Line #9 Film/VillageOfTheGiants


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px_013village_of_the_giants.jpg]]
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3	This 1965 Creator/BertIGordon picture has young "Genius" (Creator/RonHoward) tinkering with substances in his lab, creating a "goo" that causes whatever ingests it to grow to tremendous size. Unfortunately, some ne'er-do-wells blow in from out of town, and steal the goo and eat it, becoming the eponymous Giants. Now it's up to several teens as well as Genius to stop them.
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5	For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode see ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E23VillageOfTheGiants here]]''.
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7	!!''Village of the Giants'' contains examples of the following tropes:
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9	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: Delinquent teens, in this case.
10	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Directly invoked in the movie as some of the giants aren't happy with their new size.
11	-->'''Merrie:''' [[DCupDistress I was big enough before!]]
12	* CartoonBugSprayer: Nancy tries to fight off the GiantSpider with a flit gun, much to Mike's dismay.
13	* ChildProdigy: Conveniently named "Genius."
14	* ClosedCircle: The main road in and out of town has been destroyed by a mudslide, preventing anyone from leaving the area to call for help. It's also why the delinquent teens are in the area to be turned into giants in the first place, as the mudslide wrecked their car.
15	* CoconutSuperpowers: The filmmakers had very little ability to show the giant animals and people interacting with regular-sized people. As a result, the giant teens almost solely ''threaten'' people with their size. When their leader finally fights Mike (who's armed with a sling), he forgoes [[JustHitHim attacking him directly]] for the absurdly complicated and ineffective method of throwing fence posts like darts, just so the two don't have to be on the same screen.
16	* CurtainClothing: After the giants outgrow their clothes, they make new ones out of the theater's curtains.
17	* DavidVsGoliath: Directly invoked. Mike even attacks Fred with a slingshot.
18	* ElectrifiedBathtub: Mike kills the giant spider by breaking a water pipe to flood the basement floor, then drop a hanging lightbulb to electrify it. The spider glows yellow as it dies. Mike then jumps to the staircase, but loses his balance and falls back; fortunately, Nancy turns off the power just in time.
19	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The leader of the gang is mostly peer pressured into stepping up with threats and looked visibly upset when others took hostages.
20	* EvenTheDogIsAshamed: As Mike and his girlfriend make out.
21	* {{Fanservice}}: The first five minutes or so of the movie qualifies, as do the transformation scene and the film's many dance scenes.
22	* FullCircleRevolution: The giants try to frame their takeover of the town as freeing the kids from the rule of their parents (who are never shown imposing any particularly unreasonable restrictions on their children). The local teenagers immediately ask why they should assume that the rule of the giants will be any better for them.
23	* GiantEqualsInvincible: Seemingly subverted. The teens are sure they can conquer the town and maybe more, but don't assume they're immune to gunfire. Instead [[HostageSituation they take a hostage]] and demand the town disarm and cut off all outside communication, which the town [[IdiotBall immediately complies to]].
24	* GiantSpider: Mike and his girlfriend lock up the Goo, then practically turn around to find a huge [[NoisyNature growling]] tarantula behind them. They dispatch it by flooding the floor and breaking a light bulb and tossing it into the water, zapping the spider.
25	* GiantWoman: Much attention is given to the female giants, particularly Merrie.
26	* HatedByAll: None of the locals like the giants. If the giants had remembered this, they wouldn't have fallen for the distraction when the local kids rescued the giants' hostages.
27	* HobblingTheGiant: The good kids try to capture Fred by tying his ankles. It nearly works, but then Nancy is taken hostage and they have to call off the attack.
28	* IHaveYourDaughter: The giants take the Sheriff's daughter to keep him in line. The others try to counteract by taking Fred hostage, but then Nancy is also taken.
29	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Both sides of the "David vs Goliath" scene, as neither can hit anything. Mike is clearly worse though -- he has to dodge Fred's darts on occasion, while his slung rocks are rarely even in the right general direction.
30	* KarmaHoudini: After Genius' gas reduces the giants to normal size, they flee the town, but are never arrested for their numerous crimes, including assault, kidnapping, threats, and theft.
31	* MagicPants: ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing for when the teens become giants, but when they shrink again the giant clothes they make shrink with them.
32	* MaleGaze: There are a lot of shots of jiggling butts and breasts, giant or otherwise.
33	* MarshmallowHell: Horsey is held to the chest of one of the more bosomy giants. He seems more worried about being dropped, though.
34	* NeverTrustATitle: The eponymous giants come from out of town (although they do stage a takeover for the last few acts).
35	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Genius wasn't taking notes when he invented the Goo, so he has to spend half the film randomly trying things in an attempt to figure out how to reproduce, and eventually reverse, the effects.
36	* PoppingButtons: Merrie's sweater after she eats the Goo and starts growing.
37	* ProductPlacement:
38	** Shamelessly for another Creator/BertIGordon film. Giant Harry reads a copy of ''Fabulous Monsters of Filmland'' with ''Film/WarOfTheColossalBeast'' on the cover.
39	** The fried chicken served to the giant teens is actually from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Delight Chicken Delight]], a once ubiquitous fast food chain known for its slogan "Don't cook tonight, call Chicken Delight." If you look closely in the scene with the adults surrendering their guns, you can see a Chicken Delight billboard.
40	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Genius creates the goo in a FreakLabAccident. Both Mike and the delinquents see the obvious value to such a thing, but when the latter steal the original batch, they simply use it on themselves[[labelnote:*]]There was actually almost half of it left after the gang took their slices, but it's never seen again.[[/labelnote]]. Genius spends the entire movie trying to replicate the formula, and still hasn't managed to by the end, though he did create an antidote purely by mistake.
41	* TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction: Performed in an attempt to get the formula for the "Goo." It fails epically. For some reason, it works a lot better when one of the other delinquent girls talks to Genius.
42	* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: When the teens grow, their clothes are torn to shreds, leaving them naked. Also intended for cheap fanservice as the camera lingers on the ladies' tops getting torn off. Inexplicably, MagicPants is in effect when they shrink back down.
43	* ShirtlessScene: The men of the gang go either completely topless or with barely-covering togas after they become giants.
44	* SkewedPriorities: After crashing their car on a muddy road, what's the first thing Fred and his gang do? Dance!
45	* SpecialGuest: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beau_Brummels The Beau Brummels]], who perform their hit "Woman."
46	* TeenageWasteland: The giant teens attempt to take over the town, confiscating all weapons and forcing a curfew on adults.
47	* TeensAreMonsters: The delinquents are only a nuisance at first, but then they eat the goo and become a serious threat.
48	* TotallyRadical: "Dig that nitty-gritty!"
49	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight:
50	** The teenagers at the club are only mildly surprised when giant ducks enter the building. And when the giant teenagers appear, the crowd do little more than stare.
51	** After the giants arrive at the party, two cops arrive on the scene and ''don't'' notice the giants until ''after'' they've exited the car, and the partygoers point them out. One would think the cops should have seen the giants on the drive up.
52	* WeNeedADistraction: Red volunteers to distract the giants with a dance, while the others rescue the hostages.
53	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
54	** It's not explained what happened to the giant cat and corpse of the giant spider. We're just left to assume Genius took care of them.
55	** One of the supposed bad kids disappears from the movie completely right before the rest of them eat the goo and become giants. She's easy to spot because she's the only brunette female. It is never explained what happened to her and she only is glimpsed briefly in the very last scene. The real-world explanation is that her actress had stormed off the set after falling out with Bert I. Gordon, who evidently didn't have the time and/or inclination to film any explanation of why she went missing for most of the film.

Context Film / VillageOfTheGiants