Line #18 Film/TowerOfTerror


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16	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tower-of-terror_2889.jpg]]
17
18	->'''Buzzy: ''' Comin'?\
19	'''Q:''' What, are you kidding, man? No way, this place is haunted.\
20	'''Buzzy:''' Yeah, right.
21
22	Before ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean,'' this 1997 MadeForTVMovie was the first film to be based on a ride from the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, in this case ''Ride/TheTwilightZoneTowerOfTerror'' (though the film has no stated connection to ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone''). It was written and directed by Creator/DJMacHale, and premiered on Creator/{{ABC}} on October 26, 1997.
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24	In 1999, a disgraced reporter named Buzzy Crocker (Creator/SteveGuttenberg) is stuck writing stories for the National Inquisitor tabloid after he submitted a false story to the Los Angeles Banner. He meets an old woman named Abigail Gregory (Amzie Strickland), who tells him the story of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, which was closed down back in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood after lightning struck the elevator and killed its five passengers sixty years earlier.
25
26	She claims that Emeline Partridge (Wendy Worthington), the nanny of child actress Sally Shine (Lindsay Ridgeway), was responsible for the horrible event, which put a curse on the hotel, trapping their spirits there. She begs him to go into the hotel and collect some items she needs to break the curse. Along with his niece Anna (Creator/KirstenDunst) and the inheritor of the hotel, Chris "Q" Todd (Creator/MikeMcShane), Buzzy ventures into the hotel and is surprised at what he finds.
27
28	----
29	!! This film contains examples of:
30	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Doing the math, this film is set in 1999.
31	* AdaptationExpansion: In the ride, the 5 passengers were just nameless characters that appeared at various points. The movie gives them names and some background along with some history of the hotel.
32	* AesopCollateralDamage: [[spoiler: Abigail just wanted to kill her sister Sally. Gilbert, Carolyn, Dewey, and Emeline were just part of it.]]
33	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: Abigail killed her sister and other innocent people, sabotaged her own surprise birthday party in 1939, and placed the entire hotel under a curse, and the town in chaos...over what basically amounts to nothing.]]
34	* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: Abigail de-ages into a kid and disappears with Sally, presumably into the afterlife, despite not being dead. Was it a byproduct of the magic spell, or was Abigail a ghost all along? Also counts as a RiddleForTheAges.]]
35	* BeneathTheMask: The prologue makes it seem as if child star Sally Shine is a bit of an AttentionWhore, but her ghost implies otherwise by happily talking about how her sister was her best friend due to not caring that she was a star (or so she thought).
36	* BigBad: [[spoiler:Abigail]] is responsible for all the danger in the film and Buzzy figuring out [[spoiler:her curse]] is his main goal.
37	* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler: Abigail and Sally. Now imagine the Abel coming back as a ghost and Cain hunting him down still.]]
38	* CanonWelding: Creator/DJMacHale's later book series ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'' makes reference to the events of this film. Which means it is also in the same continuity as ''Literature/MorpheusRoad''.
39	* TheCassandra: No one believed Abigail about what happened [[spoiler: which is good, because she was lying]].
40	* CatchPhrase:
41	** Q's "Cha-Ching".
42	** Also, Dewey's "GO-ing up".
43	* ChekhovsGun: The service elevator, which wasn't damaged by the lightning strike.
44	* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Abigail]] making everyone collect items on a scavenger hunt in order to complete the spell.
45	* ChildMage: [[spoiler:Abigail, back in 1939 with the Book of Souls.]]
46	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Sally repeatedly shows this quality time and time again. By the end of the movie it becomes something of a plot point, and in the end [[spoiler: breaks the curse]].
47	* CoolUncle: Buzzy and his niece Anna get along great. He uses her to help fake tabloid photos, and she enjoys the experience.
48	--> '''Anna's Mother:''' One day your uncle is gonna wake up and find out he's not a kid anymore.
49	--> '''Anna:''' I hope not.
50	* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Sixty years of pain and multiple chaos could have been avoided if [[spoiler: Abigail's family had simply not tried to keep her party a surprise]].
