Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / OutOfSight

Go To

1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/out-of-sight_350.jpg]]
2
3A 1998 crime drama/romance film based on the Creator/ElmoreLeonard novel of the same name, starring Creator/GeorgeClooney as Jack Foley, a gentleman bank robber, and Creator/JenniferLopez as Karen Sisco, the US Marshal tasked with apprehending him. Due to an impromptu hostage situation, Foley and Sisco find themselves locked in the trunk of a car together, where they quickly form a connection. Creator/AlbertBrooks is Richard Ripley, a rich businessman and former fellow inmate of Foley's, with a stash of diamonds that Foley wants to steal. Creator/DonCheadle plays Maurice "Snoopy" Miller, another former fellow inmate, a complete psychopath also looking to steal the diamonds.
4
5Directed by Creator/StevenSoderbergh, ''Out of Sight'' is considered a highlight of Lopez's career, and it helped salvage Clooney's movie career after the ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' disaster.
6
7''Series/KarenSisco'', a sequel series starring Creator/CarlaGugino in the title role, ran for a single season on ABC in 2003.
8
9----
10!!Tropes:
11
12* ActionGirl: Karen Sisco can beat up much larger opponents with ease and has no qualms about engaging in firefights.
13* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: [[spoiler:Hejira doesn't appear in the novel, so there's no reason not to think Jack's going to be in jail for the rest of his life.]]
14* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Both Jack and Buddy. Jack is described as good looking, but nothing like George Clooney, and he reminds Karen of Creator/HarryDeanStanton (his demeanor, not his looks) which Clooney doesn't convey at all. Buddy is more like an older White Boy Bob in the book.
15* AffablyEvil: {{Downplayed}} in that Jack isn't evil, but what else can you call a guy who actually ''guides'' a bank teller through a robbery and takes the time to assure her that she's "doing fine"?
16* AllNaturalGemPolish: {{Averted}} and {{lampshaded}}. When found, the diamonds are uncut and mentioned to look like rocks.
17* AnachronicOrder: The film cuts between the present day and flashbacks to Jack's time in prison.
18* AntiHero: While he's a career bank robber, Jack is one of the more morally upright and polite characters in the story. Karen is ultimately honor-bound to bring him to justice, but he's still a "good guy" for ultimately going against his self-interest to oppose the evil Snoopy.
19* AscendedExtra: "The Ripper" Ripley. In the book he's a very minor character, and isn't at home in Detroit when the last caper takes place. The movie expands the role-to compare Ripley's thievery to Foley's-and has him at the mansion during the home invasion.
20* AxCrazy: Snoopy is prone to violence and murder at the drop of a hat. Glen winds up abandoning the heist because he realizes associating with him is more trouble than it's worth.
21* BankRobbery: Jack Foley is a master bank robber; the first scene is him robbing a bank without using a gun, by a daring scheme, then getting caught when his car won't start.
22* BathtubScene: Jack soaks in a tub following his escape. Karen confronts him, but ends up climbing into the bath with him before it's revealed [[spoiler:to be a dream of hers]].
23* BittersweetEnding: Jack is caught and is getting transported back to Glades prison in Florida, likely for the rest of his life. Karen has to be the one to take him back, and while it's clear she still has feeling for him, they both know they can never share another "time out." [[spoiler: Except for Karen having Jack share a ride with Hejira, an expert at prison escapes, hinting that she knows Jack will team up with Hejira to break out of Glades. And with Buddy out there with the stolen, easy-to-market uncut diamonds...]]
24* BlackAndGrayMorality: Jack and his crew are gray. They're criminals, but they have a sense of morality. Snoopy and his gang are black. They're murderers and rapists. Ultimately, Jack and Snoopy become at odds with each other.
25** Even Karen gets in on the Grey, being an otherwise decent cop who's engaged in an extramarital affair with a married ATD/FBI agent and later ends up in a romance with a criminal she's charged with arresting. [[spoiler: Gets even dodgier in the film version where she implicitly aids the escape of said criminal from prison.]]
26* TheCameo: Creator/SamuelLJackson as the [[spoiler: escape artist]] Foley meets at the end.
27* TheCaper: The plan to steal Richard Ripley's diamonds.
28* ContinuityNod: Michael Keaton plays the same role (Ray Nicolette) he did in ''Film/JackieBrown'', another Elmore Leonard adaptation. The movie had to make him a "loaner" character from the ATF (from ''Film/JackieBrown'') to explain how he was with the FBI during the manhunt for escaped prisoners.
