Line #93 Film/TheWarriorsWay


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6	[[quoteright:289:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the-warriors-way-poster_1797.jpg]]
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8	->''"Ninjas. Damn."''
9	-->-- '''Ron''' [[note]]Although this line was [[TrailersAlwaysLie not actually in the movie]][[/note]]
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11	''The Warrior's Way'' is a 2010 South Korean Western/ninja/circus movie directed by Sngmoo Lee and starring Creator/JangDongGun, Creator/KateBosworth, Creator/GeoffreyRush, and Creator/DannyHuston. Released in 1 December, 2010, the film's story revolves around the character Yang, an Asian swordsman (Jang) who was exiled from his clan after refusing to kill a baby, and Lynne (Bosworth), a troubled woman with a horrific past. Rush plays town drunk Ron who not only has a checkered past, but hidden depths. Lynne has a troubled history with the Colonel (Huston) who comes to terrorize the town. The film uses green screen throughout and liberal use of special effects.
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13	----
14	!!This film includes examples of the following tropes:
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16	* AssassinOutclassin: Basically the fate of ''every'' assassin trying to challenge Yang, who leaves piles of dead bodies every step he takes.
17	* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Both The Colonel and Saddest Flute are significantly more dangerous than their respective underlings.
18	* BadassLongcoat: Yang wears a long black coat for the second half of the movie.
19	* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: The Colonel orders this done to the two Mexican girls he intends to rape.
20	* BattleInTheRain: The final battle between Yang and the Saddest Flute takes place in a storm that literally blows up out of nowhere (It seems to be a flashback to a training session substituted in place of their actual final fight).
21	* BigBadEnsemble: There are two major villains in the movie, each one being personal to Yang and Lynne; the former have his ex-mentor, Saddest Flute, while the latter has the Colonel. The villains are ''not'' on the same side though (as seen in the final battle).
22	* BlackCloak: The Sad Flutes' uniform (if it can be called that) is a body-covering long cloak, big straw hat, and blades.
23	* BodyDouble: [[spoiler: Near the start of the third act, Lynn managed to chuck a knife into the fleeing Colonel, avenging her family... except she didn't. She had instead killed a mook wearing the Colonel's mask and cape, and now the townsfolk realize the Colonel will return with a full battalion of mooks to massacre everyone]].
24	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The Colonel and Saddest Flute are dead, Eight-ball and many of the carnies are also dead, but the remaining Sad Flutes will continue to hunt Yang ensuring he cannot settle down with Lynne. The Carnival is destroyed as is the Ferris Wheel that was supposed to save the town. However Lynne is alive as is the Baby and they should be safe.]]
25	* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler:Considering how Yang normally does against such odds, though...]]
26	* BoozeFlamethrower: The fire eater from the circus uses this to light the candles on a birthday cake. It becomes a ChekhovsSkill when he later uses it to light a couple of the Colonel's henchmen on fire.
27	* ButNowIMustGo: The film ends with Yang leaving Lynne and the rest of the Lode residents behind, now that Saddest Flute is dead. He even left baby April with the citizens because he knew she wouldn't be safe with him.
28	%%* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Yang. He dodges a bullet at ''point-blank range''!
29	%%* CherryBlossoms
30	* ChineseLaunderer: Yang takes over the laundry when he arrives in Lode, mainly because that's what everyone assumes he'll be good at. He actually has to learn how to do it from Lynne.
31	* ClothingSwitch: The town guy who takes one of the Sad Flutes' CoatHatMask combo after the FinalBattle. Doubles as a FunnyBackgroundEvent since nobody says anything of it and he doesn't get a single line while wearing it.
32	* CoatHatMask: The Sad Flutes' suits. So cool looking a town guy actually bothers to put one on after they're dead.
33	* ColonelBadass: The Colonel, as expected. He's the only one of the enemy soldiers that puts up a decent fight, although he never really fights Yang and his fight is with Lynne instead.
34	* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Yang tears through groups of mooks with no problem. The only time he actually has to pause and expend some effort are against lone major characters. They don't last much longer either, though.
35	* ContractOnTheHitman: The Sad Flutes are ''not'' happy with Yang...
36	* CoolVersusAwesome: Cowboys. Vs. Ninjas.
37	* CoveredWithScars: Yang, when he changes his clothes in front of Lynn and we get a glimpse of his back. No surprise considering his past as an assassin.
38	* CoversAlwaysLie: the movie poster features a blond Kate Bosworth in a dress. Lynne in the movie is a FieryRedhead tomboy who wears masculine clothing for all but one scene.
39	* DidNotGetTheGirl: Yang must run from everyone he loves to prevent the Sad Flutes from killing them.
