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1[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Machete_poster_larger_5412.jpg]]
2
3->''"They just fucked with the wrong Mexican."''
4
5The story of ''Machete'' is an interesting one. It began when Creator/RobertRodriguez first met Creator/DannyTrejo on the set of ''Film/{{Desperado}}''. He believed Trejo should have been a "Mexican Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme or Creator/CharlesBronson" named Machete. Other projects got in the way, though, and ''Machete'' was put on the shelf. Rodriguez continued to use scenes he had planned for it in his other movies.
6
7In 2007, Rodriguez filmed parts of ''Machete'' for a fake trailer attached to the beginning of ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}''. After making another [[Film/{{Shorts}} children's film]], he revisited ''Machete'' and set about making it into an actual film. The final product, released in 2010, includes [[AscendedMeme every scene from the fake trailer]], and gained massive popularity as the quintessential exploitation action flick parody of the '00s. It boasts an impressive cast, including Creator/DannyTrejo, Creator/StevenSeagal, Creator/RobertDeNiro, [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin]], Creator/JessicaAlba, Creator/LindsayLohan, Creator/MichelleRodriguez, and more.
8
9''Machete'' stars Danny Trejo as Machete, a mysterious Badass Mexican hired off the street to kill a [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]] state senator. However, before he can complete the mission, he is betrayed and left for dead by the same men who hired him. Now, eager for revenge, Machete sets out to take down the senator and everyone else who gets in his way.
10
11A sequel called ''Film/MacheteKills'' was released October 11, 2013, with Trejo, Alba, and Michelle Rodriguez slated returning alongside Creator/AmberHeard, Music/LadyGaga, Creator/MelGibson, and Creator/CharlieSheen (as Carlos Estevez, his birth name).
12
13A third film, ''Machete Kills Again... In Space!'', is in the works.
14----
15!!They just fucked with the wrong troper!
16
17* FiveFiveFive: Pops up on Booth's phone. Also, 1-800-HITMAN has one too few numbers.
18%% * AboveTheInfluence: Machete, with a drunk Jessica Alba no less. [[spoiler:Mind you, it works out for him.]]
19* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Machete's... machetes, and the scalpel whip he later uses.
20%% * ActionGirl: Luz and Sartana. April in the end TookALevelInBadass.
21* ActorAllusion: Torrez, played by Creator/StevenSeagal, describes Machete as "notoriously [[Film/HardToKill hard to kill]]". Torrez also uses an aikido move on Machete during their final confrontation.
22* AdamWesting: Lots and lots.
23** Creator/StevenSeagal pokes fun at his countless [[InvincibleHero unstoppable badass]] role by playing a villain... who is so badass that [[spoiler:he can only be killed by a self-administered seppuku]].
24** Creator/LindsayLohan as a [[DrugsAreBad drug-addicted]], [[ReallyGetsAround slutty]] MafiaPrincess who likes to stream her naughty bits on the internet (willingly, this time) alongside her mother. And whose father makes some... unfortunate comments about her.
25** Creator/MichelleRodriguez as an [[ExaggeratedTrope over-the-top version]] of her [[TypeCasting usual]] [[SpicyLatina sexy]], badass Latina roles. [[VasquezAlwaysDies Her death doesn't even merit a spoiler.]] [[spoiler: Her [[NotQuiteDead surviving and]] [[MetaCasting largely subverting her typecasting]] makes her reveal at the end serious, ultimate badass.]]
26** Felix Sabates as essentially the same doctor he played in ''[[Film/{{Grindhouse}} Planet Terror]]'', and, in fact, who he actually is in real life: when Sabates isn't appearing Rodriguez' movies, he's the Rodriguez' family doctor.
27** And last but not least, Danny Trejo! For his entire career, he has been typecast as "that creepy PsychoKnifeNut Mexican". Here, he finally gets a leading role as the described character type.
28* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Machete is a veritable sex magnet in the film, with almost every female character falling for him.
29* AlmightyJanitor: Luz runs a food stand. Machete gets along as a laborer and poses as an actual janitor and a gardener later.
30* AndStarring: "And Introducing: Don Johnson"
31* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Invoked when Sartana brings up Luz's "aiding illegal immigrants, evading border patrol and unsanitary food preparation".
32* BadHabits: [[spoiler:April wears a nun outfit for the final battle, shortly after she finds out that her father had been killed.]]
33* BadassBiker: Machete rides a chopper with ape hanger handlebars. Later he mounts a Gatling gun to a bike.
34* BadassLongcoat: Machete wears a longcoat at the final battle. Full of [[MacheteMayhem machetes]]. OhCrap.
35* BadassPreacher: Played by Cheech Marin, too.
36-->"I took a vow of ''peace''. And now you want me to help you ''kill'' all these men?"
37-->"Yes, bro... I mean, padre."
38-->(gives it some thought, then shrugs) "I'll see what I can do..."
39** Later, in the movie:
40-->'''Thug''': "Please Father, have mercy!"
41-->'''Padre''': "God has mercy. I don't."
42* BatmanColdOpen: The film opens three years earlier with Machete and a [[DeadPartner sidekick Federal]] chasing down a woman kidnapped by Torrez. [[spoiler: Too bad [[ObviousTrap it's a trap]]!]]
43* {{Beat}}: A hilarious one from the guards:
44--> [[LampshadeHanging You know, any Mexican comes in here with garden tools, we let him in.]] -beat- -beat- -OhCrap-
45* {{BFS}}: Machete wields[[OneSceneWonder (but doesn't use)]] a machete as big as he is in the climax.
