[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_stepford_wives_1975_movie_poster.jpeg]]

''The Stepford Wives'' is a 1972 thriller novel by Creator/IraLevin. In it, Joanna Eberhart, her husband Walter, and their two young children move from New York City to the eponymous Connecticut commuter-town. Joanna soon becomes friends with fellow new arrival Bobbie Markowe, as the two of them also become more and more concerned with the behavior and attitudes of the other housewives in Stepford, all of whom seem to be impossibly beautiful, housework-obsessed, and totally submissive towards their husbands, who in turn are all members of the secretive "Men's Association."

The novel was successful enough to be [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted into]] a 1975 feature film, directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Creator/KatharineRoss as Joanna, Peter Masterson as Walter, and Paula Prentiss as Bobbie. The script, by Creator/WilliamGoldman, stayed relatively faithful to the original, with the major difference being a much more explicit finale that showed what was happening to the wives. In both versions, the "wives" turned out to be robot duplicates, which replaced the original women after their husbands had them murdered. Both the novel and film also had {{Downer Ending}}s.

While only a modest hit in theaters, the film subsequently generated a meme in the 1970s, with the term "Stepford Wife" becoming a popular catchphrase to describe [[{{Housewife}} female homemakers]] who were seemingly content to be "sexually repressed and concerned with domestic life, as opposed to being free and liberated women." (Later, "Stepford [Insert Noun Here]" became a generalized term for ''any'' people who behave in a repressed, conformist way.)

No theatrical sequels were made, but over the course of two decades the film spawned three [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] "sequels": ''The Revenge of the Stepford Wives'' (1980), ''The Stepford Children'' (1987), and ''The Stepford Husbands'' (1996). The lack of either Levin or Goldman's involvement was painfully obvious, and all three films were also victims of [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerization]]: in ''Revenge'' and ''Husbands'', the victims were not killed and replaced but instead merely brainwashed, while ''Children'' had the replaced teenagers left alive for no readily-apparent reason, allowing in all three cases for a rescue and happy ending. The basic plot was also {{Recycled IN|Space}} [[HighSchool HIGH SCHOOL!]] as ''Film/DisturbingBehavior''. The film, the poster in particular, also inspired ''Film/TheWorldsEnd''.

In 2004, Creator/FrankOz directed a more BlackComedy remake of the original film, starring Creator/NicoleKidman as Joanna, Creator/MatthewBroderick as Walter, and Creator/BetteMidler as Bobbie. The production suffered from [[TroubledProduction severe behind-the-scenes turmoil]], including actors walking off the film and some last-minute reshoots. Many viewers also found the revelations of the resulting finale to [[GainaxEnding come completely out of left field]] and contradict the rest of the movie.

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!!The original film/novel, and its sequels, provide examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Bobbie in the novel was shorter, toothier, and had a thick, pear-shaped figure; the tall, slim Paula Prentiss was cast to play her. Walter was bespectacled and a bit pudgy, which Walter Masterson was not.
** Joanna in the book was said to be reasonably pretty or average-looking, in the film she is portrayed by the very gorgeous Katharine Ross.
** Averted with Charmaine, the book talks of her as resembling [[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=662&ei=5OrCWo36Do7l5gL5h7SoAQ&q=Raquel+Welch+early+70s&oq=Raquel+Welch+early+70s&gs_l=img.3...2420.10269.0.10392.31.20.3.8.8.0.320.2143.0j9j2j1.12.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..10.18.1621.0..0j35i39k1.0.0pubnkLxGA8 Raquel Welch]], and the movie casts the just-as-gorgeous [[Series/GilligansIsland Tina Louise]].
* AdaptationalHeroism: The therapist that Joanna sees. In the novel, she's a neutral character at best, attributing to Joanna's worries about Stepford to discomfort with being a "good" wife and mother, and - unintentionally - gaslights her about how bad things can really be in Stepford. In the film, she immediately believes Joanna and encourages her to leave.