40	* DistractedByTheSexy: Invoked by Lynne at one point with a tight dress, with the dirt still on her face.
41	* DressingAsTheEnemy: One of the town guys bothers to ''wear the hat and cape of one of the fallen ninjas'' after the FinalBattle is done.
42	* DodgeTheBullet: Yang dodges a point blank pistol shot at the end, anticipating the shot a split second before it's fired.
43	%%* DrowningMySorrows: The reason Ron is the town drunk.
44	%%* DullSurprise: Yang at almost anything.
45	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Horrifically subverted with the Colonel. He singles out a Mexican woman with clean teeth so that he can rape her. However, her husband comes out and protests so the Colonel declares that he would never sleep with a married woman. Then the Colonel [[spoiler:shoots them both dead and decides that he would rather rape their two daughters instead]].
46	* EvilVsEvil: The Sad Flutes have bad intentions for Yang and the baby while the Colonel and his troops have bad intentions for Lynne and the entire town. Both of them end up fighting each other in the final battle just to get to their respective targets.
47	* EyeScream: How Yang deals with the old lady assassin in the tavern - via chopsticks into the left eye. It's not evident at first, but later Yang burns the tavern down to cover his tracks and there's a charred skeleton with two chopsticks sticking out of the left skull socket in the aftermath.
48	* FacelessMooks: The faces of the many ninjas are never seen. Most of the bandits wear bandannas over their faces as well.
49	* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: [[spoiler: The Colonel, right before Lynne kills him.]]
50	--> '''[[spoiler: Colonel:]]''' I'll see you in hell, little girl. [[DirtyOldMan Wear something nasty.]]
51	* FerrisWheelOfDoom: The final action scene has Old Ron sniping bandits from the old ferris wheel's top. And as several bandits attempt to climb up the wheel, they realize Ron had rigged the whole thing with dynamites and lit the fuse.
52	%%* FieryRedhead: Lynne
53	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The Colonel, at one point, talks about how he hanged a man by his hamstrings. [[spoiler: Lynne ends up leading into her killing blow against him by hamstringing him.]]
54	* FunWithSubtitles: At the beginning.
55	--> '''Subtitle:''' ''The Greatest Swordsman in History of Mankind.'' [[{{beat}} (Beat)]]. ''Ever.''
56	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Yang and Lynne have scars that are covered by their clothing. The Colonel has horrible facial scars.
57	* GoryDiscretionShot: Not all the time, but there are an awful lot of shots of blood spatters hitting screens and such. One such massacre takes place entirely in a ''dust cloud''.
58	* GrievousHarmWithABody: In the final battle, Yang skewers a ninja and flips him on another, right on the latter's head. Cue sound of a NeckSnap.
59	* GroinAttack: Eight Ball's method of dealing with the three delinquents harassing Yang. For the final battle he dons a glove with the palm covered in spikes, but never gets to use it.
60	* HiddenDepths: Town drunk Ron (Creator/GeoffreyRush) [[spoiler: is a DAMN good marksman when not entirely three sheets to the wind.]]
61	* HitmanWithAHeart: Yang. The whole reason he's in this mess to begin with is because he disobeyed orders to kill a child.
62	%%* HopeSproutsEternal: There's definitely something going on with the flower garden in the desert.
63	%%* HumanShield: Used primarily by Yang
64	* HuntingTheRogue: Yang is a ninja and formerly the best warrior of the Sad Flutes, who eventually quit his organization after being unable to kill a baby. He managed to escape from Asia to America, but the Sad Flutes are ready to hunt him down all the way to the West.
65	* ImplacableMan:
66	** Yang is the WorldsGreatestWarrior and hordes of enemies can't do more than slow him down for a few seconds.
67	** The Sad Flutes, who seem to have an inexhaustible supply of assassins hunting Yang to every corner of the world.
68	* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: The Sad Flutes' clothes, so much one of the town boys takes them off one and wears them after they are all dead.
69	* ImprovisedWeapon: Yang can kill enemies with ''anything'' he get his hands on. Case in point, when fighting ninja mooks in the laundry, having thrown his sword at an enemy he then grabs a nearby iron and use it to bash a ninja's skull apart. Also used are a pair of chopsticks and a frozen fish of all things.
70	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Ron demonstrates his sheer accuracy with his rifle by sniping a bowling pin in between several bottles of his personal wine collection ''without'' breaking a single glass, revealing his past to the town as an ex-outlaw. In the final battle, he gets to snipe bundles of dynamites hidden in grass with extreme precision, taking out a large chunk of the Colonel's mooks.
71	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Forms the premise of the film, although it is averted in the case of [[spoiler: Lynne's brother.]]