46* BigBad: Drug lord Torrez establishes himself as this in the opening. [[spoiler:It turns out he's working with Booth to manipulate the racist Senator [=McLaughlin=] and paramilitary leader Von Jackson to help him close the border. This way he can control the entire drug trade all by himself because only he knows the weak points, so he orchestrated pretty much everything in the movie.]]
47%% * BigBrotherIsEmployingYou: Rivera.
48%% * BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: [[spoiler:Born-again April, with ''[[ImprobableAimingSkills automatic weaponry]]''.]]
49* BlondeBrunetteRedhead:
50** April (who is blonde), Luz (who has brunette hair), Rivera and June (who is a redhead).
51** In the Booth family, the villainous patriarch Booth has brunette locks (albeit balding slightly and greying). His wife June has long red hair. And his daughter April sports bleach blonde locks.
52%% * BloodyHilarious: All over the place, but mostly ''the intestines.''
53%% * BloodstainedGlassWindows: The showdown between Padre and Osiris.
54* BreakingTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:Senator [=McLaughlin=]'s murder of a Mexican family is exposed to the public... with the exact footage of the event you watched earlier in the movie.]]
55* BroomstickQuarterstaff: Machete uses a mop to fight his way past Booth's goons after the faked assassination attempt on the senator.
56%% * CaptainObvious: One of the films is called ''Machete Kills''.
57* CarFu: Low-rider hydraulics have never been so lethal, as one unfortunate redneck finds out in the last battle, getting squashed flat by a bouncing low-rider.
58* CartwrightCurse: Machete’s first wife was murdered by Torrez in the beginning. In the sequel, [[SecondLove Sartana]] also ends up being killed.
59%% * CarMeetsHouse: Several times.
60* CaughtOnTape: The villains commit so many criminal acts in front of video cameras that it veers from TooDumbToLive territory to borderline suicidal. Heck, a Texas state senator, during an election year, actually ''requests'' that someone videotape him committing murder and burn a bunch of copies of the DVD.
61* ChekhovsGun:
62** Booth is ironically the one who gave Machete the hand-phone ("Machete don't text") in the first place.
63** Chekhov's Corkscrew: When Machete visits Luz's house, for a second, camera focuses on a corkscrew lying on the table. Later, when they are attacked, he uses it in combat.
64** At a safehouse hospital, a friendly doctor mentions how the human body has 60 feet of large intestines. Guess what Machete uses when he needs to make a quick exit out of that hospital's window?
65* ColorMeBlack: The senator who organized immigrant hunts gets dressed up as an illegal immigrant and [[KarmicDeath gets shot by the rednecks]].
66* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: Machete is hired to assassinate [=McLaughlin=] during a public rally. However, the attempted assassination is part of a FalseFlagOperation to gain public support for [=McLaughlin=]'s secure border campaign.
67* ContractOnTheHitman: The whole plot is to hire Machete to assassinate [=McLaughlin=], then frame him for the attempt to get support for the Senator.
68* CreatorProvincialism: The film is set in Austin, where Robert Rodriguez lives and his film studio is based.
69* CrossOver: Creator/DannyTrejo has [[WordOfSaintPaul stated]] that the Machete Cortez in ''Machete'' is what the Machete Cortez from ''Film/SpyKids'' does when he's not taking care of the kids. As Creator/RobertRodriguez intended to make a ''Machete'' movie years before [[DevelopmentHell he was able to]], he inserted a more family-friendly version of the character into Spy Kids in the meantime, so this is technically canonical.
70* CrucifiedHeroShot: With surprising attention to detail. Most depictions that even ''use'' nails will have them driven into the palms; this movie accurately shows the nails being driven into the wrist-joints.
71%% * DangerTakesABackSeat:
72%% ** [[spoiler:How Luz finishes off Von Jackson in the end.]]
73%% ** Machete uses this to bust himself out of the first arrest.
74* DashingHispanic: Machete himself. One villain says he's "CIA, FBI, DEA, all rolled up into one mean fucking burrito."
75* DeadlyDodging: Machete gets into, and ''out of'' a street fight, doing only this (it ends when the other guy breaks his own fist on scaffolding), because Machete doesn't hit unarmed men. While eating a taco, no less.
76* {{Determinator}}: Machete has a bullet in his head and got shot in his shoulder. This won't stop him from kicking ass.
77* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
78** How did Machete's hit on [=McLaughlin=] go tits up? [[WhoShotJFK A second gunman was involved.]]
79** The nonfatal assassination itself has been compared to the shooting of former Taiwan president Chen Shubian, complete with "magic bullet" accusations (it grazed his belly).
80** A political assassination involving a man named Booth? [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Hmmmm...]]
81** It takes place in Texas (due to a mixture of CreatorProvincialism and, well, it's cheaper to shoot where your studio is). True, Austin, but still.
82** The campaign adds comparing Mexican immigrants to vermin is similar to Jews being compared to rats in the Nazi propaganda film ''The Eternal Jew''.
83** An American politician who lives in Texas and affects a Texan accent but isn't even from the South? Hmmmm.
84* DoubleEntendre: When the kidnapped girl starts feeling up Machete.
85-->'''Girl:''' What's this ''long'', ''hard'' thing?
86-->'''Machete:''' My machete.
87* TheDragon: Booth officially serves as the right-hand man to Senator [=McLaughlin=], but is also working for Torrez. He also has his own Dragon, [[spoiler:whom he kills for screwing up one too many times.]]
88* DualWielding:
89** Machete with a pair of machetes vs. Torrez with his katana and wakizashi.
90** Sartana with her [[ImprovisedWeapon stiletto heels!]]
91* DyingSmirk: [[spoiler: [=McLaughlin=] after getting shot up by the remnants of Von Jackson's group when he is mistaken for a Mexican. He seems to enjoy the irony and gives a classic De Niro grin.]]
92* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler:[=McLaughlin=] is pretty easily forgiven by the Network once Von and his man turn on him. April is not so forgiving, though.]]
93* EpicFlail: Made from [[MacGyvering a nurse's belt and some surgical knives.]] Do NOT try this at home.
94%% * EthnicMenialLabor: You didn't suspect the movie will feature Hispanic laborers, did ya?
95* EvenEvilHasStandards: Subverted. When Von Jackson kills a pregnant woman, Senator [=MacLaughlin=] half-heartedly calls him out on it, then he kills the husband with the same sadistic pleasure.
96%% * EverybodyKnewAlready: Luz is She... who'da thunk?
97%% * EverythingIsBigInTexas: Including man-sized machetes.
98* ExactWords: Machete tells Booth that April and June are with God. Booth assumes that they're dead, when they're actually in church.
99%% * ExaggeratedTrope: Hoo boy. It would be easier to say that every trope listed is exaggerated to varying degrees, and some are driven SerialEscalation.
100* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Booth's guards go through this when Machete infiltrates their boss's mansion by posing as a menial gardener. They let him through without any real check, then question why they weren't more thorough because he could be anybody, then realize their stupidity.
101* EyepatchOfPower: [[spoiler:Luz gets one after she gets shot in the eye.]]
102%% * EyeScream:
103%% ** [[spoiler:Luz's fate. She gets shot in the head through her eye socket. She dons an eyepatch to manage.]] The fact that the character in question loses an eye at all is probably a reference to what happens to Creator/JohnnyDepp in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'', from the same director.
104%% ** Sartana can do this with [[ImprovisedWeapon her stiletto heels.]]
105* ExploitationFilm: The whole movie is a love letter to the exploitation genre, particularly the little-known Mexploitation world.
106* FailedASpotCheck: When two Mooks defending Booth's mansion come across Machete, he bluffs his way past them by holding up a pickaxe and weedwhacker and saying "New gardener." One of the Mooks begins lecturing the other how [[NationalStereotypes everyone views illegals as common day-laborers and muses that any Mexican]] could just sneak past any security point by claiming to be a gardener... When the Mooks realize what they did, Machete's already got the [[ImprovisedWeapon weed whacker revved up.]]
107* FakeAssassination: At first it seems Machete's hired to kill the governor, but it turns out it's this trope when he's interrupted by another sniper, the plan being to wound the senator and kill Machete. Unfortunately, he survives.
108%% * FalseFlagOperation: The bad guy's plot.
109%% * FairCop: Sartana Rivera
110* FanDisservice:
111** A naked girl at the beginning of the film removes a cell phone from her vagina and makes a call on it. Afterwards, she gets a bullet put in her head.
112** Normally two girls having sexual acts together in a swimming pool in a home porn movie would be hot but the fact that the two stars are [[ParentalIncest mother and daughter]] makes this all the more Squick than Fanservice.
113** Booth admitting to the priest about secretly having the hots for his own daughter.
114** Luz getting shot and her eye socket blown out and exposed.
115* {{Fanservice}}:
116** Gratuitous nudity about three minutes into the movie from the girl Machete rescues. [[FanDisservice Too bad the girl in question gets blown away.]]
117** Creator/LindsayLohan (actually a body double, although she's pretty close herself later on) and her character's mother topless and making out with Machete in her daddy's swimming pool, though this is equally qualifiable as FanDisservice.
118** Creator/JessicaAlba shows ''almost'' everything in a ShowerScene. Her nude scene was later revealed to not have been nude after all. She's wearing fairly covering panties and top, which were later removed digitally.
119** Creator/MichelleRodriguez's {{Stripperiffic}} combat uniform. (Hell, her standard clothes - Daisy Dukes and spaghetti-strapped tank top - also count.)
120* FauxActionGirl: Aside from shooting the naked woman (who also counts) who tricks Machete in the opening in the back of the head in her first scene, Cheryl Chin's character does ... pretty much nothing. [[spoiler: All she does when Torrez dies is pout fetchingly.]]
121* ForeignCultureFetish: Torrez apparently has one for Japan, down to using a katana to kill his victims and [[spoiler:committing seppuku]].
122* GatlingGood: Machete attaches a Gatling gun to his motorcycle, then rides over an explosion from nowhere to shoot a mob of Mooks.
123* GenreThrowback: To '70s exploitation/trash movies, especially in the vein of blaxploitation movies.
124* GirlOnGirlIsHot: April exploits and lampshades this trope by filming a porno film with her mother in their backyard swimming pool while her daddy is away at work. Then Machete joins them...
125* GodivaHair: April, waking up in a church after having been fucked sensele... drugged by Machete. Her bosom obscured by her long blonde locks of hair. Though it doesn't always cover everything up.
126* {{Gorn}}: A Rio Grande of blood is spilled in the movie, with dozens of characters killed in gruesome ways. Like [[spoiler:bungee jumping... with intestines.]]
127* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Played with. Booth's guards drop the ball by letting Machete in, thinking he's another day laborer and complaining about how people always fall for the simplest disguises, but almost instantly [[{{LampshadeHanging}} realize it.]]
128%% * GunsAkimbo: With [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter shotguns]] no less!
129%% * GratuitousSpanish: Lots of it.
130* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:Luz]] gets one eye shot out midway through the film and spends the rest of it sporting an EyepatchOfPower.
131* HandCannon:
132** [[spoiler:April's]] S&W500 in the final battle.
133** [[spoiler:Luz]]'s sawn-off - based on comments from IMFDB about the size of its barrels, it's ''6-gauge''.
134* HandOrObjectUnderwear: Jessica Alba poses nude in a shower with her arms positioned in just the right way to hide anything naughty (and in fact Alba was wearing normal underwear which was CGI'd out.
