History Film / TheBlob1988

* ClosedCircle: Government scientists have surrounded the town to prevent the Blob from getting out and turn the protagonists back home when they attempt to leave.

** Then later [[spoiler: The theatre's manager sees the projectionist's yo-yo drop from the ceiling, sees the projectionist is being dissolved ON THE CEILING, and has just enough time to scream before he's eaten too.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: How does the Blob know how to find prey, actively hunt, and grab people if it seemingly doesn't have distinct tissues, organs or sensory receptors? It's never explained, but otherwise the Blob wouldn't be a threat. The novelization's passages written in the blob's perspective mention that it can smell blood somehow. It's supposedly a mutated {{Mega Microbe|s}}, but there's a [[SquareCubeLaw good reason]] why single-celled organisms aren't macroscopic. Multicellular organisms will have tissue differentiation, period.

* AssholeVictim: A few, especially [[spoiler:Dr. Meddows]]. Special mention goes to the guy who [[DisruptingTheTheater won't stop talking in the theatre]] and is rude towards Kevin when he asks him to be quiet and quit ruining the movie. When Kevin tells him for the last time to be quiet, it looks as though the guy might hit him, but he gets snatched up by the Blob.

* ArmorIsUseless: All the military personnel are wearing thick white NBC suits, which turn out to be completely useless against the Blob, probably because they didn't expect it to have evolved into a macroscopic predator that secretes instant-death acid.

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Ever so slightly, facilitating a minor plot twist not present in the original. Instead of being an alien life-form which arrived via a meteor, the Blob is a [[spoiler: biological weapon created by the American military during the Cold War which was ejected into space in a satellite, mutated in the depths of space, and crashed back down to Earth.]]

** Meg and Brian, especially the former, are far more active than Jane or Steve from the original film. Meg is an outright horror ActionGirl by the film's end, and Brian kicks the asses of some of the [[spoiler:government hazmat suit agents]], and to top it off, [[spoiler: they're the ones who singlehandedly stop the Blob's rampage.]]

* ArmorIsUseless: All the military personnel are wearing thick white [=NBC=] suits, which turn out to be completely useless against the Blob, probably because they didn't expect it to have evolved into a macroscopic predator that secretes instant-death acid.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Dr. Meddows comes across as friendly and helpful at first glance, but we see soon later who he truly is.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: The [[spoiler: ReasonableAuthorityFigure in this film, one of the main protagonists in the original, is killed fairly early.]]
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Meg rescues her child brother, Kevin and his friend, Eddie. Right before they climb out of the sewer, Eddie is pulled underwater screaming. Moments later, he pops out of the water again. Half melted. ''Still screaming.'']]

* BioweaponBeast: [[spoiler:The Blob in this version is revealed to be the accidental result of an American military experiment conducted on a space satellite. Although the military scientists responsible didn't expect it, [[JustThinkOfThePotential they're very pleased with the result]] and talk about deploying it against the Soviets. (In the original, it's just an alien who visits Earth to find food.)]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Sheriff Geller gives Flagg fair warning that, as a legal adult, if he screws up now, "(he's) in the majors." Later, he quickly figures out that Flagg couldn't have murdered [[spoiler: Paul]] since Flagg didn't have a single drop of blood on him from what was, after all, an extremely gruesome murder, lets him go, and resumes searching for the real killer. [[spoiler: To his misfortune, he finds it]].

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Paul Taylor is the likeable jock who has just begun dating the heroine Meg while Brian Flagg is a James Dean-like anti-authority dude with more than a few run-ins with the Man. Then Paul becomes the Blob's second victim, and Flagg takes over the Hero role.]]
** Also, [[spoiler: Sheriff Geller. The sheriff in the original film was a major supporting player all the way to the end. Anyone who's seen the original prior to this will be in for a bit of a shock to see him devoured by the film's mid-point.]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: How does the Blob know how to find prey, actively hunt, and grab people if it seemingly doesn't have distinct tissues, organs or sensory receptors? It's never explained, but otherwise the Blob wouldn't be a threat. The novelization's passages written in the blob's perspective mention that it can smell blood somehow. It's supposedly a mutated {{Mega Microbe|s}}, but there's a [[SquareCubeLaw good reason]] why single-celled organisms aren't macroscopic. Multi-cellular organisms will have tissue differentiation, period.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: How does the Blob know how to find prey, actively hunt, and grab people if it seemingly doesn't have distinct tissues, organs or sensory receptors? It's never explained, but otherwise the Blob wouldn't be a threat. The novelization's passages written in the blob's perspective mention that it can smell blood somehow.

* NighInvulnerability: The titular monster is nearly impossible to injure, since it doesn't ''have'' anything to injure. Bullets only attract its attention, a flamethrower is only a minor nuisance, bombs have absolutely no effect. [[spoiler:Only freezing cold temperatures have any reactionary effect on it, and even ''that'' doesn't kill it, since we see it can survive being frozen solid.]]

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:Reverend Meeker has kept a small sample of the Blob at the end.]]

* WhamShot: [[spoiler:The military personnel are seen lifting the "meteor" that the Blob landed to Earth in... showing a clearly artificial metal shell with an American flag on it, revealing that this iteration of the creature was of manmade origin.]]

* TooDumbToLive: Surprisingly rare in this creature feature; however, one of the chief mooks, upon encountering the Blob with his squad, reminds them "We have orders not to shoot!" - just before the Blob consumes him. The others promptly throw the orders out the window and start fighting for their lives. The various other characters make reasonable decisions throughout the film, though even then, it still doesn't save some of them.

''The Blob'' is a 1988 SciFiHorror film directed by Chuck Russell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Creator/FrankDarabont. It is a remake of [[Film/TheBlob1958 the 1958 film]].

''The Blob'' is a 1988 SciFiHorror film directed by Chuck Russell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Creator/FrankDarabont. It is a remake of the 1958 film [[Film/TheBlob1958 of the same name]].

* {{Gorn}}: Oh yes. Being digested by a transparent monster that is ''all stomach'' leaves ''nothing'' to the imagination. Ironically, the goriest deaths happen early on, when the Blob is at its smallest, or to people that simply contact its slime trail. [[spoiler:One theater patron looks okay, until the protagonist lifts her off the floor - to find half her head melted into it.]]

* FoldSpindleMutilation: [[spoiler:Briggs]] is yanked backwards between the shelves of a bookcase by the Blob, with enough force to bend him in half. A kitchen worker's partially-dissolved body is hauled down a sink's drainhole.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[Col Hargis and the rest of the men finally reach the breaking point when Meddows orders them to kill Flagg. After they turn on him and Meddows is killed, Hargis orders everyone to hit the Blob with everything they've got. It isn't enough.]]

* TrojanGauntlet: Paul and Scott go buy condoms at the town pharmacy, where they also happen to run into the town priest, making the entire thing even more awkward. As it turns out, the pharmacist is actually the father of Paul's date Meg.