to a fascist cop and gets shot for her trouble]].
** Creator/CheriOteri, known for playing very manic-depressive characters on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', is a psycho who flies off the handle at the slightest insult.
** Creator/ChristopherLambert is once again in a plot about a futuristic corporation that devises a planetary energy shield, with undesirable side-effects. The first; ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening''.
** Creator/JonLovitz's deadpan delivery is transformed into a dead-eyed racist who speaks in CreepyMonotone.
** Creator/WallaceShawn plays a descendant of Karl Marx. In real life, [[https://jacobinmag.com/2017/09/wallace-shawn-plays-socialist-night-thoughts-culture-hollywood Wallace Shawn is a socialist]]
** I am a pimp, and pimps don't commit suicide
** Jericho Cane is the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in ''Film/EndOfDays''.
** Krysta Now's pop song is recorded with autotune with poorly written lyrics. It's so bad that her actress Sarah Michelle Geller refused to record it for the movie.
** Of the five countries mentioned, only one (Iraq) is in the top fifteen countries the US imports oil from (and was #6 at the time). In fact, North Korea (one of the named countries) exports ''no'' oil whatsoever, so unless the US was on the receiving end of an oil embargo by Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Venezuela that the film doesn't mention, the US being cut off of oil from the five countries mentioned in the film wouldn't have nearly as much of an impact as the film suggests (at best, it would cause the price of gas to rise slightly, but not to the point where it would cause a major boom in alternative fuels).
** Possible parody of ''Film/{{Left Behind|2000}}'': The character of Fortunio Balducci, the Baron's [[TheMole Mole]]. WordOfGod confirms that, following the Book of Revelation, Fortunio is the False Prophet. His counterpart's name in ''Left Behind''? Leon Fortunato.
** Scenes from ''Film/KissMeDeadly'' are played throughout the movie, a noir from the 50s about a briefcase full of nuclear material lost in Los Angeles. Kelly said the film was a major influence, to the point where Boxer Santaros drives the same car as that film's main character when he leaves the Frost mansion.
** Soberin Exx states that [[spoiler: once they found the dimensional threshold/gateway to heaven, they launched monkeys into it.]] This takes place in a chapter/episode/whatever titled "Wave of Mutilation", a reference to the Pixies song. Also on the same album? [[spoiler: "Monkey Gone to Heaven", about a man who controls the ocean, and also mankind's place in the universe.]]
** The corrupt senator and his running mate are named [[Creator/RobertFrost Frost]] and [[Creator/TSEliot Eliot]].
** The movie's aesthetic very much invokes mid-2000s music videos with its shiny, chrome-like production design.
** This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang.
** We saw the shadows of the morning light / The shadows of the evening sun / Until the shadows and the light were one."
** What the theatrical cut doesn't really make clear is how awful ''The Power'' is. The "no bowel movements" thing is only the tip of the iceberg. An extended version of the ridealong scene from the Cannes cut goes more into detail about the messianic baby with nuclear farts that cause earthquakes. What the theatrical cut makes ''doubly'' unclear is that the infamous line, "Pimps don't commit suicide", is actually dialog being recited from this (really, really bad) script.
** WordOfGod stated the film is a "hybrid of the sensibilities of Creator/AndyWarhol and Creator/PhilipKDick."
*** [[Literature/FlowMyTearsThePolicemanSaid A policeman says, "Flow my tears"]].
*** Club Jenny, with its avant-garde musical acts and tasteless photos of nuclear bombs exploding, is basically Warhol's Factory.
*** On related note, [[WordsOfGod Richard Kelly]] pointed out that Creator/LouTaylorPucci's character, Martin Kefauver, is named after of Tennessean politician Estes Kefauver, who took an issue with ''Kiss Me Deadly'' when it released in theaters.
*** Psychic drugs allowing a shared consciousness was a central plot element of ''Literature/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch''.
*** Starla von Luft, who believes she's in a movie, shares her surname with an android actress in ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep''.
-->[[Creator/TSEliot "This is the way the world ends."]]
-->'''Pilot Abilene''': He could not forgive himself for what he had done to me.