* AdaptationalModesty: The wives in the novel and original treatment were dressed sexily. In the film they're just wearing maxi dresses. Joanna, Bobbie, and Charmaine often wear pants, miniskirts, show off their flat stomachs, and some loose shirts before they become robots.[[note]]See the Trivia section for William Goldman's explanation for this (tl;dr: Forbes wanted to cast his wife, Nannette Newman, as one of the women, thus meaning they all had to be non-glamorous like her).[[/note]]
* AnAesop: The film supports the message that divorce is an option and shows how unhappy Joanna is in her situation, that she's never treated like an equal in the marriage. Walter is willing to outright kill his wife and have her replaced with a submissive robot to uphold the image of a perfect family.
* AffablyEvil: Claude in the men's association seems like an endearing stutterer, and he's one of the few that Joanna likes. But as he's heavily involved in the robot process...
* AmbiguouslyJewish: Bobbie in the novel. She mentions that there's hardly any women's groups in town besides a garden club and "a few old-biddy church groups—for which I'm not eligible anyway; 'Markowe' is upward-mobile for 'Markowitz.' " Later in the book, Bobbie says that she had wanted to move to Norwood instead of Stepford in the first place, but her husband said there were "too many [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]]."
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Subverted. Bobbie suspects that there might be something getting dumped in the water that messes with the other women.
* TheBadGuyWins: The men get away with murdering and replacing their wives with robots and suffer no negative consequences.
* TheBeautifulElite: The wives, anyway, with a little enhancement after they're replaced by robots.
* [[BigGuyLittleGuy Big Girl Little Girl]]: 5'3" Katharine Ross (Joanna) and 5'9" Paula Prentiss (Bobbie).
* BlackEyesOfEvil: [[RoboticReveal When Joanna meets her robot double in the film]], it hasn't quite been finished yet and is sporting a pair of these. It's also sporting a new large bustline. This is a minor SpecialEffectsFailure, as they were supposed to be empty sockets -- the black contact lenses reflected the ambient lighting. However, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, as they serve to highlight the creepiness of the double and the monstrosity of the people who created it.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: In the movie there's Joanna (blonde), Bobbie (brunette) and Charmaine (redhead). [[spoiler: They're replaced in the reverse order]].
* TheBluebeard: The entirety of the Men's Association.
* BondageIsBad: Played straight with Charmaine's husband and Bobbie's husband. Ed had a rubber suit made for Charmaine, with "zippers and padlocks all over." Bobbie remarks that she had thought her husband had some "spooky" ideas, though she doesn't elaborate. Subverted, however, with Walter and Joanna. Noticing how their sex life has deteriorated, Joanna thinks about the remarks Charmaine and Bobbie had made about their husbands and asks Walter if there's anything she doesn't do that he'd like her to do, implying that she's open to the idea. Unlike Ed and Dave, Walter couldn't care less.
* {{Brainwashed}}: Some of the sequels had this as the method of creating the Wives/Husbands, instead of out-and-out replacement.
* BrickJoke: It's a minor gag halfway through the film that a black couple might be moving to Stepford. In the end scene we see the very couple bickering in the supermarket about the area. Worth noting that in the book, the black family is introduced earlier and Joanna has several positive interactions with the wife Ruthanne. [[spoiler:The book, in fact, ends with a scene of the new couple chatting at home that strongly hints Ruthanne will be replaced that weekend.]]
* BrokenRecord: In addition to the example under {{Foreshadowing}} below, there's also the robot Bobbie after Joanna [[spoiler: stabs her with a knife.]]
* BuxomBeautyStandard: Walter and the rest of the Men's Association think so and [[spoiler: design the replacement wives accordingly]].
* ChekhovsGun: In the movie, the word "archaic." Bobbie comments on it, and later Joanna uses it [[spoiler:to test Robot Bobbie]].
* CorruptCop:
** (In the book) When Joanna happens to be taking some pictures outside and tries to take a few of the Men's Association house, a policeman shows up. After speaking to someone on the radio, he comes over to Joanna and begins asking her questions about what she's doing (taking pictures), what sort of camera she uses, what sort of film, and so on. Only after the policeman leaves and she tries taking pictures of the Men's Association house does she realize that something's amiss. The lights in the rooms upstairs had been turned off and the shades had been pulled down. Joanna realizes that the policeman had radioed someone in the Men's Association house to warn them, then stalled Joanna with questions while the lights were turned off and shades pulled down.
** (In the movie) After Joanna managed to sneak out of the house, Walter talks to a policeman who calmly reassures him that everything will be fine. The phones are jammed and the roads are blocked off.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The director chose to have bright colours and sunny visuals to contrast with the horror that really goes on in Stepford.
