Line #7 Film/TheAvengers1998


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-avengers-1998-film-profile_3687.jpg]]
2
3	[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The one where]] James Bond tries to control the weather.
4
5	''The Avengers'' is a 1998 action movie [[TheFilmOfTheSeries inspired by]] the [[TheSixties 1960s]] British TV series ''Series/{{The Avengers\|1960s}}''. It stars Creator/RalphFiennes as John Steed, Creator/UmaThurman as Emma Peel and Creator/SeanConnery [[LargeHam hamming it up]] as Sir August de Wynter, an evil Scotsman who can control the weather. Creator/EddieIzzard plays the henchman Bailey.
6
7	Do try your best to not confuse this movie with 2012's ''Film/{{The Avengers\|2012}}'', which was renamed ''Avengers Assemble'' on the British market to avoid confusion.
8	----
9	!!''The Avengers'' contains examples of:
10
11	* TheAce: Mrs. Peel is perfect at whatever she does, from science to chess to swordplay, making Steed's character seem somewhat redundant.
12	* AGodAmI: Implied by Sir August during his introduction to the world council where he claims that the "weather is no longer in God's hands, but in mine".
13	* AliceAllusion:
14	** One of the villain organizations is named "Wonderland Weather".
15	** Sir August plays a game of croquet with Father, as Alice did with the Red Queen.
16	** At one point Mother says "I often think of six impossible things before breakfast" (a paraphrase of the White Queen's line).
17	** One of the Ministry's agents is named "Alice".
18	** Mrs. Peel falls "down a rabbit hole" in the maze and ends up in Sir August's clutches. He uses a mixture of hypnosis and drugs to send her on a hallucinogenic journey through a bizarre area.
19	** Mrs. Peel escapes from Sir August's tesseract rooms by jumping through a mirror on a wall, similar to the way Alice went through the looking glass.
20	* AlmostKiss: Steed and Mrs. Peel, while he's helping her put on her boots.
21	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Steed might just love driving a 1930s car, but that doesn't explain how other people do in that movie universe that has otherwise very 1990s designs and very late 1990s electronics.
22	* AreTheseWiresImportant: Steed rips the guts out of one of Sir August's robot insects.
23	* ArtImitatesArt: The endless stair Mrs. Peel tries to descend during her drug-induced nightmare is clearly inspired by the works of the artist Creator/MCEscher.
24	* AttackDrone: Sir August's flying armed robot insects.
25	* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: Bailey said "Oh FUCK" just before his death to raise the film's rating. The line was clearly [[SameLanguageDub dubbed in]] by someone who isn't Eddie Izzard; his lips don't move, and it sounds nothing like him.
26	* BadassBack: Mrs. Peel during her sword fight with Steed.
27	* BanisterSlide: Mrs. Peel does a short one during her sword duel with Steed.
28	* BattleInTheRain: The final fight between Steed and Sir August.
29	* BearsAreBadNews: The bear costumes the recruited scientists wear.
30	* {{Bookends}}: Near the beginning, Steed warns Mrs. Peel not to eat a macaroon when taking tea with Mother, because they're Mother's favorite. She does so anyway, which annoys Steed. At the end they're taking tea with Mother again and she declines a macaroon, showing how much they have come to respect and care for each other after their adventure.
31	* BritsLoveTea: Steed has a tap in the dashboard of his Bentley that dispenses the stuff. He and Mrs. Peel take tea as they drive.
32	* BulletproofVest: The fake Mrs. Peel shoots Steed and apparently kills him. It turns out that his waistcoat is bulletproof.
33	* CasualDangerDialogue: This movie relies heavily on this trope; virtually no one shows any amount of emotion at any point in the entire movie despite being in mortal danger. One of the few exceptions is Sir August's angry outbursts at Mrs. Peel's successful attempts to rile him.
34	* CaretakerReversal: After Steed is attacked by Mrs. Peel's clone, the real Mrs. Peel takes him to her home to recover and nurses him back to health. Later on, after Mrs. Peel is captured and brainwashed by Sir August, Steed rescues her and takes her to his home to recover.
35	* CastingGag: Creator/SeanConnery as a villain that wouldn't look out of place in a Franchise/JamesBond film.
36	* ChekhovsGun: The boots Steed gives to Mrs. Peel.
37	* ChekhovsSkill: Steed's training in hand-to-hand combat at the beginning of the film and his later battles using those skills.
38	* ClearMyName: Mrs. Peel after her clone blows up the Prospero lab.
39	* CollapsingLair: Sir August's underground island base.
40	* CompositeCharacter: As well as Mrs. Peel, screenwriter Don [=MacPherson=] intentionally drew on elements of Cathy Gale for this updating.
41	* CoolCar: Steed drives a really nice 1928 Bentley, and Mrs. Peel an equally nice Jaguar E-Type. [[spoiler:Too bad the latter gets blown up]]. In addition, a deleted scene shows Sir August driving away in a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud equipped with a snowplow.
42	* CutLexLuthorACheck: Sir August could have legally made billions of dollars by selling the use of his WeatherControlMachine to the nations of the world.