* {{Blackmail}}: When Krysta Now mentions that she is sleeping with Boxer Santaros, Cyndi Pinziki decides to use this information to blackmail Boxer’s father-in-law, Republican candidate Bobby Frost, for money and demanding the passage of Proposition 69 (a bill that restricts [=USIDent=]’s powers).
* {{Callback}}: "I'm/He's a pimp. And pimps don't commit suicide."
* {{Infodump}}: Pretty much all Justin Timberlake does in this movie is literally explain the plot down the barrel of the camera. It's very telling that, in spite of this role, he said later he STILL had no idea what was going on in the movie.
* {{Pastiche}}: Basically, the movie is one giant love letter to Creator/PhilipKDick, to the point where you practically need a [=PhD=] in PKD to figure out what the hell is going on. In particular, ''Southland Tales'' apes his FourLinesAllWaiting style of plotting, his sci-fi meets religion MindScrew nuttiness, his themes of identity and counterfeits, his gratuitous mixing of high literature and pop culture references, his MediumAwareness twists about characters believing fiction is secretly communicating to them, and an intense dislike of [[StrawCharacter the Republican Party]]. It also has explicit references to ''Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said'' by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin having a policeman say, well...."Flow My Tears"]], and the last name of Seann William Scott's character being "Taverner".
* {{Unobtanium}}: Fluid Karma. A compound found by drilling in the ocean that apparently can be used to generate electric power. Also, acts as a drug working somewhat like a GreenRock.
* {{Yubitsume}}: When the Prime Minister of Japan offers a finger for access to Fluid Karma. But instead [[AnArmAndALeg his whole hand gets chopped off]].

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Fluid Karma is perpetual motion energy generated by the tides, can be beamed to whatever uses it, and also can be made into an attempted SuperSerum and a narcotic drug.

* CelebCrush: There's that woman who's obsessed with Boxer Santoros, and tries to force him at gunpoint to let her blow him.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The ground-to-air missile, which is used to destroy the Mega-Zeppelin the climax, killing most of the main characters, including the Decoy Protagonist Boxer Santoros. Also all that other stuff that made no sense.]]

* FiveFiveFive: If you call the number given to Wrestling/DwayneJohnson's character at the beginning (which goes to John Larroquette's character), you'll end up getting John Larroquette's "actual" voice mail.

* SignificantMonogram: There's a Jericho Cane (real name Boxer Santoros), who [[spoiler:turns out to be the Antichrist]].

* TheMole: Kenny Chan was recruited by the Neo-Marxists to work as a mole inside [=USIDent=]. [[spoiler:It backfires when [=USIDent=] secretly bugs him to track the location of the Neo-Marxist cell.]]
* TheOner: A magnificent example. Starts with Boxer and Madeline getting on the Mega-Zeppelin, follows Cyndi, then Serpentine, then Brad, then drifts past Smallhouse and Frost, then Madame Westphalen before stopping at Serpentine and the Baron dancing on the stage. Technically two shots, as there is a disguised cut while the camera follows Serpentine.

* TheVonTropeFamily: Baron Von Westphalen and his mother Inga are of German descent. There is also Starla Von Luft.
* TheWalrusWasPaul: Director Richard Kelly (who also did the equally convoluted ''Film/DonnieDarko'') has admitted that he made the plot so convoluted that almost no meaning can be extracted from it. It includes TimeTravel, the impending end of the world, Orwellian dystopia, revolutionary new energy sources which will change the world, Neo-Marxist terrorists, an actor who seems destined to be the new Messiah, and a government conspiracy all colliding in Los Angeles aka the Southland.

->'''Pilot Abiliene''': ''[[OpeningMonologue They say the path down the road not taken concludes with a stairway to heaven. The gates would not open for another three days, and Boxer Santaros was searching for the key.]]''

