History Film / TheFinal

* GiveMeASign: The five pray to God to give them a sign that they should stop. [[spoiler:[[CaptainObvious He doesn't.]]]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: ColdBloodedTorture and mutilation as a punishment for bullying.

* BearTrap: Dane lines the boundary of his property with bear traps. Tommy is released and told that if he can make his through the woods to highway, he is free to go and fetch help. He steps in one of the traps ans breaks his leg.

* SexyWhateverCostume: All of the popular girls wear some kind of sexy costume to the party. There are sexy cops, a sexy hippie, sexy boxer, etc.

* TheBeautifulElite: Heather, Bridget, and Kelly, at least until [[spoiler:acid permanently destroys Heather and Bridget's beauty and leaves them horribly disfigured for life.]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The five become worse than their tormentors on their quest for vengeance.

** Just as the GirlPosse are getting ready for the party, Bridget remarks "Red meat is for people who don't care how they look." [[spoiler:In the opening scene, which takes place [[HowWeGotHere after her face was disfigured]], she orders a burger.]]

* TheVietnamWar: Parker is a veteran of Vietnam who lives down the road from the ranch, having served with Dane's uncle. [[spoiler:Kurtis seeks his help while running away.]]

** On the flip[=/=]FridgeLogic side, one could argue that the message is that tormenting/torturing someone will not end well for the tormentor(s), regardless of whether or not they were initially tormented themselves.

* AlphaBitch[=/=]GirlPosse: Kelly, Bridget and Heather.
* AndIMustScream: Bernard is drugged so that he cannot move but can feel everything. Then, Emily sticks him in the throat with needle after needle, despite the desperate cries of his friends to stop. All the while, she remains completely silent...except when she says, [[ShoutOut "Deeper, deeper]].

* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with a horribly disfigured girl (who we later learn is [[spoiler: Bridget]]) entering a BBQ restaurant and having to endure the patrons' reactions to her appearance.

* BrokenAesop: The obvious moral of the story is that bullying and tormenting others is bad, yet the outcasts spend a good two-thirds of the movie doing this out of the need for revenge, although Dane states that he also wants [[{{Hypocrite}} to send an anti-bullying message to the nation.]] Said message is further rendered moot as when the incident does make the news, it's described as being an unprovoked attack carried out by angry social deviants as opposed to longtime bullying victims.
** On the flip/FridgeLogic side, one could argue that the message is that tormenting/torturing someone will not end well for the tormentor(s), regardless of whether or not they were initially tormented themselves.

** Additionally, the ultimate ending shows the "message" the kids wanted to send falling on deaf ears, [[spoiler: with a reporter describing the bullied kids as "disgruntled students" who tortured their fellow students "without cause".]]

** Bradley. He acts tough early in the movie, and he goes to the party dressed as a [[UsefulNotes/TheGloryThatWasRome Roman centurion]], but once the "party" gets going, he whines constantly, and rather pathetically. [[spoiler: When given the chance to save himself pain by cutting off Bridget's fingers, he accepts pretty quickly... right after Bridget refused to do the same to him.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: All of the outcasts die, but not before mutilating several victims, leaving the whole town in mourning.]] And to make it worse, [[spoiler:everyone in the town more or less missed the point of the whole thing, painting the entire affair as being completely unprovoked and portraying the victims as saint-like.]]
** [[ScareEmStraight But the kids who survived, maimed or otherwise,]] [[spoiler: [[HeelRealization know why it happened.]]]] People talk - especially in high school. It might not have had a [[spoiler: national effect or became the "moment in history" Dane believed it would be,]] but if the victims change their behavior and their children's behavior, that's a significant amount right there, not taking into account the UrbanLegend effect and the open secret environment of many small to medium size towns -- when everyone knows why something really happened [[spoiler: despite what outsiders and the media may report.]] A perfect example is to remember how the movie starts [[spoiler: and ends]] -- with the mother telling her curious son about the disfigured girl's "accident".
*** FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler: The parents of bullies never know that their little angels are putting other kids through hell. The teachers frequently only catch the reaction, not what the bully did first.]]

* DrivenToSuicide[=/=]RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Kelly. See SurvivorGuilt.]] Also Dane hints at a SuicidePact and [[spoiler: Emily and Jack ultimately follow through on it]].

* EvilSoundsDeep: Dane's mask contains a voice amplifier makes his voice sound far more baritone and creepy.

* FacelessGoons: There are actually eight outcasts, but only five are of any importance to the plot, are named and actually shown planning their revenge. The other three only exist [[spoiler:[[CannonFodder to get killed by Parker]]]]. They were initially seen on the school steps, and their presence was meant to prevent the victims from leaving and to confuse police officers when the plan was over, but time constraints forced this subplot to be mostly removed bar a few lines of dialogue.

