Line #116 Film/TheLongKissGoodnight


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_long_kiss_goodnight_001_6711.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300: ''"What's forgotten is not always gone."'']]
3
4	''The Long Kiss Goodnight'' is a 1996 action thriller film directed by Creator/RennyHarlin and written by Creator/ShaneBlack.
5
6	Samantha Caine (Creator/GeenaDavis) knows nothing about her past. She had been found eight years ago on a beach, pregnant and injured, but remembers nothing of her former life. Since then she has given birth to her daughter, Caitlin (Creator/YvonneZima), and met a very nice man. For a while she hired a few private investigators, including Mitch Hennessey (Creator/SamuelLJackson), but they never came up with anything. She has been living a peaceful, idyllic life working as a schoolteacher and raising her daughter, and has pretty much decided to give her former, unknown life the "[[TitleDrop long kiss goodnight]]".
7
8	One Christmas season, she plays the part of Mrs. Claus in her town's Christmas parade. An inmate in prison is shocked to see her on television, alive, and breaks out.
9
10	Meanwhile, Samantha is in a freak auto accident, injuring her head. After she recovers she discovers as she cuts carrots one night that she has an unexpected skill with knives and assumes she must have been a chef in her past life. She could not be more wrong...
11
12	-----
13	!!This film contains examples of:
14
15	* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: There's a very brief one between Charly and Mitch when they arrive at the motel in Niagara Falls and Charly realizes that her chances of making it out alive are slim.
16	-->'''Charly:''' They're going to blow my head off, you know. This is the last time I'll ever be pretty.\
17	''Charly and Mitch kiss''
18	* AccidentalAimingSkills: At one point, out of sheer desperation, Mitch grabs a knife and simply lobs it toward the incoming mook, having nowhere to run or hide. The knife lodges directly in the guy's throat - and Mitch is even more surprised than the unfortunate sucker he just killed.
19	* ActionMom: Samantha/Charly turns into this.
20	* AlcoholHic: Near the beginning, Samantha lampshades this trope while on the way home from a Christmas party with her clearly drunk friend.
21	-->'''Sam:''' Do me a favor: every few seconds, have some bubbles come out of your mouth and say "Hic!"
22	%%** AmnesiaDanger: Subverted.
23	* AmnesiacDissonance: Who would expect a small-town schoolteacher to be one of the most dangerous women in the world?
24	* AmnesiacLiar: Being a spy would do that to you.
25	* AmnesiacResonance: Samantha discovers an ability with knives that she believes means she was a chef, but she's really a government assassin.
26	* AnAsskickingChristmas: The events of the film take place during the Christmas holidays. In fact, Sam/Charly was believed to be dead until she was seen dressed as Mrs. Claus in a parade.
27	* ArmsDealer: Daedalus is one of these.
28	* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat:
29	-->'''Mitch:''' ''[preparing for attack]'' Ready... and... ''[sees the grenade]'' Fuck it! Run for your life!"
30	* AttemptedRape: When One-Eyed Jack is given an unconscious Charly, instead of just killing her like he was ordered he begins fondling her, which results in her waking up and stabbing him in the eye with a syringe. It's also implied that Timothy had previously tried something similar.
31	-->'''Timothy:''' Jack? Jack? ''Jack!'' Do yourself a favor, man: don't let her looks fool you. She's the Energizer fucking Bunny. Just do her and dump her; don't try to get cute and play doctor first. I made that mistake. It nearly killed me.
32	* AxCrazy: Timothy is nothing but a psychotic and heartless monster with a taste for mass murder and torture. Pretty dark considering the film's comedic overtones.
33	%%* BadassLongcoat: Timothy wears it for the first half of the movie.
34	* BadBoss: Timothy.
35	-->'''Henchman:''' I'm hurt real bad. I think I'm dying.\
36	'''Timothy:''' Continue dying. Out.
37	* BaldOfEvil: One-Eyed Jack and Leland Perkins.
38	* BehindTheBlack: the scene with Charly and the unknown gunman in an alley. Nobody seems to notice Mitch until he puts a gun to the guy's head. While he may have been able to hide somewhere, there is no way he could have snuck up on the gunman without being noticed.