* FiveFiveFive: If you call the number given to Wrestling/DwayneJohnson's character at the beginning (which goes to John Larroquette's character), you'll end up getting John Larroquette's "actual" voice mail.

** Creator/CheriOteri, known for playing very manic-depressive characters on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', is a psycho who flies off the handle at the slightest insult.
** Creator/JonLovitz's deadpan delivery is transformed into a dead-eyed racist who speaks in CreepyMonotone.
** Creator/AmyPoehler's [[TheDitz ditzy image]] becomes a neo-Marxist poet who [[spoiler: thinks she can mouth off to a fascist cop and gets shot for her trouble]].
** Creator/ChristopherLambert is once again in a plot about a futuristic corporation that devises a planetary energy shield, with undesirable side-effects. The first; ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening''.
** Creator/WallaceShawn plays a descendant of Karl Marx. In real life, [[https://jacobinmag.com/2017/09/wallace-shawn-plays-socialist-night-thoughts-culture-hollywood Wallace Shawn is a socialist]]

** This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang.
** We saw the shadows of the morning light / The shadows of the evening sun / Until the shadows and the light were one."
** I am a pimp, and pimps don't commit suicide

** Assuming that the war is ''only'' with the five countries named (Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Afghanistan) and no other countries are participating (either allied with or against the US), it wouldn't ''be'' a World War.
** Of the five countries mentioned, only one (Iraq) is in the top fifteen countries the US imports oil from (and was #6 at the time). In fact, North Korea (one of the named countries) exports ''no'' oil whatsoever, so unless the US was on the receiving end of an oil embargo by Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Venezuela that the film doesn't mention, the US being cut off of oil from the five countries mentioned in the film wouldn't have nearly as much of an impact as the film suggests (at best, it would cause the price of gas to rise slightly, but not to the point where it would cause a major boom in alternative fuels).

* {{Blackmail}}: When Krysta Now mentions that she is sleeping with Boxer Santaros, Cyndi Pinziki decides to use this information to blackmail Boxer’s father-in-law, Republican candidate Bobby Frost, for money and demanding the passage of Proposition 69 (a bill that restricts [=USIDent=]’s powers).

* {{Callback}}: "I'm/He's a pimp. And pimps don't commit suicide."

* GainaxEnding: If you're still somehow following the plot by the end, you won't be able to any longer. A passable knowledge of the Book of Revelations is needed to make sense of the majority of the plot and characters. Likewise, the graphic novels help to make the plot significantly more understandable.

* {{Infodump}}: Pretty much all Justin Timberlake does in this movie is literally explain the plot down the barrel of the camera. It's very telling that, in spite of this role, he said later he STILL had no idea what was going on in the movie.

-->'''Pilot Abilene''': He could not forgive himself for what he had done to me.

* TheOner: A magnificent example. Starts with Boxer and Madeline getting on the Mega-Zeppelin, follows Cyndi, then Serpentine, then Brad, then drifts past Smallhouse and Frost, then Madame Westphalen before stopping at Serpentine and the Baron dancing on the stage. Technically two shots, as there is a disguised cut while the camera follows Serpentine.
* {{Pastiche}}: Basically, the movie is one giant love letter to Creator/PhilipKDick, to the point where you practically need a [=PhD=] in PKD to figure out what the hell is going on. In particular, ''Southland Tales'' apes his FourLinesAllWaiting style of plotting, his sci-fi meets religion MindScrew nuttiness, his themes of identity and counterfeits, his gratuitous mixing of high literature and pop culture references, his MediumAwareness twists about characters believing fiction is secretly communicating to them, and an intense dislike of [[StrawCharacter the Republican Party]]. It also has explicit references to ''Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said'' by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin having a policeman say, well...."Flow My Tears"]], and the last name of Seann William Scott's character being "Taverner".

