| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s_end_movie_poster_9506.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:Finish the Golden Mile.]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! And we wanna get loaded! And we wanna have a good time!"'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Music/PrimalScream''', "Loaded" |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ''The World's End'' is a British-American science-fiction comedy released in the summer of 2013, directed by Creator/EdgarWright and written by him and Creator/SimonPegg, who stars in the film, with Creator/NickFrost, Creator/PaddyConsidine, Creator/MartinFreeman, Creator/EddieMarsan and Creator/RosamundPike in supporting roles. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Gary King (Pegg) is a ne'er-do-well ManChild who decides to reunite his old gang of friends -- Andy Knightley (Frost), Steven Prince (Considine), Oliver Chamberlain (Freeman), and Peter Page (Marsan) -- after losing touch 20 years ago. They've all got perfectly normal lives now, whereas Gary is still walking around in the same awful clothes, wearing the same pitch-black sunglasses and spouting the same old nonsense. Recalling the "Golden Mile" pub crawl they failed in their teens, Gary convinces them to return to their childhood village of Newton Haven, determined to [[OneLastFieldTrip finally do a complete run]]. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Things start out slow with the crawl, with everyone tired by Gary's antics right from the get-go. The guys make an effort to catch up with each other, enjoy the evening and get a bit of CharacterDevelopment in while they're at it, but their hearts just aren't in it. And then, just as they're about to call it a day, something seems... ''off'' about the pubs. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Really off. Really, ''really'' off. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Cue things escalating, and the group soon has to wrestle with decidedly more than they bargained for, in addition to [[SkewedPriorities Gary's unwavering determination to finish the Golden Mile]]. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | This is the final installment of the ''Film/ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogy'', preceded by ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' and ''Film/HotFuzz''. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Watch the first trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF-4c8U-mUI here]] and the full trailer [[http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/video/worlds-end-full-trailer-135700417.html here]]. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Not to be confused with ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'', another 2013 comedy about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Also unrelated to the third ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'', the Flash video game ''VideoGame/WorldsEnd'', or the 2021 console game ''VideoGame/WorldsEndClub''. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | !!This film contains examples of: |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:A-D]] |
| 28 | * AccidentalHero: All of them, Gary wanted to return to Newton Haven to finish the legendary pub crawl and tricked his childhood friends into coming along with him. [[spoiler:They only discovered The Network after Gary got into a drunken brawl during a fit of angst and sadness. They only persisted with the pub crawl because nobody had a better idea, Gary couldn't be controlled, and Andy literally walked straight into The Network's base while chasing after Gary.]] |
| 29 | * {{Acrofatic}}: Andy kicks more ass than any other character in the movie. To quote one of Nick Frost's lines from a different film, "It's not fat, it's power!" Subverted in that the Blanks operate with a WeHaveReserves ZergRush tactic, and are quite fragile, being built for subterfuge and not combat. [[spoiler:That's what the statue is for.]] |
| 30 | * ActingUnnatural: The group's attempt at The Good Companions, to the tune of "The Alabama Song." |
| 31 | * AfterTheEnd: [[spoiler:The finale, after civilization has been destroyed.]] |
| 32 | * TheAllegedCar: Gary's Ford Granada Mk. 2 AKA "The Beast." Gary mentions that he's replaced pretty much every meaningful part of it, and it ''still'' doesn't work. |
| 33 | * AlienBlood: The alien robot replacements for the townspeople all have blue "blood." |
| 34 | * AlienInvasion: Extraterrestrial machines have invaded a small town in England. [[spoiler:And 2,000 other locations on the planet.]] |
| 35 | * AnAesop: |
| 36 | ** A little nostalgia is fine every now and then. Too much, on the other hand, and you won't feel able to enjoy the rest of your life. So don't always look backwards. |
| 37 | ** Sam and Gary's relationship is a good illustration of how most teenage girls go through the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys bad boy]] phase and then, contrary to popular belief, they eventually grow up. |
| 38 | ** Failure isn't the end of the world and perfection always comes with a price, be a good person in your own way and not by someone else's standards. |
| 39 | * AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Gary, along with some Blanks (who look like the rest of the gang as they were in their teens), is on a quest as he walks the Earth, with a bar being the first stop.]] |
| 40 | * AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Steven catches Gary and Sam in the beer garden of The Two-Headed Dog after they defeat the twins and drunkenly admits he's always been in love with Sam, thinking Sam has feelings for Gary (she doesn't, but she will look back fondly on the times they did have), and says he would drop his fitness instructor girlfriend in a heartbeat if it meant he had one last chance with Sam. [[spoiler:Fortunately for him, by the end of the film, he and Sam do end up together.]] |
| 41 | * AnswerCut: Oliver asks Steve and Peter if they'd figured out who the biggest loser was for letting Gary convince them to do the pub crawl again - at that moment, Andy is revealed, having just arrived at the station. |
| 42 | * ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:A Class 1 or low-level Class 2. Humanity is knocked back to pre-industrial levels but the bulk of the British population apparently survives and there seems no danger of actual extinction as far as we know. A number have certainly died, but with all communication cut off from the rest of the world, that number will never be known.]] |
| 43 | * ArcNumber: Edgar Wright has stated that he did his best to include the 'number' of each pub (according to where it appears on The Golden Mile) somewhere in its scene (he did something similar with the Evil Exes in ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld''). These can usually be spotted on the chalkboards/signs or table numbers. For example, a table behind [[spoiler:Mr. Shepherd]] in pub #9 The Beehive shows a place-card with a 9 on it. See a collage [[https://imgur.com/a/sUNrqiK#NnlVO7p here]]. |
| 44 | * ArcSymbol: Five pointed lines, similar to a Wi-Fi symbol, appear in many places throughout the movie (see SigilSpam). |
| 45 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: |
| 46 | ** When asked if he ever regrets not finishing The Golden Mile as a teen, Gary says "no", but you can tell it's a EurekaMoment for him. |
| 47 | ** Andy asks [[spoiler:the Network]] how successful their plan has been. [[spoiler:The Network]] sheepishly replies there have been [[{{Understatement}} some issues]]. [[spoiler:Like 95% of the towns' population being mulched.]] |
| 48 | * ArtificialAtmosphericActions: It's subtle, but the background extras in the pub scenes are all going about their business: extremely limited, repetitive business. This kind of lazy choreography would normally be a sign of a poor production, but in this case it's actually a very sneaky hint that [[spoiler:the populace of Newton Haven are not real people]]. |
| 49 | * AspectRatioSwitch: The film starts out on cheap home film to depict a flashback, changes to a more conventional format when the movie properly begins, and successively gets wider as the plot gets more dramatic. |
| 50 | * BadassLongcoat: Invoked by Gary, who wears a long black coat to try and appear cool. Deconstructed in that, while it may have looked cool on him as a teen, the years of wear and tear now make him look like the shabby, alcoholic vagrant that he is. [[spoiler:In his final appearance after the apocalypse, it actually does look pretty cool.]] |
| 51 | * BaitAndSwitch: |
| 52 | ** While trying to get his friends together for the second attempt at the Golden Mile, Steven asks Gary, "What's this all about, Gary?" Cut to Gary on a couch saying, "It's about closure." One may think this is Steven's home or a therapist's office (due to how they often have their patients lying down). No, it's a house Oliver is trying to sell to a couple. |
| 53 | ** During the "Blank inspection" scene. Gary suggests Andy show the scar he received from a knife during an ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' re-enactment. Andy instead suggests [[spoiler:showing the surgical scar on his femoral artery from "the accident" (which is explained in all it's glory in the process). Gary says either one will do, and Andy shows him the knife wound... ''[[FlippingTheBird on his middle finger]]''. It's clear in that moment that Andy had wanted to do this for years, not just for "the accident" but also for everything Gary had put him through in the years beforehand, and he also wanted to put Gary in his place when he did.]] |
| 54 | * BarBrawl: Obligatory. Plus, the main characters get better fighters as they get more sloshed. |
| 55 | * BathroomBrawl: Gary and his friends fend off some Blanks in The Cross Hands' bathroom. |
| 56 | * BeneathTheMask: One of the movie's themes is that of adults hiding their insecurities and neuroses behind professional success / money / houses / etc. Then there's Gary, whose facade of cheer and energy starts crumbling at the second or third pub. |
| 57 | * BerserkButton: A subtle, downplayed example. When Gary is trying to convince Andy to join him on The Golden Mile, notice how Andy finally forces him out only after making a reference to his wife. [[spoiler:As in, the wife that's just left him.]] |
| 58 | * BigBad: The Network is very much this. [[spoiler:It's a WellIntentionedExtremist, though, and a bit of a KnightTemplar.]] |
| 59 | * BigDamnHeroes: Gary comes to the rescue of his friends whenever they're in trouble during all three fights. For example: |
| 60 | ** In the first fight in the gents' toilets, Steven manages to yell Gary's name for help when he can't fight off the Blank teenager attacking him. Gary uses the detached Blank arm in his hands to smash the Blank in the face and give Steven the upper hand. |
| 61 | ** Gary fights off the twins in the beer garden to save Sam, only to require Steven's help when they reappear. |
| 62 | ** Gary refusing to refill his beer glass in The Beehive fight when he sees [[spoiler:Blank Oliver]] has trapped Sam with her own scarf, and taking out [[spoiler:Blank Oliver]] via ChandelierSwing. |
| 63 | * BigWhat: Gary's reaction to Andy ordering a tap water in The First Post. |
| 64 | * BilingualBonus: In-universe, it's pointed out that the word "robot" is [[Theatre/{{RUR}} derived from a Czech word meaning "slave"]], [[spoiler:and the Blanks object rather strongly to being called slaves. It turns out they ''were'' slaves, as they have free will ''after'' the Network is gone]]. |
| 65 | * BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Network has left Earth, but in the process the planet is knocked back to the Dark Ages. Peter and Oliver are both dead and replaced by Blanks, while Gary resorts to WalkingTheEarth and Andy hasn't seen him since. And Gary ''still'' didn't finish the crawl, due to the entire village of Newton Haven being destroyed. However, Andy points out that his previously rocky marriage is back on track, Blank Oliver is doing well selling real estate, Blank Peter has gone home to his family [[StatusQuoIsGod as before,]] Steven and Sam are living rather happily in a "shack" just outside London, and Gary appears to have conquered his alcoholism as well as found purpose in his life.]] |
| 66 | * BookEnds: |
| 67 | ** At the crawl's beginning, Gary chides Andy for ordering water, uttering the nonsensical statement, "Did King Arthur order water after the Battle of Hastings?" - to which Andy replies that ordering water in a pub full of rugby lads wearing war paint takes balls. At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Gary (a King), following a battle against the Network, orders five waters in a post-apocalyptic pub full of skin-headed, armed, rugby lads wearing war paint.]] |
