History Film / TheGame

[[redirect:Film/TheGame1997]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thegame.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"What do you get for the man who has... everything?"'']]

->''"I don't care about the money. I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard."''
-->-- '''Nicholas van Orton'''

''The Game'' is a Creator/DavidFincher directed movie, released on September 12th, 1997.

It centers around Nicholas van Orton (Creator/MichaelDouglas), a bored, disillusioned investment banker who spends his days in his office. So well-ordered he has driven out all romantic prospects, Nicholas soon receives a gift certificate from his brother Conrad (Creator/SeanPenn), which involves participating in a potentially-dangerous game, courtesy of a group called [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Consumer Recreation Services]]. Not long after signing up things soon get bizarre and the line between the game and reality [[ParanoiaFuel begins to blur.]]

Now has a character page in desperate need of expansion.

'''This film runs on various twists and turns. You will learn them if you read any further. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
----
!!''The Game'' contains examples of:

* FiveFiveFive: The hotel where Nicholas allegedly hosted a HookersAndBlow party can be contacted under 555-1111.
* AccidentalMurder: On the rooftop, [[spoiler:Nicholas mistakes Conrad for one of CRS's security guards and shoots him. Subverted by the later reveal that this was a StagedShooting with blanks.]]
* AgeCut: The opening HappierHomeMovie cuts from a headshot of Nicholas as a child to a headshot of him splashing water onto his face in the current timeline when he is 48.
* AintTooProudToBeg: Nicholas certainly isn't by the time he finally gets out of Mexico; he openly begs for a ride back to San Francisco at a diner.
* AliceAllusion: The movie prominently features the song "White Rabbit" by Music/JeffersonAirplane whose lyrics reference ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. In the movie, it's Nicholas who is sent further and further down the "rabbit hole" by CRS.
* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: He loses house, family, friends, gets shot at, and almost dies several times. But it's all good because it was all just a big birthday prank from his younger brother. He's told from the outset that it is a game, although we never quite find out how clued-in he is.
* AndAllIGotWasThisLousyTShirt: "I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico - and all I got was this stupid T-shirt".
* AnkleDrag: The AngryGuardDog grabs on to Nicholas' pants leg when the latter is trying to escape via DumpsterDive. Nicholas eventually manages to shake the dog off.
* AsYouKnow: A secretary reminds Nicholas that he is trying to be reached by a certain Elizabeth. She then reminds him that it's his ex-wife. He replies with a bitter "I '''know''' that!". After she is gone, [[LampshadeHanging he comments on how little he likes her for that]].
* ATeamFiring: Inverted in the cafeteria scene. The guards really don't give a damn who they might mow down in their pursuit of Nicholas.
* BaitAndSwitch: Used to demonstrate how paranoid Nicholas is becoming. At an airport, he's stunned to see a miniature version of the wooden clown on a chair and reaches for it. Turns out to be a baby's rattle, and the mother who retrieves it looks at him like he's crazy.
* BatmanGambit: The entire film runs on this trope, as CRS performs an entire day of deeply intensive, rigorous physical and psychological evaluation on Nicholas in order to predict exactly what he would do and how he would react in any given situation. This allows them to [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes play him like a damn fiddle]] from the game's start to its finish.
* BecomingTheMask: Christine's role seems to be to provide a touch of {{Fanservice}} to Nicholas's game as a distraction, and she flirts with him after their alleyway chase. By the end of the game, she seems to be developing genuine feelings for him, and he reciprocates.
* BigEntrance: Anson Baer remarks that Nicholas falling through the roof was a great entrance.
* AndYouThoughtItWasAGame: Nicholas, until the bullets start flying around and his bank account gets emptied. Subverted when it turns out that TheGameNeverStopped.
* BookSafe: Nicholas keeps a revolver hidden in a copy of ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''… which CRS knew about and loaded with blanks.
* BreakTheHaughty: The entire point, with the end goal being [[CatharsisFactor for Nicholas to achieve catharsis]] and emerge from the game a happier man.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: When they are trapped in the elevator, Nicholas's cell phone doesn't get a signal. Justified as CRS made sure he could not call out for real help.
* ChekhovsArmy: A major theme in the film, revealed in the cafeteria scene in which every extra is revealed to have been a part of the game.
* ClimbingClimax: The climax leads Nicholas onto the rooftop of the CRS building where a RooftopConfrontation ensues.