* PsychicLink: The Fluid Karma energy field transmits wireless electricity to anything inside its radius. Taking the actual Fluid Karma compound, which powers the tidal generator, makes the user into a "receiver" for the energy field[[note]]''Naturally, this is only explained in the graphic novels''[[/note]] and enables them to send their consciousness (which is really just electrical impulses) through space and time, including communicating with other people taking Fluid Karma. And, if Pilot Abilene is to be believed, you can even communicate with God Himself.

* ShoutOut:
** WordOfGod stated the film is a "hybrid of the sensibilities of Creator/AndyWarhol and Creator/PhilipKDick."
*** [[Literature/FlowMyTearsThePolicemanSaid A policeman says, "Flow my tears"]].
*** Starla von Luft, who believes she's in a movie, shares her surname with an android actress in ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep''.
*** Psychic drugs allowing a shared consciousness was a central plot element of ''Literature/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldritch''.
*** Club Jenny, with its avant-garde musical acts and tasteless photos of nuclear bombs exploding, is basically Warhol's Factory.
** Almost all the chapters are allusions: ''Two Roads Diverge'' is an allusion to Creator/RobertFrost, ''Fingerprints'' likely to Music/LeonardCohen, ''Temptation Waits'' to Music/{{Garbage}} and ''Memory Gospel'' to Music/{{Moby}}. The final chapter is called [[Music/ThePixies Wave of Mutilation]]. ''The Mechanicals'' is named after an improv group that Kelly took a liking too and who had bit parts in the film.
** The corrupt senator and his running mate are named [[Creator/RobertFrost Frost]] and [[Creator/TSEliot Eliot]].
-->[[Creator/TSEliot "This is the way the world ends."]]
** Possible parody of ''Film/{{Left Behind|2000}}'': The character of Fortunio Balducci, the Baron's [[TheMole Mole]]. WordOfGod confirms that, following the Book of Revelation, Fortunio is the False Prophet. His counterpart's name in ''Left Behind''? Leon Fortunato.
** Jericho Cane is the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in ''Film/EndOfDays''.
** Scenes from ''Film/KissMeDeadly'' are played throughout the movie, a noir from the 50s about a briefcase full of nuclear material lost in Los Angeles. Kelly said the film was a major influence, to the point where Boxer Santaros drives the same car as that film's main character when he leaves the Frost mansion.
*** On related note, [[WordsOfGod Richard Kelly]] pointed out that Creator/LouTaylorPucci's character, Martin Kefauver, is named after of Tennessean politician Estes Kefauver, who took an issue with ''Kiss Me Deadly'' when it released in theaters.
** Soberin Exx states that [[spoiler: once they found the dimensional threshold/gateway to heaven, they launched monkeys into it.]] This takes place in a chapter/episode/whatever titled "Wave of Mutilation", a reference to the Pixies song. Also on the same album? [[spoiler: "Monkey Gone to Heaven", about a man who controls the ocean, and also mankind's place in the universe.]]

** What the theatrical cut doesn't really make clear is how awful ''The Power'' is. The "no bowel movements" thing is only the tip of the iceberg. An extended version of the ridealong scene from the Cannes cut goes more into detail about the messianic baby with nuclear farts that cause earthquakes. What the theatrical cut makes ''doubly'' unclear is that the infamous line, "Pimps don't commit suicide", is actually dialog being recited from this (really, really bad) script.
** Also of note is the scene where Bookman fatally shoots the Neo-Marxists. It was originally staged for Roland to "kill" them by firing blanks from his gun, and the actors would react with remote-triggered squibs going off at the appropriate moment. However, Bookman shows up to "investigate" the crime, but since he's a racist cop that doesn't give a damn, he kills both the actors with zero remorse. What makes it this trope is that Bookman shoots them with high-powered ammo that doesn't leave immediate traces... But when Bing triggers the squibs his reaction time is hilariously delayed from the actual shots, making the tragic deaths we witnessed take on the feeling of a cheap sophomoric drama production instead.
** The movie's aesthetic very much invokes mid-2000s music videos with its shiny, chrome-like production design.
** Krysta Now's pop song is recorded with autotune with poorly written lyrics. It's so bad that her actress Sarah Michelle Geller refused to record it for the movie.