39	* BeyondRedemption: Charly attempted to reason with Timothy not to hurt her daughter, Caitlin by revealing to him that she is not only her daughter but also ''his'' daughter. Despite easily accepting the revelation, he still considers locking both women in a freezer. At that point, Charly realized trying to get through Timothy that they're family is out of the question, so she threatens him that he'll die screaming when she and Caitlin got out of the freezer.
40	* BlackComedyRape: A joke by Charly.
41	-->'''Man:''' Hey lady. Want some company?\
42	'''Charly:''' No thanks, I'm saving myself 'til I get raped.
43	%%* BloodKnight: Timothy. He loves his work, all right.
44	* BondVillainStupidity: The bad guys twice have our heroine helpless in their power, but fail to just shoot her. The first time is somewhat justified by their need to interrogate her, but they still leave just one guy to do the job despite knowing how dangerous she is. The second time? They monolog their entire plan to her, then leave her LockedInAFreezer. Luckily, she's filled her daughter's doll with gasoline, you know, just in case she needed to set fire to stuff. Averted in the case of Mitch's case, as they intended to just shoot him (or stab him, there was some debate), but were too slow, giving Charly time to blow stuff up and distract them.
45	** Actually happens ''three'' times. In a flashback we see that One-Eyed Jack had Charly at his mercy and was ordered by Timothy to kill her. Instead he decided to have some fun with her. But then she woke up...
46	* BrainwashResidue: Try as she might, but Charly finds out that no matter what she does, she can't "erase" Samantha through things such as cheating on Hal with Mitch, cutting herself off from the photo with the former and Caitlin, and attempting assassination on the two.
47	* BringMyBrownPants:
48	** A teenaged boy is smoking a cigarette when he is surprised by Charly the Spy coming up behind him with a scoped carbine rifle. He pees his pants.
49	** Seeing the local mom in stretch pants and carrying a BFG calmly state "Tell anyone you saw me, I'll blow your fucking head off" would tend to have that effect on a person.
50	* BuxomBeautyStandard: In one scene Mitch notices a large-breasted female jogger while he's driving. When Samantha expresses her amusement at Mitch's reaction, Mitch comments that Samantha has the jogger beat "from the neck up."
51	* CaptainObvious: "Don't hit the cars!" Lampshaded with the look Mitch gives her right after she says that.
52	* CardCarryingVillain: Timothy. He is never under any illusions about what a horrifying monster he is and enjoys every moment of it.
53	* ChefOfIron: We wanna meet the chefs that can do that.
54	* ChekhovsGun:
55	** [[spoiler:Samantha slips a matchbook into her daughter's sling, so that she can keep a candle lit while her mother's away. Once Sam has her memory back and is Charly Baltimore, she and her daughter are Locked In A Freezer, where the matches (along with some gasoline) allow her to blow up the freezer door and escape. ]]
56	** Lighting a candle in the window, [[spoiler:so Sam can find "her way home".]]
57	** A literal one. [[spoiler:The location of Nathan's third gun.]]
58	* ClickHello:
59	-->'''Alley Agent:''' Hey honey, this is a real big fuckin' gun.\
60	'''Mitch:''' <putting gun to Agent's head> This ain't no ham on rye, pal.
61	* ContrivedCoincidence: After eight years of being missing and amnesiac, Samantha is in a car crash which begins the process of recovering her memories. At almost the exact same time, a former assailant happens to see a shot of her on TV, and escapes prison to kill her (she survives only because her skills have just started coming back. At the same time, the low-rent PI she hired happens to stumble across leads connected to her former life. And all of this happens while an old enemy of hers is in the last stage of planning a massive terror attack. These four plot lines happen for completely unrelated reasons, but all of them happen almost simultaneously to drive the plot forward.
62	* CrazyPrepared: Waldman, who carries three handguns on himself at all times.
63	-->'''Mitch:''' Jesus, old man! How many of those things you got?! \
64	'''Waldman:''' Three: one shoulder, one hip, and one right next to Mr. Wally. Most pat-downs don't reveal it as an agent's often reluctant to feel up another man's groin.
65	** When trapped in the cellar, Charly fills her daughter's doll with petrol on the off chance this might be useful in their escape. It is.
66	* CriminalAmnesiac: Luke/Daedalus keeps the lie that he's Samantha's fiancee, when he's actually the mark.
67	* DeadpanSnarker: '''Everyone''' - this is a ''wonderful'' movie for snarky lines, as one would expect from Creator/ShaneBlack. Especially Sam/Charly, Mitch, and Nathan Waldman.
