Western Animation / The Incredibles

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Expect the incredible.

Helen: Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we've just got to be like everybody else.
Dash: But Dad always said our powers are nothing to be ashamed of! Our powers make us special!
Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying no one is.

The Incredibles is Pixar's sixth feature film, released in 2004, an affectionately parodic Decon-Recon Switch of the superhero genre that happily lampshades many of its conventions. Its plot bears a resemblance to Watchmen, although the tone is nowhere near as dark. That said, it's easily in the running for the darkest film Disney's ever been involved with — surpassed in number of onscreen deaths only by Pirates of the Caribbean — with tons of Black Comedy besides. It marks two firsts for the studio: their first with humans as the main characters and their first to be helmed by an out-of-studio filmmaker, Brad Bird.

Following a court ruling finding the Superstrong Mr. Incredible culpable for damages and the resulting series of lawsuits, the Super Relocation Act was enacted and all superheroes have been forced into retirement. Mr. Incredible and the stretching Elastigirl are now just Bob and Helen Parr. They have a quiet life in the suburbs with an ordinary house, a normal job, and 3 children: disruptive and superfast Dash, shy Violet (who can turn invisible and project force fields), and baby Jack-Jack, who seems to have no powers. They're not really happy with the situation, but they don't have a choice.

When Bob gets an offer from a mysterious woman named Mirage to relive his Glory Days and help out a high-tech facility gone wrong, he Jumps at the Call without telling his family. Soon, though, he gets in trouble and finds he needs all the help his family can offer to help him save the day from a Diabolical Mastermind with an Evil Plan and a Killer Robot.

Thanks to the success of this film, a franchise spawned, with a sequel, Incredibles 2, releasing in 2018^note (you read that right, a full 14 years after the first film), with Brad Bird once again in the role as writer/director. Like other Pixar movies, there was a comic book series published by Boom! Studios written by Mark Waid that continued adventures of the family, running from 2009 until 2010.

The Incredibles played in theaters along with the Pixar short Boundin'. The DVD spinoff shorts "Jack-Jack Attack" and "Mr. Incredible and Pals" have their own pages.

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The Incredibles provides examples of:

