Line #60 Film/UncleSam


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unclesam_4499.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300: [-He red, white and [[{{Pun}} blew]] 'em away.-] ]]
3
4	->''"I thought ghosts were supposed to come out in the dark, not in broad daylight on the Fourth of July!"''
5	-->-- '''Jed Crowley'''
6
7	''Uncle Sam'' is a 1997 SlasherMovie, created by the duo of Creator/LarryCohen and Creator/WilliamLustig.
8
9	During the UsefulNotes/GulfWar, sadistic mercenary door gunner Master Sergeant Sam Harper (Creator/DavidFralick) was killed along with his crew when their helicopter was shot down by friendly fire over Kuwait. Due to the seclusion of the impact site, Sam's charred corpse went undiscovered for three years, but when it was found, he randomly sprung to life and murdered two fellow soldiers, a sergeant and a major, before falling inert. After the double homicide was presumably blamed on enemy forces, Sam's body was collected and shipped to his hometown of Twin Rivers, where it was left in the possession of his family; his wife Louise, who is currently dating local Deputy Phil Burke, (Creator/MatthewFlint) and sister Sally (Creator/LeslieNeale), whose son, an awkward and extremely patriotic boy named Jody (Creator/ChristopherOgden), idolized Sam, unaware of his violent and troubled past.
10
11	As Sam's family and friends --of which includes his mentor, former sergeant Jed Crowley (Music/IsaacHayes), who regrets filling Sam's head with stories of the glories of war, pay their reluctant respects to the dead man, the town prepares for its Fourth of July celebration, which local and extremely corrupt congressman Alvin Cummings (Creator/RobertForster) will be attending, in an attempt to salvage his public image. Unfortunately for Twin Rivers, Sam comes out of hibernation when the clock strikes midnight on July 3rd, kills a perverted man for his Uncle Sam costume, and sets about murdering all those he views as unpatriotic, including but not limited to flag burners, draft dodgers, tax evaders, stoners and slimy politicians. When Sam ultimately crashes the town's Fourth of July celebration, Jody and Jed, and a crippled boy named Barry Cronin with an inexplicable connection to Sam must work together to send the psycho soldier back to Hell.
12	----
13	!!This film provides examples of the following tropes:
14	* ActorAllusion: Once again, Robert Forster's character [[spoiler:[[Film/TheDeltaForce dies by getting blown up by an American soldier]]]]. Also this is Forster's [[Film/ManiacCop3BadgeOfSilence second Lustig horror film]] where his character [[spoiler:dies by first having his mouth stuffed with a gag then get burned to death]].
15	* AffablyEvil: Slimy CorruptPolitician Alvin Cummings is quite a charming LaughablyEvil SmugSnake in public appearances with his {{Catchphrase}} "[[CoolShades Glasses]] or [[TheGlassesComeOff no glasses]]," when asking his aide if he should wear his sunglasses or not for the press.
16	* AgonyOfTheFeet: After accidentally knocking a picture of Sam onto the floor, Jody steps on the glass.
17	* TheAlcoholic: It is mentioned that Sam had a drinking problem. Clete's father also has it.
18	* AlienBlood: Sam's blood is black.
19	* AllPartOfTheShow: Presumably what was going through the minds of the audience, considering how little reaction there is to Congressman Cummings being made apart of the fireworks display (at least until he blows up).
20	* AmoralAttorney: Ralph, who is proud how he manages to screw the opposition over in his cases.
21	%%* AntagonistTitle: Sam Harper, who is also Jody's uncle.
22	* ArtificialLimbs: Jed's wooden right leg.
23	* AssholeVictim: Almost all the victims are given one or two (unpatriotic) KickTheDog moments.
24	* AutoErotica: A couple are briefly seen making out in an abandoned car.
25	* AxCrazy: Sam, even before he became undead. Even if he hadn't enlisted and been killed, he probably would've become a SerialKiller, a mercenary, a TerroristWithoutACause of the WesternTerrorists variety or something anyway.
26	* BelievingTheirOwnLies: It's ''very'' likely that Sam bought into his own line of bullshit about being a patriot. Long before that, he enjoyed hurting other people, and only joined the army as an excuse to kill.
27	* BigBrotherBully: [[spoiler:Sam made his sister Sally's life hell since she was six years old. He's also heavily implied to have molested her; it's to the extent that Sally openly admits she was ''happy'' when Sam got married and moved out, because then he'd have [[DomesticAbuse someone else to victimize]].]]