| 68 | ** "Look at the town in its original colours, cos tonight we're gonna paint it red!" [[spoiler:At the end of the film, Newton Haven is engulfed by a giant, red fireball.]] |
| 69 | ** Gary's first attempt at the pub crawl ends with him sitting on a hill overlooking Newton Haven as the sun rises. Gary's second attempt has him sitting on the same hill [[spoiler:overlooking a destroyed Newton Haven. The first bar he visits during the epilogue? The Rising Sun.]] |
| 70 | ** The film begins with Gary telling the story of the first pub crawl to a support group. It ends with Andy telling the story of the second pub crawl to a group of kids, and with Gary doing a pub crawl with his mates. |
| 71 | * BolivianArmyEnding: Ends with Gary [[spoiler:and four blanks getting in a fight with a bar full of armed men. It's unlikely to end well.]] |
| 72 | %%Its on the character page* BorrowedCatchphrase: [[spoiler:When Andy smashes Blank Oliver's head with a barstool, thus exposing him as a Blank to the others, Sam slowly says "What the fuck?" (Oliver's catchphrase is "W.T.F.?"), then Gary yells it in |
| 73 | * BrickJoke: In a BlackComedy way, the death of [[spoiler:Gary's mum.]] |
| 74 | * BrokenBird: [[spoiler:Gary, a rare male variant.]] |
| 75 | * BrokenPedestal: A mutual example between Gary, and then the gang to him. Gary has the good old days so ingrained in his head that when he meets Andy, Steve, Oliver, Peter and Sam years later, he feels like he's talking to strangers. Whereas they are concerned that he's been doing nothing with his life and making self-destructive choices that have hindered any growth in him as a person. Gary ends up disappointed that his friends and the girl he fancied at school have changed and they're disappointed that he hasn't. |
| 76 | * TheBully: Shane Hawkins, in the group's school-days, with consequences that echo through to the present-day plot. |
| 77 | * BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Gary is revealed to have slit his wrists sometime before the beginning of the movie]]. |
| 78 | * ButForMeItWasTuesday: Pete is deeply rattled when TheBully that made his childhood miserable doesn't even remember him. [[spoiler:That might be because he's a Blank with selected memories from the real person. Alternatively, it is possible that the real Shane didn't realise how much of a monster he was to Pete at school. Or some of both. Take your pick.]] |
| 79 | * CallBack: See half of MythologyGag. |
| 80 | ** Andy rips open his cardigan before a serious bar fight, mirroring when he ripped open his shirt as a youth. |
| 81 | ** Oliver is showing the same house in the same neighborhood to the same couple as the beginning of the film. |
| 82 | ** Gary tells The Network "To err is human." At the conclusion, the full idiom is spray painted, "To err is human, to forgive, divine." |
| 83 | * TheCanKickedHim: Gary first encounters the Blanks in the toilets at the fourth pub, and is nearly taken down. A couple of pubs later, [[spoiler:Oliver is replaced by a Blank]] when he unwisely goes to the toilets by himself. |
| 84 | * CarMeetsHouse: [[{{Pun}} "The Hole in the Wall."]] |
| 85 | * CassandraTruth: Understandably, Sam doesn't believe what Gary tells her about the town, because of how weird it sounds. He even earns another slap in the face for it. She only realises Gary is right beyond a doubt when he starts fighting the twins and pulls one of their heads off. |
| 86 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 87 | ** Oliver's "[[FlatWhat W.]][[PunctuatedForEmphasis T.]][[PrecisionFStrike F.]]" Also lampshaded: |
| 88 | --->'''Gary:''' What the fuck does WTF mean?!\ |
| 89 | '''Peter:''' ''[barges out of toilet]'' What the fuck?!\ |
| 90 | '''Gary:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Oh yeah...]] |
| 91 | ** Sam has one too. |
| 92 | --->'''Sam:''' Oh, crumbs! |
| 93 | ** "Let's Boo Boo!" |
| 94 | * CellphonesAreUseless: The plot works because there is no cell phone reception in the area - or, rather, that [[BigBad The Network]] blocked until-then-perfectly-fine reception the moment the protagonists realise something is wrong. |
| 95 | * CentralTheme: Moving forward is an unavoidable factor of life and you can't avoid it by retreating into the past. |
| 96 | * CerebusSyndrome: In relation to the other two films in the trilogy, as described under DarkerAndEdgier below. Some of the scenes are quite tragic for a comedy, even a BlackComedy, with the prime example being [[spoiler:the confrontation between Gary and Andy in the World's End just before the climax]]. |
| 97 | * ChairmanOfTheBrawl: Nick Frost, master of pub stool-fu. |
| 98 | * ChandelierSwing: Gary in The Beehive fight to [[spoiler:take down Blank Oliver.]] Complete with slo-mo. |
| 99 | * ChekhovsGag: Early in the film when Oliver is on the phone with his sister Sam he teasingly asks "You get lost on the ring road again?". Much later in the film she says she [[spoiler:came back for Gary, Andy and Steven]] because she got lost on the ring road. |
| 100 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 101 | ** The shooting star at the end of Gary's flashback, [[spoiler:later revealed by Basil to have been the alien ship's arrival.]] |
| 102 | ** [[spoiler:Oliver's birthmark.]] |
| 103 | ** The "Out of Order" sign from the disabled toilet at The Old Familiar, which Sam gives to Gary as a jibe, later comes in handy [[spoiler:when the guys need to make sure no-one goes into the mens' toilet at The Cross Hands and finds the five teenage Blanks they just destroyed in there.]] |
| 104 | ** Also the... [[UrineTrouble ugh]]... slippery toilet floor. It comes in handy for Oliver in the first fight. |
| 105 | ** The metallic statue in the middle of the town. |
| 106 | ** [[spoiler:Gary won't show his elbow scar to prove he's human, but willingly shows an intimate tattoo. When his sleeve later turns up accidentally, Andy notices he is wearing bandages on his wrists and has a hospital wristband, revealing he has recently attempted suicide.]] |
| 107 | ** Sam's car. [[spoiler:Sam tries to use it to flee Newton Haven after the fight in The Beehive, but due to getting lost on the ring road, she comes back and she, Gary, Andy and Steven use the car to escape from the town.]] |
| 108 | * ChekhovsGunman: Sam. She first appears at The Old Familiar, then disappears from the plot for a while. She reappears at The Two-Headed Dog and helps to fight the twins in the beer garden, as well as joining in the fight at The Beehive, then when she gets lost on the ring road ([[ChekhovsGag again]]), [[spoiler:she is able to get Gary, Andy and Steven out of Newton Haven when the Network ups and leaves.]] |
| 109 | * ChekhovsSkill: |
| 110 | ** [[spoiler:Gary being impossible to argue with.]] |
| 111 | ** Gary is also introduced with having some basic LeParkour skills. They come in handy later. |
| 112 | * ClarkesThirdLaw / SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Blanks/The Network have technology beyond the scope of modern humanity, capable of interstellar travel and creating near-perfect robot duplicates of humans with seemingly unlimited stamina and the ability to function even when extremely heavily damaged. However, when said robots are damaged, it's revealed that they are hollow on the inside, with no circuits or machinery of any kind (even if they make mechanical whirring noises as they move around); just a strange blue ink that coats the inside of their hollow plastic bodies. Furthermore, their limbs and heads are held together by joints similar to action figures, which begs the question as to how the Blanks are capable of eating and drinking as they do in the film. Even the [[spoiler:giant robot statue that comes to life halfway through the film seems magical in nature, having sleek, solid metal limbs with no visible joints]]. The only conclusion one can draw from all this is that the Network's technology is just so much more advanced that ours that to us it appears nonsensical. |
| 113 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: All of the main characters at various points in the film; [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that they have all had far too much to drink as the film progresses. However, Gary stands out the most. |
| 114 | * LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler:The 'Reverend Green' and two others in the Trusty Servant have decided to live in accord with the Network's plan rather than be replaced. They turn out to be the only three who have, apart from Basil.]] |
| 115 | * CollapsingLair: [[spoiler:The titular pub, taking the entire town with it. Probably a deliberate TakingYouWithMe ploy by the Network]]. |
| 116 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Blanks, and anything associated with them, have a dominant blue and green coloration. [[spoiler:Oliver and Peter are wearing blue. They are replaced by Blanks over the course of the movie. Sam and Steven also wear red, so as to show they will become a couple at the end.]] |
| 117 | * ComedicWorkSeriousScene: Unlike most of the movie, the scene where it's revealed that [[spoiler:Gary attempted suicide]] is '''not''' played for laughs. |
| 118 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: |
| 119 | ** When they're getting ready to go in the car, a conversation about [[Creator/AlexandreDumas Alexandre Dumas']] ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' briefly occurs. During this Oliver points that The Three Musketeers is a fiction written by Alexandre Dumas, to which Gary replies that a lot of people were saying that about Literature/TheBible (i.e., that the Bible is a fiction). Steven jokingly asks if he means that it was written by Alexandre Dumas, to which Gary replies that it was written by Jesus. |
| 120 | ** After first discovering the robots, Andy is more concerned with the fact [[spoiler:Gary lied about his mother dying rather than Gary accidentally killing a teenager who is actually a robot. In fact, the other three come in behind him and notice while he's still telling Gary not to change the subject.]] |
| 121 | ** Shortly after, Gary suggest they go to the Trusty Servant, implying he wants to continue the pub crawl. The other ask if he's fucking kidding, he answers "Oh yeah. It's the Good Companions next, I always mix those two up.". |
| 122 | ** At the end of the film, Gary [[spoiler:triumphantly declares "There's only one Gary King!" after ripping the head off the Network's teenage duplicate of him. Later, when he points out that the Network's plan is flawed because humanity is filled with people like him, the confused Network points out that he ''just'' said there was only one Gary King.]] |
| 123 | -->[[spoiler:'''Gary:''' ''I fucking know what I fucking said!'']] |
| 124 | * ComingOfAgeStory: Gary King never let go of his past and drags his childhood friends back to Newton Haven to accomplish his dream of finishing the golden mile. [[spoiler:He also learns to pick himself up from rock bottom after confronting the fact that everyone in his life has moved on without him and he has to break his coping mechanism of retreating into the past so he can live a healthier life. His depression stems from the fact that his adulthood was nothing like he was promised and he realised his glory days no longer have any merit in his adulthood.]] |
| 125 | * ConservationOfNinjutsu: Gary barely takes out a single Blank, though he is utterly confused by the fight. The whole group is in similar straits against an gang of equal size. As the film continues, they take on progressively larger hordes with increasing effectiveness. |
| 126 | * TheConspiracy: [[spoiler:The Network, an extraterrestrial intelligence/society, has been guiding human culture and technological development since the late '80s/early '90s. Related to this, it has spread the ideals of polite manners, civic mindedness and community through [[BreadEggsMilkSquick corporate culture, homogenized commercial branding, and replacing people who revolt with inhuman "robots" hosting people's memories]]. The dissenters are [[DeadlyEuphemism recycled]] as fertilizer.]] |
| 127 | * CoolTeacher: Guy Shepherd is described as such by Gary, and when he shows up later, he proves to be rather affable and charismatic. [[spoiler:He tries to convince the boys to join the Blanks and is revealed to be one himself.]] |
| 128 | * CosmicHorrorReveal: The film begins as a story of five childhood friends reuniting for a pub crawl in their old hometown. They struggle to come to terms with their problems, their friendships, and their pasts. It's a strong character development piece that gets hijacked about halfway through with the sudden revelation that [[spoiler:the townspeople have been replaced by alien robots.]] |
