Line #21 Film/Crank


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crank.jpg]]
2
3	-> ''"Fuck you, Chelios!"''
4
5	''Crank'' is a 2006 action film where Creator/JasonStatham, as a hitman named Chev Chelios, kicks everyone's ass. Chelios has been injected with a slow-acting poison that will eventually cause his body to shut down. His doctor is far away and his flight was delayed. If he runs out of adrenaline, he will die.
6
7	Followed by a sequel, ''Crank: High Voltage'', in 2009. After the events of the first movie, Chev pursues his heart, which has been literally stolen by [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Chinese gangsters]]. He must electrocute himself to charge his artificial heart and prevent himself from dying. HilarityEnsues.
8
9	'''Character tropes go on to the [[Characters/{{Crank}} Characters Sheet]].'''
10
11	----
12	!!''Crank'' provides examples of:
13
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder:Both movies]]
17	* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Chev and his girlfriend make love on a turf. (Don't ask.) The racing horses jump over them and his girlfriend has a good look at...[[BestialityIsDepraved Well, her face says everything.]]
18	* BilingualBonus: Possibly for a German. An assonance between "El Huron" (The Ferret) and "whore" works ''much'' better there.
19	* BlackAndGrayMorality: Chelios himself is not a saintly protagonist, but the people he's up against are much worse. Borders on EvilVsEvil in ''High Voltage'', though.
20	* BlackComedy: A ''perfect'' example would be in the second movie, where an innocent bystander from the first movie gets therapy; [[spoiler: cue ricocheting bullet hitting him in the head and [[VomitIndiscretionShot his therapist puking her guts out into a garbage can.]] It helps that the two of them are both such utterly bizarre and cartoonish characters that you're not gonna be crying over it.]]
21	* BreakingTheFourthWall: A scene in the first movie has Chev reading the on-screen subtitles. In the second movie, he whistles along with the soundtrack early on and [[spoiler:gives a middle finger to the audience during the ending.]]
22	* TheCameo:
23	** [[Music/LinkinPark Chester Bennington]] shows up a few times. The first of which is in the original movie, where he suggests the acquisition of epinephrine in order for Chev to stave off the poison.
24	** Ron Jeremy and a whole group of porn stars in the second movie. Made even funnier when you hear in an [[http://www.earwolf.com/episode/directors-edition-crank/ interview]] with Brian Taylor that they never intended for Ron Jeremy to be in the movie, he just found out about it and showed up.
25	** [[Creator/{{Troma}} Lloyd Kaufman]]
26	** [[Music/{{Tool}} Maynard James Keenan]]. He's walking the dog in the second movie.
27	** [[Music/SpiceGirls Geri Halliwell]] (formerly known as Ginger Spice).
28	** [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration John de Lancie]] as a news reporter.
29	** Creator/SamWitwer briefly appears as a random mook.
30	* ClusterFBomb: '''FUCK YOU, CHELIOS!''' Even turns into a ''montage'' in the middle of the sequel.
31	%%* DoomedProtagonist: [[spoiler:Subverted to hell and back.]]
32	* DeusSexMachina: Chelios' problems can be solved momentarily by screwing or rubbing on little old ladies.
33	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Both films unfold in less than 24 hours.
34	* {{Fanservice}}: The movies basically push the R rating as absolutely far as it will go, in terms of nudity and sex as well as profanity and violence.
35	%%* FunWithSubtitles
36	* {{Gorn}}: The violence is pretty intense. Fingers get blown up, palms being impaled in sewing machines and bodies on fire... The list goes on.
37	%%* GroinAttack: Several.
38	* {{Homage}}: The whole series is basically one long video game.
39	* HumiliationConga: While Chev is already a ButtMonkey for most of what he goes through, each movie tends to contain at least one segment where he has to stop being badass for a while and just do some flat-out ''embarrassing'' things to stay alive.
40	* LivingOnBorrowedTime: Letting the adrenaline out keeps death at bay.
41	* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: In both movies, Chelios and his girlfriend have sex in public to keep him alive.
42	* MemeticBadass: Chev appears to be one of these in-universe, to judge from the other characters' reactions to him. On the downside, that's exactly the reason why the Triads stole his heart in the first place.
43	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Arguably [[spoiler:the endings of both movies. The fact that Ricky Verona survived... [[BrainInAJar um, sort of]]]] would probably also count.
44	* PassingJudgment: Jason Statham is having sex with his girlfriend in the middle of Chinatown. In public ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]). The passing judgment? A bus of attractive Japanese women who later comment on the news about his robustness and vigor.