72	* InvincibleHero: The number of times Yang faces challenges in the film can be counted on ''one'' hand. Every single battle (except the last act) is a CurbStompBattle with Yang on the delivering side.
73	* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: the reason [[spoiler:Yang leaves April and Lynne.]]
74	* KnifeThrowingAct: Lynne is the circus' knife-thrower, having trained herself with flinging blades ever since her family's deaths, though she's only capable of nailing non-human targets. It takes some training with Yang until she can use her knofe-flinging skills on human enemies, [[spoiler:which allows her to fling her knife into the Colonel's fleeing BodyDouble]].
75	* LeaveHimToMe: Lynne, regarding the Colonel. She's the one who wants to kill him, and Yang not only obliges but provides her some additional training. Which is good, because otherwise [[SingleStrokeBattle it would have been a very short]] FinalBattle.
76	* LeaveNoWitnesses: The Sad Flutes just don't do subtle at all. One scene shows them going to America in a stolen ship... and because they killed all of the crew, the ship has a ''gigantic'' trail of blood in its wake.
77	* LecherousLicking: The Colonel had his men restrain Lynn and, to prove how much of a sadistic prick he is, gleefully licks the bullet scar he gave Lynn years ago.
78	* MalevolentMaskedMan: The Colonel wears a creepy half-face mask to conceal his burn scars. It makes him look more than a little like [[Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre Leatherface]].
79	* MartialPacifist: Yang, after leaving the Sad Flutes. He welds his sword into his scabbard, vowing to ''never'' use it for taking lives, as the film says. "The assassin who discovers the joy of making things grow, instead of cutting them down..."
80	* MeaningfulName: They name the baby April, the month in which [[CherryBlossoms cherry trees bloom]].
81	* MeleeATrois : The climax becomes this when the Sad Flutes arrive. Yang and the Townspeople vs. The Colonel's Army vs. The Sad Flutes.
82	* MoreDakka: The only times the bandits have an advantage over the Sad Flutes is when they deploy their machineguns.
83	* NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight: While this does not universally apply to every ninja in the movie, Yang and some of the other Sad Flutes are skilled enough in their swordsmanship that their opponents with guns will likely get cut down or disarmed at blinding speeds before they can do anything about it.
84	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]. As one would expect, a lot of the Sad Flutes get mowed down by the dozens when they bullrush the Colonel's men armed with guns. However, they in turn manage to kill off an impressive amount of the Colonel's men in other moments. And Yang himself does quite well when he's [[NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight facing off against opponents with guns despite only using a sword]].
85	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: If Lynn had allowed Yang to finish off the Colonel instead of stopping him with a "ItsPersonal" speech, she wouldn't be grabbed as a hostage, and then tricked into stabbing a BodyDouble as the Colonel escapes. The brutal battle at the end which sees most of the town destroyed and almost every named character killed could also be avoided. Way to go, Lynn]].
86	* NoNameGiven: The main character's name is never uttered within the movie. You learn it in the credits. Lynne calls him "Skinny" most of the time.
87	%%* NonIronicClown: Discussed
88	* NonSpecificallyForeign: It's never specified or clear where Yang comes from. He's played by a South Korean, uses a Japanese sword, and his name is most likely Chinese. The citizens of Lode seem to assume he's Chinese since he works in the laundry business, an occupation which was filled by a lot of Chinese laborers in that time era.
89	* OffWithHisHead: Yang decapitates multiple enemies throughout the film, the last one which is a ShadowDiscretionShot seen as a silhouette behind a tarp.
90	* OneHitPolykill: Probably one of the Colonel's most sadistic moments in the film; releasing a woman he's about to rape back to her husband because he "doesn't like bedding married women"... and firing a single shot through both of them for no reason other than for shits and giggles.
91	* OneManArmy: Yang can take on hordes of enemy ninjas on his own, without getting a scratch on himself.
92	%%* OrbitalKiss: Between Yang and Lynn in the desert.
93	* RageAgainstTheReflection: Yang ''appears'' to do this in the film's opening scene, throwing a knife into a reflection of himself. But then blood pools on the water, and it turns out his knife had embedded into an enemy hiding underwater.
94	* ARealManIsAKiller: Or more like "a member of the Sad Flutes is a merciless assassin that can kill anybody [[WouldHurtAChild (even children)]] and ShootTheDog without hesitation, [[WithUsOrAgainstUs because anybody who is not us]] [[HannibalLecture will always be the The Enemy]]". [[HitmanWithAHeart Yang has other ideas]].
95	* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: In the finale, one of the outlaws has a machine gun braced on another's shoulder. After he has his arms cut off, the gun starts firing on full auto, pivoting on the corpse of the partner and neatly stitching across a horde of outlaws ''who were standing behind him''.