* CoincidentalBroadcast: Sitting in a diner with his ex-wife, Nicholas sees Jim Feingold (the man who administered the game's exams earlier in the film) playing a television-commercial "doctor" on the place's TV. At first thinking that the game runners have found him, he quickly realizes that "Feingold" is a TV actor (of course, given that the game runners ''have'' been watching him and are always [[XanatosSpeedChess one step ahead of him]], it's quite possible that the broadcast isn't as "coincidental" as Nicholas thinks it is).
* CompartmentShot: Of Nicholas taking his supper out of the oven.
* TheCon: Nicholas spends most of the movie trying to figure out if it's a scam. Averted as it isn't.
* DeceptivelySillyTitle: The title doesn't suggest this to be a mystery thriller.
* DevelopersForesight: Might as well be CRS's company motto. The amount of planning, foresight, preparation, and improvisation that's necessary to successfully run the schemes they do is mind-boggling, and next to impossible to pull off in RealLife.
** Case in point is Nicholas's pistol in his BookSafe which they found and replaced the bullets with blanks.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Subverted with Nicholas's gun. When he invades the building of the organization that's been running his life for the past few days with what Christine recognizes as a real gun, not one of their props, she pleads with him that [[spoiler:it's all a big surprise party and they're not really trying to kill him. He ends up shooting his brother just as it turns out there really is a cake and it all flies horribly off the rails, driving him to jump from the rooftop… and then it turns out that, no, that was a squib, the gun's loaded with blanks, and even his suicide attempt was all in the script.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: When Nicholas destroys the smoke detector in Christine's apartment, CRS agents immediately start lighting them up with high-powered, silenced machine guns.
* DramaticDrop: One guy at CRS's cafeteria drops his tray when Nicholas enters. [[spoiler:Invoked, as he is faking his surprise.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Possibly Nicholas's father. Later in the movie the trope is subverted with Nicholas himself. He tries to commit suicide, but instead harmlessly falls into a dome of breakaway glass and a safety mattress.
* TheEiffelTowerEffect: The Golden Gate Bridge can be seen in several location shots.
* TheEndingChangesEverything: The ending reveals the entire thing was a game.
* EpiphanyTherapy: The game is designed based on the player's profile to shake things up and give him a dose of whatever he needs.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: After despairing to Nicholas, sobbing and crying, Conrad has a huge grin on his face when Nicholas leaves, which is a hint that the game is just that, a harmless game.
* FriendlyScheming: Everything is just a game. Nicholas' brother Conrad and a number of his friends and colleagues are in on it.
* FromBadToWorse: The movie's full of examples: Identity theft, losing all your money, being left for dead, being chased by police, not knowing who to trust (not even your closest allies), being stalked, having to escape a submerged car… the list goes on.
* FunWithAcronyms: CRS stands for Consumer Recreation Services. And a few other things… all of which are manifestations of the same company.
* GambitRoulette and/or XanatosSpeedChess: Consumer Recreation Services' business model is one or both of these.
** On the roulette side, TheProtagonist's game involves hacking the TV channels when he's watching TV, marooning him in another country, and pretending to blow people away with high caliber weapons. They must hire exceptionally good actors / roleplayers / grifters.
** On the speedchess side, there is no way in hell that CRS could account for every single contingency, so it's quite possible that they improvised for the ones they couldn't handle. The scheme could be pulled off with one or two really good improvisers, e.g. Christine and the CRS rep to steer him, and the rest of the cast as regular actors (not to demean real-life actors, who must have good improvisational skills). This could explain why Claire alone has to leave for the next gig at the end.
-->"[[NightmareFuel Thank God you jumped, 'cause otherwise I was supposed to throw you off!]]"
* {{Gaslighting}}: The ''modus operandi'' of CRS is to put Nicholas in ever more insane situations and drive him into a paranoid frenzy, until finally he tries to commit suicide — and instead is caught by a safety mattress, literally dropping in on his own surprise party.
* GenerationXerox: The goal of "The Game" is apparently to get Nicholas to commit suicide by jumping from a great height at a birthday party — which is exactly what his father did.
* GilliganCut: When trapped in the elevator, Nicholas suggests to wait until help arrives. Cut to him pushing the ceiling hatch open.
* GoingCommando / SkirtsAndLadders: When [[UncomfortableElevatorMoment trapped in an elevator]] with waitress Christine, Nicholas asks her to crawl out the roof hatch. An embarrassed Christine reveals she's reluctant to do this because she's not wearing anything under her short skirt. Given what happens later, this is likely deliberate so as to [[DistractedByTheSexy mess with the protagonist's head]].
* HappierHomeMovie: The movie opens with video footage of a happy birthday party from Nicholas's childhood.
* HereditarySuicide: Nicholas fears this trope, shaped by his childhood memory of seeing his father commit suicide by jumping off the roof of their family home. The game's organizers seem to exploit this fear and try to gaslight him into doing the same; at one point Nicholas finds a police photo of his father's body captioned "LIKE MY FATHER BEFORE ME I CHOOSE ETERNAL SLEEP" (which is the page quote for the trope).