68	-->'''Mitch:''' Excuse me, uh... do you normally curse this much? \
69	'''Sam:''' I... what, are you a Mormon? \
70	'''Mitch:''' Yes, I'm a Mormon. That's why I just smoked a pack of Newport and drank three vodka tonics.
71	** Another example:
72	--->'''Mitch:''' (''in shock'') We jumped out of a building! \
73	'''Waldman:''' Yes, and it was very exciting. Tomorrow we go to the zoo.
74	** And:
75	--->'''Mitch:''' (''singing to himself'') Got my keys in the left pocket... gun in the right-hand side...\
76	'''Sam:''' It makes a bulge! People can see.\
77	'''Mitch:''' You want me to [[PantsPositiveSafety stick it down my pants]] and shoot my damn dick off?\
78	'''Sam:''' So now you're a sharpshooter?
79	** As well as:
80	--->'''Mitch:''' How did you find me?\
81	'''Waldman:''' There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you'll be missed by NASA.
82	* DeepCoverAgent: What better cover than AmnesiacDissonance?
83	* DeliverUsFromEvil: A slightly complicated example here. Charly, an assassin, loses her memory shortly before learning that she's pregnant, and lives over the next eight or so years of her life as a loving mother. When her memories of being an assassin eventually [[AmnesiacDissonance return and override the "mother" persona]], her first instinct is to dump the kid as it's not really "hers" and pick up things where she left off. This instinct lasts right up until her daughter is kidnapped by the bad guys, whereupon she goes MamaBear. Totally averted with her child's father, who is [[spoiler:terrorist sociopath Timothy]], who leaves them to die without a qualm even after learning about his daughter (she tried to invoke this through revealing it).
84	* DirtyCop: Mitch's first scene is him impersonating a crooked vice cop, busting in on a man with a supposed prostitute (actually Mitch's secretary/researcher) only to solicit a bribe to not take him in. Mitch later reveals that he actually used to be a dirty cop who stole some bonds the police department had seized, until his partner turned him in.
85	* DirtyOldMan: Samantha drives an inebriated older man home from her Christmas party. During the drive, he asks if Samantha and her fiancee ever... followed by a suggestive hand gesture. Samantha attempts to deflect his question by saying "Make a circle with our fingers and move another finger in and out? Every chance we get." Later on he causes a car crash by trying to touch his nose eyes closed, waving a hand in front of Sam, allegedly to prove he's not drunk though actually as a ploy to grab her boobs.
86	* DisappearedDad: Samantha Caine doesn't at first know who her daughter Caitlin's father is given her amnesia. [[spoiler:Later she remembers that it's sociopathic terrorist Timothy. She had been with him as a means of getting close, as he was her target for assassination. Unsurprisingly, learning of his paternity doesn't improve him one bit: he leaves her to die.]]
87	* DisneyVillainDeath:
88	** Averted. Timothy is tossed into an aqueduct in what seems to be his demise, but he swiftly emerges just wet, scratched up, and pissed off.
89	** [[spoiler:Technically averted twice, as Timothy also survives his second fall...though between that fall and the bullets that riddled him, he likely WOULD have died soon if an explosion hadn't sealed the deal a little later.]]
90	* DistractedByTheSexy: When Charly notices that Mitch's bandage needs to be changed, she opens her bathrobe and flashes him right before ripping the bandage off.
91	* DistressedDude: Though Mitch and Sam/Charly are kidnapped and held hostage/tortured about the same amount of time, Mitch acknowledges that she's way better at getting out of those situations than he is.
92	-->'''Mitch:''' Sam, I'll be waiting for you to come rescue me.\
93	'''Sam:''' Be just a minute.
94	* TheDragon: [[spoiler:Timothy, who becomes the BigBad when the previous one is killed halfway through the film (though even then, he still works for the corrupt CIA boss Leland, essentially making Timothy a DragonInChief).]]
95	* DyeOrDie: Charly dyed her auburn hair blonde. Samantha let it grow out. Didn't help her.
96	* EmergencyStash: [[spoiler:The locker opened by the key]].
97	* EndangeringNewsBroadcast: The whole plot is kick-started when a local news team records and airs a video of Sam being the Mrs. Claus of a parade as part of a "funny interest" story and One-Eyed Jack sees it, making him ''break out of jail'' to get revenge for Charly Baltimore taking his eye.