28	%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Sergeant Twining.
29	* BlackAndWhiteMorality: How Jody sees the world, until he's told how big a monster Sam was.
30	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. Jed [[spoiler:survives the whole movie, and in fact, he's the one who kills Sam for good.]]
31	%%* BlindSeer: Barry.
32	* BodyHorror: When Sam's face is fully revealed at the end, he looks like a horrible, decayed swamp monster, not a charred corpse.
33	%%* BondOneLiner
34	* BoundAndGagged: [[spoiler:Congressman Cummings is bound, gagged, and tied down to become a human fireworks display.]]
35	* BrokenPedestal: Jody stops idolizing his uncle Sam after his aunt and mother tell him what he was really like.
36	* BrotherSisterIncest: It's heavily implied that [[spoiler:Sam started sexually abused Sally when they were children, and continued doing so until he moved out.]]
37	%%* BuriedAlive: Rick's death.
38	%%* ChaseScene: With stilts.
39	* ChekhovsGun: Along with Jed's cannon, there's also the spray paint cans Sam knocks Rick out with, and the meat cleaver he uses to kill Jesse.
40	%%* CigarChomper: The major.
41	* ComfortingTheWidow: Sergeant Twining enjoys informing soldiers' families of their deaths since it gives him a chance to do this.
42	%%* CoolShades: Congressman Cummings at least thinks so.
43	%%* CorruptPolitician: Congressman Alvin Cummings.
44	%%* CreepyCemetery
45	%%* CreepyChild: Barry, though Jody also has his moments.
46	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Clete's is lynched on a flagpole, and [[spoiler:congressman Cummings is killed with fireworks.]]
47	* DeathByIrony: Ralph is shot in the head while dressed as Abraham Lincoln.
48	* DeathByMocking: Moral? Don't mock America... at least within earshot of a homicidal ghoul.
49	* DecapitationPresentation: Sam leaves Jesse's severed head in a grill to be found by the barbecue girl.
50	* {{Dedication}}: "For [[Creator/LucioFulci Lucio]]".
51	* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: They even admit in the commentary that things take a bit too long to get going.
52	%%* DirectToVideo
53	* DisappearedDad: Sally is apparently divorced. [[spoiler:The reason for this is revealed to be because she was raped by Sam when she was a child, and as such, found it difficult to trust men.]]
54	* DisproportionateRetribution: All over the place, really, but what really stands out as this are the deaths of Mr. Crandall (a draft-dodger who fled the country during the Vietnam War), Ralph (who expressed disgust with the Gulf War), and the barbecue girl (who left the barbecue to smoke a joint).
55	* DomesticAbuse: Sam would frequently beat his wife, Louise, to the extent she was actually in fear for her life.
56	* DontGoInTheWoods: Jesse gets lost in them during the sack race, and meets Sam, who kills him for intentionally butchering the national anthem earlier.
57	%%* DraftDodging: Mr. Crandall.
58	* DreamSequence: Jody has a black and white dream in which he and Sam are marching in a Fourth of July parade.
59	%%* DullSurprise: Jody.
60	* {{Eagleland}}: America is a Type 2, as personified mostly in the CrapsackWorld town of Twin Rivers, due to Sam's bodycount being mostly {{Asshole Victim}}s who are completely corrupt Americans, the fact Sam died by being killed by his own men in a friendly fire and the AxCrazy SociopathicSoldier Sam himself being an American soldier.
61	%%* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Sam.
62	* EvilSoundsRaspy: The undead Sam speaks in a soft, disturbing raspy voice.
63	%%* EvilUncle: Guess.
64	* EyeAwaken: Sam does this inside his coffin when senses his grave being desecrated.
65	* {{Fainting}}: Mrs. Cronin's reaction to Sam massacring the Fourth of July celebration.
66	%%* {{Fanservice}}: Some brief T and A.
67	* FanserviceExtra: Willie spies on a woman wearing a towel, and both he and the audience get an eyeful of both sides of her when she drops it.
68	%%* FingerTwitchingRevival: Sam likes fidgeting in his coffin.
69	* ForTheEvulz: Sam always enjoyed hurting other people. His patriotism is, if not just an excuse he uses to kill, a case of BelievingTheirOwnLies.
