History Film / TheMaster

* ChurchOfHappyology: Lancaster Dodd is the charismatic leader of a California cult called "The Cause". Anderson admitted to drawing on the early history of Scientology for the movie but also said The Cause is just the backdrop for a character study. Much of the doctrine of The Cause is clearly lifted from Scientology, and Dodd resembles L. Ron Hubbard as well.

* IHaveNoSon: {{Implied}} with Dodd and his daughter Elizabeth. In their last meeting, Freddie asks where Elizabeth is and Peggy says "DCF". Freddie responds with a surprised "Really?". The movie does not explain further but this may be inspired by the Scientology practice of declaring individuals who are perceived to be anti-Scientology as "Suppressive Persons" (SP). Such persons are shunned by everyone in the church, which is called "Disconnect." This is likely part of what "DCF" stands for.

* OedipusComplex: Heavily implied with Freddie, who tells an Army psychologist that he had a dream involving his mother and father but refuses to divulge what happens in it, and tries to poison a fellow farm worker whom he claims looks like his father.

* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** After building - and briefly humping - a sand sculpture of a woman, Freddie masturbates into the ocean.
** Peggy gives a hand job to Dodd, after making him promise he'll keep any marital indiscretions... discreet. See FanDisservice.

* InkblotTest: Freddie only sees sexual images.

* IncestIsRelative: Freddie admits under duress that he's had sex with his aunt several times. He claims he "was drunk and she looked good", but it's implied that he was likely molested.

* TheArtifact: After a scene where Dodd sings a song for his followers and is clearly enjoying the attention from the ladies, Peggy gives him a handjob in the bathroom. She tells him to keep his philandering discreet, then makes a more obscure comment: "It didn't work for them, and it won't work for you." This is a remnant from an earlier draft of the screenplay in which Dodd, in the party scene, makes some pointed remarks about Joseph Smith and the early Mormons, who were polygamists.

* {{Cult}}: DiscussedTrope, much to the regret of the person that says it.

''' LancasterDodd:''' You seem so familiar to me.\\

->'''Freddie:''' I don't know what I told you but if you have work for me to do I can do it.\\
'''Dodd:''' You seem so familiar to me.\\
'''Freddie:''' Yeah. What do you do?\\
'''Dodd:''' I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.

* WeddingDay: Dodd's daughter gets married early in the film, with Dodd officiating.

* SceneryPorn: Shot in 70mm, although, oddly, it is mostly an indoor drama. The few scenes that do take advantage of the 70mm format are exceptional, though--Freddie's Navy ship cutting a wake through the ocean, a gorgeous shot of Dodd's ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, a shot of Freddie and Dodd riding motorcycles in the desert.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Lancaster Dodd for L. Ron Hubbard.

Creator/LauraDern appears as a devotee of the Cause who despite her zeal asks one too many pesky questions. Creator/RamiMalek appears in one of his first big movie roles as Dodd's son-in-law Clark, who seems jealous of Freddie's attractiveness to both Dodd and Clark's wife.

The film stars Creator/JoaquinPhoenix (in his first film role after a two year hiatus) as Freddie Quell, a misguided young man who, after demobilizing from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, falls under the sway of charismatic ChurchOfHappyology-style cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman) and his wife Peggy (Creator/AmyAdams). From there on, the film becomes a character study between Dodd and Freddie as their relationship varies between "Leader and Follower", "Teacher and Student", "Father and Son" and "Master and Slave".

* TheAlcoholic: Freddie makes drinks out of paint thinner and siphons alcohol out of torpedoes.

** A super-creepy scene where Dodd is singing at a party and Freddie visualizes all the female guests naked. This is immediately followed by the least sexy hand job in history.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Freddie receives therapy for shell-shock after the war, though it's left ambiguous as to whether his problems are preexisting. All we see from his war days are him lounging on an island and a ship, while he admits to having a sexual relationship with his aunt as a youth.

The film stars Creator/JoaquinPhoenix (in his first film role after a two year hiatus) as Freddie Quell, a misguided young man who, after demobilizing from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, falls under the sway of charismatic cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman) and his wife Peggy (Creator/AmyAdams). From there on, the film becomes a character study between Dodd and Freddie as their relationship varies between "Leader and Follower", "Teacher and Student", "Father and Son" and "Master and Slave".

* GargleBlaster: Freddie makes extremely strong cocktails using strange recipes. One of his cocktails poisons a farm worker that he seems to take a disliking to, which gets him run off the farm. Dodd takes a liking to his concoctions, which he finds incredibly rough. We later see that Freddie puts ''paint thinner'' in the cocktails. Dodd asks him point-blank if Freddie poisoned him, but Freddie denies it.

* {{Reincarnation}}: The Cause teaches reincarnation as part of its beliefs. They use hypnotherapy to retrieve supposed past lives memories, and thus help people deal with trauma from then. However, their leader Dodd then claims they ''aren't'' past life memories, but just imagined. Yet he still believes reincarnation, telling Freddie the pair knew each other in a previous life as French scientists during the 1870s.