98	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In Timothy's first scene he is interrogating a captive. The captive knows that there's no way that he's getting out alive, so he asks Timothy to execute him with a gun rather than a knife. Timothy stabs the guy with a knife, apparently ForTheEvulz.
99	* EverybodySmokes: You can count non-smoking characters on your fingers. And the [[SmokingIsCool cooler]] the characters are, the more they smoke.
100	* EvilUncle: Leland Perkins could be considered an evil HonoraryUncle to Charly. Perkins was friends with Charly's father, and when Charly's father was killed in Belfast (presumably by the Irish Republican Army, as he was a soldier serving in the Royal Irish Rangers) Perkins recruited Charly to work for Chapter.
101	* EyeScream:
102	** ''[[ParanoiaFuel Through the peephole.]]''
103	** Another nasty one occurs in the flash back. We find out exactly how "One-Eyed Jack" got his name.
104	* FalseFlagOperation:
105	** [[spoiler:The bad guys' plan is to fake a terrorist attack on US soil so the CIA will get better funding.]]
106	--->'''Mitch:''' [[spoiler:You're telling me you're gonna fake some terrorist thing just to scare some money out of Congress?]]\
107	'''[[spoiler:Leland:]]''' [[spoiler:Well, unfortunately Mr. Hennessey, I have no idea how to fake killing 4000 people - so we're just gonna have to do it for real.]]
108	** In the same scene, Perkins mentions the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (the movie came out pre-9/11) and implies that the CIA had a hand in it.
109	* FauxAffablyEvil: Timothy. Craig Bierko plays him with such charisma and humor that he's incredibly fun to watch, even as he does shockingly horrible things with pure enjoyment.
110	* FireForgedFriends: Mitch and Sam start out strangers and a little leery of each other. By the climax, they are a strong team. They part ways at the end, but still look out for each other.
111	* ForgotTheCall: Imagine ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]'' if Jason Bourne's amnesia was caused by BecomingTheMask rather than a nasty boating incident.
112	* GenreShift: Technically, both sides are action, but every aspect of the film takes a ''hard'' turn when Charly regains her memory.
113	* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Charly worked for Chapter, which Waldman describes as "a black bag operation working from the U.S. State Department".
114	* GuileHero: Applies to both Charly and Mitch. In Atlantic City, Charly tricks Perkins into revealing that he wants her dead by having Mitch place a phone call to his own office, knowing that it will be traced by Chapter. Later in the film Mitch figures out how to find Timothy by suggesting that they go to a telephone company office and coerce an employee into tracing Timothy's phone.
115	* GunFu: One of the earliest western examples before Creator/JohnWoo migrated to America. Noteworthy examples include:
116	** Leaping out of an exploding building and shooting the frozen lake below to soften the impact of landing.
117	** [[spoiler:Loosening a cable tied to a corpse hanging from the top of a bridge's bannister, making the corpse drop; holding onto the rope and allowing the corpse's weight to pull you UP RIGHT NEXT TO THE HELICOPTER 50 FEET ABOVE YOU and blowing your evil ex-lover to smithereens at point blank range, ''with the Uzi you just grabbed from the falling corpse as you passed it''.]]
118	* TheHandler: Waldman used to be this for Charly.
119	* HeelRealization: Leland comments "My god, we're monsters." on Timothy's kidnapping of Caitlin.
120	* HeroesLoveDogs: During her attempt to rescue themselves being locked in a freezer with her, Charly asked Caitlin if they should get a dog, in which the latter agreed with that. [[spoiler:They did get a dog in the end]].
121	-->'''Charly:''' Hey, should we get a dog?
122	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Timothy is blown to kingdom come by his own truck bomb.]]
123	* HoneyTrap: When Charly was still working as a CIA assassin, she would seduce the men she was assigned to kill. It's known from the film that she had sex with both Daedalus and Timothy. [[spoiler:In fact, her affair with Timothy resulted in her becoming pregnant with Caitlin.]]
124	* IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: A variant: "If you want me to talk in front of him, you may be asked to kill him later."
125	* IKEAWeaponry: One of Samantha's first steps toward remembering her past is finding and reassembling the sniper rifle hidden in her old suitcase. Seeing her putting together a weapon she doesn't even properly ''recognize'' is one of the creepiest scenes in the film.
