History Film / TheTrumanShow

* AwfulWeddedLife: An unusual example. In-universe Truman and Meryl's marriage is intended to be an idyllic romance, but in practice their relationship is devoid of any mutual connection, chemistry or bond. Beyond obviously not genuinely loving Truman, Meryl's limited acting range means her attempt at portraying a loving wife fall completely flat, something Truman catches onto. Even the audience in the real world doesn't seem to be convinced.

** The writers will set these up to keep Truman along the path they want him to follow (e.g. a shallowly sunken boat when he's about to board a ferry to invoke his hydrophobia). [[spoiler:Of course, when these start building up, Truman starts figuring stuff out...]]

* GildedCage: Truman lives a rather comfortable life in the dome, he works a cushy job as an insurance agent, is married to a beautiful wife, lives in a beautiful house, and drives a nice car. However, as the star of the show it's necessary for him to stay on the island where the show takes place, which is accomplished through: having Truman be traumatized into having aqua-phobia by seeing his father drown; at school, when he said he wanted to be an explorer, his teacher said there's no point since there was no place left to explore; he visited a travel agency that discourages travel; when he tried to make a run for it he's prevented from doing so by a traffic jam, a forest fire, and a nuclear accident. At the end [[spoiler:Truman uses a sailboat to escape, which Christof tries to stop with a storm, but stops before Truman drowns]]. However [[spoiler:as Truman is about to exit the set, Christof tries to talk him into staying for the sake of the cast and crew, with the implication that all will be forgiven and he can go back to his old life, but it doesn't work]].

* HollywoodLaw: As this is set somewhere in America, the entire premise of having a show where the star spends his entire life being made into what is essentially a dancing monkey for the entertainment of others violates more laws than anyone can count. Then again, considering how much money must go into this show, one imagines bribery playing a part.

*** Having children on the set proves to have been unwise, as one girl sees Truman boarding their bus and [[NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals starts to ask her mom if that's really him]] before she gets shushed.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frXlYeflkt4 The Nick @ Nite promotional featurette]] for the film is presented as an in-universe documentary and also goes into details about the fictional cast and their lives around Truman. Notably, it explains a fair bit about Marlon (Truman's friend) -- in the film, he's shown as being generally callous and dismissive of Truman (with a few hints that he might be regretful to see what's happening), whereas the featurette makes it clear that he's [[DrowningMySorrows taken to drinking]] because he was lured into the project at a young age by his parents and has no visible recourse to leave the project. More notably, a deleted scene suggests that he is so regretful over the experience that he allows Truman to escape, even though he glimpses him heading out of town during the final act.

A rare promotional video for the movie, which aired on Creator/NickAtNite, can be seen [[https://youtu.be/rPL_a-pdyBk here]]. It was filmed as a DocumentaryEpisode and features in-universe interviews with the cast and crew.

* StalkerShrine: A very strangely justified example. Normally Truman's habit of ripping out parts of women from magazine pages to reconstitute an image of Sylvia hidden in the back of Meryl's photo frame would come across as incredibly creepy and stalkerish. Of course, Truman is trying to remember a woman he fell for based on decade-old memories after the crew awkwardly forced Sylvia out of his life, so it makes more sense.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Christof brings Truman's father back to life, causing him to lose his fear of water and sail to freedom that day.

* On the SlidingScaleofDivineIntervention, Christof is considered a Sandbox God.

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: Everyone but Truman knows that his entire town, which he has never left since birth, is really an elaborate film set populated by actors. His parents, his teachers, his best friend, his ''wife'' --all actors in a reality TV show.

* SmallSecludedWorld: Most of the movie takes place in a small society that is extremely secluded from the outside world, although the main character is unaware of this.

* AnthropicPrinciple: For the premise to work, it would violate countless laws including that of human rights in real life, hence in-story they are presumably not be an issue or at least exempted for the case of a reality show. Not only that, this masquerade requires a gigantic crew and cast revolving around Truman, with everyone's behavior being so predictable, doing their job perfectly at all times, and the security so wonderful that for decades no employee, actor, or intruder would successfully expose the truth to Truman. This has been addressed a couple times across the movie, but it remains a highly improbable premise.

** Justified as InUniverse, the Taurus was likely a specially modified model provided for use on the film set, including being outfitted with multiple cameras hidden inside it to film Truman and any passengers who would be riding along with him. All the automobiles that the characters are meant to meaningfully interact with are Ford Motor Company products - Marlon drives a brand new 1997 Ford Ranger and all the taxis are 1997 Ford Taurus GLs, suggesting that they were another one of the companies utilizing The Truman Show for product placement.