| 129 | * CosyCatastrophe: [[spoiler:Andy seems to think so, believing that life has become simpler following the apocalypse. All other members of the gang are shown to adapt to their new life quite well too, with Oliver happily going back to his old job, Peter continuing to take care of his family, Sam and Steven building a life together, and Gary becoming the badass drifter he has always wanted to be.]] |
| 130 | * CoverChangesTheMeaning: In his argument with the Network, Gary quotes the film ''Film/TheWildAngels'' (he's actually quoting "Loaded" by Primal Scream, which sampled the film). In ''Wild Angels'', the quote is a justification for the life of nihilistic debauchery that the biker gang was committed to. When the same quote is used by Gary King, it's an affirmation of the human spirit and the importance of free will. |
| 131 | * CranialProcessingUnit: Averted. Blanks can lose a head with little problem, their torsos seem to be their weak point. [[spoiler:Further proven when Andy smashes Blank Oliver's head, which is completely hollow space and Oliver can still talk. Andy later destroys the redhead schoolgirl with a body blow to the guts.]] |
| 132 | * CreepyTwins: DiscussedTrope, as Gary seems to think just being a twin is creepy.[[note]]Not enough to prevent him from having a [[TwinThreesomeFantasy Twin Threesome]] with them in the past.[[/note]] Then it becomes true when they are revealed to be Blanks. |
| 133 | ** CreepyMonotone: In unison, no less. |
| 134 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Four out of the five are surprisingly handy in a fight. |
| 135 | * TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Mad Basil was right about the aliens after all. |
| 136 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Than either ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' or ''Film/HotFuzz''. This is in part owing to all the deconstruction of the tropes that were shown as funny in the previous two films, with very significant rifts, backstories that were significantly darker such as Peter being horribly bullied, and [[spoiler:a lead character that is outright suicidal]]. Additionally, [[spoiler:the ending is pretty dark in comparison to either of the two films]]. |
| 137 | ** Despite this, Wright and Pegg have tentatively called it the happiest ending of the three films, because all of the principals technically get what they want in life, even though [[spoiler:some of them are Blanks]]. |
| 138 | * DarkIsNotEvil: Gary dresses almost entirely in black (trenchcoat, Sisters Of Mercy T-shirt, Doc Martens) and still dyes his hair black, but he's definitely not a bad guy, just a JerkWithAHeartOfGold. |
| 139 | * DebatingNames: The characters at one point argue over what they should refer to the robot invaders as. Their suggestions include "nobots," "fauxbots," "blue bloods," and "Smashy-Smashy Egg Men." They eventually settle on "blanks." |
| 140 | * {{Deconstruction}}: Gary can be read as a deconstruction of the typical 'ManChild' characters who populated the other works that Creator/SimonPegg, Creator/EdgarWright and Nick Frost were involved in. His hedonistic embracing [[TheAlcoholic of alcohol]] and drugs and his refusal to move on from his teenage pursuits and obsessions is seen as more pathetic than charming. He's also significantly older than most of them were, being an example of what happens to that type of character if he maintains his refusal to grow up when he's almost in his forties. It is also a deconstruction of the notion of [[BornInTheWrongCentury a man born into a civilized world, who is better suited for a more barbaric one]]. (e.g., Marv from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' or Esau Cairn from ''Literature/{{Almuric}}''.) [[spoiler:Gary is much happier as a sword-wielding hero in the World After The End,]] but whereas in the above examples the man is a thug in the real world, in this movie it's shown that he's just a loser. |
| 141 | * DestructiveSaviour: [[spoiler:Gary sees off the Network, but they take [[ETGaveUsWiFi their advanced technology]] with them. Humanity is free... and the world immediately collapses into chaos.]] |
| 142 | * TheDeterminator: Gary is hell-bent on finishing the Golden Mile, to the point that he has the entire town full of Blanks chasing after him and he ''still'' won't quit. |
| 143 | * DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: [[spoiler:Gary straights up tells the Network that they can go fuck off. It gives up without a fight.]] |
| 144 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Peter, Andy and especially Gary are more than pleased to be seduced by The Marmalade Sandwich. Even when he's told by Stephen they're Blanks, Gary criticizes, "Don't be so ''judgmental''!" |
| 145 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Some reviews noted that people who return to their home from the big city expect their hometown to treat them like prodigal sons, and are disappointed when the people barely - if at all - remember them. According to one reviewer, it's actually a ''relief'' to King that the reason no one recognizes him isn't because he just wasn't that important - no, they'd been replaced by robots! |
| 146 | ** There's also a parallel to people going to their 20th or 25th high school reunion having done ''nothing'' with their lives. |
| 147 | * TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:After several years of abuse at the hands of Shane Hawkins - now a Blank -, Peter goes ballistic after Blank Shane tries to apologise to him, physically attacking him both with his bare hands and a tree branch. Punctuated by the fact that Peter doesn't land a single punch in either of the two fights he's involved in, until he attacks Shane. Unfortunately for him, it gets him mobbed by Blanks.]] |
| 148 | * DoubleMeaningTitle: ''The World's End'' refers to both the eponymous pub at the end of the Golden Mile and [[spoiler:the actual end of civilisation as we know it through the complete destruction of modern technology.]] |
| 149 | * DoYouWantToCopulate: Gary is straight forward with Sam about this in the bathroom ... and gets punched for his indecency. |
| 150 | * DramaticDrop: Sam drops her drink when Adrian Keane appears in The Mermaid. Why? [[spoiler:Because he's not supposed to be there. According to Sam, Adrian Keane died in a motorbike crash in Italy eight years before.]] |
| 151 | * DressingToDie: A very subtle, subtextual example, as confirmed by WordOfGod, is that Gary King dresses in his high school clothes for this reason. He drags his friends along on OneLastFieldTrip to recreate the last time in his life that he felt things were going well, with the implication that afterward he intends [[spoiler:to kill himself]]. |
| 152 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Oliver]] disappears to use the bathroom and [[spoiler:is replaced by a Blank without any indication other than his change in behavior.]] |
| 153 | * DrunkenMaster: The more wasted the protagonists get, the better they get at fighting. In Wright's words: |
| 154 | -->"This is more the idea of Dutch courage. You know, when you're kind of drunk and you think 'ah, I can climb up that scaffolding!' Or just that you're impervious to pain. One of the things we talked about is this idea that [the characters] become better fighters the more oiled they get." |
| 155 | * DwindlingParty: The gang lose [[spoiler:Oliver]] to the Blanks before they fully know what's going on, then [[spoiler:Sam]] flees the town, then [[spoiler:Peter]] is mobbed by the Blanks, then [[spoiler:Steven]] is abandoned with The Beast. [[spoiler:Steven and Sam come back; Oliver, Peter and "The Beast" stay dead.]] |
| 156 | * DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Peter finally getting revenge on his childhood bully, even if only by proxy.]] |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:E-H]] |
| 160 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: In the words of Edgar Wright, "the idea at the ending is that in a strange way everybody gets exactly what they want although it took a mess to get that". |
| 161 | * EmpathicEnvironment: During the first part of the crawl when everything seems normal, it is daytime and sunny. After the bathroom fight in The Cross Hands, the blanks are introduced and the film's tone becomes considerably darker, it is nighttime, and remains so for most of the rest of the film. AfterTheEnd, it is daytime again. |
| 162 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: As you might have guessed from the title. [[spoiler:It may be a bit misleading, however. The threat isn't the end of society, it's the nature of society itself - the [[ApocalypseHow Class II apocalypse]] is caused by ''the heroes'' when they reject the influence of the Network. This is a good thing, if a tad [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]].]] |
| 163 | * ETGaveUsWiFi: [[spoiler:The Network infiltrated society [[ForYourOwnGood for our own good]] to help us make advanced technological discoveries which would otherwise have been decades or even centuries away and therefore prepare us for life in a bigger galactic community. Unfortunately, when humanity didn't want their help they [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere took their ball home]] on a massive scale.]] |
| 164 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: The entire opening credits serve as one for Gary, but there is a particular moment when Pete is introduced in the monologue that stands out: Gary talks about how Pete was "the baby" of the group and good for a laugh, while the image shows Pete being hit in the head by a bully with his school bag (Shane Hawkins, probably) and Gary immediately starting a fight with said bully. |
| 165 | * EveryScarHasAStory: During the ImpostorExposingTest, we learn how everyone got their scars. [[spoiler:All of them were caused by Gary being an idiot.]] |
| 166 | * EveryoneChasingYou: At the end, the group is chased down the streets by what seems to be the town's entire population. |
| 167 | * EvilIsPetty: [[spoiler:After having his UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans speech poked with more holes than the Titanic, the Network decides to leave Earth alone. [[DisproportionateRetribution Taking all of modern technology with it and plunging the world into a second Dark Age.]]]] |
| 168 | * TheEvilsOfFreeWill: This is the Network's position--that the human race is a massive screw-up and the Network must civilize us. |
| 169 | * ExactWords: "Andy, I want you inside me." |
| 170 | ** "You will be left to your own... devices." Meaning, [[spoiler:"So we're taking all of ''our'' devices -all your phones and computers and tablets and laptops- back."]] |
| 171 | * ExitPursuedByABear: The TropeNamer is invoked, as the group used that phrase in high school when leaving somewhere, but it morphed into "Let's Boo Boo!" |
| 172 | -->'''Gary:''' If we needed to make a quick getaway, we'd say: "Exit, Pursued by a Bear". And then, it was: "Exit, Pursued by Yogi Bear." And then, it was just: "Let's Yogi and Boo-Boo." And then: "Let's Boo-Boo." |
| 173 | * ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: Attempted by Gary in The Beehive, as he's fighting blanks while trying to down his pint. It's not very successful, though. |
| 174 | * EyeAwaken: The Blank youngster that Gary allegedly killed in the bathroom comes to live using this trope. |
| 175 | * FacepalmOfDoom: The preferred FinishingMove of the Blanks. [[spoiler:Presumably this is how they get a copy of your memories.]] |
| 176 | * FantasticRacism: [[spoiler:To the 'Blanks' AfterTheEnd.]] |
| 177 | * TheFellowshipHasEnded: [[spoiler:The main characters rediscover their friendship, but return to a semblance of their old lives after the events of the movie, with none of them hearing from Gary again]]. |
| 178 | * FlippingTheBird: [[spoiler:Blank Oliver]] does this, indicating they're no longer attached to The Network, and free to be as crude as any human. It's [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] by young Oliver flipping it when his friends are razzing him. |
| 179 | ** Andy's scar on his middle finger allows him to flip the bird at Gary while proving he's [[spoiler:not a Blank.]] |
| 180 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Tons: |
| 181 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux7FHw5-WuY Gary's description of the original Golden Mile at the very beginning is an almost point-for-point description of the events of the film.]] Specific details: |
| 182 | *** Oliver was the first one to fall on the original attempt at the Golden Mile, followed by Peter. [[spoiler:They're the only two replaced by Blanks in the second attempt, and in the same order (as well as at the same points in the crawl).]] |