96	%%* RetiredBadass: [[spoiler:Ron,]] hiding in plain sight.
97	* RetiredGunslinger: [[spoiler: Ron]] turns out to be the surprise version (although not so much of a surprise to anyone who saw the cover of the DVD).
98	* RetiredOutlaw: [[spoiler: Ron]] was once an outlaw, using his great skill to rob banks and trains. His criminal career ended when the woman he loved was shot during a gunfight, and he vowed to never pick up a gun again.
99	%%* RidingIntoTheSunset: Well, technically walking.
100	* RuleOfCool: It's a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot ninja cowboy movie]].
101	* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: One of the main themes of the movie, although Yang is at least not an extremely egregious example, as despite his lack of social skills he is able to take care of himself and function normally perfectly fine.
102	* SamuraiCowboy: Yang is a ninja in the old west, and Lynne is given some blade training from Yang by the midpoint of the film.
103	%%* ScarsAreForever
104	* SignsOfDisrepair: There's a sign outside of Lode Town that identifies its population as 5000. As the Colonel's army arrives to massacre everyone, a mook shoots the sign and turns the population to "0".
105	* SingleStrokeBattle: All the sword fights are like this, the most traditional being the one at the beginning where Yang becomes The Greatest Swordsman in the World by killing The Greatest Swordsman in the World. The only two prolonged fights with any degree of {{Flynning}} are the ones at the end between Lynne and the Colonel, and between Yang and Saddest Flute (which appears to be a training flashback substituted in place of their actual final battle).
106	* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler: Yang defeats Saddest Flute in this manner.]]
107	* SoftspokenSadist: The Colonel, who delights in rape murder but almost never raise his voice.
108	* SteppingStoneSword: The Colonel thrusts at Lynne; missing her and getting his sabre stuck in the wall. Lynne uses his sabre as a step to retrieve her own sword, which is stuck higher up in the wall.
109	* SwordDrag: Yang does this twice in the opening scene, letting the tip of his blade scrape over bridge planks followed by gravel. Possibly an intimidation tactic or (more likely) just done for RuleOfCool.
110	%%* TheStoic: Yang, most of the time.
111	* StuffBlowingUp: "We only have 100 sticks of dynamite" - and most of these are used to inflict '''massive''' casualties on the Colonel's forces in the end of the film. By the end of the finale, every stick has been used up.
112	* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: Lynne insists to Yang that she's the one who has to kill the Colonel for the atrocities he's done to her family. Yang slices the Colonel's guns and prevents him from using April as a hostage in the final battle, but aside from that he obliges.
113	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Yang does it while battling the ninjas in the laundry. But Yang is The Greatest Swordsman In The World. Ever.
114	* TookALevelInBadass: Lynne went from being a circus knife-thrower to becoming a capable fighter after being trained by Yang, with her taking names in the finale.
115	* TrailersAlwaysLie: The trailer's line, "Ninjas. Damn," does not appear in the film, nor are the Sad Flutes ever described as ninjas.
116	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The last scene of the movie? In the trailer.
117	%%* TrainingMontage: in {{Flashback}}
118	* WeHaveReserves: The Sad Flutes keep throwing dozens of their men at Yang, even as he keeps cutting them down. Saddest Flute even has no problem wasting the majority of his men in a pointless fight against random bandit assholes, instead of focusing on the guy they came specifically to kill.
119	* WhatADrag: The Colonel does this to Ron, dragging him behind his horse along the main street.
120	* WhipOfDominance: Te Colonel is a vile SoftSpokenSadist who uses a whip as one of his weapons. Notably, he tortures and humiliates Ron by wrapping the whip's lash around him and then [[WhatADrag dragging him through the town behind his horse]].
121	%%* WilliamTelling:
122	%%** Using booze in place of an apple.
123	%%** Subverted when Ron drinks the booze.
124	* WouldHurtAChild:
125	** [[HitmanWithAHeart Yang wouldn't]]. The Sad Flutes ''would''. Saddest Flute's ResignationsNotAccepted speech puts much emphasis on the fact that Yang should have (and must still) kill the kid, because she will always be "the Enemy".
126	** The Colonel shows again and again that he has no problem shooting kids if he wishes to, and in the final battle he even takes April (a ''baby'') as hostage to try to fend off Yang and unhesitatingly pulls the trigger when Yang keeps coming (Yang slices the revolver in half, ''and'' the bullet that was already going down the barrel).
127	* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler: What Yang is fated to after leaving his clan. He gets out of Lode Town after the end of the battle and made it to some unidentified wintery wasteland (maybe in North Europe) only to find out his clan had followed him ''there'' as well]].
128	* XOnAStick: Baby on a stick!

Context Film / TheWarriorsWay