History Film / TheManWhoKnewTooLittle

Wallace receives information, via a phone call, about the character he should play; unknown to him, the calls get mixed up, and he instead receives instructions intended for a real hit-man. HilarityEnsues.

* ShoutOut: The man disguised as a waiter who approaches Wallace in the end of the film is addressed as [[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} "Venkman."]]

* TheBaroness: Dr. Ludmilla Kropotkin averts the superficial aspects of the "evil torturer lady" stereotype. But Wallace's [[WrongGenreSavvy familiarity with that particular trope]] leads him to mistake the first septuagenerian dominatrix he meets for Dr. Kropotkin.

* PoorCommunicationKills: The conspiracy falls apart because of their secrecy and failure to clearly communicate. One of the reasons why the main conspirators think Wallace is an American agent is that one fails to tell the other that Boris killed Spencer, not Wallace. The plumbers don't realize that either and assume Wallace killed him and wrongly reported it. Between that and Wallace's own antics, this leads them to make one assumption too many, panic and make rash decisions. See HoistByHisOwnPetard.

* PoorCommunicationKills: The conspiracy falls apart because of their secrecy and failure to clearly communicate. One of the reasons why the main conspirators think Wallace is an American agent is that one fails to tell the other that Boris killed Spencer, not Wallace. The plumbers don't realize that either and assume Wallace killed him and wrongly reported it. Between that and Wallace's own antics, this leads them to make one assumption too many, panic and make rash decisions.

* PoorCommunicationKills: The conspiracy falls apart because of their secrecy and failure to clearly communicate.
One of the reasons why the main conspirators think Wallace is an American agent is that one fails to tell the other that Boris killed Spencer, not Wallace. The plumbers don't realize that either and assume Wallace killed him and wrongly reported it. Between that and Wallace's own antics, this leads them to make one assumption too many, panic and make rash decisions.

* PoorCommunicationKills: One of the reasons why the main conspirators think Wallace is an American agent is that one fails to tell the other that Boris killed Spencer, not Wallace. The plumbers don't realize that either and assume Wallace killed him and wrongly reported it. Between that and Wallace's own antics, this leads them to make one assumption too many, panic and make rash decisions.

* PoorCommunicationSkills: One of the reasons why the main conspirators think Wallace is an American agent is that one fails to tell the other that Boris killed Spencer, not Wallace. The plumbers don't realize that either and assume Wallace killed him and reported it as such.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: During the climax, Wallace has the bomb and seems poised to either discover it or prematurely detonate it in full view of the conspirators and dozens of [=VIP=]s. Defense Minister Embleton hurriedly flees the ballroom, to the frustration of his coconspirators.

* BlackmailBackfire: After learning their their plot due to pillow talk, HookerWithAHeartOfGold Lori is trying to blackmail Embleton and his fellow {{Spooks}} about their assassination plot. Predictably, they send an assassin to kill her, but she survives due to Wallace and the assassin accidentally getting each other's instructions.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: After his assassination attempts of Wallace fails for the umpteenth time, Boris gains so much respect for him that he embraces Wallace, gives him a [[ICallItVera gun of sentimental value]] and announces his intention to retire and become a butcher full time.

* ThePrecariousLedge: Played with and Lampshaded: "There's a hallway! We can walk."

* ActorAllusion: As described in the synopsis, Lori is a call girl once involved with the Defence Minister. Creator/JoanneWhalley's BreakthroughRole in ''Film/Scandal1989'' was as Christine Keeler, a real-life showgirl involved with, among others, John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War.

* AnonymousPublicPhoneCall: There is an inversion, where a British spy agency sends verbal instructions to their assassins and other agents by calling up a public phone booth at a predetermined time. What sets off the plot is when one of these calls goes wrong: The assassin is a few minutes late, and another guy picks up the phone and [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame mistakes the instructions for part of the experimental LARP session he'd signed up for.

* AnonymousPublicPhoneCall: There is an inversion, where a British spy agency sends verbal instructions to their assassins and other agents by calling up a public phone booth at a predetermined time. What sets off the plot is when one of these calls goes wrong: The assassin is a few minutes late, and another guy picks up the phone and [[AndYouThoughItWasAGame mistakes the instructions for part of the experimental LARP session he'd signed up for.

* SpySpeak: Wallace is told to "flush" Lori, i.e. kill her.

* AndYouThoughtItWasAGame: The basis of the film. Spencer inadvertently gets tangled in a real terrorist conspiracy without realizing it, as he believes the whole thing is staged.