* CreatorCameo: Director Bryan Forbes doubles for Joanna's hands when she has to [[spoiler: stab the robot Bobbie]].
* CutLexLuthorACheck: If this bunch of suburban husbands can create robots this realistic, they could make fortunes in all sorts of legitimate ways... and after that, if they want hot babes, they'll have all they can handle.
* DemotedToExtra: Royal and Ruthanne, prominent supporting characters in the book, are just referred to as "a black couple" and appear in the background in a single scene in the film.
* DespairEventHorizon: Seemingly crossed by Joanna after she sees her own replacement, as she is shown slowly backing away and either unable or unwilling to fight back.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Joanna should not have left her coat and handbag (with her car keys and wallet) downstairs with Walter after angrily telling him that she intended to leave and take their kids with her, knew what the Men's Association was up to, and asked him if he "put a rush on the order" [[spoiler: (for the robot, to have Joanna killed). Even though she planned on escaping out an upstairs window, the storm windows made that impossible, and trying to escape on foot in the cold proved to be a bad idea.]]
* DiscriminateAndSwitch: Ruthanne is worried that her family would have troubles in Stepford due to being black. However, the Men’s Association have no problem accepting her husband in their ranks, so she really should have been more worried about herself being a woman…
* DownerEnding:
** Joanna is [[spoiler: murdered and replaced by her own Stepford Wife double.]] In the final scene where Joanna is buying groceries with the other wives, we see a new couple briefly arguing about Stepford - where the man is insisting it's a good area. [[spoiler: This implies that he too will have his wife replaced.]]
** In the book, Joanna tries to flee to Ruthanne's house, believing that Ruthanne would help her get to the city where she has friends that could help her, and also to warn Ruthanne. [[spoiler: The Men's Association hunt her down and corner her. The men ask Joanna how they could prove to her that she's wrong about women being replaced by robots. Joanna finally agrees that if Bobbie cuts herself (which the real Bobbie would do, being her friend) and bleeds, that would convince her. At Bobbie's house, Stepfordized Bobbie takes out a large knife and beckons Joanna closer. Joanna desperately tries to convince herself that Bobbie hasn't been replaced by a robot, that the loud music playing upstairs isn't there to cover up the sound of her screams, and that Bobbie won't kill her.]] Later, the book switches to Ruthanne's perspective. She runs into Joanna at the grocery store but doesn't think too much of Joanna's changed looks and personality. Also, it's been just about four months since Ruthanne and Royal moved to Stepford...
* DramaticThunder: The first film's climax takes place during a thunderstorm.
* DumbJock: Compared to Joanna and Bobbie, Charmaine is shallow and not particularly smart. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking She also believes in astrology.]] But she's pretty damn good at tennis.
* EvilIsPetty: The Men's Association [[ItsAllAboutMe dislike the fact that their wives' lives don't revolve around them]], and kill them so that they can replace them with robotic duplicates that are programmed to be submissive to them.
* ExtremeDoormat: The Stepford Wives do nothing except follow their husbands' wishes, and cook and clean. This especially evident at the attempted feminist meeting Joanna and Bobbie set up, where most of the other wives initially cannot talk about anything as they are away from their husbands, and revert to talking about cleaning products, almost like in an advertisement.
* FanDisservice: Katherine Ross in a see-through gown that lets you see nipple? It's from a robot double of her that's about to murder the original.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: A lot of foreshadowing happens in the film.
** In the opening scene, Joanna and her children witness a man carrying a rubber doll "woman" on a busy New York street.
** When Carol is put into a police car, which doubles as an ambulance, Joanna comments on how despite only just arriving in Stepford she's pretty sure the hospital is not in the direction the car took her.
** When Joanna first meets Dale Coba, he tells her: "I like to watch women doing little domestic chores.", to which she replies "You came to the right town."
** It's also revealed that Coba worked in Disneyland in the past. When she speaks to the psychiatrist, Joanna says they turn the women to "Disneyland robots" in Stepford. [[spoiler: Of course, she doesn't know at that point, that it's actually very close to the truth.]]
** When Joanna is driving around town, and later when she and Bobbie are driving out of town, you can see a number of biochemical and computer tech research laboratories located just outside Stepford.
