History BioShockInfinite / TropesIToP

* ProtestSong: Shortly after setting foot into the Vox-dominated universe, a ballad can be heard praising Fitzroy's efforts.
** [[spoiler:Arguably, it's Songbird's job to protect ''you'' during this segment -- that is, if he were fighting off the Vox without you guiding him to his targets, which you have to do to make use of him]].

** Female members of the Founders wear porcelain masks modeled after Lady Liberty.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Reporter Ed Gaines has a name too close to skinsuit-making serial killer UsefulNotes/EdGein to be a coincidence.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Apparently, UsefulNotes/EdGaines became a reporter in columbia, rather than an insane grave robber.

** The residents of [[BedlamHouse Comstock House]] also wear UncannyValley porcelain masks of the Founding Fathers.

* OtherMeAnnoysMe[=/=]EvilMeScaresMe: [[spoiler:Well, Booker isn't too fond of Comstock, and the feeling is damn well mutual. Subverted with the Luteces: they seem to have a very close relationship. [[SelfCest Perhaps a little too close in fact]]]].

* InfoDump: The five seconds in which Elizabeth opens her tear to Paris, with a movie theatre in the foreground and the Eiffel Tower in the background, tells you ''everything'' you need to know about the scope of her StoryBreakerPower.
** She's in the city of Columbia, somewhere off the coast of New England, USA; the tear opens in Paris, a quarter of the way around the world.
** When the ambulance comes screaming towards her, Elizabeth closes the tear immediately -- indicating that it's a physical and tangible phenomenon, not an illusion or projection.
** Elizabeth is in 1912... but according to the marqee, the theatre is playing ''[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi La Revanche Du Jedi]]'', meaning the other side of the tear is on or after 25 May 1983.
** The film's title translates to "The ''Revenge'' of the Jedi'', Creator/GeorgeLucas's original title for Episode IV before he decided that revenge was not the Jedi way. (A small number of posters and other memorabilia, created with the original title, are now collectible items.) While it's difficult to say whether Elizabeth is standing in RealLife, it is indisputable that the other end of the tear opens on an AlternateContinuity.

* NiceHat:
** Jeremiah Fink has a very tall top hat.
** Preston Downs and [[http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/40851718102310615/9B2D5BB2ED9EAF638B990C131910F81946C849CB/ Fink's head of security]] both have cowboy style hats.

* NunsAndRosaries: The Founders have distinctly Catholic overtones at times, especially at the beginning: the church Booker enters is very obviously modelled on a cathedral, with stained-glass windows labelled in Latin. There's also a very memorable scene where a nun immolates herself on Comstock's orders. These are somewhat strange given the very real antipathy the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant American establishment that the Founders are a part of had for Roman Catholicism, which in part fuelled discrimination against heavily Catholic ethnic groups like the Irish which is touched on in the game as well.

* MickeyMousing: Slaves at Fink Industries are forced to perform their jobs to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsM3GWW2Os a droning, discordant, thoroughly miserable waltz.]] (A heavily-distorted, lo-fi version of Frederick Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, to be precise), moving with a loud tick on every third beat.

* {{Necromancer}}: The Siren can raise the dead as {{zombies}} by essentially forcing an alternate universe version of them in a nearby universe into their dead body.

* JesusTaboo: Despite the fact that the setting is drowning in the language, decor, and hymns of the Third Great Awakening, there is almost no mention of Jesus -- largely because Comstock and the Founding Fathers have replaced Jesus and the Prophets in all but name. The only time Jesus actually receives a namedrop (other than Booker murmuring the name as a curse at one point) is from the preacher [[spoiler:attempting to baptize Booker after Wounded Knee. A marked contrast to the baptism in Columbia, where Booker is baptized in the name of Comstock, the Founding Fathers, and God. In that order]].

* ImportantHaircut: Elizabeth cuts off most of her long hair [[spoiler:after she commits her first direct killing]].

* ImprovisedWeapon: The Sky-Hook doubles as a brutal face-wrenching, bone-shredding claw. It sees a lot of use this way before actually getting near a Sky-Line.

** GeniusBonus: The film's title translates to "The ''Revenge'' of the Jedi'', Creator/GeorgeLucas's original title for Episode IV before he decided that revenge was not the Jedi way. (A small number of posters and other memorabilia, created with the original title, are now collectible items.) While it's difficult to say whether Elizabeth is standing in RealLife, it is indisputable that the other end of the tear opens on an AlternateContinuity.

* InterfaceSpoiler: The segments of the game where [[spoiler:you lose Elizabeth]] would be more tense if [[spoiler:there were no collectible lockpicks in the interim]].

* MoneyForNothing: The vending machines are pretty much the only place for spending those almighty Silver Eagles.

* LiarRevealed: [[spoiler: Booker is told to tell Elizabeth whatever she wants to hear in order to convince her to go with him. Booker tells Elizabeth that they are heading to Paris, as it is a city she has dreamed of visiting. Elizabeth's knowledge of navigation allows her to deduce that Booker is not taking her to Paris, but instead to New York. Elizabeth runs away from Booker; however, they ultimately decide to stick together]].
* LighterAndSofter: While ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' is still a very dark game dealing with mature thematics, the much more colourful (and [[spoiler: initially]] in good shape) Columbia setting, as well as the interaction between TheComicallySerious Booker and the naive Elizabeth, give to the beginning of the game a much more fresh tone (which several light-hearted funny sequences, compaired to the mostly BlackComedy humour of the previous games) than the older games of the series.

