* AngstWhatAngst: When Larry asks Owen at the end of the film how his mother is doing, Owen says almost shrugging, "Dead." However, he says it with some wistfulness, showing that he'd had time to reconcile.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cv-kaH1wks David Newman's score]], which shares many motifs with his music from ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'', and {{Homage}}s Music/BernardHerrmann's Hitchcock scores.
* FridgeLogic: [[spoiler:As stated on the main page, the schemes of Larry's ex-wife Margaret seem doomed to fail for the simple fact that she doesn't seem to have any long term financial plans once the hype for the book she stole from him dies down and the film adaptation - which may not even succeed - runs its course. That's also assuming that Larry doesn't go after her and file a plagiarism lawsuit against her, which he could probably win very easily once it becomes apparent that Margaret herself is clearly no writer. However, much of the film is about WhatYouAreInTheDark, and Larry realizing that just because Margaret stole his book doesn't mean he can't make better ones. It's strongly implied that his new book ''Throw Momma From the Train'' is a far more nuanced book than the trashy-sounding ''Hot Fire''.]]
* HarsherInHindsight: Oprah being a shill for a plagiarized book, after the ''A Million Little Pieces'' debacle.
* HoYay: Owen and Larry. The film isn't subtle about it.[[note]]Which makes sense, since ''Film/StrangersOnATrain'' was ''all'' about HoYay and StalkerWithACrush.[[/note]]
* JerkassWoobie: Momma. Her horrid personality is stemmed from her dementia and paranoia that Owen wants to ship her off, which is TruthInTelevision for a lot of elders in real life who have similar feelings.
* MoodWhiplash: Owen's coin collection starts out a joke, but ends far from funny.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: Owen's right -- the last sentence of Larry's book is cryptic.
* TearJerker:
** Owen's coin collection. It shows the viewers how much he loved his late father.
** Momma's dementia. Whenever Owen helps her like cleaning out her ear canal, she suddenly becomes a loving mom, cooing "Owen! My baby! My baby!" and kissing him. Notice the choice of words from her. The look on Owen's face screams, "I miss having her when she was still healthy."
* UnpopularPopularCharacter: In-universe, Momma is an unpleasant person to the core who drives everyone she comes in contact with an urge to kill her. But to the audience, she's the most memorable character in the film.
----