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1* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: When transported into the movie world, Danny's casual glee could be a coping mechanism to keep him from freaking out and his knowledge as a movie buff helps keep him alive.
2* AngstWhatAngst: Danny is robbed in his apartment at knife-point early in the film. His trauma seems limited to merely that scene and when he's at the police station; the second Danny leaves the station, he goes on like nothing happened, though given that he grew up in a sketchy part of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, where that kind of thing happens often, it's possible that he has grown accustomed to the environment he lived in.
3* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
4** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynK5jvaWvM&hd=1 Parking Lot]] from the video game.
5** The movie's entire soundtrack qualifies, but standout examples would be "What the Hell Have I" and "A Little Bitter" by Music/AliceInChains, "Big Gun" by Music/{{ACDC}}, "Angry Again" by Music/{{Megadeth}}, and "Poison My Eyes" by Music/{{Anthrax}}. The soundtrack to this film has actually become something of a collector's item for fans of hard rock and heavy metal.
6** There's also Music/MichaelKamen's score with the assistance of none other than Music/{{Buckethead}}. The opening riff of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoTuQrpEuWA Jack and The Ripper]]" is badass enough that it has seen occasional use in BadToTheBone moments in other films.
7* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The entire scene where Danny gets attacked and robbed by a burglar. While it's intended to show how horrid Danny's living situation is and provides a ChekhovsGun later on, it came out of nowhere and gives a severe MoodWhiplash to a film that's largely an escapist fantasy up to that point.
8* CatharsisFactor:
9** Slater tricking and electrocuting the Ripper to death--and thus getting to avenge Andrew--definitely is earned.
10** Hard not to get a thrill out of seeing Benedict get blown up by Slater shooting his mechanical eye, even with him being as cool a villain as he is.
11* CompleteMonster: [[AxCrazy The Ripper]] is a SerialKiller who enjoys targeting [[WouldHurtAChild children]], and is Jack Slater's [[ArchEnemy most personal enemy]]. In the movie world, he takes an entire class of elementary schoolers hostage, including Slater's son Andrew, and threatens to kill them all with an axe. When the police try to intervene, the Ripper [[CopKiller kills any officers]] who get too close, and though Slater tries to save his son by shooting the Ripper, the Ripper drags Andrew off a rooftop with him to ensure the boy dies. Brought into the "real world" by Benedict, the Ripper targets actor Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger to destroy Slater's existence, and murders an innocent movie agent in the process. The Ripper then takes Slater's new friend, young Danny, as a hostage and tries to replicate Andrew's death just to torture Slater.
12* CultClassic: It was roasted by critics and ignored by audiences (who were still flocking to ''Film/JurassicPark'') upon release, but earned a fandom in the following years.
13* FanficFuel: One wonders what ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' as an Arnie action flick might look like now that Danny has brought up the idea.
14* GeniusBonus:
15** The names of the bad guys are references to classical music composers. And the soundtrack is partly made up of modified classical music. Parodied in that classical music doesn't even ''exist'' in the Slater-verse.
16** Stallone playing the T-800 works even better if one is aware that he was actually considered for the part in real life.
17* HarsherInHindsight:
18** It's the only role where Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Maria Shriver appear together, and it will certainly be the last. The scene that had Maria arguing with Arnold is even more uncomfortable.
19** That and his character Jack Slater's backstory involving being divorced by his ex-wife.
20** The death of Jack's second cousin due to Creator/ArtCarney dying not long after this film. Especially his last words, where he says he can feel himself going.
21** A climactic scene ends with a bomb exploding in a tar pit surrounded by dinosaur models. ''Last Action Hero'' itself wound up bombing due to the dinosaurs of ''Film/JurassicPark''. Twenty-two years later [[Film/TerminatorGenisys another Arnold Schwarzenegger film]] will bomb against another [[Film/JurassicWorld Jurassic sequel]].
22** This wouldn't be the [[Film/ThePredator last time]] Creator/ShaneBlack was involved in a movie that would get criticized for tonal issues partially resulting from its troubled production. Even better given this movie shares the same director and lead actor with the first movie in that franchise.
23* HilariousInHindsight:
24** Slater's interaction with Schwarzenegger still works now that he is governor.
25** It gets worse/better - while the projectionist is listing things that are worse than being a fictional character, along with floods and wars, he mentions politicians. ''Twice''.
26** Also, ''Last Action Hero'' [[DeconstructorFleet did a lot of what]] ''Website/TVTropes'' [[ConversationalTroping does]] today—years before there was ''TV Tropes''. This website actually makes the movie a lot more hilarious than it was before.
27** "When the governor gets here, call me."