Tropes # to G

• 555: Zig-zagged. Mirage's phone number was a toll-free phone number with the last seven digits spelling out the word "suprhro" on a typical phone. During the first release of the DVD, calling the phone number would have Mirage direct you to the movie's website but the number has rotated onward to other uses since then. Caveat Emptor when trying the number today.
• Accidental Truth: When he is hired to stop the "rogue" Omnidroid on the island, Mr. Incredible assumes it's a case of the robot getting "smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders", and Mirage never corrects him. This turns out to have a ring of truth when Syndrome confronts the Omnidroid v10, because it realizes that it was being restricted by Syndrome's remote control. The robot takes appropriate action to neutralize the remote control before proceeding to curb stomp Syndrome.
• Actor Allusion:
  • When trying to remember Buddy's name, Mr. Incredible's first guess is Brodie.
  • This isn't the first time that Frozone has found himself being held at gunpoint by a very nervous cop.
  • Holly Hunter as a pilot crashing in the water.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: In the newsreel:
  Announcer: In a stunning turn of events, a superhero is being sued for saving someone who apparently didn't want to be saved. The plaintiff, Oliver Sansweet, who was foiled in his attempted suicide by Mr. Incredible, has filed suit against the famed superhero in Superior Court.
• Advertised Extra: Downplayed. While most of the promotional materials feature Jack-Jack in his super-suit and imply that he's with the family on their superhero adventures, he's only featured in the scenes dealing with the Parr's home life. He's left at home during the island adventure and he doesn't appear in his super-suit until the last fifteen seconds of the film.
• Aerith and Bob: In the Greek dub, anyway. While all the characters keep their original English names (Bob, Helen, Dash, Lucius), Frozone's wife is named Soula, a common Greek name.
• Affair Hair: Played with. The first time we have the classic setup with Bob sneaking back into the house and Helen noticing something on his sweater. She reaches out to pluck it off... except it's building debris and she correctly deduces Bob's moonlight activities. The second time, it's played straight as Helen spots a blond hair on the suit Bob wore while dining with Mirage.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • When told the Omnidroid he's about to face has artificial intelligence that enables it to solve any problem, Mr. Incredible jumps to the conclusion that "it got smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders". Subverted, since Mr. Incredible is being set-up and the Omnidroid is actually under control the entire time.
  • Mr. Incredible's statement "it got smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders" seems to be played straight when Syndrome engages the Omnidroid 10 in "battle". But it's actually Subverted because once the Omnidroid identifies Syndrome as a threat, it actually follows its programming with ruthless efficiency and quickly determines that it is vulnerable to the remote control and shoots it off Syndrome's arm. Since he has no real field experience being a superhero, the encounter quickly turns into a Curb-Stomp Battle, forcing him to flee for his life. However, the Omnidroid's internal analysis makes it clear that it is following its programming, not overthrowing it.
    Omnidroid HUD POV: control stolen by external signal... locate source: external signal... signal source: remote control... DESTROY REMOTE
• The Alleged Car: Bob's car as an Insuricare agent is a cheap-looking microcar that he barely fits in and has just enough power to make it up his driveway before the engine gives out.
• All for Nothing: Bob painfully swallows his sense of justice and grudgingly obeys Huph's order that he not leave the office to help a mugging victim, or else Huph will fire him. But afterward, Huph pushes Bob to his Rage Breaking Point, so that he throws Huph through several walls, injuring him, and gets fired anyway.
• All There in the Manual: Detailed profiles of other Supers that are only briefly mentioned in the movie (if at all) in the Extras section of the DVD. The comic book also fills in some holes the movie may have left open.
• Alternate DVD Commentary: An in-universe version. The poorly-done Mr. Incredible animated episode extra can be played with Mr. Incredible and Frozone riffing on it. It's a funny moment for DVD extras (especially their vitriol for Mr. Skipperdoo).
• Always Know a Pilot: Subverted. When Helen Parr, a.k.a. Elastigirl needs to get to a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, she calls her pilot friend to help her out. The surprise comes when it turns out that she's just calling to borrow the plane because she is able to pilot it herself.^note In earlier drafts, Snug really was going to fly the plane for her, before it was decided that having Helen be solely responsible for her children made the scene work better. A small remnant of this is the way Helen spends a lot of time underwater, watching the plane's wreckage descend — at the time the scene was animated, Snug was still a part of the film, and she is basically watching her friend's body sink into the depths.
• Ambiguous Time Period: According to the newspaper Bob is reading at dinner, the story takes place in 1962, but they have computers that function similarly to what was available by 2004. Even the one seen in Bob's office, despite its retro design, would be out of place for that time period. All of Syndrome's vehicles and equipment have a very "retro" aesthetic, but in terms of technological advancement, are far beyond what we have even in modern times. There's also VHS players, which didn't come out until late '70s. Brad Bird says that the time period is based more on what people in the '50s and '60s thought the future would be like.
• And the Adventure Continues: The ending has the arrival of another super-villain, The Underminer.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Syndrome attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack when his master plan fails. When that doesn't succeed, Syndrome flees to his escape jet but continues to rant that he will get Jack-Jack eventually which triggers Bob's Papa Wolf instinct and he throws his sports car at Syndrome's jet causing his demise.
• Animated Outtakes: It has a "bloopers" segment as a DVD extra. Some of the segments are this trope (like a bit where Elastigirl swings from the monorail car and smacks into a pylon), while others are legitimate animation errors (like a bit where the physics go wonky and make Violet's hair fly around wildly). None of these bits are fully rendered, and the deliberate jokes are little more than animatics. The segment comes across like a unpolished compilation the animators made to amuse themselves and was later included on the DVD as a fun extra for the audience.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Initially, Dash and Violet fight like antagonistic siblings resorting to using their superpowers to up the ante. Dash runs around the kitchen table at high speed slapping his sister on each pass. Violet retaliates by creating a force bubble that he runs smack into. After their adventure, this changes.
• Answer Cut:
  • At their marriage, Bob asks Helen, "We're superheroes. What could happen?" The film cuts to the scene of Mr. Incredible being sued by someone who didn't want to be saved, leading to Supers being banned.
  • After Helen reassures Bob that they can deal with Omnidroid together as a family, Helen calls back to the line "We're superheroes. What could happen?" Cue Violet screaming as the Omnidroid v.10 drops a tentacle on the RV to crush it. Fortunately, she and Dash escape just in time.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Edna gives one to Helen about Bob that increases her fear that Bob may be cheating on her.
    Edna: Do you know where he is?
    Helen: [uncertainly] Of course.
    Edna: [spins to face her] Do you KNOW where he is?
  • Edna follows this a few seconds later with what might be called an internal fragmentation question:
    Edna: Would you like to find out?
• Armor-Piercing Response: Bob tries to convince Helen to stay with the kids while he handles the Omnidroid alone. Helen is frustrated, thinking that he's trying to prove himself with some kind of a superhero workout, when he blurts out "I can't lose you again!!!", taking her aback.
• Are We There Yet?: Even though the family is riding a rocket to get to the city in time to stop the giant Omnidroid, Dash is clearly bored and asks the question.
  Mr. Incredible: We get there when we get there!
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Edna shows Helen the supersuits:
  Edna: [on Jack-Jack's suit] I cut it a little roomy for the free movement, the fabric is comfortable for sensitive skin... [a sheet of flame erupts in front of the suit] ...and it can also withstand a temperature of over 1000 degrees! Completely bulletproof... [four heavy machine guns appear and open fire on the suit, without effect] ...and machine washable, darling, that's a new feature.
  [later, when showing Helen's new suit]
  Edna: Your suit can stretch as far as you can without injuring yourself, and still retain its shape. Virtually indestructible [a pair of missiles strike the suit, again without effect], yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: Frozone says he can't put out a fire because he's dehydrated and there's no water in the air for him to use. Meanwhile, the background shows they're surrounded by burning wood. The main reaction in wood fires is cellulose reacting with oxygen, forming carbon dioxide and water vapor.
• Art Shift: The opening and closing themes are animated in a shiny '60s/'70s deco style.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: The superhero interviews in the beginning are in 4:3 to show that they're in the past. The rest of the film is in 2.35:1.
• Ass-Kicking Pose: When the Parr family finally reunite on Syndrome's island and are attacked by the next wave of Syndrome's mooks, before engaging them, they strike an awesome pose establishing them as "The Incredibles".
• Attention Whore: Syndrome cares far more about being seen and worshiped as a great superhero than actually helping and saving others, which might have been his goal even as a kid. His disastrous performance against the Omnidroid is in part due to him focusing on introducing and parading himself in the most vainglorious way possible, rather than on fighting the Omnidroid, giving it the perfect opportunity to deduce that he's using its remote against it and shoot it off his arm.
• Attentive Shade Lowering: When Bob pulls up to Edna's home, she loudly pushes away the security guard answering the door and asks who it is. Bob looks into the security camera and lowers his shades, revealing to her it's Mr. Incredible back on the job.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • While many of the superhero costume designs look quite striking with their capes, Edna's "No Capes" Death Montage shows how impractical they really are.
  • Self-destructing messages sound cool in theory, but when one is used in this film, the fire alarm and sprinklers go off and the family has to dry all their belongings.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Violet and Dash argue with each other almost all the time throughout the film, but when it comes down to it, they do love and are very protective of each other. Dash pulls Violet to safety from a rocket's exhaust wash that utterly fills the cave they were in and would have roasted them to death, and later violently punches one of Syndrome's mooks for trying to attack her. Violet leaps in front of bullets to save Dash and this was before she was confident that she could generate her force fields on demand. She also protects Dash (as best she can) when the Omnidroid 10 almost flattens him.
• Baby Carriage: During the Omnidroid's attack on the city, it grabs a tanker truck and flings it through the air. A mother pushing a carriage grabs her baby and runs as the truck approaches. She is ultimately unable to get away in time, allowing Syndrome to swoop in and "save" the day.
• Badass Cape: Thoroughly deconstructed. Edna's Death Montage rant reveals that although capes are stylish in appearance, they turn out to be dangerous to the wearer.
• Badass Family: The Parrs. They're a family of superheroes, so what do you expect?
• Badass in Distress: Mr. Incredible is caught infiltrating Syndrome's headquarters and placed in an energy prison where he receives intense electrical shocks. As Helen's plane approaches the island and Bob recognizes her voice, Syndrome gleefully launches a series of missiles at it while letting Bob hear the frantic cries from Helen that there are children on board as the plane is shot down. When Mirage reports a confirmed hit with no survivors, Bob is left to face the agony that his family is dead, and Syndrome leaves him to suffer in his grief. As the movie is a Deconstruction of the standard superhero story, Bob does not immediately bounce back after facing his Darkest Hour. When Mirage has her Heel–Face Turn and releases Bob from his restraints, he immediately lashes out in his anguish and despair, grabbing her by the throat and willing to choke the life out of her. Only her revelation that his family is still alive saves her.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Poor Kari (mostly seen in "Jack-Jack Attack"). She becomes increasingly frantic on the phone to Helen, indicating that Jack-Jack has powers too. She also gladly takes Syndrome's offer to babysit for her.
  Dicker: And you believed him.
  Kari: THE BABY WAS EXPLODING! HAVE YOU EVER SAT AN EXPLODING BABY BEFORE, MISTER DICKER?!
• Bait-and-Switch: In their first scene together, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl engage in flirtatious Snark-to-Snark Combat over who nabbed a criminal. It looks like this is a female superhero that Incredible will romance during the movie, only for it to turn out the two of them are getting married that day and are only acting like this to maintain their secret identity (and likely to have fun acting out the Belligerent Sexual Tension that brought them together in the first place).
• Bathos: There's a dramatic moment where the family is racing to save the city in a rocket. Along the way, they do what any family does on a long "car" trip — they bicker.
  Dash: Are We There Yet?
  Bob: We'll get there when we get there!
• Batman Gambit:
  • When Bomb Voyage sticks a bomb to Buddy's cape as he leaves the crime scene, knowing that Mr. Incredible would rather save an innocent child than capture a criminal. It actually worked better than expected, because not only did it draw Mr. Incredible away, but the ensuing chaos made an even bigger diversion that let Bomb Voyage escape scot-free.
  • When Syndrome calls Mr. Incredible's bluff when he threatens to kill Mirage after taking her hostage, knowing that he wouldn't have the guts to go through with it. It later comes back to bite him in the ass for his jerkass attitude in the situation.
• Battle Discretion Shot: Just before escaping Syndrome's base in a rocket, Mr. Incredible confronts a van full of Mooks. Cue an outside shot of the van rocking and shaking as he takes them out. They were lucky he was in too much of a hurry to make them suffer. They were playing a drinking game based on the carnage Syndrome was inflicting.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • In the superhero interviews in the film's opening, Mr. Incredible claims he wants to settle down, but then yearns for the Glory Days when he's forced to do just that by the Super Relocation Act.
  • In an inversion, Elastigirl gets the opposite of what she wishes for, but it turns out she actually prefers it. In her interview, she says she doesn't want to retire because she's at the top of her game, but she is the one who is most content in establishing a normal life after the Super Relocation Act.
  • It's also inverted with Frozone. He says that he's a ladies' man and doesn't want to settle down. After the Time Skip, he's Happily Married to a woman named Honey. Unlike Bob, he's very uncomfortable with lying to her.
  • Bob's desperation to relive the Glory Days leads him to take up Mirage's offer. While he gets to have fun being a superhero for a while, he then has to contend with the dangers that came with the job when Mirage's boss, Syndrome poses a threat to him, his family and all Supers.
  • Syndrome wants the glory of being recognized as a superhero and creates an Engineered Heroics situation with the giant Omnidroid that will allow him to "save the day". However, he doesn't have any real superhero "field experience" and he didn't put any "don't harm your creator" safeguards into the Omnidroid's programming so it treats him as a legitimate superhero threat. Once his remote-control device is neutralized, he faces the serious danger of being killed by his own invention.
  • Citizens wanted Supers underground following the lawsuits, and they got what they wanted. Fifteen years later, crime is at an all-time high, and the military seems woefully unprepared when the Omnidroid arrives.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: In the prologoue, Bob and Helen play out this way, but it turns out to be sexy banter, because it's the day of their wedding.
• Beneath the Earth: The Underminer as seen at the film's conclusion.
• Best for Last: Jack-Jack's superpowers — plural.
• Beware the Cute Ones: Sweet little Jack-Jack reveals that he has superpowers to Syndrome when the latter tries kidnapping him. He bursts into flames, then makes himself really heavy to try and get to the ground, and then becomes an angry red monster that goes for Syndrome's rocket boots.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted. Dash is actually Violet's younger brother and is shown consistently teasing his sister. However, when Violet's life is threatened on the island by one of Syndrome's Mooks, the trope kicks in as Dash appears at super-speed, knocks the guy to the ground then pounces on him with a barrage of punches, yelling "DON'T! TOUCH! MY! SISTER!"
• The Big Damn Kiss: Bob and Helen share three of these:
  • The first at their wedding at the start of the film.
  • The second when Bob is reunited with Helen in Syndrome's building after learning she survived the plane crash.
  • The third when they are in the city before the climactic Boss Fight after Bob admits his fear of losing them again.
• Big Fancy House: From what we see of Edna's place, it looks to very much be one of these.
• Big Honking Traffic Jam: One scene shows Bob stuck in honking traffic on the way home from work.
• Big "NO!":
  • Bob when he hears on the radio that Helen's jet has Violet and Dash on board, with Syndrome's missiles about to hit it.
  • Helen does one when Violet and Dash are trapped by the Omnidroid in the climax.
  • Syndrome has a furious one when he sees the real heroes praised for defeating the Omnidroid instead of him.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Dash lets out one in the cave when Helen says Violet is in charge while she goes to look for Bob.
  • Helen does one after Mirage says Violet and Dash triggered an intruder alert and Syndrome's guards are after them.
• Big Red Button: Many, many buttons get pressed during the course of the film, including several big red ones. Syndrome launching the missiles and the rocket, Mr. Incredible transforming the Incredibile, and Helen launching flares are but a few occasions. One of the DVD Easter Eggs is a compilation sequence showing "every door, button and explosion in the movie" which highlights just how many there are.
• Black Comedy: The "No Capes" montage of various superheroes dying due to Cape Snag.
• Blatant Burglar: Addressed by Frozone after he and Mr. Incredible who are wearing ski masks and have smashed through a wall into a jewelry store which is now surrounded by police.
  Frozone: We look like bad guys! Incompetent bad guys!
• Blunt "Yes": When Dash, Violet, and Helen are in the ocean after Syndrome shot down their plane, and Helen suggests swimming toward the origins of the ground-to-air missiles' contrails.
  Dash: You wanna go toward the people that tried to kill us?
  Helen: If it means land? Yes.
• Bond Villain Stupidity:
  • Syndrome has a few opportunities to kill the Parrs, but he squanders them all by talking.
  • Downplayed during his first confrontation with Mr. Incredible. He does start monologuing and accidentally send Mr. Incredible flying with his Zero-Point Energy gauntlet, but he at least is reactive enough to foil Mr. Incredible's attempt to get him while he's talking. And he does send a drone to make sure that he killed his foe, though Mr. Incredible is able to fool it by hiding behind Gazerbeam's skeleton.
  • Discussed by Lucius as he relates his fight with Baron Von Ruthless who, despite having him "on a platter", never shut up, giving him an opportunity to recover and win.
• Bothering by the Book: Inverted: Bob tells his insurance clients exactly how to satisfy all the bureaucratic requirements for getting their claims paid, much to his manager's dismay.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Bob and Helen's argument about whether Dash should be allowed to try out for sports has shades of this. Helen is completely right that Bob doesn't care about the fact that they have to keep a low profile for pragmatic reasons; if they are busted, that means moving again, and the kids can't live with that instability forever. Dash thus far has also demonstrated great agility but a lack of discipline on when to hold back. The fact that he plays pranks on his teachers doesn't help his case. Bob, however, says that Dash is a good kid with potential, and he has to hide the special bits about himself to fit in because society won't accept his unique gifts while finding reasons to celebrate mediocrity. The ending shows the family compromising now that Dash has shown discipline during the battles on the island and with the Omnidroid; he can try out for track, but he can't win first place for fear of getting noticed. Dash is more than fine with going for second since he enjoys the participation more than anything else.
• A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack; all ages and genders represented.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Mr. Incredible who is a super strong good guy is pitted against Syndrome who is a genius inventor bad guy. A downplayed example in that Mr. Incredible is far from being Dumb Muscle and has high tactical and strategic intelligence.
• Breakout Villain: According to a Behind the Scenes segment on the DVD, in an early draft of the movie, Syndrome was supposed to be just a minor villain who appeared and was destroyed in the movie's opening, but as the staff grew to adore the character and the story was reworked, he got promoted to main antagonist in the final film.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Mr. Incredible in the eyes of young Buddy, leading to his Face–Heel Turn. He even lampshades it.
    Syndrome: You can't count on anyone, especially your heroes!
  • Downplayed with the two police officers that appear in the Golden Age montage that opens the film. After Mr. Incredible stops two robbers with a tree, the officers congratulate him and express their appreciation. However, after the train accident, Bob realizes he's late for his wedding and can't help with the search for Bomb Voyage. As he drives off, the two officers look on in disbelief and disappointment.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Many of the heroes wear a letter on their chest. Lampshaded during the "Jack-Jack Attack" short, when Syndrome shows up at the Parr's residence — he claims that the "S" is short for "Sitter".
• Brush-Off Walk-Off: After Syndrome shoots down the plane with Bob's family aboard, Bob seizes Mirage, threatening to snap her in half if Syndrome doesn't release him. Syndrome calls his bluff, and after Bob releases her, Syndrome walks off, saying, "You're weak. And I've outgrown you."
• Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate: Edna Mode, fashion designer for Supers, creates costumes that are bulletproof, fireproof, and rocket-proof, and which can adapt to the powers of their wearers.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • While Huph does not know Bob is a superhero, he is aware that Bob is eight times larger than him, so being such a complete jerk to him is not a great idea. Bob tolerates the indignity because Huph is his boss, but after Huph demonstrates his complete Lack of Empathy toward a guy getting mugged, Bob reaches his Rage Breaking Point and Huph gets thrown through a few walls.
  • Syndrome going after his Omnidroid. Not only Syndrome totally underestimate his own creation, despite having made it to be very intelligent, adaptable and capable of taking down any superhero, but his whole plan relies on him having the Omnidroid remote without any precaution to make sure the Omnidroid wouldn't hurt him or to have a backup plan in case he loses the remote, not counting Syndrome's utter lack of training and battle experience. As a result the Omnidroid quickly and easily turn the tables, taking out the remote and beating its master in the most humiliating fashion.
  • Later in the movie, Syndrome makes the mistake of taunting Bob that he will one day kidnap his infant son, causing Bob to throw his car at Syndrome and knock him into the jet turbine, causing him to die a very gruesome death via his cape getting caught.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Bob saves a train full of commuters about to speed off a broken elevated track destroyed indirectly by Bomb Voyage.
• Business Trip Adultery: Helen Parr assumes this could be happening when her husband Bob begins going away on several "business trips". She can hear a woman's voice while listening in on his phone conversation and finds a long hair on one of his suits. It certainly doesn't help when she finds him with another woman in his arms. However, this is subverted, as while the business trip was a ruse, it was for the sake of Bob reliving his glory days as a superhero rather than an affair.
• Callousness Towards Emergency: When Bob points out that a guy is getting mugged down in the street, Huph's response is "Let's hope we don't cover him!"
• The Cameo: A particularly awesome one for anyone who is into animation history. The two old men who praise the heroes after the climax ("That's the way to do it" — "No school like the old school") are Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston who were the last two surviving members of Disney's Nine Old Men. They were legendary animators who started on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and were involved in nearly every animated Disney project up to The Fox and the Hound. (Sadly, Thomas didn't live to see The Incredibles finished, and Johnston died in 2008.)
• Camera Abuse: The "camera" aboard Helen's jet acts as if it's bolted to the plane and quavers slightly to mimic the small turbulence bumps encountered in flight. When the missile attack begins and Helen engages in various evasive maneuvers, the "camera" now bounces and shakes in response to the drastic changes of direction.
• Campfire Character Exploration: The campfire scene here, which takes place just after Helen, Dash and Violet arrive on the island, serves to help Violet find a bit of courage and put on the mask her mother gives her. We also see her practicing her powers on the fire itself.
• Can Only Move the Eyes: When Frozone freezes a cop in place, the cop's eyes can be seen tracking the movement around him. Later, Syndrome's Zero Point Energy thing does the same.