** When Ike Mazzard draws sketches of Joanna, the camera gazes at the drawing's eyes for a long time. [[spoiler: This foreshadows the very eerie black, empty eyes of her unfinished robot counterpart, as well as the dull, lifeless gaze of the replacement Joanna in the final scene.]]
** "I'll just ''die'' if I don't get that recipe!" .... "I'll just ''die'' if I don't get that recipe!" ... [[BrokenRecord "I'll just]] ''[[BrokenRecord die]]'' [[BrokenRecord if I don't get that recipe!"]]
* FourIsDeath: Joanna notes that both Bobbie and Charmaine were replaced after they had been living in Stepford four months. And it's implied that Ruthanne will be next, making a total of four victims.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Downplayed but Walter tries to convince Joanna that she's getting unusually suspicious about the wives in Stepford, asking for her to see a therapist.
* GenkiGirl: Bobbie is a lively, energetic MotorMouth. Notably when she's been replaced, her robot's attempt to recreate this is incredibly creepy.
* GirlinessUpgrade: Joanna and Bobbie especially after their robots are made. Even when Joanna meets her robot double, the robot has perfectly styled hair.
* HopeSpot: Walter agrees that they'll move out of Stepford in about a month. And Bobbie got her husband to agree to move too. But then Bobbie gets replaced and Joanna soon realises that she's going to be soon as well.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The Men's Association believe that women should be completely submissive to their husbands, and have no remorse about killing and replacing their wives with robotic duplicates programmed to serve them.
* KarmaHoudini: The husbands of Stepford get away with everything. Overlaps with TheBadGuyWins.
* KillAndReplace: The core of what's going on in Stepford (though the duplicates aren't the ones doing the killing).
* KilledOffscreen: No deaths actually happen on screen (or on the page). It's just heavily, heavily implied.
* LadyDrunk: Carol tries to cover up her strange behavior at the garden party by saying she's a recovering alcoholic.
* LightIsNotGood: The Stepford Wives are usually seen in white or pastel colours.
* LousyLoversAreLosers: Invoked InUniverse and PlayedWith. When the Men's Association recruits Walter, he and the other men seem motivated by the fact that their wives are not the AllWomenAreLustful type. After they get transformed, they're shown to be extremely enthusiastic whenever and wherever. However, one of the first signs Joanna gets of Walter's betrayal is that, rather than having sex with her, he prefers to masturbate. Their sexual relationship also gradually becomes poorer and poorer in the book.
* MissingMom: Unbeknownst to the kids of Stepford, their mothers become this after being killed and replaced with robots made to please their fathers.
* MistakenForRacist: When Ruthanne, a black woman, moves to Stepford, she assumes that the reason the neighborhood women are always too busy with chores to chat is because they're racist. Joanna reassures her they're like that with her, too.
* MonochromeCasting: Used to show how conservative Stepford is. It causes a stir among the residents when there's news that a black couple are moving there.
* MotorMouth: [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Julie Kavner's]] character in ''Revenge''.
* MurderByInaction: The BigBad of the original movie stands nearby, petting a dog all the while, as Joanna is seemingly garroted by her own Stepford Wife clone.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Walter seems to have a moment like this after a Men's Association meeting, presumably after he's agreed to join and have Joanna replaced. Later in the film, however, Walter has obviously gotten over his doubts at having Joanna killed. Ed is shown as distraught when Charmaine is taken away, but he too obviously gets over it, as shown by his triumphant smile when the tennis court is being uninstalled.
* ObviousVillainSecretVillain: The rest of the Men's Association are pretty clearly villains, with their braindead, old-fashioned wives and passive sexism towards Joanna. However, Joanna is horrified to discover that her own husband Walter has been recruited as one of them. Whether or not the audience shares her surprise is debatable.
* ParanoiaFuel: Joanna experiences this in-universe when she realizes that either her husband is going to have her replaced with a robot that no one will be able to tell isn't her, or she's going crazy and this is all in her head. She isn't sure which of these two scenarios is worse.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown: One of the Wives malfunctions while attending a garden party. And Robot Bobbie breaks down after Joanna stabs her in the gut.
* PyrrhicVictory: One of the few high points in ''Revenge of the Stepford Wives'' was an older Men's Association member revisiting [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the painful realization]] of what he had given up by having his wife remade.
