History Film / TrueLies

* ElevatorSnare: Whether due to RuleOfCool or RuleOfFunny, a terrorist taking a woman hostage enters an elevator [[[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPgJ8tBvJY4 motorcycle and all]]. Harry, TheHero, takes a second lift while mounting a horse. To hammer the hamminess, Harry is aiming his gun at the villain, which the latter can perfectly see since the walls are made of glass.

** From the many action movie RuleOfCool impossibilities to having hi-rise buildings in Washington DC. [[note]]Washington DC is not allowed to have buildings taller than 130 feet tall due to the Height of Buildings Act of 1910. The only exception to the rule is radio towers, the Washington Monument and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which stands at 329 feet.[[/note]]

* IndecisiveParody: The movie is either a 90's action comedy, or a parody thereof.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: How did the terrorists get Dana to Miami for the climax? Salim doesn't find out about her until he finds Harry's wallet after the fuel truck explodes and he presumes Harry dead. The timeline of the setting of the bomb means that it is less than 90 minutes between when he learns about Dana and brings her to the Miami highrise. Even if he still had Crimson Jihad members in Washington D.C. to grab her, this is presuming that a rebellious teenager like Dana is home when both her parents are MIA (unlikely) of that a couple of Middle Eastern men with limited knowledge of the D.C. Metro area tracked down a 15 year old girl in the era of no cell phones and no social media (even more unlikely). Then after tracking Dana down they somehow got her on a plane that managed to fly 925 miles (1488 km) from Washington D.C. to Miami, FL in '''under 90 minutes'''. The plane would have to be going roughly Mach 1.25. The only civilian aircraft even capable of that was The Concorde, which discontined service between D.C. and Miami in 1991, three years before the movie came out. (Never mind the hassle of dragging a kidnapped, frightened, teenage girl through two major metropolitan air ports.) The only planes capable of making this trip in the continental United States would have been fighter jets. Not only is it extremely unlikely that terrorists could acquire such a jet, it's even more unlikely that they would be able to fly it if they could. Not to mention the fact that a rogue fighter jet departing the capitol and landing in another major American city would have been tracked and shot down in very short order. Add all of it up and it was physically impossible to get Dana to Miami for the end of the movie.

* BehindAStick: The fairly rotund Gib hides behind a lamppost when Aziz opens fire on him, emerging unscathed despite the lamppost taking several hits.
* BetweenMyLegs: A few shots of this during the dancing-in-bra-and-panties scene.

* BlindedByRage: In the final confrontation, Aziz is so determined to get Harry [[spoiler:and Dana]] that he [[spoiler:jumps onto a jet that Tasker was flying to get back the key that Dana had stolen, despite the fact that at the time he only had a knife and would therefore be pretty much incapable of making Harry take him somewhere 'secure']].

* BreakingTheBonds: Harry surreptitiously picks a pair of handcuffs that bound his hands behind his back.
* BringMyBrownPants: Simon can't stop himself from peeing during stressful situations.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The Persian statues seen in the opening are used to smuggle nuclear weapons to an island off the coast of Florida]].

* DidTheEarthMoveForYouToo: Harry and Helen make out to the backdrop of a nuclear explosion. And it is ''awesome''.

* DramaticShattering: Harry smashes his van window when Gib refuses to give him the tenth page of the transcripts between Helen and Simon. The window was supposed to be stage glass but Arnold hit the wrong one by mistake; Creator/TomArnold's reaction [[EnforcedMethodActing isn't completely acted]].

* EvilPaysBetter: Juno Skinner is OnlyInItForTheMoney:

* {{Expy}}: The director of the Omega Sector, Spencer Trilby (Charlton Heston), was based upon Marvel Comics character ComicBook/NickFury. Both have eye patches, they have similar personalities, and both are leaders of an elite spy agency.

* FunWithSubtitles: Harry telling the one guard he must take a major leak, which the subtitle helpfully notes are "in perfect Arabic". ([[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Ahnuld's Arabic is, of course, terrible.]])

* InstantThunder: Averted. The atomic blast is seen long before we hear it.

* NoSympathy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], Gib is helpful towards Harry's attempts to repair his marriage, but he doesn't make much effort to sensitive or tactful about it and has to be blackmailed into going along with it past a certain point (although this is also because it involves misusing work resources). [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], given that [[SeenItAll he's been through the same thing himself]] and, as shown by his line under BrutalHonesty, he's much more conscious of the kind of strain spy work can put on a marriage.

