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Film: Secondhand Lions

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage and virtue mean everything...that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love...true love never dies."

—Hub (Robert Duvall)

In this film set in the 1960s, Walter, played by Haley Joel Osment, is dumped off on his great uncles by his ditzy mom, who says she needs some time to herself so she can go to court reporting school. The uncles Hub (Robert Duvall) and Garth (Michael Caine) don't like having a 'kid' around cramping their style, but eventually warm to him, and he to them. The uncles are a little...eccentric (they fish by shooting bass with their shotguns, and spend their days chasing off traveling salesmen...with their shotguns), but time proves them to be surprisingly capable foster dads. Walter is awed by Hub's crazy ways, while Garth spins tales of their adventuring days of yore. Are any of the stories true — including the one about the uncles sitting on a hidden stash of plundered wealth? And how did they afford to buy that lion?

Co-produced by New Line Cinema and Digital Domain; Needs More Love.

This movie provides examples of:

Arabian Nights Days: The mundane version.
Assassin Outclassin: And how.
Asshole Victim: Stan.
Asskicking Equals Authority: The brothers McCann are able to assume control of any situation by being calmly assertive. And armed.
Badass Grandpa: While not technically Walter's grandfather, Hub can take on four guys a quarter of his age, unarmed and still beat them. Also various enemies of the Foreign Legion, the Sheik's army & the Sheik himself.
Badass Boast: "I'm Hub McCann. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, KILLED MANY MEN and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. NOW, GO HOME, BOY!"
The Bad Guy Wins: Strangely, the quote from the Karma Houdini entry below is the page quote for this trope, even though the example is closer to Zigzagged. But in the end, it's technically Averted. Hub gets his girl, but the Sheik becomes very wealthy due to profits from oil, and is apparently still living large at the end of the film, if the alternate ending is to be taken as canon, but as Hub's Friendly Enemy. So technically, the bad guy didn't win, but he may have gotten his very own Happily Ever After.
Bank Robbery: Implied by Stan to be how the uncles got their money. A series of deleted scenes gave further hints that the uncles may have been a set of notorious bandits who robbed banks while wearing santa suits with fake beards to mask their identities.
Beef Bandage: After Hub beats up some thugs, he gives them some meat to do this with.
Bittersweet Ending: The two uncles die after the kid grows up and moves out on his own. But dammit if they don't go out in the coolest way possible.
Black Humor: The uncles' death. This also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny, once we see the airplane embedded in the barn...upside-down.
Bookends: The beginning and the end of the movie are set in the present, the rest some decades previous.
A Boy and His X: A boy and his LIONESS.
Captain Ersatz: The comics Walter draws in the end are obviously inspired by Calvin And Hobbes, though it might be a little cloudy since they were drawn in Real Life by Berke Breathed.
Character Filibuster: Without the stigma. Uncle Hub's "What every boy needs to know about being a man" speech. Since such matters have a tendency to be seen as subjective, it's mostly just alluded to.
Comedic Sociopathy: Hub and Garth shooting at the salesmen. Taken even further in a deleted scene: Walter catches Garth mailing requests for companies to send salesmen to the house. Garth explains that Hub needs something to keep himself occupied. Let that sink in. He was requesting that salesmen come to the house just so he and Hub could shoot at them.
- Then Fridge Brilliance kicks in and you realize that Hub was a career military man, and Garth had spent years in the army and more leading safaris. As such, neither is likely to hit anything they don't want to.
Cool Old Guy: Both uncles, but especially Hub.
Crazy Enough to Work: The uncles allow Walter to stick around mainly to annoy their gold-digging relatives. Uncle Garth gives similar approval to Walter's suggestion that they find out what traveling solicitors are selling before shooting at them.
Cool Car: Subverted. Garth and Hub drive a rusty old truck.
Death Seeker: Subtle, but it becomes apparent that Uncle Hub is seeking death.
Delinquents: A handful get their backsides handed to them by the Retired Badass.
Diner Brawl: The incident with the aforementioned delinquents.
Do Wrong, Right: The delinquent diner brawl includes Hub correcting their knife-fighting technique.
Dual Wielding: The Sheik.
Dramatic Gun Cock: A couple times. With shotguns, as it should be.
Eyepatch of Power: The Sheik.
Evil Uncle: Briefly implied, heavily subverted.
Fake Texan: Michael Caine
First Person Peripheral Narrator: Squared. The film is told from Walter's point of view as an adult looking back, and Garth narrates the flashbacks to their adventures in the same way.