* HesDeadJim: After Nicholas shoots his brother in the chest, one of CRS's agents diagnoses him dead.
* HistoryRepeats: Nicholas being DrivenToSuicide and jumping off a rooftop like his father did at the same age.
* HumanShield: Nicholas uses Christine as one at the CRS cafeteria.
* ImNotADoctorButIPlayOneOnTV: Nicholas discovers the CRS representative is an actor when he sees him doing a drug commercial on TV.
* ImpairmentShot: Nicholas has been poisoned and is about to pass out. Then there's a shot just before he hits the ground that goes completely nutty: the camera shakes and the screen blurs with a yellow overexposed effect.
* InsertCameo: The hands which appear under the door in the bathroom were the hands of DP Harris Savides.
* InvisibilityInk: CRS uses invisible ink on the waiver they handed to Nicholas, removing any trace of their interaction.
* ItWasHereISwear: When Nicholas is sick of being toyed with by CRS, he calls the cops into their offices, but there's nothing there.
* JumpScare: Conrad banging against the kitchen window from the outside while Nicholas is roaming the dark house.
* KickTheDog: "Like my father before me, I choose eternal sleep." "Said" by a ''clown''. ''Jesus''.
* MaleGaze: Exploited by CRS. Christine strips down to a lacy red bra in Nicholas's office while preparing to shower, and he can't help admiring her body. [[spoiler:Which is why he recognizes her and her lingerie in a Polaroid he finds planted in his briefcase, a clue that she's part of the game.]]
* MeanCharacterNiceActor: [[spoiler: Everyone involved with CRS. They aren't involved with a conspiracy, and they have no plans to kill Nicholas or steal his wealth.]]
* MindScrew: CRS drives the screw deeper into Nicholas's head with each new baffling scenario.
* MockHeadroom: A camera is planted in Nicholas's mansion via a wooden clown (don't ask), and interferes with the newscast on his television, taking over the form of RealLife journalist Daniel Schorr. He toys with Nicholas with an odd, filtered voice and glitching effects before informing him that his Game has begun.
* MonsterClown: CRS sends Nicholas a creepy clown doll. This is especially cruel because there were clowns at one of Nicholas's boyhood birthday parties — the one at which his father killed himself.
* MuggingTheMonster: Even the most effete rich guy can be dangerous if he's pushed to the brink of his sanity and you try to carjack him.
* NewscasterCameo: A ''very'' unusual example with Daniel Schorr.
* NoAntagonist: [[spoiler:No one is after Nicholas, or at least, none of them have any malicious intent, as their goal is to get him to become a better person.]]
* NoEnding: One of the finest examples ever filmed. [[spoiler:Nicholas finds Christine leaving his birthday party as she prepares to play another game overseas. The two flirt warmly, and she invites him to get a coffee with her at the airport. Nicholas smiles and looks around, as if wondering if he's embarking on a new adventure or just playing the game. Fade to black before we see if he joins her.]]
* NotMyDriver: Nicholas steps into a cab that's subsequently locked down and driven into water.
* {{Novelization}}: By Jeff Rovin.
* OhCrap: Christine's reaction when Nicholas finds her at the CRS cafeteria.
* OnePersonBirthdayParty: Nicholas is an extremely wealthy, attractive man who is so MarriedToTheJob that he spends his birthday working even though he's the boss, and the only thing he has to mark the occasion is a surprise birthday cupcake left by his housekeeper to go with his solitary supper.
* OnlySaneMan: Nicholas, until the pressure of "The Game" ''really'' [[SanitySlippage starts to get to him]]. And after that, his ex-wife Elizabeth ("You're the only person I can trust").
* ParanoidThriller: Nicholas is gradually driven to paranoia, since he doesn't know the intentions of the people behind the game, as well as who is and who isn't involved. [[spoiler:It turns out that TheGameNeverStopped, and [[FriendlyScheming almost everyone was in on it]].]]
* PercussivePickpocket: In a blink-and-miss scene Nicholas bumps into a man. Later he finds his American Express Card missing from his wallet. The implication is that the thief nicked his wallet, took out the card and returned the wallet unnoticed.
* ThePictureCameWithTheFrame: Suspecting that Christine is a CRS plant, Nicholas opens a picture frame on a counter in her apartment and finds the picture is cut from a magazine.
* PleasureIsland: Unfortunately for Nicholas, the only "playing" that ensues is when a conspiracy of complete strangers spends the whole movie mercilessly playing with his head.
* PlotHole: The entire movie is dependent on premises which, at best, stretch suspension of belief to the breaking point, but the ending is nothing other than a long series of lucky guesses. [[spoiler:Nicholas had to have not checked the gun he is carrying so as not to find the blanks in it, after having picked it up in the house that had, earlier, been burglarized, not use said gun to suicide when he is overcome with despair, instead choosing to jump off the roof he is on, pick a specific point on said roof with no reason or indication that that spot is the one to use, miss a large collection of steel I-beams when he falls, and land safe and sound from an uncontrolled fall onto an air mattress.]]