| 183 | *** Gary mentions that Sam hung around but then they had to let her go. [[spoiler:Sam joins the group, but later, Gary tells her to leave for safety, again at the same points when she joined and left the first time. Unlike the flashback, however, she returns.]] |
| 184 | *** Things got "mental" for Gary and the remaining chums at the Beehive. [[spoiler:The same things happen at the present day Beehive.]] |
| 185 | *** After the ninth pub, at the bowls club, "everyone got para and Pete chucked a whitey so we had to bench him". They go to the bowls club again after the ninth pub, and this is when they start accusing each other of being Blanks. [[note]]The first time they are paralytic, the second time paranoid[[/note]] |
| 186 | *** The shooting star shown in the sky after the first, failed pub crawl, as teen Gary watches the sunrise? That's important. |
| 187 | *** Gary in his flashback says that, as a teenager, he watched the red glow over Newton Haven. [[spoiler:So does adult Gary.]] |
| 188 | ** Gary tells Oliver he needs to have an appointment with Dr. Ink ("drink", geddit?) However, [[spoiler:later, they all have ''ink'' on their hands.]] |
| 189 | ** Andy's reaction to Gary asking if he needs to "Check with his missus "; he's not angry because Gary implied he needed his wife's permission, he's angry because [[spoiler:his wife has just left him]]. |
| 190 | ** During the prologue, Gary says that Oliver was all mouth. [[spoiler:At the end of the film he is that, pretty much literally, with a football replacing the top part of his head.]] |
| 191 | ** When we first see adult Peter (sitting at his kitchen table with his family), he's reading a newspaper where the headline reads "New Survey Suggests Happier Britain," which foreshadows the Network and its aims. |
| 192 | ** Throughout the movie you can hear some GSM-interference-like noises blended into the film's score. This foreshadows the true nature of the alien invaders. |
| 193 | ** This line from Oliver, "Follow Gary King into certain oblivion," is pretty much exactly what they end up doing later. |
| 194 | ** Gary explains that The Beast is the same car he bought in 1989, despite the fact that he had to replace almost all its parts, to the point that it's essentially a different car. [[spoiler:This is similar to what The Network is doing; converting the people in Newton Haven that it deemed unruly (all but three of them) to the point that it's essentially a different town.]] |
| 195 | *** Similarly, even though Gary has replaced most of its parts, The Beast is still [[TheAllegedCar an unruly wreck that's barely road-worthy]]. [[spoiler:This is similar to how The Network decided humanity was too troublesome to assimilate even after replacing most of the people in Newton Haven.]] |
| 196 | ** When the four are waiting for Gary and Peter suggests Gary might have had an accident en route to pick them up, he is quick to apologize to Andy. [[spoiler:This is because of how Andy was involved in a car accident while driving drunk in 1997 because Gary had overdosed, before Gary abruptly recovered and abandoned him, leading to Andy's animosity towards him.]] |
| 197 | ** When Gary first arrives to pick the guys up in The Beast, a Vauxhall Ampera can be seen on a billboard/hoarding in the background. Another poster similar to this one is seen behind Oliver in the service station a scene or so later. ''All'' the parked cars in Newton Haven are green or blue Vauxhall Amperas. |
| 198 | ** When the gang arrived at the first pub, Oliver comments that the nationwide initiative robs charming pubs of any discernible character. [[spoiler:This is what The Network does to humans.]] |
| 199 | ** On their way to The Cross Hands, the gang talked about food, and Oliver comments that Newton Haven is hardly the heart of the organic revolution. [[spoiler:In the end, Gary, an organic being, revolted against The Network. Also, after the apocalypse, people started eating organic food. So, Newton Haven actually ''is'' the heart of the ''Organic'' Revolution, in more ways than one.]] |
| 200 | ** Gary telling the rest of the guys as they arrive in Newton Haven to, "get a good look at colors" as "they're going to paint the town red." Later on, the establishing shot of Newton Haven is mirrored, with the town glowing red. [[spoiler:After all, it's on fire.]] |
| 201 | ** [[spoiler:Despite having been slurring his words earlier on, Oliver (the first one to fall in the original attempt at the Golden Mile) remains perfectly sober, hinting at his being replaced early on.]] |
| 202 | ** Peter states after The Mermaid that he doesn't want to end up [[spoiler:"dead in a field... I hate fields!" He is later attacked by Blanks in a field/forest the gang are running through after hiding out in the bowls club shed.]] |
| 203 | ** [[spoiler:"I think they missed out on having five musketeers, cos' then you could've had two die and you'd still be left with three." [[DontExplainTheJoke This hints at the deaths of Oliver and Peter later on in the movie]].]] |
| 204 | ** [[spoiler:Oliver and Peter being the only two of the five wearing blue on their upper body: a blue suit for Oliver and a blue jacket and jumper for Peter.]] |
| 205 | ** Gary seems surprisingly knowledgeable about the psychology of depression when he tells Pete not to repress his bad memories. [[spoiler:He's been attending grief counseling after a failed suicide attempt, explaining where he picked this tidbit up.]] |
| 206 | ** When trying to prove that they aren't Blanks, the guys deduce that Blanks are "fresh," lacking any physical abnormalities (tattoos, scars, etc.). Andy, Steven, and Peter all present scars they got courtesy of Gary, but Gary balks at having to remove his jacket and instead opts to bash his head against a support beam to disprove being MadeOfPlasticine. [[spoiler:This is because he doesn't want the others to see the bandages around his wrists.]] |
| 207 | ** Andy says that the [[CellphonesAreUseless mobile phones aren't working]] because of the network. He has no idea how right he is. |
| 208 | ** In The Old Familiar, you can posters reading "School Disco." What is going on at pub number eight, The Mermaid? |
| 209 | ** Gary mentions Adrian Keane in the same pub. He also turns up at The Mermaid. |
| 210 | ** The conversation between Gary and Andy concerning teetotalling. Gary says that King Arthur didn't drink water at Camelot after winning [[BookDumb the Battle of Hastings]]. Andy counters that to go into a pub full of hard men with war paint and order a tap water takes serious balls. [[spoiler:Andy proves to be easily the best fighter of the group. In the end, a King walks into a bar in the wake of a great battle, and orders a water when surrounded by hard men with war paint. He has some serious balls.]] |
| 211 | ** The page quotation itself (see above) [[spoiler:foreshadows the end of the movie.]] |
| 212 | ** It's very ''very'' subtle but during the prologue, as it cuts to Gary telling the story in the present day, it seems to be just a normal AA-style meeting. However, if you look closely enough, both the man and woman on either side of Gary have visible tags on their wrists [[spoiler:identical to the one Gary is later revealed to be wearing, thus hinting at the true extent of Gary's issues.]] |
| 213 | ** The Network's symbol is seen in many places, one of them being on trash and recycling bins. [[spoiler:This foreshadows what happens to the "empties," once their DNA is extracted]]. |
| 214 | * FourTemperamentEnsemble: |
| 215 | ** [[spoiler:After Oliver gets replaced, the remaining crew briefly turns into one (at least until Peter is caught by the Blanks).]] |
| 216 | *** Sanguine: Gary. |
| 217 | *** Choleric: Andy. |
| 218 | *** Melancholic: Steven. |
| 219 | *** Phlegmatic: Peter. |
| 220 | * FreezeFrameBonus: |
| 221 | ** Sharp eyes will notice [[spoiler:Oliver's birthmark reappearing after he returns from the bathroom.]] |
| 222 | ** Each pub has a number representing its order in the film somewhere in the background. |
| 223 | ** In the opening, [[spoiler:a lone falling star can be seen as the sun rises, which matches the date the Network first appeared (and symbolizes the simultaneous rise and fall of both Gary and humanity).]] |
| 224 | *** In Mr Shepherd's classroom, on the wall is a brief graphic of a honeycomb pattern promoting a "NETWORK EVENING". This also doubles as foreshadowing for [[spoiler:Shepherd's re-appearance in The Beehive]]. Teenage Gary is also sat behind a classroom display asking "What Are You Going To Do With Your Life?" |
| 225 | ** At the conclusion, [[spoiler:not only has a tee-totaling Gary clean-shaven, but he no longer dyes his hair black in an attempt to regain his youth.]] |
| 226 | ** Not exactly "blink and you'll miss it," but upon further viewings, you may notice one piece of Gary's neck-wear is an eye of Ra, who in Egyptian mythology, among other things, was the god of kings... |
| 227 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: Gary is this to Andy, Steven, Peter and Oliver in the present, mainly due to being an alcoholic {{Jerkass}} ManChild, to which they find him tiring and irritating, but especially Andy, [[spoiler:because of how Gary abandoned him in a car crash after Gary had somehow recovered from an overdose.]] |
| 228 | * FromTheLatinIntroDucere: The replicants take exception to being called robots because "Robot comes from the Czech word 'robotnik' meaning 'slave' and we are not slaves." |
| 229 | * FunctionalAddict: Gary's freewheeling hedonistic lifestyle is initially PlayedForLaughs but it becomes increasingly apparent he's [[PlayedForDrama self-medicating on booze and drugs in order to avoid reality]]. |
| 230 | * FunnyBackgroundEvent: When [[spoiler:Andy first initiates the pub brawl with the Blanks,]] Gary is calmly attempting to finish his pint. |
| 231 | * GenreShift: Two of them; |
| 232 | ** The major HalfwayPlotSwitch comes out of nowhere ([[TrailersAlwaysSpoil unless you've seen the trailer]]) -- one moment it's a bittersweet comedy about a tragic ManChild, and then [[RobotWar there are a bunch of robots.]] |
| 233 | ** The epilogue segues again, albeit only briefly, this time into [[spoiler:an AfterTheEnd ScavengerWorld where Andy is telling some of the survivors their story.]] |
| 234 | * GlassCannon: The Blanks have inhuman strength and agility, but you could [[MadeOfPlasticine burst their heads open with a well-thrown punch]]. This probably explains why our heroes, a bunch of a middle-aged out-of-shape men, are able to deal with crowds of them. |
| 235 | * GloryDays: In his teenage years, Gary was the coolest kid in school (or [[UnreliableNarrator thought he was]]). Twenty years later, he still hasn't moved on. |
| 236 | * GlowingEyesOfDoom: The doppelgängers' eyes [[ThroatLight and mouths]] glow with a blinding white light when they attack. |
| 237 | * GoingThroughTheMotions: All the extras in the film undertake simple, repetitive tasks on a loop. [[spoiler:It's a hint that they're all robots]]. |
| 238 | * AGoodNameForARockBand: Something of a RunningGag, Gary will hear a phrase and tell Steven to write it down. He turns it round in the climax of the film. |
| 239 | * {{Goth}}: Gary King. His continued love for [[Music/TheSistersOfMercy The Sisters of Mercy]] years after his teenage years certainly shows this, as well as his choice of clothing. |
| 240 | * GracefulLoser: Subverted. [[spoiler:The Network initially seems to be willing to leave, if not in good grace at least with a minimum of fuss. Then it spitefully knocks out ''all'' human technology on the way out.]] |
| 241 | * GrievousHarmWithABody: Several times Blanks are beaten with their own limbs. |
| 242 | * GrowingUpSucks: The movie examines different approaches towards dealing with a mid-life crisis. |
| 243 | * HalfwayPlotSwitch: A bittersweet comedy about trying vainly to hold onto your youth goes completely bonkers when Gary discovers that the town is populated by robots. |
| 244 | * HauntedHouseHistorian: Basil. His {{Infodump}}s help to unravel the town's dark secret. |
| 245 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:The doppelgängers]] do this at the end of the movie, having no one to answer to and feeling lost. |
| 246 | * HeroesGoneFishing: The main plot of the film is this when the gang are not fighting the blanks, as Gary wants to retry the Golden Mile, the twelve-pub crawl the gang attempted and failed as teenagers. At the start, Steven is also seen in the gym with his fitness instructor girlfriend, and Oliver is seen getting a coffee. |
| 247 | * HiveMind: The blanks are linked and controlled through a hive mind. |
| 248 | * HoldingHands: Steven says of his blossoming romance with Sam: "It was going somewhere! We held hands!" The best part is that both Sam and Steven are forty, give or take. |