* CringeComedy: Many moments, but the scene where Spencer jokes about the dead body stands out in particular. From the perspective of Lori and of the audience, he's playing the death of a man for laughs right in front of his corpse.
* DeadlyRoadTrip: When Spencer travels to the UK, he gets involved in an international conspiracy, a hitman is sent to kill him, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking he gets mugged]].

* TheFool: Spencer is ditzy enough to accidentally get involved in an international conspiracy without ever realizing what is really going on, and yet he manages to stop the terrorists' plot and avoid getting murdered by a hitman, among other streaks of pure dumb luck.

* InspectorOblivious: Spencer has no idea that he stopped a plot to bomb a peace meeting.

* MistakenForSpies: Spencer is not a spy, but everyone mistakes him for one.
* NotSoFakePropWeapon: As Spencer believes everything is staged, he accidentally fires a real gun and almost shoots a man, thinking the gun was a prop.

* SpySpeak: Spencer is told to "flush" Lori, i.e. kill her.

* DeadlyRoadTrip: When Spencer travels to the UK, he gets involved in an international conspiracy, a hitman is sent to kill him, and [[ArsonMuderAndJaywalking he gets mugged]].

%%* AndYouThoughtItWasAGame

%%* BornLucky: Wallace.

%%* CringeComedy
%%* DeadlyRoadTrip

%%* TheFool: Wallace.

%%* InspectorOblivious
%%* InstantSedation
%%* LingerieScene: Lori's introduction.
%%* MistakenForSpies
%%* NotSoFakePropWeapon
%%* TheNounWhoVerbed: The title.

%%* SpySpeak: "Remember to flush."

A 1997 film written by Robert Farrar (adapted from his novel ''Watch That Man'') and starring Creator/BillMurray, which combines AndYouThoughtItWasAGame with Main/MistakenForBadass.

Wallace Ritchie (Murray) is an American [[DeadlyRoadTrip vacationing in London]], hoping to spend his birthday with his brother Jimmy (PeterGallagher). Unfortunately, James has an important business dinner; in order to get rid of Wallace for the evening, he signs him up for an evening with the Theatre of Life, an [[{{LARP}} experimental hyper-realistic audience-participation theater.]]

Wallace proceeds to [[LargeHam ham his way]] through the underworld of secret agents and espionage. He almost immediately decides to break from "the script" and help the person he was ordered to kill: Lori (JoanneWhalley), a [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold call-girl with a heart of gold]] who's trying to blackmail the Defence Minister she's been sleeping with. Along the way, Wally accidentally convinces his "superiors" that he's a loose cannon who knows of their devious scheme to restart the Cold War by blowing up the dignitaries at a historic peace accord. And all the while, Wallace thinks the bullets, TruthSerums, car chases and dead bodies are AllPartOfTheShow.

* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: Sir Roger and Sergai's motivation.

* AnticlimaxCut: In one scene, Wallace tells Lori that he's not completely a good guy, that if she wants his help, she'll have to do something for him. The dialogue is set up to make the viewer think Wallace is talking about sex... then the scene cuts to Wallace driving Lori's Mini Cooper.
** The joke is [[DontExplainTheJoke kind of ruined]] by the fact that they then have Wallace say, "Thanks for letting me drive."
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Possibly an intentional use: During James' business presentation, the map of Germany is shown. The major cities are labelled... with the names of other German cities.

* BlackComedy: Referenced and played with. Wallace Ritchie is just having fun gawking at the elaborate "sets" and the performances of his fellow "actors", but Lori interprets his light-hearted demeanour around so much death and danger as a sign that he is an [[LackOfEmpathy emotionally-stunted]] hitman with a [[LaughablyEvil seriously depraved sense of humour]].

* CleanupCrew: Averted. Boris wants to use his favourite "messy" interrogation technique, but his assistants dissuade him, because "It is fun for you, but ''we'' have to ''clean up'' afterward!"

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Lori, though she insists she's not a call-girl. Even though she accepted money for sex with the Minister of Defence.

* SociopathicHero: Viewing the events of the movie from the point of view of the actual spies can lead to a wildly different interpretation of Wallace. He comes off as an absurdly skilled (even by badass standards) rogue agent who is doing everything he does [[BunnyEarsLawyer just for laughs]], and that it's so easy for him, he can afford to goof around and just do whatever amuses him at the time. Among his many deeds include pretending like he's going to execute Lori, [[ForTheEvulz for no reason whatsoever,]] playing with a dead body and applauding it for being so remarkably dead, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and running over traffic cones]] while fleeing assassins, simply because he's always wanted to do it and now seemed like a good time. Basically, to those not in on the joke (everyone but Wallace), he might as well be the super-spy version of ComicBook/TheJoker.

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