History Film / TwentyFourHourPartyPeople

* ActorAllusion: Taken almost to RecursiveReality levels. Creator/SteveCoogan, who played Tony Wilson, based his comedy character Series/AlanPartridge partly on Tony Wilson, and there are notable similarities between how the characters are presented.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Yes, a lot of the events in the movie happened, but several are intentionally exaggerated to make the movie more entertaining. For instance, Martin Hannett never tried to shoot Tony[[note]]Instead he shot a gun into a phone with Rob Gretton on the other line[[/note]]. In another scene, Tony's wife Lindsay has sex with Magazine singer Howard Devoto (after catching Tony cheating on her); the film Tony (and in the DVD commentary, the ''real'' Tony) states that the story never happened, and the real Howard Devoto makes a cameo in the scene as a janitor, only to break the fourth wall and tell the audience "I ''definitely'' don't remember this."

** Yes, Factory Records really didn't have proper contracts with its artists, which is why London Records balked at acquiring them, and simply signed their lone remaining successful act, Music/NewOrder.
** Yes, the Hacienda really did lose a ton of money specifically because everyone was doing drugs and not buying booze. Peter Hook of Music/NewOrder once claimed that the club lost up to £18 million despite it being a packed hotspot every night. The club didn't close immediately after Factory Records went under though; Wilson and New Order kept it going until 1997. The main discrepancy with the film's depiction of the Hacienda is fairly minor: Wilson wasn't present at the final night, nor was the club's final event a rave: It was a concert by the space rock band Music/{{Spiritualized}}.

* AwardBaitSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z15DIchJw7Y Here To Stay]] by New Order.

* SoundtrackDissonance: There's an unnerving scene of [[spoiler: Ian's hanging body with the offbeat final scene of Creator/WernerHerzog's ''Film/{{Stroszek}}'' playing in the background. What's worse? [[TruthInTelevision Ian really did hang himself after watching this specific movie]].]].

* UnfortunateImplications: In-universe -- the band "Music/JoyDivision" is named after the euphemistic term for the prostitution and sexual slavery groups of Jewish women were forced to perform in Nazi concentration camps. This leads to accusations of fascism and white supremacist skinheads invading their gigs, which leads to the band spitting on them, which leads to further chaos. Later, after Ian Curtis' death, the band reveal to Tony Wilson that they've decided to change their name to "New Order" -- which, as Wilson points out, is possibly even ''more'' fascistic.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: An in-universe example at the end of the film - "You should have signed Music/TheSmiths."

* ComicallySmallBribe: Tony pulls 50 quid out of his wallet [[spoiler: in order to convice Shaun to give the ''Yes Please!'' masters to him. Shaun accepts.]]

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: Of a sort; the movie focuses heavily on Music/JoyDivision for the first half, but after Ian Curtis' suicide (and the subsequent reforming of the band into Music/NewOrder), it goes on to show New Order's subsequent massive success with "Blue Monday", the best selling 12-inch single of all time. The focus then shifts from New Order to the Happy Mondays, although this largely was because the Happy Mondays had the more entertaining meltdown.

* TakeThat: Two to Mick Hucknell of Simply Red; one at the beginning, at the legendary 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, to which he is referred simply as "ginger nut", and one at the end, when [[ItMakesSenseInContext God tells Tony to keep up the good work]]:

** Yes, Music/SexPistols really did play a show at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 4 June 1976 to under 50 people, and a significant fraction of those who attended later formed an important band, including future members of Music/JoyDivision, Music/NewOrder, Music/TheFall, Music/TheSmiths and Simply Red. Wilson wasn't at this show, though: He caught them when they came back to town on 20 July, and witnessed the first live performance of "Anarchy in the U.K.".

* ForgoneConclusion: Inevitable, seeing as how this is based on real life. [[spoiler:Ian Curtis hangs himself, Happy Mondays blows away the remainder of Factory's money with their last album, and the record label as a whole goes under.]]

** Yes, Music/SexPistols really did play a show at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 4 June 1976 to under 50 people, and a significant fraction of those who attended later formed a significant band, including future members of Music/JoyDivision, Music/NewOrder, Music/TheFall, Music/TheSmiths and Simply Red. Wilson wasn't at this show, though: He caught them when they came back to town on 20 July, and witnessed the first live performance of "Anarchy in the U.K.".