* PoliceAreUseless: Massive shootouts with automatic weapons in the city center, even with silenced ones, should have the cops all over the place within minutes, but they never show up to lend a hand. [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Makes you wonder how deep CRS's connections really run.]]
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: The security guards at CRS are no rent-a-cops.
* RansackedRoom: Nicholas returns to his house to find it's been ransacked.
* RedHerring: Of ''all'' the characters and extras in the story, Van Orton's attorney and Anson Baer were the only ones who knew nothing of the scheme (save the invitation they received for the finale). In the end, they thought Nicholas organized the entire thing himself. Unfortunately, that also means he ''did'' [[HumiliationConga genuinely embarrass himself and act like a madman in front of both earlier]].
* TheReveal: "What have you seen, Nicholas? What have you ''really'' seen? Special effects. Blanks. Squibs."
* RevolversAreForAmateurs: Nicholas has a revolver in his BookSafe which he holds like a rookie.
* RichesToRags: CRS cleans out Nicholas's bank accounts and leaves him penniless in Mexico.
* RippedFromThePhoneBook: Exaggerated for laughs. Nicholas rips the entire phone book off the chain and takes it along.
* RuleOfSymbolism: When Nicholas takes Jim Feingold hostage with a gun, Feingold is with his children in front of the albino tigers at the San Francisco Zoo. By this point, Nicholas does feel like [[BullyingADragon "a tiger in a cage."]]
* ScarySurpriseParty: Many twists and turns finally lead to a surprise party (and a hefty bill).
* ShapedLikeItself: The talking television advises Nicholas not to ask the CRS hotline what the object of the Game is... because finding that out IS the object of the Game.
* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Just to give you the rough size of the bill...look at the movie's budget. It's $50 million.
* ShoutOut: "I don't care about the money. I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard," to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (when Dorothy finds out that the god-like ruler of Emerald City is a mere human behind a curtain).
* SlippingAMickey: Christine drugs Nicholas so he can be shipped to Mexico for a lesson in humility.
* SoftGlass: It's breakable, but can still cut.
* StagedShooting: The climax and its roof jump are filmed because it's a party.
* StealthPun:
** The book ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' contains the device which makes it possible to kill an actual mockingbird; a gun.
** In the finale, Nicholas [[spoiler:literally drops in on his own surprise party, crashing through a dome of breakaway glass and landing on an enormous safety mattress]].
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: Consumer Recreation Services… hmmm, doesn't sound too bad, does it?
* SurpriseParty: At the restaurant early on, Conrad arranges for a choir of waiters to sing HappyBirthdayToYou as a surprise for Nicholas.
* TheTelevisionTalksBack: After apparently being rejected by Consumer Recreation Services, Nicholas finds a clown mannequin in his driveway. As he examines it in his living room, he's startled when the newscaster on his television appears to mention him by name several times, finally dropping the facade and addressing him directly:
--> '''Newscaster''': This is your game, Nicholas… and welcome to it.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Nicholas asks Ilsa about his father, who killed himself when Nicholas was still young.
* TraitorShot: The shot on Christine's face in the car when Nicholas reveals the password to his Swiss bank account.
* TrappedInASinkingCar: Invoked. Nicholas's car is plunged off a pier as part of the super-scary "game" to make his life more exciting. He manages to escape by pulling down the window using a crank that's left in his possession [[ChekhovsGun earlier on]].
* TricksterGirlfriend: [[spoiler:Christine. Downplayed, since "trickster" is a part of her job as a CRS employee, but she does seem to have genuine feelings for Nicholas.]]
* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Nicholas's traumatic experience of watching his father jump to his death is explored through flashbacks.
* UndisclosedFunds: The bill for the eponymous game is left unrevealed, yet it is apparently enough to leave two millionaire brothers stunned. Conrad is quite relieved when Nick offers to split the bill.
* UndressingTheUnconscious: After Nicholas is drugged by Christine, he blacks out. When he next awakens, [[WakingUpElsewhere he's in a cemetery in Mexico]] and is now wearing different clothes.
* VanInBlack: Nicholas finds himself being terrorized by people in various vehicles marked "CRS." One's a cabbie (Crown Royal Sedans), another a group in a maintenance van (Cable Repair Services), etc.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Line said by Nicholas when he and Christine suddenly find themselves alone at the alleged emergency entrance.
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->''[[Music/JeffersonAirplane ♫ One pill makes you larger\\
And one pill makes you small\\
And the ones that mother gives you\\
Don't do anything at all, go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall… ♫]]''