• Cape Busters: More of a NGO example but still qualifies. Syndrome is normal human without powers aided by Mirage and other similarly normal henchmen. They use the Omnidroids and other advanced technology to hunt down and kill Supers — and they've been very effective at it.
• Cape Snag: The movie deconstructs the trope to full humorous but tragic effect by Edna during her "no capes" rant. Why she never thought of making her capes fashionable but easily detachable is never brought up.
  Edna: Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers, nice man, good with kids.
  Bob: Listen—
  Edna: November 15 of '58! All was well, another day saved, when his cape snagged on a missile fin.
  Bob: Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb—
  Edna: Stratogale! April 23rd '57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!
  Bob: E, you can't generalize about these things—
  Edna: Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex! NO CAPES!
• Captain Ersatz:
  • The Parr family is inspired by the Fantastic Four and there are some broad stroke parallels: Mr. Incredible is the Thing, Elastigirl is stretchy like Mr. Fantastic (but lacks his genius intelligence), and Violet is the Invisible Woman. While Dash, as a speedster, lacks a direct superpower parallel, his blond hair, Hot-Blooded attitude, and mischievous behavior tends to match the Human Torch. The ending shows Jack-Jack has highly variable superpowers much like Franklin Richards, the child of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman (and we even see him turn into living flame like the Human Torch, so they did touch on it). Even their costumes and name (Fantastic/Incredible) are similar.
  • Syndrome has some similarities with Doctor Doom, a villain whose primary superpower is simply being so good at advanced technology that his super-suit is stronger than the family combined. Syndrome also has Doctor Doom's "petty grudge blown WAY out of proportion" and "prove himself better than the heroes" motivations for his enmity as well.
  • Dash's powers are that of The Flash and even calls himself "The Dash" when he gets his suit. His age and hyperactive personality also call to mind Bart Allen/Impulse.
  • Frozone is Iceman from the X-Men comics as played by Samuel L. Jackson. They both primarily create ramps of ice to skate everywhere.
  • The Underminer basically is the Mole Man, one of the first villains the Fantastic Four encountered.
  • Gazerbeam is Cyclops from the X-Men in all but name. The DVD special features on the minor heroes in the movie even parodies Cyclops' infamously dull personality by having Gazerbeam be an incredibly dull person.
• Captain Obvious: After Bob throws Mr. Huph, his boss, through several walls which puts him in the hospital:
  Bob: I'm fired, aren't I?
  Agent Dicker: Oh? You think?
• Car Chase Shoot-Out: The opening scene features a car chase in which the police pursue two robbers. One of the robbers opens fire on the cops prompting them to shoot back.
• Car Cushion: Frozone lands on one during the killer robot battle.
• Car Fu: Mr. Incredible throws his car at Syndrome when the latter tries to escape after threatening that he will eventually kidnap his son.
• Cassandra Truth: Bernie tries convincing everyone that Dash has powers and is messing with him, but they think he's crazy.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Mr. Incredible sees Frozone chasing after a helicopter that's shooting at him... and the two shout out a quick exchange about Mr. Incredible's evening plans with barely any mind to the helicopter.
  Frozone: Shouldn't you be getting ready?
  Mr. Incredible: I still got time!
• Catch a Falling Star: The end of the movie features a realistic example of the trope. Helen catches a falling Jack-Jack by first stretching her arms out to slow down his fall as she draws him toward her. Then she cradles and supports him before transforming into a parachute to ensure a safe landing.
• Cat Up a Tree: During the opening car chase sequence. Mr. Incredible takes the extreme solution of uprooting the tree and shaking the cat out.
• Caught Coming Home Late: After Bob finally returns home from the fire rescue and grabs some cake, he finds Helen waiting for him.
• Caught Monologuing: The Trope Namer. While telling Bob about a past fight, Lucius points out that Baron Von Ruthless had him completely overpowered, but then started to yammer on and on instead of finishing him. It becomes a Call-Back later when Syndrome starts going on and on to Bob about his origin as a supervillain, only to catch himself just before Bob attacks him. It's a little more justified than usual here, as for a guy like Syndrome, the whole point of this is so that Bob will know who Syndrome is and why he is doing this, and to make him suffer.
  Syndrome: You sly dog! You got me monologuing!
• Cave Behind the Falls: After Bob dives into the river at the bottom of the falls he swims down an underwater passageway to avoid Syndrome's bomb and emerges in a cave where he finds Gazerbeam's skeleton.
• Central Theme: What does it mean to be extraordinary?
• Chaos While They're Not Looking: In the famous argument scene, the Parrs spar at the dinner table using their powers, only to revert to casual positions once they hear the doorbell ring.
• Character Catchphrase: Bob tends to announce "Showtime" just before he embarks on his current adventure.
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • During the Good-Times Montage, there's a fun scene of Bob and Dash playing football where Bob throws the ball far off toward the horizon and Dash uses his super-speed to run out and catch it. They remember this in the climax when Bob needs to keep Syndrome's remote away from the Omnidroid. Dash shouts for Bob to throw it, who says, "Go long!" and deliberately overthrows the control to increase the distance between Dash and the Omnidroid. This buys time for Helen to take out the robot's gun.
  • Edna Mode's suit demonstration for Helen is Played for Laughs, what with Helen being understandably shocked that her friend has that much weaponry and also has built suits that can withstand any of her kids' powers, while Edna watches the gunfire with glee as they sip tea. It turns out that wearing Nigh-Invulnerable suits is very handy when you and your older kids are trapped in a plane that missiles are about to hit. Helen remembers that her suit is designed to withstand explosions and uses it to shield Violet, Dash, and herself from the impact. Suffice to say that it works.
  • Kari the babysitter's voicemails. Helen listens to a dozen of frantic messages of Kari panicking while taking care of Jack-Jack and screaming at Jack-Jack to "put that down!" It turns out Jack-Jack's superpowers awakened, and he activates them when Syndrome attempts to kidnap him.
  • Edna refusing to add a cape to Mr. Incredible's new costume is punctuated by a Black Comedy montage of various supers dying to a Cape Snag. At the end of the movie, the same thing ends up happening to Syndrome.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The "Kronos" carving in the cavern where Mr. Incredible leads to the skeletal remains of Gazerbeam. It's the password to Syndrome's computer, and the name of Syndrome's evil plan.
  • The lava wall in Syndrome's base. Seen first after Mr. Incredible defeats the first Omnidroid, then seen again when he later infiltrates Syndrome's base. Behind the wall is Syndrome's computer, where Mr. Incredible discovers Syndrome's plan.
  • Bob's black car. To stop Syndrome escaping at the end, Mr. Incredible throws it at him.
  • The Omnidroid's claws. Bob is able to stop the Omnidroid v8 by tricking it into puncturing itself with its own claws. Reflecting back on this strategy, gives Bob the idea on how to stop the Omnidroid v10.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Gazerbeam. Bob reads about his disappearance in the newspaper, and Frozone brings it up in the car that same evening. Bob later finds his corpse in a cave after Syndrome tries to kill him and finds he has carved the password to Syndrome's computer into the wall, which Bob puts to good use later. He had also showed up at Bob and Helen's wedding.
• Chekhov's Skill: Dash's newly discovered ability to run across water allows him to catch Syndrome's remote.
• Chekhov's Volcano: Downplayed Example. Syndrome's base is built in and around a volcano. Although Mr. Incredible fights an Omnidroid over roiling magma, the volcano itself never erupts.
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: Dash gets in trouble for placing a tack on his teacher's chair. Bob, rather than being angry about the prank, is impressed by the fact that Dash managed to avoid being caught on a hidden camera. Helen is not amused.
• Childish Villain, Mature Hero: Mr. Incredible is the mature hero, having remained a good, hard-working man and father, even when he's gone through so many hardships from being sued to getting fired from his insurance job. Syndrome is the childish villain, a Psychotic Manchild who never got over not becoming Mr. Incredible's sidekick and whose Evil Plan is entirely built around receiving fame and glory through a staged fight with his own robot.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: The Supers in general are quick to spring into action against big threats, but Mr. Incredible in particular needs to help other people. He doesn't adapt well to civilian life.
• City of Adventure: During the "Golden Age" introduction, Municiberg fits the role well. In the course of just a few hours as Mr. Incredible is on his way to his wedding we see or hear about: a high-speed pursuit with gunfire through the city's streets, a tour bus robbery, a purse snatcher, a helicopter flying through the city with guns blazing, an attempted suicide by jumping off a building, a bank robbery by a supervillain, and a destroyed train track with a last-minute save by Mr. Incredible.
• Clark Kenting: Played straight with regards to the Parr family. Their identities are concealed via simple domino masks that leave their unique body shapes, hair shape/color, and eye color fully exposed, yet no one seems any the wiser.
• Clingy Sleepers: At one point Dash awakes to find he had been sleeping on top of his sister Violet, and apparently snuggling her too, to which he quickly pulls away from her and gags in disgust.
• Cloudcuckoolander: KARI... THE BAAAAYBEEEESITTEEEER! *eye twitch*. Then again, after what she had to put up with in babysitting Jack-Jack, most people would be a tad deranged.
• Clue of Few Words: Gazerbeam used his laser vision to zap the word "KRONOS" into the wall of the cave he died in. Mr. Incredible finds it and eventually figures out that it's the password to the latest project that Syndrome's been planning.
• Color Motif: Frozone. Lucius has a very limited palette when it comes to personal style, be it fashion or home design. He likes blue. A really cool, icy shade of blue specifically.
• Combination Attack: Dash and Violet discover they can combine their powers to make a "force-field hamster ball". Dash's speed provides the locomotion as he runs along the rim. Violet forms the hub while hovering above him. Together they are able to protect themselves from enemy gunfire and take out two velocipods as they make their escape.
• Comically Missing the Point: Bob's reaction to finding out that Dash put a tack on his teacher's chair is to be impressed that he was fast enough to get away with it despite being caught on camera. The moment is Played for Laughs but it's also an early sign that Bob doesn't quite have his priorities straight.
• Company Cross References: Talking about Bob being unable to get over his Glory Days and paying to hide evidence that he and his family are superheroes, Rick spews out "money, money, money, money, money", a quote from the first Toy Story.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Justified: Mr. Incredible finds himself being sued by Oliver Sansweet, a suicidal man whom Bob prevented from jumping off a building, injuring him in the process.
  Lawyer: Mr. Sansweet didn't ask to be saved, Mr. Sansweet didn't want to be saved, and the injuries caused by Mr. Incredible's "actions", so-called, causes him daily pain!
  Mr. Incredible: [furious] Hey, I saved your life!
  Sansweet: You didn't save my life, you ruined my death's what you did!
• Contrived Coincidence: A minor example, but Mirage locates Mr. Incredible the day before he gets fired from his job. This allowed him to find a new source of income immediately and avoid having to break the news to Helen that he got fired. Had Mirage been a day late, it would've been much harder to deliver the video message to Bob and it would've been impossible for Bob to find a cover story to go on the mission.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Played straight when Mr. Incredible fights the Omnidroid at the edge of a magma flow. While he has Super-Toughness, he is also capable of being hurt, so even allowing for his suit being able to withstand 1000 degrees, his exposed face shows no adverse effects from the heat.
• Cool Car:
  • In the intro, the Incredibile. Part TV Batmobile, part 60s Ferrari, with most of the former's gadgets. And it transforms into a blocky coupe when he's off duty.
  • The sports car that Bob buys from his mission. It's a stylish sports car with elements of the Mercedes 300SL, Jaguar E-Type and Corvette Stingray mashed together.
• Costume Evolution: Edna Mode makes Bob a new costume when he brings in his older suit to be repaired. She gets so caught up in the thrill of designing super suits again that she creates a set of new costumes for the entire family.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Bob admits to Helen when they're running to rescue the kids from Syndrome's guards, that he should have been honest with her about getting fired. He says he didn't want her to worry; Helen snaps back that worrying about their source of income and keeping a low profile would be preferable to running around enemy territory with Dash and Violet in the crossfire.
• Could Say It, But...:
  • Bob does this with Mrs. Hogenson, an elderly woman trying to claim her insurance, even when his boss wants him to reject as many claims as possible.
    Bob: Alright, listen closely. I'd like to help you, but I can't. [hands Mr. Hogenson a notepad and a pen] I'd like to tell you to take a copy of your policy to Norma Wilcox on [taps the notepad] — Norma Wilcox, W-I-L-C-O-X — on the 3rd floor, but I can't. I also do not advise you to fill out and file a WS-2475 form with our legal department on the 2nd floor. I would not expect someone to get back to you quickly to resolve the matter. I'd like to help. But there's nothing I can do.
  • When Huph lectures Bob, it leads to this exchange.
    Bob: Are you saying that we shouldn't help our customers?
    Mr. Huph: [through clenched teeth] The law requires that I answer "no".
• Covers Always Lie: Contrary to the poster above, Jack-Jack is not shown in the super suit designed by Edna Mode.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Invoked by Bob to the letter when he throws his back out in the volcano. Hilariously inverted seconds later when the Omnidroid attempts to tear Bob apart... and pulls his spine back into alignment.
• Crazy-Prepared: After Helen sees Jack-Jack's supersuit.
  Helen: What on Earth do you think the baby will be doing?!
  Edna: Well, I'm sure I don't know, darling. Luck favors the prepared. I didn't know the baby's powers, so I covered the basics.
  Helen: Jack-Jack doesn't have any powers.
  Edna: No? Oh, well, he'll look fabulous anyway.
• Create Your Own Villain: Buddy's Start of Darkness began the day Mr. Incredible refused to allow obsessive Buddy to be his sidekick and sent him home. This led to Buddy tearing down his hero-worship of Mr. Incredible and becoming Syndrome, a supervillain powered by advanced technology.
• Creative Closing Credits: The various action vignettes surrounding the closing credits are related to the role of the person following each. The title of the Story Supervisor is kept constantly spinning, then is chopped up and reassembled to form the name of the film editor. The name of the Shading Supervisor has a shimmery shadow on the ground.
• Crime of Passion: Bob Parr is called to Mr. Huph's office so the latter can call him out for caring more about helping clients than helping the company profit when Bob notices a mugging outside. When Mr. Huph shows no empathy to the man being mugged, Bob attempts to leave and help the man, only for Mr. Huph to threaten to fire him if he leaves. Seeing the mugger get away along with Mr. Huph's taunting causes Bob to lose his temper, leading to him grab Mr. Huph by the neck and punch him through several walls, hospitalizing him. Although Rick Dicker manages to cover up the damages, Bob is still fired from his job.
• Crisis Makes Perfect: Played straight with Violet. She is shown being able to summon forcefields in the calm of her own home, but once out in the field she struggles to produce them reliably. It culminates in the panic situation where their plane is targeted by missiles and Violet can't even form a stable shield the size of a basketball, let alone the airplane. This leads to self-confidence issues, but a pep talk from her mother encourages Violet that she will be able to deliver as there's no room left for doubt. Sure enough, when on the island and Dash is caught flat-footed by a Mook with a machine gun, Violet dives toward her brother to protect him and generates a perfect force sphere that protects them both. From that moment on, Violet is able to produce strong force fields at will, including one strong enough to withstand the full and direct might of the Omnidroid (though its assault eventually causes her to pass out).
• Crooks Are Better Armed: It opens with a police chase. The crooks open fire out their car's window with an automatic rifle, and the police shoot back with a pistol. No-one gets hurt in the half minute they spend driving around the block firing wildly.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Stratogale and Syndrome are both sucked into a jet turbine, the latter feet first. Fortunately, the final moments occur off-screen.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Mr. Incredible is actually quite reasonable when refusing Buddy as a sidekick. He apparently has given the kid merchandise for months, as thanks for him being a fan, while saying that he doesn't work with kids. Why? Because it's dangerous. When Buddy thwarts his attempts to stop Bomb Voyage by being oblivious to the danger he put himself in, Mr. Incredible saves his life and tells the cops to take Buddy home to his parents after stopping a runaway train. He's trying to avoid being responsible for a child's death. Buddy never considered there was a reason for the "cruel" part and assumed Mr. Incredible was just being a jerk.
• Cue the Falling Object: Bob returns home and slips on a skateboard while getting out of his car, causing him to dent the car roof which leads to a shattered window as he tries to slam the door closed. In a fit of exasperation, Bob lifts the car over his head only to realize that Rusty, the neighborhood kid, has been watching him. As the two stare at each other in silence, several pieces of glass tumble from the shattered window behind Bob, who then nonchalantly puts the car down and goes into the house.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Once the Omnidroid fixes Mr. Incredible's back when trying to pull him apart, the battle turns, and Mr. Incredible quickly makes short work of the robot.
  • The updated Omnidroid prepared for Mr. Incredible's second island visit quickly overpowers him and is just about to slice open his neck before Syndrome intervenes.
  • Because Syndrome's zero-point energy gauntlets allow him to trap an opponent in a stasis field, he quickly overpowers the Incredibles.
  • Once the Omnidroid 10 identifies Syndrome as a threat it quickly overpowers him due to Syndrome's lack of actual superhero battle experience.
  • Syndrome's attempt to kidnap Jack-Jack goes very poorly: the baby turns into a demonic imp and viciously beats him until Syndrome drops him and has to retreat.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Subverted. Syndrome became fabulously wealthy by creating and selling high-tech weapons to countries and powerful groups, enough to own a futuristic technology-equipped island, while keeping his best inventions such as the Omnidroids or his Zero-Point Energy beams for himself.
• Deadly Dodging: Dash takes out a considerable number of Mooks who crash into the surrounding terrain while trying to hunt him down.
• Deadly Force Field: Violet is able to use her force fields offensively. She can project them so that others crash into them, like she does with Dash. She and Dash can also combine their powers to form the "Incredi-Ball", where Dash uses his Super-Speed to run inside Violet's force field, which results in an unstoppable sphere hurtling along and bowling everything in its path out of the way. She's also shown throwing them once she gains confidence and uses them to take out a few velocipedes.
• Dead Man's Trigger Finger: Elastigirl kicks one of Syndrome's mooks in the face, and he fires off a few semi-auto rounds as he falls to the floor. One of the bullets hits the control panel for the door that Elastigirl is stuck in, freeing her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Violet and Rick Dicker have a habit of this.
• Death Montage:
  • Edna's montage of superheroes killed by their capes.
  • When Mr. Incredible gains access to Syndrome's computer system, he sees screens showing the results of the superheroes versus the evolution of the Omnidroid. Each successful upgrade of the Omnidroid results in a terminated status for the superhero.
• Decon-Recon Switch: The film deconstructs the superhero genre for the first half of the movie, with massive public backlash against superheroes, the heroes pretending to be normal and hating it, etc. But the villain, it turns out, is a superhero fanboy gone maniac, and his passion for all of the classic superhero tropes still drives his Evil Plan. His plan was easily put together for a superhero, and only a superhero, to stop it - and the good guys had the advantages of teamwork and experience over him. So, it's reconstructed.
• Deconstruction: Buddy's attempt to force himself onto Mr. Incredible as his Kid Sidekick does not go according to plan. Mr. Incredible does not admire Buddy's spunk or gusto and take Buddy immediately under his wing, instead rebuking him constantly and telling him to go home. Buddy's attempts to prove his worth to Mr. Incredible by following him around and showing off his inventions don't work either and only put him in danger. Due to his lack of training and experience, he is unaware of a bomb that Bomb Voyage throws onto his cape, forcing Mr. Incredible to save Buddy, simultaneously allowing Bomb Voyage to get away and putting a train full of passengers in danger. The entire ordeal leads to Buddy's Start of Darkness.
• Deducing the Secret Identity: Syndrome built an entire business empire solely for the purpose of tracking down Supers to pit against his Omni-droid, improving it with each iteration (and killing off many superheroes in the process), all so that no one but him will be able to defeat it. Since the Supers are all in hiding, this means he has to figure out their secret identities and then send an agent to make contact with them. This actually leads to an on-screen example as by the time of the movie he's sent Mirage after Lucius (Frozone), and by watching him and Bob do some covert superheroics she realizes Bob is Mr. Incredible.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: After its defeat, the final Omnidroid falls over and spontaneously explodes.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The entire newsreel montage about the denouncing of superheroes and eventually their rejection from society is in black and white.
• Description Porn: Edna takes exceptional delight in presenting and describing the features of the new costumes she had made for the Parr family.
• Desk Jockey: Mr. Incredible is forced to become one to support his family's normal middle-class life and hates it so much he sneaks a little vigilantism on the side.
• Despair Event Horizon: Mr. Incredible is in a dark place after his family's apparent death.
  Mr. Incredible: [as he's choking Mirage] Why are you here? How can you possibly bring me lower? What more can you take away from me?!
• Didn't See That Coming: Syndrome's plan to kidnap Jack-Jack is foiled when the infant suddenly manifests his superpowers and forces the villain to drop him before reaching his escape jet.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The public, whose opinion forced the government to put the Super Relocation Act in place, did not consider fully all the good the supers were also accomplishing. Fifteen years later, crime rates are at an all-time high according to the newspaper Bob is reading when he leaves the family dinner. Doubles as a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • Syndrome unleashed an Omnidroid on the city that was designed and tested to defeat superheroes. He didn't consider the implications when he called himself a "superhero" and attacked it, causing the robot to identify Syndrome as a threat and respond accordingly. Once the Omnidroid shot off his remote control gauntlet, he lost the only advantage he had over the robot, and lacking any real superhero battle experience, he had no choice but to flee in panic.
• Died in Ignorance: The dead supers who fought the omnidroids never knew that they were being led to their deaths by a genocidal maniac who wanted to kill all supers, exploiting their desires to relive the Glory Days of when Superheroes were legal. On top of that, they all likely died in horrific ways considering the robots are programmed with malicious intent, as seen when V. 9 tried to literally pull Mr. Incredible apart and push him into lava.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Mr. Incredible can be heard humming "The Incredibles" theme from the soundtrack when he comes back home from his moonlighting as an illegal superhero.
• Die or Fly: Violet finally learns to create large force fields when jumping in front of her brother to save him, and Dash is desperately running from guards in velocipods when he finds that he can run on water.
• Disney Death: The movie deconstructs the realistic emotional toll of such an event. Bob spends an entire night in despair thinking that Syndrome shot down the plane killing Helen and the kids. This sends him into a grieving rage after Mirage frees him and he's quite willing to kill her. She is saved only because she reveals his family is still alive. Later, we see that the plane incident has left Bob emotionally raw. He is irrationally adamant about facing the Omnidroid alone and we learn that it's because he can't deal with possibility of losing his family again.
• The Ditz: Bob tries to justify Thunderhead's death by his cape snagging on the fin of a missile with this trope, saying, "Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb..."
• Dive Under the Explosion: Done accidentally. Dash is using his Super-Speed to run on water as he's being chased by two mooks on Velocipods. When they corner him in a cave, he becomes confused about what to do next and stops running which causes him to sink into the water, just as the mooks crash together above him in a fiery explosion.
• Diving Save:
  • When Mr. Incredible looks like he is about to attack Syndrome in a fit of rage, Mirage shoves him aside and gets caught in Incredible's grip instead. This likely fuels her anger when Syndrome is willing to risk her death to call Incredible's bluff.