29* CuttingTheKnot: When Snoopy and his gang are about to try a second attempt to shoot the safe open, she gives them the combination.
30%%* DaddysGirl: "My little girl... the tough babe..."
31* DatingCatwoman: Gender-reversed. US Marshal Karen Sisco falls in love with bank robber Jack Foley.
32* DeathAsComedy: Snoopy's BumblingSidekick, White Boy Bob, has a habit of slipping and falling. Towards the end, when he has the drop on Jack, he slips and falls and shoots himself.
33%%* {{Determinator}}: Karen Sisco
34* EroticDream: The movie plays with the audience in revealing which character is having the dream [[spoiler:until it becomes obvious it's Karen. No guy bathes with scented candles.]]
35* EvenEvilHasStandards: {{Downplayed}} in that Jack isn't evil, but he still makes a point of assuring Karen that he isn't going to rape her (when they get locked in the trunk) and later knowingly jeopardizes his chance at freedom to stop one of his fellow robbers from doing this to a woman.
36* EvilCounterpart: Snoopy, to Jack. Snoopy has his own band of PsychoRangers-White Boy Bob and Kenneth-mirroring Foley's team of Buddy and Glenn (watch for the scene at the boxing gym for a cool contrast).
37* FairCop: Karen Sisco is played by the quite beautiful Jennifer Lopez, so she naturally counts as this.
38* FauxAffablyEvil: Snoopy is quite friendly and charming, but it does little to disguise how evil he is. He's quite willing to resort to murder and rape if he feels like it, and forces Glen to murder a rival drug dealer all while never dropping his amiable demeanor.
39* TheFilmOfTheBook: An Creator/ElmoreLeonard novel.
40* FanService: Jack and Karen stripping down to their underwear in their hotel room.
41** During the home invasion, there's a brief shot of Ripley's housekeeper Midge in her bra and panties.
42* FreudianTrio: Jack Foley is the Ego (he is the leader and has to reconcile Buddy and Glenn); Buddy is the Superego (he regularly reminds Jack about what he should do to be safe); Glenn is the Id (he is a stoner and he follows his desires).
43* GenreSavvy: During their ride in the car trunk, Jack and Karen talk about old movies featuring characters like them: ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' and ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor''.
44* GenreThrowback: Much of the movie is meant to evoke old caper movies and romance movies. Examples include:
45** The Motown tune ("It's Your Thing") that plays over the opening credits.
46** The Art Deco hotels and apartment buildings of Miami.
47** The enormous old car that Buddy and Jack drive when they're in Miami.
48** The chiaroscuro lighting in the hotel bar scene.
49** The Hepburn/Tracy, Bogart/Bacall dynamic between Jack and Karen.
50** During their ride in the car trunk, Jack and Karen talk about old movies featuring characters like them: ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' and ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor''.
51** The Dean Martin song "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" is playing on the stereo at Karen's father's house.
52* GentlemanThief: Jack Foley and to a lesser extent Buddy.
53** Foley-who robs banks for easily-insured cash and [[TechnicalPacifist without a gun]]-is contrasted with both Snoopy who coldly kills his robbery victims, and MorallyBankruptBanker Ripley who stole more money and ruined more lives than Foley ever could (with Foley the most prolific bank robber in the FBI database!).
54* GoryDiscretionShot: Certainly not the violent climax, but earlier in the movie a messy multiple murder is suggested with only a few oblique shots (and Glenn's twitchy, shell-shocked reaction afterwards).
55* GreatEscape: Jack's clever plot to break out of jail, complicated when he blunders into Karen.
56* HeldGaze: Jack and Karen in the Miami hotel.
57* HiddenInPlainSight: The diamonds, sitting at the bottom of a fish tank.
58* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Marshall Sisco is a retired US Marshal.
59* InMediasRes: The movie starts off with a ColdOpen of Foley getting thrown out of a business office and then coldly crossing the street to rob a bank. The rest of the movie mixes current time with flashbacks up to the point where we see ''why'' [[HowWeGotHere Foley got tossed out of that office]].
60* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: "Whitey Boy" Bob accidentally shoots himself after he trips while running up a flight of stairs with a drawn pistol and his finger on the trigger.
61* InsistentTerminology: Maurice's do-rag is not ''lavender'', thank you very much, it's ''lilac''.