51	* CoupDeGrace: [[spoiler: What Abigail hopes to accomplish. Tired of being haunted by her sister's memory and her ghost after killing her in 1939, she attempts a more potent spell that will send the elevator crashing down instead, wiping Sally out completely and sending her into Hell. It's fortunately thwarted in time.]]
52	* CutLexLuthorACheck: [[spoiler: Abigail's motivation is even more ridiculous when it's revealed she's a magical prodigy who is extremely good with magic, which is arguably far greater potential than a stage starlet. It seems she just wanted the attention.]]
53	* DeagedInDeath: After elderly Abby Gregory reconciles with the ghost of her sister Sally, who died as a child sixty years before, this allows Abby to rejoin her sister as a child, as she was in 1939, in the afterlife of the Tip-Top Club party they never reached when they were alive. Whether the reconciliation allowed Abby to pass on or she was DeadAllAlong remains an AmbiguousSituation.
54	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: Claire Poulet, aka Carolyn Crosson, and if the ending is anything to go by, Abigail as well.]]
55	* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: Emeline Partridge, nanny to child star Sally Shine, died in the elevator along with Sally and the other victims. Abigail blames Emeline and claims that she was the malevolent witch responsible for their deaths, but this turns out to be false and Emeline genuinely cared for Sally like her own daughter, while [[spoiler:Abigail was the one who put the child star to her demise]].
56	%%* DefangedHorrors
57	* DefrostingIceQueen: Jill's trust in Buzzy has been shaken ever since he got fired and constantly rejects any story he pitches whenever he pops up in her office. However, he gradually wins her back with his investigation on the hotel.
58	* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler: Yeah, cast a spell to kill your sister and four others and place a decades-long curse on an entire hotel, because you might possibly may have been jilted on your birthday.]]
59	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Buzzy gets his job and Jill back, Q inherits and reopens the hotel and the ghosts are free, but only after going through hell, barely escaping death, and solving the mystery.]]
60	* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler: Despite the fact that her sister killed her, and nearly tried to wipe her and the others from un-existence for good, Sally forgives Abigail, which breaks the spell. It does take a bit though.]]
61	* EurekaMoment: [[spoiler:"The woman is completely nuts. She probably thinks that she's a witch."]]
62	* EveryoneIsRelated: When it is revealed that [[spoiler:Abigail is actually Sally's sister]].
63	* EvilIsPetty: Jealous of your famous sister and felt jilted on your birthday? [[spoiler: Kill her with a magical spell while trapping her and other innocent people in an ongoing time loop and putting an entire town through hell for sixty years, and if that doesn't work, re-work the spell so she is permanently erased. It gets worse when the realization comes out,]]
64	* EvilLaugh: Emeline gives one in Abigail's [[spoiler:inaccurate]] flashback.
65	** Littered all over the hotel when Buzzy is getting the book. [[spoiler: When the creepy owl laughs, before Buzzy nearly gets stabbed with a pen dropped from the ceiling, when he's looking around after that...]]
66	** And of course [[spoiler: there's Abigail's after Steve and Anna find out Emeline wasn't behind the curse]].
67	* FaceHeelTurn: The mental institution director is very accommodating to Jill and properly concerned about his patients, right up until Jill finds evidence that a woman he released is dangerously unstable. He promptly snatches away her evidence, says he'll deny seeing it, and threatens to have her arrested for trespassing if she makes him look bad in the paper.
68	* FamousAncestor: Downplayed with Q's grandpa being one of the ghosts who disappeared and his great-grandpa building the heirloom hotel.
69	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
70	** In the opening scene, Emeline puts a concerned hand on Shirley when the elevator suddenly stalls.
71	** "I think I just let a ghost into your apartment".
72	* ForgottenBirthday: [[spoiler:Played straight, aside from the birthday girl having the biggest overreaction ''ever'' in the history of this trope. She finds out sixty years later that a SurpriseParty had been planned. Oops.]]
73	* FriendlyGhost: They are more than friendly, they are outright decent people, when they aren't trying to scare folks away of course. When Anna tells them she's here to help them, they're all ears to listen.
74	* FriendOrIdolDecision: [[spoiler: Buzzy has to decide between helping the ghosts and getting his career back. He gets both.]]
