Line #5 Film/TakingLives


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Taking_Lives_poster_7000.jpg]]
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3	''Taking Lives'' is a 2004 crime thriller directed by D. J. Caruso, starring Creator/AngelinaJolie, Creator/EthanHawke and Creator/KieferSutherland.
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5	Jolie plays FBI Agent Illeana Scott, flown (for puzzling reasons not well explained--although most likely the writers' ignorance of CSIS, the Canadian equivalent of the CIA, or Mountie procedures) into Montreal to assist with the local police's investigation of a murderer. Hawke plays James Costa, a witness to the crime, whom she must protect. The case gets interesting when she deduces that the killer is actually stealing the identities of his victims, making him harder to track. Creator/TchekyKaryo, Creator/OlivierMartinez and [[Film/BettyBlue Jean-Hugues Anglade]] also star as Montreal police detectives assigned to the case.
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7	The film is based on a novel by Michael Pye, but is adapted very loosely. For starters, Jolie's character doesn't appear in the novel.
8	----
9	!!This film contains examples of:
10
11	* AbusiveParents:
12	** Rebecca Asher was neglectful towards Martin and clearly favored his twin brother. She even made him stay in her house's dilapidated basement, and forced him to wear unprescribed glasses he didn't even need just so she could tell him apart from his twin.
13	** [[spoiler:Subverted with Martin. He slaps around a visibly pregnant Scott, even [[KickTheDog stabbing]] her stomach. However, she was never pregnant in the first place, only pretending to be to draw out Martin]].
14	* AmicableExes: It's implied to be averted with Detective Duval and his ex-wife when he jokingly replies to Paquette's comment about her huge breasts, that he (Duval) hoped they drag her down a river to drown.
15	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The French actors playing the detectives make no attempt to sound Canadian or emulate a (very distinctive) Quebecois accent.
16	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Rebecca is an abusive mother and just a {{Jerkass}} in general, so it's hard to feel bad when she's murdered by Martin.]]
17	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: On a three-hour train ride from Montreal to Fredericton. Which IRL takes 22 hours!
18	** TheMountainsOfIllinois -- Or the establishing shot that shows us we're in Montreal by showing us... the Château Frontenac, the most famous building in ''Quebec City.''
19	* BatmanGambit
20	* BilingualBackfire: Done over the course of a few scenes. The two detectives speak French, insulting Illeana (and the viewers, since they had to import French actors...to Quebec...Wrong accent!). She reacts at the time, although it also looks like she might just be a bit unsettled by their using a different language to her. Then two scenes later she calls them out on it.
21	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Scott loses her job after admitting to having consensual sex with Asher, but manages to kill the serial killer seven months later.]]
22	* TheChessmaster
23	* DidntSeeThatComing
24	* DeadPersonImpersonation: Please refer to the work's title.
25	* DestructoNookie: The natural progression from wall-banging.[[note]] Varies depending on which version your watching. The M-rated version features a fairly ordinary sex scene where Hawke gently lifts Jolie on to the dresser and she merely brushes against the set of glasses on top, causing them to "clink" together. In the unrated version, though he forces Jolie on to the dresser with considerably more force, breaking some of the glasses. Soon after, he deliberately pushes the whole set off the dresser so that he can get Jolie on there, destroying everything. As you might expect, the unrated scene is generally wilder, with more gratuitous nudity and even some biting that the other version misses out on. It's also the only version where anything gets trashed.[[/note]]
26	* DisappearedDad: Whoever father Martin and Reese with Mrs. Asher is not brought up.
27	* DislikesTheNewGuy: Paquette doesn't hide his dislike of Scott being in their investigation.
28	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Scott's first scene has her lying in a victim's grave and then [[AwesomenessByAnalysis analyzing]] the clues from said grave.
29	* FreudianExcuse: Explained by Agent Scott during her profiling brief.