70	%%* FriendOrFoe: How Sam died.
71	%%* GenderBlenderName: Jody.
72	* GoingPostal: "Way you shoot, you should get a job at the post office!"
73	* {{Gorn}}: It's a slasher movie -- comes with the territory.
74	* GroinAttack: There were plenty of rumors that said Jed didn't just lose a leg to a landmine. According to Jed, those rumors are just that: rumors.
75	%%* GrossUpCloseUp: On the more violent deaths, plus Rick's broken leg.
76	%%* UsefulNotes/GulfWar: Sam died in it.
77	* HandicappedBadass: Jed lost a leg in the Korean War, and can still single-handedly operate a muzzle-loading cannon.
78	* HilariousOuttakes: TheStinger shows the actor playing Willie trip while using his stilts.
79	* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Takes place during the 4th of July.
80	* ImmuneToBullets: Bullets don't do much to faze Sam. [[spoiler:The same can't be said of cannons.]]
81	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Phil is run through with a flagpole.]]
82	* ImprovisedWeapon: The aforementioned flagpole, most prominently.
83	%%* InfernalRetaliation: Attempted by Sam.
84	%%* IronicNurseryTune: "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
85	* KickTheDog: The vandals burn flags and spraypaint the graves of dead soldiers. ''In the cemetery.''
86	* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:Congressman Cummings is impaled with fireworks, and burns when they're ignited. Sam is roasted by two blasts from a cannon.]]
87	* LickingTheBlade: Sam licks his cleaver after [[OffWithHisHead cutting Jesse's head off]].
88	%%* LoopholeAbuse: Ralph's specialty.
89	%%* MadeOfExplodium: Louise's house, apparently.
90	%%* MalevolentMaskedMen: A cheap Uncle Sam mask.
91	* MenacingStroll: In true slasher fashion, Sam isn't particularly fast.
92	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: There's only one female victim, although it's implied that Sam meant to kill at least two more.
93	* {{Mooning}}: After purposely singing the anthem poorly onstage, Jesse moons the audience, with his underpants still on unlike most examples.
94	* MoralityPet: Sam may or may not have actually loved Jody, although what his relationship with Jody amounts to is filling his head with lies about the "American Way" that he doesn't even believe in, and at the end, he was [[spoiler:prepared to either kill Jody, or let him die with him.]]
95	* MoreDakka: After a simple handgun proves ineffective against Sam, the characters upgrade to a cannon.
96	* NeckSnap: Sam breaks the sergeant's neck.
97	%%* TheNineties
98	* NoNameGiven: For some victims like the sergeant, the major, the barbecue girl and the mayor.
99	* NoodleIncident: The fireworks-related accident that disfigured, blinded and crippled Barry.
100	* NothingIsScarier: We don't see how Sam kills Willie with the garden shears[[labelnote:note]]Although it's heavily implied that he was decapitated[[/labelnote]], only hear it.
101	* OffscreenTeleportation: When Sam is stalking Jesse. It's done in such an absurd way that it has to be parodying this trope.
102	* OffWithHisHead:
103	** Sam severs Willie's head offscreen with a pair of garden shears.
104	** Sam beheads Jesse when he runs across him after falling down the hill in a potato sack race.
105	* OhCrap: Jed's reaction when he spots Sam's discarded mask while trying to call for help.
106	%%* OminousFog: In the park and cemetery.
107	%%* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Type R.
108	* PatrioticFervor: Subverted. Sam uses this as an excuse to kill, but in reality, he would have likely ended up acting out on his homicidal urges whether or not he enlisted in the army. If anything, this is more of a case of YouKeepTellingYourselfThat.
109	* PeekABooCorpse: Jesse's severed head being found in the barbecue.
110	* ThePeepingTom: Willie is caught peeping in a woman's window when she drops her towel.
111	* PreMortemOneLiner: "I hope you got an eyeful."[[labelnote:note]]Said by Sam to Willie, alluding to how the latter was using the stilts for his Uncle Sam costume to peep on a naked woman.[[/labelnote]]
112	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Ralph's death. {{Justified\|Trope}}, as Sam killed him with a BB gun.
113	* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Happens to Jed, courtesy of Sam for the line listed under ShutUpHannibal.
