Line #40 Main/TrunkShot


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/PulpFiction https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pulpfictiontrunk2.png]]]]
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6	A specific type of CompartmentShot, which involves a character placing or retrieving something (or someone) in the trunk[[note]]boot, if you're using British English[[/note]] of a car. POV will usually be from within the trunk looking up at the character opening it, sometimes from the actual POV of a character who's been stuffed into the trunk. In some cases, the trunk shot can also be a character looking at their supplies or armaments before either closing it or picking something up from the trunk.
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8	Popularised by Creator/QuentinTarantino who has a Trunk Shot in all of his films.
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10	See PunkInTheTrunk for one of the ways this shot can be used. Distant relative of the HuddleShot.
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12	----
13	!!Examples:
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15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* In ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence]]'', one of these happens as Batou and Togusa prepare to raid a {{Yakuza}} office.
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
22	* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'' does a variant for the underwater setting. When overzealous betting gets the best of Oscar, he's tied up in kelp and tossed into the mouth of a larger fish by a pair of jellyfish goons. Their talking to him before the mouth shuts clearly evokes the Tarantino examples below.
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
26	* In ''Film/HeWalkedByNight'', credited with being the first film to use this trope, the cops thoroughly inspect the trunk of a car.
27	* Used in the movie Intent to Kill, where the main character and her partner find drugs from the trunk of a limo, and then a bomb under it before both run for cover.
28	* ''Literature/InColdBlood'': The cops put a box in the trunk of the car, after putting Dick in the car.
29	* ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' opens with the main characters driving into a secluded area to bury the body of the freshly killed Billy Batts, only to find out that he's still alive when they hear him struggling from inside the trunk. The camera cuts to them opening the trunk, seeing him squirming inside the cloth they wrapped him in, and violently attacking him until they're sure that he's dead. Unlike most cases, the camera is placed behind the trunk rather than inside of it.
30	* In ''Film/UncleBuck'', Buck and Tia look at Bug who is bound and gagged in the trunk.
31	* In ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'', the camera looks at Mad Max and a group of abandoned children, who find a laddered shaft under the trunk of a car wreck.
32	* Every Creator/QuentinTarantino movie ever:
33	** ''Film/JackieBrown'': On two different occasions. One where Ordell Jones wants Beaumont Livingston to get in the trunk. And one where Jackie Brown gets stuff from her trunk.
34	** ''Film/KillBill'': The Bride is talking to Sophie Fatale, who is in the trunk. Also used when Budd is looking down at the Bride in the cemetery, and when the [=DiVAS=] look down at her in the wedding chapel.
35	** ''Film/PulpFiction'': Jules and Vince when they take their guns from the trunk.
36	** ''Film/ReservoirDogs'': looking out from the trunk where the captured cop is.
37	%% Zero-context entry, please correct before uncommenting ** ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' (which Tarantino scripted and acts in, but did not direct)
38	** ''Film/DeathProof'' ([[InvertedTrope Inverted]], this one is actually a shot from under the '''front hood''' of a car).
39	** ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': the POV is lying on the ground when Rain and Donowitz use a knife on a Nazi.
40	** ''Film/DjangoUnchained'': the POV is from the ground when Django points his gun at Big John Brittle.
41	** ''Film/TheHatefulEight'': A wounded [[spoiler: Bob's]] POV before Marquis [[BoomHeadshot finishes him off.]]
42	%%* ''Film/LaidToRest''
43	* ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'': Mrs. Lovett looking at Pirelli's body in the chest.
44	* ''Film/HotFuzz''. Also an intentional ShoutOut. [[ABloodyMess Ta da.]]
45	* In the short film ''Film/CigarettesAndCoffee'', Bill tells Steve in the trunk of his car "...almost home, Stevie!"
46	* Used in ''Film/{{Triangle}}'', after Jess stashes the body in the trunk of her car.
47	* In ''Film/WildTales'', when Simón Fisher loads explosives into the trunk of his car.
48	* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons''. Has one as a ShoutOut to Tarantino in a ''Disney'' film. With frogs.
49	* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', the camera looks out of the hole in the ground where Jack, Elizabeth and Norrington found a chest.
50	* In ''Film/LordOfWar'', the opening sequence depicts the journey of ammunition from factory-to-battlefield via [[CompanionCube the POV of a bullet]], including shots of different people opening and peering into ammunition crates to examine their contents along the way.
51	* In ''Film/AGoodDayToDieHard'', John and Jack inspect the trunks of three different cars.
52	* In ''Film/{{Innerspace}}'', Igoe's BMW ("SNAPON")[[note]]This is a reference to Snap-on tools; an automotive mechanic tool that features a snap mechanism for different attachments, similar to [[SwissArmyAppendage his hand]].[[/note]] and Scrimshaw's Rolls-Royce ("SUB-ZRO").