126	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: If it weren't for this trope, Mitch and Charly wouldn't have survived very long. This trope is especially blatant during the shootout in the train station; the hitmen sent by Chapter walk in with automatic weapons and begin spraying indiscriminately, managing to kill several innocent bystanders but not even scratching Mitch or Charly.
127	* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Part of Mitch's standard con in busting guests who '''think''' they're with a prostitute.
128	* ImportantHaircut: When Samantha becomes fully aware of her Charly identity, she underlines the change in her mind by changing her appearance, which includes cutting her hair and dyeing it blonde. [[spoiler:At the end of the film her hair is still blonde, but it's back to it's pre-Charly length, symbolizing that she has embraced both her kind and nurturing Samantha personality as well as her tough and independent Charly personality.]]
129	* ImprovisedWeapon: When One-Eyed Jack invades Charly's home, he hits her in the face with a full milk jug. As he goes for a kitchen knife, Charly hits him with a pie in the face.
130	* InformedAttractiveness: Calling Geena Davis unattractive would be a stretch, but no fewer than five characters comment on Charly/Sam's attractiveness. Of course, the film was produced and directed by her husband.
131	* InformedAttribute:
132	** Every time Timothy uses his LivingLieDetector abilities in the movie, people are actually telling him the truth.
133	** Strangely enough, given the InformedAttractiveness example above, Waldman says that Samantha got "frumpier," probably referring to her more plain, matronly looks as Sam, even though she still looks ''damn fine''. Charly says her ass got bigger, which could be true.
134	* {{Irony}}: The car crash that starts Charly's memory recovery happens because she's giving a drunk friend a ride, so he'd get home safely. Unfortunately, his drunken antics distract her, so she doesn't notice the deer on the road...
135	* IronicEcho: Earlier in the movie, Samantha told Caitlin "life is pain" when the latter injured herself skating on ice. In the end, Caitlin tells Samantha, as Charly, "life is pain" to help her stand up from her injuries.
136	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
137	** Samantha in her Charly status is an example of GoodIsNotNice with a huge emphasis on the "Not Nice."
138	** Mitch, too. He's a good person at his core, but in general -- and putting aside illegal activity -- he acts like an ass though he gets better.
139	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: [[spoiler: After Charly confess to Timothy that Caitlin is his own daughter he takes a look in Caitlin's eyes to check if it's true. He finds out that it is and he looks a bit moved by that. He still locked her in the freezer to die with her mother anyway.]]
140	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:We never see the corrupt CIA boss Leland killed or captured. However, it is implied that he gets indicted at the end according to Hennessey on ''Larry King Live''.]]
141	* KnightOfCerebus: The movie shifts alternately between action and comedy. Once Timothy is on scene, however, the comedy part is totally absent and things get deadly serious from there. His EstablishingCharacterMoment is torturing and then stabbing a man simply to amuse himself regardless of whether or not the man knows anything about his plan. He's ready to harm and/or kill anyone, including children, and he later plans to [[spoiler:have Charly frozen to death along with her young daughter even after finding out that she's also his daughter.]]
142	* {{Leitmotif}}: Hennessy hums a standard blues riff to himself a couple of times throughout the film... [[spoiler:which comes back with an electric guitar vengeance when he pops out from concealment within the car that the agents brought along to the bridge (to place the dead bodies of the people they were going to frame for the bomb) at the climax, showing that he's MadeOfIron.]]
143	* LenoDevice: Mitch gets to go on ''Larry King Live''!
144	* LivingLieDetector: Timothy boasts of this ability. It comes back to bite him in the ass when Charly promises to kill him dead.
145	-->'''Charly:''' "You're gonna die screaming. And I'm gonna watch. Am I telling the truth?"
146	* TheLoad: Mitch! Fittingly for a gender flipped Bourne/Bond movie, Samuel L. Jackson fulfills this role by being almost completely useless until the final sequence (where he acts as getaway driver). While he has his heroic moments (such as trying to bluff Timothy that he'd called the cops and trying to rescue the kid), they're pretty much doomed to failure and end up hindering as much as helping Charly.
147	* LockedInAFreezer: [[spoiler:Charly uses a meathook to scrape a hole in the ground under the door, fills the hole with gasoline, and blows the door off its hinges. She's nothing if not resourceful.]]
148	* LukeYouAreMyFather: As Timothy is about to [[spoiler:leave Charly and her young daughter Caitlin to freeze to death together in a meat locker, Charly reveals that Caitlin's also his. He leaves them both in the locker anyway.]]
