History YMMV / Identity

* HilariousInHindsight: Or perhaps a CallForward - when Robert Maine has been tied up, he starts singing "I Got Stripes" by Music/JohnnyCash. Creator/JamesMangold's next movie was ''Film/WalkTheLine'', a biopic of Cash.

!!!For [[Film/{{Identity}} the film]]

-->'''Paris''': (anguished) What happened to you? Where did you go? What did you see?
-->'''Ed''': I saw you... I saw you in an orange grove.

!!!For Film/{{Identity}}

!!!For FanFic/{{Identity}}, the Manga/RanmaOneHalf Fan Fic
* {{Squick}}: "Night of Magic's Coupling." While the Sorcerers are taking numbers and, er, [[UnusualEuphemism doing their numbers]], Ranma's hiding out in the shadows with nowhere to go and not many places to look away. It doesn't help that he's in his [[GenderBender girl body]], and he knows they're all in cursed bodies, too. The first thing he can think to do when he gets out is become a man, just so he doesn't have to think about it anymore.
* TheWoobie: Almost anyone can have a moment in this spot, but in particular, Shampoo in chapter three. She's been basically exiled to a foreign land. No one really thinks she has a chance at Ranma's heart, and when she stands up to the Amazon Elders, proudly proclaiming that Ranma could love her after all? They shoot her down hard and, to kick her while she's down, they string a red necklace around her neck, so no one in the tribe but her family can speak or listen to her. Ouch.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Paris Nevada, a HookerWithAHeartOfGold, NiceGirl and FinalGirl all in one. It helps that this is also one of Amanda Peet's best performances.

* {{Narm}}: During the big montage at the end, there's a rather hilarious shot of [[spoiler:[[CreepyChild Timmy]] doing an UnflinchingWalk with a PsychoticSmirk on his face as the car explodes behind him and a storm rages all around. It's like they were trying as hard as they could to make a meme that would go viral.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Larry Washington. He spends the first half of the movie as a shifty motel clerk, is clearly hiding something and endlessly taunts Paris for her past as a prostitute. Just when he becomes the one suspected of being the murderer, he's given a sympathetic backstory and [[spoiler:redeems himself later when he (briefly) saves Paris from Rhodes.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Or perhaps a CallForward - when Robert Maine has been tied up, he starts singing "I Got Stripes" by Music/JohnnyCash. Creator/JamesMangold's next movie was ''Film/IWalkTheLine'', a biopic of Cash.

* FridgeBrilliance:
** That former cop Ed has to keep telling Officer Rhodes how to do his job or take command from him throughout the film makes sense later on [[spoiler:when it's revealed that Rhodes is really an escaped prisoner disguised as a policeman.]]
*** Rhodes also [[spoiler:being creepy and staring inappropriately at Paris are also hints.]]
** During the scene where [[spoiler:the multiple personality plot was uncovered,]] the judge is thumbing through Malcolm Rivers's diary. Every couple of pages features a dramatic shift in penmanship, illustrating Rivers's shifting [[spoiler:alter egos.]] The last we see are the words [[spoiler:"Timothy/Timmy York" written over and over in red, large block letters for two straight pages. Hint, hint.]]
** When Ed discovers Larry's porn stash with scribbled insults over its pages, it's hint of [[HeManWomanHater Larry]] being hypocrite. [[spoiler:No, these are not his and it actually hints that he is not the real motel owner.]]
** Ed and Caroline were traveling between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Paris was traveling from Las Vegas to Florida, while Rhodes and Maine were traveling to Carson City from Las Vegas. It makes zero logical sense for them to end up in the same motel, as the routes (from Las Vegas) go south, east, and west respectively. [[spoiler: As the motel was in the mind and not on the highway, it doesn't have to make sense.]]

** [[spoiler:Ed's FamousLastWords to Paris as he dies in her arms.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Every single one of the characters at the motel becomes subject to this following the revelation during the final act of the film: [[spoiler: they're all the split personalities of a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.]]
* CreepyAwesome: After discovering why everyone is trapped at the motel, [[spoiler: Ed]] becomes this. [[spoiler: He speaks in a soft whisper, loses all traces of emotion, and calmly walks forward to kill Rhodes even after Rhodes has already started shooting him.]]

** That former cop Ed has to keep telling Officer Rhodes how to do his job or take command from him throughout the film makes sense later on [[spoiler: when it's revealed that Rhodes is really an escaped prisoner disguised as a policeman.]]
*** Rhodes also [[spoiler: being creepy and staring inappropriately at Paris are also hint.]]
** During the scene where [[spoiler: the multiple personality plot was uncovered,]] the judge is thumbing through Malcolm Rivers's diary. Every couple of pages features a dramatic shift in penmanship, illustrating Rivers's shifting [[spoiler: alter egos.]] The last we see are the words [[spoiler: "Timothy/Timmy York" written over and over in red, large block letters for two straight pages. Hint, hint.]]
** When Ed discovers Larry's porn stash with scribbled insults over its pages, it's hint of [[HeManWomanHater Larry]] being hypocrite. [[spoiler: No, these are not his and it actually hints that he is not the real motel owner.]]
* {{Narm}}: During the big montage at the end, there's a rather hilarious shot of [[spoiler: [[CreepyChild Timmy]] doing an UnflinchingWalk with a PsychoticSmirk on his face as the car explodes behind him and a storm rages all around. It's like they were trying as hard as they could to make a meme that would go viral.]]