* AdultFear: The movie's full of examples: Identity theft, losing all your money, being left for dead, being chased by police, not knowing who to trust (not even your closest allies), being stalked, having to escape a submerged car… the list goes on.

* BreakTheHaughty: The entire point, with the end goal being [[CatharsisFactor for Nicholas to achieve catharsis by willingly committing "suicide"]] and emerging from the game a happier man.

* [[spoiler:TheUntwist: Conrad tells Nicholas he's signing him up for an immersive game as a birthday present... which turns out to be a con to steal all of Nicholas's money... which turns out to actually be an immersive birthday game all along.]]

* AccidentalMurder: On the rooftop, [[spoiler:Nicholas mistakes Conrad for one of CRS's security guards and shoots him. Negated by the later reveal that this was a StagedShooting with blanks.]]

* AliceAllusion: The movie prominently features the song "White Rabbit" by Music/JeffersonAirplane whose lyrics reference ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. In the movie, it's Nicholas who is sent down further and further the "rabbit hole" by CRS.

It centers around Nicholas van Orton (Creator/MichaelDouglas), a bored, disillusioned businessman who spends his days in his office. So well-ordered he has driven out all romantic prospects, Nicholas soon receives a gift certificate from his brother Conrad (Creator/SeanPenn), which involves participating in a potentially-dangerous game, courtesy of a group called [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Consumer Recreation Services]]. Not long after signing up things soon get bizarre and the line between the game and reality [[ParanoiaFuel begins to blur.]]

* AccidentalMurder: On the rooftop, [[spoiler:Nicholas mistakes Conrad for one of CRS's security guards and shoots him. Negated by the later reveal this this was a StagedShooting with blanks.]]
* AdultFear: The movie's full of examples: Identity theft, losing all your money, being left for dead, being chased by police, not knowing who to trust (not even your closest allies), being stalked, having to escape a submerged car... the list goes on.