* TimeParadox: [[spoiler: Sixty-nine minutes before the original Boxer Santaros and Roland Taverner went through the time rift at Lake Meade, duplicates of them appeared in the desert. Serpentine then blew up the originals, killing Boxer Santaros ''before'' he could go through the rift, while leaving his time-displaced self still alive and creating two identical versions of Roland Taverner, shattering the laws of causality.]]

* {{Unobtanium}}: Fluid Karma. A compound found by drilling in the ocean that apparently can be used to generate electric power. Also, acts as a drug working somewhat like a GreenRock.

* TheVonTropeFamily: Baron Von Westphalen and his mother Inga are of German descent. There is also Starla Von Luft.
* TheWalrusWasPaul: Director Richard Kelly (who also did the equally convoluted ''Film/DonnieDarko'') has admitted that he made the plot so convoluted that almost no meaning can be extracted from it. It includes TimeTravel, the impending end of the world, Orwellian dystopia, revolutionary new energy sources which will change the world, Neo-Marxist terrorists, an actor who seems destined to be the new Messiah, and a government conspiracy all colliding in Los Angeles aka the Southland.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never learn who launched the nuclear attacks in Texas.

The sprawling story is difficult to summarize but here's a thumbnail version: after a nuclear attack in Texas, WorldWarIII has begun and the fuel supply of the United States is placed under strain, while the government becomes an authoritarian police state to combat the everpresent threat of terrorism. A genius inventor named Baron von Westphalen, a dandy who dresses like Liberace crossed with Ozymandias from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', joins forces with a [[StrawCharacter Republican presidential candidate]] to create a wireless power generator that uses ocean currents to transmit electricity via quantum entanglement. This wireless energy, dubbed Fluid Karma, is derived from a compound that's also an injectable drug allowing the user to "bleed" his or her consciousness through space and time, but you'd only know that if you [[AllThereInTheManual read the graphic novel prequels]]. The tidal generator appears to be sending out dense waves of fog, causing red tides, and oh yeah, ''ripping holes in the fabric of time and space''. Meanwhile, the police state has created widespread discontent among the population and, in a SelfFulfillingProphecy, created actual terrorists in the form of neo-Marxist cells dedicated to overthrowing the government agency responsible for monitoring the American population, [=USIDent=], spearheaded by the aforementioned presidential candidate and his wife.

And that last paragraph? That's all '''backstory''' delivered in the first ten minutes by Justin Timberlake, who's using Fluid Karma to narrate the story. The actual movie hasn't even started yet.

The plot is a FourLinesAllWaiting series of vignettes about a loosely-interconnected group of people living in the southland and plotting conspiracies either for or against the police state, although along the way it morphs into a metaphysical odyssey about the apocalypse requiring more than a passing familiarity with the Literature/BookOfRevelation to make sense of, not to mention essential exposition available only in the graphic novel prequels. And even then, some things happen that have no rhyme or reason.

Imagine if you will the skewed artistic sensibilities of Creator/AndyWarhol filming a Greatest Hits version of Creator/PhilipKDick's body of work, written with the esoteric denseness of [[Music/ThePixies Pixies]] lyrics, and you'll have something approximating the, er, ''experience'' that is Southland Tales. The film's cast is an eclectic group, led by names like Wrestling/DwayneJohnson, Creator/SarahMichelleGellar, Seann William Scott, and narrator Music/JustinTimberlake, while the secondary cast is filled with character actors and comedians, specifically ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' veterans.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81canosixtl_sl1500.jpg]]

''Southland Tales'' is a 2007 ScienceFiction[=/=]BlackComedy film from director Richard Kelly, the follow-up to his 2001 cult hit ''Film/DonnieDarko''.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:By the film's end, there are maybe three major characters still alive, and it's implied that the world ends because two of them won't stop holding hands... or it will be saved because of that.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Boxer Santoros's character, Jericho Cane, with added SignificantMonogram and PunnyName. [[spoiler:Subverted at the end when he turns out to be the Antichrist instead of the real Messiah, who kills him.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: Boxer's tattoos are symbolic representations of all the major world religions, and WordOfGod says that the tattoo that bleeds is the religion that "wins." [[spoiler:The tattoo of Jesus bleeds just before the Megazeppelin explodes.]] We might as well just admit that the entire film was built around taking this rule to its [[UpToEleven most]] [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory logical]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic extreme.]]

