History Film / TrueLies

* FakedGiftAcceptance: Harry gives his daughter a snow globe as a present. She thanks him, but as soon as he's away, she calls it a dumb gift and throws it into the trash.

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. As an alternative, Cameron is rumored to be adapting it for television.

[[ForeignRemake Based upon the 1991 French movie]] ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103103 La Totale]]'' by Creator/ClaudeZidi, 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.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It is entirely possible that when Harry pulls the surveillance assets off Crimson Jhiad to go after his wife, it gave the window they needed to get clear and in turn track down and kidnap both he and his wife later.

* JustPlaneWrong:
** Harriers are not designed to hover that long, are not bulletproof, and would be un-flyable if it got its instrument panel shot up like it did. More than {{justified|Trope}}, however, by RuleOfCool. [=VTOLs=] like the Harrier have that functionality for only one purpose; to take off and land. They were never designed, or capable of operating like helicopters do.
** A particularly grievous case of ArtisticLicensePhysics -- putting aside the technical shortcomings of the AV-8B "Harrier II", shown in the film, any V/STOL jet aircraft that hovered for as long as the film's climax would probably have burst into flames from overheating.
** Dana would have gotten sucked into the Harrier's turbines almost instantly while clinging to the Harrier's nose and sides.
** The Harrier has a tank of water it uses to cool the engine while hovering. In reality, a Harrier only has enough fuel and water to hover for about 90 seconds. The only unrealistic part of the hovering scene is the length of time it is hovering, if they had kept it under 90 seconds it would've been realistic.
** Also, the StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure when the Harriers first show up is as unrealistic as it usually is. In real life, USMC Harriers carry a GAU-12/U Equalizer 25mm rotary cannon that would have disintegrated a box truck in a split second, rather than leaving a neat trail of splashes and stitching holes across the windshield. At least they get the number of guns right.

** Also, the StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure when the Harriers first show up is as unrealistic as it usually is. In real life, USMC Harriers carry a GAU-12/U Equalizer 25mm rotary cannon that would have disintegrated a box truck in a split second, rather than leaving a neat trail of splashes and stitching holes across the windshield.

''True Lies'' is a 1994 action comedy (bordering on parody) starring (of course) Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger as the ActionHero, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis as the wife, Creator/ElizaDushku [[RetroactiveRecognition as their daughter]], Creator/TiaCarrere as the FemmeFatale, Creator/CharltonHeston as [[DaChief Harry's boss]], Creator/BillPaxton as a sleazy womanizer, and Creator/TomArnold as Arnold's beleaguered partner. It's directed by Creator/JamesCameron, meaning there are some sweet explosions. While it's hardly high art, it's good popcorn fun, mostly because [[IndecisiveParody it can't really decide whether it's trying to be an action movie or a parody of same]], and so - possibly due to the infallible combination of Cameron and Schwarzenegger - [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools does]] ''[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools both]]'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools pretty darn well.]] It was released on July 15, 1994.

* InstantThunder:
** At least partially averted. The atomic blast is seen long before we hear it, but since the "minimum safe distance" is stated to be 12 miles, it should've taken at least a minute for the sound to be heard.
** Of course, the ''shockwave'' from a nuclear weapon travels much faster than the speed of sound.

* AccidentalAimingSkills: Helen's [[BeginnersLuck first experience]] [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns with a Mac-10]] involves taking out about half a dozen mooks.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Harry when test driving the sports car.

--> '''Simon:''' The trick is, you gotta' pick your target. They have to be nice little housewife types, school-teachers. But, I'm telling you, you get their pilot lit, these babes, they can suck-start a leaf-blower.
--> '''Harry:''' What about the husbands?
--> '''Simon:''' Dickless! ''(laughs)'' If they took care of business, I'd be out of business! 'Know what I mean?
--> '''Harry:''' Those idiots.

-->'''Helen:''' "Want one?!" *WHACK!* "How about two?! *WHACK!*

* TestesTest: when Albert "Gib" Gibson (Tom Arnold) is shot at and he hides behind a lamppost, as soon as the gunfire stops he checks out his "package".

%%* UnreliableNarrator: Helen's flashback of first meeting Simon has him passing on a suitcase to her to avoid it being captured by two CloakAndDagger types, one in a ConspicuousTrenchcoat. Whether they were just a couple of innocent bystanders who had nothing to do with Simon, or just her imagination working overtime after she 'discovered' Simon was a spy, is not revealed.

* VehicleVanish: Aziz uses a passing bus to disguise his exit from his car.

** After Harry demonstrates his fighting chops to Helen, she blurts out, "My God, I married Film/{{Rambo}}!" Arnold and Creator/SylvesterStallone tease each other a lot in their movies.

** At one point, Harry's friend and fellow spy Albert tries to talk him out of using agency resources to follow his wife (because he thinks she's going out with another man, who is pretending to be a spy) and says he may need to warn their boss about this mismanagement, only for Harry to threaten him with information of an operation Albert botched because "he was busy getting a blowjob". Albert instantly starts helping Harry.
* SpysSuspiciousSpouse: Inverted as ''Harry'' is the one suspecting his spouse of cheating, while Helen completely believes Harry's cover stories for being gone all the time and never suspects anything odd about it, only frustration that he is gone all the time.

* TwoFacedAside: When the Marine jet pilots worry that their missiles might detonate the nukes, Harry assures them it will be fine. Then he turns to Gib and gives an "I hope" grimace.

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

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: It rates a light 7, due to scenes like the one where the villainous limo driver receives a headshot during the bridge chase where the bullet passes through his head and breaks the glass of the windshield in front of him.

* ZanyScheme: Harry hatches quite a crazy plan to monitor and get the truth out of his wife about her potential affair.

** While the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_Jump_Jet Harrier]] can do everything it's depicted as doing in the film, in reality it only carries enough fuel and water (to cool the engine) to hover for about 90 seconds, not the much longer length of time depicted. Hovering uses a great deal of fuel, and generates a great deal of heat that has to be cooled by a tank of water (during normal flight the engines are cooled by the incoming air).

* HateSink: Juno Skinner is an antiques dealer who helps Salim Abu Aziz's terrorist cell Crimson Dawn smuggle four nuclear weapons into America so they can threaten to detonate them. Her only motivation for doing so is so she can profit off of it greatly. Juno also helps prepare Harry Tasker for violent torture and taints and tries to kill his wife Helen out of spite later. She ultimately has little charm and fully deserves the fate that befalls her at the end of the film.

* TriangRelations: Helen considers cheating on the overly-absent Harry and Harry hatches a ZanyScheme to find out about the affair and win her back.

%%* GunsAkimbo