* SoundtrackDissonance: There's an unnerving scene of [[spoiler: Ian's hanging body with the offbeat final scene of Creator/WernerHerzog's Film/{{Stroszek}} playing in the background. What's worse? [[TruthInTelevision Ian really did hang himself after watching this specific movie]].]].

* SoundtrackDissonance: There's an unnerving scene of [[spoiler: Ian's hanging body with what sounds like a comedy sound effect playing from his television]].

** Yes, Martin Hannett really did go up on a hilltop to record "silence" and forced Stephen Morris to set up his kit on the roof of the studio, recording him long after everyone else had left.

[[quoteright:342:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/24_Hour_Party_People_2002_7502.jpg]]

''24 Hour Party People'' is a 2002 biographical British film telling the story of Tony Wilson, a local news reporter (played by Steve Coogan), who attends a pivotal gig by Music/TheSexPistols in the 1970s and, believing he is living in "one of the most important fucking times in human history", decides to start a record company called Factory Records and a club, The Hacienda. He also decides to BreakTheFourthWall and converse with the audience a lot, because it's that sort of film.

The film focuses largely on two of Factory's most popular artists, Music/JoyDivision (and their later reformation as Music/NewOrder) and Music/HappyMondays, although it also features A Certain Ratio and Durutti Column to a lesser extent.

* IcarusAllusion: The very first scene of the movie is a local news report involving Tony trying out a hang-glider... then turning to the camera and delivering the page quote. He later brings it up again, less directly:

'''Roger Ames:''' Tony... you're fucking mad.\\

--> '''Tony Wilson:''' ...although there are those who say they're pests, rats with wings.

* RealPersonCameo: [[CreatorCameo Tony Wilson himself]], [[Music/TheFall Mark E. Smith]], [[Music/{{Buzzcocks}} Howard]] [[Music/{{Magazine}} Devoto]], Keith Allen, Vini Reilly, [[Music/HappyMondays Paul Ryder and Rowetta]]... and those are just the cameos that have to do with the Manchester music scene.

''24 Hour Party People'' is a 2002 biographical British film telling the story of Tony Wilson, a local news reporter (played by Steve Coogan), who attends a pivotal gig by Music/TheSexPistols in the 1970s and, believing he is living in "one of the most important fucking times in human history", decides to start a record company called Factory Records and a club, The Hacienda.

The film follows Tony and Factory as money is lost, lead singer Ian Curtis commits suicide, RecordProducer Martin Hannett goes insane and tries to kill Tony, the birth of "Madchester" music and rave culture, Happy Mondays sell their equipment and studio for crack and then attempt to hold their new album for ransom... You wouldn't get this kinda stuff in a film about EMI.

* AddictionDisplacement: [[spoiler: While recording ''Yes Please!'', Happy Mondays replace their crippling heroin addictions with more crippling crack addictions.]]
* BioPic: Unlike most biopics, it is not solely dedicated to a single person, but to a whole music scene and, in more general terms, considered to be a love letter to Manchester.
* ChandlersLaw: Tony talking about the last time he saw [[PsychopathicManChild Martin]] prior to the recording of ''Bummed''. [[spoiler: Martin showed up at his flat and fired at Tony with blanks.]]

* CreatorKiller: The record that all but kills Factory, [[spoiler:''[[Music/HappyMondays Yes Please!]]'']] is touched upon.
* DeadArtistsAreBetter: Of a sort; the movie focuses heavily on JoyDivision for the first half, but after Ian Curtis' suicide (and the subsequent reforming of the band into NewOrder), it goes on to show New Order's subsequent massive success with "Blue Monday", the best selling 12-inch single of all time. The focus then shifts from New Order to the Happy Mondays, although this largely was because the Happy Mondays had the more entertaining meltdown.

* DemotedToExtra: The other members of Joy Division that became NewOrder. New Order guitarist/keyboardist Gillian Gilbert gets it worse and only appears twice, briefly and in non-speaking parts.

* WhatMightHaveBeen: An in-universe example at the end of the film - "You should have signed TheSmiths."

* DissonantSerenity See ChandlersLaw above