* RepetitiveAudioGlitch: One of the robots glitches out and starts saying "I'll just die if I don't get that recipe!" over and over again.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Indistinguishable from the real thing, unless they have a breakdown, or you stab them.
* RoboticReveal: Again, only explicitly done in the movie(s).
* RoboticSpouse: The members of the Men's Association are replacing their real wives with these.
* {{Sexbot}}: Part of the duties of the perfect robot housewife. In the book, they were model sexy. See the Trivia page for Levin and Goldman being upset with the casting and costuming.
* TheShrink: Joanna visits one of these at Walter's insistence. She's a Type 3 - believing that Joanna has reasons to be suspicious, and offering to help in any way that she can.
* SignificantWardrobeShift:
** When a woman has been replaced with a Stepford Wife, she's shown in a frilly 1950s style dress.
** In the scenes where it's established Walter won't be on Joanna's side, he wears his shirts with two buttons undone from then on.
* SinisterMinister: There is a clergyman in the background, not specified if he's a priest or minister, but he is revealed to have an involvement in the conspiracy.
* StepfordSmiler: The TropeNamer. In the final scene, all the women have them.
* StepfordSuburbia: [[TropeNamer Ditto.]] The empty sterility of American suburbia is a major theme in the original film.
* StayInTheKitchen: PlayedForDrama. The men of Stepford think their wives should do so, remaining in traditional gender roles. Even the AffablyEvil Claude Axhelm is quite pissed that Joanna would only record her voice for his alleged Forensics project (actually to obtain the voice for her robot double) if he convinced the other Stepford wives to attend their her consciousness raising session instead of staying in the house and keeping it clean.
* StrawMisogynist: A whole town full of them. Apparently not a single husband in Stepford objected to ''having his wife murdered and replaced by a fembot'' because said fembot is beautiful, submissive, and traditional. That includes Walter, who seems happy letting his kids have a robot for a mother so long as she is submissive, docile, sexually attractive, and not a threat to his masculinity. The only exception ''may'' have been the Pilgrim family patriarch, as they moved out before the events of the movie -- but we don't know if they got wise and decided to escape, KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade, or if the wife was murdered anyway and her robotic double was simply taken along to Canada.
** May be somewhat justified, as it appears that all the men moved their families to this town precisely because they ''knew'' what was happening and wanted in on the action, not that they got there, found out, and were talked into the idea. Stepford doesn't ''make'' men misogynists; it was made ''by'' misogynist men.
* SwitchingPOV: At the end of the book, the perspective switches to Ruthanne. (She and her husband Royal are the black couple that moves to Stepford.) At the grocery store Ruthanne runs into Joanna, who now resembles all the other Stepford women.
* TakeThat: Or else a ShoutOut. The mastermind behind the whole Men's Association conspiracy used to build animatronic robots at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]]. Joanna also compares the wives to the robots there. (see: ForeShadowing above)
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: As with Ira Levin's earlier ''Literature/RosemarysBaby'', this is played with a bit before being averted.
* TownWithADarkSecret: One of the archetypal examples.
* TrophyWife: Charmaine is bitter that she is this, that Ed never loved her but only married her because of how she looks. Robot Charmaine does not care, of course.
* UglyGuyHotWife:
** The town pharmacist. Justified, since he's married to a Stepford Wife. Joanna even lampshades it when talking with the psychiatrist, as an example of why she believes there's something sinister going on in Stepford.
** Many of the men in Stepford have wives that are more attractive than them, albeit not to the extent of the pharmacist and his wife. Again, justified for most of them. Charmaine thinks that her husband chose her as something of a trophy wife, and does not love her.
** And notably when we see Joanna's robotic double, the breasts have been enlarged. This suggests that part of the process can make a wife HotterAndSexier than her human counterpart.
* UncannyVillage: Stepford's quiet placidity is portrayed as creepy right from the start.
* UnnecessaryMakeover: In-universe. The process involved making over the wives into living dolls with perfectly styled hair, an excess of make-up and frilly 1950s housewife dresses. It serves to make the wives so perfect they're creepy.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Getting into a minor car accident causes Carol to malfunction.
* WorldOfBuxom: Joanna and Bobbie have both noticed this, and they discuss it in the book.