53	* In ''Film/HouseOfSandAndFog'', where Jennifer Connely's character takes gun out of her trunk to commit suicide in front of her mistakenly evicted home.
54	* ''Film/TheGentlemen'': When Coach opens the boot of his car to show Ray the BoundAndGagged Phuc, the shot is from Phuc's POV of the two threatening individuals staring down at him.
55	[[/folder]]
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57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In the ColdOpen for the Season 5 Premier, this shot is used as Walt looks at [[spoiler: the M60]] in his trunk.
59	* In the ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode "Friendly Fire", after Michael Westen (playing a shadowy demonic figure) throws the VillainOfTheWeek in a trunk, he gives an evil smile as the scene fades to gray and slams the lid.
60	* ''Series/FakingIt'' does it in the season 2 premiere when Shane kidnaps Lauren's boyfriend Tommy.
61	* In "And His Watch is Ended" of ''Series/GameOfThrones'', Varys shows Tyrion a trapped sorcerer that is kept in a large box, bound and gagged, Varys and Tyrion are shown watching him from this angle, with part of the lid and the box visible.
62	* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' uses this trope in "Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia" Given the [[AccidentalKidnapping context]], it may be an additional shout-out to Tarantino's films in general
63	* ''Series/{{Life on Mars\|2006}}'': Gene Hunt does this to Sam Tyler at least once.
64	* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective," Monk and Marty Eels look at the store manager's car and the camera shooting them from inside the trunk.
65	* ''Series/MyMadFatDiary'' uses this trope in its first episode, when Karim is first introduced.
66	* The pilot episode of ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco'' (1972) contains one near the end of an episode, when Stone, Keller and Malone find a chest with victim's belongings.
67	* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In "The Bathtub", Hopper gets one when he and his lieutenants find the [[spoiler: monster hunting equipment]] in Jonathan's trunk.
68	* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the Winchesters keep their weapons in the trunk, and so it represents their "family business." The last shot of the pilot is a dramatic trunk shot with the trunk slamming shut serving as a cut to black. Also an example of BookEnds, as season 2 ends with the exact same shot, and line/theme ("We've got work to do").
69	* ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'', "[[Recap/TheBookOfBobaFettS1E5ReturnOfTheMandalorian Return of the Mandalorian]]": During the ExtendedDisarming scene, we get a lower viewpoint shot from the inside of the case where Din Djarin is putting his weapons, just as he's hesitating adding the Darksaber to the lot.
70	* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Rick and Shane argue about [[spoiler:their prisoner]] in their car.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Music]]
74	* The page picture for the {{Grindcore}} group Music/PigDestroyer.
75	* Music/{{NWA}}'s ''Music/StraightOuttaCompton'' 's album cover.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Music Videos]]
79	* The music video for the Music/DixieChicks' "Goodbye Earl" uses the trunk shot when the girls take Earl for dumping. It uses a similar shot (not in a trunk) earlier when Earl's on the floor dying of poison.
80	* In the video for Axelle Red's 1998 music video ''Rester femme'', Axelle looks at her husband, who is bound and gagged in the trunk.
81	* In Shakira's video for ''Objection (Tango)'', she is smiling sadistically at her ex-boyfriend and his mistress, who are bound and gagged in the trunk.
82	* The music video ,"Kill That B*tch," by "A Sound of Thunder" where the band hunts and kills a woman, throwing her dismembered body in a trunk.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Video Games]]
86	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' gives us this as a ShoutOut to ''Film/PulpFiction'', just before Lance and Tommy lay siege to Ricardo Diaz's estate.
87	* A piece of concept art for ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' depicts the three protagonists in this. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a replica of a scene from the game's GoldenEnding, where the man in the trunk is one of the {{Big Bad}}s, the corrupt billionaire Devin Weston.]]
88	[[/folder]]
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90	[[folder:Web Videos]]
91	* ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wYtG7aQTHA Spielberg vs. Hitchcock]] has one [[spoiler:at the end of Quentin Tarantino's verse]].
92	[[/folder]]
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94	[[folder:Western Animation]]
95	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The audience is treated to a trunk shot in "Gangster Poker", where Mr. Cat takes Quack-Quack hostage and puts him in the trunk of his car.
96	* ''WesternAnimation/LittleEinsteins'' has done this twice:
97	** In "The Christmas Wish", this occurs as the team looks in Annie's wish box and finds nothing in it, before Annie reveals she wished to be with her friends on Christmas.
98	** Done again in "The Secret Mystery Prize" when the team looks in the chest to see the Japanese instruments inside.
99	* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': Used when the gang discover that the Mystery Machine's engine is missing in "[[Recap/ScoobyDooMysteryIncS1E2TheCreepingCreatures The Creeping Creatures]]".
100	* Done in the ''WesternAnimation/SunnyDay'' episode "Band Together" as she looks in a chest for her band's missing drum set.
101	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TrunkShot