  • Violet saves her brother from Syndrome's mooks' gunfire by diving in front of him and covering them in a force field.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Mr. Incredible, but only when he's really stressed. Most of the time he's a complete aversion to this trope, even going so far as to perform delicate tasks and super-strength ones simultaneously.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Bob's encounter with Huph in his office mirrors the traditional superhero vs supervillain confrontation. Huph uses his power to demean and bully and has Bob trapped and at his mercy. Bob even has a subtle moment of realization that Huph's "enormous clock" speech is essentially the same as the monologuing speeches he received from super-villains while captured and could do nothing except listen helplessly. He ends the conflict in a traditional superhero manner by throwing Huph through several walls. Unfortunately, being a non-powered human, the results are quite damaging to Huph and disastrous to Bob's career.
  • Helen's discovery that her husband has been doing hero work behind her back and the evidence in-hindsight is like a wife discovering that her husband has been cheating on her as a part of his midlife crisis. It doesn't help that when Helen finds Bob on Syndrome's island, he's hugging Mirage. Justified in that an earlier draft presented Helen's fears of being cheated on much more explicitly. The final draft toned it down to it being implied but not directly addressed.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": When Mr. Incredible recognizes Syndrome as Buddy, the latter understandably doesn't want to be called either Buddy or IncrediBoy.
• Don't Think, Feel: After the plane crash, Helen reassures Violet that when the time comes, she'll know how to wield her nascent power.
• Door Slam of Rage: When Bob arrives home from work, he steps on a skateboard and almost falls, catching himself by gripping his car's door frame. His fingers make grooves in the metal, enough to prevent the driver's door from closing properly. When the door won't close, Bob resorts to slamming it shut, which shatters the window glass. Furious beyond reason, Bob then hoists the car overhead, intending to destroy it... until a neighbor's kid stares at Bob in awe. Bob puts down the car, and ambles casually into his house.
• Do Wrong, Right: Dash gets sent to the principal's office for using his Super-Speed to put a tack on the teacher's chair during class. His father is genuinely impressed, especially about how Dash went too fast to be picked up on video. At least as far as the others in the room were concerned, it was also an example of Comically Missing the Point — primarily because it's clear that Bob's just living vicariously through his son's use of his powers.
• Dramatic Spine Injury: Inverted when Mr. Incredible tangles with the Omnidroid on Nomanisan Island. The Omnidroid grips his wrists and ankles in separate claws and attempts to pull him apart, but the stretching actually makes a pleasant crackle that makes his backache vanish. Chortling at this turn of fate, he's able to escape the droid's grip, and go at it with a Heroic Second Wind.
• Dress-O-Matic: At the beginning of the movie, Mr. Incredible is shown to have one in his car. When he puts the car on autopilot, it lays him down and two toroidal devices move over his body and convert his clothing into his super suit. Then two small conical machines come down from the roof of the car and form his gloves over his hands.
• Drill Tank: The Underminer rides one of these.
• Drinking Game: The Incredibles stumble upon some Mooks having one:
  Mook: Every time they run, ya take a shot.
• Drop Pod:
  • In pursuit of the "rogue" Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible is dropped onto the island in one of these to quickly and quietly infiltrate the area where the Omnidroid is contained.
  • In order to quickly drop into the city to confront the Omnidroid, The Incredibles improvise one using an RV and a rocket.
• Dub Name Change: In France:
  • The family is called "Les Indestructibles", which technically means "the indestructible ones" rather than "the family with the surname Indestructible", since proper nouns are not pluralised in French.
  • Bomb Voyage is called "Folamour" ("Strangelove").
• Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: While on his way to his wedding, one crime after another pops up on Mr. Incredible's radar. He always checks his watch and declares, "I (still) got time." and goes off on more heroics.
• Dumbass Has a Point: In "Jack-Jack Attack", when Agent Dicker shakes his head in exasperation on learning that Kari handed over Jack-Jack to Syndrome after the latter claimed to be another babysitter, Kari angrily points out that she'd spent the previous hours frantically trying to cope with sitting a super-powered baby, and so can be forgiven for not exactly being at her best:
  Kari: THE BABY WAS EXPLODING! Have you ever sat an exploding baby, Mr. Dicker?!
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • As is standard for Pixar films. Doc Hudson from Cars appears in one shot.
  • During Bob and Helen’s wedding, one shot shows Gazerbeam, Edna, and Agent Dicker in the front pew, all of whom become important to the plot.
• Easily Embarrassed Youngster: Violet starts out shy and lacking confidence such that her invisibility becomes a defense mechanism for avoiding embarrassment. As part of her character development, she becomes more assured so that she no longer feels the need to hide behind her invisibility.
• Easily Forgiven: The Incredibles accept Mirage's assistance quite quickly after she betrays Syndrome and helps them escape the island, despite the fact that she took an active part in Operation Kronos that led to the deaths of many heroes. Justified in that they needed to get to the city as quickly as possible to stop the Omnidroid and likely considered leaving Mirage free to be the lesser of two evils.
• Electric Torture: Syndrome does this to Mr. Incredible when trying to learn who he sent a distress signal to.
• Elemental Baggage: Frozone gets his ice by sucking moisture from the air and his body and multiplies it exponentially. A single sip of water lets him put a fridge-sized block around a guard.
• Elite Mooks: Credit given to Syndrome, he doesn't hire Dumb Muscle for his armed guards. Many are trained to handle a super threat or potential ones. When seeing two stranded kids on the island, the guards attempt to hold them at gunpoint and detain them, rightly suspecting they're not here for a vacation. A few just won't give up on chasing Dash all over the terrain, even as he accumulates a body count. Violet attempts to take one on with a stick and her invisibility powers, but he forces her to retreat into the nearby lake and tracks her location using dirt to shoot her. The family has to team up to stand a fighting chance against them.
• Emo Teen: Violet, with the hair over her face and the shy, withdrawn attitude.
• Enemy Mime: Bomb Voyage, the French Mad Bomber from the prologue.
• Engineered Heroics: The end result of Operation Kronos: Syndrome releases an Omnidroid upon the city with the intent of staging a fight with the robot and defeating it, thus becoming a hero in the eyes of the public.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Helen eventually comes to the conclusion that Bob is having an affair and a Hollywood Midlife Crisis after Edna shows her the tracking device on Bob's suit, and learns that he was fired. The hair on his suit, their new cars, and the lying about being employed may have had something to do with that. She's only right about the midlife crisis and accordingly assumes that he went to a tropical island for a "business trip". Helen quickly realizes that she miscalculated when missiles come out to shoot down her plane, despite her shouting that "There are children aboard!". She admits to the kids that Bob must have gotten in over his head with something much worse than an affair.
• Establishing Character Moment: Mr. Incredible spends the first few minutes of the movie showing off his Chronic Hero Syndrome, being dedicated to help anyone who might need him, be it the police chasing criminals, a man about to take his own life, or an old lady who can't catch her kittycat, to the point that it affects his private life. Meanwhile, Elastigirl, while also happily indulging in heroics and Flirting and Courtship, is on time at her own wedding and berates him for not doing the same.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • It's one thing to lure adult superheroes to their deaths, but killing children?! Even for a Femme Fatale like Mirage, that's a step too far — and it contributes to her High-Heel–Face Turn a few scenes later.
  • Averted during Helen's warning to her children on the island. She stresses the gravity of their situation when she says that, unlike the villains on TV, these bad guys will not exercise restraint and will kill them if they get the chance.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Edna Mode is a bit of a Nightmare Fetishist, what with her having an underground armory designed to test super suits for durability, and she watches the demonstrations with glee when entertaining Helen. But what is one line she will not cross? As she puts it, "No capes!" When Bob tries to argue with her about this after he "convinces" her to make a suit for him, Edna cites a Long List of supers that died due to a Cape Snag (which is confirmed in the DVD extras for most of them), and she makes it clear that she will not have his potential death on her hands due to that. Bob did call her the best for a reason, after all.
  • Violet gets offended when Helen assumes that she and Dash left Jack-Jack all alone in the house to stow away in the plane. As she puts it sarcastically, only a complete idiot would do such a thing. No, she got the best babysitter she could find at a late notice who had a good reputation for handling infants. Well, Violet ended up being right on that count of Kari stimulating a baby's mind.
• Everyone Is a Super: When Syndrome is discussing his plan with a captive Mr. Incredible, he almost names the trope. If it goes through, all regular citizens will one day have the means of feeling like Supers to the point where actual surviving Supers will be less special and more irrelevant.
• Evil Counterpart: The similarities between Bob Parr, a.k.a. Mr. Incredible, and Buddy, a.k.a. Syndrome, are apparent. They both glorify the "golden age" of superheroes and both seek recognition from the public, though since Buddy's morals are warped, he stages his own heroics using the Omnidroid that causes unintentional destruction when its A.I. goes rogue, while Mr. Incredible causes unintentional destruction and trouble during his genuine heroics. Not to mention Syndrome killed dozens of supers just so he could make room for himself to be one. Ironically, Syndrome did all this because Mr. Incredible rejected Buddy's desire to be his Kid Sidekick. Interestingly, even while being the Big Bad, Syndrome still geeks out childishly the same as Mr. Incredible does over hero exploits. They also both believe in the Badass Cape, though Edna warns Bob against it while Syndrome learns too late.
• Evil Gloating: Parodied, discussed, and lampshaded as the heroes mock the villainous habit of 'monologuing'. Syndrome even calls out Bob for having tricked him into a monologue that almost distracts him. This ultimately turns out to be Syndrome's undoing, however — after failing to steal Jack-Jack, he takes a moment to gloat about how "this isn't over" and how he will eventually get Mr. Incredible's son, giving Bob enough time to throw his car at him.
• Evil Laugh: Done by Syndrome after he thinks he's killed Bob's family and mocks him for it. Later, Syndrome gives another one after revealing his full plan to the Parr family.
• Evil Plan: Syndrome's in three steps: Lure the supers to their doom, pretend to be a super with technology and evil robots, profit by selling the technology to everyone and thereby making it impossible to be a super.
• Evil Redhead: Syndrome is very much this, as well as being The Evil Genius.
• Expressive Mask: The Parr family and Syndrome have a wide range despite their domino masks.
• Expy:
  • Edna is based on a real-life costume designer for Paramount, Edith Head. Compare Edna◊ and Edith◊. Many say she was based on Linda Hunt's character Regina Krumm in Altman's 1994 film Pret-a-Porter. There is a serious resemblance, down to her size, her hairstyle, her black dress and her circular glasses!
  • If a place can be an expy, than the middle school that Violet attends is one for Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon, where Brad Bird went to high school. This is down to them having the same mascot (the Spartans). However, since the high school building was torn down in 2005 and rebuilt, it's a little hard to see it now.
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: The Parr family is basically your average family, but with superpowers. All of the typical concerns, challenges and squabbles are still there but with the added stress of them living under the Super Relocation Act.
• Faceless Goons: All of Syndrome's goons wear a grey, form-fitting cowl and a black visor so only their nose and mouth are visible. Their visors pop up several times throughout the movie, usually when someone hits them.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Mr. Incredible tosses his sports car at Syndrome, knocking him into the engine of his jet plane where his cape gets caught in the turbine leading to a Turbine Blender demise.
  • Edna Mode lists a number of superheroes who die due to Cape Snag.
  • Every time a velocipod crashes and explodes with a Mook inside.
• Fan Disservice: The bonus video "Incredi-blunders!" features technical goofs and short scenes that were made simply because the animators were goofing around. This includes things like Bob walking around naked (with Pixellation to censor his behind) and Syndrome licking Mirage, who smiles in return.
• Fantastic Racism: Because the lawsuit against Mr. Incredible for saving and injuring a man during his failed suicide attempt was upheld in "superior court", this opened a floodgate of lawsuits by the public tiring of being caught in the collateral damage of superheroics and turns public opinion against the supers. This leads to the permanent banishment of superheroes and forces them to now live in secret.
• Fastball Special: Bob throws Helen towards a falling Jack-Jack during the climax.
• Fearless Fool: Young Buddy Pine during his attempts to become Mr. Incredible's sidekick, had absolutely no fear or awareness of how serious and dangerous superhero life actually is, and of the danger he was putting himself and others with his pestering and interference in Mr. Incredible's work, which nearly caused him and the passengers of the a train to be killed by one of Bomb Voyage's bomb. Even as an adult he doesn't seem to have learned his lesson until he finds himself in actual danger against the Omnidroid.
• Feeling Their Age: While Mr. Incredible is still a formidable superhero 15 years later, it's shown that time and age are taking their toll as he has gained a lot of weight and he throws his back out during his battle with the Omnidroid.
• Fictional Accent: Edna Mode, voiced by director Brad Bird himself, has an accent that resembles a blend between German and Chinese. It fits with the film's aesthetic, which Bird says is based on what people in the '50s and '60s thought the future would be like.
• Flexibility Equals Sex Ability: When Elastigirl stretches her body around Mr. Incredible and flirtily tells him to be more "flexible," Mr. Incredible asks if she's doing anything later.^note Amusingly, her powers help prevent the implications of Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.
• Fling a Light into the Future: The last thing Gazerbeam did before he died was to carve out the password to Syndrome's computer on the walls of the cave, hoping that someone would find it and use it against him.
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: During the Good-Times Montage, Bob gives Helen a pat on the butt as he walks by her in the hallway, only for Helen to reciprocate with a grab or pinch to his butt — from down the hall.
• Flirting Under Fire: Bob and Helen pretend to be Headbutting Heroes in the prologue, but really it's the day of their wedding. Later in the film they see each other kicking ass and it rekindles the heat in their marriage.
• Foil: Frozone is shown to be more down-to-earth than Mr. Incredible is, down to reminding him to remove his mask in time for his wedding. While he's not above going out to save people, he's done better at keeping a low profile while Bob forces the family to relocate every few months. His wife also knows when he's going out to save the world, unlike with Bob lying to Helen. He lives in a pretty swanky apartment downtown, while Bob has a standard 1950s cookie-cutter house, hinting that he had better luck with the government job placement. 
• Foreshadowing:
  • While initially appearing to be just an overzealous fan-boy, Buddy's behavior in the prologue raises several red flags of an emerging sociopath:
    • When Mr. Incredible refuses to acknowledge him as "Incredi-boy" but instead recalls his real name, Buddy snaps that his name is "Incredi-boy" with considerable anger and vehemence.
    • He walks right into Mr. Incredible's confrontation with Bomb Voyage with no regard for his safety or acknowledgement of how dangerous the situation is. He then wants Mr. Incredible's full attention on him, and doesn't seem to care that Bomb Voyage escaped as a result.
    • He's more fixated on the aspects of being a superhero that draw attention to himself (like style and catchphrases) rather than the empathetic character qualities that make a hero (like a desire for justice or wanting to save the innocent). He also assumes that Mr. Incredible rejects him solely for not having superpowers, showing he doesn't even realize how recklessly he's acting.
    • And finally, an elevated metro train line is destroyed because of Buddy's actions, causing many injuries and excessive property damage. But Buddy is still insisting on being Mr. Incredible's sidekick, with zero regard for all the damage he caused, even when it is right next to him. Any normal, sane person would stop talking and feel either guilt, remorse, or embarrassment over what happened; but Buddy never bats-an-eye over it. On top of that, Buddy is visibly angry in this scene... not because Bomb Voyage got away, but because Mr. Incredible's rejection.
  • Syndrome's death by Cape Snag is foreshadowed a couple times:
    • Bomb Voyage manages to get a bomb stuck on Buddy's cape, which would have resulted in the boy's death had Mr. Incredible not forced it off before it exploded. Sure enough, Syndrome apparently hasn't learned from this since his supervillain outfit also has a cape, which leads to his death when it gets caught in a jet turbine.
    • Edna rants on how a good number of superheroes died due to Cape Snag on various objects; in particular, Stratogale died due to her cape being sucked into a jet turbine, hinting at Syndrome's demise.
  • Lucius' story about how he was able to take advantage of Baron von Ruthless' monologuing also hints at how Mr. Incredible finally takes Syndrome out. For bonus points, he even tries the exact same trick during their initial confrontation, but Syndrome is wise to it on that occasion.
  • Syndrome, the first time he's Caught Monologuing, refers to the Omnidroid as "a weapon only I can defeat". As it turns out, defeating the Omnidroid (or at least, pretending to) is the climax of his entire plan.
  • Helen finding building debris on Bob's jacket sets up how she will come to think later that he is cheating on her when she finds Mirage's hair on his jacket.
  • Helen's supersuit being shown to be "virtually indestructible" even against missiles fired upon it.
  • The newspaper article in the dinner scene about Simon J. Paladino (a.k.a. Gazerbeam) having gone missing.
  • When Bob fights his first Omnidroid he tricks it into skewering itself. This leads to Bob's "Eureka!" Moment when fighting the Omnidroid attacking the city: "The only thing hard enough to penetrate it is... itself" as he holds one of the Omnidroid's arms in his hand.
  • Mr. Incredible theorizes that the Omnidroid he was hired to stop is rebelling because it got "smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders". He's wrong that time, but the improved Omnidroid v10 actually is smart enough to rebel against Syndrome and stop taking his orders near the end of the movie.
  • When Mr. Incredible is being briefed on the Omnidroid by Mirage, the blueprints shown are for a "v7", but a shot of the Omnidroid's side during their fight shows it's actually "v8", meaning even from the start this was a set-up with deeper secrets.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Essentially a given for the Supers considering this is a superhero film.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • One can see the attendees of Bob and Helen's wedding in the church pews at the beginning of the movie — Edna, Rick Dicker, Gazerbeam, Dynaguy, Stratogale, and Thunderhead.
  • You can see Dash move on the video tape if you keep a keen eye.
  • Bob's newspaper (where he learns about Gazerbeam's disappearance) has a number of worrisome headlines, such as "Crime Rate At All Time High."
  • Huph plays with a memo on his desk while he lectures Bob about how unhappy he is. With the right timing, you can freeze the Blu-Ray version and read it to learn that Huph is now mandating that all employees pay (i.e. self-expense) for all the office supplies they use during their workday. In addition, their parking spots will now be metered hourly and the cost of their telephone and electricity will now be deducted from their paycheck. He thanks them for their sacrifice which will ensure another year of record profits for Insuricare.
  • During the newspaper montage covering supers being held accountable for their damages, one of the newspapers they show is the Municiberg Tribune which has three articles on the front page legible enough to actually read: "X-ray vison peeping tom? Super Snooper sees freedom"; "Citizen arrest nabs do-gooder"; and "Storm Pounds Coast".
• French Accordion: A snippet of dramatic accordion music sounds when Bomb Voyage first appears out of the smoking hole he blasted in the bank wall.
• Friend to All Children:
  • In his glory days, Mr. Incredible had a fan club consisting of kids, of which Buddy was a member, and tried to let Buddy down easy that he didn't want him as his Kid Sidekick, only flat-out rejecting him when Buddy wouldn't take no for an answer and then inadvertently aided in Bomb Voyage's escape.
  • Thunderhead, Edna points out, was also good with kids.
• From My Own Personal Garden: Mr. Incredible eats with Mirage, who points out how everything was grown on the island, thanks to the volcanic soil. This is before Mr. Incredible encounters Syndrome.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Buddy, geeky kid, to Syndrome whose development of the Omnidroids causes the death of over a dozen superheros.
• Funny Background Event:
  • During the climactic fight against the Omnidroid, the family gets a hold of Syndrome's remote. After the Omnidroid uses a Rocket Punch to grab Mr. Incredible...
    Dash: [pushes button]
    Mr. Incredible: [gets tossed into the air by the claw opening] Huuwaaugh!
  • The argument between Lucius and Honey as the former tries to find his supersuit, with the chaos the Omnidroid is inflicting in the background.
  • After Helen has caught Jack-Jack and is safely parachuting him to the ground she's looking at him while speaking soothing words like "Mommy's got you. Everything is all right." Meanwhile behind her Syndrome's plane is blowing up spectacularly with multiple explosions and parts flying everywhere.
  • During Bob and Helen's phone conversation in the beginning, Jack-Jack is eagerly attempting to squirt soap into his mouth before Helen casually puts a hand over the bottle.
• Gadgeteer Genius:
  • Syndrome. There seems to be no limit to what he can build, including moving walls made of lava.
  • Edna is focused exclusively on clothing. Making a onesie that is bulletproof, fireproof, and machine-washable? That's just a warm-up for her.
• Gelatinous Encasement: Syndrome's security system includes cannons that fire goo balls that stick their target and inflate to trap them in a mucky gelatinous mass, so heavy even the super-strong Mr. Incredible can't overpower them.
• Gendered Outfit: While all four Incredibles wear similar one-piece outfits with a contrasting "gloves, boots and briefs" motif, Helen and Violet's outfits have opera "gloves", thigh-high "boots" and bikini-shaped "briefs".
• Genre-Busting: It's a superhero film mixed with elements of thriller, sci-fi, dramedy, and satire.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: When Helen learns that Bob is not at a company retreat like he said, it leads to her having a Heroic BSoD. When she bemoans about what'll she do, Edna snaps and pummels Helen about the head with a rolled-up newspaper while yelling at her to pull herself together.
  Edna: What will you do? Is this a question?! You will show him that you remember he is Mr. Incredible and you will remind him who you are! Well, you know where he is. Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win! ... And call me when you get back, darling. I enjoy our visits.
• Glory Days:
  • There's even a magazine cover in Bob's memory room with this as the title.
  • And the soundtrack's track for the flashback opener of the film is even named "Glory Days".
  • Edna is disdainful of her current job as a fashion designer and is clearly delighted at the prospect of doing more work for Supers:
    Edna: I used to design for gods!
• Glory Hound: Syndrome's plan is certainly reckless with people and property and all to gratify his ego.
• Gloved Fist of Doom: Syndrome's zero-point energy rays are generated by his gloves and he likes to gesture with it.
• Gone Horribly Right: The final version of Syndrome's Omnidroid is so intelligent that it even recognizes its own remote control as a threat to be destroyed.
• Good Feels Good: The main reason why Bob laments over the Glory Days, because he genuinely loves helping people.
• Good Is Not Soft: As a deconstruction of the superhero genre, the movie repeatedly points out that "super-heroing" is a dangerous business and it's a lot harder than it sounds to take bad guys alive when they're actively trying to kill you. We are shown that The Incredibles are not against using deadly force directly or indirectly against the various mooks they encounter. This is particularly notable with Dash who actually has the highest kill count in the film simply due to the number of goons crashing their velocipods into the surroundings while chasing him (though it could be argued that that's not on Dash; he's just trying to escape, it's not his fault they aren't being careful while pursuing him).
• Good-Times Montage: After Bob successfully defeats the first Omnidroid, he returns to home having found catharsis after penting up his need to be a hero for so many years. He spends more quality time with his kids, he gets them a new sports car, he and Helen spend a lot more time together (complete with a Flirtatious Smack on the Ass for both of them) and he spends all of his "work time" losing weight at the rail-yard.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Just as Syndrome is sucked into the turbine of his plane, the camera cuts away to Mr. Incredible flinching as the plane explodes.
• Got the Whole World in My Hand: Insuricare's Logo.
• Gratuitous French: Bomb Voyage only speaks in French and his lines clearly indicate the disdain he has for the appearance of Mr. Incredible and "IncrediBoy", as well as mocking Buddy's outfit.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: During the family's first fight as a team they use mooks as weapons against other mooks.
• Group-Identifying Feature: Invoked, where Edna Mode sews the Parr family matching red and black super-suits that all have an "i" insignia on them.

