%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scotland_pa_movie_poster.jpg]]

->''"We're not bad people, Mac, we're just... underachievers that have to make up for lost time."''
-->-- '''Pat [=McBeth=]'''

''Scotland, PA'' is a 2001 film written and directed by Billy Morrisette, starring James [=LeGros=], Maura Tierney, and Creator/ChristopherWalken.

It's 1975, and in the small Central UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} town of Scotland, Joe "Mac" [=McBeth=] and his wife Pat are too old to be flipping burgers at Duncan's Cafe. Both of them receive a brief vision of what life would be like with Joe as the head of the restaurant; naturally, Pat decides the best way to accomplish this is to kill Duncan and make it look like a robbery. So that's what they do.

Under new management and a new name, the restaurant does great business. But forces, internal and external, threaten to tear everything apart. Mac's best friend Anthony "Banko" Banconi, and [=Lt. McDuff=], the detective investigating Duncan's murder, both have their suspicions about the local fast-food king and queen, while the happy couple themselves are driven mad by their guilt and paranoia.

That's right, you've seen this story before. It's [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} The Scottish Play]], [[SettingUpdate only this time it's in rural Pennsylvania]] in [[TheSeventies the '70s]], and [[BlackComedy it's all played for laughs]].

Incidentally, there really is a village of Scotland in Pennsylvania. It's along I-81 about 50 miles southwest of Harrisburg.

----
!!In addition to the tropes in [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} the source material]], provides examples of:

* AmbiguouslyGay: Donald. It gets pretty blatant at the end. Hell, it's pretty blatant at the ''beginning''.
** The two male witches have a lot of innuendo between them, even though they're supposedly two non-sexual partners in a polyamorous relationship.
--->'''Witch 1:''' Why do I have to be in the back?
--->'''Witch 2:''' You said you ''liked'' it in the back!
* BlackComedy
* BloodlessCarnage: For the most part. Doesn't make Duncan's murder any less grotesque.
* BrokenAce: Joe and Pat become incredibly successful business owners. But their rampant paranoia and fear over being arrested means they are unable to revel in that success.
* BumblingDad: Duncan doesn't get much respect from Donald and Malcolm.
* BurgerFool: Allow us to repeat: This movie is [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} The Scottish Play]] with the ''entire Kingdom of Scotland'' replaced by a small-town BurgerFool in south-central Pennsylvania.
** Unsubtly called [=McBeth's=] with a giant letter M as its logo.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Fryolator]] (also a bit of FiveSecondForeshadowing)
** Also, [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Cow Horns]]
* ClimbingClimax: The showdown between [=McBeth=] and [=McDuff=] happens on the roof of the restaurant.
* ClusterFBomb: Pat [=McBeth=] goes from delivering an occasional PrecisionFStrike to this by the end of the film.
* CookedToDeath: Lt. [=McDuff=] confronts Joe about him killing Norm, who died from having his head shoved into a deep fryer in a fast food joint.
-->'''Joe:''' Norm was an accident.
-->'''[=McDuff=]:''' Accidentally got tied up and fell in the fryilator?!?
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Ed in the end, when he [[spoiler: outsmarts [=McBeth=] by pretending that his gun is loaded, when it isn't.]]
* DeepFriedWhatever: Even the boss' head.
* DescriptionCut:
-->'''Pat:''' You know, the most important thing is that we carry on [Duncan's] legacy. You know, keep his name alive!\\
''[Cut to the "Duncan's" sign being torn off the front of the restaurant.]''
%%* TheDitz: Officer Ed.
%%** Banko is also an example.
* EvilVegetarian: Inverted. Joe and Pat own a BurgerFool while the SympatheticInspectorAntagonist is a vegetarian.
* FisherKing: Completely inverted from the original play. Business at the restaurant does far better under the [=McBeths=] than it does before or after.
* GoryDiscretionShot: All of the deaths as well as [[spoiler: Pat's chopping off her hand (which may have resulted in her death)]] are presented this way.
* GreasySpoon: ''Duncan's'' was closer to this than a true BurgerFool, which is what Pat and Mac turn the restaurant into.
* HardWorkMontage / GoodTimesMontage: The renovation of Duncan's into [=McBeth's=], and the resulting prosperity for the [=McBeths=].
** The "prosperity" is charmingly white trash too, such as upgrading from a trailer to a ranch.
%%* HeroAntagonist: Lt. [=McDuff=].
* HoodHornament: When Joe [=McBeth=] becomes owner of a successful restaurant, he buys a new car with steer horns on the hood as a status symbol. They're a ChekhovsGun as well: [[spoiler:he dies at the end by falling off a roof and getting impaled on those same horns.]]
* HuntingAccident: Subverted. Joe [=McBeth=] considers faking a hunting accident to kill Banko for [[HeKnowsTooMuch knowing too much]], and it briefly looks like he did so. Then it turns out the death was just deceptive editing, and Banko's just unconscious. Joe finds another way to kill him later.
* HypocriticalHumor:
-->'''[=McDuff=]:''' What do you think of Malcolm? \\
'''Mrs. Lenox:''' Oh, well. I think he's rude, selfish and evil. But I never once judged him.
%%* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Joe and Pat begin with ''just'' killing their boss, but gradually become more violent and unhinged as their lives start to crumble.
* JunkieProphet: A trio of EruditeStoner bohemians replaces the witches.
* LadyMacbeth: Pat plays a particularly strong one, insisting to Joe that killing Duncan is the right way to go.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Joe breaking up a near-foodfight, which is the incident corresponding to Macbeth winning a great military victory.
%%* NewAgeRetroHippie: [=McDuff=]
* PointyHairedBoss: Duncan is very inept at actually running his business, and is one of the reasons why Joe and Pat plot his death.
%%* RooftopConfrontation
%%* SettingUpdate: The setting is shifted from feudal Scotland to 1970s rural Pennsylvania.
* SanitySlippage: Joe and Pat, with the former becoming increasingly murderous and paranoid and the latter becoming obsessed over a non-existant grease burn.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Though [=McDuff's=] wife and kids are mentioned, there is no indication of anything ever happening to them. Presumably [=McBeth=] knew how suicidally stupid it would be to go after a cop's family and had no way of getting to them even if he wanted to.]]
* StealthPun: Prior to his cafe, Duncan used to run a donut shop.
* TastesLikeFeet: "I can't believe I just drank that. Your water tastes like ass."
* VillainProtagonist: Joe and Pat start out just wanting to kill their boss, and the former gradually becomes more murderous and unhinged as his life comes crashing down around him.

----