* ParanoiaFuel: You're trapped in the middle of nowhere during a freak storm, surrounded by mysterious strangers, and people start dying in increasingly violent ways. What if the killer is some escaped lunatic? What if it's the person standing right next to you? [[spoiler: What if the killer is ''you'', and you don't even know it?]]
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Larry Washington. He spends the first half of the movie as a shifty motel clerk, is clearly hiding something and endlessly taunts Paris for her past as a prostitute. Just when he becomes the one suspected of being the murderer, he's given a sympathetic backstory and [[spoiler: redeems himself later when he (briefly) saves Paris from Rhodes.]]
* {{Squick}}:
** The image of [[spoiler: a baseball bat shoved down Robert Maine's throat.]]
** [[spoiler: Don't also forget the fact that after Caroline was killed, her head was put into the washing machine and her body wasn't found. EEP!]]
* StoicWoobie: Ed Dakota qualifies, given his DarkAndTroubledPast as a cop. Until [[spoiler: he discovers [[TomatoInTheMirror the truth]],]] in which case he is NotSoStoic.

** [[spoiler: Ed's FamousLastWords to Paris as he dies in her arms.]]

** The ending [[spoiler: where Paris, the last good part of Malcolm Rivers, is murdered by Timothy, the most evil part of him.]]

* EarWorm: ''When I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish, I wish he'd go away.''

* MagnificentBastard: The killer, [[spoiler: Timmy. A savagely cunning presence, he subconsciously murders or orchestrates the deaths of every one of Malcolm Rivers's personalities other than himself. This allows him to consciously outwit the law, take control of Rivers, escape captivity and, most likely, continue his bloody rampage in the real world. And the little bastard did it all in one night.]]

* {{Squick}}: The image of [[spoiler: a baseball bat shoved down Robert Maine's throat.]]

** When Ed discovers Larry's porn stash with scribbled insults over its pages, it's hint of [[HeManWomanHater Larry]] being hypocrite. [[spoiler: No, thise are not his and actually hint he is not the real motel owner.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Malcolm Rivers. The horribly abusive childhood he endured and the subsequent trauma he lived with resulted in [[spoiler: him developing multiple personalties. At least three of these personalities are coldblooded killers. Robert Maine is clearly a deranged maniac. Samuel Rhodes is a short-tempered, self-serving criminal who has no qualms with murder but is at least capable of behaving around others. But the worst by far is Timothy York, a BitchInSheepsClothing CreepyChild SerialKiller and the personification of Malcolm's deep-seeded rage. By the end, the violent, relentless and unforgiving presence of his mistreated inner child is all that's left of Malcolm Rivers.]]

* CompleteMonster: The killer, [[spoiler: Little Timmy. Though, only at the end. He spends the majority of the movie as something of an ''incomplete'' monster, due to being one of several personalities inhabiting the mind of a mentally ill man. By the end, though, he's killed off all the others and is the only one who remains.]]

** That former cop Ed has to keep telling Officer Rhodes how to do his job or take command from him throughout the film makes sense later on [[spoiler: when it's revealed that he's really an escaped prisoner disguised as a policeman.]]

** [[spoiler: Ed's FamousLastWords to Paris as he dies in her arms.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Every single one of the characters at the motel becomes subject to this following the revelation during the final act of the film.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler: Ed's FamousLastWords to Paris as he dies in her arms.]]

* MagnificentBastard: The killer, [[spoiler: Timmy. A savagely cunning presence, he subconsciously murders or orchestrates the deaths of every one of Malcolm Rivers's personalities. This allows him to consciously outwit the law, take control of Rivers, escape captivity and, most likely, continue his bloody rampage in the real world. And the little bastard did it all in one night.]]

* MagnificentBastard: The killer, [[spoiler: Timmy. A savagely cunning presence, he subconsciously murders or orchestrates the deaths of every one of Malcolm Rivers's personalities. This allows him to consciously outwit the law, take control of Rivers, escape captivity and, most likely, continue his bloody rampage. And the little bastard did it all in one night.]]

** During the scene where [[spoiler: the multiple personality plot was uncovered, the judge is thumbing through Malcolm Rivers's diary. Every couple of pages features a dramatic shift in penmanship, illustrating Rivers's shifting alter egos. The last we see are the words [[spoiler: "Timothy/Timmy York" written over and over in red, large block letters for two straight pages. Hint, hint.]]

* {{Narm}}: During the big montage at the end, there's a rather hilarious shot of [[spoiler: Timmy doing an UnflinchingWalk with a PsychoticSmirk on his face as the car explodes behind him and a storm rages all around.]]

* CompleteMonster: The killer, [[spoiler: Little Timmy. Though, only at the end. He spends the majority of the movie as something of an ''incomplete'' monster, due to being one of several personalities inhabiting the mind of a mentally ill man.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The film is dark enough already, but the TwistEnding takes the despair to such a level that one might not even want to watch it again.

!!!For FanFic/{{Identity}}, the RanmaOneHalf Fan Fic