Tropes H to M

• Happily Married: Bob and Helen. They love each other and support each other through underground living, superhero withdrawal, and a new villain. Even after 15 years of marriage and three children, they are shown to still be very much attracted to each other and have a healthy love life. He even refers to her as "the perfect woman". Thinking she had been killed in a plane crash along with their children is enough to cause Bob to completely break and attempt to kill Syndrome right then and there.
• Harmless Freezing: During the jewelry store scene, Frozone encases a cop in a shroud of ice after the officer mistakes him and Mr. Incredible for burglars. When the cop's friends come in to check on him, he is frozen in place, but his eyes can still be seen moving around freely within the ice.
• Hartman Hips: Elastigirl seems to dislike hers. Violet has a more teen-size version.
• Hate Sink: The audience can't hate Syndrome due to him falling into the Likable Villain category as well as his understandable motivations, but unless you have lived a very charming life, you can hate someone like Gilbert Huph, a selfish, paranoid CEO more interested in helping his own people than his clients. Yes, compared to Syndrome, people like Huph are very common to come by in real life.
• Held Gaze: Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible share a rather long seductive one right after they capture a thief together during the Cold Open at the beginning of the movie. They have a similar exchange later while fighting the mooks on the island together with their kids and exchange an "I love you".
• Heroes Gone Fishing:
  • Some of the other superheroes took time off from fighting crime and saving the world to attend Bob and Helen's wedding. Edna and Rick Dicker are also in attendance.
  • During the Good-Times Montage after Bob defeats the Omnidroid, Bob and Dash are seen racing toy cars together and then playing catch in the park.
  • At the end, the Parrs are watching Dash compete at a track meet, and a newly-confident Violet asks Tony out to the movies.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Dash giggles excitedly when he realizes that he can sprint on water while running from Syndrome's Elite Mooks. Bob is just as excited when he sees Dash demonstrate this ability to grab Syndrome's remote.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: After Elastigirl notices how thicc she is, she hides from another guard. However, her leg got caught in a keycard door in the progress. As she struggles, she sees a guard use a keycard to open another. As she tries to reach for it to free herself, her waist gets stuck between the door and now she’s double stuck. Luckily, a guard accidentally shoots the scanner, freeing her leg and opens the door with a keycard.
• Hero Harasses Helpers: Mr. Incredible to "IncrediBoy", because the latter would not take "No!!!" for an answer and walks right into a confrontation between Mr. Incredible and Bomb Voyage without any respect for the gravity of the situation or his own safety.
• Heroic BSoD: Mr. Incredible has a brief one when he thinks his family is dead. He recovers when Mirage tells him they survived.
• Heroic RRoD: Downplayed. Violet is shown passing out when her force field is hit by the full weight of the giant Omnidroid. However, she recovers quickly and assures her mother that she's fine. She is able to participate in the remainder of the fight.
• Hero Insurance: The implication is that the collateral damage caused by the Supers was more or less handled by the government. But when the "Superior Court" allowed a lawsuit targeting Mr. Incredible, it opened the floodgates of litigation and caused the government settlements to reach a boiling point. In response, they shutdown super-heroics and forced the Supers into retirement.
• Hero Killer: Played with. Syndrome has lured countless Supers to his island to be killed by his Omnidroids. By the time the film begins, it's implied that he has succeeded in eradicating every Super associated with the NSA except for Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone. However, he lacks the reputation of dread normally associated with this trope. In fact, his plan only succeeds because the supers are underground and don't communicate with each other anymore, which allows Syndrome to quietly pick them off one-by-one.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: All supers become this once they start getting sued for damages while saving lives and servicing the public. The result is that superheroes are forced into hiding by the government and undertake normal identities. After Mr. Incredible, his family and Frozone stop the Omnidroid the immediate public praises their actions but the Super Relocation Act is still in effect.
• Hero-Worshipper: Buddy created his own suit based on Mr. Incredible so he could be the guy's sidekick.
• He's a Friend: When Edna goes through her security system's identity check, a gun drops down in front of Helen, prompting Edna to quickly assure the system that Helen's a guest.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Violet hides behind her hair due to a Shrinking Violet nature. At the end of the movie, she's wearing an Alice band to keep it out of her eyes.
• Hilarity Sues: One of the main causes for heroes hiding is the damage their battles caused to their surroundings. The immense destruction in the end battle is hardly mentioned because all of it was caused by the Omnidroid itself. The only damages that could be reasonably pinned on the heroes were the office building Mr. Incredible was thrown through, the car Frozone was chucked onto, and the manhole cover Elastigirl pulled up.
• Hobbling the Giant: Done at one point in the climax, when the rampaging Omnidroid tries grabbing it's remote, only for Elastigirl to stretch herself across both sides of the street tripping the Omnidroid over. It stops the robot for a few seconds, enough time for an invisible Violet to snatch the remote off the ground.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Syndrome invented a robot that was designed to learn how to deal with any threat, but assumed that because he had the remote control in his gauntlet, he would always have a clear advantage over the Omnidroid and be able to play out his Engineered Heroics scenario without concern. However, once he engaged the Omnidroid and it identified him as a threat, it followed its programming with ruthless efficiency and quickly analyzed that it could deal with Syndrome by shooting the remote control gauntlet off his arm. Since Syndrome had no real field experience being a superhero the encounter quickly turned into a Curb-Stomp Battle forcing him to flee for his life.
  • After Syndrome's Omnidroid plans fall apart he attempts revenge on Mr. Incredible by trying to abduct his son Jack-Jack. This triggers his latent powers allowing him to escape and leaving Syndrome barely able to reach his get-away plane. However, instead of immediately fleeing, Syndrome can't resist taunting Mr. Incredible that he will eventually get his son. This causes Mr. Incredible to throw his car, which he bought with the money Syndrome had anonymously paid him, into the plane, knocking Syndrome into the jet-turbine, and since his costume has a cape, the resulting Cape Snag that causes his death by Turbine Blender.
• Hollywood Law: Zig-zagged. Generally, "Good Samaritan" laws would protect individuals from prosecution or lawsuits for damages or injuries that occur when responding to a crime or disaster. However, the movie does state that the lawsuit made it to "Superior Court" implying a possible reevaluation of those laws with regards to superpowered individuals because of the higher level of destruction they can cause. However, the "ruined suicide" lawsuit would have been dismissed at the outset, because during the implied time-frame of the setting, suicide would've been considered a felony. Also, considering the time period, Good Samaritan laws may not have been enacted yet, assuming the movie's keeping up with real-world history^note In the real world, they weren't enacted until the 1970s; judicious use of the pause button suggests the movie is set early in the 1960s. Even without the suicide being a felony, the law would always be on the side of someone preventing a suicide, considering death by suicide to be a bad thing that should be prevented, and the minor injuries resulting from its prevention would be considered an acceptable cost. The train derailment would be a different matter, but the actual circumstances of Bomb Voyage and Buddy's interference would have been taken into account as well. Ultimately, the situation is set up as ridiculous so that we'll side with and sympathize with Bob.
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Bob's character arc is essentially taking him through the superhero version of this.
• Hope Spot: Zigzagged. When Frozone realizes that Dash is in the Omnidroid's line of fire during the climactic fight, he goes to provide assistance. He picks up the kid and starts speeding away while creating an ice path, reasoning that the robot can't swim when going across a deep lake. Unfortunately, the robot can still make a splash and jump into the water with no ill effects, knocking Dash out of Frozone's grip and the remote a few feet away. Fortunately, Violet uses her invisibility powers to steal the remote and get out of attack range.
• Hostage Situation: Mentioned at the end of the movie when Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack and starts flying to his plane. Elastigirl shouts at Mr. Incredible to throw something, but he's worried he'll hit the baby. She then gets the idea for him to throw her just as Jack-Jack forces Syndrome to drop him. Elastigirl catches her son in time and turns her body into a parachute to slow down their fall.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Bob and Helen are experienced supers and it shows; they each easily infiltrate Syndrome's base and learn his secret plans. Meanwhile, the kids have no idea how to really use their powers and have to experiment and learn what they can do; they're both repeatedly surprised by what their powers can really achieve.
  Dash: How are you doing that?!
  Violet: [floating in the middle of her force field] I don't know!
  Dash: Well, whatever you're doing, don't stop doing it.
• Human Popsicle: The police officer from the jewelry store. Of course, he did tell Frozone to "freeze." The commentary even calls him the "copsicle".
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Bob towers over Helen. In addition to appearing at least one and a half feet taller, he's twice as wide.
• Human Shield:
  • Helen stretches herself over Violet and Dash to protect them when her plane explodes.
  • Mr. Incredible takes Syndrome's right-hand woman Mirage hostage in retribution for the "death" of his family. Syndrome calls his bluff, which leads Mirage to betray him later.
  • At the end of the movie Syndrome's plane comes crashing down on The Incredibles. Although Violet was able to put up a force field in the nick of time, when the smoke clears, you can see that Bob has thrown himself around his entire family, cradling them and fully expecting to take the brunt of the impact.
• Humongous Mecha: Syndrome's prototype Omnidroids are several times taller and wider than a big man like Bob Parr. The final version unleashed upon the city is easily seven stories tall.
• Hyper-Awareness:
  • Stretching doesn't seem to be Helen's only power; she has super-vision as well, as she notices an incredibly tiny piece of rubble on Bob's clothes and the detailed stitching on Bob's old super-suit.
  • Though not foolproof, Bob's "danger sense" (mentioned in his profile in the DVD extras) lets him anticipate imminent danger... including an angry wife!
• An Ice Person: Frozone can generate ice: ice prisons, ice projectiles, ice slides, etc.
• Idiot Ball: Grabbed by Edna Mode, of all people. Including a tracking device in her supersuits is a smart move, but what isn't is making said tracking device emit light and noise when activated, which gets Mr. Incredible captured while he's sneaking around Syndrome's base.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Mirage to Syndrome, who not only ignores her affection but feels she is ultimately expendable.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Violet can't stand having powers and wants to be a muggle like her classmates. Then the Adrenaline Makeover makes her realize how awesome she is when she has confidence and uses her powers to help and protect her family.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Ironically, even though his incredible intelligence and advanced technology demonstrates that he is already quite gifted, Syndrome's Fatal Flaw is that he wants the world to recognize his superheroics as being greater than Mr. Incredible.
• Impairment Shot: Mr. Incredible's POV: Mirage walks in on him as his vision and consciousness are taken out by the squishy black things that hit him upon setting off Syndrome's intruder alert.
• Impossible Insurance: To his manager's dismay, Bob allows his clients to use loopholes so they could get their insurance claims. As Insuricare uses red tape to deny its clients from getting their monies, this is a breach of contract, which could subject the company to lawsuits and regulatory sanctions. Unfortunately, Truth in Television as insurance companies will use the "delay, deny, defend" stall tactics to protect their bottom line.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Edna makes the Parrs a set of matching costumes that are quite stylish with a heroic red color scheme and are very durable being bullet-proof and able to withstand extreme heat.
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: On the other side of the coin, Edna Mode in-universe believes that "capes" turn an outfit into this. A cape may look cool, but it can snag on practically anything; the best that a super could hope for is a quick broken neck. For that reason, her only standard is "No capes!" Bob tries to argue when he's modeling for a new suit, but she shuts him up by mentioning half a dozen supers by name that died due to a Cape Snag, including some who didn't get a quick death. Syndrome proves her point correct, as he dies when his cape gets snagged in his own jet turbine.
• Improbable Parking Skills: Mr. Incredible first lands a falling van right on the highway, then proceeds to veer so sharply that it rolls over several times before stopping perfectly in a parking space.
• I'm Your Biggest Fan: Buddy says this word for word to Mr. Incredible. As a child, he means it, but much less so as an adult,
• Increasingly Lethal Enemy: The Omnidroid is stated by Mirage to be an example of this trope:
  Mirage: I've got to warn you. It's a learning robot. Every moment you spend fighting it will only increase its knowledge of how to beat you.
  Mr. Incredible: Shut it down, do it quickly, don't destroy it.
  Mirage: And don't die.
  Mr. Incredible: Great. Thanks.
• Indestructibility Montage: Edna shows Helen the new suits she designed for the Parrs, starting with Jack-Jack. She runs the suit worn on a mechanical baby mannequin through a series of tests, including shooting it with flamethrowers and machine guns to show how indestructible it is. She also shows Helen's suit being stretched to match her Rubber Man abilities, then hit by missiles without leaving a scratch.
• Indy Escape: When Mr. Incredible fights the Omnidroid for the first time on the island, the robot soon tries to crush him by retracting its limbs into its spherical body and rolling through the jungle. Mr. Incredible does the sensible thing and jumps out of the way, but the Omnidroid is a learning robot, and so somehow steers its sphere form towards him.
• Indy Ploy:
  • Helen is able to do this very well. It helps that besides being the mother that needs to balance, control, and maintain her family, she can adjust herself in various ways to accommodate her own plans.
  • Bob is a straighter example of this. His own experiences as a hero aside, working with and being married to Helen probably contributed to his ability to think fast and adapt to situations quickly.
• In Harm's Way: Bob loves the superhero life so much that even after being forced to retire, he buys a police scanner and lies to his wife so he can look for opportunities to save people.
• Ink-Suit Actor:
  • Samuel L. Jackson is pretty much animated as-is to create Lucius/Frozone—complete with the eyebrows and round lips.
  • Bob is a thicc Craig T. Nelson.
  • Helen is redhead Holly Hunter.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Downplayed; Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl (who had been arguing a scene prior) trade smitten "I love you"s after teaming up to beat up a group of Mooks.
• Inspiration Nod: While the powers parallel with the Fantastic Four came about accidentally from the Personality Powers and the "superhero-as-family" parallel was inevitable since the FF codified it, they still gave it a nod by having the final villain The Underminer be a Captain Ersatz of the Fantastic Four's first villain The Mole Man.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: During Mr. Incredible's first mission to stop the Omnidroid on the island, he jumps to the conclusion that this is what caused the robot to go rogue. Ultimately it's a subversion because the Omnidroid was under Syndrome's control the entire time and Mirage never confirms Mr. Incredible's assumption.
• Interface Spoiler: The DVD subtitles reveal the name of Mr. Incredible's mysterious paymaster before he's properly introduced (Mr. Incredible only observes him in shadow at the time and speaks quietly enough to Mirage that he can't hear what's being said, although the subtitles reveal that too, even going as far as saying "Syndrome (faintly)"!)
• Intergenerational Rivalry: Syndrome is in his twenties, while Mr. Incredible is in his forties, and Syndrome has a vendetta against Mr. Incredible and wants to kill him because he's mad about being rejected as Mr. Incredible's sidekick when Syndrome was a kid. It becomes a lot more personal when Syndrome endangers Mr. Incredible's family.
• Interrupted Suicide: Mr. Incredible rescues Oliver Sansweet from committing suicide — in gratitude, Sansweet files a lawsuit against him.
  Sansweet: You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!
• Invisibility: This is one of Violet's two core powers along with being a Barrier Warrior. She can make her body vanish from sight but this ability does not affect her clothing. She requires a special suit from Edna to completely vanish.
  Edna: I finally created a sturdy material that will disappear completely as she does.
• Ironic Echo:
  • "I am your biggest fan" occurs twice in the film with vastly different meanings.
  • Syndrome delivers one in a rather sadistic fashion. After what appears to be the demise of Bob's family at his hands no less, he states that Bob shouldn't have any trouble getting over it, as he recalls that he preferred to "work alone".
  • The idea that people are special from the exchange between Helen and Dash is later mirrored by Syndrome. It is a variation of the trope because the wording is changed from "special" to "super" but there's still an ironic twist.
    Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
    Dash: Which is another way of saying no one is.
    [later]
    Syndrome: Everyone can be super. And when everyone's super... No one will be.
• Ironic Name: Par means "average", which is something the Parrs definitely are not.
• Irony:
  • The opening interviews provide an ironic look into the past and present. In the interview, Mr. Incredible said he wouldn't mind settling down but in the present Bob is pining for the glory days of adventure. Elastigirl scoffed at the idea of domestic life but Helen ends up being content and happy raising a family. Frozone thought the idea of revealing your secret identity in a relationship was amusing, while Lucius is so honest with his wife she knows where to find his supersuit and hide it from him if she needs to.
  • Whilst escaping Syndrome's forces on the island, Bob and Helen discuss what really happened that lead to this moment. At some point during the discussion, Bob reasons he hid the truth because he didn't want Helen to worry. It's not lost on Helen that their situation is dripping with irony: he lied so she wouldn't worry that he lost his job, and now they're worrying more than ever as they run for their lives on Nomanisan Island.
  • Earlier in the movie, Edna explains in hilarious detail how capes can be a dangerous hazard for heroes who are not careful with a Death Montage, which is why she no longer designs superhero costumes with them. In the climax, Syndrome meets his end after his cape gets snagged in a jet turbine. Guess he didn't get the memo.
• Island Base: Syndrome's base of operations is located in Nomanisan Island.
• It Only Works Once: The Omnidroid is a learning robot, and combined with Syndrome's constant upgrades, it's able to defeat superhero after superhero, with anyone who defeats it getting killed by the next model. We even see Mr. Incredible attempting a "jump over the robot" avoidance maneuver twice and being completely thwarted on the second attempt. This is strong reason why Helen waits as long as possible for the Omnidroid to get close to them, so Bob doesn't miss his one and only chance to pierce it with its own rocket claw.
• It's All About Me:
  • Bob wants Dash to make use of his Super-Speed at school instead of suppressing it. Helen accuses Bob of feeling relevant of his son's potential.
  • Syndrome's Evil Plan begins and ends with his ego and personal vengeance. In hindsight, this was probably his real motivation as a child, too; he wanted to be special and save the day. When Bob points out that he killed real heroes just so he could pretend to be one, Syndrome assumes he's talking about his lack of superpowers, not being a mass murderer for the sake of his own ego. It's also telling his plan to make everyone super so no one is once he's had his fun still involves selling them and making money.
• It's All My Fault: With them all taken prisoner by a megalomaniac thanks to Bob's desire to relive his glory days, Bob gives his family the apology they deserve. Helen finds it so meaningful, she even stops Dash from pointing out that Violet is about to set them free.
  Dash: Um, Dad —
  Helen: Shh. Don't interrupt.
• I Work Alone: Said word-for-word by Bob, before raising a family that also had superpowers. Later used by Syndrome to mock Bob in a Kick the Dog moment.
• Jumped at the Call: Mr. Incredible just can't give up superheroing, even when he's supposed to be retired, so naturally he's going to jump at the chance to mangle a rogue robot.
• Just Between You and Me: Lampshaded. Both the heroes and villains dub it "monologuing."
• Karma Houdini:
  • Bomb Voyage gets away with robbing the bank at the beginning of the movie. It's made worse by the fact that he takes advantage of Buddy's interference and puts his life at risk in order to escape.
  • The mugger Bob sees outside the Insuricare building gets away scot-free because Huph threatens to fire Bob if he goes out to stop him.
  • A minor example: Dash gets away with putting thumbtacks on his teacher's chair and undermining him in front of the class scot-free (because even with a hidden camera installed, he ends up moving fast enough to make the teacher look crazy), and it's implied this isn't the first time it's happened.
• Karmic Death: Being an intentional Deconstruction of the superhero genre, the movie uniquely averts having Syndrome die in a manner that is completely his own fault, leaving the heroes blameless. Upon making his escape while threatening that he will eventually abduct Jack-Jack, Bob deliberately tosses his car (ironically paid for by Mirage) into Syndrome's plane, fully intending to do him harm and resulting in Syndrome's death by Turbine Blender.
• Karmic Transformation: It was Mr. Incredible's actions that heralded the temporary end of the superhero age because of unwanted collateral damage and injury that drew public disfavor. Irony abound as he became an insurance claims adjuster 15 years later.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Huph sees a man being beaten and mugged right outside his office window, then smiles and says "Let's hope we don't cover him!" And threatens to fire Bob if he tries to help.
  • Syndrome was willing to call Mr. Incredible's bluff, with Mirage's life on the line, effectively turning her against him. He also did it to Mr. Incredible himself moments after the plane was shot down, throwing his "I work alone" mantra from the old days back at him.
• Kid Sidekick: Buddy wants to become one to Mr. Incredible at the start of the film, but recklessly rushes headfirst into it and comes across as more like The Millstone.
• Killer Robot: The Omnidroids are built with the express purpose of killing heroes.
• Kubrick Stare: Attempted a few times by Syndrome, but it's nothing compared to Bob maintaining the look for the entire sequence with Huph and the robbery outside the building.
• Lampshade Hanging: With the film being a Deconstruction of the superhero genre, there is a lot of attention drawn to popular story elements such as: how villains love to monologue, that The Cape-style heroes don't like killing, or evil people won't hesitate to kill children... among others.
• Landline Eavesdropping: Helen picks up the landline to overhear a conversation between Bob and Mirage. While the two are actually arranging the details for Mr. Incredible's next mission, Helen jumps to the conclusion that Bob is planning an affair.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Both Mr. Incredible and Syndrome are quintessential examples of this trope.
• Large Ham:
  • Edna Mode.
    Edna: DARLING!
  • "I am Syndrome, your nemesis! And... [inadvertently throws Mr. Incredible out of sight] oh, brilliant."
  • The Underminer shows signs of this as well.
    The Underminer: I am beneath you! But NOTHING is beneath ME!!!
    I hereby declare war on PEACE and HAPPINESS!
  • Dash's teacher is a less super-villainous example:
    Teacher: Coincidence? I think NOT!!!!
  • Wallace Shawn, as per usual.
    Huph: PAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!
• Larynx Dissonance:
  • Director Brad Bird voices Edna. This wasn't originally intended, but producers thought his "scratch", or guidance performance, was good enough. This happens frequently at Pixar. According to commentary, Brad Bird initially wanted someone else (Lily Tomlin) to voice Edna Mode. When he called her and gave a demonstration of what he wanted the voice to sound like, she laughed and asked him what he needed her for. He already had the voice down!
  • Played with in the Italian dub (and the French dub as well), where the voice actor is a woman (Amanda Lear) known for her distinctly deep and masculine voice.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Rick Dicker gripes to Bob about "erasing memories" as one of the many cleanup tasks that must be undertaken when he blows his cover. We see this performed on Kari the baby-sitter during the short "Jack-Jack Attack".
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Huph refuses to let Bob stop a mugging going on outside the office. In his fury, Bob throws Huph through a series of walls which lands him in hospital. This gets Bob immediately fired.
  • Mirage encounters a downplayed version. She was fully complicit with Syndrome's Project Kronus that led many supers to their deaths. After her Heel–Face Turn, she frees Mr. Incredible from his restraints only to immediately face his grief-filled wrath that nearly ends her life. She is spared only because she reveals that Mr. Incredible's family is alive and even then she receives a punch in the face from Helen.
  • Syndrome practically begs for it after he fails to kidnap Jack-Jack but instead of escaping, he threatens to go after him again. This gives Bob the time to chuck his car at Syndrome, causing him to get sucked up into his jet's turbine and bringing the villain's ambitions down in a literal fiery crash.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • You know the plot twist at the end of the movie? When Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack? Yeah, it overlaps with the "Jack-Jack Attack" short, and it seems everyone is perfectly willing to discuss it openly.
  • Several people called the Kari phone calls and subsequent Jack-Jack and Syndrome scene a bonus materials deleted scene for the DVD on first viewing of the film. Lo and behold ...
• Lava Adds Awesome:
  • Syndrome's island base includes a dining room with a wall of flowing lava opposite the table for decoration and illumination.
  • When Bob fights his first Omnidroid on Syndrome's island, he is able to drop it into a lava lake and thinks he's won. Cue the robot rising from lava, glowing orange-hot, to continue the fight even more dangerous than before.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid:
  • The wall of flowing lava in the dining room can be parted, opening a path to Syndrome's computer room. The lava flows smoothly through the metal grates that comprise the walkway, leaving no molten rock clinging to the path, and giving off no residual heat.
  • When Mr. Incredible fights the first Omnidroid in the volcano cave, he manages to toss the robot into a pool of lava and thinks he has won. Moments later, it effortlessly climbs out of the lava lake with magma dripping off of it. It emerges with orange-hot armor but cools in seconds (this part might be justified — given how many superheroes have heat vision, fire creation, or any number of powers that would heat or burn an opponent, it makes sense Syndrome would build it out of heat-resistant materials, along with a top-of-the-line cooling system).
• Leave the Camera Running: The entire scene where Bob is blow-drying the books and invents the lie to Helen about going to a company conference consists of a single shot which does nothing but very slowly zoom in on Bob.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Mr. Incredible was understandably outraged by Syndrome's motive.
  Mr. Incredible: You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could... pretend to be one!?
• Life Saving Misfortune:
  • Dash gets in a fight with a mook on a speeding velocipod, then gets punched in the face by the mook after being distracted, knocking him off the vehicle. Turns out the reason Dash was distracted was because he noticed they were speeding right for a cliff ahead, so while he was knocked off, the mook wasn't so lucky and gets caught in the exploding crash.
  • Dash runs through a sea cavern, but is trapped between two velocipods. He runs back and forth trying to escape them, but he had nowhere to run to, causing him to grind to a halt. Because he stopped moving, Dash immediately sinks into the water, which in turn helped him avoid getting smashed between the fast flying velocipods that crashed into each other in a fiery explosion.
• Little "No": Syndrome, when the Parrs successfully defeat the Omnidroid and foil his plan.
• Little Stowaway: Dash and Violet sneak aboard their mother's plane when she flies to the Supervillain Lair. Drama ensues.
• Living Legend: At the start of the story, the supers are all Golden Age heroes and perfectly happy to be celebrities. This quickly bites them in the tush when normals start suing them.
• Logical Weakness: Syndrome is a Gadgeteer Genius and has a variety of inventions that make him very difficult to defeat such as his zero-point energy gauntlets. However, his weapons are designed for short and long range use but not close-quarter combat. In addition, because his devices have to be activated, catching Syndrome by surprise also negates his powerful weapons. This is why Jack-Jack is so successful at getting the better of Syndrome and driving him off. He was already in close-quarters as Syndrome was trying to kidnap him and he catches Syndrome completely off-guard when he starts manifesting a variety of super powers while crawling all over his body.
  • As Frozone points out to Bob as they rescue people from a burning building, he needs either the moisture from his own body or the air to use his powers, so in the current situation of being in a roaring inferno, on top of being dehydrated, all he can do is lay down a thin layer of ice that vanishes just as fast as he can summon it.
• Look Ma, No Plane!: The folly of doing this is shown during the "no capes" montage in which a female hero Stratogale flying by a jetliner and waving at a passenger is sucked into the engine when her cape gets caught.
• Loony Fan: Buddy is hyperactive, over-eager, and completely inexperienced. Mr. Incredible would much prefer his "Biggest Fan" to go somewhere else and stop trying to help.
• Loophole Abuse: Bob uses his intricate knowledge of Insuricare's red tape to help his clients outmaneuver the bureaucracy and get their claims paid.
• Lord Error-Prone: Syndrome when he's trying to be a superhero. It's particularly obvious when the Omnidroid decides Syndrome is a threat and he clearly has no experience on how to deal with the situation when it starts fighting back.
• Mad Bomber: Bomb Voyage.
• Magic Pants: Justified for the four main heroes since they all have custom made suits that are adjusted to their powers. Played with, with Jack-Jack. His diaper does not travel with him when he teleports, however it does remain perfectly intact when he bursts into flames, or transforms into a monster.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: Bob and Helen. Most notably seen when each is trying to infiltrate Nomanisan Island, Bob tends to power his way through obstacles and foes, while Helen relies on her elasticity to avoid detection and fit into places normal people could never get into.
• Mama Bear:
  • When her plane was about to be hit by Syndrome's missiles, Helen stretches herself over Violet and Dash to protect them from the explosion. She also carries Violet to safety after she was knocked out by the Omnidroid dropping on her force field.
  • When Helen, Dash, and Violet are on Syndrome's island, she makes it brutally clear to her kids that supervillains and their Mooks are not like those on Saturday morning cartoons; that they will kill them if they get a chance and implores her kids to use their powers so the bad guys never get that chance.
• Manly Tears: After Syndrome shoots down the plane with Helen and the kids, Bob is left weeping in grief thinking his family is dead.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • The page quotes, as paraphrased by Syndrome later on:
    Syndrome: And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can have powers! Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... [evil laugh] ... no-one will be.
  • "We're superheroes. What could happen?"
  • Helen says "I don't think so!" when rejecting the idea that she should leave the heroics to the men. She repeats the line when Bob insists on saving the day alone.
  • Syndrome reenacts his "I'm your biggest fan" confession to Mr. Incredible as a call back to the time when Syndrome was just an excited boy, who wanted nothing but to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick and who was spurned by his idol and thus turned to evil.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Parr family. "Par" means average or adequate, contrasting with "Incredible."
  • Violet can be taken to refer to ultraviolet light (which is beyond normal human visual acuity and is therefore invisible). Also, a "Shrinking Violet" refers to someone who is very shy or timid, which Violet tends to be until she Takes a Level in Badass.
  • Dash, dashes about.
  • Jack-Jack can be read as a reference to a jack of all trades, which he certainly appears to be.
  • Bob. He's Bob. It's an incredibly normal, average name. However, it also means "bright fame".
  • Helen, for the Greeks, was the famed beauty whose elopement caused a war, and she proves to be the core of Bob's life. When he thinks she and the kids are dead, he becomes willing to kill in cold blood.
  • Syndrome is Buddy "Pine", as in "I cry because I can't be your friend." In addition, he has the same initials as Mr. Incredible: Bob Parr and Buddy Pine. He also has a bad case of hero's syndrome.
  • Edna Mode: 'Mode' means 'fashion' in several languages.
  • Frozone's name is Lucius Best and he's Bob's best friend and was Best Man at his wedding to Helen.
  • Mirage is not what she appears to be at first glance.
  • Nomanisan Island (No man is an island), which ties into the film's themes of teamwork and family. Attempted in the Spanish translation, where the island is known as Isla Palos Locos ("Crazy Sticks Island", but can also be read as Isla Pa'los Locos, "Island for the Crazy").
  • In Gazerbeam's civilian identity, Simon J. Paladino, "Simon" means "he has heard" and "paladino" is Italian for "paladin", both referencing his role as not only a super, but an active advocate for superhero rights in his civilian life.
  • Thunderhead was apparently The Ditz. His superhero name is a play on "dunderhead", a generic term for someone stupid.
  • The Underminer appears right on cue to try and undermine the happy ending that the Parr family have earned themselves by demonstrating that there are still active supervillains.
  • Syndrome's evil plan is titled Kronos; in Greek mythology, Cronus was the lord of the Titans, father of Zeus and his siblings. He was killed in the Titanomachy; the war in which the gods overthrew the Titans and took over the heavens. Syndrome is looking to overthrow the heroes and take their place as the new hero.
• Mechanical Animals: The film features a robot parrot that looks just like a real one, but detects people and asks for a "voice key". If it's incorrect, the bird will sound an alarm.
• The Men in Black: Rick Dicker of the National Supers Agency is a world-weary version.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Syndrome engages in some of this during his initial confrontation with Mr. Incredible, with the help of a Tractor Beam. However, it shuts off on its own after only a few bashes, sending Mr. Incredible flying off into the distance instead.
• Mid-Life Crisis Car: It's no coincidence that one of the first things Bob does when he starts earning more money through covert superhero work is buy himself a flashy and impractical new sports car.
• Militaries Are Useless: At the end, when the Giant Omnidroid attacks some random cities, the army's response is basically "send some guys to attack it with tanks and sub-machine guns, then run!"
• Military Alphabet: The plane Elastigirl flies to get to Syndrome's base has the tail number "India Golf Niner Niner", a reference to The Iron Giant, another animated film by Brad Bird that was released in 1999.
• Milking the Giant Cow:
  • Bob's Mean Boss Mr. Huph uses some very animated hand movements to emphasize his points to Bob, like in the moment when he says "We're supposed to help OUR people!!!" in which he does the "Italian hand gesture" with both hands.
  • Syndrome does this with hilarious results as he wears an Arm Cannon shooting a beam of energy that suspends his target in mid-air.
    Syndrome: I am Syndrome! Your nemesis! And... [throws his arms up, hurling Mr. Incredible out of sight] Oh, brilliant.
  • Later, Syndrome stops a fuel truck falling on a woman and her child. Once again he does his dramatic introduction, sending the fuel truck flying over his shoulder where it explodes in a ball of flame.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: When the Parrs fight together against Syndrome's Mooks.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Helen believes Bob is cheating on her with Mirage due to his odd working hours, sudden interest in working out and a platinium blonde hair on his dress suit. When Mirage turns to their side, Helen catches her holding Bob and immediately sucker punches her for her assumed infidelity.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Syndrome does a great deal to push Mirage along.
• Mommy Mobile: Helen drives a white and gray station wagon when she picks up Dash and Violet from their respective schools. Later, Bob buys her a new red one.
• Monster Protection Racket: Syndrome's plan: After the development and testing of the Omnidroid prototypes has killed off most of the real superheroes, Syndrome then unleashes the ultimate version upon the city so he can use the attack to appear as the city's savior. Unfortunately, he made his machine a bit too clever...
• Mood Lighting: After the superheroes are outlawed, the movie gains a depressing, desaturated look with a grey-ish color palette, which ends the moment Bob's superhero calling returns upon seeing a mugging outside Huph's office. After getting fired, Bob begins his journey to become Mr. Incredible again and the world around him becomes more warm and vibrant, akin to the atmosphere of the Glory Days opening scene.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • It's a fun, action movie about superheroes... until you see the dead ones.
  • After The Incredibles as a family team have succeeded in taking down the giant Omnidroid that was threatening the city, they are basking in a job well done while being shuttled home in limo provided by Agent Dicker. The festive mood is shattered as Helen encounters Kari's voice messages growing in panic, but in her last message she returns to her normal chipper and friendly tone and says thanks for sending a replacement (who turns out to be Syndrome).
    Elastigirl: Replacement?! I didn't call a replacement!
• Mook–Face Turn: Mirage switches sides after Syndrome shows how little value he places on her life.
• Mooks: Syndrome has a bunch on them on his island serving as guards and monitoring operations.
• Mugging the Monster: Kidnapping a sleeping baby should be as easy as stealing candy from a baby. At least, that's what Syndrome assumes at the end of the movie. But then Jack-Jack wakes up and realizes he's a few feet off the ground, being separated from his family. Cue him throwing a toddler tantrum... and activating his super powers. Thanks to the element of surprise and being The Unfettered, he forces Syndrome to drop him just in time for Elastigirl to catch her son.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: As expected from a Pixar film; superhero fun action for the kids and stuff that their parents would get.
• Mundane Utility:
  • The Parrs' home life in a nutshell — Helen and Bob apply their superpowers to household chores, best demonstrated by Bob absentmindedly lifting a couch off the floor for Helen to extend her arms to vacuum under it.
  • Inverted in one brief scene, when Helen realizes (much to her chagrin) that in spite all the cool stuff that she can do with her stretching powers... she can't control the size of her butt.

