Line #50 Film/Colombiana


1	[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/colombiana_movie_poster_1_4953.jpg]]
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3	''Colombiana'' is a 2011 action movie starring Creator/ZoeSaldana, written and produced by Creator/LucBesson. The film follows Cataleya Restrepo, daughter of a member of a Colombian cartel. Her parents were killed when she was nine, forcing her to flee to Chicago to live with her uncle. Using her uncle's tutelage and own intelligence, Cataleya becomes a beautiful and deadly assassin driven by vengeance for her parents' deaths.
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5	!!This work provides examples of:
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7	* FiveFiveFive: Delaney's mobile number, shown while it's being traced.
8	* ActionGirl:
9	** Cataleya herself. Even as a girl she's capable of surprising a hardened gangster and escaping. Then she's trained to be an expert assassin later by her gangster uncle.
10	** Her mother Alicia knows how to handle a {{BFG}} as well.
11	* AgeAppropriateAngst: Young Cataleya, after watching her parents killed in front of her, sheds a single tear. She doesn't really cry until much later when she reaches Tio Emilio. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that she had other things to worry about at the moment. Years later, though, Cataleya breaks into sobs immediately after [[spoiler:seeing her grandmother's body]].
12	* AirVentPassageway: Cataleya sneaks through the ventilation system of the jail to get to her target. Somewhat subverted, as despite her slender frame the vents are still claustrophobically small and she has to improvise a way past a fan. Later, she uses the vents in her building to escape the FBI raid on her house.
13	* AnachronismStew:
14	** SD cards and ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' did not exist in 1992. But since it would have been harder to explain to viewers who [[Franchise/StreetFighter Chun-Li]] is, as well as trying to find a way to get Cataleya to eat a CD...
15	** Danny's phone is an iPhone 3G, which likewise did not exist at the time the scene is set.
16	* AntiHero: Cataleya herself is either a Type IV or a Type V, being a professional assassin, albeit one with sympathetic motivations.
17	* AssholeVictim: Ross notes that all of Cataleya's victims are scumbag criminals.
18	* BathroomBreakOut: After the FBI fly her to the US in exchange for the information her father gave her, Cataleya gives them the slip by pretending she needs the bathroom. By the time the agent who was escorting her realises she's taking too long and goes to check on her, she's already long gone.
19	* BeautifulDreamer: This backfires on Cataleya when her boyfriend takes a photo of her sleeping and shows it to his friend, who decides to run a check through a friend in the police department to find out who the mystery girlfriend is.
20	* {{BFG}}: They don't get much bigger than the Blaser R93 sniper rifle Cataleya uses to threaten Steven into giving up Don Luis' location.
21	* BlackAndGrayMorality: While Marco is evil, Cataleya ''is'' an assassin.
22	* BookEnds: Emilio's first appearance consists of him brutally beating a man tied to a chair. His last appearance consists of [[spoiler:Cataleya finding his bloodied body tied to a chair, having apparently been killed in the exact same matter.]]
23	* BreakInThreat: The ponzi guy wakes up amidst his sleeping PaidHarem to find the word THIEF and an orchid (the assassin's CallingCard) painted on his chest. He then finds all his bodyguards have been murdered. It gets worse.
24	* CacophonyCoverUp: A SWAT team is raiding the protagonist's apartment and makes an explosive entry; at the same time she uses an explosive charge to blow a hole through a wall to make her escape into the lift shaft.
25	* CallingCard: Cataleya draws a cataleya orchid on her victims.
26	* TheCartel: Run by Don Luis, with Cataleya's father as his partner until he tries to pull out and gets killed for it. Cataleya declares war on them as a result.
27	* ChekhovsGun: When Cataleya feeds her dogs early in the movie, they didn't move to eat until she commands them to "eat." [[spoiler: Later, she feeds Don Luis to them.]]
28	* TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt: Cataleya tells Agent Ross she'll kill a member of his family every week if he doesn't get Sandoval's location from the CIA.
29	* {{Determinator}}: ''Nothing'' is going to stop Cataleya from avenging her parents. Not Emilio, not the FBI, not Don Luis' men - ''nothing''.
30	* DirtyCoward: Don Luis just quakes and trembles as he hears Cataleya kill his men.
