[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mud_beach_gun.jpg]]

''Mud'' is a 2012 American film written and directed by Creator/JeffNichols. It's a ComingOfAgeStory mixed with crime drama set on the downstream of Arkansas River.

Ellis (Creator/TyeSheridan) and Neckbone (Creator/JacobLofland) are two fourteen-year old boys living in De Witt, Arkansas. Finding a boat that was stuck on a tree in the middle of an island led the two friends into an encounter with a strange man who called himself Mud (Creator/MatthewMcConaughey). With Mud promising to give them the boat, Ellis and Neck agreed to help him live while he waited for his lover, Juniper (Creator/ReeseWitherspoon), to come and go with him. However, things aren't so simple as that. Bounty hunters began to visit the town looking for a murderer, and the truth about Mud began to unveil.
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!''Mud'' contains examples of these tropes:

* AmicableExes: In the end, [[spoiler:Mud and Juniper part ways as friends]], and [[spoiler:The last conversation between Ellis and his father, where the latter instructs his son to be good to his mother, implies that Senior had come to understand his wife's reasons for leaving him]].
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Neckbone. It appears to be his actual name. Mud even comments that it's a pretty cool name.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Tom finally shows off his sniping ability in the climax, saving Mud, Ellis, and Ellis' parents.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Mud and Ellis both DidNotGetTheGirl, but the former manages to escape his pursuers and is ready to start a new life while the latter has come to terms with his parents' divorce and has matured in regards of love.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Mud has a lot of weird, superstitious quirks. Apart from that, it's not clear ''what'' he is or does, but he is a badass survivalist.
* CharacterTitle: The movie is titled after Mud, though he shares the protagonist role with Ellis.
* ChekhovsGun: The snake-infested creek features in several scenes near the beginning of the movie; Mud tells the boys a story about snake venom and the dangers of getting bitten; it's largely forgotten for about an hour, and then [[spoiler: near the end of the movie, Ellis falls into the creek and is bitten by the cottonmouths, causing Mud to come out of hiding and be exposed to the men hunting him.]]
* ComingOfAgeStory: The film is about Ellis growing up through his adventure with Mud.
* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler: Mud]] murders Juniper's DomesticAbuser to make him pay for abusing her. Now, the abuser's crime syndicate of a family is now hunting the killer down.
* DesertedIsland: A boat got stranded in a tree in the middle of one in the Arkansas River. The plot started with the boys meeting with Mud there.
* ExactWords: [[spoiler:Mud promised Neckbone his gun in exchange of helping him prepare the boat to escape. He does give the boy the gun, but not the bullets.]]
* FamilyValuesVillain: King makes his hired killers kneel and pray...for the death of the man they're after.
* {{Foil}}: Mud is essentially what Ellis would become if he hadn't matured beyond his notions on romance.
* GadgeteerGenius: Neckbone built his own motorcycles and later helps Mud rebuild the boat.
* HeroicBSOD: Mud, [[spoiler:after Juniper decides to ditch him]], and Ellis, [[spoiler:after finding out that May never takes his feelings seriously and that Juniper and Mud have given up their relationship.]]
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHim: Mild example from a male, to a male, about another male. Neck's uncle Galen tells Ellis not to get his friend, who looks up to him, into more trouble than they can get out of.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Nobody in the cast is a completely nice person. Each has their share of selfishness and bad deeds, but they are able to show kindness, selflessness, and even heroism.
* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: Invoked or even inverted: Ellis' parents react this way when they find out that [[spoiler:Ellis has stolen a motor from his father's friends' backyard. It's for Mud to use.]]
* ParentalSubstitute: Tom was this for Mud. Galen (an actual relative) for Neck.
%%* PuppyLove: Ellis towards May Pearl.
* ShirtlessScene: Mud's attachment to his shirt (as it "protects him" and is one of his most valued possessions), makes him abandoning it after [[spoiler: Juniper cheats on him]] and he goes into a HeroicBSOD thematically important.
* ShadowArchetype: Mud is essentially what Ellis would become if he hadn't matured beyond his notions on romance.
* SuckOutThePoison: Completely averted. Mud uses actual first-aid methods on [[spoiler: Ellis' snakebite,]] such as putting a bandage above the bite site(not a torniquet), marking the time of envenomation, and then keeping track of the swelling.
%%* StealthPun: Mud is trying to salvage a boat, all while trying to get back together with Juniper, even though they're just not meant to be. In other words, Mud's trying to save a ''sinking ship''.
* TwoFirstNames: May Pearl, Ellis' crush, and Mary Lee, Ellis' mother. The coincidence is Lampshaded by his father.
* WildChild: Tom claims he found Mud living in the woods as a child younger than Neckbone or Ellis.
* WouldHurtAChild: Ellis gets a black eye from one of the syndicate men, implied to be the brother of the man Mud killed. Later in the film, the man rubs it in a little more, by holding up Mud's picture and asking Ellis to look at it with his good eye.
* WouldHitAGirl: Juniper gets slapped around.
* WhatTheHellHero: Tom berates Mud for involving Ellis and Neck in his problem.
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