Tropes N to S

• The Napoleon: Huph, Bob's boss at Insuracare. He clearly gets a buzz out of humiliating the extremely tall Bob and forcing him to comply with his authority.
• Narrating the Obvious: "The remote controls the robot!" Justified in that the audience knows it but Violet and Dash did not know about the remote and she was telling him.
• Neck Lift:
  • Mr. Incredible loses his temper and grabs the neck of his obnoxious boss at the insurance company, then throws him through several walls.
  • He does it again with Mirage. He's taken a few lessons from the bad guys, apparently.
• Necktie Leash: Helen does this during the Good-Times Montage. She grabs Bob by his tie and drags him back into the house to kiss him.
• Never Heard That One Before:
  Bob: ICE of you to drop by!
  Lucius: HAH! ...Never heard that one before....
• Never My Fault: Syndrome's motivation falls kind of flat when you realize that even though Mr. Incredible told him he worked alone, Buddy had distracted him repeatedly, let Bomb Voyage escape, and had nearly gotten killed because he repeatedly tried to "help". He later blames them for the derailing of his Evil Plan even though it was his own fault for not considering what his Omnidroid might do and fleeing when it turned against him since he had no real experience as a superhero. This is not exactly an uncommon flaw in supervillains.
• Never Say "Die": Initially played straight as Syndrome's computer lists his test subjects as "TERMINATED". Powerfully subverted when Helen makes it very clear to her children that the bad guys will kill them if given a chance.
• Never Trust a Title: A minor case, but Mr. Incredible is the only character who gets the name "Incredible".
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Like other trailers for Pixar films (specifically the teasers), the teaser trailer is basically a sketch that doesn't appear in the film, but the trailer is also deliberately misleading in that it changes all the memorabilia in Bob's office to indicate that he has always worn the red Mr. Incredible suit, as opposed to the blue one.
  • Another theatrical trailer also shows the superheroes from E's "no capes!" montage... and cuts away right before they all die.
• Newscaster Cameo: In the French version, the voice over the news covering the events leading to the Super Registration Act is provided by veteran news anchor Patrick Poivre D'Arvor.
• Newspaper Backstory: Mr. Incredible keeps a bulletin board full of clippings from his superhero days.
• N.G.O. Superpower: Syndrome controls an entire private island with access to at least dozens of mooks with automatic weapons and a sophisticated base of operations. He also has extensive advanced military technology including hovercrafts and military jets — all before even getting to the Omnidroids. It's safe to assume his enterprise is worth billions of dollars. Justified, as Syndrome built his massive fortune by selling advanced weapon technology to foreign nations.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
  • Bob saves Oliver Sansweet as well as several train passengers, only for them to sue over their collective injuries, opening the floodgates to a bunch of lawsuits that drive superheroes out of business. Congratulations to Buddy also for starting the whole mess while trying to help his hero.
  • Edna installs a homing device in Bob's suit without warning him of its existence. Helen then activates the homing device at the worst possible time, alerting Syndrome to his presence.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • After Mr. Incredible throws out his back in his first fight against Syndrome's Omnidroid, the robot's attempt to pull him apart ends up popping it back into alignment and a Curb-Stomp Battle ensues.
  • A part of Syndrome's plan involves bringing Mr. Incredible out of retirement in order to kill him, ends up inspiring him to get back into shape making him a more formidable opponent for stopping Syndrome's later plan.
  • Syndrome's plan of attacking the city with a giant Omnidroid ended up causing the immediate public to give praise and applause to "The Incredibles" and Frozone for saving them which is the exact opposite of what he wanted.
  • The mook that punches Dash off his velocipod ends up saving Dash's life, because seconds later the velocipod crashes into a cliff.
  • Before stopping Syndrome, the Parrs were really dissatisfied with their lives and had a challenging family dynamic. After beating him, they become much closer and have newfound levels of confidence.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Universal Man (as seen in the DVD features) bears a strong resemblance and similar accent to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Syndrome reveals himself to be an old fan of Mr. Incredible turned supervillain.
• No Flow in CGI:
  • With one exception particular to this film: Violet's long hair required Pixar's engineers to write advanced custom software to get it right, and was one of the first challenges they tackled when making the film, since they knew they would need as much time as they could get to cope with unforeseen problems.
  • The commentary discusses a scene where Edna reaches her hand through Incredible's old super suit and out the hole in the sleeve. It was not an easy task for the animators.
  • The creators also expressed their exasperation in the commentary for the scene where Elastigirl and the kids fall into the ocean. Not only does it involve water and the aforementioned Violet's long hair, combining those two creates long, underwater hair, which behaves rather differently from dry hair.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • Mr. Incredible saves Oliver Sansweet from jumping to his death and Sansweet sues him. The lawsuit is upheld by the "superior court" which opens the floodgates for other superhero lawsuits. This eventually forces all supers to have to retire from hero work and take on normal identities.
  • Mr. Incredible also saved Buddy's life when Bomb Voyage strapped a bomb to his cape. However, not only does Buddy never thank him or acknowledge his wrongdoings, he grows up to become the supervillain Syndrome, killing dozens of superheroes and attempting to kill Mr. Incredible and his family.
• No-Harm Requirement: When Mirage hires Mr. Incredible to recover an Omnidroid that has gone rogue, the cover story is that, because of the large investment that went into the robot, he is supposed to shut it down without destroying it. However, the real purpose of this requirement is to give the Omnidroid more opportunity to engage with Mr. Incredible so it can learn how to defeat him and kill him if possible.
• Nominal Hero: Gamma Jack (the hero who destroyed Omnidroid 5), according to the NSA audio files. He prioritizes who he rescues according to their attractiveness (good-looking women get immediate attention), he doesn't care about how much collateral damage he inflicts, and is willing to use lethal force against a villain (although the attractive female ones cause him a little regret). This cavalier attitude along with being prone to tyrannical / megalomaniacal impulses and his belief that Supers are a superior race, led to the NSA recommending close A-Level monitoring.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: After Mr. Incredible defeats the first Omnidroid, Syndrome invites him to dinner. On the second flight to the island, he's provided with prawns in cocktail sauce and mimosa cocktails.
• No One Should Survive That!: At one point Mr. Incredible tears off one of the monorail pods used for transportation on Syndrome's base and throws it at two Mooks. Despite the camera shot showing a direct hit, instead of being crushed, the two guards are merely shown unconscious next to the pod in the following scene.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Explicitly averted because it is shown that Syndrome keeps his plans on his computer and put his Omnidroid through many prototypes so each new version could terminate whichever superhero beat the old version.
• No-Sell:
  • A quick moment when Mr. Incredible throws a rock at the Omnidroid, and it doesn't do anything. It promptly begins chucking boulders at him.
  • Another moment is when the army in the city attempts to use weapons at the Omnidroid having no effect.
  • Frozone attempts to freeze parts of the Omnidroid in the climax to stop it. He first gets thrown onto a car, and then, when he freezes one of the Omnidroid's claws, it simply breaks the ice and carries on.
• No Sense of Personal Space: When Bob is in Huph's office and sees the mugging outside, Huph realizes Bob isn't paying attention, grabs Bob's chin and turns Bob's head to face him, telling Bob, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, Parr!"
• Not a Game: Helen makes the gravity of their situation very clear to Violet and Dash on their first night on the island.
  Helen: Remember the bad guys, on those shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys are not like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They. Will. Kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance.
• Not Good with Rejection: We see that after Mr. Incredible refuses to take on Buddy as his sidekick, Buddy's world collapses leading to hate and resentment toward Mr. Incredible and his own transformation into the supervillain, Syndrome.
• Not Now, Kiddo: A Downplayed Example. When Bob is having his epiphany that his obsession with his Glory Days kept him from being a good father, Helen keeps Dash from interrupting when he tries to point out that Violet is about to free them.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Played With. At the beginning, Mr. Incredible stops Sansweet by intercepting him mid-fall and sending them both crashing through a window. Although Sansweet survives, he reveals himself to be in great pain and that something had probably broken. Later Sansweet is revealed to be in a full neck-brace and he sues Mr. Incredible for it. At the end of the movie when catching a falling Jack-Jack, Elastigirl stretches her arms out to slow down his velocity and gently pull him toward her, before turning into a parachute.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Bob and Lucius rescue people from a burning building and rush into the next building, only to find they're now in a jewelry store and accidentally set the alarms off. To make matters worse, they are wearing ski masks, the police are outside and the people they rescued now look like hostages. Lampshaded by Lucius just before the cop bursts in: "We look like bad guys! Incompetent bad guys!"
  • Mirage tells Bob his family survived Syndrome's missiles, and Bob is so grateful for the news that he gives Mirage a great big hug — and right at that moment, Helen, who fears Bob was having an affair, walks in to rescue him.
• Nuclear Family: The protagonists; two parents, two kids (boy and girl) and a new baby.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Bob has blown his cover again and was fired from his job but hasn't told Helen yet. However, she senses Bob's distraction at home, and tries to cheer him up by telling him how much it means to her that he's been working hard to support their family despite finding his job frustrating and missing being a superhero. Bob attempts to come clean about being fired but chokes at the last second and shifts to a story about him being sent away to a conference which gives him the cover needed to accept the job offer from Mirage.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Huph.
  Huph: They're penetrating the bureaucracy!
  
  Bob Parr: Are you saying we shouldn't help our customers?!
  Huph: The law requires that I answer "No."
• Offhand Backhand: Elastigirl punches out a mook on the roof when he is about to shoot Mr. Incredible. When the mook comes round, she knocks him out again with one of these.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Mr. Incredible gets one in the bank early on when he hears the beeping sound speed up and realizes the wall is about to blow up. He leaps away as the explosion occurs.
  • Dash in the principal's office when his teacher reveals he was caught on camera. Despite this, he still gets away with it.
  • Bob when he realizes he and Lucius have escaped from the burning building into a jewelry store, right before accidentally setting the alarms off.
  • Bob gives this reaction when he gives Helen the slip of doing some heroic action under the guise of bowling with Lucius.
  • Also Bob's reaction just after he loses his temper and punches Huph through the wall— he realizes he's just blown his superhero cover and he's going to get fired. Also, Huph's reaction when Bob grabs him around the throat right before that happens.
  • Bob has one a little after that when the secret message Mirage delivered him announces that it will self-destruct in his trophy room.
  • Bob has one later just before the second Omnidroid grabs him and tosses him around like a rag doll.
  • Bob has another one when he tries to escape from Syndrome by jumping into a waterfall and the latter sends a bomb after him.
  • Bob has yet another one when Helen activates his homing device at the worst possible time, causing him to be captured.
  • Bob had another reaction later when a transmission of Helen requesting landing at Nomanisan plays and Syndrome orders missiles to be fired at the plane. Then again by Bob in the same scene, when Helen mentions that there are children on board the plane. Mirage shares this reaction. Then Helen has one when she realizes the missiles are going to hit the plane.
  • Dash has one in the cave sequence when Syndrome launches his rocket and a jet of fire hurtles towards him.
  • Dash and Violet once the island's alarms are tripped, alerting the security of their presence.
  • Dash and mook: Dash sees the velocipod he's on is going to hit a wall and lets himself get punched away from it... the mook realizes seconds later but is not quick enough.
  • The Mook in the trailer gets a good one right before Mr. Incredible goes to town on his whole squad.
  • Syndrome gets a massive one when the Omnidroid goes haywire and turns against him after shooting the remote controlling it off his arm, making him try to flee to no avail.
  • Violet when she sees the Omnidroid's claw about to come down on the van with her and Dash inside it. They manage to escape before the van is crushed.
  • Mr. Incredible when, after he saves Violet and Dash from being crushed by the Omnidroid, he realises a claw is about to grab him out from underneath it. He then gets thrown through an office window.
  • Mr. Incredible gets one when the Omnidroid notices him with Syndrome's remote and promptly stomps on him.
  • Syndrome has numerous ones when he attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack: first when Jack-Jack sets himself on fire, then when Jack-Jack turns metal and weighs him down, then when Jack-Jack turns into a demonic imp and tries to throttle him before damaging his rocket boots, then when Bob throws a car at him, and finally, when he's about to be minced by the jet turbine.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Bob Parr, father of a teenager, and Syndrome, still a young man.
• Older Than They Look: Dash is actually 9 years old.
• Old Superhero: As a minor theme: Both Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible notice themselves getting out of shape, and Mr. Incredible puts himself through personal training to become physically fit again.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Mr. Incredible is subdued in Syndrome's Supervillain Lair by dozens of unremovable "balloons" of black goo that expand and completely engulf him.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Briefly before fighting the Omnidroid, Bob tells Helen to stay back to protect the kids. She thinks he's trying to prove something, when really he's still reeling from their near deaths earlier and is simply scared for their safety.
• Only One Female Mold: A subtle background example. Edna Mode's design studio has three body type mannequins to model her clothes on: huge buff dude, medium-sized buff dude, and Impossible Hourglass Figure.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Helen picks up the phone and hears Bob speaking to a woman she doesn't know, but misses the part of the conversation about Bob getting a new assignment and only hears his eagerness to leave in the morning to meet with her. The whole conversation might have clued her in that Bob was actually doing secret superhero work again. Instead, Bob's recently changed behavior which includes him buying a new sports car and getting in shape as well as Helen having just found a long, blond hair on his tuxedo leads her to the conclusion that Bob is cheating on her.
• Out of Focus: Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack disappear for twenty minutes of the film about halfway through the training montage, and don't appear again until Helen finds out where Bob is and decides to go after him.
• Out of the Frying Pan:
  • Bob and Lucius escape from a burning building with people they rescued into a jewelry store and accidentally set the alarm off, making it appear like they're in the process of robbing it.
  • In trying to get away from the first Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible throws himself further into the volcano and nearly falls into the magma when the Omnidroid almost pushes him in.
• Outrun the Fireball: Dash had to use his Super-Speed to get himself and Violet safely out of the cave when Syndrome launched his rocket.
• Overly Long Gag: Played With because it is both a hilarious and suspenseful scene; while Elastigirl is sneaking around the base, her leg gets stuck in a keycard door. The problem is that due to her powers, she gets stuck and tethered in one place. She then attempts to steal a keycard from a guard walking away, only for another door to close around her midsection. At that point she quietly snorts in frustration. A third guard spots her, and she knocks them out with one fist; another guard seals the door on her arm, thinking he'll be safe. She still punches him and gets the card, just as another retinue runs into her and tries to detain her.
• Papa Wolf: Bob Parr, despite being The Cape, is willing to kill to protect his family as Syndrome discovers. During the climactic robot fight, we see him summon a tremendous amount of strength to protect Dash and Violet from being crushed by a full body slam of the giant Omnidroid. When he thinks his family has been killed, after he's done weeping, he's willing to kill in cold blood.
• Parental Bonus:
  • The instances of Helen dragging Bob back into the house after he shaped up. Most obvious one, the scene where only her arms are to be seen and Bob is laughing and eagerly going back inside...
  • Honey, Frozone's wife, makes it very clear who wears the pants in their relationship.
    [while Syndrome's robot is attacking the city]
    Frozone: We are talking about the greater good!
    Honey: Greater good? I am your wife! I am the greatest GOOD you are EVER going to get!
• Parents as People: Bob tries to be a good parent to Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack, but his yearning for the glory days has caused him to be distant. He even admits towards the end that his being trapped in the past made him a lousy father. It's shown that despite his mistakes, the kids still love their dad and forgive him. Helen also struggles, though she's more happily settled into the life of normal mother, when she gets back into the work of a super, she has to wrestle with being a mother and keeping her temper with Dash and Vi.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Mr. Incredible unexpectedly comes face-to-face with the mortal remains of Gazerbeam while on the run from Syndrome.
• Personality Powers: Violet, the shy and insecure teenager, can become invisible and project shields. Hot-headed and high-spirited Dash has super speed. Nigh-Invulnerable Bob has immense stubbornness and a big heart to go with his Super-Strength. Helen is very adaptable and capable of great multitasking and organization.
• Petty Childhood Grudge: Syndrome became a villain because he didn't get to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick at the age of 10. This is Played for Drama, considering he also became a Serial Killer who has slowly been killing off the other superheroes, including several of Mr. Incredible's old friends and associates.
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: When Syndrome sends missiles to shoot down Helen's plane, Bob promises to do anything Syndrome says; however, Syndrome retorts that it's "fifteen years" too late for that.
• Plot-Sensitive Button: Syndrome's remote only has four buttons and while they all have some effect on the giant Omnidroid, their exact effect varies during the final battle. Sometimes it does nothing, other times it jettisons individual limbs, ignites jet thrusters, controls a specific detached claw, and so forth as needed by the plot.
• Political Correctness Is Evil: When Bob comes home after saving some civilians from a fire, Helen tells him that the next day is Dash's graduation from 4th grade to 5th, which Bob dismisses as dumb. When Helen calls him out on it, he insists: "It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity!"
• Politically Correct History: The Ambiguous Time Period of the film pins most of the movie somewhere 20 Minutes into the Future to The '60s or The '70s, both before and after the Time Skip. With this in mind, the movie leaves out a lot of the Values Dissonance the time period would have had. Female superheroes and heroes of color seem to hold equal standing with their white/male counterparts, with no preferential treatment ever being stated or implied either by the public or by the NSA. Edna Mode — a non-conventionally attractive, biracial Japanese-German woman — is fabulously wealthy and has a standing both in the public and private sector in both an America and Europe right after the heels of World War II. The closest to we see to any Deliberate Values Dissonance is in Mr. Incredible and Pals, where Frozone is given equal billing to the rabbit sidekick and is portrayed by a white actor and speaks in painfully dated jive, something the real Frozone understandably finds offensive.
• Poor Communication Kills: The main reason project Kronos worked is because the various Supers stopped keeping tabs on each other and the NSA was not particularly diligent in keeping track of the underground Supers over the past 15 years. During the scene where Bob is reviewing the list of Supers terminated during project Kronos, upwards of twenty heroes were listed. That means that twenty Supers disappeared over the course of ten iterations of Omnidroids without raising any alarms or concerns among the hero community or within the government organization chartered with monitoring them.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: The family defeats Syndrome's giant Omnidroid and are heading home; when they arrive, they find out that Syndrome is abducting their youngest child, Jack-Jack, so they must rescue him and defeat Syndrome himself this time.
• P.O.V. Sequel: The short "Jack-Jack Attack" chronicles the misadventures of Kari the babysitter as Jack-Jack begins manifesting his superpowers and explains why she was leaving all the frantic voicemails that Helen was shown listening to.
• The Power of Family: Along with being a Super Family Team, it's repeatedly shown that seeing each other at risk or harmed brings out the best in them. Violet being willing to use herself as a Human Shield to protect her brother Dash allows her to awaken her Force Field powers, Jack-Jack being taken away from his family by Syndrome unlocks his huge array of abilities.
• Power Perversion Potential:
  • Explicitly shown in one scene, where Helen uses her elastic arms to pinch her husband's butt from across the room. In addition, a rubbery woman is the least likely for Bob to accidentally crush with his strength during moments of passion.
  • One of the newspaper headlines during the anti-super montage implies that a hero with X-Ray vision might have been using his power to be a "peeping tom".
• Power-Strain Blackout: When the Omnidroid overloads Violet's force fields by pounding on it with its full weight, it knocks her out for several seconds.
• Product Placement: Frozone uses Hai Karate aftershave — a real-life 1960s brand.
• Prophetic Names: Dashiell Robert Parr, nicknamed "Dash". who is a speedster.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Although dangerous and murderous, Syndrome can be a very silly man; he's immature, excitable, petulant, irresponsible, prone to mood swings, obsessed with his gadgets and "toys", and spiteful. His entire motivation stems from an admittedly wounding and hurtful but still relatively minor slight he suffered when he was a child.
• Punched Across the Room: When Huph pushes Bob's sense of justice to his Rage Breaking Point, he grabs Huph in a Neck Lift and then throws him across his office and through several walls. Since Huph is a normal middle manager who is not Made of Iron, he ends up in the hospital with a full-body cast and neck-brace.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Dash uses his speed to deliver a lot of blows to a Mook with virtually no effect; the latter then punches Dash off of his Velocipod with one blow. A Downplayed Example because the "uh oh" part didn't come from Dash realizing the mook was shrugging off his punches, but rather he saw the velocipod was heading straight toward a cliff.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!
  Helen: THIS IS NOT! ABOUT! YOU!
  