Friendly Enemy: We find out at the end of the movie that the Sheik and Hub become this.
Framing Device: Walter's story about his uncles. Garth tells stories about his adventures with Hub as a story-within-a-story.
Glory Days
Great Way To Go: "Going out with your boots on."
Groin Attack: Defend yourself!
Hey, It's That Guy!: Michael Caine, Robert Duval, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Joel Osment, and even Adrian Pasdar makes a short appearance as a clay pigeon salesman.
- One of the thugs that Hub beats up is played by Travis Willingham.
- Newspaper comic fans might recognize Walter's comic drawings as having been done by Berke Breathed, who was inspired to start Opus by doing so and realizing how much he missed cartooning.
- Christian Kane is Young!Hub.
- Stan is Atton Rand.
- You can expect friendship fanatic Sora to be able to make friends with a lion.
Heroic Sacrifice: Jasmine the Lion, in her Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. Poor thing had too much excitement.
Ironic Echo: Written, not verbal: When Walter is being driven up to his uncles' house he reads a sign warning "Turn Back Now" which is the uncles' warning to trespassers. When he's being driven away towards the end of the film he looks back and sees the sign again, just before begging his mother to let him stay.
Karma Houdini: The Sheik. A lampshade is hung on this by Walter:
Walter: What?! The bad guy gets filthy rich? What the heck kind of story ends that way?
Mama Bear: Not Walter's actual mother, but Jasmine the lion, in the above mentioned Heroic Sacrifice.
Man of Wealth and Taste: The Sheik of course.
Mugging the Monster: Those teenagers really should learn to respect their elders.
Name's the Same: Jasmine the princess from Garth's tale, and Jasmine the lion.
Never Wake Up A Sleepwalker: Garth says this to Walter when Hub is sleepwalking, warning that, "last time I tried to wake him he nearly tore my head off."
Non-Human Sidekick: Jasmine the lion.
Parental Abandonment: Walter's mother abandons him in pretty much every way possible. First with his uncles, then to a man she knows is likely to interrogate and beat him. He ultimately begs her to leave forever, and this time she does so for his own good.
The Patient Has Left the Building: After Hub collapses, Garth and Walter take him to the hospital. A while later he wakes up and comes storming out of his room, demanding to know who put him there.
Press Ganged: Played for Laughs: The two uncles were drinking with some sailors, passed out, and woke up on a ship out to sea.
Quirky Household
A Real Man Is a Killer: Played with. The uncles are "real men" because they've fought through lots of difficult situations for something that they love and believe in. The fact that they might have killed some people along the way is not the main point. The movie also shows the kind of issues with retirement that men typically portrayed in this fashion would have to deal with once they got older.
Sequential Artist: Walter.
Shotguns Are Just Better: Especially for chasing off traveling salesmen.
- The idea that shotguns are exclusively short-range weapons is pretty much blown out of the water too.
Sleepwalking: Uncle Hub has a bad case of Hollywood Sleepwalking involving him reliving his adventures.
Storming the Castle: Hub and Garth do this to rescue Jasmine (the woman, not the lion).
Tempting Fate: In the flashbacks, Hub and Garth arrive in France in 1914, but Hub convinces Garth that they'll tour the country "One step ahead of the Germans." It almost works too, but see Press Ganged entry above.
There Are No Therapists: Well, there are, but in The Fifties, going to the head shrinker simply wasn't done. People suffering from depression dealt with it privately — by drinking, or shooting things.
Unreliable Narrator: Just about everything said by Stan and Walter's mother is untrustworthy. And while it's played for laughs the first time, Hub and Garth's stories may not be completely true. Except at the end, Walter finds out that they probably are.
Vagabond Buddies: Garth and Hub in their younger days.
Wealthy Yacht Owner: Parodied at the end when Walter and the Shiek's grandson are laughing at the large yacht that one salesman sold Hub and Garth, and is floating on their tiny pond.
Sheik's Grandson: I see they spent my grandfather's money wisely.
Wicked Stepfather: Not quite, but the man Walter's mother brings with her near the end of the film is definitely headed in that direction.
- Though Walter doesn't go with her. Who would, after the guy nearly beat him to death?!
- Then again I don't think he would ever go after him again since he had a lion and two gun-toting uncles in his corner.
What Could Have Been: Tommy Lee Jones was originally cast as Hub with Robert Duvall playing Garth. Then he dropped out, and Duvall became Hub. Michael Caine was eventually cast in the Garth role, but Tropes Are Not Bad because Michael Caine is awesome.
Worthy Opponent: The Shiekh evidently viewed Hub as one.
You Will Be Spared: Hub and the Sheik have a battle to the death. Disarmed, the Sheik hides his head in fear, knowing that he has no right to beg for mercy. But Hub lets him live, because then he owes him.