* AsideGlance: During various attempts to shoehorn in ProductPlacement.
* AsimovsThreeKindsOfScienceFiction: The film ranks on the Adventure category. The invention is an environment-mimicking dome that hosts a small town-scaled filming set. How it came to be is never explained, just that it exists TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture and is used to trick a person into believing his life is real when, in truth, it's a staged RealityShow. The movie doesn't make a point of how the existence of such advanced biodomes would impact society nor how much of a CrapsackWorld it must be to allow such an immoral show to be produced. Instead, it focuses on the titular character's journey of realizing his life is a simulation and escaping from it.

-->"You ''never'' had a camera inside my head!"

* BorderPatrol: We see an AngryGuardDog barking at Truman (as a kid) when he was trying to get out of his world's boundaries.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The writers will set these up to keep Truman along the path they want him to follow (e.g. a shallowly sunken boat when he's about to board a ferry to invoke his hydrophobia). [[spoiler:Of course, when these start building up, Truman starts figuring stuff out...]]

* OhCrap: The actors and crew have this reaction when whenever Truman [[OffTheRails does something out of the ordinary]].
* OminousFog: During the reunion between Truman and his father, Christof tells his staff to go easy on the fog.
* OnlyOneName: Christof is never referred to as having a surname.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler: Upon finding out that Truman has gotten on a small boat and escaped to the sea, Christoff immediately orders several actors to get onto the ferry and intercept him. This plan immediately falls apart when the actors point out that they are just that, actors, and none of them actually know how to pilot the ferry.]]

* StalkerShrine: A very strangely justified example. Normally Truman's habit of ripping out parts of women from magazine pages to reconstitute an image of Sylvia hidden in the back of Meryl's photo frame would come across as incredibly creepy and stalkerish. Of course, Truman is trying to remember a woman he fell for based on decade-old memories after the crew awkwardly forced Sylvia out of his life, so it makes more sense.

* ThunderEqualsDownpour: When Truman is sitting on the beach reminiscing, there is a clap of thunder and it begins to rain, but ''only'' where he is sitting. He walks three feet before turning around in shock to see the small column of rain as it follows him.

Truman Burbank (Carrey), a well-liked small-town insurance salesman, lives a seemingly idyllic life, but is discontented.

He still pines for a girl he fell in love with in college but who disappeared abruptly. Strange things have also been happening in his town: what looks like a spotlight marked with the name of a star falls out of the air right in front of him, his car radio picks up a broadcast which appears to be tracking his movements, and everything from his beautiful house to his beautiful wife to his loyal best friend seems somewhat... [[BrokenMasquerade artificial]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] [[spoiler: Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for.]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] [[spoiler:Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] [[spoiler: Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] [[spoiler:Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder. [[spoiler:Unless likewise, seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]] [[spoiler:Unless seeing Truman exit through the door, leaving the studio, and thus, ending the show completely, was enough for Christof to [[LaserGuidedKarma get more than what he bargained for]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Other than having Truman leave and presumably having to cancel the show, Christof doesn't face any punishment for holding Truman prisoner and manipulating him all his life. Or attempted murder.]]

When he bumps into a mysterious hobo who looks almost identical to his dead father, Truman begins to suffer a paranoid breakdown and sets out to fully investigate his environment. However, everyone around him tries in desperation to stop him from discovering the truth: [[EnforcedMethodActing Truman's been on a TV show his whole life]].

Since before his birth, Truman has been the unsuspecting star of a globally successful RealityShow called ''The Truman Show'', in which every minute of his day is filmed and broadcast live, overseen by the show's fanatical and obsessive creator/producer/director Christof (Creator/EdHarris). While Truman has no idea about the level of deception everyone goes through to keep him in the dark, that changes soon enough...

* VillainousBreakdown: Towards the end, Christof and by extension the show, [[spoiler:when Truman makes his escape attempt]], begins to lose it quite rapidly [[spoiler:and starts doing things that would be impossible to explain away to Truman, like turning the moon into a searchlight and having the entire town look for him. Once he does find Truman, he tries to get him to turn back via an artificial storm. He's practically desperate, even willing to ''kill'' Truman after he yells if that's all they got]].

** The most obvious: people don't exist for the entertainment of others. Their desires and struggles ''matter''. ''They'' matter.