  Edna: PULL! YOURSELF! TOGETHER!
  
  Dash: DON'T! TOUCH! MY! SISTER!
  
  Lucius: WHERE! IS! MY! SUPER! SUIT?!
• Punny Name:
  • Bomb Voyage (bon voyage, bomb).
  • Nomanisan Island (No man is an island).
  • Thunderhead ("Dunderhead", which suits his low linguistic intelligence).
  • A meta-example, the "Incredits" track of The Incredibles soundtrack. A portmanteau of the movie's title, The Incredibles, and the word "End Credits", where the track is heard in the movie.
  • From the soundtrack, "Lithe or Death" when Helen has to use her powers to sneak into Syndrome's headquarters.
• Quit Your Whining: When Helen learns that Bob is not at a company retreat like he said, her anxiety about him having an affair causes her to break down crying and feeling like it's all her fault. Edna attempts to be supportive while rolling her eyes at Helen's breakdown. However her last nerve breaks when Helen moans "What'll I do?", leading to Edna delivering a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man moment.
  Edna: What are you talking about? You are Elastigirl! My God! Pull yourself together!
• Race Lift: Frozone in the special features' Clutch Cargo knockoff cartoon. He is furious about it.
  Frozone: Wait a second, what's this? Is that me?... I'm white! They made me a white guy?
  Mr. Incredible: You're... You're... black...ish...
  Frozone: They made me a white guy!
  Mr. Incredible: Well... Maybe the print's faded. You're tan. ...-ish?
  Frozone: Wait, wait, wait. Is that supposed to be me? I sound like a, a... a what? A beatnik! Yeah, that's it, I sound like a beatnik!
  Mr. Incredible: It was meant to sound cool!
  Frozone: Well, it doesn't sound cool, and it doesn't sound like me. I sound cool. And if it sounded like me, it would sound cool.
• Raised by Rival: Attempted; Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack at the end of the film, declaring his intention to rear him as a sidekick. However, his plan is thwarted in short order.
• Rage Breaking Point: When Bob spots a mugging in progress and tries leaving Huph's office to help, he's ordered to stand down or lose his job. Bob relents, barely containing himself, but when Huph can't resist pushing his sense of justice, that's when Bob snaps and throws Huph through several walls.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Dash is surprised (and quite happy) when he discovers he can use superspeed for machine gun punching. Unfortunately, as a 9-year-old boy, he doesn't have much strength or mass behind those punches and the mook is able to shake them off.
• Reckless Sidekick: IncrediBoy is shown to be completely unwilling to take "no" for an answer and walks right into a superhero/supervillain confrontation with no consideration for the risks involved in doing so.
• Reconstruction: While it has Deconstructive elements, it also turns the Tropes around, such as switching traits with heroes and villains, as well as correcting past mistakes.
• Red Is Heroic: The family's new costumes, by Edna Mode, are red.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Mostly averted. Even though it takes place in what appears to be the 1960s, there are several examples of anachronistic technology, such as a TV/VCR combo in the principal's office, which could be construed as the general tech level being raised by the presence of super-tech in the setting. Also, there are non-supers with access to gear we don't have today, such as the Gadgeteer Genius characters Edna Mode and Syndrome.
• Refused by the Call: Buddy wants to step up as "IncrediBoy!", but Mr. Incredible is not interested.
• Rejected Apology: When Mr. Incredible apologizes for treating him badly as a child, Syndrome immediately turns it down.
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The film shows that Bob and Helen's marriage has been on the rocks for quite some time due to Bob's obsession with the Glory Days causing him to miss out on time with his family as well as causing them to uproot many times when he blows cover. It had gotten to the point where Helen began to believe Bob's new more positive change in attitude as a result of his secret return to superhero work was the result of him having an affair. After defeating Syndrome, they have reconciled and had a much happier marriage by the end.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Syndrome briefly believes the bomb he dropped on Mr. Incredible had succeeded in killing him because the scanner drone he sent down to survey the aftermath reported... "Life Reading Negative. Mr. Incredible terminated."
• The Resenter: After Mr. Incredible refuses to take on Buddy as his sidekick, Buddy's world collapses leading to hate and resentment toward Mr. Incredible and his transformation into the supervillan, Syndrome.
• Retired Badass:
  • Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible. For a while. She adapts pretty well, he's not so happy about it.
  • Edna, who is apparently doing ordinary fashion design with shows in Milan when Bob comes to see her. She leaps at the chance to design for "gods" again.
• Retraux: The interviews at the beginning are on a smaller screen with various artifacts, designed to make the footage look older. This contrasts with the smooth "15 years later" look of most of the film.
• Retro Rocket: Syndrome's rocket resembles retrofuturistic concepts of rockets with giant fins (considering it takes place in a 1960s-esque setting), although it has a re-entry/glider stage that separates from an expendable booster, and doesn't land vertically.
• Revenge Before Reason: After The Incredibles destroy the Omnidroid, Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack just as they arrive home saying he'll turn him into a proper sidekick. Fortunately Jack-Jack's superpowers emerge in time to force Syndrome to abandon the kidnapping. He manages to safely reach his hovering jet, but instead of taking the clean get-away afforded him, Syndrome can't resist shouting defiantly that he will get his revenge and kidnap Jack-Jack eventually. This gives Mr. Incredible the time to throw his car at the jet and ending Syndrome's threat once and for all.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible flirt over who got dibs on a criminal, with her teasing him about his I Work Alone policy. She suggests that he ought to look for something "more flexible" while wrapping herself around him, and Mr. Incredible seems to rebuff her. A few minutes later, he arrives late to his own wedding... where she is the bride. It turns out they were just enjoying a few minutes together before the big event, rather than engaging in Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. A rewatch makes this scene a lot funnier.
  • The first time Mirage is seen is when she's observing Bob and Lucius preforming their undercover hero work, where she notes that "the fat one is still with him." Combined with the later scene revealing that Syndrome know's Frozone's whereabouts, on a second viewing it becomes apparent that Frozone was meant to be Syndrome's newest test subject for the Omnidroid before finding out that "the fat one" was in fact Mr. Incredible and they changed plans.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Bernie, the teacher, does it with a video in an attempt to prove Dash is putting tacks in his chair.
• Romantic Rain: Parodied when Bob and Helen kiss while a garden hose sprays water over them.
• Romantic Ribbing: During their first on-screen patrol, Elastigirl (Helen) tells Mr. Incredible (Bob) that he needs to be more... flexible (which she helpfully demonstrates by stretching through his legs). Later, during their wedding, Bob repeats her words back to her when she tries to chide him on being late to the ceremony.
• Rousseau Was Right: Syndrome is the only real antagonist in the film but he was torn after constantly being rejected by his childhood hero and had to suffer trauma later on.
• Rubber Man: This is Elastigirl's core power. She uses her powers with a great deal of creativity and, as she infiltrates Syndrome's headquarters, she shows just how effective this type of power can be when stealth is required.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the first act, the film crams Bob into small spaces to symbolice how powerless he is and how confined he is by "normal" life. His cubicle is tiny, his car is tiny. He's trapped.
• Running Gag:
  • While on his way to his wedding, one crime after another pops up on Mr. Incredible's radar. He always checks his watch and declares, "I (still) got time." and goes off on more heroics.
  • The neighborhood kid on the bike, after seeing Bob lift his car overhead, keeps hoping to see something thrilling occur each time Bob returns home. One of Bob's returns fails to deliver, but he's present for the monumental house explosion at the climax of the film.
    Kid: That was totally wicked!
• Safely Secluded Science Center: Syndrome has an Elaborate Underground Base concealed in a volcano on Nomanisan Island and uses it as a testing ground for the Omnidroid series.
• Sassy Black Woman: Frozone's wife sasses him about his super suit. Presumably, she's black, but we never see her face.
• The Scrappy: Invoked in-universe. The alternate DVD featured an old-timey, intentionally-bad cartoon of Mr. Incredible and Frozone complete with their riffing commentary, and in it, they find particular vitriol for Mr. Skipperdoo.
• Say My Name: Huph yells "Parr!" to get Bob's attention after the latter helps Mrs. Hogenson claim her insurance.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Syndrome when Jack-Jack goes demon-baby and pulls out his hair. Also, just as he's about to die. Foreshadowed when Syndrome is taunting Mr. Incredible at his island base.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Mr. Incredible continues to do superhero work for the public even if it’s illegal and behind Helen’s back.
• Secret Identity: Mr. Incredible mentions his during the interview in the opening ("Of course, every super has one"); also played with at Bob and Helen Parr's wedding, attended by a number of supers... in costume.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Played with. Bob's sense of loyalty and justice does seem to make him seduction proof as even the serious attention of Mirage after his victory against the Omnidroid leads to nothing more than flirtatious banter. However, the film does show that his yearning for the glory days has caused him to grow detached from Helen and the kids so that when Helen finds an Affair Hair on his jacket and learns that he lied about being fired, she does believe there's a real chance he's having an affair. Fortunately, Bob's character growth after experiencing the "death" of his family knocks him out of his funk and reaffirms his dedication, but for a while, Helen has some valid concern.
• Self-Serving Memory: When Syndrome relives his memory of being turned away as a sidekick, he recalls that Mr. Incredible was alone, faced him, and rejected him with a tone and posture that was dismissive and condescending. In the actual event, Mr. Incredible had already made it clear Buddy had gone too far with his fanboying and made the rejection over his shoulder because he was busy dealing with Bomb Voyage and genuinely worried about Buddy's safety. This makes Syndrome's Never My Fault mentality pretty clear.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Strongly implied during the Good-Times Montage. Helen suggestively pulls Bob back into the house while in her dressing gown and a later scene has her stretching her arms from off-screen (implying that she's not wearing anything) to pull Bob back in after he's walking out the front door. Not to mention him laughing and eagerly going back in both times!
• Shoot Out the Lock: When her body is trapped between several doors, Helen kicks a mook, causing him to spray bullets everywhere. A couple hit the locking mechanism and release it.
• Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Syndrome manages to reach his escape jet but can't resist one last threat to Mr. Incredible as he says that he'll get his son eventually. Mr. Incredible is having none of this and tosses his car at the plane, destroying the cockpit and knocking Syndrome into the jet's turbine which leads to a full plane explosion.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Shown Their Work: Helen's radio-speak is realistic. In the commentary Brad Bird points out how Mark Andrews wrote the script using military language used in emergencies, and that Helen's voice actor (Holly Hunter) insisted on knowing exactly what everything she was saying meant.
  • "VFR on top" indicates she is flying in the regime of Visual Flight Rules "on top" of a cloud cover.
  • She then requests vectors to the "initial", the initial landing approach.
  • "Angels 10" is her altitude call — ten thousand feet.
  • "Track east" is her current direction of travel from her current position.
  • Her "buddy-spiked" mayday is US Air Force code, as a warning not to fire, given to an aircraft who has radar lock on a friendly — in this case, Helen was referring to the missiles she thought were fired by friendlies.
  • "Transmitting in the Blind Guard" is a call on the emergency frequency where 2-way communication has not been established.
  • When repeating information, the proper protocol is "say again" which she does once when she announces there are children on board her plane. However, as the missiles get closer and the tension mounts, she slips into the common mistake of saying "repeat" over the radio. This is especially important when broadcasting over military channels, where "repeat" is a call for indirect fire, which is exactly what Helen is trying to call OFF in her mayday.
• Shrinking Violet: Violet starts off as shy girl lacking confidence to the point of turning invisible when her crush Tony turns to look at her. Her character arc throughout the movie shows her gaining confidence in herself and her powers to the point that she's able to take the lead in arranging a date with Tony by the movie's end.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • Mr. Incredible almost invokes this during his first confrontation with Syndrome.
    Syndrome: And now I have a weapon that only I can defeat, and when I unleash it... [Mr. Incredible throws a log at Syndrome, who dodges it and freezes Mr. Incredible] ... You sly dog! You got me monologuing!
  • A straight example occurs at the film's climax. Syndrome launches into his We Will Meet Again speech, swearing that he will succeed at kidnapping Jack-Jack and Mr. Incredible responds by throwing his sports car at Syndrome's plane, resulting in his Turbine Blender death.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Mr. Incredible kisses Elastigirl to assure her that he wasn't having an affair with Mirage
  Bob: How could I betray the perfect woman?
• Siding with the Suffering: Mirage originally serves as Syndrome's right-hand woman and is largely indifferent to the fact that he's killed dozens of Supers in his Omnidroid scheme. But when Syndrome sends missiles to destroy the incoming jet plane, she is genuinely horrified when Helen says "There are children aboard" and Syndrome refuses to call off the missile strike, but instead delights in seeing Bob in pain. This incident along with Syndrome's later gamble with her life leads to her Heel–Face Turn.
• Sinister Geometry: The Omnidroid is basically a black sphere with retractable arms.
• Slasher Smile:
  • The look on Syndrome's face◊ when he abducts Jack-Jack.
  • Edna is a decent person, but displays a disturbingly gleeful look on her face when she demonstrates how sturdy Jack-Jack's suit is by setting it on fire. She later mirrors the same face when telling Helen to track down Bob.
• Sleep Cute: Non-romantic version, with bickering siblings Violet and Dash.
• Slow Electricity: Invoked by Syndrome, who designed his office to light up dramatically in this very way.
• Smack on the Back: Mr. Incredible's backslaps are painful. At one point he slaps Frozone on the back and Frozone comments how much it hurts.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Bomb Voyage put a bomb on Buddy's cape to force Mr. Incredible to focus on saving him, the explosion leads to the train wreck and Mr. Incredible having to forcefully stop the train causing the passengers to be injured, which opened the door to civilian lawsuits which helped usher in the Super Relocation Act.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Edna, who's smart enough to manufacture super suits for many of the world's supers even accommodating their specific powers into the design and construction.
• Smug Super:
  • Gamma Jack in the DVD bonus material.
  • Bob pre-Super Relocation Act has shades of this but ultimately is benevolent.
  • Syndrome would be one if his plan succeeded.
• So Long, Suckers!: Subverted. After being defeated, Syndrome gets to his escape jet and yells that he will return to abduct Mr. Incredible's son someday. Bob takes this opportunity to throw his car at him, which results in his death.
• So Proud of You: Said word-for-word by Helen to Dash on the beach after they arrive at Nomanisan Island, thanks to Dash using his Super-Speed to get them there after their plane crashes into the ocean.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Bob Parr used to be a superhero, until the Super Relocation Act reduced him to being an insurance adjuster in a soulless cube farm. Bob's only relief comes from helping claimants outwit the bureaucracy, which results in Bob's heartless boss roaring his name like an expletive.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • When Syndrome captures the Incredibles, he intends to force them to watch as he saves the city from the Omnidroid. However, he didn't familiarize himself with Violet's powers and, shortly after Syndrome leaves, she uses her shield powers to free herself so she can release her family.
  • In the climax, Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack just to spite Mr. Incredible. He did not count on Jack-Jack manifesting his powers at that moment and unleashing much deserved pain on him.
• Sphere Factor: Violet's spherical force field and Dash's running combine to make a pretty good weapon.
• Spider-Sense: Mr. Incredible has this power, which is listed among his abilities in the DVD extras. He demonstrates it during the opening sequence when he realizes something's wrong shortly before Bomb Voyage blows the wall open, and later on when the first Omnidroid is behind him.
• Spider Tank: The Omnidroid is a big black ball with legs coming out of the sides.
• Spy Cam: The Villain can monitor Nomanisan Island with surveillance cameras disguised as tropical birds. One of these detects Dash and Violet, and sounds an alarm when they fail to authenticate themselves. It even flies in pursuit to continue monitoring the intruders.
• Spy Fiction: While the movie is primarily superhero-based, it gets a lot of influence from classic "martini" spy movies as well. The film is set in the 1960s, scored with bombastic retro brass, and features tech-based villains, a mysterious alluring henchwoman with uncertain morals, and a technological mastermind equipping the protagonists with their gear all in the tradition of the spy genre.
• Spy's Suspicious Spouse: Helen gets suspicious when she overhears Bob talking to a woman on the phone asking "How soon can you get here?" and later finds a tear in her husband's old costume.
• Stamp of Rejection: Done as a Gilligan Cut after the lawsuit montage. As the narrator ends by saying how the Supers are living as ordinary citizens, still trying to make the world a better place, cut to Bob stamping "DENIED" on a little old lady's insurance claim.
• Standard Office Setting: After the Super Relocation Act is passed, Bob Parr becomes a claims adjuster in a cubicle farm at the unsympathetic insurance agency Insuricare. In stark contrast with his prior career as a superhero, the environment is as bland and drab as possible, and his tyrannical boss Gilbert Huph is frustrated with Bob helping the customers. As an added insult, Bob barely fits into his own cubicle because he has to share it with a concrete support beam.
• Staring Kid: Rusty McAllister, the kid on a tricycle. After seeing Mr. Incredible lift his car in a fit of rage, he starts regularly coming to the Incredible family's driveway in hopes of seeing such feats again. He's there to witness Syndrome's plane come crashing down on the Parr house.
  Rusty: THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!!
• Start of Darkness: The beginning of the movie shows Mr. Incredible giving Buddy a stern brush-off saying "I work alone" which leads to him becoming Syndrome.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Portrayed semi-sympathetically while being deconstructed, just before the final battle with the Omnidroid. Mr. Incredible's reason for telling his wife and kids to stand back and let him handle it isn't that he thinks his wife can't fight, but that he isn't strong enough... to lose her or the kids again (as he thought they'd been killed earlier in the film). Upon hearing the pain in his voice, Helen is understanding, but assures him that if they work together he won't lose them. And then the entire family works together.
• Stealth Pun:
  • When Bob works on getting into shape, he goes to a rail yard and uses his Herculean strength to haul and lift the cars. In other words, he's training.
  • The computer room containing information about the Omnidroid's goals is protected by a barrier which is basically a wall made of lava. In other words, it's a firewall.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Dash has super speed.
• Stone Wall: Violet's force fields provide a near-impregnable defense, but she lacks any type of offensive option.
• Stop Hitting Yourself: Mr. Incredible defeats the Omnidroid this way, twice. Both times by tricking it into stabbing itself with its own claws (the first when it attacks itself to get to Bob himself, who's gotten inside, and the second when he purposely aims its detachable claw at its body before having its remote command an attack).
• Stopped Dead in Their Tracks: Bob, disregarding his boss ordering him not to leave his office to aid a mugged man, makes his way towards the door to help and grabs the door handle, before he is threatened with being fired, stopping him in his tracks. Needless to say, his reaction to this isn't very subtle.
• Story-Breaker Power: Syndrome's zero-point blasts make him outright unstoppable, as he is able to incapacitate the entire family of Supers in two separate occasions simply by pointing at them. The only reason he doesn't win is due to Bond Villain Stupidity.
• Stuck in the Doorway: When Bob trying to enter the drop pod, his bigger gut gets stuck in the pod door, requiring the grunt to continually crank up the power until Bob finally pops in. After landing on the island, Bob has similar trouble getting out and finally gives up and just breaks the pod into pieces from the inside.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • The big robot apparently self-destructs so completely it's reduced to something finer than powder.
  • On the "special features" DVD, there is an easter-egg self-parody video that makes homage to the amount of times that things explode in the movie, as well as the buttons that are pressed and the doors that are opened and shut, by stringing them all together to the tune of "The Anvil Chorus" from Verdi's opera Il Trovatore. The sequence ends with this quote- "The Incredibles- no sequence unexploded."
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: When the Super Relocation Act came into being, the implication is that the government was overseeing the "hiding" of all the heroes. This anonymity evidently resulted in the heroes being more or less isolated from each other such that when Syndrome started killing them off, they were unaware of what was happening. In addition, the government agency monitoring the relocated heroes apparently was oblivious to the pattern of many heroes mysteriously vanishing.
• Stylistic Suck: In the DVD extras, there's an incredibly cheaply-made kids' cartoon made in-universe before the heroes got banned. The animation isn't, the characters' talking is in Synchro-Vox, Frozone is a slightly tan beatnik, and they inexplicably have a bunny sidekick named Mr. Skipperdoo. There's also a commentary track where Mr. Incredible and Frozone watch it for the first time, 15 years after it was made. Hilarity Ensues.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • When Syndrome has Mr. Incredible at his mercy and reveals that he was his biggest fan, Mr. Incredible recognizes him and calls out "Buddy?". Syndrome loses it and yells that his name is not Buddy as he makes the Omnidroid throw Mr. Incredible to the ground.
  • Prior to the final battle with the Omnidroid, Mr. Incredible has been speaking quietly, trying to convince Helen that he has to do this alone rather than have her help, and suddenly reveals his true motivation when he lets out a loud "I can't lose you again!"
• Super Family Team: The Parrs become one of these, complete with matching super suits!
• Superheroes Wear Capes: A Defied Trope by Edna Mode because they are impractical at best and fatally dangerous at worst.
  Edna Mode: No capes!
• Superhero Team Uniform: The Parrs all wear the same red, yellow, and black superhero outfits with the "i" logo on the chest that Edna designed for them when arriving on Syndrome's island, wearing them for the rest of the movie.
• Superhero Trophy Shelf: Bob has one, but it's pretty small and mostly consists of cut-out newspaper articles, letters from children and a jar labeled "Bullets that bounced off me."
• Superpowerful Genetics: Explains how a super-strong guy and a stretching woman give birth to a super-fast boy, a girl with invisibility powers, and a baby with Combo Platter Powers.
• Superpower Lottery: Jack-Jack has a dozen different powers. It's implied he's a shapeshifter.
• Super Registration Act: The Super Relocation Act forced the heroes into retirement and anonymity. However, it's notably given a twist in that the push comes, not from the government, but from the public who grew tired of being part of the collateral damage. The supers are actually supported by the government.
• Super-Speed: This is Dash's core power. He is shown to be fast enough to pull a prank on camera and barely register a blur. Later when evading Syndrome's mooks, he is shown being fast enough to run on water.
• Super-Strength: This is Mr. Incredible's core power. He is shown being able to up-root an entire tree to help rescue a cat, stop an el train to prevent it from completely crashing on a blown-up piece of track, or toss a car high into the air to take down the villain's plane.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dash and Violet may be supers, but they are also just kids, who are not shown to be notably stronger or better trained in fighting than the average kid their age. When they hit Syndrome's soldiers, who are grown men, not much happens.
• Swallowed a Fly: When Dash runs into a swarm of bugs, one apparently gets in his mouth and he gags and spits it out.
• Synchro-Vox: The "Mr. Incredible and Pals" short, a parody of Clutch Cargo.

