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YMMV / Never Let Me Go

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  • Harsher in Hindsight: Virtually every scene involving the protagonists as young children become this when the film’s cinematographer was outed as a registered sex offender. What’s worse is he kept them in the dark about this and no one on the crew knew about it, with director Mark Romanek stating he never would have hired him had he known.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Andrew Garfield as a clone considering his most famous character's infamous Clone Saga.
  • It Was His Sled: Though most trailers played up the love triangle aspect and kept the plot quiet, most audience members already know that the students are Walking Transplant clones. Some marketing materials, film or book reviews, or even book jackets and book club handouts assume you know the twist, which, granted, to many is either a Captain Obvious Reveal or dropped so early that it hardly qualifies. It has been more or less spoiled out on the trope page for your convenience.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The whole thing is pretty chilling, especially the way they refer to a donor's death as "completing."
  • Sci Fi Ghetto: Don't you dare call this book science fiction. Sure there are sci-fi elements, but that doesn't make it sci-fi. Why? Because sci-fi is for grubby basement dwellers, and really smart people like this, therefore it must be literature. Don't you dare call this book speculative fiction/fantasy. Sure there are speculative fiction/ wizard elements, but that doesn't make it speculative fiction/fantasy. Why? Because speculative fiction/fantasy is for people interested in plots that don't require a suspension of disbelief the size of (insert celestial body here) and really forgiving people like this, therefore it must be speculative fiction/fantasy with plot holes.
  • Stoic Woobie: Kathy. She loses everyone she loves, but has no choice but to meet it with a Stiff Upper Lip.
  • Tear Jerker: Is it ever. Kathy loses everyone she cares about, after she and everyone else she's ever known have lived their whole lives just to be used for the benefit of people they'll never meet, and eventually die, because they're not considered people. And it's just a matter of time before she too has to "complete." The film ends on an even sadder note, with Kathy contemplating how the clones aren't much different than the people they save.
    Kathy: We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.
    • And it's not only because of the characters themselves, but for the thousands of other clones they represent.

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