-> '''Bobbie:''' "Maybe it's some kind of hormone thing; that would explain the fantastic boobs. You've got to have noticed."
->'''Joanna:''' "I sure have. I feel pre-adolescent every time I set foot in the market."

!!The 2004 version provides examples of:
* ActorAllusion: Walter references "The Wind Beneath My Wings". The song was a huge hit for Creator/BetteMidler, who plays Bobbi, in 1989.
* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: [[spoiler:Walter only pretended to betray Joanna, all so they could take down the conspiracy together. And since the wives were simply mind controlled instead, their success bring them back to normal.]]
* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike his previous incarnation, Walter loved his wife through and through and put a stop to the Stepford husband's scheme.
* AdaptationalUgliness: In comparison to the original film, Joanna is dressed down considerably and presented as less attractive. Bobbie too (but that was true to the original book). This is so that their robotic counterparts are BeautifulAllAlong.
* AlasPoorYorick: [[spoiler:After Mike's head gets ripped off and he's revealed to be a Stepford ''Husband'', Claire (his wife and creator and the ''actual'' BigBad) takes his head and gives out a MotiveRant before giving him a LastKiss, which ends up [[TogetherInDeath fatally electrocuting her]].]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
--> '''Joanna''': Let me ask you something. These machines. These Stepford Wives. Can they say "I love you"?\\
'''Walter''': Mike?\\
'''Mike''': Of course. In 58 languages.\\
'''Joanna''': But do they ''mean'' it?
* AndIMustScream: Unlike the novel and original movie, the wives here [[spoiler: have computer chips implanted in their brain, enabling their husbands to control them with a remote. Imagine being trapped inside your body and watching it be made to go wherever someone else wants, and do whatever that person chooses, all the time with no way to fight back.]]
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Walter and Joanna prove to be in love after all.
* CampGay: Roger Bannister, who has a very flamboyant and effeminate personality compared to his husband. When his partner has him undergo the "program," Roger is much more StraightGay but reverts back at the end.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Joanna's hair and clothes are visibly lighter at the end of the film than at the beginning, indicating that even without conforming to the Stepford ways, she is genuinely trying to soften her personality.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Joanna. In the beginning, her pet project at the network she works at is a {{reality TV}} show similar to ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_Island_(TV_series) Temptation Island]]''. At a press conference, while hyping up her show, she is confronted and ''shot at'' by a man [[RelationshipSabotage whose marriage was ruined by the show]], and who [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge shot his cheating wife and her lovers in rage]]. Afterwards, Joanna is already planning out the reunion show to exploit the carnage she has accidentally inflicted, only to not only be fired from the network, but also blacklisted from television due to her utterly irresponsible decisions in programming.
* DeathByAdaptation: Mike Wellington, Stepford president Dale Coba's remake counterpart.
* DelayedReaction: It takes a few moments for Joanna to realize she's been fired in response to the destructive debacle she had inadvertently caused.
* DenserAndWackier: This remake is more like a romantic comedy instead of the horror and satire of the original.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Walter and Joanna both [[spoiler:are horrified and disgusted when they realize that all the wives are being brainwashed. In defiance of the original version, Walter says he ''likes'' that Joanna is her own person]].
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Both Joanna and Bobbie's Stepford Wife selves are blonde (and therefore more attractive).
* EvilAllAlong: Claire is implied early on to be one of the first wives who was turned into an android by her husband. [[spoiler: Turns out ''she'' was the one who killed and replaced her husband and is, in fact, the BigBad of the film.]]
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: This is the undoing of the baddies. They never consider the idea that [[spoiler: Walter would prefer a wife who challenges him and is her own person over a robot who only caters to his every whim.]]
* EvilReactionary: [[spoiler: Claire, who created Stepford to restore a time when "men where men and women were cherished."]]
* FemaleMisogynist: [[spoiler: Claire is the true BigBad, blaming feminism for ruining men.]]
* GayConservative: The StraightGay in the gay couple. His partner later becomes one as well.
* HeroicBSOD: Joanna nearly has one after realizing Bobbie has fallen victim to the Stepford husbands.
* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Turns out Walter only goes along with the other husbands' conspiracy in order to help Joanna bring them down from the inside.]]