149	* MadeOfIron: Both protagonists survive being thrown violently from cars, diving three stories into icy water, being tortured, being shot, and getting literally blown out of a house and through a sign. It's a bit more impressive with Mitch since Samantha/Charly is a trained assassin, while Mitch is a low-rent private investigator/con man.
150	** The same goes for main villain Timothy, who survives what would have been a DisneyVillainDeath in any average action film and just gets pissed off. [[spoiler:He also ''technically'' survives being shot repeatedly and falling out of a helicopter and onto a truck, albeit for only about thirty seconds before the truck explodes. But even though it's clear his wounds would have killed him anyway, he didn't ''immediately'' die.]]
151	* MagicalNegro: Hennessey is ''determined'' [[DefiedTrope to avert this trope]]. "[[SarcasmMode Yes, Miss Daisy, I be honkin'!]]"
152	* MajorlyAwesome: Charly is referred to as "Major Baltimore" a few times, suggesting that she has a military background (either that, or Chapter uses a military-like ranking system).
153	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: This is how Timothy is going to cover up the deaths of Charly and Caitlin.
154	-->'''Timothy:''' Now, they're, uh... They're gonna find your bodies somewhere in Pennsylvania, and you're just gonna be written off as some crazy mommy who kidnapped her own kid, and died with her in a blizzard.
155	* MamaBear: Samantha, made even more dangerous because of her assassin training.
156	* MartialArtsAndCrafts: The protagonist becomes really good in the kitchen shortly after a car crash. She thinks her memories are starting to return after eight years of amnesia, and that her great skill with knives mean she used to be a chef. She's right about the first part.
157	* MeaningfulEcho: "Life is pain. You just get used to it!"
158	* MeaningfulName: Sam Caine -> Amnesiac
159	* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Samantha's murder attempt ----> A [[FalseFlagOperation false flag terrorist attack]] orchestrated by corrupt CIA operatives.
160	* ModestRoyalty: The first time we see the President of the United States, he's wearing pajamas and making himself a sandwich for a late-night snack in the White House kitchen (rather than having a butler or other servant make it for him).
161	* MondegreenGag: Mitch is hearing England Dan and John Ford Coley's "I'd Really Like to See You Tonight" on the radio, and sings along, using the phrase, "I'm not talking 'bout the linen," when Samantha corrects him that the actual words in the song are "I'm not talking about moving in."
162	* MoodWhiplash: The film itself goes through a big, BIG one when Samantha regains her memory. Beforehand, it comes across as a FilmNoir about a woman's uncovering of a DarkAndTroubledPast with the help of a PrivateDetective. Once she becomes Charly again, the film's mood transforms into that of a sleek spy thriller.
163	** Throughout, this film can run around a bit, with the comedy mixed in with the dark.
164	* MoralityChain: Charly realizes Hal and Caitlin are this for her, hence her hesitation to kill them in order to "erase" Samantha. The latter's kidnapping by Timothy motivates her to come to her rescue. Averted with Timothy's case with Caitlin that not only he kidnaps her but also leaves her to die in the freezer with her mother, even after Charly reveals that [[spoiler:Caitlin is also his daughter]].
165	* MsFanservice: Samantha/Charly both redheaded and blonde.
166	* NearMissGroinAttack: During the scene when Mitch is being interrogated by Timothy while tied to a chair, Timothy tries intimidating Mitch by flinging a knife that embeds itself on the chair's surface, a few inches from Mitch's groin.
167	* NeckSnap: Samantha hits a stag and crashes her car. In the aftermath, she finds him bleeding to death and snaps his neck to put it out of his misery. Then she wonders how she did that.
168	** She also does this to One-Eyed Jack (via a rabbit punch) and a nameless mook outside of the motel by Niagara Falls.
169	* NeverForgottenSkill: Samantha Caine has had amnesia for eight years. But it becomes clear that this hasn't stopped her from executing a Neck Snap, a rabbit punch, and knife moves like a professional.
170	* NiceGuy: Samantha's fiancee, Hal. When Samantha sets off on her journey to discover who she really is (after showing off some rather alarming knife skills and a man with a shotgun bursts into their home trying to kill her) he tells her that no matter what she finds he won't be scared or run away.
