History Literature / TheMillenniumTrilogy

* {{Fanservice}}[=/=]GirlOnGirlIsHot: The only full sex scene in TheFilmOfTheBook (leaving out a rape and a Mikael / Erika morning after bit) is an extended sequence of Lisbeth and Miriam.

* AFriendInNeed / IOweYouMyLife: Mikael invokes this hard when Lisbeth is named the primary suspect in three murders. After she gives her word that she didn't do it, he devotes all of Millennium's resources to helping clear her name. Of course, she did save him from a very nasty death, so he owed her something...

* CrazyPrepared:

* ''The Girl Who Lived Twice'' [[note]]Swedish title translates as ''She Must Die''[[/note]] (2019)

The first book: ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' [[note]]Swedish title translates as ''Men Who Hate Women''[[/note]] (2005) begins with middle-aged reporter Mikael Blomkvist sentenced to prison for libel. While Blomkvist waits to serve his term, famous industrialist Henrik Vanger hires him to investigate a forty year old cold case: The disappearance and presumed murder of his then 16-year-old grandniece, Harriet. Blomkvist's investigation brings him into contact with [[DarkActionGirl Lisbeth Salander]], the antisocial, borderline disturbed, and brilliant researcher who Vanger hired as a private investigator to do a security check on Blomkvist. Salander dislikes authority and violently opposes any form of abuse against women, and when Blomkvist comes to her for help in his investigation, she becomes his unlikely aide as they zero in on the truth behind Harriet's disappearance, which appears to involve a serial killer and rapist...

The second book: ''The Girl Who Played with Fire''[[note]]A direct translation of the Swedish title in this case.[[/note]] (2006) has Blomkvist aiding two intrepid journalists who are researching the Swedish sex trafficking industry, which is linked to a mysterious criminal boogeyman known as "Zala". After the researchers begin digging more deeply into Zala's identity, they are found slain in their home, with Salander's prints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist tries to track her down and discover the truth, Lisbeth herself begins a campaign against Zala, intent on revenge for more than just the researchers...

In the third book: ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'' [[note]]Swedish title translates as ''The Air Castle That Was Blown Up''; the Scandinavian idiom "air castle" is roughly akin to the English idiom "pipe dream".[[/note]](2007) Blomkvist discovers that a shadowy faction within the Swedish Security Service have manipulated the traumatic events of Lisbeth's past, including her history with the mysterious "Zala", and will stop at nothing to hide their decades-old deeds. Lisbeth's latest actions threaten to bust the conspiracy wide open, so the faction moves to clean up all evidence of their misdeeds -- including Lisbeth herself...

The publisher has now hired author ''David Lagercrantz'' to write more books in the series, which will be entirely his own invention without any inspiration from Larsson's plans. This fourth book, ''The Girl in the Spider's Web'', [[note]] Swedish title translates as ''That Which Does Not Kill Us'' [[/note]] was released in 2015, followed by the 2017 release ''The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye''[[note]] Swedish title translates as ''The Man Who Chased His Shadow'' [[/note]] and the 2019 release ''The Girl Who Lived Twice''. [[note]] Swedish title translates as ''She Must Die'' [[/note]]

* ContrivedCoincidence/ ThereAreNoCoincidences: Armansky and Blomkvist take note that it's quite convenient for whoever protected Zalachenko in the past that he got killed on the same day that Giannini and Blomkvist were both robbed of their copies of the Björk report. Good thing that Blomkvist had [[SomethingWeForgot one last copy . . .]]

* [[spoiler: RussianGuySuffersMost: But he totally deserved it.]]
* [[spoiler:SanitySlippage: Niedermann.]]

* SexIsEvil: Could be assumed, considering the high amount of rape in the first (they get considerably toned down in the later books/movies.)
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with [[TheHero Mikael Blomkvist]], which all his relations [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex with women are pretty good.]]

* BiTheWay: Lisbeth has two lovers she treats seriously, and one of them is a woman.

* AbusiveParents: Most of the Vangers qualify, with husbands beating their wives [[spoiler: and fathers raping their daughters and sons and training the sons as serial killers.]]

* AssholeVictim: Wennerström. Among his many crimes [[spoiler: (most notably, profiting from drug trade and gun running)]] was forcing a woman whom he got pregnant to have an abortion by half-drowning her until she agreed.

* ExactWords: Henrik Vanger promised he could disclose Wennerström's past deeds for Mikael to publish. He kept his word, only that [[ConfessToALesserCrime everything happened decades before and can't be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations]].

* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Lisbeth is brilliant when it comes to mathematics, computer hacking, and a general ability to figuring things out. She even has photographic memory, which means everything she ever learns, she remembers. But she is completely asocial and has very few friends or acquaintances. Her lack of communication is the main reason that she is declared incompetent by psychologists.
** In the second volume [[spoiler: when Lisbeth is suspected of murder]], Miriam Wu, Armansky and Blomkvist all describe Lisbeth as one of the most intelligent people they know, to the surprise of Bublanksi and the other police officers.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Mikael and Lisbeth, who have an Intergenerational Friendship with Benefits.