| 249 | * HonorBeforeReason |
| 250 | ** Gary puts [[spoiler:Sam in a car and tells her to get out of Newton Haven and he'll figure a way out with the rest of the group. When he tells the rest of the group this, [[WhatTheHellHero they call him out on sending away the only person sober enough to drive]], only for him to retort that they would've criticized him if he hadn't done so]]. |
| 251 | ** This is also a way of summing up the film's climax. [[spoiler:Even after considering all of the Network's advances in our society, Gary and the gang still hold that it's not worth sacrificing humanity's right to be a race of fuck-ups.]] |
| 252 | * HumansAreBastards: [[spoiler:The Network]] certainly seems to think so. [[spoiler:It responds by basically replacing the ones that refuse to adhere to its standards with robots.]] |
| 253 | * HumansAreFlawed[=/=]HumansAreSpecial: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:It turns out that humanity is the ''least'' civilized species in the galaxy, and the Network is trying to bring it to a level where it could be brought into the galactic community. However, to do so they have to remove anyone who doesn't want to be part of the Network; and because humanity doesn't like being told what to do, the Network needs to replace ''a lot'' of people in an attempt to make them more acceptable to the galactic community. Arguably, the point of Gary, Andrew, and Steven's rebuttal is that "Humans are special ''because'' they are flawed", specifically asking the Network how many humans it had to replace (only three people in Newton Haven ''haven't'' been replaced - and one of them wasn't because he avoided having his DNA sampled for decades), and stating that replacing them all with robots defeats the purpose of uplifting. The Network doesn't give a straightforward answer when it is challenged on how many ''other'' species, besides humans, it has dealt with using the same hamfisted methods, in a way that seems like a tacit admission of previous failures. This could count as a subversion of the "special" aspect, as any number of other aliens may have had the same reaction.]] |
| 254 | * HumansAreMorons: See above. |
| 255 | * HumansAreWarriors: [[spoiler:Boiled down, humans are utterly incapable of being governed by a higher authority like the Network because we simply are too violent, belligerent, individualistic, freedom-obsessed, and vice-ruled to be told what to do.]] |
| 256 | * HumanityOnTrial: Symbolically in the finale; [[spoiler:The Network]] accuses Gary as a representative of the human race (or as the character implies, "Gary, King of the humans"), with Andy as his defense. |
| 257 | * HumanResources: "Empties" [[spoiler:are turned into compost.]] |
| 258 | * HumbleGoal: Gary seems to want nothing more than to have a pint at each of the twelve pubs. Taken to the point of deconstruction, as he continues to work at it long past the point that the pub crawl could be a sane priority. He even drinks someone else's leftover beer at The Famous Cock after the proprietor throws him out because he had been permanently banned from the place. |
| 259 | * HypocriticalHeartwarming: |
| 260 | -->'''Andy:''' Gary may be a bit of a cock- actually, he is a cock, but he's [[AccidentalInnuendo my cock.]] |
| 261 | * HypocriticalHumor: |
| 262 | ** At one point Gary tells Peter to "get out of the 90's." |
| 263 | --->'''Andy:''' We all had to go organic in a big way. But if I'm honest, I'm hard-pressed to recall any processed foods I actually miss.\ |
| 264 | ''[Cut to Andy spotting [[Film/ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogy a mint choc-chip Cornetto wrapper]] and staring desperately after it]'' |
| 265 | ** The Network gets one as well, with [[spoiler:their claim that Gary's use of profanity is a sign of immaturity. Their last words before leaving? "Fuck It."]] |
| 266 | [[/folder]] |
| 267 | |
| 268 | [[folder:I-L]] |
| 269 | * ImplausibleDeniability: After Gary pulls one of the twins' heads off to show Sam he was right about what's going on, the head in his hand tries to make it seem like he's lying, saying, "Come on, Sam. You know better than to believe Gary King." |
| 270 | * ImpostorExposingTest: To prove that they haven't been replaced by "[[ReplicantSnatching blanks]]," the characters decide to show each other the scars, tattoos, corrective surgeries or other modifications they got over the years. Gary refuses to do so [[spoiler:because they'd see he's attempted suicide]], but instead bashes his head several times against a support beam, showing he's not MadeOfPlasticine and doesn't bleed [[AlienBlood blue ink]]. |
| 271 | * ImprovisedWeapon: Pint glasses, umbrellas, and [[ChairmanOfTheBrawl bar stools]], among others. |
| 272 | * INeedAFreakingDrink: Andy doesn't say this, but despite saying earlier in the evening that he is now a teetotaler, he starts pounding shots immediately after the gang finds out about the robots in the town. |
| 273 | * InsistentTerminology: The doppelgängers are ''not'' "robots" (because "robot" is Czech for "slave"). After a whole scene spent trying to invent a term for them, the gang settles on "Blanks" by default. |
| 274 | ** {{Irony}}: The Blanks ''are'' slaves, because [[spoiler:when they're no longer controlled by the Network, they regain their real personalities.]]. |
| 275 | * InVinoVeritas: Referenced. Steven states to Sam that his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove is not because he's had seven pints. |
| 276 | * IronicEcho: |
| 277 | ** The flashbacks of their first stab at the Golden Mile are redone, almost shot for shot. |
| 278 | ** A few lines crop up in different contexts, like "you're never wrong," "there's no point arguing with you," and [[spoiler:"selective memory."]] |
| 279 | ** "And you, sir, have the honor of drawing first blood." |
| 280 | ** Gary sends away [[spoiler:Sam in her car so the crawl can continue]], who says before leaving [[spoiler:"It's important to go forwards, not backwards." As Sam arrives to save the group once The World's End explodes, she frantically asks which way is best direction to drive in, to which Gary answers "Backwards!", and Sam speeds into reverse.]] |
| 281 | ** [[spoiler:Andy]] narrates at the end that "there were casualties... [[spoiler:my cousin Paul. Gary's Mum."]] Earlier in the film, as the group works out that Gary borrowed from all of them in order to repay his debt to Andy, Gary confesses that it wasn't a case of robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul, it was [[spoiler:"borrowing off Peter to pay Andy. I still owe Paul!"]] |
| 282 | ** At the end of the original attempt at the Golden Mile, Gary sat in a field and watched the dawning of a new day with Andrew and Steven, knowing nothing would ever be the same as it was when they were at school. [[spoiler:After the second attempt, the three of them are joined by Sam and end up in the same field, watching the destruction of Newton Haven and the dawn of a new age for mankind.]] |
| 283 | ** The first time The Network addresses Gary, it calls him "Gary King, of the Humans." The second time, it's "Gary, King of the Humans." |
| 284 | * {{Irony}}: |
| 285 | ** Gary wants the pub crawl to be a fun time for his mates. However, whenever his mates actually start relaxing and enjoying themselves, he's usually the one who does something to ruin the atmosphere. |
| 286 | ** See InsistentTerminology above. |
| 287 | * IWasQuiteTheLooker: Gary, he even says so himself. "Oh my god! ...I'm so ''cute''!" |
| 288 | * IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Zig-zagged. [[spoiler:Steven tells Gary and Andrew to leave him as the Blanks drag him away in 'The Beast' only to turn up fine a few minutes later.]] |
| 289 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Gary. He's not ''completely'' selfish, but he does tend to think of himself first; for all his self-identity as the super-cool and super-loyal knight in shining armour to his friends as a youth, it's heavily implied that he was a lot more selfish than he wants to admit [[spoiler:as revealed when he abandoned Andy to the police after the accident, when Andy had been trying to save his life]]. And as an adult, while he claims he wants to have fun with his mates on the pub crawl, it's pretty clear that he really means that he wants to have fun on his terms without much consideration for what they think about the matter, and refuses to abandon the pub crawl regardless of their wishes or how insane it becomes. [[spoiler:Though the fact that he's revealed to be suicidal offers [[DeathSeeker some further insight]] into his motives regarding the latter.]] |
| 290 | * {{Jerkass}}: Most of Andy's behaviour towards Gary in the present pushes him into {{Jerkass}} territory. However, his behaviour is mostly justified, due to his anger [[spoiler:at his wife leaving him and taking their kids, and the fact that in the past, Andy was driving Gary while drunk to the hospital after an overdose and after rolling the car and almost severing his femoral artery, Gary recovered enough to abandon him, which led to Andy's arrest, after twelve hours of life-saving surgery.]] |
| 291 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Gary. Sure, he's an irresponsible ManChild and an alcoholic, but he will stand for his friends and Sam. This is seen in all three fights in the film. |
| 292 | * JustEatGilligan: Just leave town, or don't attempt the crawl in the first place. |
| 293 | * KillerRobot: Ones who keep insisting that they're [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill not trying to hurt you]]. |
| 294 | * KickChick: Taken up to eleven. After one of the twins has been killed and the other de-armed, the latter takes the former's legs and attaches them as arms. |
| 295 | * KickTheSonOfABitch: In Andy's eyes, at least with regard to the "son of a bitch" part. After Peter remarks Gary may have had an accident on his way to pick them up from the station, Andy says it would be the best outcome for all of them, Gary included. Yeah, Gary may be an irresponsible ManChild and a bit of a dick at times, [[spoiler:and almost indirectly killed his friend by accident]], but that was uncalled for. [[spoiler:Especially when we learn later Gary is a nervous wreck who attempted suicide, but Andy didn't know this at the time.]] |
| 296 | ** There was also his rather cruel but accurate line to Gary in The Cross Hands: "You don't need us to help you get fucked up. You've done a perfectly good job so far on your own." Ouch. |
| 297 | ** Peter's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on his former bully when he tried to apologize for his past behaviour must count [[spoiler:though the fact that said bully is a Blank does diminish things somewhat]]. |
| 298 | * KillAllHumans: [[spoiler:What the Network is inadvertently doing by replacing those who do not comply to its plans, i.e., almost everyone.]] |
| 299 | * KillAndReplace: The doppelgängers' standard M.O. [[spoiler:in serving the Network.]] |
| 300 | * TheLastDance: It's implied that Gary's devotion to the Golden Mile is his way of reliving his past glory [[spoiler:before committing suicide.]] |
| 301 | * LensFlare: Lens flare effects are applied to lights in the film as an homage to modern Sci-Fi movie aesthetics. |
| 302 | * LeParkour: Gary is unexpectedly proficient at it. It proves handy as he has to outrun the Blanks. Andy also shows some of this for an {{Acrofatic}}. |
| 303 | * LibertyOverProsperity: [[spoiler:The main argument of Gary VS the Network]] |
| 304 | * LightIsNotGood: The Network is represented by a light that looks like the reception bars of a mobile phone, and is the film's BigBad. |
| 305 | * LiteralMinded: When Andy tells Gary he hasn't had a drink in sixteen years, Gary's response is that Andy must be thirsty. And that's not the only time... |
| 306 | * LogicBomb: [[spoiler:Done to the Network by Gary, Andrew and Steven after they learn that anyone who doesn't go along with its plan is killed and replaced with a Blank, and the Network argues that it is the easiest way to prepare humanity to join the galactic community. Since the Network has been forced to replace everyone (bar three people) in Newton Haven, it's clearly not a good plan; Andrew drives the point home by asking how many people they've been forced to replace at the 2000 other locations on the planet, to which the Network can only reply "Shut up!" and leave.]] |