171	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: If One-Eyed Jack had refrained from trying to kill Samantha, she wouldn't have tried to find out why that happened, which means she wouldn't have recalled her former identity as Charly Baltimore, and therefore, she wouldn't have foiled his boss' plans.
172	** Daedalus' torture of Samantha/Charly to make sure she hadn't told anyone about him is what finally unlocks her Charly personality and super-spy abilities (which in turn leads to her [[spoiler:untying herself, grabbing Waldman's gun he keeps near his crotch, and killing Daedalus]]).
173	* NoEndorHolocaust:
174	** When Sam returns to her house it is played straight in the kitchen - everything is neat and tidy in there despite only a day or so passing since the battle where the fridge door was blasted. (Wow, the insurance replaced the fridge fast!)
175	** Averted though when she runs down the steps - the hole in the wall was boarded up and papers are on the banister.
176	* NoodleIncident: We hear a television set say "...so, so much for the skydiving Santa Claus..."
177	* NotSoStoic: Timothy. When Charly tells him that he's going to die screaming, he actually looks a little frightened by her threat. Later after Charly knocks him into an aqueduct, he completely loses his composure.
178	* OffscreenKarma: [[spoiler:Leland Perkins is the only major antagonist who doesn't get killed by Charly. However, in the film's epilogue it's mentioned by Larry King that he was indicted on multiple counts of high treason. Considering that treason is a capital crime in the United States, it's very possible that Perkins would have been given the death penalty (or at the very least he'll be spending the rest of his life in federal prison).]]
179	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Mitch got busted and did prison time for stealing federal bonds. So now, whenever he gives his son a nice gift, his estranged ex assumes it's stolen goods.
180	* OutrunTheFireball:
181	** From a surprisingly powerful grenade.
182	** [[spoiler:Then they ''outdrive'' the fireball at the end of the movie.]]
183	* PieInTheFace: Charly subdues One-Eyed Jack with this during their fight at her house. It's not the pie that does the job - it's the ceramic baking dish the pie was in, which breaks his nose.
184	* PlaceWorseThanDeath: The film takes one dig at New Jersey being this.
185	-->'''Charly:''' [''as she is [[DrivesLikeCrazy driving like crazy]], to Mitch''] Relax. I once drove out of Baghdad, I can surely drive out of New Jersey.\
186	'''Mitch:''' Others have tried and failed!
187	* PrivateDetective: Mitch's day job.
188	* PsychoForHire: Timothy. He's an utter sociopath that probably doesn't even enjoys the slaughter he does, but he really has no problem doing it either.
189	* PunchClockVillain: Leland Perkins. He views the Honeymoon plot as a necessary evil to get the [=CIA=] the funding that it desperately needs, and when he sees that Timothy has kidnapped Caitlin he comments "My god, we're monsters." and even gives her a doll as a Christmas present.
190	* RevealingSkill: The protagonist is a sweet innocent soccer mom with a memory loss—she hit her head eight years ago, and her entire life before that is forgotten. Shortly after the start of the movie, she's suddenly creepily good with knives. She says that she must have been a chef before the accident, but it's undeniable that she as well as her family have received the first clue that she was, something else...
191	* RevolversAreJustBetter: Mitch likes revolvers; the two guns he keeps on himself are a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson Model 36 and a Colt King Cobra .357 magnum.
192	* RewatchBonus: At the start of the film, Samantha can be seen holding a candy cane the same way that Charly holds her cigarette.
193	* RunningGag: Mitch hums a standard blues riff to himself when he's thinking. This culminates in [[spoiler:him driving out of the back of a truck while the riff blares out on electric guitars.]]
194	-->'''Mitch:''' ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis CAN'T KILL ME ]] [[Creator/SamuelLJackson MUTHAFUCKAS!!!]]''
195	** An earlier example, made even more awesome because he's [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Samuel L. Motherfuckin' Jackson]]:
196	--->'''Mitch:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyoJN9MN-lQ Da-da-da-da-dun, got me a handgun. Da-da-da-da-dun, got me a rifle, too. Da-da-da-da-dun, anybody fuck with Mitch, he knows just what to d-o. 'Cuz I'm a bad motherfucker.]]
197	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Their first night in a hotel, Mitch hears Sam scream from her room. He opens the door and she nearly hits him with a high-power sniper rifle, which she'd apparently found in her old things, assembled and ''loaded''. Understandably, he sees this as a good time to just turn around and go home. Sam does talk him down, eventually.