Tropes T to Z

• Takes One to Kill One: Nothing can pierce the Omnidroid's hull except its own claws.
• Take This Job and Shove It: While Bob wasn't focused on pulling a Rage Quit, his actions toward Huph definitely convey the spirit of this trope.
• Taking the Bullet: Right as one of Syndrome's goons is about to shoot Dash, Violet jumps into the shot to protect her brother without hesitation. Fortunately, since she can generate shields, she's fine.
• Talking Is a Free Action: This trope is mercilessly deconstructed in this universe under the term "monologuing". Multiple times throughout the movie, monologuing is either the butt of a joke (such as when Frozone recounts a story where the villain had him on the ropes and lost the advantage because they wouldn't shut up) or it's subverted to dangerous effect (such as when Syndrome realizes he's monologuing which prevents Mr. Incredible's sneak attack from succeeding).
• Tall Is Intimidating: While Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl are arguing, Mr. Incredible looms over the much smaller Elastigirl. But then Elastigirl uses her stretching powers to increase her height so she looms over Mr. Incredible.
• Tanks for Nothing: When the giant Omnidroid first attacks the city, a bunch of tanks attempt to stop it without any effect.
• Tank-Tread Mecha: During the scene where Mr. Incredible breaks into Syndrome's computer, you can see the different prototypes for the Omnidroid. The Omnidroid v.X1 was designed with treaded locomotion, and the V3 had tri-pedal wheels, before all future designs were created using legs.
• Tan Lines: The guards on the island have them under their faces, visible when their visors are knocked off.
• Team Title: The Parrs are known as The Incredibles in their superhero ensemble.
• Telepathic Sprinklers: After Bob's mysterious new job offer self-destructs, smoke alarms sound, and then all the sprinklers in the house go off. Dash in particular thinks it's awesome, but at least Bob is shown blow-drying soaked books afterwards.
• Tempting Fate:
  • "Hey, we're superheroes. What could happen?" Twice this is said, and twice they found out:
    • The first time is when Bob said this after marrying Helen. Immediately afterwards, we're told that the suicidal man Bob saved has sued him, leading to the Super Relocation Act.
    • The second time is near the final act of the movie; Helen reassures Bob that his family will be there to help him, saying the line. Cue Violet screaming as the Omnidroid is coming and about to squish her and Dash.
  • "Don't worry Mrs. Parr. I can handle anything this baby dishes out." (Kari was right, given she kept Jack-Jack from hurting himself or destroying most of the house, but still.)
  • "This is not the end of it! I will get your son eventually! I'll get your son!" Seconds later, Bob makes sure it's the end of it and Syndrome is introduced to the business end of a jet turbine.
  • Prior to that, Syndrome mocked Mr. Incredible's merciful nature after the latter refused to kill Mirage. Well next time, he doesn't show mercy.
  • "Everything is all right." Said Helen as she floats down like a parachute with Jack-Jack in hand. Almost as soon as she lands, the wreckage of Syndrome's damaged aircraft drops on the family and explodes. The family survives thanks to Violet, but their house doesn't.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: "I'm not happy, Bob. Not. Happy."
• That Man Is Dead: When Mr. Incredible identifies Syndrome as the grown-up Buddy Pine, the latter says that he's renounced his identity as Buddy as well as Incredi-boy.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: After Syndrome has captured the whole Parr family, save for Jack-Jack, and that the Omnidroid V10 start its rampage, Syndrome's guards all go to watch the Omnidroid on TV instead of keeping an eye on the captive family or any camera.
• Think Nothing of It: Mr. Incredible tends to respond to praise this way, to the point where it's practically a catchphrase. It's a sure sign that even in his more narcissistic glory days, he was still a decent guy.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Mr. Incredible's expression as he braces for impact to stop the el train early in the movie shows that he's aware that despite his toughness, it's still going to hurt.
  • Syndrome also has this reaction at the end, when he notices Bob's thrown car flying straight towards him.
• This Is No Time to Panic: When Helen's plane is shot down with Violet and Dash over the ocean. Helen keeps calm and tries to assess the situation. The kids, on the other hand, are freaking out. Not only does she tell them to stop panicking, she then threatens to ground them both for a month if they don't which snaps them out of their panic immediately.
• This Is Reality: As Helen and the kids hide in a cave on the island, Helen realizes Bob is in trouble and needs to go look for him. However, before she leaves, she needs to impress upon the kids the reality of their situation and that they are not facing cartoon bad guys.
  Helen: Remember the bad guys, on those shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys are not like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They. Will. Kill. You. if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: After Bob writes down key details from Mirage's message about the mission, the tablet announces that it will self destruct and explodes in his trophy room. He opens the door to escape the smoke, setting the fire sprinklers off.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Played with. None of the Incredibles have a problem using deadly force in self-defense, and a lot of mooks die as a result. However, killing the helpless, does not occur — even when Bob's as angry as he's ever been in his life, he still can't bring himself to kill Mirage.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Bob's default expression while working at Insuricare. Especially prominent when he's ordered into a meeting and can only stare blankly as Huph starts dressing him down.
• Throwing the Distraction: Played with. When Mr. Incredible needs to gain entrance to Syndrome's base, he picks up a coconut, but instead of just throwing it to create a distracting sound, actually throws it to knock out another nearby guard, who promptly (and loudly) falls to the ground.
• Thumbtack on the Chair: One way Dash abuses his super-speed and messes with his teacher at school. He does it often enough that the teacher tries to video-tape Dash to catch him in the act.
• Time Skip: Three of them. After the newsreel montage informing about the Super Relocation Act, the film cuts to fifteen years later with Bob as a Desk Jockey. Then, after Bob defeats the first Omnidroid, there is a Good-Times Montage, which lasts around two months. The third one occurs at the end, where the epilogue takes place three months after the climax.
• Token Black Friend: Lucius, a.k.a. Frozone, is Bob's partner, best man, and best friend. He's the only friend of the white nuclear family Incredibles that is shown with any frequency, although a few supers attend Bob and Helen's wedding.
• Token Minority: According to the NSA files on the DVD release of the movie, Frozone is the only registered non-white superhero in the entire United States. Apparently Frozone being a person of color wasn't highly promoted as demonstrated in the other DVD feature "Mr. Incredible and Pals" which featured the cartoon adventures of Mr. Incredible, Frozone and their animal sidekick Mr. Skipperdoo. The feature provides commentary whereupon Frozone draws specific attention to the fact that his cartoon self comes across as a white person with a tan.
• Too Dumb to Live: Dash lands on a velocipod during the chase scene and the mook piloting it chooses to try and attack Dash rather than maintain control of the craft. The mook ends up dying when the velocipod crashes into a cliff.
• Too Qualified to Apply: Because of the Super Relocation Act, those with superpowers are legally required to hide them. Thus, Dash's parents don't let him compete in sports because they don't trust him to restrain his Super-Speed enough to maintain their cover. By the end of the movie, however, Dash's superheroics leave him feeling accomplished enough to willfully restrain himself to taking second place.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Mr. Incredible has a big and broad chest that dwarfs his legs.
• Track Trouble: Mr. Incredible has to stop an el train before it reaches a destroyed section of track — which he does, although not without getting sued for injury by some of the passengers.
• Training Montage: After Bob returns from successfully disabling the Omnidroid on the island it leads into a Good-Times Montage of him reconnecting with his family and rekindling the romance with Helen. Also interspersed are scenes of Bob doing heavy training to lose his belly paunch and recapture his narrow waist.
• Trainstopping: Mr. Incredible does this in the opening. He winces before the hit; despite being super-tough and strong, it's still going to hurt.
• A Truce While We Gawk: When Buddy shows up to the bank robbery as IncrediBoy, even Bomb Voyage can't resist reacting incredulously before taking advantage of the distraction to escape.
• Try Not to Die: Mirage to Mr. Incredible, while sending him after the Omnidroid.
• Tuck and Cover: Helen uses this to shield the kids with her explosive proof suit.
• Tunnel King: The Underminer with his drills and indicative name.
• Turbine Blender: Two characters have their capes caught in the powerful intake of a jet engine leading to their deaths.
• Twilight of the Supers: A series of lawsuits forces supers to retire, and most get murdered by Syndrome.
• Underwear of Power: The super suits usually come with these. Edna even puts these on the new red suits.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Bob rescues Sansweet from committing suicide by catching him mid-fall. It later turns out he didn't want to be saved, and successfully sues Bob for damages. The same goes for all the passengers on the train Bob saved, and pretty much every person who sued a Super for unintentional damage they may have caused while saving the day.
  • Buddy got nearly killed by Bomb Voyage's bomb and was saved by Mr. Incredible who removed it from his cape, as a result of his reckless interference, and at the cost of the damage to the railway and injuries to its passengers that would later snowball into forcing Superheroes into hiding. Yet Syndrome has the gall to claim that he got the short end of the stick that day, even totally removing Bomb Voyage and how Mr. Incredible saved his life from his memory of that day.
  • Syndrome doesn't show any gratitude toward Mirage either, after she saved him from being violently grabbed by Mr. Incredible and nearly died as a result. His only excuse when she calls him out for it is that he knew that Mr. Incredible wouldn't kill her, and is totally surprised and confused by her furious reaction to it.
• Unwanted Rescue: Mr. Incredible gets sued for rescuing Oliver Sansweet, who tried to commit suicide.
  Sansweet: You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!
• Vertical Power Play: The movie uses superpowers to play with size and positioning. When married couple Helen and Bob are arguing over their son Dash's schooling situation, initially the much bigger and super-strong Bob uses his size to seem imposing. As the argument escalates, Helen uses her Rubber Man powers to stretch and become taller than her husband.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Syndrome attempts a variation of this at the end. It doesn't work, mostly because the hero isn't in the mood to just let him get away.
• Villainous Face Hold: During Huph's lecture, Bob is distracted from the conversation when he sees someone being mugged outside. This leads to Huph grabbing Bob's face and saying, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, Parr!"
• The Voice: Frozone's wife is made of sass for all we know because we never see her.
• Walk on Water: Played with. Dash is surprised but delighted to discover his Super-Speed enables him to run on water. However, this ability is tied to him being in constant motion because when he gets surrounded by two flying Mooks, he stops in a panic, and instantly sinks.
• The Walls Are Closing In: There's a visually similar scene, as Mr. Incredible races to get out from between two closing walls of lava.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Invoked after their Winnebago drops from the sky, lands on a crowded interstate, takes out half a dozen other cars, somersaults down the road, and stops in a vacant parking spot...
  Mr. Incredible: Everyone okay back there?
  Violet: Super-duper, dad!
  Dash: Let's do that again!
• Weight Woe: Elastigirl isn't a big fan of her butt. Also, Mr. Incredible works off his gut after his first battle with the Omnidroid.
• We Will Meet Again: After his kidnapping of Jack-Jack is foiled, Syndrome pauses in his escape to shout that he will eventually get Mr. Incredible's son. This becomes a subversion because it prompts Mr. Incredible to actually end it right there by throwing his car at Syndrome's plane causing his demise.
• Well, This Is Not That Trope: Played very much for drama.
  Helen: Remember the bad guys, on those shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys are not like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They. Will. Kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance.
• Wham Line: When Syndrome encounters Mr. Incredible, he says "I mean, after all, I am your biggest fan." This causes Mr. Incredible to realize he is actually Buddy Pine.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: When the supers are forced into retirement, the existing super villains seem to disappear as well. A downplayed example because while it's never explained what happened to the villains or why their criminal activity would stop just because the supers went away, reading some of the newspapers shown in the film reveal that crime rates have risen significantly after the Super Relocation Act was passed.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: It's treated as serious and dark that Bob is willing to kill Mirage in his grief over the supposed death of his family. However, he and Helen take out a number of Syndrome's henchman in clearly fatal ways, as do Dash and Vi, and there's no real comment on it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dicker points out to Bob that his inability to get over the Glory Days and keeping his superpowers concealed causes a lot of trouble for many people, including himself and his family.
  Rick: We've gotta pay to keep the company quiet, we've gotta pay damages, erase memories, relocate your family; every time it gets harder. Money, money, money, money, money, money— we can't keep doing this, Bob!
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?:
  • Syndrome invents his own gear, and makes the money to build more by selling superweapons.
  • The Incredimobile was given to Mr. Incredible by the Agency.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The film takes place in two cities. Municiberg where the "Glory Days" prologue occurs and Metroville which is where the Parrs have been living for the past three years. It's also the city attacked by the Omnidroid at the end of the film. Aside from both cities bordering a large body of water, there are virtually no regional identifiers to establish a geographic location. Justified in that each simply functions as a generic, post-war American city to provide a set dressing of civilians, cars, highways, shops and tall buildings but neither is featured long enough to require any type of unique identity or location.
• Woman Scorned: Helen, under the impression that Bob has been cheating on her, punches out Mirage (thinking she's his mistress) and angrily calls Bob a "lousy, lying, unfaithful creep" as he pulls her in for a kiss.
• Women Are Wiser: Downplayed as Helen is simply looking after Bob and he‘s just simply doing the right thing, even if it’s illegal, but she does adapt to normal life much better than he and Dash, and Bob did let it get to his head to the point where he became negligent and isolated from his family and friends.
• The World Is Always Doomed: At least while there are supers around to save it. Bob even provides one of the page quotes.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Discussed by Helen Parr, who makes it very clear to Dash and Violet that the situation they are in has very serious consequences. We see this verified later when Syndrome's mooks start shooting at Dash and Violet as soon as they realize the kids are supers.
    Helen: Remember the bad guys on those shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys are not like those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They. Will. Kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance.
  • Syndrome has no qualms about shooting a plane out of the sky when he believes that Mr. Incredible sent for reinforcements even when the plane broadcasts that there are children aboard. Mirage, on the other hand, immediately shows alarm at this announcement, which becomes another factor that eventually prompts her High-Heel–Face Turn.
  • At the beginning of the movie, Bomb Voyage sticks a bomb onto Buddy's costume as he's flying off to force Mr. Incredible to focus on saving the kid instead of stopping him. The villain obviously had no concerns about putting Buddy's life in danger for a chance to escape.
  • In the commentary, Brad Bird explicitly expresses that he wanted this trope to be in full effect due to the pressure by the Media Watchdogs of having kids wrapped in Plot Armor, saying that he felt that such an attitude is more damaging to kids than helpful.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: A newspaper Bob is reading says that it's 1962 after the Time Skip. This dates the wedding to 1947, but a teenage Stratogale shows up there, and she's still a teenager when she dies a decade later. This also means that she and Thunderhead were operating illegally since they died long after Supers were banned. Also, it is stated that Elastigirl's last superhero work was in 1955 and she isn't someone who would work illegally. Considering this, that would make the actual year 1970, which seems far more realistic given all these components.
• Writing Around Trademarks:
  • As "superhero" is a shared trademark of Marvel Comics and DC Comics, Pixar got around this by primarily using the word "supers" in the script (although "superhero" did appear a few times as well). Amusingly, by the time of the sequel, Pixar and Marvel were now siblings, but while they could now legally use the term "superhero", "supers" fit with Brad Bird's quirky writing style better.
  • Averted with the Omnidroid, which, at the time of the film's release, required special permission from Lucasfilm, as noted in the credits. Currently not an issue due to Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm.
  • DC Comics also had a pre-existing character named Elasti-girl, but they allowed Pixar to use the name in the movie, provided that in all related merchandise, she was simply called "Mrs. Incredible." However, in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Disney Sorcerer's Arena and LEGO The Incredibles, Helen's right back to being called Elastigirl.
• Wronski Feint:
  • Played straight when Helen's plane is targeted by the first two missiles launched by Syndrome. After her initial evasions fail, she dives toward the ocean spiraling her plane while launching flares to try and break the missile lock. She succeeds in getting the two missiles to detonate in the ocean but she also damages her plane in the maneuver, leaving her with virtually no fuel when the second salvo of missiles arrives.
  • Downplayed when Dash is being pursued on the island by mooks in their velocipods. Although Dash is not intentionally invoking this strategy, he is quick enough to dodge around the trees; the mooks who follow and are trying to anticipate his moves, are not.
• Xanatos Gambit: A flawed example with Syndrome's Omnidroids. Each initial confrontation of a Super against the Omnidroid plays the trope straight. If the Super is killed by the Omnidroid, then Syndrome records the data and moves onto the next Super. If the Super defeats the Omnidroid, Syndrome revises the design and calls the Super back for a rematch. However, the gambit requires that the Super is terminated during their second encounter with an Omnidroid otherwise the ongoing plan starts to fall apart because it would be very difficult to keep inviting the hero back without raising suspicion.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Syndrome intentionally offers Bob another shot at the Golden Days by hiring him to fight an Omnidroid that had broken free from a research project. Upon successful completion of the mission, Bob is left with the impression there'd be more "moonlighting" projects in the future. When he returns home, this leads to a Good-Times Montage of Bob getting back into shape, being more involved with his kids and reigniting the passion with his wife. When invited to another assignment, Bob jumps at the chance only to discover it was all a sham. He was invited back only to be soundly defeated by a new Omnidroid and hunted down and "killed" by Syndrome.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Bob learns that Syndrome's master plan is to send his perfected Omnidroid to the mainland where it would rampage, however, before Bob can take action, Helen triggers his suit's homing beacon which alerts the security system, causing him to be captured.
• Zeerust: The action prologue has a futuristic fifties aesthetic, while the "present day" is much more nineties.

Teaser

Putting on that belt must take forever.

Before the release of The Incredibles, a teaser trailer that shows Mr. Incredible testing his belt buckle was made. The teaser was released during screenings of Finding Nemo in May 2003.

You can watch the teaser on YouTube here.

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Tropes:

• Amusing Injuries: At one point, Mr. Incredible is rolling on the floor trying to put his belt on and hits his head on his desk chair.
  Mr. Incredible: (Facepalming after the above) WHY?!
• Canon Discontinuity: The posters of Mr. Incredible with the red suit are proof that it isn't canon to the franchise.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Frozone appears in a newspaper.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The teaser has posters of Mr. Incredible wearing his red suit. In the movie itself, he doesn't wear the red suit until after the Time Skip, with the posters instead having him wear his older blue suit.
  • Mr. Incredible has an Incrediphone, which (while a very Silver Age-y thing to do) is nowhere to be seen in the movie itself.
  • It's implied that Supers weren't banned in this version due to a newspaper headline stating that Mr. Incredible originally retired, and the fact that someone is trying to call him for help in the first place.
• Overly Long Gag: Pretty much the whole skit is Mr. Incredible trying his best to put his belt buckle in.
• Popping Buttons: After much effort, Mr. Incredible finally manages to suck his gut in enough to buckle his belt. As he relaxes, the buckle breaks open and ricochets around the room.
• Recycled Soundtrack: The music in the teaser is the theme from the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• Weight Loss Salad: Bob attempts to put on his superhero belt, only to find that it no longer fits him due to his pot belly. When his wife calls him for dinner, he suggests making him a salad, and some rice cakes.

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