* BadHumorTruck: An ice cream truck is home to an illegal gun dealer. Website/TheAgonyBooth called this out, pointing out that an ice cream truck would bring attention that an illegal gun dealer would not want.

''Southland Tales'' is a 2007 ScienceFiction[=/=]BlackComedy film from director Richard Kelly, the follow-up to his 2001 cult hit ''Film/DonnieDarko''. While planned as a mainstream breakthrough, things didn't pan out that way. The combination of a large budget and Sony's decision to shelve the film after lackluster showings in a handful of cities means that it's not likely to show profit for years to come. Nonetheless, ''Southland Tales'' did make some critics' year's best lists and has found a modest [[CultClassic cult]] on DVD. Viewers tend to fall neatly into one of two categories: those who didn't understand the film and hated it, and those who didn't understand the film but love it anyway.

The sprawling story is difficult to summarize (and considered intensely nonsensical by many) but here's a thumbnail version: after a nuclear attack in Texas, WorldWarIII has begun and the fuel supply of the United States is placed under strain, while the government becomes an authoritarian police state to combat the everpresent threat of terrorism. A genius inventor named Baron von Westphalen, a dandy who dresses like Liberace crossed with Ozymandias from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', joins forces with a [[StrawCharacter Republican presidential candidate]] to create a wireless power generator that uses ocean currents to transmit electricity via quantum entanglement. This wireless energy, dubbed Fluid Karma, is derived from a compound that's also an injectible drug allowing the user to "bleed" his or her consciousness through space and time, but you'd only know that if you [[AllThereInTheManual read the graphic novel prequels]]. The tidal generator appears to be sending out dense waves of fog, causing red tides, and oh yeah, ''ripping holes in the fabric of time and space''. Meanwhile, the police state has created widespread discontent among the population and, in a SelfFulfillingProphecy, created actual terrorists in the form of neo-Marxist cells dedicated to overthrowing the government agency responsible for monitoring the American population, [=USIDent=], spearheaded by the aforementioned presidential candidate and his wife.

[[MindScrew Yeah, it's]] [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible that kind of flick.]]

The plot is a FourLinesAllWaiting series of vignettes about a loosely-interconnected group of people living in the southland and plotting conspiracies either for or against the police state, although along the way it morphs into a metaphysical odyssey about the apocalypse requiring more than a passing familiarity with the Literature/BookOfRevelation to make sense of, not to mention essential exposition available only in the graphic novel prequels. And even then, some things happen that have no rhyme or reason, though it's hard to tell if that's because Richard Kelly is a poor writer or if [[ExecutiveMeddling the studio made him cut large swatches of the movie out]] after a disastrous screening of a workprint version at the Cannes film festival. We just know that [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405336/faq a FAQ]] is probably necessary for viewers. Though [[http://atopthefourthwall.com/southland-tales/ many tried]] [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Southland_Tales_2006.aspx and failed]] [[http://www.avclub.com/article/case-file-91-isouthland-talesi-10193 to make some sense]].

Kelly still considers ''Southland Tales'' [[MagnumOpusDissonance his proudest accomplishment,]] calling it his "misunderstood child". He's actively trying to create a definitive version of the story by restoring the deleted scenes and condensing the events of the graphic novels into an animated prequel (the script is [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/788nbe/southland-tales-richard-kelly-script available to read here]], if you're interested).

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The movie goes out of its way to introduce dozens of characters exceedingly often. Unfortunately, it can't quite seem to decide which ones are supposed to be important...

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