* PaedoHunt: Simon describes Helen as having an "ass like a 10-year-old boy", as if his sleaziness wasn't enough. Guess that explains why Harry decided to imagine smashing his face in.

-->'''Gib:''' Guess he thought the other terrorist groups were too warm and fuzzy for his tastes.

* SinisterTangoMusic: Played with. Arnold's character has a weakness for the Tango and dances it with his sexy but evil target. At the end, he dances another with the wife he loves, inconveniencing [[SpiesInAVan their partner in the van]].

** Leading to the page quote, not to mention...

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: When Harry is chasing a motorcycle-riding Aziz on horseback, Aziz jumps down from one building to the pool of the nearby hotel. Harry tries to follow, but ''his horse'' skids to a stop just before trying to leap the impossible distance.

%%Page quote should be something from the work itself. Not someone else's blatant complaining about the work.

[[ForeignRemake Based upon the 1991 French movie]] ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103103 La Totale]]'' by Creator/ClaudeZidi with Creator/ThierryLhermitte, from which it kept most of the plot, transported it over to America, and ran it in typical Hollywood style which, honestly, [[AdaptationDistillation tends to work pretty well for action comedy]]. It spawned a top-down shooter LicensedGame of same title on [[UsefulNotes/TheFifthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames fifth-generation consoles]] and the UsefulNotes/GameBoy.

* ActorAllusion: Harry works for the Omega Sector, whose leader is played by none other than Charlton Heston, ''Film/TheOmegaMan'' himself.

-->'''Spencer Trilby''': You're new on Harry's team, right?
-->'''Faisil''': Yes.
-->'''Spencer Trilby''': So what makes you think that the slack I cut him in any way translates to you?

* DeadfootLeadfoot: The limo driver hits the gas permanently after getting shot in the head during Helen and Juno's fight on the bridge.

* EvilIsPetty: After Juno taunts Helen about her husband Harry's likely death, Helen slaps her in the face, which leaves a scratch mark. Juno's response is to try to shoot her, but she's stopped by Aziz.

* {{Homage}}: The opening sequence features Arnold coming out of some water in a wetsuit, then shrugging it off to reveal a black tuxedo underneath. [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} Now, what another superspy has done that...]]

* HypocriticalHumor: Every insult Juno hurls at Helen would be more appropriate if used against Juno herself. Apart from the "Suzy Homemaker" quip.

* [[IHaveYourWife I Have Your Daughter]]: It's revealed that Dana is being held prisoner in the film's third act.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Helen, feeling unappreciated by Harry and trapped in a mundane lifestyle, longs for something exciting to happen in her life, which draws Simon to her as he's learned to exploit this need in married women. [[spoiler:She gets her wish by becoming a spy at the end]].

* NotSoAboveItAll: Gib gleefully mocks Harry's anger over his wife's apparent infidelity, but ends up losing his temper during Helen's interrogation scene and has to be restrained by Harry.

* PrettyInMink: Several furs are worn in the background of a few scenes that take place at fancy galas and high class hotels.

* SinisterTangoMusic: Played with. Arnold's character has a weakness for the Tango and dances it with his sexy but evil target. At the end, he dances another with the wife he loves, inconveniencing their partner in the van.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: The original trailer showed Jamie Lee Curtis in an interrogation chamber being grilled about her husband. [[spoiler:Not shown: Her interrogator is her husband, and he's more interested in whether she's cheating on him.]]

* WhoWritesThisCrap: When having a guy record romantic dialog for an apparent sting operation, the agent doing the voice asked who wrote it, and that it's [[GratuitousFrench la merde]].

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: When Harry suspects his wife Helen is having an affair, he throws the resources of Omega Sector into first scamming the would-be adulterer, then into giving Helen an exciting fantasy life.

* ApologeticAttacker: When pursuing Aziz through the town, Harry commandeers a mounted police officer's horse for pursuit. Though he legitimately declared himself and his intent("Federal officer in pursuit of suspect!"), he did toss the officer off his horse, so he apologizes on his way out. As Harry pursues his foe on horseback, he apologizes repeatedly to crowds he barrels through.