75	* GenteelInterbellumSetting: The 1939 scenes take place here. Note the "Interbellum" part is actually inaccurate. The 1939 scenes take place in October (on Halloween night, natch) and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started in September of that year, so strictly speaking, the setting is DuringTheWar. There is a mere technicality, of course. Tropewise, the 1939 scenes are played as GenteelInterbellumSetting, and no reference is made to the war. Besides, the setting is American, and the U.S. didn't join the war until 1941.
76	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: [[spoiler:Abigail's whole motivation.]]
77	%% * GlowingEyesOfDoom
78	* GroundhogDayLoop: The Ghosts (as well as the Hollywood Tower Hotel) are effectively trapped in 1939, waiting for October 31st to roll around each year, so they can try again to reach the party that is waiting for them on the top floor. If they fail, they simply linger around haunting the hotel until the date comes again.
79	* HalloweenEpisode: Halloween is not only the night of the accident, but also Abigail's birthday.
80	* HappilyEverAfter: Hey, even at its scariest, Disney is Disney. Sally and [[spoiler: Abigail]] reconcile their relationship and break the curse of the Hotel, The Lost guests arrive at the party at the Tip-Top Club for Halloween and [[spoiler: Abigail's birthday party]], Buzzy resurrects his career and rekindles his relationship with Jill, Gilbert is finally able to propose to Carolyn on-stage, Q solves the mystery of his grandfather Dewey's disappearance and becomes the Hollywood Tower Hotel owner, and the Hotel itself, finally free of the curse, re-opens for business.
81	* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Chris "Q" Todd sports a tropically flower patterned button shirt.
82	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Abigail]] turns to the side of good again after Sally forgives her.
83	%% * HellHotel: Duh, though ultimately subverted.
84	* HereWeGoAgain: Said word-for-word by Dewey when [[spoiler:the elevator gets stuck on the eleventh floor]].
85	* ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: [[spoiler:The real actress Buzzy hired is scared away by the ghosts offscreen, and Claire/Carolyn assumes her identity.]]
86	* IronicNurseryTune: Sally Shine eerily sings "It's Raining, It's Pouring" as a ghost (just like in the ride) to Buzzy and Anna. Also serves as a MythologyGag, as the girl can be heard singing it in the pre-show video on the ride.
87	* JacobMarleyApparel: Subverted in that Claire was able to appear in different 1930s outfits [[spoiler:when she was pretending to be a present-day actress]]. Otherwise played straight.
88	%% * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Buzzy and Gilbert.
89	* LighterAndSofter: Only by a very slim margin from its source material. Still no walk in the park though. See Defanged Horrors above.
90	* LightningCanDoAnything: Though it is magic lightning, so...
91	* [[LikeASonToMe Like a Daughter to Me]]: [[spoiler: With Sally and Emeline. After being accused of being the one who wanted to kill Sally, Emeline is horrified at the mere ''notion,'' and says that she loves Sally. "I couldn't love her more if she were me ''own'' daughter!"]]
92	* MissingChild:
93	** Child star Sally Shine's parents have to deal with their daughter vanishing from an elevator without a trace [[spoiler:and their other daughter going insane afterward]].
94	** Dewey's father experiences similar grief when his son vanishes and never recovers from the tragedy.
95	* MiscarriageOfJustice: How Buzzy was fired from the newspaper company; they blamed him for the fake video of the mayor taking bribes from the Mob. In reality, it was some other guy who doctored the video.
96	* MotiveRant: [[spoiler: Abigail]] gives one at the end, about [[spoiler: how everyone loved her sister but didn't care about her, and how her perceived ForgottenBirthday was the last straw. Her rant gets derailed when the ghost of her sister, the person who loved her the most, shows up in person and tells her that the party she wanted to throw was a surprise birthday party for Abigail]].
97	* MrFixIt: Played with Chris "Q" Todd, who doubles as the PluckyComicRelief.
98	* MythologyGag: The film opens with a band playing "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)," one of the 1930s jazz songs that plays at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
99	* NeverFoundTheBody: No traces of the victims in the Elevator were found. They just disappeared without a trace. [[spoiler: Magical lightning can do that.]]
