Line #38 Film/LeavingLasVegas


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d8375f64002f2af4d3afafbdb4e421aa.jpg]]
2
3	''Leaving Las Vegas'' is a 1995 drama film starring Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/ElisabethShue, [[TheFilmOfTheBook based upon the novel]] by John O'Brien.
4
5	Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a depressed Hollywood screenwriter who due to his non-stop alcoholic habits eventually loses both his job and family. All of this causes Ben to decide to commit suicide by drinking himself to death in UsefulNotes/LasVegas.
6
7	While there, he meets Sera (Shue), a prostitute, and they develop a destructive relationship with each other.
8
9	The succession of names appearing in small parts in this film includes Creator/RichardLewis as one of Ben's Hollywood friends who breaks off contact, Creator/StevenWeber as the guy who seems to have taken Ben's job, Creator/ValeriaGolino as a woman in a bar that Ben makes a pass at, Creator/LaurieMetcalf as Sera's landlady, Creator/RLeeErmey as a conventioneer who rejects an advance from Sera, Creator/MariskaHargitay as a hooker, Creator/DannyHuston as a bartender, Julian Lennon as another bartender, and Creator/CareyLowell as a bank teller.
10	----
11	!!Tropes:
12
13	* TheAlcoholic: Ben. He isn't sober once in the whole movie. As he himself says at one point:
14	-->"You ''cannot'' ask me to quit drinking."
15	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Ben physically consummates his relationship with Sera before dying in her arms. His last words (a stunned "Wow...") show that he found a moment of solace and comfort at the very end. The framing device implies that Sera is talking to a therapist about the events of the film so she can come to terms with everything that's happened to her.]]
16	%%* BrokenBird: Sera.
17	* BurnBabyBurn: Ben takes most of his belongings from his house and burns them in his backyard before "moving" to Las Vegas.
18	* CallBack: As Ben waits in line at a bank in front of an attractive lady teller, he drunkenly babbles about how he'd like to pour whiskey over her breasts so he could lick it off. Later he and Sera do just that.
19	* CreatorCameo: Mike Figgis is one of the mobsters who are chasing Yuri.
20	%%* DeathSeeker: Ben.
21	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler: The film ends with Ben dying in Sera's arms after he says his final word: "Wow."]]
22	* DisposableSexWorker: What the teens thought of Sera.
23	* DrivenToSuicide: Ben, after losing everything due to his alcoholism. The film is one long suicide attempt, [[spoiler:which is eventually successful.]]
24	* DrunkDriver: Ben almost hitting Sera when they first meet.
25	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Subverted. [[spoiler:Yuri tries to do this, but loses it once Sera walks out of the hotel room.]]
26	* {{Fauxshadow}}: The film seems to be setting the viewer up for a thriller plot or subplot, with its early [[ChanceMeetingBetweenAntagonists chance encounters between Ben. the mobsters, and Yuri]], with exposition on the latter's increasingly desperate circumstances. But then he's killed, offscreen, and that's that.
27	* FreezeFrameEnding: The film ends with a freeze frame on Ben's smiling face.
28	* GetOut:
29	** Said by Yuri to Sera to make her leave before the mobsters come to take his life.
30	** Said by Sera to Ben when she comes home to find him making out with some girl in her apartment.
31	* HemoErotic: Ben comes home with his lower face covered in blood after he's punched in the nose at a bar. Sera kisses him and says "Your blood tastes good."
32	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Sera.
33	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Averted. Ben never once considers giving up his alcoholism.]]
34	* ISOStandardUrbanGroceries: Ben comes home from shopping to Sera's place with a bag that has a baguette sticking out.
35	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ben isn't a bad person, but he makes some ''very'' bad decisions [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy in his drunken state]].
36	* KarmaHoudini: The frat boys get clean away with [[spoiler:gang-raping Sera and videotaping it.]]
37	* KickTheDog: Yuri beats up Sera when she doesn't turn up with enough money from her previous night. We also learn he used to cut her with a knife.
38	* LargeHam: Ben is probably the most gut-wrenching LargeHam in cinematic history.
39	* LostWeddingRing: Ben's is stolen by a prostitute at the beginning of the movie.
40	* TheMafiya: Sera's Latvian pimp Yuri and the Polish gangsters after him have shades of this.
41	* MatchCut: From Ben hoisting a drink at a bar, to Ben hoisting an entire bottle of vodka to his mouth, while driving.
42	* MoneyToThrowAway: Ben loses his job but gets a large severance package to compensate him. He uses this money to travel to Las Vegas and purchase as much alcohol as it takes to drink himself to death.
43	* MoodWhiplash: A couple of times due to Ben's out-of-control drinking.
44	** What looks like a pretty fun casino date between Ben and Sera, with gambling and laughter, turns on a dime when he seems to mistake a cocktail waitress for his ex-wife. He attacks the waitress, overturns the blackjack table he was at, and is dragged out by security, all while screaming "''I am his father!''"
45	** An erotically charged moment by a pool at a roadside motel has Sera peel down her swimsuit to expose her breasts, and pouring whiskey over her chest, so Ben can lick it off. This is followed by the two of them getting up, whereupon a drunk Ben falls through a glass table and cuts his back all to hell.
46	* NobleDemon: Yuri treats Sera like crap, but looks after her in his own twisted way. [[spoiler:He also makes sure that she leaves safely before a trio of gangsters show up to execute him.]]
47	* NoodleIncident: We never find out how Ben lost his family. As he puts it, "I can't remember if I drink because I lost my family or if I lost my family because I drink".
48	* OscarBait: Winner for Best Actor and nominated for director, screenwriting and actress. It just so happens to be a depressing movie about an alcoholic.
49	* PetTheDog: Yuri is an abusive monster, but when he knows he is going to be murdered, he sends Sera away so that his executioners will not need to kill her to keep her quiet.
50	* PlatonicProstitution: Ben buys Sera's time for $500. He uses this time to talk to her and get to know her.
51	* ProlongedPrologue: It takes 15 minutes until the opening credits. This works in the movie's favor, as these first 15 minutes tell us everything we need to know about Ben before he heads for Las Vegas.
52	* RandomPasserbyAdvice: Ben storms away from the food court while Sera calls after him to stay. A passerby tells him he ought to stay, and does so in such a way that it seems he has some sort of plot significance. He doesn't.
53	* RapeAsDrama
54	* SecondActBreakup: Sera and Ben separate after he cheats on her.
55	* ShowerOfAngst: Sera, after [[spoiler:being gang-raped.]]
56	* SpitefulSpit: Sera spits into a bouncer's face after getting evicted from a casino.
57	* SupportingProtagonist: Ben. Once he arrives in Las Vegas, the story becomes more about Sera's downbeat life than his protracted suicide.
58	* ThisBedOfRoses: Ben is taken in by Sera.
59	* TragicVillain: Yuri has made his fair share of mistakes and clearly doesn't like what he's become, but that doesn't excuse his actions ''at all''.
60	* TruthInTelevision[=/=]DoNotDoThisCoolThing: As sexy as both Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage are in the movie, it is possible to drink yourself to death. And it's a lot messier than portrayed.
61	* UselessProtagonist: Ben is a heartbreakingly {{Justified\|Trope}} example. The entire film, he's too drunk to do anything to change his or Sera's circumstances.
62	* VillainousBreakdown: Yuri loses it just before [[spoiler:his execution.]]
63	* VivaLasVegas: Perhaps the most depressing version of the city.

Context Film / LeavingLasVegas