28** When Slater reminisces on how [[HiddenDepths depressing his life outside of his movies]] is, he says, "Danny, do you think I would marry someone so stupid that doesn't know my real voice from a taped one?" In ''Film/TrueLies'', Schwarzenegger's character Harry Tasker does a tape recording to fool his wife.
29** Slater punches a car window in the real world, then complains how much it hurts. In ''Film/TrueLies'', Arnold accidentally punched a real car window instead of one made of break-away glass, and [[MadeOfIron didn't notice]].
30** Benedict has a dummy in the shape of a stag in his room. Creator/CharlesDance would go on to play Tywin Lannister in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where he fought against characters who used the stag as a coat of arms.
31** Here, among the villains Benedict threatens to release is Franchise/KingKong. Come ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' and Kong is the only Film/MonsterVerse kaiju ''not'' on the loose because of Charles Dance's character.
32** Thanks to "deepfake" editing technology, a man with the handle of [[https://movieweb.com/amp/t2-judgment-day-deepfake-video-sylvester-stallone Ctrl_Alt_Face edited Sylvester Stallone as the T-800 in a few scenes]] of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. The montage even starts with the scene where Danny discovers the Stallone poster inside the "Jack Slater" universe.
33* MagnificentBastard: Benedict, though starting out as Tony Vivaldi's self-proclaimed lackey, quickly proves himself to be the true menace of the film. An exceptional hitman whose marksmanship is only rivaled by his dry wit, Benedict is the real mover and shaker of Vivaldi's operations, and, briskly picking up on the fact that young Danny knows far more about him than he should, Benedict ultimately gets his hands on Danny's magic ticket, enabling him to betray Vivaldi and travel from the ''Jack Slater'' film series into the real world. Both disgusted and intrigued by the lack of empathy "real" people display towards their fellow man, Benedict guns down a mechanic to test his theory on this, and, upon receiving no comeuppance, concocts his master plan to bring forth every movie villain to the real world, simply because "in THIS world the bad guys can WIN!" When confronted by Slater, Benedict fatally wounds the thus-far nigh-invulnerable hero with a simple yet brilliant tactic: tricking him into the open by making Slater believe Benedict's gun is has clicked empty, when truthfully, he "just left one chamber empty" before gunning Jack down.
34* NarmCharm:
35** '''DA BED GUYS AH IN DEAH!?!'''
36** Nao, '''NO MORE MOOFIES!!'''
37* NightmareFuel:
38** The flashback to the third Jack Slater movie, where the Ripper kills Jack's son. He later tries to do the same to Danny. Creator/TomNoonan proves he can be as scary in a parody as he was in ''Film/{{Manhunter}}''.
39** The scene where a criminal gets into Danny's house and pulls a knife on him, threatening to kill him if he doesn't fetch him the valuables.
40* OlderThanTheyThink: Believe it or not, the film's plot is taken from the ''Series/AmazingStories'' episode, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZS3EO_7cy4 Welcome to My Nightmare]]".
41* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler: Death, played by [[Creator/IanMcKellen Sir Ian [=McKellen=]]] near the climax.]]
42* ParodyDisplacement: A couple of the gags in the film refer to things that were recent history in the early 1990s but are largely forgotten now.
43** The daydream sequence casting Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger as Theatre/{{Hamlet}} is lampooning the 1990 film production casting fellow action star Creator/MelGibson in the lead role.
44** The brief appearance by a "black and white digitization of Creator/HumphreyBogart" as one of the assigned police partners is sending up the uproar created the previous year when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7b9tddVmc an ad for Diet Coke]] used CGI to turn Bogart, Creator/JamesCagney and Music/LouisArmstrong into posthumous pitchmen for a modern soft drink. That said, decades later projects like ''Film/RogueOne'' and ''Film/TheFlash2023'' would later reignite a similar controversy over the use of CGI to recreate deceased actors (Creator/PeterCushing as [[Film/ANewHope Grand Moff Tarkin]] in the former, and Creator/GeorgeReeves and Creator/ChristopherReeve as [[Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman their]] [[Film/SupermanTheMovie respective]] [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Supermen]] and Creator/AdamWest as Series/{{Batman|1966}} in the latter).
45* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Although the film itself is a pretty interesting {{Deconstruction}} of action films, the developers of the tie-in game decided to play everything very straight. Admittedly, they weren't helped by ExecutiveMeddling that prevented them from depicting Slater battling the enemies in any way other than via hand-to-hand combat -- instead of the absurdly over-the-top array of weapons originally intended -- forcing them to completely redesign the game into a more standard BeatEmUp at the last minute.
46* ProtectionFromEditors: By all accounts, there was virtually no restraint behind the scenes.