* AliceAllusion: The movie prominently features the song "White Rabbit" by Music/JeffersonAirplane whose lyrics reference ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. In the movie it's Nicholas who is sent down further and further the "rabbit hole" by CRS.
* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: He loses house, family, friends, gets shot at and almost dies several times. But it's all good because it was all just a big birthday prank from his younger brother. He's told from the outset that it is a game, although we never quite find out how clued-in he is.

* BookSafe: Nicholas keeps a revolver hidden in a copy of ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''...which CRS knew about and loaded with blanks.

* DevelopersForesight: Might as well be CRS's company motto. The amount of planning, foresight, preparation and improvisation that's necessary to successfully run the schemes they do is mind-boggling, and next to impossible to pull off in RealLife.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Subverted with Nicholas's gun. When he invades the building of the organization that's been running his life for the past few days with what Christine recognizes as a real gun, not one of their props, she pleads with him that [[spoiler:it's all a big surprise party and they're not really trying to kill him. He ends up shooting his brother just as it turns out there really is a cake and it all flies horribly off the rails, driving him to jump from the rooftop...and then it turns out that, no, that was a squib, the gun's loaded with blanks, and even his suicide attempt was all in the script.]]

* FunWithAcronyms: CRS stands for Consumer Recreation Services. And a few other things...all of which are manifestations of the same company.
* GambitRoulette and/ or XanatosSpeedChess: Consumer Recreation Services' business model is one or both of these.

* {{Gaslighting}}: The ''modus operandi'' of CRS is to put Nicholas in ever more insane situations and drive him into a paranoid frenzy, until finally he tries to commit suicide - and instead is caught by a safety mattress, literally dropping in on his own surprise party.
* GenerationXerox: The goal of "The Game" is apparently to get Nicholas to commit suicide by jumping from a great height at a birthday party - which is exactly what his father did.

* MonsterClown: CRS sends Nicholas a creepy clown doll. This is especially cruel because there were clowns at one of Nicholas's boyhood birthday parties - the one at which his father killed himself.

* NoAntagonist: [[spoiler: No one is after Nicholas, or at least, none of them have any malicious intent, as their goal is to get him to become a better person]].

* PlotHole: The entire movie is dependent on premises which, at best, stretch suspension of belief to the breaking point, but the ending is nothing other than a long series of lucky guesses. [[spoiler: Nicholas had to have not checked the gun he is carrying so as not to find the blanks in it, after having picked it up in the house that had, earlier, been burglarized, not use said gun to suicide when he is overcome with despair, instead choosing to jump off the roof he is on, pick a specific point on said roof with no reason or indication that that spot is the one to use, miss a large collection of steel I-beams when he falls, and land safe and sound from an uncontrolled fall onto an air mattress.]]

** In the finale, Nicholas [[spoiler:literally drops in on his own surprise party, crashing through a dome of breakaway glass and landing on an enormous safety mattress.]]
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: Consumer Recreation Services...hmmm, doesn't sound too bad, does it?

--> '''Newscaster''': This is your game, Nicholas...and welcome to it.

Don't do anything at all, go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall... ♫]]''

* BatmanGambit: The entire film runs on this trope, as CRS performs an entire day of deeply intensive, rigorous physical and psychological evaluation on Nicholas in order to predict exactly what he would do and how he would react in any given situation. This allows them to [[MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes play him like a damn fiddle]] from the game's start to its finish.

* PleasureIsland: Unfortunately for Nicholas, the only "playing" that ensues is when a conspiracy of complete strangers spend the whole movie mercilessly playing with his head.
* PlotHole: The entire movie is dependent on premises which, at best, stretch suspension of belief to the breaking point, but the ending is nothing other than a long series of lucky guesses. [[spoiler: Nicholas had to have not checked the gun he is carrying so as not to find the blanks in it, after having picked it up in the house that had, earlier, been burglarized, not use said gun to suicide when he is overcome with despair, instead choosing to jump off the roof he is on, pick a specific point on said roof with no reason or indication that that spot is the one to use, miss a large collection of steel I-beams when he fell, and land safe and sound from an uncontrolled fall onto an air mattress.]]