* ForTheEvulz: Bradley bullied Dane simply because he knew that Dane could not stop him. The same applies for most of the other bullies who just enjoyed being sadists.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The five were just simple high school students who never meant harm at first, but years of abuse destroyed them. Bradley even held Dane, whose life he made miserable, in such low regard that he never even learned his name. Summarized by Dane who says that he would have just been another harmless teenager had it not been for the abuse inflicted on him.

** It also shows how devastatingly traumatic surviving an elaborate torture would be as seen by the victims' fates. One is even driven to suicide over her guilt in making people do what they did.

** Kelly is genuinely remorseful for being an AlphaBitch, but instead of leading to a mending of her ways, the guilt and trauma [[spoiler: apparently [[DrivenToSuicide drives her to suicide]]]].
** On the flip side of this, Emily herself has a chance to call an end to things when they go too far, namely when [[spoiler: Ravi is murdered by Dane]] but even after calling him out on this, she chooses to carry on as planned. It isn't until almost the very end, when all of the dirty work has been done, that she has finally had enough and [[spoiler: murders Dane just in time to stop him from killing Curtis]].

* IGaveMyWord: Dane promised that he would not kill a single one of the bullies, although they will wish he had. [[spoiler: He keeps his promise and given how [[ExactWords he does everything short of killing them]], many probably do wish he hadn't.]]

** "Do you know ''why'' I'm gonna hurt you? [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Because you. Can't. Stop me."]]

* KarmaHoudini: The surviving triplet, exchanges eyecontact with Kurtis but Kurtis doesn't recognize him or ignores him, thus, the triplet doesn't get punishment for helping the torturers to hurt the popular victims.

* LectureAsExposition: The film opens with a {{high school}} history teacher describing how [[ImperialChina the Han Dynasty]] would sometimes [[CruelMercy leave their defeated enemies alive, disfiguring them]] in order to serve as an example to those who would oppose them. Another lecture in a science class not long after shows where Emily learns about the flesh-eating chemicals that she uses on [[spoiler:Bridget and Heather]].

* NastyParty

* PetTheDog: Kurtis is the only popular kid who is nice to the outcasts, even picking a fight with one of the [[JerkJock jocks]] for messing with Ravi and Dane. As a result, the outcasts try to keep him from attending their party and when he does show up anyway, Ravi secretly provides him with the means to free himself.

* SayMyName: Near the end, Dane has Bradley [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable strapped to a chair]] and tells him to say his name. [[spoiler:Dane is shocked to learn that, despite Bradley bullying him for years, Bradley does not even know his name]].

* SuicidePact: [[spoiler:Dane claims that the five of them had never intended to live past the night]].

* WithFriendsLikeThese: The bullies to each other. Dane takes advantage of this to reveal their disloyal natures each other.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Heather disappears after having her face smeared with Emiliy's chemicals. Apart from her being stashed in the room with the other injured teens, we never see exactly what it did to her face nor do we learn what happened to her in the aftermath. Odds are [[FridgeHorror neither was very pleasant.]]

* YouHaveFailedMe: [[spoiler:Dane murders Ravi after he intentionally drops a key in order to free Kurtis, one of their friends that they hadn't intended to arrive, despite Dane telling him that Kurtis was not to leave]].

* GirlishPigtails: Worn by Bridget during the torture session.

** Kelly is genuinely remorseful for being an AlphaBitch, but instead of leading to a mending of her ways, the guilt and trauma [[spoiler: apparently [[DrivenToSuicide drives her to suicide]].

** Kelly is genuinely remorseful for being an AlphaBitch, but instead of leading to a mending of her ways, the guilt and trauma [[spoiler: apparently drives her to suicide]].

* BreakTheHaughty: The goal of the outcasts. The [[TheBeautifulElite vain]] AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse [[spoiler:have flesh-eating chemicals slathered onto their faces to destroy their good looks and make them as ugly on the outside as they are inside]], while a womanizing JerkJock [[spoiler:is left paralyzed so that he will never play football or have sex again]].

* ForcedToWatch: All but one of the five's victims was brutally tortured in front of their friends.

* AndIMustScream: Bernard is drugged so that he cannot move but can feel everything. Then, Emily sticks him in the throat with needle after needle, despite the desperate cries of his friends to stop. All the while, she remains completely silent.

* MoralEventHorizon: Bradley, who's been a JerkJock from the start, crosses it when [[spoiler: he accepts Emily's offer to cut off Bridget's fingers]] in order to save his own skin. This is ''after''---and directly because-- she refused the same offer.