135* HeelRealization: One of Booth's {{Mooks}}. "Ive been watching the boss, and the boss is a real scumbag." That same Mook, when confronted by Machete shortly thereafter, promptly quits his job and gives Machete his gun.
136* HonorBeforeReason: The entire reason Machete's in this situation, because he wouldn't let Torrez kill the girl he kidnapped no matter what he might do to him.
137* HospitalHottie: The twin nurses who help Machete out. They show up during the climax, dual-wielding guns to cut down racists.
138* {{Hypocrite}}:
139** The evil scheme: [[spoiler:Crooked politicians and drug runners want to seal up the border... to make it easier for them to import ''their'' illegal merchandise]].
140%% ** One of the mooks at Booth's house is Hungarian.
141** Booth has no problem using and abusing Mexicans, oh, and by the way, can you pass him another taco at lunchtime...?
142* HypocriticalHumor: One Mexican corrects his fellow dishwasher's pronunciation of Spanish profanity... and then pronounces "Hey" wrong. The same character also supports the anti-immigration policy, as he's already on this side of the border. [[spoiler: Subverted when he ''and'' his coworker turn out to be part of Luz's network.]]
143* IdiotBall: the mooks guarding Booth's mansion complain about people stereotyping all Mexicans as day laborers, and muse that any Mexican could just walk in unhindered if they said they were a day laborer. Unfortunately for them, they just let Machete in, who was pretending to be a gardener. [[OhCrap Cue them staring at each other in realization while Machete gets out the weed whacker...]]
144* IgnoreTheFanservice: After rescuing a young naked woman from an attack, the young woman is eager to reward Machete for his acts of chivalry. Machete would rather just rescue her and pays no attention to her nakedness or her seduction. This backfires on him as the woman stabs him and it all turned out to be a trap to get him.
145%% * ImpairmentShot: Machete as he is wheeled into an ER.
146* InvincibleHero: Machete due to outclassing everyone else in sheer badassitude, which even gets invoked at the end. [[spoiler:Torrez has defeated Machete in a knife duel and is about to kill him, which Luz notes will happen if they don't interfere. Sartana counters her by noting that Machete simply ''can't'' lose purely because he's Machete, and Luz says she's got a point. Then Machete suddenly gets up and impales Torrez.]]
147* IronicEcho:
148** Not verbally, but Torrez says to Machete that beheading him would be the honorable way to kill him, but Machete doesn't deserve to die honorably. [[spoiler:Torrez later commits seppuku.]]
149** The two guards bitching to the three hitmen Machete shoots during his escape from the assassination attempt.
150--> "I thought Jango shot you..." "[[NeverSayThatAgain I don't want to hear that story ever again.]]"
151** Booth says, "I'm sending you to a convent" to his daughter early in the film. She dons a habit before the film's climax.
152** Von Jackson says "An eye for an eye" on shooting Luz. [[spoiler:She turns out to be NotQuiteDead, but the [[MoeGreeneSpecial bullet took out her eye]].]]
153%% ** "Welcome to America."
154%% * TheIllegal: Major plot point.
155%% * ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Every Mook suffers from this.
156%% * ImprobableAimingSkills: Nearly every hero (and the top-tier [[BigBad Bad Guys]]) have this.
157* ImprobableWeaponUser: Many of the {{Improvised Weapon}}s get rather outlandish. Machete uses a Grass String Trimmer as weapon on one of the goons. As the goon reaches for his gun, Machete repeatedly uses the trimmer on his fingers without hurting him badly.
158* ImprovisedWeapon: TheMovie of the trope. Machete turns just about every prop within arms reach into a weapon. Booth is shown "disciplining" one of his {{Mooks}} with a USB cable. Sartana kills one man with a table ornament and another with her shoes.
159%% * InspectorJavert: Rivera, at first.
160* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: Machete shows up with [[PaperThinDisguise gardening tools]], and the guards just let him in. And he actually IS dressed as a janitor earlier in the movie to get to his sniper perch.
161* KatanasAreJustBetter: Torrez' weapon of choice. Leads to a sword fight between katana-wielder and machete-wielder.
162* KarmaHoudini:
163** [[spoiler: Osiris, who disappears before the climax, due to his death scene getting left on the cutting room floor. Averted in the sequel. Remnants of von Jackon's vigilantes manage to escape and continue gunning down people they think are Mexicans. Torrez' female sidekick just walks off, pouting.]]
164** In a rare [[ZigzaggingTrope Triple Subversion]], [[spoiler: [=McLaughlin=]. First he looks like he's going to escape disguised as a Mexican (after helping the Mexicans, strangely enough), but then April shoots him. Then he turns out to have survived thanks to a bulletproof vest, and flees on foot. But then he gets killed by Von Jackson's men, mistaking him for a Mexican.]] ...or perhaps not, as they were planning on executing him earlier, anyway.
165* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: [=McLaughlin=] - after putting on a Hispanic-looking outfit to escape the Big Final Shootout - is caught stumbling along the border fence by remnants of Von Jackson's army and shot down, falling into the electrified fence. [=McLaughlin=] even smiles as he dies, apparently appreciating the irony.]]
166* KavorkaMan: PlayedForLaughs by having women react to Creator/DannyTrejo like he's a handsome ChickMagnet, such is his [[WomenPreferStrongMen irresistable manliness]].
167* LanguageBarrier: Machete encounters a Mook who speaks to him in Hungarian. Machete stares at him confused, then the Mook says he was messing with him and explains what he said.
168* LoveFatherLoveSon: Machete manages to seduce (and drug) both June and her daughter April during their home movie shoot to get back at Booth.
169* MadeOfPlasticine: At one point, Jessica Alba picks up a pyramid-shaped sculpture and rams it through a guy's chest.