* HeroesFrontierStep: Walter spends the story being pushed around in a troubled marriage. [[spoiler: In the end, he proves he's a true man by refusing to brainwash Joanna and helps her rescue the other wives.]]
* ImmoralRealityShow: Joanna made several of them during her time as a network executive.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The viewer is led to believe that Mike is behind the operation, [[spoiler: but really he's just a Stepford Husband created by his "wife" Claire, the real BigBad of Stepford.]]
* LighterAndSofter: Than the original movie and book, both of which had a DownerEnding.
* MarriedToTheJob: Joanna at the start of the film. Part of the reason for the move to Stepford is so she can spend more time with the children.
* NotHisSled: The 2004 remake had its own shocking surprise ending, where it's revealed that the wives ''weren't'' actually replaced by robots, directly contradicting several scenes.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Already worried about the abrupt change in Roger, Joanna is downright horrified to see how gorgeous and perfect Bobbie's once messy kitchen is, as well as Bobbie herself, plus her sunny personality that's a complete 180° from her usual demeanor, realizing that this all means that she's fallen victim to whatever's going on.
* PhlebotinumBreakdown: One of the Wives malfunctions while attending a square dance.
* PlotHole: The movie quite clearly indicates the wives are robots (see the ATM wife). Then at the end, they are not. This was due to [[FocusGroupEnding test audiences disliking]] the DownerEnding, leading to ExecutiveMeddling and a hastily shot revised ending. It helps that the overall tone of the movie is closer to a RomanticComedy than the horror/satire of the original. The original ending does feel somewhat out of place with the more comedic tone this one takes.
* RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: It's revealed that the Stepford plot accidentally fixed Walter and Joanna's marriage. [[spoiler:While Walter was threatening to divorce Joanna, he became fearful of her safety and ''disgusted'' that the townsfolk wanted him to brainwash her. They then conspire to stage a fight and take down the organization from the inside out]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Hank, the disgruntled reality show contestant, at the very beginning, after one of Joanna's shows [[RelationshipSabotage destroys his marriage]].
* RobotDog: Joanna discovers that Bobbi and her family have one after their "robotization". [[FridgeHorror He's VERY heavily implied to have once been their]] ''[[FridgeHorror actual]]'' [[FridgeHorror dog]].
* ScreamDiscretionShot: After being fired from her executive job, Joanna shows a facade that she takes it in stride, even bidding everyone a cheerful farewell. Once she's in the elevator, however, she lets out a mighty SkywardScream.
* SettingUpdate: A gay couple is among those featured.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Joanna, Bobbie, and...really all of the original Stepford Wives for that matter, given that in this version the husbands just installed easily reversible mind control chips into their brains instead of murdering and replacing them with robot look alikes.
* StepfordSmiler: In addition to [[TropeNamer the obvious]], Walter is also one of these, until he cracks.
* StopBeingStereotypical: Not said aloud, but it is obvious that this is one thing [[CampGay Roger's]] partner wants him to do, and so he becomes part of the Stepford Wives conspiracy and subjects Roger to the procedure.
* TakeThat:
** "So I wondered, where in the world would nobody notice a town full of mindless, lifeless robots? And then I thought, of course! Connecticut!"
** The original's Disney reference is updated with additional digs at Microsoft, NASA, and America Online ("Is that why the women are so slow?"). Most of Disney's pioneering work with animatronics was done in the '60s and '70s, making the reference somewhat dated by 2004.
* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: In the very last scene, the Wives, now free of the effects of the microchips, have inverted their situation by placing their husbands under house arrest. LaserGuidedKarma of the highest order.
* TheUnfairSex: Pretty much every single show Joanna made was designed to make men worthless and promote women as the superior. This led to the events that caused her to be booted from the industry.
* TooDumbToLive: After spending half the film paranoid about the Men's Association and seeing what happened to Charmaine after a "weekend getaway" with her husband, Bobbie happily goes off on a surprise vacation with Dave.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: What appears to be the villain's main motive for turning the women into robots.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At one point in the movie Joanna and Walter's two children disappear, and are never seen or heard from again. [[spoiler: During the Larry King Live interview, they are clearly seen sitting in the background behind Walter, alive and well.]]
* WithOrWithoutYou
-->'''Joanna Eberhart''': It's... It's not our world. It's not us. And I'm picking up our kids from camp right now, and we're getting out of here. With or without you.

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