30	* HeroicBSOD: Scott gets a ''major'' one after finding out that [[spoiler:James Costa is the serial killer Martin Asher, who not only convincingly tricked her but also had sex with.]]
31	* ImperiledInPregnancy: A pregnant Scott gets stabbed in the belly at the end of the film. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the belly is fake and it was part of the plan to catch the killer.]]
32	* ItsPersonal: At first, Scott only saw the killer as someone to bring down but comes to have a personal vendetta against him after [[spoiler:he tricked her, leading to them having consensual sex, and getting her fired from the FBI]].
33	* KansasCityShuffle
34	* KickTheDog:
35	** Paquette ''slaps'' an already distraught Scott in the aftermath of [[spoiler:discovering Costa was Martin]].
36	** [[spoiler:Martin stabbing a "pregnant" Scott's belly with his "children". Thankfully, she was faking her pregnancy]].
37	* {{Matricide}}: Soon after the SerialKiller's mother reveals his identity to the police, she's found in an elevator with her head sawed off by her blood-drenched son.
38	* TheMurderAfter: After having sex, Illeana wakes up and finds James in a pool of blood. Subverted, as James is fine, he just tore his stitches in the night.
39	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Reese, the twin brother of Martin, drowned as a teen. Mrs. Asher began to neglect Martin soon after that.
40	* PetTheDog: After [[KickTheDog slapping]] Scott, Paquette gives a genuine apology to her.
41	* PillowPregnancy: Creator/AngelinaJolie does it, though she uses a more convincing prosthetic to convince Ethan Hawke that she's eight months pregnant with his child, so that he'll think she's unable to fight back when he attacks her. [[spoiler:In the end, she stabs him dead, and then finally removes the prosthetic to show the audience that she had been faking her pregnancy for nine whole months, simply to bait him.]] This also creates an opportunity for a particularly disturbing KickTheDog moment on the part of Ethan Hawke's character, who [[spoiler:stabs her "pregnant" belly with a pair of scissors, evidently willing to kill her even though he believed her pregnant with his own twins...]]
42	* PoliceAreUseless: The woman claiming to have seen her dangerous son isn't taken very seriously by the interviewer.
43	* RightThroughHisPants: During a sex scene, Illeana wears only an open robe but James keeps his suit on.
44	* ScareChord
45	* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Illeana gets quite a belly from her one night stand. Of course, [[spoiler: it turns out the pregnancy was faked to lure her fugitive serial killer baby-daddy into an FBI trap. Good thing, too, as he [[{{Squick}} stabs her in her (fake) stomach]]]].
46	* TimeSkip Seven months pass after [[spoiler:Martin escapes and Scott is fired from the FBI]].
47	* TitleDrop: By Agent Scott as she's getting everyone up to speed on her latest theory.
48	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:When Mrs. Asher is confronted by Martin in the elevator, she attempts to demand her emotionally deranged adult son who she knows is a serial killer, to step out of her way. She dies a few seconds later]].
49	* VillainousCrush: [[spoiler:Their final confrontation shows that Martin honestly had a warped love for Scott]].
50	* WallBangHer: Happens between Illeana and James, though they eventually move onto the bed.
51	* WellDoneSonGuy: The killer only wanted Mrs. Asher's love.
52	* WhereDidWeGoWrong: Mrs. Asher acts as though she might ask herself this.
53	* WhosLaughingNow: [[spoiler: Probably not the one getting her head cut off]].
54	* WouldHitAGirl:
55	** [[spoiler:Enraged by Scott being tricked by (and having sex with) the serial killer responsible for Duval's death, Paquette slaps Scott, which angers Leclair. Paquette later apologizes to Scott for the slap.]]
56	** [[spoiler:Costa aka Martin not only kills his mother but also physically assaults a "pregnant" Scott.]]
57	* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Martin certainly shows he would do this when he "stabs" Scott's "pregnant" belly]].

Context Film / TakingLives