History Film / BirdmanOrTheUnexpectedVirtueOfIgnorance

Notable talking points for the film included its original music consisting entirely of solo jazz drums, its score being [[AwardSnub infamously disqualified]] from MediaNotes/AcademyAward consideration for including classical music, and the fact that it's largely structured to appear as if it was filmed in [[TheOner one continuous take]]. (Even with this effect being achieved through editing, the film still has only several dozen visible cuts and required takes of 10-15 minutes in length.)

Notable talking points for the film included its original music consisting entirely of solo jazz drums, its score being [[AwardSnub infamously disqualified]] from UsefulNotes/AcademyAward consideration for including classical music, and the fact that it's largely structured to appear as if it was filmed in [[TheOner one continuous take]]. (Even with this effect being achieved through editing, the film still has only several dozen visible cuts and required takes of 10-15 minutes in length.)

* HospitalEpilogue: The film ends with [[spoiler:Riggan's daughter visiting him in the hospital after his BungledSuicide.]]

Along the way, he faces various difficulties both on and off stage, as he battles his own ego (and alter ego), a narcissistic actor (Norton) who attempts to wrestle control away from Riggan, and a critic hell-bent on destroying the production, while attempting to repair his relationship with his family, in particular his daughter Sam (Stone).

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:The film ends with Riggan surviving shooting himself to find that the public and even Tabitha loved his InUniverse EnforcedMethodActing of shooting his nose off during the play's suicide scene. While his career is certainly on the upturn, he tells Birdman to fuck off before opening his hospital room window and starting to climb out of it. The camera pans away to show Sam entering with flowers, whereupon she panics at not being able to find him. She anxiously looks to the ground outside his room before pausing, looking up, and smiling at presumably seeing him fly. Whether she's actually watching her father defy the law of gravity or if the entire sequence post-gunshot is even real are left up to interpretation.]]

* BrickJoke: The actor who was hit by the light in the beginning returns with his lawyer later in an inappropriate moment.

** The film is littered with callbacks between the Raymond Carver play and the character's interactions. For example, Riggan screams at Lesley to "Shut up for once in your life" on stage, and Jake later yells the same thing to Riggan back stage. Another example is the section of the play about the psychotic lover, which mirrors Riggan's relationship with his ex-wife.

* CopiouslyCreditedCreator: In-universe. Mike is impressed by Riggan being the script writer, and director, and also starring in his adaption.

* DancingBear: InUniverse, Riggan's [[spoiler:BungledSuicide]] ends up earning the play a lot of attention and accolades that it wasn't getting earlier. In-line with how meta the film is, a lot of people had this view about the LongTake feature.

* EpicTrackingShot: Half-way through the movie, a tracking shot moves from the street right through the bars of a balcony banister into Riggan's dressing room.

* JerkassRealization: After delivering a huge TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Riggan, Sam looks at her father with guilt in her eyes. She leaves without apologizing, but it's clear she realizes she went too far, and she never acts anywhere near as mean spirited to Riggan after that.

** When Mike's not on-stage, all his costumes are based on Creator/JamesDean characters.

* SpurnedIntoSuicide: In the ShowWithinAShow, Riggan plays a character that commits suicide because his wife doesn't love him anymore.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: No theater production staff in their right minds would leave a dangerously depressed important lead actor ''by himself'', even if he ''was'' the director.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Mike gives Sam a prep talk during their second time on the roof all while making her compliments and them both [[HeldGaze staring deep into each other's eyes]]. It's implied this was just a ruse by Mike to get into her panties which he does.

*** Riggen mentions meeting Creator/GeorgeClooney on a plane. Clooney also played Batman in the 1990s.

* TheLoinsSleepTonight: Mike has a hard time getting hard outside of the stage, which Lesley brings up after nearly he tries to have sex with her on stage for the sake of method acting. Mike also shows reluctance towards Sam's attraction to him at first, and states this as the reason.

** Riggan appears to be much older than his girlfriend Laura. There's a significant age-gap of about 18 years between the actors.

** When Sam is walking Mike to the fitting room he comments on her ass. When she asks, "Seriously?" he says "Don't be so modest honey, this is the theater." Immediately after the costume director orders Mike to strip down. He asks Sam if she's going to leave and she repeats his words back to him. Following this, Laura comments that Lesley has a great ass to Riggan.

* WagTheDirector: [[invoked]] A good portion of the film is dedicated to Riggan dealing with Mike's attempts at usurping control of the play.

It follows Riggan Thomson (Keaton), a washed-up actor best known for playing the superhero Birdman in a series of movies, as he tries to revive his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story ''What We Talk About When We Talk About Love''.

Not to be confused with [[WesternAnimation/Birdman1967 the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from the '60s]] or [[WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw the satirical show which had said cartoon's hero take up law practice]] or the [[Manga/{{BirdMen}} Japanese comic of a similar name]]. Or the rapper. Or that bird-themed skateboarder who inspired [[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater a line of skateboarding video games]]. Or BirdPeople.