Line #38 Film/Series7TheContenders


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3	The 2001 film ''Series 7: The Contenders'', written and directed by Daniel Minahan, is a dark and violent satire of American {{Reality Show}}s.
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5	''The Contenders'' offers a unique form of entertainment for its loyal viewers: the show's contestants must kill each other until only one "Contender" remains standing. The contestants have no choice as to whether they want to compete; the moment a contestant is notified that they've become a Contender, any other Contender can kill them without legal repercussions. Adding insult to injury is the fact that winning the show once doesn't get a Contender anything but a longer lease on life; a full release from the show only happens when a Contender wins the "contest" three times in a row (as the winner remains a Contender until either death or the third victory). In the show's seventh season (or "series" in British terminology), two-time champion Dawn Lagarto hopes to gain her freedom; to do so, she must outlive five other Contenders -- one of which, the terminally-ill Jeffrey Norman, happens to have had a prior romantic relationship with Dawn.
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9	!! ''Series 7: The Contenders'' contains the following tropes:
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11	* AntiClimax: What really happened in the cinema? According to the alternate ending on the DVD, [[spoiler:Dawn and Jeffrey drop their guns and try to flee the cinema. They end up beaten by fans who aren't happy with the standoff's anti-climax. Dawn dies as a result of her beating, but Jeffrey survives -- hence the lack of a bullet wound when he's shown in the hospital during the preview for Series 8]].
12	* AssholeVictim: Tony is an unemployed blue-collar worker with a coke habit and anger management issues. He even [[spoiler:tries to flee the show while holding his baby daughter hostage.]]
13	* BerserkBoardBarricade: Connie is seen boarding up all of her windows early in the game.
14	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Mostly averted with Lindsay, who is family respectful towards her parents except when they're pressuring her to play the game gets to be too much.
15	* BreakTheCutie: Lindsay is clearly shaken and terrified after her first (and only) attempt to kill someone.
16	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Emergency room nurse Connie seems nice enough -- until she expresses her contempt for the people who come into her ER. And that's before she starts killing people.
17	* ButtMonkey: Tony has worked as an asbestos remover (as well as a drug problem) for most of his life, was fired from that, at least some of his kids were fathered by other people, and he ends up the least prepared Contender, as well as [[spoiler: the first to die]].
18	* CelebrityIsOverrated: No one really wants to appear on ''The Contenders''. Dawn even snaps at her assigned cameraman on a regular basis.
19	* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Safety Catch]][=/=]NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lindsay's parents constantly tell her to leave the safety on. [[spoiler:Lindsay's fumbling to switch it off during an encounter with Franklin gives him more than enough time to kill her.]]
20	* ConspiracyTheorist: Franklin lines the walls of his trailer with [[TinfoilHat tinfoil]]. After [[spoiler:killing Lindsay in the mall]], he tries to convince onlookers that the show is rigged -- until [[spoiler:Connie kills him with a sniper rifle]].
21	* CoolAunt: Dawn's niece tells her that she recognizes her from TV and that she loves her. Dawn is a bit disconcerted, hugs her tenderly before leaving.
22	* CountryMatters: Dawn's estranged sister receives a C-bomb from Dawn just before she takes her sister's SUV at gunpoint.
23	* CrapsackWorld[=/=]DeadlyGame: ''The Contenders'' is a reality TV show where people are drafted into a game where they must kill the other contestants to "win".
24	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Jeffrey tries to kill himself on three separate occasions. He is not successful.]]
25	** [[spoiler:The alternate ending proves the third attempt didn't actually happen, though.]]
26	* FinalGirl: Lindsay has some aspects of this, being the youngest competitor, a virgin, and reluctant to kill anyone [[spoiler: It doesn't save her]].
27	* GoingHomeAgain: {{Inverted}}. Dawn is [[SarcasmMode less than thrilled]] that Series 7 of ''The Contenders'' is taking place in her hometown, since her mom kicked Dawn out of the house at 17 for having an abortion -- and the guy who knocked her up is one of her new opponents.
28	* {{Goth}}: Dawn and Jeffrey were goths in high school.
29	* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: Lindsay is arguably the most soft-spoken character and usually has a little purple on.
30	* GunStruggle: Two of these happen -- one between Connie and Dawn, and one between Jeff and Connie.
31	* HandWave: Numerous background details, such as how ''The Contenders'' became powerful enough to clear legally-sanctioned murder as a form of television programming, never receive an explanation. This works in part because the film only shows you what the program itself would have aired on TV -- in other words, only what the producers want viewers to see.
32	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Jeffrey admits he went through a "gay phase" after high school that ended when he married Doria. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:after his failed suicide attempt via overdose, Doria outs him on-camera while he's in the hospital]].
33	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: ConspiracyTheorist Franklin is opposed to the show and suspicious of its methods but still plays the game.
34	* HopeSpot: Everyone getting notes saying to meet at the mall and hinting there's a way out of the game, which they want to believe badly [[spoiler: It's just a trap by Connie]]].