62* KnightKnaveAndSquire: Jack Foley is the knight (he is an idealistic GentlemanThief - he knowingly jeopardizes his chance at freedom to stop one of his fellow robbers from raping to a woman); Buddy is the knave (he is an experienced and realistic thief); Glenn is the squire (he is an unexperienced thief).
63* AMatchMadeInStockholm: Foley tosses Karen into the trunk of his car during his jailbreak. During the time together they talk about movies, doing time in prison... [[SlapSlapKiss and the sparks fly]].
64* MeetCute: Who hasn't met their true love inside the trunk of a car?
65* TheMissusAndTheEx: Played with when Karen goes to interview Foley's ex-wife Adele for clues, as Karen technically isn't in a relationship with Foley (yet). The novel has it that Adele figures out right away that Foley flirted with Karen while locked up in that car trunk, and starts giving Karen tips about Foley's social tics rather than the next heist he's got planned.
66* MsFanservice: [=JLo=] as Karen in general, but especially when she strips down...
67* MyCarHatesMe: After a clever but impulsive heist Foley is arrested when his car fails to start.
68* NeverGoingBackToPrison: Foley has this attitude, [[spoiler:and when Karen has him caught at Ripley's mansion he tries to do a SuicideByCop and get her to kill him. She [[TakeAThirdOption gets around this]] by shooting him in the leg... and then setting it up so Foley can team up afterwards with escape artist Hejira.]]
69* OneLastJob: Lampshaded and {{played straight}}. Also TheCaper.
70* OnlyInFlorida: Combined with [[UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Motor City]]. The book and movie are located in ''both'' cities-Detroit and Miami-that Leonard famously writes into most of his work.
71* PerpetualTourist: Referenced. Karen mockingly asks Foley if he imagines he'll retire to some tropical paradise. He counters that he always preferred mountains.
72* RaceLift: Buddy, and to an extent Karen. Buddy, in the novel, is white and described as a redneck-in the movie he's Ving Rhames. Karen's description in the novel has her as blonde, though it doesn't mention any distinct ethnicity.
73* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Jack makes a point of assuring Karen that he isn't going to rape her (when they get locked in the trunk) and later knowingly jeopardizes his chance at freedom to stop one of his fellow robbers from doing this to a woman.
74* RatedMForManly: Has a cast line-up - not just the guys like Clooney, Rhames, Farina, GUZMAN! and Cheadle but also the ladies like Lopez and Creator/NancyAllen - that makes Rated M movies on a regular basis, involves a heist, and relies on a Elmore Leonard novel to provide cool dialogue and cooler anti-heroes. It's also a surprisingly great date movie thanks to the romantic chemistry between Jack and Karen.
75* ShoutOut: In the car trunk, Foley and Karen argue about movie romances, especially the one in ''Film/ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'', where the kidnapped woman falls in love a little too quickly with her hostage-taker. Meanwhile, [[LampshadeHanging they're doing it to themselves]]...
76* ASimplePlan: The home invasion to nab Ripley's diamonds.
77* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: Karen suffers at her job. Her male co-workers and superiors keep dismissing or questioning her work, the crooks she handles as a Marshal are sexist: This despite her being hyper-competent, smarter than nearly every other character, and [[ActionGirl able to handle herself in a fight]].
78* SophisticatedAsHell: Most of what Snoopy says. E.g.: "In a situation like this, there's a high potentiality for the common motherfucker to bitch out."
79* SparedByTheAdaptation: Buddy. When he and Jack try to rescue Midge from Kenneth in the book, Buddy takes a shot from Kenneth's shotgun and dies almost immediately. He not only lives in the movie but [[spoiler:gets away with Ripley's diamonds]].
80* SpinOff: Karen Sisco had a short-loved television series called, appropriately enough, ''Karen Sisco''.
81* StarCrossedLovers: Karen Sisco and Jack Foley, a cop and a bank robber, have difficulty "taking a time-out".
82* TheStoner: Glenn, played by Creator/SteveZahn, Foley's BumblingSidekick..
83* SuicideByCop: Foley attempts this. [[spoiler: Karen shoots him in the leg.]]
84* TakeAThirdOption: Foley doesn't want to go back to jail, and Karen ''has'' to bring him back to jail. [[spoiler:So while she shoots him in the leg to catch him, Karen also sets it up so that Foley can team with escape artist Hejira so he can escape ''later''.]]
85* ThrowingTheFight: Snoopy does this in prison. He doesn't take it well when the other guy brags about his "victory".

Top