* RedHerring: Of ''all'' the characters and extras in the story, Van Orton's attorney and Anson Baer were the only ones who knew nothing of the scheme (save the invitation they received for the finale). In the end, they thought Nicholas organised the entire thing himself. Unfortunately, that also means he ''did'' [[HumiliationConga genuinely embarrass himself and act like a madman in front of both earlier]].

* RichesToRags: CRS cleaned out Nicholas' bank accounts and leaves him penniless in Mexico.
* RippedFromThePhoneBook: Exaggerated. Nicholas rips the entire phone book off the chain and takes it along.

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: Just to give you the rough size of the bill... look at the movie's budget. It's $50 million.
* ShoutOut: "I don't care about the money. I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard." to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (when Dorothy finds out that the god-like ruler of Emerald City is a mere human behind a curtain).
* SlippingAMickey: Christine drugs Nicholas, so he can be shipped to Mexico for a lesson in humility.

** In the finale, Nicholas [[spoiler:literally drops in on his own surprise party, crashing through a dome of breakaway glass and landing on a safety mattress.]]
* SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom: Consumer Recreation Services... hmmm, doesn't sound too bad, does it?

* TheTelevisionTalksBack: After apparently being rejected by Consumer Recreation Services, Nicholas finds a clown mannequin in his driveway; as he examines it in his living room, he's startled when the newscaster on his television appears to mention him by name several times, finally dropping the facade and addressing him directly:
--> '''Newscaster''': This is your Game, Nicholas. And welcome to it.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Nicholas asks Ilsa about his father who killed himself when Nicholas was still young.

* TrappedInASinkingCar: Invoked. Nicholas' car is plunged off a pier as part of the super-scary "game" to make his life more exciting. He manages to escape by pulling down the window using a crank that was left in his possession [[ChekhovsGun earlier on]].
* TricksterGirlfriend: [[spoiler:Christine; downplayed, since "trickster" is a part of her job as a CRS employee, but she does seem to have genuine feelings for Nicholas.]]
* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Nicholas' traumatic experience of watching his father jump to his death is explored through flashbacks.

* VanInBlack: Nicholas finds himself being terrorized by various cars marked "CRS." One's a cabbie (Crown Royal Sedans), another a maintenance van (Cable Repair Services), etc.

* TheEndingChangesEverything: The ending reveals the entire thing was a fake game.

* FriendlyScheming: Everything was just a game; Nicholas' brother Conrad and a number of his friends and colleagues were in on it.
* FunWithAcronyms: CRS stands for Consumer Recreation Services. And a few other things... all of which are manifestations of the same company.

** On the roulette side-TheProtagonist's game involves hacking the TV channels when he's watching TV, marooning him in another country, and pretending to blow people away with high caliber weapons. They must hire exceptionally good actors / roleplayers / grifters.
** On the speedchess side-there is no way in hell that CRS could account for every single contingency, so it's quite possible they improvised for the ones they couldn't handle. The scheme could be pulled off with one or two really good improvisers, e.g. Christine and the CRS rep, to steer him, and the rest of the cast as regular actors (not to demean real-life actors, who must have good improvisational skills). This could explain why Christine alone had to leave for the next gig at the end.

* GoingCommando / SkirtsAndLadders: When [[UncomfortableElevatorMoment Trapped In An Elevator]] with waitress Christine, Nicholas asks her to crawl out the roof hatch. An embarrassed Christine reveals she's reluctant to do this because she's not wearing anything under her short skirt. Given what happens later, this is likely deliberate so as to [[DistractedByTheSexy mess with the protagonist's head]].
* HappierHomeMovie: The movie opens with video footage of a happy birthday party from Nicholas' childhood.

* HistoryRepeats: Nicholas being DrivenToSuicide and jumping off a rooftop like his father did.

* ImpairmentShot: Nicholas has been poisoned and is about to pass out. Then there's a shot just before he hits the ground that goes completely nutty, the camera shakes and the screen blurs with a yellow overexposed effect.

