The Last Supper is a 1996 Black Comedy film directed by Stacy Title. It stars Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner and Courtney B. Vance as five liberal graduate school students who invite a string of right-wing extremists to dinner in order to murder them.
Not to be confused with the famous painting of the same name.
This film provides examples of:
- The Ace: For a given use of the term: Ron Perlman's character is a cool, incredibly smooth conversationalist who makes clear arguments and actually divides the group for a short moment about whether or not to kill him because some feel he has a point (and are fed up with the decay of their motive). He also quickly figures out the whole murder scheme by himself while they are in the kitchen arguing and screws them over.
- Accidental Murder: The first one, at least. It inspires the others.
- An Aesop: Murdering people for their beliefs and opinions, no matter how abhorrent they may seem to you, is unconscionable.
- Asshole Victim: How the characters justify the murders. By the end they become some themselves.
- Bittersweet Ending: Norman figures out the main characters' scheme and kills them via Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo. They've all become so corrupted at that point that their deaths might feel justified, but it comes immediately after they decide to change their ways. The final scene then implies that everything the group feared about Norman might be true, and that he might end up becoming president.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: While the far-rightists the group is pursuing are certainly dicks, it becomes increasingly clear that the students are being far worse than the extremists ever were. We even see their victims becoming less villainous (eventually killing a woman they consider too restrictive about what books should be taught in schools.)
- Deconstruction: Of out-of-control liberalism and political correctness, not to mention of extremism in general.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Near the end of the film, the group targets a teenager who promotes abstinence. One of them decides it's too disproportionate and takes her home while the rest are preparing the meal.
- At one point near the end, one of the students points out that they are putting too much effort in the "murder" part of their scheme and not enough effort in being hosts: "The dinners aren't even very good anymore!"
- "Everyone Dies" Ending: The final scenes imply that Ron Perlman's character switches the poison and kills all the grad students.
- The Fundamentalist: Among the victims is a homophobic reverend.
- Godwin's Law: "You encounter a young painter by the name of Adolf Hitler."
- Hero Antagonist: The local sheriff becomes suspicious of the disappearances, and quickly figures out that this houseful of students is involved. She's rather unceremoniously killed by Luke when he finds her snooping around where the bodies are buried, and has almost nothing to do with the final resolution of the plot.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Opponents of LGBT rights are among the victims.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The ending implies the students are killed with their own poison wine via Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo on the part of Norman. Him switching the wine also means that if they were not Serial Killers the worst that would happen is they would all get a mouthful of vinegar.
- Ignored Epiphany: One of their victims appears to be reconsidering his positions... after he's already been poisoned. But then he brushes that off and lapses back into his hateful rhetoric (to the students' obvious relief).
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: As the roommates get further into the murders, one of them seems to react to it as though it's an aphrodisiac, taking care of herself in bed while her boyfriend prepares a shower, and then deciding to jump in with him to take care of it together.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: As time goes on, the students kill people over increasingly trivial disagreements, eventually targeting a teenager because she promotes sexual abstinence.
- The Last Title: The title.
- Malcolm Xerox: One of the victims is a racist Nation of Islam member.
- Mirroring Factions: The whole point of the film is pointing out how the students are being little better than the extremists they believe they're punishing, if not worse.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The students believe that this is the best way to handle people who they consider morally or ideologically wrong.
- Murder Makes You Crazy: The group as a whole starts to get High on Homicide pretty quickly.
- Nasty Party: Every dinner guest is invited for the express purpose of killing him or her.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Ron Perlman's outspoken, cigar-chomping, right-wing pundit is very reminiscent of Rush Limbaugh at the time of filming.
- Redemption Equals Death: The main characters ended up seeing that they are no different than the people that they are poisoning but they ended up being poisoned by Norman when he figures out their actions.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Extremely cynical.
- Straw Misogynist: One of the victims is a misogynistic rape apologist.
- Villain Protagonist: The characters start out sympathetic, but some begin to slide into villainy pretty quickly. They are pursued by a Hero Antagonist.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist (who kill other Well-Intentioned Extremists)
- Would Hurt a Child: The first victim turns out to be a suspected child murderer, which helps to convince the group they were doing the right thing. This gets flipped when one of their victims is a teenage Christian girl who they target for preaching abstinence (mercifully, one of them backs down and takes the girl home before the others can go through with it).