114	* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler:Heavily implied, but never outright stated to be the case with Sally. She tells Jody about how Sam — her ''[[BrotherSisterIncest brother]]'' — would do things to her that "even at that age, [she] knew were wrong".]]
115	%%* ReactionShot
116	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Jed tries to get the idea that WarIsGlorious out of Jody's head, and later helps him [[spoiler:defeat Sam.]]
117	* RedEyesTakeWarning: Sam has yellow ones in the film itself, but most artwork (like the above) depicts him with red.
118	* ResurrectedMurderer: Sam Harper was a SociopathicSoldier who joined the military just so he could kill more people ForTheEvulz [[spoiler:and is implied to have raped his own sister when they were younger]]. After dying in combat, his corpse is placed in a coffin and delivered to his sister and her family. [[RiddleForTheAges For reasons left unexplained]], Sam rises from his coffin as a zombie [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve at midnight on the Fourth of July]], steals an Uncle Sam mascot costume, and proceeds to go on a killing spree, targeting anyone who disrespects America.
119	%%* TheScourgeOfGod
120	* ScreamDiscretionShot: Willie and the barbecue girl's deaths.
121	* SealedEvilInACan: Sam is trapped in a sealed coffin, although he gets out on the Fourth of July.
122	* ShearMenace: Sam kills Willie with a pair of garden shears.
123	%%* ShellShockedVeteran: Jed.
124	* ShoutOut: Jed repeats the blind veteran's speech about being trapped under frozen bodies in a foxhole from ''Film/ManiacCop2'' almost exactly. The film [[FadeToBlack "shattering" to black]] is also a reference to ''Film/CityOfTheLivingDead''.
125	* ShutUpHannibal:
126	-->'''Sam:''' Take a good look at me, soldier. You... [[NeverMyFault you made me into this]].\
127	'''Jed:''' No... you never fought for your country. [[TerroristWithoutACause You just killed for the love of killing!]] You're nothing! So just die!
128	* SlashedThroat: [[spoiler:Sergeant Twining is KilledOffscreen this way.]]
129	%%* SleazyPolitician: Congressman Cummings.
130	* SociopathicSoldier: Sam only joined the military so he could get a free pass to kill people. He's not much better as a zombie.
131	* TheStoner: The girl manning the barbecue, who tries to sneak away to smoke cannabis, but is caught.
132	%%* StuffBlowingUp: The fireworks show going out of control.
133	* SummerSchoolSucks: Somewhat downplayed example. Jody is still in school in early July; you can see "Summer Session" written on the classroom blackboard. However, it's not clear if he's there because he's fallen behind, or if he just wants to continue his studies uninterrupted.
134	%%* SurvivorGuilt: Jed.
135	* TerribleTrio: Jesse, Clete and Rick are a group of vandals who desecrate the graves of soldiers and burn flags. Jesse also sabotages the National Anthem onstage.
136	* TitleDrop: Since the killer is named Sam, and he's the main character's uncle, and he's dressed as Uncle Sam, this of course happens a lot.
137	%%* TitleIn: Done three times.
138	* TrashcanBonfire: Jody uses one to dispose of his toys right before the credits.
139	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Jody idolizes his uncle Sam, and refuses to listen to anything negative about him or about war in general, even repeating some of the more. He also repeatedly states that he wants to grow up to be like Sam, although he's unaware of the truth. Not helping is his completely emotionless demeanor throughout the film.
140	* UncleSamWantsYou: ... ''Dead!''
141	* UnnecessaryRoughness: It's just a sack race, Jesse.
142	* UnwillingSuspension: Clete is hung from a flagpole.
143	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After snapping a sergeant's neck, Sam shoots the corpse several times, killing the nearby major due to the bullets ripping through it.
144	%%* VaderBreath
145	* VillainOpeningScene: Sam killing the sergeant and major who find his crashed helicopter in Kuwait.
146	* WaitHere: Barry is in a wheelchair and all...
147	* WarIsGlorious: Jody sees it this way, thanks to the lies his crazed uncle fed him.
148	* WarIsHell: Jed tries to talks Jody out of his plans of joining the military by telling him how horrible war is.
149	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So, along with the sergeant and the major, did Sam kill the other soldiers who found him, or what?
150	** Presumably, he died from his injuries shortly after being found, and the remaining soldiers shipped his body home.
151	* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: Sam rises from his coffin at exactly midnight.
152
153	----

Context Film / UncleSam