* MaleGaze: Exploited by CRS; Christine strips down to a lacy red bra in Nicholas' office while preparing to shower, and he can't help admiring her body. [[spoiler:Which is why he recognizes her and her lingerie in a Polaroid he finds planted in his briefcase, a clue that she's part of the game.]]
* MeanCharacterNiceActor: [[spoiler: Everyone involved with CRS. They aren't involved with a conspiracy, and they have no plans to kill Nicholas.]]
* MindScrew: CRS drives the screw deeper into Nicholas' head with each new baffling scenario.
* MonsterClown: The CRS sends Nicholas a creepy clown doll. This is especially cruel because there were clowns at one of Nicholas's boyhood birthday parties - the one at which his father killed himself.

* NoAntagonist: [[spoiler: No one is after Nicholas, or at least, none of them have any malicious intent, as their goal was to get him to become a better person]].
* NoEnding: One of the finest examples ever filmed; [[spoiler:Nicholas finds Christine leaving his birthday party as she prepares to play another Game overseas. The two flirt warmly, and she invites him to get a coffee with her at the airport. Nicholas smiles and looks around, as if wondering if he's embarking on a new adventure or just playing the game. Fade to black before we see if he joins her.]]

* ParanoidThriller: Nicholas is gradually driven to paranoia, since he doesn't know the intentions of people behind the Game, as well as who is and who isn't involved. [[spoiler:It turns out that TheGameNeverStopped, and [[FriendlyScheming almost everyone was in on it]].]]

* ThePictureCameWithTheFrame: Suspecting that Christine is a CRS plant, Nicholas opens the picture frames on the walls of her apartment, and finds the pictures are cut from magazines.

* ATeamFiring: Inverted in the cafeteria scene. The guards really don't give a damn whoreciprocated.

* BecomingTheMask: Christine's role seems to be to provide a touch of {{Fanservice}} to Nicholas' game as a distraction, and she flirts with him after their alleyway chase. By the end of the game, she seems to be developing genuine feelings for him, and he reciprocates.

* BookSafe: Nicholas keeps a revolver hidden in a copy of ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. Which CRS knew about and loaded with blanks.
* BreakTheHaughty: The entire point, with the end goal being [[CatharsisFactor for Nicholas to achieve catharsis by willingly committing "suicide"]] and emerge from the game a happier man.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: When they are trapped in the elevator, Nicholas' cell phone doesn't get a signal. Justified as CRS made sure he could not call out for real help.

* CoincidentalBroadcast: Sitting in a diner; with his ex-wife, Nicholas sees Jim Feingold (the man who administered the Game's exams earlier in the film) playing a television-commercial "doctor" on the place's TV. At first thinking that the Game runners have found him, he quickly realizes that "Feingold" is a TV actor (of course, given that the Game runners ''have'' been watching him and are always [[XanatosSpeedChess one step ahead of him]], it's quite possible that the broadcast isn't as "coincidental" as Nicholas thinks it is).

** Case in point is Nicholas' pistol in his BookSafe which they found and replaced the bullets with blanks.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Subverted with Nicholas' gun. When he invades the building of the organization that's been running his life for the past few days with what Christine recognizes as a real gun, not one of their props, and she pleads with him that [[spoiler:it's all a big surprise party and they're not really trying to kill him and he ends up shooting his brother just as it turns out there really was a cake and it all flies horribly off the rails, driving him to jump from the rooftop... and then it turns out that, no, that was a squib, the gun's loaded with blanks, and even that was all in the script.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: When Nicholas destroys the smoke detector in Christine's apartment, CRS agents immediately start lighting them up with high-powered silenced machine guns.
* DramaticDrop: One guy at CRS's cafeteria drops his trail when Nicholas enters. [[spoiler:Invoked, as he is faking his surprise.]]

* OminousTelevision: After apparently being rejected by Consumer Recreation Services, Nicholas finds a clown mannequin in his driveway; as he examines it in his living room, he's startled when the newscaster on his television appears to mention him by name several times, finally dropping the facade and addressing him directly:
--> '''Newscaster''': This is your Game, Nicholas. And welcome to it.

* TheTelevisionTalksBack: This is how Nicholas learns that his game has started: a doll in his room hides a camera, while a news broadcast—that was partially pre-recorded—gives him the facts.