* LonelyPianoPiece: Many instances in the game, but [[spoiler: in particular when each alternate Elizabeth disappears with a single piano note. The last note is struck right as the screen pans upward and fades to black, but before the final Elizabeth -- ''your'' Elizabeth -- disappears... that is, ''if'' she did]].

** LukeYouAreMyFather: ... and an AlternateUniverse version of [[spoiler: Booker]].

** Strangely averted with Chen Lin and his [[spoiler: AlternateUniverse]] wife Sarah Lin, a Caucasian woman who married Chen. Because of Sarah's connections to the Founders via her brother Scofield, their marriage is protected from Columbia's prejudice.

** Being ''[=BioShock=]'', the dark turn was expected, but still. When you arrive in Columbia, the place is beautiful and brimming with life in a cheerful fairground setting. While some things may feel a little off, there's no sense of particular danger just yet. Then you win the raffle, and what's your prize? [[spoiler: First throw at the public stoning/execution of an interracial couple]]. Immediately after that, you proceed to [[spoiler: smash a cop's face against his partner's Sky-Hook, with the expected gore ensuing]].

* MysteriousEmployer: At first, you don't know ''who'' you're working for. The two people in the rowboat to the lighthouse, maybe? But they talk about you in a bizarrely aloof manner, [[ImStandingRightHere as if you aren't actually there to hear them]], and respond to everything you ask in a roundabout fashion that doesn't answer any of your questions. You get a telegram from a "Lutece," which seems to want to help, but did that person hire you? Is that the same "Lutece" who built the city of Columbia anyway? And how did [[spoiler: those two people from the rowboat ''[[MindScrew show up in Columbia itself]]'']]?

** [[spoiler: One of the alternate realities? [[VideoGame/BioShock1 Rapture]]]]. In fact [[spoiler:you're taken on the same bathysphere journey from the start of ''[=BioShock=]''... in reverse -- as 1946 standard ''Beyond the Sea'' plays]].
--->[[spoiler: '''Booker:''' A city ''at the bottom of the ocean''?! Ridiculous]].

* NotSoDifferent: Both the Founders and Vox Populi are shown to be two sides of the same extreme, ideological coin in practice, Booker noting wryly that the only real difference between Comstock and Fitzroy is spelling their names. There's also the realization [[spoiler:that Booker and Comstock, like the Luteces, are two versions of the same person]].

%%* Intoxication Mechanic: Drinking multiple alcoholic beverages in quick succession will cause the screen to become blurry, in addition to [[BoozeBasedBuff slightly boosting Booker's health]] and slightly depleting his reserves of Salts. Certain Vigors will change the effects of alcohol consumption.

* * IntoxicationMechanic: Drinking multiple alcoholic beverages in quick succession will cause the screen to become blurry, in addition to [[BoozeBasedBuff slightly boosting Booker's health]] and slightly depleting his reserves of Salts. Certain Vigors will change the effects of alcohol consumption.

** Elizabeth even functions as a walking, talking Notice This. She will examine the area she and Booker are in, and will point it out if she spots an important object like a lockpick

** Booker [=DeWitt=] shares a name with a real-life historical person, Bryce [=DeWitt=]. [[spoiler:Bryce is a renowned gravity and particle field theorist. Not exactly Booker's area of expertise, but remind me: How does Columbia stay afloat]]? The same Bryce [=DeWitt=] was also the creator of [[spoiler:the theory of multiple universes]].

* Moe: Elizabeth. Her design process was deeply concerned with creating a character that players would quickly and easily bond with and develop a desire to protect. It generally works.

** Preston E. Downs murdered white people for mating with Native Americans and scalped them. He has a HeelFaceTurn after wounding a Native American kid. To add to the irony, he made the full turn after a white man with Native American heritage taught him the kid's language. Additional irony comes from the fact, that he was going to have the kid scalp the white man, [[spoiler: who was an alternate reality version of Booker, the white man in question]], who brought suffering to Native Americans, the very group of people he himself used to persecute.

** Averted by the game itself though. The developers pulled no punches in depicting the racism and social discrimination of late 19th-early 20th century society. The only social aspect of Columbia that is incongruous for the time period is the equality experienced by women, who can be seen serving on the front-lines of Columbia's police force, military, and rebellion. This is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] though, since one of Columbia's architects was a brilliant, independent female scientist and it's implied that the leader of Columbia, Zachary Hale Comstock, has been making an active effort to rid Columbia of sexism since he was grooming [[spoiler: his "daughter" Elizabeth]] to lead Columbia as a messiah-like figure.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Jingoism, racism extreme even for the early 20th century, religious zealotry, YellowPeril and TheSavageIndian. Not to mention the belief that Lincoln freeing the slaves was terrible thing to do, and the "prize" for winning a raffle was throwing the first of several dozen baseballs at a soon to be lynched couple [[MalignedMixedMarriage whose crime was falling in love with someone of a different race.]]