31	%%* TheDragon: Marco
32	* DramaticDrop: Cataleya drops her pistol when she sees [[spoiler:Emilio's body]].
33	* DramaticIrony: Ross consistently refers to the Tag Killer as male and, when one of the detectives finds evidence that Valerie Phillips may have been the killer, Ross summarily ignores it and insists that the killer can't be a woman. The viewer, of course, knows that "Valerie Phillips" is just an alias of Cataleya, who ''is'' the Tag Killer.
34	* ElectrifiedBathtub: Shown in a montage of Cataleya's previous kills, along with CampingACrapper for another victim.
35	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Averted. No cars blow up in the movie, even the one Cataleya unloads a whole magazine into.
36	* FalseReassurance: After shooting Willie in the legs, Cataleya tells him, "I'm not going to kill you." Willie is, at that precise moment, kneeling atop the glass ceiling of his shank tank. No prizes for guessing what happens next.
37	* FanserviceExtra: Willie, the Ponzi scheme guy, has a PaidHarem of four lingerie-clad women. Subverted in that it's played for FanDisservice as he's an overweight, middle-aged man, and girls are clearly drugged out of their minds.
38	* FlowerMotif: The "Cataleya" orchid (also "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurothallis Colombiana]]" is a real kind of orchid).
39	* FruitCart: During the opening chase scene, a motorbike rider does a dramatic slide into bowls of spices.
40	* GenreSavvy: Cataleya's father quickly realizes that Don Luis is [[ResignationsNotAccepted going to try to have him killed after seemingly giving him permission to quit]] because Don Luis was being far too calm about such a significant and somewhat insulting request from one of his men.
41	* GetIntoJailFree: Our introduction to the protagonist as an adult ProfessionalKiller involves her [[DynamicEntry suddenly ramming a police car]] while PlayingDrunk. The police put her in a cell overnight to sober up; she breaks out of the cell, kills a criminal who's being held overnight there by Federal Marshalls, then gets back in her cell as an alibi. Unfortunately the feds realise the killer had to have been in the building, so start checking into everyone held in custody.
42	* GoryDiscretionShot:
43	** We don't see the deaths of Cataleya's parents, only a close-up of Cataleya's horrified face and the sound of numerous gunshots.
44	** This happens at the end with [[spoiler: the death of Don Luis; after Cataleya orders her dogs to attack him, it cuts to the outside of the van, rocking violently as he's mauled to death.]]
45	* HeroAntagonist: The FBI and the police are, from their perspective, merely trying to stop "the Tag Killer", a prolific SerialKiller with 22 known victims as of the start of the film. Ross ends up cooperating with Cataleya once he learns of her motivation (though it helps that she threatens him quite extensively).
46	* HeroesLoveDogs: Played with, Cataleya is explicitly told that she's spoiling her dogs, to which she replies that she's merely training them. [[spoiler:We get to see at the end exactly ''what'' she was training them for.]]
47	* ImpaledPalm: When Marco asks young Cataleya what she wants, she says that she wants to kill his boss, right as she stabs his hand onto the table.
48	* ImprovisedWeapon: Cataleya and Marco's climactic fight takes place in one of the bathrooms of Don Luis' mansion, and sees them trying to strangle each other with towels and stab each other with toothbrushes.
49	* InsecurityCamera: PlayedStraight in her first hit, as she's trying to frame a guard - she tilts one camera to point away from the scene, and gains access to Rizzo's cell by holding the unconscious guard up to another camera in such a way that it hides her from view. Subverted later during her escape from her apartment building, as when she shoots out some cameras to hide her movement, it tells the FBI exactly where she is.
50	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: The loan shark picks up a pair of Desert Eagles from dead guards and tries to use them on Cataleya. Turns out she emptied them beforehand. Justified, since the target wasn't a gun person and the handgun's massive weight would help disguise the lack of bullets.
51	* KansasCityShuffle: Cataleya does one [[spoiler:(that involves her dogs)]] on the BigBad near the end of the movie.
52	* KarmicDeath: Willie (a sleazy businessman) is eaten by the sharks he kept beneath his swimming pool.
53	* KickTheDog: Cataleya does this by killing a gangster and framing a police guard for the murder.