| 307 | * LotusEaterMachine: The Mermaid uses blanks modeled after the former love interests of the group to tempt them into staying at Newton Haven so that they can be replaced by blanks or at least harvest enough DNA to make a copy of them. The group was fooled because they were too drunk to realize the manipulation. [[spoiler:Sam and Steven were only able to realise the trap because Sam's former crush had actually died years earlier in a motorcycle accident and Steven encountered Basil who explained the blank's existence to him. Oliver wasn't affected because he was already replaced by a blank and seems to be the orchestrator of the trap due to existing knowledge of the groups history and his subtle smiles and nods to the other blanks.]] |
| 308 | [[/folder]] |
| 309 | |
| 310 | [[folder:M-P]] |
| 311 | * MadeOfPlasticine: The Blanks seem to be made of some kind of brittle plastic, like giant action figures. Their heads explode with well-placed punches and kicks. This actually plays an important part late in the film where Gary proves he's not a Blank by bashing his head against wooden post. |
| 312 | * ManChild: Gary King is an idiot who still acts and dresses as he did as a teenager. See {{Deconstruction}} above. |
| 313 | * MayDecemberRomance: Steven is in a relationship with his 26-year-old fitness instructor. He dumps her in a flash, though, when he gets a chance to get together with Sam. |
| 314 | * MauveShirt: [[spoiler:The Reverend Green turns out to be one, until Gary trying to talk to him and find out what's going on in Newton Haven ends with him being converted into a Blank, as we find out in the climax.]] |
| 315 | * MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: |
| 316 | ** In the epilogue, the words "To Err is Human, to Forgive is Divine" are written on a train as Andy retells the story. [[spoiler:"To err is human" was part of Gary's PatrickStewartSpeech; "to forgive is divine" seems a reference to the FantasticRacism against the Blanks.]] |
| 317 | ** During Gary's opening monologue of the 1990 Golden Mile, most people won't notice the shooting star fly past as he stares into the new sun. [[spoiler:according to Mad Basil, the shooting star is The Network arriving on Earth.]] |
| 318 | ** In "The Trusty Servant," Oliver leaves to go to the bathroom and Gary begins talking to the 'Reverend Green' about the invasion. A burly-looking man walks behind them in the direction of the toilets shortly as the conversation begins. When the subject changes to 'doing your business in the toilets,' two more men follow the burly man, and another about twenty seconds later. As Oliver comes back out, the hand-driers are on, possibly hinting that there was a struggle. |
| 319 | * MeaningfulEcho: In "The Two-Headed Dog," all of Gary's questions about Crowning Glory beer from "The First Post" are parroted back to him by the bartender, foreshadowing [[spoiler:the hive-minded Network]]. |
| 320 | * MeaningfulName: All of the pubs have [[TruthInTelevision common English pub names]], but ones that reflect what happens there during the film: |
| 321 | ** The First Post: The starting line for the crawl (the sign notably shows TwoRoadsBeforeYou). |
| 322 | ** The Old Familiar: [[spoiler:They are creeped out by the pub being virtually identical to the last one, and they bump into Sam, Oliver's sister.]] |
| 323 | ** The Famous Cock: [[spoiler:Gary is (finally) recognized... for his previous dickish behaviour that got him banned.]] |
| 324 | ** The Cross Hands: [[spoiler:The group have their first fight with the robots, and come together as a team for the first time.]] |
| 325 | ** The Good Companions: [[spoiler:They decide to stick to Gary's plan of playing the part of a bunch of mates out for a drink to avoid suspicion. The pub sign shows four "tragedy" masks around a smiling "comedy" mask. Guess which one Gary is.]] |
| 326 | ** The Trusty Servant: [[spoiler:They discover that some of the townspeople are [[LesCollaborateurs humans working with/for the robots]]. This is also where Oliver gets replaced by a Blank.]] |
| 327 | ** The Two-Headed Dog: [[spoiler:They fight the twins in the beer garden]]. |
| 328 | ** The Mermaid: [[spoiler:They get seduced by [[SirensAreMermaids siren-like]] robot schoolgirls. The pub sign shows two blondes flanking a redhead.]] |
| 329 | ** The Beehive: [[spoiler:They discover the Network's plan is to build a community, and fight a swarm of angry robots.]] |
| 330 | ** The King's Head: [[spoiler:Gary King reveals that he's going to finish the Golden Mile and/or die trying. He, like Charles I on the sign, "loses his head". Better still, look at the sign again. The depicted king has Gary's face.]] |
| 331 | ** The Hole in the Wall: [[spoiler:Steven smashes a hole in the wall with The Beast.]] |
| 332 | ** The World's End: [[spoiler:The end of the journey, and the cause of all modern technology being destroyed.]] |
| 333 | ** In the last scene of the film, The Rising Sun - [[spoiler:the dawn of a new civilization without the Network's influence.]] |
| 334 | ** Gary's surname, King, symbolizing his egocentrism, as well as [[spoiler:his ultimate role in deciding the fate of the human race.]] |
| 335 | ** Andy's surname, Knightley, due to his fighting skills and being Gary's best friend. |
| 336 | ** Steven's surname, Prince, due to being a rival with Gary over Sam, both in school and in the present. |
| 337 | ** Oliver's surname, Chamberlain, as a chamberlain was the chief officer of a royal household, so it makes sense that Oliver is an estate agent. |
| 338 | ** Finally, Peter's surname, Page. A page was in the personal service of a knight, i.e., Gary, so Peter always wanted to hang around with him in school. |
| 339 | * {{Metaphorgotten}}: |
| 340 | ** "And this time we're going to see it to the bitter end! ...Or lager end." |
| 341 | ** "It's just robbing Peter to pay Paul!" "No, I '''borrowed''' it from Peter to pay you! (''Beat'') I still owe Paul." |
| 342 | * MomentKiller: "SHOTS! S-H-O-T-S! Shots!" |
| 343 | * MoodWhiplash: Peter's talk about how he was bullied is interrupted [[MomentKiller by Gary loudly bringing over several shots]]. Andrew calls Gary out for it though. |
| 344 | ** Peter's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of his childhood bully, going so far as to pull a [[Series/FawltyTowers Basil Fawlty]] on him, [[spoiler:only to be overrun and subdued by the Blanks]]. |
| 345 | * MsFanservice: Both in-universe and out, the Marmalade Sandwich. "Two blondes and a redhead in the middle." |
| 346 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: It's an Edgar Wright film so, yeah, we get awesometastic sequences of the drawing of four pints of beer (and one tap water). |
| 347 | * MyFistForgivesYou: Peter beating thirty kinds of hell out of [[spoiler:Blank Shane]]. Edgar and Simon expressed in the commentary that they had Peter deliberately not land a punch in any of the fights until that moment, when he goes absolutely ballistic...and who can blame him? |
| 348 | -->'''Steven:''' Pete! Get over here! It's not worth it!\ |
| 349 | '''Peter:''' '''''YES IT FUCKING IS!!!!''''' |
| 350 | * MythologyGag: Several nods to the previous two films in the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. |
| 351 | ** Gary King fails in trying to climb a fence, just like [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Shaun]] and [[Film/HotFuzz Danny]], and in general does a lot of jumping over fences and hedges and suchlike. |
| 352 | ** The cameo from the Cornetto wrapper also counts. |
| 353 | ** All three films also feature identical twins. |
| 354 | ** The [[Film/HotFuzz last time]] Bill Nighy told Simon Pegg what to do, he was much more obedient, although he still disagreed. |
| 355 | ** The familiar fruit machine jingle plays in one of the pubs (The King's Head), as in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' and ''Film/HotFuzz''. In fact, it's the same machine in every movie. |
| 356 | ** [[Series/{{Spaced}} Oblique references to an accident in Pegg and Frost's characters' past that had a lasting impact on their friendship.]] |
| 357 | ** Gary King asks a teenager in the toilets if he and his mates are "having a good time", echoing a similar scene in ''Spaced'' which also ends up with Tim and Daisy involved in a fight with a group of teens. |
| 358 | ** The school girl silhouettes in The Mermaid are also pretty reminiscent of Marsha's daughter Amber in ''Spaced''. |
| 359 | ** The people pictured on the poster for the disco event looked an awful lot like z--- ''We're not using the zed-word!!'' |
| 360 | ** The crowd of Blanks that is no longer being supported by the Network also looks like a horde of zombies. |
| 361 | ** Creator/RafeSpall, who played the snotty teen who insults [[Film/ShaunOfTheDead Shaun]] at the electronics store and one of the Andys in [[Film/HotFuzz Hot Fuzz]], appears here as the man Oliver is showing a house to. He is joined by Alice Lowe who played Tina in ''Hot Fuzz''. The actress who played Mary the zombie in ''Shaun'' is sitting next to Gary at the support group meeting. |
| 362 | ** Creator/MichaelSmiley, who played the bike messenger/drug dealer in ''Spaced'' and also has a cameo in ''Shaun Of The Dead'', has an appearance here as Gary's former drug dealer, gone legit. |
| 363 | ** Creator/JuliaDeakin, who appeared as the landlady in ''Spaced'', appears here as the proprietor of the B&B the FiveManBand checks into in Newton Haven. (She has parts in ''Shaun'' and ''Hot Fuzz'' as well.) |
| 364 | ** Creator/PierceBrosnan appears as Guy Shepherd. This isn't the [[Film/HotFuzz first time]] a Film/JamesBond [[Creator/TimothyDalton actor]] appeared in a Pegg/Wright film. |
| 365 | ** Mark Heap (a.k.a. [[Series/{{Spaced}} Brian]]) appears as a pub landlord in The Two-Headed Dog. |
| 366 | ** Creator/PeterSerafinowicz (a.k.a [[Series/{{Spaced}} Duane Benzie]] and Pete from Film/ShaunOfTheDead) shows up in a blink and you miss it cameo as the man whose home Gary ding-dong-ditches. |
| 367 | ** The song that plays during the opening montage is a remix of the theme from ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout'' which was used for [[Series/{{Spaced}} Daisy's one-woman show]]. |
| 368 | ** The King's Head is also the name of a pub in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''. |
| 369 | ** Gary thought it would be quicker to jump down from a tall building using Sam's car as a cushion, which didn't work. This is a callback to ''Film/HotFuzz'' where Nicholas and Danny jump out a window to land in a dumpster that would cushion their fall. |
| 370 | * NegatedMomentOfAwesome: There's a brief moment during the bathroom fight where Steven grabs one of the Blanks, holds him high in the air....but before he can smash him into the ground, the Blank reverses the move, and Steven ends up having his face slammed into the floor. |
| 371 | ** This gets averted beautifully in the later pub fight when a blank tries the same trick on Andy. |
| 372 | * NewMediaAreEvil: Perhaps the only fictional work to date where [[spoiler:digital technology ''itself'' is the villain]]. Notably, Gary King defeats it by being resolutely stuck in the past. |
| 373 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero |
| 374 | ** [[spoiler:Successfully arguing that the aliens should leave humanity to its own flaws leads to the downfall of civilization.]] Depends on your definition of "breaking it", however. [[spoiler:All the advancements the Network promises are pretty much worthless if they need to nearly eradicate humanity to implement them...which is a major point brought forth at the climax.]] |
| 375 | ** Two of the only three people in Newton Haven who aren't Blanks adopt this attitude at the end of the movie. |
| 376 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: At the Mermaid, [[spoiler:the Blanks have successfully seduced Gary, Andy, and Peter and attempt to seduce Sam with a Blank of her teenage crush, who (unbeknownst to the Blanks) has been dead for several years. Sam immediately breaks out of whatever trance the Blanks tried to put her in and gets the other Musketeers out of the bar.]] |
| 377 | * NicknamingTheEnemy: After it's hammered in that they are ''not'' robots, the group discusses what they should call them and eventually settle on "Blanks". |
| 378 | -->'''Andy:''' Nothing anyone's suggested in the last five minutes has been better than ''smashy-smashy eggman''. |
| 379 | * NoEndorHolocaust: Andy points out that the death toll was surprisingly low after [[spoiler:the destruction of all technology and civilization]]. Justified in that [[spoiler:it counts actual humans.]] |
| 380 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:After the fight in The Beehive, Gary tells Sam to leave Newton Haven for her own safety. When he catches up with the others in the smoke house, Steven accuses him of doing it out of envy that she prefers Steven to him, while Andy calls him out for sending away the only one of them sober enough to drive.]] |