47-->'''Creator/ShaneBlack''': [[Creator/JohnMcTiernan McTiernan]] had made a lot of hits, so the studio said, "Let him do what he wants". And we watched as John rewrote the whole thing. I have a lot of fondness for John. He's an interesting guy with a lot to say. He just wasn't keen on the things we'd written.
48-->'''Chris Moore''': It was a historical moment, where so many people saw this craziness unfold that it created an embarrassment and a ripple effect in the business. Somebody needed to step in and say, "Look, we’ve got some of the most talented people on Earth and a shit-load of resources — what is the actual movie we're making?" Instead, everybody avoided the hard conversations, so the movie attacked and ate itself. It's the ultimate cautionary tale.
49* RealismInducedHorror: Near the beginning of the film, Danny's encounter with the burglar where he gets robbed at knife point, since it's real life and not a movie. The only reason the burglar spares Danny is because he finds nothing worth stealing.
50* RetroactiveRecognition: A voice acting case: in French, Danny Madigan was voiced by Creator/AdrienAntoine, better known as the main dubbing voice of Creator/HenryCavill, Creator/SamWorthington and Creator/ChrisHemsworth.
51* SpecialEffectFailure:
52** The launcher that rockets the cop car in the air during the house explosion is clearly visible, as it falls to the ground.
53** Jack Slater's game of chicken in the real world also has a rather visible tow cable laying across the alley floor.
54* SpiritualAdaptation:
55** It's the closest we'll get to a live-action [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Rainier Wolfcastle]] movie ("Magic ticket my ass, [=McBain=]!").
56** WordOfGod claims in Twitter that the anime ''Anime/ReCreators'' was created as an attempt to transfer the ideas of this film to the anime plane. Nevertheless, the final work has become more of an attempt to study the psychology of characters in the real world than just a parody of a cliche.
57* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
58** Even those who love the movie acknowledge that it has a kick-ass premise, but the execution falls somewhat short.
59** It's likely a lot more could have been done had it been done later, considering advances in special effects, but also the fact that people have gotten used to longer movies and they wouldn't have to cram a dense parody of an entire genre into as little time.
60** If the movie had allowed Benedict more time, imagine what a cool plot it could have been if he'd actually recruited all those villains he mentioned in his JustBetweenYouAndMe speech.
61** It also works InUniverse: The movie is clearly going somewhere, but the story gets derailed once Danny comes in.
62** Another major issue is that the ''Jack Slater'' series makes no sense as an in-universe action series, with the third film having a crushing DownerEnding where Slater's son is killed, and another being just as farcical as the parody itself with the explosive flatulence plot.
63** InUniverse, the idea that in ''Jack Slater IV'', Slater is avenging the death of his second cousin Frank comes off as very ridiculous. It's clear that having gone through so many epic, personal conflicts with super-villains during the first three films and having lost his son in the previous movie to the Ripper, Slater's been left to battle some organized crime factions due to the death of a very minor character. This would also allow Danny, once he comes into the movie world, to start listing the flaws of the Jack Slater films, as well as how they were running out of good ideas.
64* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The Ripper, the SerialKiller that murdered Jack Slater's son in his movies and then [[spoiler:gets recruited by Benedict to assassinate the real Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger. Unlike the other villains, the Ripper is effortlessly terrifying and has a very personal connection with Slater. Despite that, he only shares one brief scene with Slater during the climax before dying. Though the real BigBad is a great character in his own right, the Ripper's minimal screen time means his potential is underutilized.]]
65* UncertainAudience: During filming, the filmmakers couldn't decide whether they were making a kid's movie or an action film. The fact that it was originally written to be an AffectionateParody of action movies before subsequent script rewrites and [[TroubledProduction other behind the scenes strife]] significantly overhauled the story didn't help. And all the uncertainty clearly shows in the final product, which turned out to largely be a mass LampshadeHanging of action/adventure movie tropes mixed with a comparison between RealLife and cinematic reality despite having been largely been marketed as a standard action movie.
66* VindicatedByHistory: When the film was released the timing was way off, as it lacked the edge of comparable action films while not having the big spectacle of ''Film/JurassicPark'' that [[DuelingWorks released the following week]]. It was panned by critics and a box office flop, putting a dent in Arnold's box office clout. But in the years since opinions of the film have softened somewhat. Many people now regard it as an enjoyable parody of action movies from the [[TheEighties '80s]] and [[TheNineties '90s]] and managed to achieve CultClassic status. A lot of the genre self-awareness would become more popular in the 2000's.
67* {{Woolseyism}}: Done brilliantly in the German version, where he calls himself "Arnold Beckenbauer". Google it if you don't know the name; any- and everyone in Germany- wait, ''[[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup in the world]]'' does.
68** In the French version, he calls himself "Arnold Albertschweitzer".

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