198	* SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil: At Daedalus' house, the helicopter makes no noise until the heroes see it.
199	* SelfPlagiarism: Creator/BrianCox's line "Yes, it was very exciting. Tomorrow we go to the zoo" was in Shane Black's original script for ''Film/TheLastBoyScout''. Both scripts also have the hero sarcastically mention that someone is so funny they're going to wet themself.
200	* ShoutOut:
201	** Samantha is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Jones Candy Jones]].
202	** The title seems to be a shout out to the film ''Film/TheLongGoodbye'', a Phillip Marlowe mystery/satire where the character is eternally twenty years behind everyone else. The film is even shown on TV in one scene.
203	* TheSociopath: Timothy. Insanely murderous terrorist and child abuser.
204	* SplitPersonality: Davis does an eerily good job of making the audience believe she's two people.
205	** Eventually results in a [[spoiler:SplitPersonalityMerge]].
206	* TalkingToThemself: Briefly in the mirror.
207	* TookALevelInBadass: Charly, definitely.
208	-->'''Mitch:''' Back when we first met, you were like "Oh phooey, I burned the darn muffins". Now, you go into a bar, and ten minutes later, sailors come runnin' out.
209	* ToThePain: Timothy is willing to blind and cripple a little girl. That is his ''daughter''.
210	* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Forgot her life [[spoiler:because she got shot, and fell off a cliff into the ocean]], started getting her memories back [[spoiler:after a car accident]], and regained them completely [[spoiler:after being tortured and almost drowned]].
211	* TrouserSpace: Nathan is [[CrazyPrepared well-armed]]:
212	-->'''Mitch:''' Jesus, old man, how many of those you got? \
213	'''Nathan:''' Three -- one shoulder, one hip, and one here right next to [[ICallHimMisterHappy Mr. Wally]]. Most patdowns never reveal it as an agent's often reluctant to feel up another man's groin. Other questions? \
214	'''Mitch:''' Yeah -- what's the weather like on your planet?
215	* TheVamp: Slinky, knife-throwing terrorist Timothy is a rare male Vamp.
216	* VillainousBreakdown: After being knocked into an aqueduct filled with rushing water by Charly, the normally smug and cocky Timothy is clearly rattled and ''very'' angry.
217	-->'''Timothy:''' Get me to the bridge! I'm not leaving until I know that bitch is dead!
218	* VillainTeamUp: This film has three major antagonists.
219	** Luke/Daedalus, a black market arms dealer.
220	** Timothy, a PsychoForHire who works as Daedalus' chief enforcer.
221	** Leland Perkins, a rogue CIA official.
222	* WaterTorture: Samantha is strapped to a water wheel and repeatedly submerged into the freezing cold water by the villain in an attempt to gain information from her.
223	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We last left Sam's friend from the accident unconscious in a car that was catching on fire. While it's probably safe to assume he died, we never learn for sure and his plot is never brought back up.
224	* WhatTheHellHero: Mitch gives one of these to Charly when she tries to seduce him in Atlantic City.
225	-->'''Mitch:''' Get real, sweetheart. I ain't handsome, I ain't rich, and the last time I got blown candy bars cost a nickel. What's going on?\
226	'''Charly:''' Chemistry.\
227	'''Mitch:''' Chemistry my ass. You know what I think? This is why you'd fuck me. ''holds up photograph'' To kill a schoolteacher. To bury her once and for all. Well, I kind of liked that schoolteacher. When she comes back, you give me a call, all right?
228	* WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: Take a look at the False Flag Operation.
229	* WorldOfSnark: As mentioned above, virtually every character in this movie is a DeadpanSnarker.
230	* WouldHurtAChild:
231	** At the church Christmas pageant, 8-year-old Caitlin is walking down the aisle, saying hi to people, when Timothy steps behind her, knocks her out with an inhalant, and carries her out over his shoulder. [[spoiler:He's absolutely willing to kill Caitlin, even after learning that she is his biological daughter.]]
232	** In another scene, after he kidnaps Caitlin, he threatens a woman nearby into silence by pulling a knife on her children that she'll have "2.4 children" (meaning he'll cut 'em to pieces) if she tries to warn someone.
233	* YouAreGrounded: Charly said this to Caitlin when she disobeyed her order to leave the truck bomb and instead focused on helping her stand up.

Context Film / TheLongKissGoodnight