45	* PetTheDog: Chev's behavior toward his girlfriend, Eve, and arguably the doctor.
46	* PhraseCatcher: "Fuck you, Chelios!"
47	* ProductPlacement: Google Maps is used during transitions on occasion.
48	* RasputinianDeath: Chelios... twice. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope He gets better both times.]]]]
49	* RatedMForManly: As a review on {{Website/Cracked}} puts it: "If you piled all the guns in the world on one side of a room and Crank on the other, Crank would still be the manliest thing in the room."
50	* RuleOfCool: Very, very little in either film makes any sense, or has any kind of genuine believability. Fortunately, it doesn't need any, either.
51	* RunningGag: The FingerGun. Whenever Chevs has it pointed to people they appear to die, except they were shot by someone else offscreen.
52	* SequelHook: In the first movie, where [[spoiler:Chelios [[EyeAwaken opens his eyes]] after seemingly have died for the eleventeenth time]], and in the second movie, where [[spoiler: he does it again]].
53	* ThrowAwayGuns: Chelios acts like an FPS protagonist, dropping guns and swapping them for whatever dead mooks are carrying when his current weapon runs dry.
54	* WhyWontYouDie: Chev Chelios will do anything to keep himself alive a little longer. Which frustrates his enemies to no end.
55	* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: And you're going to ''need it'' for both movies.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder: Crank]]
59	* AutoErotica: Eve performs oral sex on Chev all while they are being chased by Verona's thugs.
60	* BulletproofHumanShield: Chev Chelios uses his friend's dead body as a shield.
61	* CameraAbuse: Chev wields a cleaver so hard it manages to dislodge the film from its sprockets.
62	* CassandraTruth: Eve has a hard time believing her boyfriend is a hitman. And that he's been poisoned and needs a constant adrenaline rush in order to survive.
63	* ClothingDamage: Chev accidentally rips Eve's dress just before they have sex in Chinatown, which has the [[RuleOfSexy convenient]] effect of making her outfit much more {{Stripperiffic}} for the rest of the film.
64	* CarCushion: Chelios's free fall in the final scene ends on the rooftop of a car which helps to explain his survival.
65	* DisneyVillainDeath: Played with. [[spoiler:Both Chelios and Verona fall out of a helicopter. Subverted for Verona, since Chelios snaps his neck in mid-fall. Also subverted with Chelios himself, since [[UnexplainedRecovery he gets better]] in the second film.]]
66	* EurekaMoment: Early, Chev remembers how his heart felt better when he smashed the TV and sped in his car (raising his adrenaline).
67	-->''I'm gonna have to kick some black ass.''
68	* HarmfulToMinors: A bus full of Korean schoolgirls witness Chelios and Eve having sex at the marketplace. One of them later gives an interview to the media where she sounds very impressed by what she saw.
69	* IronicEcho: "Experiencing a little twenty-twenty hindsight right about now, ain't ya?"
70	* JumpingOnAGrenade: One of the [[BigBad bad guys]] uses his bodyguard to save himself from the blast. The bodyguard sees this as an honor, maybe because he didn't notice the grenade and probably thought his boss pushed him down to keep him from becoming a bullet sponge.
71	* TheLastDance: Since he is screwed no matter what he does, during the climax he decides to assault the main villain's hideout and try to take as many crooks he can and get revenge.
72	* NoodleIncident: Much of the dialogue implies that it's not the first time Chev went into an adrenaline-fueled rampage. Special mention goes to his coke dealer Orlando implying that it's not the first time Chev fought with his gang on a coke rage.
73	--> '''Chev:''' I know what I have to do... I'm going to have to kick some black ass.
74	--> Fight ensues.
75	--> '''Orlando:''' [[OhNoNotAgain There he goes again.]]
76	* PoliceAreUseless: When evading the police in the hospital, they spend about 7 seconds "searching" the room he's hiding in before declaring it clear, all the while ignoring the conspicuous man-sized cabinet where he was actually hiding. Ends up zig-zagged when they aren't fooled by Chev's [[PaperThinDisguise hospital gown disguise.]]
77	* RagingStiffie: After taking a large epinephrine shot, he finds that he's got a "steel hardon", as described by his doctor.
78	* UnreliableNarrator: The creators mention in the commentary for the first film that everything that happens after Chev drinks the "plant shit" drug may not have actually happened, at least not the way the viewer sees it.
79	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Chelios asks Verona this a couple of times. [[VillainBall It would certainly have saved him a lot of trouble.]]