54	* LaserSight: During Ross' confrontation with Steve, Cataleya makes her presence known via the red dot on Steve's chest.
55	* LeParkour: By a 9 year old schoolgirl, no less. As well as one of the {{Mooks}} chasing her.
56	* LittleMissBadass: Cataleya already showed extreme skills as a 9 year old, pinning a gangster's hand to the table then escaping his well-armed associates through LeParkour.
57	* MsFanservice: Cataleya. Just count the number of times she's naked, partially naked, wet, or wearing skintight clothing.
58	* NotStayingForBreakfast: Cataleya always leaves her boyfriend Delaney early in the morning after they have sex. The one time she oversleeps, she reacts as if she's made a grave mistake.
59	* PantsPositiveSafety: A nice bit of {{fanservice}} with Cataleya dancing in her apartment with a Beretta Storm shoved in the back of her short shorts. Followed by a ShowerScene and OralFixation.
60	* ParentalAbandonment: Both of Cataleya's parents were killed in front of her by a drug baron's gunmen.
61	* PetTheDog: Cataleya looks to be going into DeathSeeker territory after they kill the last of her family, until she realizes her dogs are family too, and brings them along. [[spoiler: They get a part in the action too.]]
62	* PlayingDrunk: Cataleya does this (hilariously!) to get arrested and thrown in jail with one of her assassination targets.
63	* PreciousPhoto: Emilio has one of his brother's (Cataleya's father) family. After passing it on to Cataleya, she treasures it as well.
64	%%* ProfessionalKiller: Cataleya.
65	* ProperlyParanoid: Cataleya empties the guns her target might use, searches an FBI agent's house for hidden cameras, and seems to have planned an air-vent escape from her apartment on the chance it's ever raided.
66	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
67	** With a healthy side of MoreDakka and a light garnishing of GunsAkimbo. Taken up to eleven after [[spoiler:her last remaining relatives are killed]]. She dispenses with her ninja tactics, sends an RPG round through the front door and storms the place guns blazing.
68	** Her uncle Emilio went on one of his own after his son was killed, and admits that [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty it did nothing for his grief.]]
69	* RedShirt: The men who were supposed to be guarding Cataleya and her parents in the beginning all end up getting easily gunned down by the bad guys in just a few seconds.
70	* ResignationsNotAccepted: Cataleya's father Fabio tried to peacefully walk away from his criminal lifestyle as an enforcer for drug baron Don Luis Sandoval. Luis acted like he would accept this before immediately sending out his gunmen to kill Fabio along with his wife and Cataleya (only she survived).
71	* RevealingCoverUp: After learning that the flowers the Tag Killer paints on their victims are cataleya orchids, Ross tries to search the FBI database for "cataleya" only to get hit with a CIA "access denied" screen. This tells him that he's stumbled across something even bigger than he'd expected, and Steve's ObstructiveBureaucrat nature when he tries to gain access only confirms it, but he can't make any further headway until Cataleya herself gets involved.
72	* SolemnEndingTheme: Music/JohnnyCash's cover of [[Music/NineInchNails "Hurt"]] plays over the end credits.
73	* SpyCatsuit: Cataleya changes into one during her mission to kill Rizzo during the prison scene.
74	* StuffBlowingUp: Why would the SWAT team blow up Cataleya's front door? (In an apartment building?) They could have easily rammed it open.
75	%%* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Ross and his team.
76	* TemptingFate: On seeing a laser dot on his chest, the CIA JerkAss boasts that the window is armored against a direct hit from a 57mm shell. Cue warning shot fired through the glass. Damn these government contractors...
77	* ThreateningShark: [[spoiler:Cataleya offs a sleazy businessman (who got away with a huge Ponzi scheme) by dumping him in his own SharkPool.]]
78	* TranslationConvention: The Hispanic actors hardly ever speak Spanish, even in the scenes in Colombia, but they do make sure to pronounce Spanish words correctly.
79	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A friend of Danny's trying to help him find out more about Cataleya to further their romance sends her picture to a relative who works in a police station to find out more about her. Her photo going through the database alerts Ross and blows her cover.
80	* WaifFu: Cataleya does plenty of this against TheDragon.

Context Film / Colombiana