100	* NextSundayAD: The movie was released in 1997, but takes place in 1999. Either that or the characters are rounding up when they refer to 1939 as "sixty years ago".
101	%% * NonSequiturThud
102	* NoodleIncident: Buzzy alludes to a past date that he and Jill went on, where [[FreeTheFrogs she tried to free some lobsters from a restaurant]].
103	* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: [[spoiler:Buzzy gets Sally to do this to Abigail at the end when she expresses how sorry she is that she never made it to the surprise party she was throwing for her sister's birthday.]]
104	* ObliviousToHatred: Sally truly loved her sister [[spoiler: Abigail, who couldn't stand her]]. But being a child, [[spoiler: Sally wasn't aware Abby was plotting to kill her]]. When Sally finds out the truth, it's awkward and it takes a little bit for them to reconcile.
105	* OldFlame: Jill to Buzzy.
106	* OnOneCondition: According to Q, Dewey Todd's father, the owner of the hotel, closed the Hollywood Towers down after his son's disappearance. According to Mr. Todd's will, the hotel can only be reopened if Dewey's fate is revealed. [[spoiler: After the curse is broken and Buzzy prints the story, this is considered good enough for the estate and the hotel resumes business.]]
107	* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:What ultimately breaks the spell.]]
108	* PimpedOutDress: Sally's {{pink\|MeansFeminine}}, frilly, puffy-sleeved dress.
109	* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler: Abigail thought that getting rid of Sally would solve her problems, but instead [[WentCrazyWhenTheyLeft the stress of the ordeal drove her completely insane]], so badly that she was hospitalized from the time she was ten up until right before the plot began - sixty whole years. And it's implied her lucidity was only due to the focus that came from coming up with her new EvilPlan.]]
110	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While not believing Buzzy about the ghosts, Jill at least do some background check about Abigail.
111	* RedHerring: [[spoiler: Emeline was thought to be the culprit behind the whole curse. But when called out on it, she reveals she would ''never'' do anything like that to Sally. The other ghosts likewise vouch for her.]]
112	* {{Retraux}}: Claire's song at the end, "Boy of my Dreams," is a 1930s-styled song written for the film.
113	* [[RoomFullOfCrazy Trunk Full Of Crazy]]: [[spoiler:Abigail has a trunk filled with photos and two newspapers of Sally with her face slashed out, a doll of Sally with her head partially decapitated, and the words "HATE", "PAIN" "BAD" written all over the place in black and red.]]
114	* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: Abigail cast the magical spell that killed her sister and the others on the elevator in 1939 in hopes of ridding her of Sally forever, but it only made her sister even MORE famous as a legendary ghost whose death overshadowed ''her'' birthday (October 31st) for the next ''sixty'' years, which drove Abigail off the deep end as she aged into her elder years, to the point she tries a more potent spell that will send Sally's ghost to Hell for eternity.]]
115	* ShirleyTemplate: Sally Shine is quite obviously Creator/ShirleyTemple.
116	* StupidEvil: [[spoiler: When it's revealed that the party in 1939 was all for Abigail's birthday and Sally was going to attend. Abigail sabotaged her own birthday party and killed her sister for basically nothing.]]
117	* SurpriseParty: [[spoiler:What the party back in 1939 is revealed to be. Specifically, it was a birthday party for ''Abigail''.]]
118	* SympatheticMagic: The focus for the original spell was a lock of Sally's hair. However, because there were other people on the elevator with her and no personal items from them were included in the casting, this is why the passengers are trapped in limbo between life and death rather than sent to an eternity of torture in Hell as the caster intended. In the caster's defense, she didn't expect other people to get on the elevator with Sally. [[spoiler:And she was also just a child at the time.]] As a result, such items must be located in the present day, to help break the spell [[spoiler:or as it actually turns out, to recast it the right way this time]].
119	* TheUnfavorite: [[spoiler: Abigail to Sally, or so she thought]].
120	* UnfinishedBusiness: The ghosts can't leave until [[spoiler: they reach the party on the top floor]].
121	* WickedWitch: A witch is behind the curse. [[spoiler: She was a young girl when she cast the spell, but now looks like a proper witch in the present.]]

Context Film / TowerOfTerror