80	* YourMimeMakesItReal: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] during the final confrontation. Chev "fires" a FingerGun to one of his enemies' lackeys, only for the guy to get a BoomHeadshot. Turns out TheCavalry has arrived (one of them shot the guy) and is helping him because of an EnemyMine situation.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder: Crank: High Voltage'']]
84	* AcousticLicense: Subverted from the first movie. Chelios left a long heartfelt speech on his girlfriend's voicemail as he was plummeting from a helicopter. We find out in the sequel that she heard none of it because his voice was far overpowered by the sound of rushing wind.
85	* AndShowItToYou: A rare survivor's example, when Chelios revives in time to see his original heart being removed.
86	* AssShove: [[spoiler:Crosses into JackBauerInterrogationTechnique]] at the beginning.
87	* BackFromTheDead: Chelios. Several people openly comment on this.
88	* BehemothBattle: The fight between Chev and Vang is a parody of this.
89	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: An army of transsexuals called in by Venus and strippers by the Asian hooker save Chelios' ass.]]
90	* BlackComedy: The movie is entirely made out of this and intentionally offensive stereotypes.
91	* BloodierAndGorier: While the first film was very brutal and gory enough, this movie just ramps it up even further with much more gruesome kills than ever before
92	* BreastAttack: During a shootout at a strip club, one of the strippers is shot sideways through both breasts, which proceed to [[BlackComedy leak saline and deflate as she screams]]. She shows up along with the rest of the strippers [[BigDamnHeroes at the movie's climax]], notably flatter and with a bandage around her chest.
93	* CelebrityParadox: When an old woman is asked to describe Chev's appearance, she says he looked like "The teabag, you know, the Transporter fella." This seems to be a reference to [[Creator/RobertKnepper Robert Knepper]], who played the character "T-Bag" in [[Series/PrisonBreak Prison Break]] and starred in the third [[Film/TheTransporter Transporter]] film with Jason Statham, Chev's actor.
94	* ContinuityNod: The first time Chev points his finger like a gun at someone's head and a bullethole appears, it had been planned out beforehand. When it happens again in the sequel, he stares at his hand with an expression that clearly says 'What the hell? It's happening on its own now?'
95	** Even more true with the character of Venus. In a flashback in the second film, we see Venus and Kaylo who are shown at the dance party that Kaylo had been in the night before the events of the first film. When you go back to watch the same flashback scene with Kaylo in the first film, you can see Venus dancing next to him, wearing the same outfit.
96	* CountryMatters: Chelios screams at a man: "MASSIVE HOMO CUNT!"
97	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Venus. "[[YouKilledMyFather You killed my brother]], motherfucker. {{Prepare\|ToDie}} [[ShoutOut to]] [[Film/ThePrincessBride die]]."
98	* EurekaMoment: Eve has one, complete with [[IdeaBulb a graphic of a lightbulb]] appearing next to her head.
99	* DisposableSexWorker: Played with: Chev (unintentionally) saves Ria from becoming one.
100	** Played a bit more straight in the final battle: [[spoiler:an army of prostitutes called by Ria and Venus gun down the various mooks, including a few hapless naked women and some of the prostitutes themselves.]]
101	** A few strippers also die in the second action scene.
102	* DarkerAndEdgier: If you thought the first movie was very grisly and graphic, oh boy, just wait till you see this movie! This film has an even longer and more explicit sex scene than the first film, far more gruesome scenes of torture such as the nipple removal, and where Chev has his crotch shocked after he is captured by El Huron, as well as him having his heart removed and needing to be shocked repeatedly to keep his artificial one pumping up to the point where he is on fire by the end of the film. This makes its predecessor look G rated by comparison
103	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Following his gunfight escape, Chev casually walks up to the last mook standing... ''whistling his own theme song''.
104	* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Don Kim is spared by Chev in the first movie and comes to his aid in the climax, but by the second movie he tries to cash in on a bounty on Chev.]]
105	* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Defied by eve when the red-headed stripper starts feeling her up in the back of the cop car. She's clearly not into it and eventually headbutts her to get her to stop.
106	* HandCannon: The number of Desert Eagles used is close to insane.
107	* HilariousOuttakes:
108	--> '''Statham''': "I take it you're the faggot who's been hunting me all day?... (reads line) I'm sorry, the ''Ferret''..."
109	* HilarityEnsues: While the first movie is (somewhat) sane, the second one is so ridiculously over the top that it qualifies as comedy gold.