170* MacheteMayhem: A given. Machete later gets a ridiculously huge one in the final battle that disappears during the showdown with [[spoiler:Torrez]].
171* MadeOfIron: Definitely nothing can stop Machete from getting back on his feet and fight until death; [[GroinAttack stabbed on his groin]] and having a bullet inside a head yet he could still a badass afterwards.
172* MafiaPrincess: April relishes quite a bit in the life her criminal father allows her to live. He's disgusted by the way she sells herself as a wannabe porn starlet however, but not because he wants to protect his daughter; he wants to have her for himself.
173* MagicalSecurityCam: The playback of the taping of Von Jackson and [=McLaughlin=] shooting Mexicans attempting to cross the border simply replays the scene early in the film, complete with angle cuts.
174* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: [[spoiler: Torrez undersells getting impaled with a machete in a way only Creator/StevenSeagal can. With the machete still sticking in him, Torrez appears to attempt a ritual disemboweling: knowing he was already dead, he tries going out like a {{Samurai}} but fails, much to his Asian girlfriend's disgust.]]
175* MaleGaze: Used several times, notably with Luz (by Machete) and a nurse (by [=McLaughlin=]) [=McLaughlin=] gets yelled at for it.
176--> [[LampshadeHanging "I can feel your eyeballs reaching my uterus..."]]
177* MaskedLuchador: One of the assassins attacking Machete and Sartana wears a Lucha mask [[spoiler:to conceal the fact the Feds are now after Sartana]].
178* MayDecemberRomance: Machete (66-year-old Danny Trejo) gets it on with Luz (32-year old Michelle Rodriguez) halfway through the movie, kissed by sexy twin nurses, Nurse Mona and Nurse Lisa (24-year old Electra and Elise Avellan), makes love with April (25-year old Lindsay Lohan) and June (35-year old Alicia Rachel Marek) and in the end, rides off with Sartana (29-year-old Jessica Alba).
179%% * MeaningfulEcho: "If not us, then who?"
180%% * MeaningfulName: Machete, Booth... Probably the most meaningful name in the entire movie is Luz, who is a beacon of hope for her people.
181%% * MisfitMobilizationMoment: The "Network" mobilizes.
182* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler:Luz gets shot in the eye. She survives it.]]
183%% * MobileKiosk: Luz's taco van.
184* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Machete is not actually his [[TheyCallHimSword nickname]], it's his ''birth name''. His ''full'' name is Machete Cortez. The original spelling of the surname (Cortés) means "[[NonIndicativeName Polite]]", while the one used in the movie could be translated as "Son of the Cut".
185* NationalStereotypes: Plays with the Mexican stereotypes. The Mooks all seem to be Irish-American or Italian-American. Oh, and one [[TokenMinority Black guy]], whose death isn't shown.
186* NeverTrustATrailer: While the film is mostly faithful to scenes filmed for the 'Original' trailer, some scenes from the ''real'' trailers don't appear in the final cut.
187** One scene from the ''[=Grindhouse=]'' trailer that didn't make the real film is [[spoiler: the shot of Booth cowering behind armed guards while Machete launches himself with a Gatling gun/motorcycle combo at them. Booth dies in another scene and isn't there when Machete goes all GatlingGood at the bad guys.]]
188** There's also Machete's coat uncovered a '''lot''' of machetes strapped '''everywhere.''' In the film, he just uses two hilariously huge machetes in the final battle.
189** The trailer originally had Machete taking aim at the senator as he coasted down the street in a convertible, full on JFK style.
190* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: [=McLaughlin=] is a far right-wing politician out of Texas, [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush who isn't even from Texas originally]].]] There are a few nods to Ron Paul's alleged white supremacist ties, as well. [=McLaughlin's=] platform bears little resemblance to even the most exaggerated caricature of Bush's actual immigration policies.
191* NonIndicativeName: Machete does most of his damage with Improvised Weapons. And one Weaponized Motorcycle.
192%% * NoodleIncident: All those newspaper headlines that "She" was responsible for...
193* NoOneShouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler: Luz, aka She]] was shot through the ''eye'' at not much more than point blank range, and except for the obvious loss of vision in that eye survives without lasting ill effects, even though such a wound (if survivable at all) would likely result in massive brain damage.
194* NoPartyGiven: [=McLaughlin=] is referred to as an "independent" candidate. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Senate#Current_composition On that basis alone, his odds of winning probably weren't too good.]] Indeed, Booth tells him he would never be reelected without him.
195%% * OffstageVillainy: Torrez' drug operations have been... expanding.
196* OffWithHisHead: Machete decapitates a lot of people, including five guys with a single stroke in the opening scene.
197* OhCrap:
198** "You're telling me that Mexican day-laborer is a '''GODDAMN FEDERALE'''?!"
199** When Booth gets Machete's first-ever [[spoiler:text message.]]
200** When the bad guys' plan for immigration begins falling apart...
201** When [=MacLaughlin=] realizes the nun he's talking to is April.
202* OnlyAFleshWound
203-->'''Machete:''' "I wasn't going to kill [=McLaughlin=]. I was only going to shoot him in the neck, to stop him from saying those stupid things."
204* OneHandedShotgunPump: Done by the priest. With ''two'' shotguns at once.
205* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Steven Seagal as Torrez, who has zero accent, despite being a Mexican native who curses in Spanish. It's intentional of bad foreign villains of ''[=Grindhouse=]'' films, where foreign people... weren't.
206* OpportunisticVendors: Parodied when the Mexican Network launch a raid on Torrez's base at the climax. After they bust the main gate open with their lowriders and storm the compound, a lone fellow pushing an ice-cream cart follows along, firing an Uzi in the air.