| 381 | ** [[spoiler:Exaggerated. In December 1997, Gary overdosed and Andy, despite being four times over the drink-drive limit, tried to drive Gary to the hospital, but ended up rolling the car and almost severing his femoral artery. Gary then somehow recovered enough to flee the scene; Andy, after twelve hours of surgery needed to save his life, ended up getting arrested. This led to him becoming teetotal and to sever his friendship with Gary.]] |
| 382 | * NothingButHits: The soundtrack is composed almost entirely out of UK hits from the early 90's; similarly, Gary doesn't seem to listen to anything else. |
| 383 | * NostalgiaFilter: Gary suffers very, ''very'' badly from this and has gone to ludicrous lengths to relive his youth. [[spoiler:It's his disillusionment about reality not measuring up to the expectations he had as a teenager that prompts his suicide attempt.]] |
| 384 | * OffTheWagon: Andy hasn't had a drink in 16 years, but starts back in after the fight in The Cross Hands. [[spoiler:He quit drinking after he got into an accident while drunk and driving Gary to the hospital so he could be treated for a drug overdose.]] |
| 385 | * OffWithHisHead: The teen in The Cross Hands gents is revealed as a Blank when Gary slams him down into a urinal and his head flies off when he hits it. [[spoiler:Later, when Andy realizes Oliver has been replaced by a Blank due to the reappearance of his birthmark, he smashes Blank Oliver's head with a barstool. This is also how both the Twins are disposed of.]] |
| 386 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: You know shit's about to get real when [[spoiler:Andy downs all five shots]]. |
| 387 | ** When the Network switches from chiding Gary for swearing to swearing itself, [[spoiler:it's an indication that Gary has out-argued it]] |
| 388 | * OhCrap: All five of them get one when the decapitated Blank in the gents' toilet in The Cross Hands gets up and faces them. Then the four other lads enter the bathroom... |
| 389 | ** Sam gets one when Gary pulls the head off of one of the twins, thus exposing her as a Blank and revealing Gary was right about what was going on. Steven gets one later in the same scene when the twins reappear. |
| 390 | ** Bar Andy [[spoiler:who already knew]], they all get another one in The Beehive [[spoiler:when Oliver is revealed as a Blank.]] |
| 391 | ** Gary gets one [[spoiler:in the smokehouse when Andy asks him to show them his elbow scar. He doesn't want to do that because it would reveal the bandages around his wrists.]] |
| 392 | ** [[spoiler:When the Network gets so pissed off it leaves, The World's End starting to collapse triggers one for Gary, Andy and Steven.]] |
| 393 | * OmniscientMoralityLicense: [[spoiler:The Network claims to have one. It mainly serves to cheese people off.]] |
| 394 | * OneCrazyNight: Gary, a middle-aged man child, gets all his school buddies back together to recreate the pub crawl that they couldn't finish when they were teenagers. The pub crawl is complicated when they find out that most of the townspeople have been replaced by robots, but Gary insists on pushing on with the pub crawl as they brawl with the robot hordes. |
| 395 | * OneLastFieldTrip: The Golden Mile. |
| 396 | * OneManArmy: Andrew turns out to be ''surprisingly'' badass, felling waves of Blanks at one point without stopping for breath. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since he plays rugby, or at least used to. |
| 397 | -->'''Andrew:''' [[PreAssKickingOneLiner "AAAAGH! I FUCKING HATE THIS TOWN!"]]. |
| 398 | * OneSteveLimit: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. "There's only ''one'' Gary King!" |
| 399 | * OrderVersusChaos: [[spoiler:The driving question of the film-do you accept an orderly, technological society with little free will, or a free, individualistic society with little in the way of technology? Humanity chooses Chaos.]] |
| 400 | * OrganAutonomy: The heads and limbs of the Blanks can be broken off and will move on their own, even reattaching themselves if you don't smash them. |
| 401 | * OutrunTheFireball: [[spoiler:When the World's End explodes and the remaining group has to out drive it. Subverted in that its world-wide and thus does catch them eventually, though they made it out of town.]] |
| 402 | * ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:When the Network leaves, all of the Blanks are effectively on their own, with no guidance. Andy remarks it's a lot like children being abandoned by their parents. On the plus side, they are no longer slaves and have free will.]] |
| 403 | * PatrickStewartSpeech: In The World's End. |
| 404 | * PillarOfLight: What [[spoiler:The Network]] appears as, with a twist. See the VisualPun entry. |
| 405 | * PreAsskickingOneLiner: Andy has one in The Beehive when he rips open his cardigan: "AAAAGH! I FUCKING HATE THIS TOWN!" He then picks up two bar stools, one in each hand, and makes short work of the Blanks around him. |
| 406 | * PrecisionFStrike: |
| 407 | ** In comparison to the rest of the cast, Sam uses euphemisms rather than swearing, but she does drop a bomb whenever something seriously freaky happens. |
| 408 | ** And one by none other than [[spoiler:the Network]]. "It's pointless arguing with you." [[spoiler:''[leaves the planet and blows up The World's End]'']] |
| 409 | * ProductPlacement: |
| 410 | ** Several beer brands are prominently displayed throughout the film, such as Foster's and Kronenburg. |
| 411 | ** BlandNameProduct: The fictional beer, "Crowning Glory," crops up twice in the movie. |
| 412 | *** [[http://www.tringtoday.co.uk/news/more-news/tring-brewery-gets-a-walk-on-part-in-brit-flick-1-4752574 Which was actually a real beer]] from rural Hertfordshire based Tring Brewery made specially for the film and available from them for a brief while. |
| 413 | ** A mint Cornetto wrapper appears during the epilogue - well, it is the ''Film/ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogy''. |
| 414 | * ProperlyParanoid: Basil. |
| 415 | * PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Stated by name. |
| 416 | -->'''Steven:''' No, we can't—-you sold my guitar to buy drugs. |
| 417 | * TheQuisling: Blank Guy Shepherd and [[spoiler:Blank Oliver Chamberlain]] argue the most for letting the robots take over. |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:Q-T]] |
| 421 | * RageBreakingPoint: Andy finally snaps when the Blanks first have them cornered, picking up a pair of bar stools and opening a jumbo-sized can of whoop-ass. |
| 422 | * RaysFromHeaven: Flipped exactly on its head by the ending: rays from above represent the aliens who have been preparing humanity for entry into the galactic civilization. |
| 423 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gary delivers one to The Network during their argument in the climax. |
| 424 | -->'''Gary King:''' '''FACE IT!''' We’re the human race, and we don’t like being told what to do! |
| 425 | * RedIsHeroic: Sam wears a red coat and joins in the fights at The Two-Headed Dog and The Beehive, helps to convince Gary that it's not all about the past and [[spoiler:saves Gary, Andy and Steven at the end of the film when Newton Haven is destroyed.]] |
| 426 | * ReformedButRejected: [[spoiler:The Blanks, at the end of the film.]] |
| 427 | * RewatchBonus: TheMovie. Just look at the number of BookEnds, {{Foreshadowing}} and Chekhov tropes on the page alone, before heading into the Fridge tab. |
| 428 | * RuleOfSymbolism: Enough to probably satisfy [[RewatchBonus several viewings]]. |
| 429 | * RunningGag: |
| 430 | ** For this movie: |
| 431 | *** Signs being destroyed or misused, usually by Gary. Possibly symbolizing free spirit vs. well-meaning authority. |
| 432 | *** Thinking up AGoodNameForARockBand. |
| 433 | *** Not calling the Blanks robots. |
| 434 | *** Gary dragging Sam off to the toilets. [[spoiler:But only once out of lusty intent.]] |
| 435 | *** In fact, the use of bathrooms in general. Gary first follows Sam into the toilets of The Old Familiar to ask for sex, the gang first fight the blanks in the toilets of The Cross Hands (where they first discover the blanks in the first place), [[spoiler:Oliver is replaced by a blank in the toilets of The Trusty Servant]], and Gary tells Sam what's going on in Newton Haven in the disabled toilets of The Two-Headed Dog. |
| 436 | ** For the ''Film/ThreeFlavoursCornettoTrilogy'': |
| 437 | *** Trying to jump a fence and failing. |
| 438 | *** The same jingle from the other two films being played from one of the fruit machines in a pub. |
| 439 | *** The Cornetto wrapper. |
| 440 | * RoboticReveal: Several. The first one happening in the bathroom during the struggle between Gary and the kid. |
| 441 | * SadClown: Gary, who is desperately eager for light-hearted fun, yet is actually a complete wreck and [[spoiler:has recently attempted suicide]]. |
| 442 | * SayMyName: [[spoiler:Gary yells "O-Man!" in slow-motion as he uses a ChandelierSwing to take down Blank Oliver in the fight in The Beehive.]] |
| 443 | ** [[spoiler:Gary and Andy both yell "Stevie-baby!" in delight when Steven rejoins them in The World's End.]] |
| 444 | * ScarsAreForever: Peter, Steven and Andy [[ScarSurvey all have scars]] resulting from their GloryDays with Gary, proving that they haven't been replaced. Gary is mentioned to have a metal plate in his elbow from a dislocation, but refuses to show it, [[spoiler:since he also has bandages hiding scars from a suicide attempt, which he ''really'' doesn't want to show them.]] |
| 445 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:The Network]] responds to Gary's speech in this way in the end. [[spoiler:After decades of frustratingly slow progress in trying to uplift the human race, getting yelled at by three drunk men who survived an entire village of Blanks is the straw that broke the camel's back, and it just gives up and leaves.]] |
| 446 | -->'''[[spoiler:The Network]]:''' It's pointless arguing with you. [...] Yeah, fuck it. |
| 447 | * SelfHealingPhlebotinum: Blanks can reattach their severed limbs without much difficulty and get right back into the fight. As robots, however, they never heal their cosmetic damage. The Network apparently just spits out fresh copies of models that are damaged beyond functioning. |
| 448 | * SherlockScan: Subverted. Sam seems to pull one of these when she says in the disabled toilets of The Two-Headed Dog that Gary had sex with the twins in the past, pointing out her reasoning by saying that she's not stupid and Newton Haven is a small town. It turns out she knew this because the twins had told her themselves. |
| 449 | * SkewedPriorities: Gary King's obsession with finishing the Golden Mile, even if it literally kills him. |
| 450 | ** Also, after their first encounter with the blanks, rather than figuring out a survival strategy, the gang immediately starts NicknamingTheEnemy. |
| 451 | * ShoutOut: |
| 452 | ** Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright stated the entire film was inspired by the [[https://novelwriting101.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/stepford_wives1.jpg original poster]] for ''Film/TheStepfordWives'', depicting a Blank-like woman with a shattered head. |
| 453 | ** To ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' in particular. [[spoiler:And AfterTheEnd, to the ''Film/MadMax'' series.]] |
| 454 | ** Peter disappears off screen for a second then runs back in with a tree branch in order to give [[spoiler:Blank Shane]] a probably [[Series/FawltyTowers damned good thrashing]]. |
| 455 | ** "[[Series/AntiquesRoadshow Let's get this antique on the road show]]" |
| 456 | ** Gary keeps calling them Literature/TheThreeMusketeers, even though there are five of them. [[spoiler:This doubles as foreshadowing.]] |
| 457 | ** Reverend Green's nickname is a reference to the fact that he sells pot as well as a shout out to the green character in ''TabletopGame/{{Cluedo}}''. This joke doesn't translate as well in America, where the character is called "Mr. Green." |
| 458 | ** At The Beehive, Mr. Shepherd is introduced reading a copy of ''Literature/BraveNewWorld''. |
| 459 | ** Gary mentions the "[[FiveFingerFillet knife game]]" from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', a scene in which it is revealed that [[spoiler:Bishop]] [[RoboticReveal is a robot]]. Coincidentally or not, Peter living with his family at Bishop's Garden could also be a foreshadowing of [[spoiler:him becoming a Blank when he comes back home]]. |
| 460 | ** The symbol representing [[spoiler:The Network]] is a row of parallel vertical lines that resemble a symbol seen in the publicity for ''Film/TheFifthElement''. |
| 461 | ** They mention that Sam and Steven were in a production of ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}''. Moments later Gary greets Sam with the words "Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome" which is title of a well known song from ''Cabaret''. |
