History Literature / LifeOfPi

* EmbarrassingFirstName[=/=]EmbarrassingMiddleName: Piscine Molitor Patel. The Piscine Molitor is a famous Parisian swimming pool. He's not particularly embarrassed about that, though, it's just that ''piscine'' happens to sound a lot like "pissing," [[KidsAreCruel and naturally other kids are going to take advantage of that]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Pi survived the voyage, but lost everything except his last shred of humanity. Even his partner, Richard Parker, disappeared into the Mexican jungle without any meaningful closure]]. With that said, Pi [[spoiler:grows up to become a well-adjusted happy adult, with a family and a fulfilling life]]. And that's assuming [[spoiler:Richard Parker was ever on the boat with him in the first place. It's likely that he did exist, but drowned along with most of the other passengers on the ''Tsimtsum''.]]

* DeadGuyJunior: It's easy to miss, but Pi's son's name at the end of the movie is [[spoiler: Ravi]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Pi sees Richard Parker in the water instead of his own reflection, and later on confirms that [[spoiler: in the alternate story he told the Japanese investigators, the tiger was supposed to be him.]]

** Early in the book Pi breaks into an unexplained fit of laughter over the concept of finding some unknown thing in a Mexican jungle. [[spoiler: At the very end the Japanese investigators express skepticism that a tiger could hide in the Mexican jungle undetected; obviously this still amuses Pi years later.]]

* FrenchJerk: In the film, the cook, who obstinately refuses to acquiesce to the Pi's mother's request for a vegetarian meal. [[spoiler: And may have killed and eaten Pi's mother.]]

* GardenOfEvil: [[spoiler: Pi lands on an "island" floating in the Pacific, consisting of algae and trees in symbiosis which turn out to be carnivorous]]. The scene where he peels away layers of leaves from what he thinks is a fruit [[spoiler: and finds a human tooth in the middle]] is particularly notable.

* HeroicBSOD: Pi shows this at various points, most notably after [[spoiler: Orange Juice has been killed by the hyena]].

* ItGetsEasier: Pi is introduced as devoutly religious, intelligent and a vegetarian. But when he has to survive, he abandons all morals. Killing becomes easier, and soon he is doing things like sucking fluid from fish eyeballs and eating feces [[spoiler: and human flesh]].

* MindScrew: Most of the book. But especially when Pi [[spoiler: tells his story again, only this time replacing the animals with humans, and somehow it seems more ''gruesome'' than before.]]

** Possibly an unintentional example: [[spoiler: "I stabbed him repeatedly, his blood soothed my chapped hands. His heart was a struggle - all those tubes that connected it. I managed to get it out. [[ImAHumanitarian It tasted delicious, far better than a turtle.]] [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs I ate his liver. I cut off great pieces of his flesh."]]]]

* PragmaticAdaptation: Ang Lee commented that while they tried to remain as faithful to the book as possible, some scenes simply could not be adapted perfectly. He explained that facing a situation where the crew spent the better part of a whole day shooting the same scene, the lead actor was showing signs of distress due filming in cold weather for hours and everyone's nerves were fraying, he chose to be pragmatic about it rather than sticking to perfectionism.

** CGI African elephant in opening scene is obviously a tweaked model of Asian elephant, with distinctly shaped back and smoother, pink colored skin.

* AdaptationalModesty: As the cover shown above indicates, Pi ends up naked at some point during his journey in the book, [[ClothingDamage after the wind and sea begins to wear down on his clothes until there's nothing left of them]]. Naturally, the film had to let him keep his pants on, [[WalkingShirtlessScene though he still ends up losing his shirt]].

-->'''Santosh:''' We will sail like Columbus.
-->'''Pi:''' But Columbus was sailing for India!

* TookALevelInJerkass: In the film, the Japanese sent to question Pi after he survives are ''much'' more straightfoward about not caring about his first tale.

* {{Postmodernism}}: It doesn't more postmodern than asking your interviewers which reality they want to believe in.

* BioluminescenceIsCool: UpToEleven in the movie. Apparently ''every'' body of water glows piercing blue at night. Justified as bioluminescent plankton and pelagic worms really are very common on the tropical Pacific.

* AdultFear: In the movie, Pi's father finds his younger son trying to feed a wild animal ''by hand'' and quickly pulls him away. He starts scolding him for thinking Richard Parker would be his friend.

* {{Postmodernism}}: Pi directly asks his inquisitors which reality they want to believe in.

[[FilmOfTheBook Was adapted into]] a UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie, directed by Creator/AngLee and starring newcomer Suraj Sharma as Pi, released on November 2012. The film proved a critical and commercial success, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Director (Creator/StevenSpielberg, director of ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'', was expected to get the prize).

* FantasticAesop: Agnostics are asked at the end if they can still hold on to that belief or lack thereof after hearing the story. Except, it's a novel. It's entirely possible to accept that God exists in this fictional world, and not have that affect your actual belief regarding the real world at all.
** Then again, one of the final concepts in the novel is the juxtaposition of the beautiful and fantastic (if also sometimes tragic and heartbreaking) story and the much more realistic (if bleak and less inspiring) version that he quickly recounts at the end to the skeptical businessmen. Since there is no way to know which of these tales is what actually happened, Pi offers them (and the "author" and the readers) the choice of which they would prefer to believe; implying that agnostics face the same choice about what they chose to believe.

** Possibly an unintentional example: [[spoiler: "I stabbed him repeatedly, his blood soothed my chapped hands. His heart was a struggle - all those tubes that connected it. I managed to get it out. [[ImAHumanitarian It tasted delicious, far better than a turtle.]] [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs I ate his liver. I cut off great pieces of his flesh."]]]]

* WordOfGod: While the novel/movie leaves it up to the reader/viewer as to which of the stories is true, author Yann Martel stated that he prefers the first story with the tiger because he believes that it is the better version.

* AspectRatioSwitch: The screen goes anywhere from Scope (2.39:1) to Academy (1.33:1), but usually 1.85:1 (very close to 16:9, or 1.77:1).

* TheAloner

* {{Picaresque}}

* AspectRatioSwitch: The screen goes anywhere from Scope to Academy, but usually it's a (non)square 16:9.