43	* DamselInDistress: Subverted when Mrs. Peel escapes from Sir August on her own.
44	* DayOfTheWeekName: Sir August and his family, named after months.
45	* DeusExScuseMe: Steed and Mrs. Peel are at Wonderland Weather getting a tour from the receptionist. There's a noise (telephone ring?) elsewhere and the receptionist leaves, allowing Steed and Mrs. Peel to look around unnoticed.
46	* DiabolicalMastermind: Sir August
47	* DirtyOldMan: Sir August and Mrs. Peel (Sean Connery is 40 years older than Uma Thurman).
48	* DisneyVillainDeath: Bailey's demise.
49	* TheDragon: Mrs. Peel's clone and Bailey.
50	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Mrs. Peel may have done this with her clone's SpyCatsuit.
51	* DullSurprise: John Steed and Emma Peel spend the film reacting politely and bantering during dangerous situations instead of getting excited or freaked out by any of it. It proved to be one of the biggest criticisms leveled against the movie.
52	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Sir August's island base.
53	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Mrs. Peel's car after the flying robot insect attack.
54	* EvilTwin: Mrs. Peel's clone, created by Sir August.
55	* FastRoping: Used by Bailey just prior to his fight with Mrs. Peel.
56	* TheFilmOfTheSeries
57	* FlowerPotDrop: At the beginning of the film. Steed is almost hit by a flowerpot that drops down from a window above him.
58	* ForbiddenFruit: Steed warns Mrs. Peel not to take a macaroon when they have tea with Mother.
59	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sir August talking about shooting trespassers, the Wonderland Weather globes and Steed's "I'll stick to swordplay".
60	* FunWithAcronyms: BROLLY (British slang term for "umbrella").
61	* FurAndLoathing: Mrs. Peel's clone when she tries to kill Steed.
62	* GoingInCircles: Mrs. Peel while trapped in Sir August's tesseract trap.
63	* GrievousBottleyHarm: The milkman, during Steed's test.
64	* GroinAttack: Mrs. Peel to Bailey during their fight in Sir August's base.
65	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Sir August, by his own fighting staff and a bolt of lightning from his WeatherControlMachine.
66	* HotLine: Mother is the head of The Ministry, a top secret British intelligence agency. He has a red phone on his office that connects directly to the British Prime Minister.
67	* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Sir August to a captured Mrs. Peel.
68	* IdiotBall: Mother takes possession of it early on. The Ministry has video evidence that Mrs. Peel is the one who sabotaged the Prospero project, yet they see it fit to have her assigned to the case.
69	* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: Mrs. Peel enters Sir August's base by posing as her EvilTwin clone.
70	* InstantSedation: Sir August to Mrs. Peel (drug-tipped dart) and Father to Mrs. Peel (aerosol gas).
71	* KarmicDeath: Father and Mrs. Peel's clone.
72	* KnockoutGas: Father knocks Mrs. Peel out instantly with gas from an aerosol can.
73	* LargeHam: Sean Connery as Sir August de Wynter.
74	* LetsSplitUpGang: Five times.
75	* LightningCanDoAnything: Such as pulling Sir August high up into the air.
76	* MeaningfulName: The villain's name is Sir August de ''Wynter'', and he can control the weather.
77	* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Lab destruction -> weather control extortion conspiracy.
78	* TheMole: [[spoiler:Father]]
79	* MonumentalDamage: Nelson's Column and Big Ben's clock tower.
80	* MythologyGag:
81	** Steed and Peel bantering while fencing is taken from the episode "The Town of No Return" (the first Emma Peel episode to air), even containing some of the same dialogue.
82	** The plot of trying to control the weather is taken from the episode "A Surfeit of H₂O".
83	** The sequence where Mrs. Peel finds herself unable to escape the mansion is strongly reminiscent of the episode "The House That Jack Built."
84	** Col. Invisible Jones is clearly a nod to the episode "The See-Through Man".
85	** The character of Father appeared in the episode "Stay Tuned".
86	** Mother having a headquarters in a double-decker bus is taken from the episode "False Witness".
87	** The faux-village training course at the start of the film is very much like the one in ''Series/TheNewAvengers'' episode "Target".
88	** While Steed and Mrs. Peel are on Sir August's island he calls out to her, saying "Mrs. Peel, you're needed". In the first season in color of the original series, Steed would often say the {{catchphrase}} "Mrs. Peel, we're needed" at the beginning of an episode to get them into the action.
89	* NationalStereotypes: A major criticism of the film, especially in the UK, was that despite the film being written by British screenwriter Don Macpherson, the American production team fatally misunderstood the "British-ness" central to the series and instead based the characterizations heavily on American stereotypes of British people, depicting them as [[BritishStuffiness overly polite]] and obsessed with [[BritsLoveTea tea]] and [[UsefulNotes/BritishWeather the weather]]. The most notable example is the inclusion of an inexplicable tea dispenser on the dashboard of Steed's Bentley.
90	* NaturalDisasterCascade: Sir August De Wynter threatens to use the stolen WeatherControlMachine to send natural disasters against countries that don't comply with his demands.
91	* NeckSnap: Mrs. Peel's clone, to a Prospero Project Lab staff member.