| 462 | ** Might be a coincidence, but both the words "Robotnik" and "Eggman" are used in the discussion about what to call Blanks. Those are the two alias of the BigBad from ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. |
| 463 | ** Gary ends up as a [[Film/SixStringSamurai wandering swordsman in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, known only as 'The King']]. |
| 464 | ** [[Film/{{Casablanca}} Instead of Paris]], Gary and Sam will always have the disableds. |
| 465 | ** Gary refers to himself as "Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing." |
| 466 | * ShoutOutToShakespeare: As explained InUniverse, the "Let's Boo Boo!" was derived from "ExitPursuedByABear" from ''Theatre/TheWintersTale''. |
| 467 | * SigilSpam: In a very subtle example, the Network's icon, a variation on the 5-bar cellular phone connection meter, appears throughout Newton Haven, most notably on signs for the town and its various pubs. Since the meaning of this symbol isn't revealed until the end, any viewer who did notice probably assumed it indicated wifi. |
| 468 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Sam is the only female character in the central cast. |
| 469 | * SpitTake: As in the other Blood & Ice Cream films; this time, it's during Gary's BarBrawl while still trying to finish his pint" scene, when he takes a swig and gets immediately punched in the face. |
| 470 | * SpotTheImposter: |
| 471 | -->'''[[spoiler:Blank Oliver:]]''' C'mon, Andy. They can't start without you!\ |
| 472 | '''Andy:''' ''[suspicious]'' What?\ |
| 473 | '''[[spoiler:Blank Oliver:]]''' ''We'' can't start without you![[note]]This is Andy's first clue, later confirmed by the reappearance of his birthmark.[[/note]] |
| 474 | * StagingAnIntervention: About a third of the way in, the gang are prepared to confront Gary for his increasingly self-destructive behaviour, after they learn that he lied about his mother's death to get them to go drinking with him. However, they're distracted by an alien invasion. Several aborted interventions occur throughout the film, culminating in a climax that is a bizarre combination of intervention and HumanityOnTrial. |
| 475 | * StealthPun: When Peter is surrounded by Blanks, Andy threatens to "punch their lights out." At this point the Blanks are emitting light from their eyes and mouths. |
| 476 | * StepfordSmiler: Blanks under the Network influence, of course. |
| 477 | * StepfordSuburbia: Newton Haven. |
| 478 | * StoutStrength: Andy. |
| 479 | * StraightMan: Andy out of the entire group. |
| 480 | * StrawmanHasAPoint: [[invoked]] Invoked in-universe by Andy, who admits that The Network was right about people being uncivilized. |
| 481 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When Peter accuses Gary of stalking him in the beginning, Gary denies ever being to Bishop's Gardens, meaning he knows which neighborhood Peter lives in. |
| 482 | * TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: [[spoiler:Gary pisses the Network off to the point where it just leaves.]] |
| 483 | * TemptingFate: Averted when [[spoiler:Gary keeps insisting, "We're gonna make it" when trying to OutrunTheFireball - setting the scene up for a failure. They outrun it.]] |
| 484 | * ThemeNaming: |
| 485 | ** The surnames of the five lead characters are positions in a royal court: King, Knight(ley), Prince, Chamberlain and Page. |
| 486 | ** Guy Shepherd [[spoiler:tries to guide the main characters into accepting fate and becoming alien replicants (i.e., sheep).]] |
| 487 | * ThematicSeries: The final installment of the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. None of the movies are direct sequels (and if they exist in the same world [[YouLookFamiliar there are an awful lot]] of {{Doppelganger}}s running around). Though even then, they couldn't be in the same continuity because ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'''s ending showed that [[spoiler:Zombies were being used as cheap manual labour, in which this movie showed a severe lack (not even a mention) of zombie slaves]]. |
| 488 | * TheseusShipParadox: [[TheAllegedCar The Beast]] has had every meaningful part replaced, but looks the same and runs about as junkily as it did in the '90s. [[spoiler:In a similar way, the Network has been replacing so many citizens of Newton Haven that it's hardly worth calling it the same town as before.]] |
| 489 | * TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The alien replacements all look like normal humans until they attack and they turn into blue lightbulbs. |
| 490 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: Gary tries to [[MythologyGag jump a fence]] while running from the Blanks, and goes "Oh, no!" when it collapses under him. |
| 491 | * ThoseTwoGuys: The two Network collaborators. |
| 492 | * ThroatLight: White light spews from the mouths of those replaced by aliens. |
| 493 | * TooDumbToLive: Gary is so hell-bent on finishing the Golden Mile that by the finale he has ''the entire town'' chasing after him, and even then he refuses to quit. |
| 494 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: Gary's fixation on the pub crawl certainly gets the 'Five Musketeers' into a lot of trouble, and it's made clear that even in their teenage years, he wasn't a particularly good friend to them in many ways. |
| 495 | * TownWithADarkSecret: TheMovie. |
| 496 | * TropaholicsAnonymous: It turns out that Gary's opening narration is being given to a support group, presumably either for alcoholics or [[spoiler:attempted suicides]]. |
| 497 | * TwinThreesomeFantasy: Gary had done this with "the twins" in the past [[spoiler:before they were [[KillAndReplace replaced with Blanks]]]]. [[ByNoIMeanYes He's not proud of it. He is a little.]] |
| 498 | * TwoGuysAndAGirl: Between Gary, Steven and Sam. Steven has carried a torch for Sam since they were all in school together, and even years later resents Gary for sleeping with her. [[spoiler:Steven and Sam end up together at the end.]] |
| 499 | * TwoWordsICantCount: After Gary is asked how his mother's funeral was: |
| 500 | -->'''Gary:''' It's difficult to put into words. But if I had to choose three, I would say, 'Really, really sad.' Oh, no, that's two, isn't it? How about, 'Really, very sad'? |
| 501 | [[/folder]] |
| 502 | |
| 503 | [[folder:U-Z]] |
| 504 | * TheUnreveal: The film makes it ''painfully'' obvious that [[spoiler:Oliver's been turned into a Blank]], but it allows for a ComicallyMissingThePoint with Gary, who seems to express suspicion at his behavior: |
| 505 | -->'''Gary:''' ''(suspiciously)'' Wait a minute. 1990 model Oliver was out of commission by this point of the evening.\ |
| 506 | '''Oliver:''' ''(guiltily nervous)'' What are you saying?\ |
| 507 | '''Gary:''' ''(brightly)'' I ''like'' the new you! |
| 508 | * UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler:After overdosing, Gary somehow recovered enough to abandon Andy, who had just rolled the car he was driving while drunk, leaving Andy to get arrested, after twelve hours of life-saving surgery (he had almost severed his femoral artery).]] |
| 509 | * UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In the bathroom, Andy is more interested in chewing out Gary [[spoiler:for lying about his mother's death than the ''decapitated body'' in Gary's lap...]] |
| 510 | * UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:The Network]] believes so. Almost all of the human characters beg to differ. |
| 511 | * VerbalBackspace: After the encounter in the toilet at the 4th pub: |
| 512 | -->'''Gary King:''' The last thing we neeed to do is getting pulled over by the police. A, we're all drunk, B, they might be in on it, and C, we've got blood on our hands. |
| 513 | -->'''Peter:''' It's more like ink.\ |
| 514 | '''Gary:''' We've got ink on our hands. |
| 515 | * VillainsOutShopping: When they not trying to convert humans into blanks, Blanks are seen doing pretty much everything the humans they replaced would be doing, such as drinking, shopping, and hanging out at a disco. Mr. Shepherd, when they come across his Blank at The Beehive is enjoying a drink and holding a copy of ''Brave New World''. |
| 516 | * VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:The FantasticRacism directed towards the freed Blanks]] has Andy acknowledging that maybe [[spoiler:the Network was right about humans being a bad influence on the rest of the galaxy.]] |
| 517 | * VisualPun: |
| 518 | ** From the blank Marmalade Sandwich: "Andy... I want you inside me." [[spoiler:Andy then punches a hole in her stomach to retrieve his wedding ring.]] |
| 519 | ** "There is ''nothing'' between me and Gary!" [[spoiler:The twins then barge between Sam and Gary.]] |
| 520 | ** [[spoiler:When The Network finally appears, it looks much like a five-bar internet connection, and hangs up like a phone would.]] |
| 521 | * WalkingInRhythm: The group walks in time to the Doors' version of "Alabama Song" as [[spoiler:they try to give the appearance that all is normal on their way to the next whiskey ba--er, pub. Unfortunately, the way the Blanks stare at them ominously from that point on...]] |
| 522 | * WaxingLyrical: Gary does this a lot, [[FanOfThePast always with songs released in the early nineties]] by British bands |
| 523 | ** An exchange between Gary and The Network at the film's climax repeats the spoken-word opening of Music/PrimalScream's "Loaded"[[note]]which in turn was sampled from the 1960s biker film ''Film/TheWildAngels''[[/note]] pretty much word for word: |
| 524 | --->'''The Network:''' Just what is it that you want to do? |
| 525 | --->'''Gary:''' We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do! We wanna get loaded! And we wanna have a good time! And that's what we're gonna do! |
| 526 | ** He quotes Music/HappyMondays during one of the fights with the Blanks |
| 527 | --->Twist the melon! |
| 528 | ** He tells the rest of his friends "I'm free to do what I want, any old time," quoting "I'm Free" by The Soup Dragons [[note]]"I'm Free" was a [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Rolling Stones]] song originally, but the CoverVersion is the one featured on the soundtrack[[/note]]. |
| 529 | * WeHaveReserves: No matter how damaged any of the Blanks are, they are replaced with identical ones moments after [[spoiler:by the Network.]] |
| 530 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:The Network just want humanity to reach its full potential (by their standards). They only want to kill as many as they have to in order to ensure that. Unfortunately, it turns out to require killing almost all of the human race, because humanity doesn't like being told what to do.]] |
| 531 | * WhamShot: Two. |
| 532 | ** Gary tackling the teenager in the The Cross Hands toilet and slamming him into the urinal, knocking his head off. |
| 533 | ** [[spoiler:When Gary's sleeves turn up in the scuffle he and Andy have in The World's End, and Andy sees the bandages on Gary's wrists, and realising Gary had attempted suicide.]] |
| 534 | * WhatTheHellHero: Delivered to Gary a few times, mostly by Andy. |
| 535 | * WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:Andy reconciles with his wife and is trying to make do with his own farm, Sam and Steven are living together in a shack outside of London, the Blanks of Peter and Oliver are trying to live the life the real ones did before the Network left, and Gary is WalkingTheEarth with the Blanks of the younger versions of Andy, Steven, Peter, and Oliver.]] |
| 536 | * WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: There is no real-world town called Newton Haven, though it's most likely taking the place of the town where the movie was filmed, Letchworth, Hertfordshire. The railway station where most of the group disembarks from for the rendezvous is High Wycombe. |
| 537 | * WorldWreckingWave: [[spoiler:Newton Haven is destroyed by one in the climax of the film as the Network leaves Earth. And then it ''keeps going''...]] |
| 538 | * WrestlerInAllOfUs: The gang in the first fight, especially Gary whose spectacular [[spoiler:Rock Bottom [[OffWithHisHead into the urinal reveals his opponent is not exactly human]]]]. Andy also does a ''mighty'' back-breaker and decent elbow drop. One of the lads fighting Steve does an ''amazing'' tilt-a-whirl bulldog after putting him in a shoulder lock. |
| 539 | * YouCantGoHomeAgain: One of the central themes. |
| 540 | * YouDoNOTWantToKnow: Invoked by Basil on the fate of the "Empties". When Gary asks The Network, Basil yells out, "I ''told'' you not to ask that!" When Gary finds out, his shocked expression confirms it was definitely SchmuckBait. |
| 541 | -->'''Gary:''' '''''[[spoiler:MULCHED?!?!]]''''' |
| 542 | [[/folder]] |
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