110	* HollywoodTourettes: Subverted. Venus, who claims to have "full-body Tourette's" gets periodic full-body convulsions (in line with a very severe motor tic), but swears significantly less than the healthy but foul-mouthed Chelios.
111	* ICantHearYou: Shockingly for a film like this, they show that the call Chev made to his girlfriend while falling out of a helicopter in the first film was completely unintelligible because of the wind rushing past him. It is possibly the only moment of 'realism' in either film.
112	%%* ItsPersonal: Parodied with the transsexual's brother.
113	* ImmediateSequel: Takes place one minute after the previous film ends when Chev after falling out of the helicopter is taken away by medics.
114	* LookMaIAmOnTV: The film had a guy flaunt Eve's panties to the camera.
115	%%* LosingYourHead[=/=][[spoiler:BrainInAJar]]: [[spoiler:Ricky Verona.]]
116	* LostInTranslation: The {{Mook}} with [[AssShove the shotgun stuck up his ass]] is supremely confused when Chev asks what happened to his "Strawberry tart".
117	* LyricalDissonance: REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You" is played as Chelios literally burns to a crisp.
118	* {{MacGuffin}}: Johnny Vang's red cooler [[spoiler: until we find out it [[MockGuffin doesn't actually hold Chelios' heart]] and instead has something so disturbing that Chev looks at Johnny and says sincerely, "I am shocked to my core. You've got some deep problems, motherfucker."]]
119	* MadeOfIron: The Chinese prostitute, who [[spoiler: gets hit by a car and survives]].
120	* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Bai Ling's character (Ria) is determined to fulfill this trope after Chev ''accidentally'' saves her from a bad guy. Chev's lack of interest in her doesn't seem to matter.
121	--> "He my Kevin Costner!"
122	* MST3KMantra: '''Invoked''' in-universe. A news reporter (de Lancie) comments on the implausibility of someone ([[spoiler:Verona]]) falling from the sky randomly being "bullshit". His words.
123	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler: How Chev defeats El Huron at the end]].
124	* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: His girlfriend wasn't exactly willing with the public sex at first... and promptly developed a fetish for it in the second movie.
125	* NowItsMyTurn: Chev's electric heart starts running out when a bunch of cops hogpile on him... then [[ContrivedCoincidence one of them brings out a stun gun.]]
126	* OneManArmy: About 5 seconds after entering a whore house full of gangsters, every last one is tossed out a window or through a wall where a window isn't available.
127	* ProductPlacement: Of all things, ''the heart''. Chev's artificial heart is an ''actual thing'', and they used the real name and company. They changed it up a bit for the movie, obviously (the real one doesn't have external batteries, but does have recharger ports), but the fact that it survives all the crap Chev puts it through and comes out whole at the end could be considered the ultimate (albeit ''heavily'' fictionalized) endorsement.
128	* RandomEventsPlot: ''Very'' little in the film makes sense and mostly things just kind of happen at random. You can jump from the first 10 minutes to the last 10 and not miss much of the story.
129	%%* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Johnny Vang's cooler.]]
130	%%* RefugeInAudacity
131	* RiddleForTheAges: What was in Johnny Vang's cooler?
132	* ShoutOut:
133	** There's a random [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} giant rubber monster movie]] segment at one point.
134	** The Chinese hooker calls Chev [[Film/TheBodyguard "her Kevin Costner" and says she'll be "like Whitney Houston."]]
135	* UnexplainedRecovery: Chelios. One of the taglines is actually "He was dead... but he got better"
136	* TheUnreveal: "What kind of sick freak carries something like ''that'' around in a box?"
137	* VomitIndiscretionShot: We get the lovely scene of a woman puking directly [[CameraAbuse onto the camera.]]
138	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What the hell was in [[spoiler:Johnny Vang's cooler?]] It's probably for the best that no one found out...
139	* [[WouldntHitAGirl Wouldn't Shoot a Girl]]: Chev has little problem beating the shit out of and possibly killing cops, but merely threatens the lone female cop to make her keep her distance while he's recharging/escaping. The only time he actually does injury to a female is completely by accident, [[spoiler: when he sets the Asian hooker on fire by hugging her while hallucinating... um, and on fire]].
140	* YellowFace: Creator/DavidCarradine as [[PunnyName Poon Dong]].
141	* YourMimeMakesItReal: Chev points his finger and a guy's head explodes... although this time there's no [[TheCavalry cavalry]] providing support. The dumbfounded expression on Chev's face shows this came as a surprise to him too.
142	* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: "This is not my fucking pumper!"
143	[[/folder]]

Context Film / Crank