* TeenyWeenie: When being interrogated by Harry and Gib, Simon confesses that he has to lie to women to get laid because he has a small penis.

* RatedMForManly: Arnold goes full manly action hero for the last hour of the film.

* DarkChick: Juno Skinner, an art antiquities dealer whose gallery is actually being used as a front for the Middle Eastern terrorists to smuggle nuclear weapons into the U.S. She even has a rather brutal CatFight with Helen.

** SubvertedTrope. Harry Tasker is a spy whose cover identity on his latest BlackTieInfiltration mission is a rich lothario, with the DarkChick even falling for his charms (and an intense tango). However, in his civilian life he's been married to the same woman for over a decade and is completely loyal to her. The B-plot of the film is about Harry discovering that his wife Helen is very unhappy with her boring life and making efforts to rekindle their marriage.

* InstantSedation: When Harry and Helen are drugged, they each fall asleep five seconds after being shot.

-->'''Helen:''' Want one?! ''[WHACK!]'' How about two?! ''[WHACK!]''

* MissingBackblast: Averted, when one of the terrorists fires a Stinger shoulder-fired anti-air missile from a moving panel truck, causing no end of havoc. His comrades even knew it was coming.

* NoSympathy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed,]] Gib is helpful towards Harry's attempts to repair his marriage, but he doesn't make much effort to sensitive or tactful about it and has to be blackmailed into going along with it past a certain point (although this is also because it involves misusing work resources). [[JustifiedTrope Justified,]] given that [[SeenItAll he's been through the same thing himself]] and, as shown by his line under BrutalHonesty, he's much more conscious of the kind of strain spy work can put on a marriage.

* OfferingAnotherInYourStead: When the SWAT team arrests Helen and Simon, the latter can be heard begging them to take Helen instead of him as a further demonstration of what a collossal {{Slimeball}} Simon is. By contrast, when Harry and Helen are placed in a similar situation when they are captured by terrorists, Harry tries to get them to release Helen by offering himself.

-->'''Helen:''' [[CurseCutShort That hurt, you bi--]] ''[thud]''

* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: Helen attempts to use a MAC-10 machine pistol and promptly [[LawOfInverseRecoil loses control of it]] and drops it down a flight of stairs, where it continues firing ''all by itself'' as it tumbles down, taking out nearly every {{mook|s}} in the terrorist camp. Also the AccidentalAimingSkills.
** Also a case of TruthInTelevision, as the MAC-10 is known for occasionally going "runaway" when dropped. During the making of the movie, the production team was even trying to find a way to get the gun to do exactly that. Their eventual solution? Just load it up and throw it down some stairs.

* StealthParody: It's closer to an AffectionateParody as it gently pokes fun at the excesses of 80's and 90's action flicks while indulging in those excesses itself. [[LampshadeHanging Pointed out by a shocked Helen:]] "My God, I married Franchise/{{Rambo}}!!"

* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Or would do that, as it were. Twice, the tape Harry has recorded for Helen's "secret mission" anticipates she'll do something (unzipping her dress, dancing) awkwardly and corrects her, instructing her to do it in a more sexy way. Subverted when it says to slide her nylons off -- she isn't wearing any. Harry has to hastily fast-forward a bit to get to the next part.

* ThreatBackfire: When Harry decides to use [[GovernmentAgencyOfFiction Omega Sector's]] resources to bust Helen's affair with [[HonestJohnsDealership Simon]], Gib threatens to go to the head of the agency over how he wants to use top-secret government funds to solve a domestic matter, Harry threatens to expose him as well. When Gib say's that he has nothing to hide, Harry snaps back: "What about that time you blew a six-week operation because you were too busy getting a blow job?" Gib immediately starts following Harry's lead.

Despite both Cameron and Schwarzenegger wanting to make a sequel, plans were mired in DevelopmentHell by both Arnold's political tenure and the [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents September 11th attacks]]; there they eventually died. CBS has given an order for a [[Series/TrueLies2023 TV series]] adaptation on May 2022.

* OfferingAnotherInYourStead: When the SWAT team arrests Helen and Simon, the latter can be heard begging them to take Helen instead of him as a further demonstration of what a collossal {{Slimeball}} Simon is. By contrast, when Harry and Helen are placed in a similar situation when they are captured by terrorists, Harry tries to get them to release Helen by offering himself.