92	* OddCouple: Steed plays by the rules, Mrs. Peel doesn't.
93	* OffhandBackhand: Steed, at the conclusion of one of his fight scenes.
94	* OminousPipeOrgan: Sir August plays one in his mansion.
95	* OppositesAttract: See OddCouple above.
96	* ParasolOfPain: Steed uses his umbrella as a weapon numerous times.
97	* ProfaneLastWords: Bailey is both TheVoiceless and TheDragon. Just before his DisneyVillainDeath he says "Oh fuck!", his first (and last) words in the movie.
98	* PungeonMaster: Mrs. Peel.
99	* ReCut: The original cut was 115 minutes long, but after a disastrous test screening, it was hacked down to 89 minutes. It is unlikely that we'll ever see the original cut.
100	* RedundantParody: The movie can come off as this, as it's supposed to be a self-aware parody of [[Series/TheAvengers1960s the original series]] even though the series was already self-aware.
101	* RemakeCameo: Creator/PatrickMacnee provided the voice of the invisible Colonel Jones.
102	* SecretTest: Steed's inviting Mrs. Peel to Boodles.
103	* SelfDestructMechanism: The WeatherControlMachine after it's turned off.
104	* SharePhrase: "How real will it feel" and "I thought I was seeing double".
105	* ShoutOutToShakespeare:
106	** After finding a dead scientist wearing a teddy bear costume Steed says "Alas, poor teddy", from "Alas poor Yorick" in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
107	** When Sir August appears before the Council of Ministers to make his demands, he starts off by saying "Now is the winter of your discontent", from Gloster's line in ''Theatre/RichardIII'': "Now is the winter of our discontent".
108	* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Mrs. Peel during her game with Steed.
109	* SpySpeak: When Mrs. Peel calls up Sir August from the phone booth on top of his island ElaborateUndergroundBase, she says "How Now Brown Cow" as a password to enter the base. She is apparently trying to pass as her EvilTwin clone (who was killed earlier trying to kidnap her).
110	* StalkerShrine: Sir August has one to Mrs. Peel (or her clone) in his mansion.
111	* StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure: The flying robot insects, to Steed and Mrs. Peel.
112	* StealthHiBye: Sir August after his fight with Steed in the hedge maze.
113	* StiffUpperLip: The film's one joke is that everyone treats ''everything'' like an UnusuallyUninterestingSight. Unfortunately, the film is so bad at it it comes off as DullSurprise.
114	* StockFootage: The destruction of the Big Ben clock tower is recycled footage from ''Film/MarsAttacks''
115	* StormingTheCastle: Steed and Mrs. Peel, to Sir August's base.
116	* SwissCheeseSecurity: The meeting of the Council of Ministers.
117	* SwordCane: In the final fight with Sir August, Steed reveals his sword ''umbrella''.
118	* {{Tagline}}: "When evil reigns/rains, only one team can weather the storm." But can they weather a HurricaneOfPuns?
119	* TapOnTheHead: Bailey to Alice and Mrs. Peel's EvilTwin clone to Steed.
120	* TrackingDevice: The "micro-tag" (radio homing signal) in Mrs. Peel's boots.
121	* TranquillizerDart: Sir August renders Mrs. Peel unconscious with a drug-tipped dart.
122	* UnflinchingFaithInTheBrakes: Alice, as Mrs. Peel's car approaches.
123	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Steed and Mrs. Peel. At least until [[spoiler: near the end when they kiss romantically, breaking every rule in the Avengers book.]]
124	* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: When Steed is attacked at the beginning of the movie.
125	* VillainousCrush: Sir August appears to have one for Mrs. Peel.
126	* TheVoiceless:
127	** Bailey says two words just before he dies (see AvoidTheDreadedGRating above). According to Eddie Izzard, the script only gave him a few bland lines and generic threats, and he decided the character would work better saying nothing at all.
128	** Mrs. Peel's clone. She says nothing at all throughout the movie, but we don't know whether it's because she's mute or just has nothing to say.
129	* WaxingLyrical:
130	** After finding two dead scientists wearing bear suits Steed says "The teddy bears are having a picnic." This refers to the song "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Bears%27_Picnic Teddy Bears' Picnic]]''.
131	** When Steed and Mrs. Peel see the two bearsuit-wearing villains split up, Mrs. Peel says "I'll take the high road" and Steed says "And I'll take the low road.", a reference to the Scottish song ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Banks_o%27_Loch_Lomond The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond]]''.
132	* WeatherControlMachine: Sir August uses one to try to extort 10 percent of Britain's Gross National Product.
133	* WeCanRuleTogether: Sir August to Mrs. Peel after he captures her.
134	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Alice (a senior Ministry agent) delivers Sir August's message to Mother and reveals that Father is a traitor, she disappears from the movie completely.
135	* WireDilemma: While trying to turn off the WeatherControlMachine, Mrs. Peel has to choose between the red and black wires.
136	* YouDidntAsk: Steed reveals to Mrs. Peel that he's been ordered to kill her. When she asks why he didn't tell her earlier...
137	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Sir August and his scientists.
138

Context Film / TheAvengers1998