* AloneWithThePsycho: In the book, Mikael makes the incredibly stupid mistake of trying to go over to confront [[spoiler: Martin Vanger]] when Mikael starts getting suspicious. Only a BigDamnHeroes moment by Lisbeth gets him out alive. In the Swedish movie, Mikael's not as stupid - he is completely unaware of what [[spoiler: Martin]] really is, until the tranquilizer syringe gets jammed into his neck. And [[spoiler: Martin]] was seemingly going to let him go[[spoiler: and probably try to pin everything on Harald]], had not Mikael made a slip in conversation.
** Then the American movie plays it straight again, playing the scene almost exactly as in the book, then making it even worse when Mikael actually manages to get out of the house, then comes back in [[spoiler: when Martin offers him a drink. Martin himself points out Mikael's foolishness.]]

* GlassesPull: Mikael does a pretty good one in the American version of the film, when looking at the parade photos and realizing that Harriet saw something that frightened her.

** In the second book, Lisbeth proved to be aware of this by hacking into Bjurman' email. Of course if she hadn't threatened him with his gun, said gun wouldn't have had her DNA on it in the first place.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Lisbeth's twin sister Camilla was a "normal" teenager, pretty much the antithesis of Lisbeth in every way (however, she seems to have taken the side of the father who badly abused her mother). She never actually appears onstage in the existing three books, and Lisbeth makes no effort to trace her. It seems likely that Larsson had in mind a role for her (possibly an unpleasant one) in one of the books he died before writing.
** The fourth book takes this trope even further, by having Camilla obsessed with power, and the leader of a Russian crime syndicate. She's also known for giving very good first impressions.
* PrecisionFStrike: Mikael in the 2011 film does one when he goes outside for a cigarette [[spoiler:and sees the dead cat on the doorstep, it broken limbs shaped like a swastika. A later shot shows him trying not to be sick.]]

* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Lisbeth shows this off in the film versions, complete with a [[TitleDrop dragon tattoo]] that covers most of her back. Albeit, in the American version the first time we see it is distinctly un-sexy, being during a shower scene immediately after [[spoiler: she returns home from being raped by Bjurman.]]

* AbortedArc: The rare case of this happening in a film. In the Swedish version Janne Dahlmann, one of the ''Millennium'' editors, takes a payoff to feed info to Wennerström. When Malin discovers it, she and Erika decide to keep him on in order to feed disinformation. Except they never actually do it, and it's not mentioned again until Erika fires him at the end.
** It receives similar treatment in the book. The disinformation campaign is mentioned about twice, and Dahlmann's actual firing (which all this is building up to) is never shown.

* FriendlyEnemies: like every good murder-mystery villain, the BigBad comes across as affable by helping Mikael hunt down Harriet's killer. This is because, though the character ''is'' the BigBad, they didn't kill ''Harriet'', and are genuinely hoping Blomkvist can figure out what happened to her. Only when it becomes clear that Mikael has 1) not cracked her murder and 2) ''has'' cracked the ''villain''[='s=] murders that the villain decides to off our hero.

* SerialKiller: [[spoiler: Martin Vanger]].

* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler: Martin Vanger]]

* {{Retcon}}: Lisbeth's hacker handle of "Wasp" was originally explained as an affectionate nickname from her boxing sessions with Paolo Roberto. In ''this'' novel, it's described as an homage to her favorite comic book character -- ComicBook/TheWasp, founding member of ComicBook/TheAvengers. This also informs the BigBad of the novel, whose deliberately takes the pseudonym "ComicBook/{{Thanos}}" because it alludes directly to a famous ArchEnemy of that SuperTeam. (Given that the novel was released in 2015, shortly before Phase III of the MarvelCinematicUniverse which was absolutely dominated by Thanos, it may have also been an attempt to generate some CheapHeat.)

The publisher has now hired author ''David Lagercrantz'' to write more books in the series, which will be entirely his own invention without any inspiration from Larsson's plans. This fourth book, ''The Girl in the Spider's Web'', [[note]] Swedish title translates as ''That Which Does Not Kill Us'' [[/note]] was released in 2015, followed by the 2017 release ''The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye''. [[note]] Swedish title translates as ''The Man Who Chased His Shadow'' [[/note]]

* {{Retcon}}: The explanation for Lisbeth's Internet handle of Wasp goes from stinging like one in her boxing sessions with Paolo Roberto to her reading comic books as a child and liking the character of ComicBook/TheWasp.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Lisbeth's treatment of [[spoiler:Bjurman is so harsh that it borders on MoralEventHorizon.]] But it was so precise and ingenious that it could qualify as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:rather than killing the man, Lisbeth opted to make Bjurman suffer the ''exact same abuse'' he put her through, up to every little detail, including the rape and the blackmail, just to make him realize how it felt. However, leaving Bjurman alive left him free to make new plans against her,]] which might have ended very badly.
** In the second book, Lisbeth proved to be aware of this by hacking into Bjurman' email. Of course if she hadn't threatened him with his gun, said gun wouldn't have had her DNA on it in the first place.

* DoorStopper: All three books are in excess of 500 pages. In paperback, they run over 600.

An American adaptation of ''Dragon Tattoo'' saw release in 2011; Creator/DavidFincher directed, ''Steven Zallan'' wrote the screenplay, and the team of [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] and ''Atticus Ross'' handled the music. The cast for the film included Creator/RooneyMara as Lisbeth and Creator/DanielCraig as Mikael. Though plans for a sequel were discussed, Mara and Craig ultimately did not return to their roles. In 2017, it was announced that Fede Alvarez will be directing an adaptation of ''The Girl in the Spider's Web'', with Creator/ClaireFoy as Lisbeth.