207* OppressiveImmigrationEnforcement: Texan [[CorruptPolitician Senator McLaughlin]] is a racist bigot who campaigns heavily on immigration control and closing the border, with him openly comparing immigrants to vermin and his campaign video against them is [[PuttingOnTheReich deliberately shot to resemble antisemitic Nazi propaganda videos]]. Secretly [[{{Hypocrite}} he also has links]] to and accepts payments from the Mexican Drug lord [[BigBad Torrez]], with his campaign to close the border really being to wipe out his completion and so it will be easier for Torrez to smuggle his own illegal products across. He likewise is linked to Von Jackson, the local RightWingMilitiaFanatic group's leader, with [=McLaughlin=] regularly joining them to murder migrants crossing the river. By the end of the movie [[KarmicDeath he's mistaken for a migrant by those same people and shot and killed by them]].
208* PapaWolf: [[spoiler: Booth to his drug-troubled daughter April. It would be his redeeming quality, if it wasn't because he wants to bone her. At least he knows it's wrong, and has confessed it to a priest.]]
209* ParentalIncest: Booth confesses to impure thoughts about April. Meanwhile, she's filming porn with her mother.
210* PervertDad: Booth, who is overprotective of his daughter April and he secretly goes to Padre for confessionals of having impure thoughts about his own daughter.
211* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Invoked when [[spoiler: Machete]] hacks the encrypted files on [[spoiler: Booth's]] computer. [[spoiler:Realizing Booth has feelings for April, he correctly guesses the password is I♥April.]]
212* PlotArmor: Played for BlackComedy in the ActionPrologue. Machete drives his car at some goons who open up with their automatic weapons, riddling Machete's partner while he remains unharmed. Then again he's probably so badass the bullets just bounced off him.
213* PlotHole: As with most other tropes in this film, deliberately used as a throwback to poorly cut and hastily shot [=grindhouse=] films that were rife with these.
214* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Interestingly subverted with Julio: He's not a white dude trying to be Latino, he's a white dude who was ''adopted as an infant by a Latino family,'' and grew up immersed in that culture, giving him a far more intimate understanding of it than most white people could ever have.
215%% * PsychoForHire: Osiris Amanpour (1-800-HITMAN).
216* PunnyName: Luz's alter-ego, "Shé". Pronounced like Che. You know, overused Communist icon.
217%% * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Network. Also counts as LaResistance.
218* RampJump: An incredibly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example at the climax of the movie: Machete mounts a [[GatlingGood minigun]] onto a [[CoolBike chopper]], and ramps off of a part of the scenery with a [[ImpressivePyrotechnics huge explosion]] behind him (with no apparent cause [[RuleOfCool other than]] [[AwesomenessIsVolatile it would be awesome]]), and cuts down a dozen mooks with gunfire before landing.
219* RatedMForManly: The movie is a homage to the [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge avenging anti-hero]] movies of TheSeventies. So it's got everything - guns, [[MacheteMayhem machetes]], explosions, machetes, sexy women, [[OverlyLongGag machetes]], and tequila - that made such movies so manly. And ''thankfully'' without the awful disco soundtracks. Well, besides the scene with Lohan. Oh, we forgot to mention it's a ''[=Grindhouse=]'' [=spinoff=].
220* RealTrailerFakeMovie: ''Machete'' started out as one of these.
221* RecycledInSpace!: As of Comic Con 2011, the sequel Machete Kills Again has been retitled Machete Kills Again IN SPACE!
222%% * RefugeInAudacity:
223* RefuseToRescueTheDisliked: When Machete almost kills Booth in the limo after the latter is shot by [=McLaughlin=], Booth taunts Machete, but Machete ignores him. Not long after, Booth begs Machete to tell his family’s whereabouts. Machete stoically answers that they’re with God before leaving him, which Booth interprets as if they’re dead (when it actually means they’re in the church, safe) that he found no more reason to live, thus he accepts his incoming death.
224* RescueSex: Subverted in the opening scene. Machete rescues a female kidnapping victim who turns out to be jaw-droppingly attractive, totally naked, and eager to reward her rescuer, while Machete is only interested in saving her. [[spoiler:For his trouble she stabs him with his own machete, as it's all a trap by the BigBad.]]
225* RetiredBadass: Played straight with Padre. [[spoiler:Heavily implied with Luz.]]
226--> "I don't kill anymore." "You don't kill any ''less'', either."
227* RightManInTheWrongPlace: The plot gets kicked off when Machete's framed for assassination of a racist senator - Booth has no idea he just hired the wrong Mexican.
228%% * RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Von Jackson and his border vigilantes.
229%% * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: They DID, after all, just fuck with the wrong Mexican...
230* RousingSpeech: Given by [[spoiler: Sartana]] to the Mexican workers, and it's appropriately cheesy.
231%% * RuleOfCool:
232%% * RuleOfFun: Robert [=DeNiro's=] reason for being here.
233* RunningGag:
234** Von Jackson's [[TheDragon dragon]] throwing up after witnessing something violent. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Von Jackson himself.
235--->"You need to work on that."
236** Torrez saying "puñeta" every time he shows up. It's, sadly, a practically untranslatable Spanish curse word (the closest it can be translated to is "jerking off" used as an exclamation or adjective), [[BilingualBonus but to any person familiar with Spanish, it's rolling-on-the-floor funny.]]
237* TheSavageSouth: Insane Mexican mercenary runs amok in Texas.
238* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: When Sartana gets pulled off the case, she decides to deliver all the evidence she has acquired from Machete to a news reporter.
239-->"Well, [[ToBeLawfulOrGood there's the law and there's what's right]]. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome I'm gonna do what's right]]."
240* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Torrez mentions that normally, he bribes the authorities to leave him alone. Machete can't be bought.
241* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Upon encountering Machete ''again'' after getting getting shot in the legs during Machete's escape from the framing, a mook [[KnowWhenToFoldEm immediately quits angrily.]]
242* {{Seppuku}}: [[spoiler:When Machete mortally wounded Torrez, Torrez scornfully finishes himself off this way, to deny Machete to glory of killing him. Torrez has to pause, saying it hurts more than he thought it would, before pulling the blade all the way through.]]
243* SequelHook: [[spoiler: "Machete... Will Return in... ''Machete Kills!'' And... ''Machete Kills Again!''"]]
244* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: Jeff Fahey was barely in the trailer and did not appear on a lot of promotional material, despite having more screen time than De Niro and Seagal.
245* ShoutOut:
246** In the original ''[=Grindhouse=]'' trailer, Machete is seen inspecting a table full of weapons while Creator/JohnCarpenter's synthesizer score from ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' plays, imitating a scene from that film.
247** A computer screen showing a projection of the Texas/Mexico border lined with electrical fencing resembles similar screens on the opening [[InfoDump Info Dumps]] of ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' and ''Film/EscapeFromLA''.
248** And the wide shot of the four bad guys walking into the church seems to echo the [=DiVAS=] entering the church in ''Film/KillBill''
249** [[spoiler:Luz]] in an eyepatch and stepping out of an ambulance covered in leather could homage Elle Driver and/or Snake Plissken. She even says "What eye?" in the same tone of voice Snake would.
250** Padre [[spoiler:getting shot quite badly in the knee in the church]] echoes Marquez's injuries in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico''
251** And the BloodyHilarious intestines...thing seems to echo El and Carolina's hotel escape in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'', except that was a chain.
252** A gunfight against mob enforcers in a church while Ave Maria plays in the background is a reference to Creator/JohnWoo films.
253** Don't forget where the name Film/{{Sartana}} comes from.
254** Senator [=McLaughlin=] (played by Robert [=DeNiro=]) drives to the Vigilantes' compound in a... [[Film/TaxiDriver taxi]].
255** Another ShoutOut to ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico:'' The shadowy freedom fighter is called "She". El Mariachi is also known as simply "El," which is Spanish for "He" (or possibly "the").
256** [[spoiler:Luz]] getting shot in the eye and returning with an EyepatchOfPower is a shout-out to the apparent death/ressurection of Cheech Marin's character in both ''Desperado'' (where he was shot in the eye) and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico'' (where he returned sporting his own eyepatch).
257** A deleted scene had an assassin played by Creator/{{Rose McGowan}} shoot [[spoiler:Luz]] instead of Von Jackson, using a live cat as a [[VideoGame/Postal2 silencer.]]
258%% * ShroudedInMyth: "She", as well as Machete by the end.
259* ShutUpHannibal: A rare example by a villain. Booth delivers his speech to [=McLaughlin=] about how much the senator needs him, and [=McLaughlin=] responds by shooting him.
260%% * SleazyPolitician: Senator [=McLaughlin=], [[ExaggeratedTrope to the point of absurdity]]. When your political ads could have come straight from a GTA game, it's kind of a given.
261* SoundtrackDissonance: The use of Ave Maria and Vicente Fernandez's "El Rey" during scenes of slaughter.
262%% * SouthOfTheBorder: Parodied.
263* SpicyLatina: Not just Creator/MichelleRodriguez, the poster girl for this trope, but also Creator/JessicaAlba who rarely plays this role, as well as several more. The nude woman in the opening scene also counts.
264* {{Spinoff}}: Of ''[=Grindhouse=]'' and ''Film/SpyKids'', though the latter's only connected by a character name and actor (WordOfGod is that it's the same character though).
265%% * SplitScreen: The fight scene at Jessica Alba's house.
266* SpoilerOpening: You'll notice a difference between Luz in the opening credits and Luz in the movie. [[spoiler:The one in the credits has an eyepatch...]]
267* StevenUlyssesPerhero: During one scene, Machete is listed as the character's ''birth name''.
268* TheStoic: Machete. Even when faced with the prospect of getting laid. And in the middle of sex.
269* StormingTheCastle: The climax of the film. Rather appropriately, given the film's pro-immigration themes, the heroes are the ones trying to break into the fort.
270%% * StrawHypocrite: [=McLaughlin=]
271* {{Stripperiffic}}: Luz wears only pants, a black bikini, and [[spoiler:an eyepatch]] as her combat outfit during her fight scene at the end.
272* StylisticSuck: This being a ''[=Grindhouse=]'' spinoff and parody... you can tell Rodriguez was aiming to fill the movie to the brim with cheesy special effects and intentional FridgeLogic. For example, a lot of the effects are obviously intentionally half-assed or done wrong.
273* TakeThat: A ''Cinco De Mayo''-themed trailer was issued with "A [[http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/05/machete-trailer-lohan/ special message]]... to ARIZONA!" In response to an anti-illegal-immigrant law (SB 1070) that had just passed in that state.
274%% * TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Torrez]] considers this as he's dying...
275%% -->''"...But you'll probably be in Hell waiting for me."''
276%% * TankTopTomboy: Agent Rivera, who is always presented as an ActionGirl.
277* TechnicalPacifist: Machete, believe it or not. Sure, he kills ''a lot'' of people, but he goes out of his way to take out a lot through nonlethal means. Note the group of {{Mooks}} who live to encounter him a second time - only to survive again.
278%% * TestosteronePoisoning
279* ThemeNaming: Booth's daughter and wife, April and June.
280* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality: In the climactic one-on-one fight between [[InvincibleHero Machete]] and [[BigBad Torrez]], the latter of course momentarily gets the upper hand for the sake of tension. Two worried supporting characters discuss whether they should intervene, before concluding that it's simply impossible for Machete to lose, because he's, well, Machete. Cue HeroicSecondWind and Machete impaling the villain.
281* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Such as lowriders smashing people or strangling people with someone else's guts.
282* TheyCallHimSword: [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep That's also his real first name]].
283* ThirdPersonPerson: Machete sometimes refers to himself as this. "Machete don't text. Machete improvises."
284* ThoseTwoGuys: Booth's security guards and the two dishwashers.
285%% * ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: In this movie, ''it does.''
286* TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain:
287** Luz survives a bullet in the brain unscathed (well... minus an eye, but it doesn't seem to cause her much trouble).
288** Machete actually survives two. The first bullet saved his life by stopping the second bullet's advance.
289* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Anyone who's seen the trailer (or even just the opening credits) will know that Luz survives losing her eye and gets a patch. She also appears with the eyepatch on the cover of the DVD.
290* TrenchcoatWarfare: Machete carries a ludicrous number of blades inside his trenchcoat.
291%% * {{Troperrific}}: No exploitation movie trope was left untouched!
292* TwoPersonPoolParty: ...or Three Person in this case, as Machete scores with mother/daughter pair June and April Booth.
293* UglyGuyHotWife: Perhaps not ugly, but Machete is definitely scarred and craggy-looking. And both his wife (for the half-minute she was alive on-film) and Sartana are considerably easier on the eyes.
294* TheUnreveal: The fate of Machete's daughter. Torrez claims in the opening sequence that he'll kill Machete's daughter but we never find out if he did. A later scene implies that Luz is Machete's daughter but we never find out if that's true either, which would be squicky if it was, since they have a sex scene halfway through the movie.
295* UselessBystanderParent: June Booth, mother of April Booth, doesn't do anything to improve any situation [[spoiler:except film secret swimming pool videos with her daughter]] and [[spoiler:pass out when she finds out about her husband's fate.]] That's all.
296* VasquezAlwaysDies: [[spoiler: Subverted. Creator/MichelleRodriguez, the poster girl of the trope, gets a bullet in the eye... but returns later for the final battle. And to top it off, she survives that as well.]]
297* TheVerse: Apparently, takes place in the same universe as ''Film/SpyKids'', albeit a ''much'' DarkerAndEdgier version of it. If this is true, then Sartana has another twin sister (from a deleted scene) who's married and a spy...
298%% * VillainousBreakdown: Booth.
299* VillainousIncest: Booth confesses to impure thoughts about April.
300* TheVoiceless: One Mexican only communicates with a sketchpad.
301* VomitIndiscretionShot: Billy immediately throws up upon witnessing Von Jackson [[MoeGreeneSpecial shooting Luz in the eye]].
302* WakeUpFighting: After Machete and Sartana successfully decode Booth’s password of his videos containing proofs of [[spoiler:his link to [=McLaughlin=] and Torrez in a major drug trafficking deal]], she accidentally gets herself drunk with a lot of tequila that she falls into Machete's arms. The next morning, as Machete wakes up, he quickly senses Booth's henchmen's arrival, thus he grabs a gun and shoots them in time.
303* WeaponizedCar: A whole fleet of these in the climax. Except that at some point they ran out of weapons and put in hydraulics instead.
304* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
305** [[ProfessionalKiller Osiris]] disappears before the climax, without getting killed or finishing his job. In one of his later scenes, he notes that Machete isn't looking for ''him'', implying that he simply quit. He was originally supposed to get caught scoping out the chop shop and get decapitated by a power saw, but the scene was deleted.
306** After his wife is murdered, Machete's daughter disappears and is nowhere to be found.
307* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: The white kid's buddy is an artist who draws perfect portraits of Sartana and Machete. What does he do in the final fight, when the nurses, Wrench Wenches and dishwashers are all packing heat? [[FunnyBackgroundEvent Just... run around sketching like mad, apparently.]]
308* WhyWontYouDie: What Booth says to Machete (after being shot by [[=McLaughlin=]) and pissed off seeing the latter survives all of his (ordered) attempted murders.
309* WilhelmScream: One of the border vigilantes emits one in the climax before [[CarFu being squashed by a hydraulics-hopping lowrider]].
310* WillReturnCaption: The film ends with the narrator claiming "Machete will return in ''Machete Kills''! And ''Machete Kills Again''!".
311%% * WorldOfBadass: It can be simply said that the entire cast lives and breathes badassery.
312%% * WorldOfHam: Machete ''is'' the page summary for this trope.
313* WouldNotShootAGoodGuy: Machete spares the lives of Booth's guards, who only had an extremely vague clue as to what their boss was getting up to. Also, when he is "arrested" by phony cops, he waits until he hears them admit that they're fake before killing them.
314* WriterOnBoard: Played for laughs and invoked. Rodriguez does, apparently, mean the film's pro-immigration stance sincerely, but he also portrays the conflict as not even really about race, but about money, with a Mexican drug lord as one of the main villains, and turns up the {{narm}} and {{anvilicious}}ness, since it ''is'' meant to be a throwback to race exploitation films that ''were'' iconic to the post-Civil Rights movement.
315* YouHaveFailedMe: Torrez, Booth, [=McLaughlin=], and Von Jackson don't like it when their underlings make too many mistakes. [[spoiler: They even start turning on ''each other'' when their more monstrous actions go public, Booth getting killed and Von Jackson about to execute [=McLaughlin=].]]
316%% * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:All the bad guys to each other when Machete ruins their plans, ''again''.]]
317%% * YouKilledMyFather: Textbook example when [[spoiler:April shows up in the end to shoot [=McLaughlin=].]]

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