35	* HumansAreBastards: It's debatable which is worse -- what the Contenders will to do to survive or the bland acceptance of the show's existence.
36	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: ''The Contenders'' makes people hunt and kill each other.
37	* ImmoralRealityShow: The contestants have to kill each other until only one contender is left.
38	* LaResistance: Averted. There's a message from people offering to help them escape, signed The Underground, but it's fake.
39	* LeFilmArtistique: Dawn and Jeffrey's terrible high school student film qualifies.
40	* LotteryOfDoom: New contestants are chosen by a (seemingly-)random lottery involving Social Security numbers.
41	* MamaBear: Dawn insists she's only competing to protect her unborn child. [[{{Hypocrite}} On the other hand, she's a really efficient killer...]]
42	** Also invoked when [[spoiler:the show takes away her child per the game's rules]] -- she gets pissed enough to kidnap her cameraman and hold an entire cinema full of people hostage.
43	** Lindsey's mother also shows helps prepare her daughter while showing grief and protectiveness at her being selected in the first place, and stands up to her husband when he berates Lindsey for being unable to kill Franklin.
44	* MaternityCrisis: [[spoiler:Dawn's water breaks just as she has Connie cornered and at gunpoint. This is followed by a ScreamingBirth scene in which Connie must simultaneously deal with a 911 operator and a breach delivery while holding ''Dawn'' at gunpoint.]]
45	* MercyKill: Connie admits on-camera that, despite her job as TheMedic, she's euthanized the occasional patient.
46	* MustNotDieAVirgin: Lindsay's boyfriend invokes this in an effort to get her to put out. He fails. Later on, she comes back to him though in what's implied to be a SexForSolace moment.
47	* NobodyPoops: The film averts this trope; Dawn catches Connie on the toilet.
48	* OnTheNext: An example of this trope closes out the film (and casts a totally different light on the climax).
49	* PetTheDog: Connie works to help Dawn deliver her baby, even though Dawn had been trying to kill her, and Connie could take advantage of the moment to easily kill Dawn.
50	* [[PrecisionFStrike Precision S-Strike]]: [[spoiler:Jeffrey's verbal reaction when he realizes that he survived what happened at the cinema -- and that he is the show's reigning champion as it heads into Series 8.]]
51	* PregnantBadass: Do '''not''' piss off eight-months-pregnant Dawn.
52	* PreviouslyOn: The film opens with the end of Series 6 of ''The Contenders'': Dawn marches into a convenience store and kills her last "opponent" of the season.
53	* RealityTelevision: This film is a pitch-black satire of the entire genre.
54	* RevisedEnding: The film contains a canonical version of this trope. [[spoiler:Series 7 ends with a "dramatic recreation" of the cinema standoff: Jeffrey agrees to let Dawn kill him, but Jeffrey's wife appears and kills Dawn before she can do the deed, at which point a distraught Jeffrey shoots himself. In reality, Dawn and Jeffrey were beaten (Dawn fatally so) by fans enraged at the pair's attempt to drop their guns and flee the cinema -- but the ''Contenders'' producers couldn't (and wouldn't) air that.]]
55	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
56	** When the people from the show arrive at Franklin's door he slams it in their face and they catch him trying to sneak out the back window.
57	** Tony also tries to flee town after a little nerve-wracking.
58	** Everyone left is interested in a supposed offer to escape from the show.
59	* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: Despite being an American film with an American cast framed as an American reality show titled ''The Contenders'', the film's title employs the British-usage "series" to describe individual seasons of a television program. (The film starts with the end of the show's sixth season and segues into the events of its seventh season.)
60	* ShoutOut: Daniel Minahan named the main character, Dawn Lagarto, after a childhood friend of his.
61	* [[ShowWithinAShow Show Within A Movie]]: This is the central premise of the film.
62	* SlashedThroat: Tony threatens to do this to himself.
63	** In a flashback, Dawn takes out one of her previous opponents this way.
64	* TakeAThirdOption: Dawn and Jeffrey attempt this when [[spoiler:they take the camera crew hostage and attempt to escape the show]].
65	* UnreliableVoiceover: The narrator (played by Creator/WillArnett) makes a cameo onscreen at the climax. What he says doesn't always match up with what happens on-screen. The "dramatization" scenes also appear dishonest (and potentially faked). In the case of the cinema standoff, [[spoiler:the dramatization is absolutely faked, which both the movie's alternate ending and the lack of a gunshot wound on Jeffrey during the Series 8 preview confirms.]]
66	** The show says it picks contestants via a random lottery. That claim becomes suspicious when Dawn's third go-round takes place in her hometown and her old boyfriend becomes one of the other Contenders.
67	** As Tony tries to flee the town with his baby and in the immediate aftermath, the voiceover outright contradicts events depicted on screen. A number of reviewers admitted that they accepted the voiceover version the first time they watched the film, only to be prompted to rewatch and pay attention by the ending.
68	* WinYourFreedom: A contestant must win the show three times in a row to earn their permanent freedom from the show. Dawn is offered her freedom at the end.
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Context Film / Series7TheContenders