History Film / Circle

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite being critical to the main thrust of the plot, the Little Girl barely says anything throughout the film and mostly just cries, because she's ten years old and in a terrifying situation.
** All the bigoted rants that end up getting people killed. People crack under pressure, and tend to lash out against those who they see as inferior. That's also the reason they don't start early on, but after the game have been going on for a bit and there is a lack of easy target. Similarly, while not bigoted, the atheist end up in a similar situation when the pressure leads him to slip an unfortunate choice of word, and is sadly killed before he can correct himself (unless, as speculated, he was looking to die out of guilt).

** When everyone tries to vote for themselves to force a universal tie, one unnamed survivor secretly switches his vote to the Young Pregnant Lady in an attempt to eliminate her. Eric notices this and switches his own vote. In the subsequent runoff everyone votes to save the Young Pregnant Lady, eliminating the other survivor.

* RuleOfDrama: It's established that if votes are tied, a run-off results, while if no one votes, the machine selects a person randomly. [[spoiler:Therefore, when it's down to just Eric and the Pregnant Woman's unborn child, one of them should have simply been picked right away without a tie resulting since neither of them voted, but this would have removed the dramatic impact of The Reveal.]] This may be a special rule to prevent [[spoiler:the final two people abstaining from voting and leaving it entirely to chance. It's 50-50 by that point.]]

* DevelopersForesight: In-universe, the creators of the elimination game planned for every contingency. Try to leave? You die. No one votes? A random person is killed. The vote is tied? Everyone in the tie dies unless someone changes their vote.

** The Rude Atheist claims that the Attractive Blonde Woman next to him is actually an ex-pornstar, which she denies. It's probably an intentional ploy by the Rude Atheist to be as much of a {{Jerkass}} as possible to get voted out, but we don't find out if he was outright lying. She might have been and just [[OldShame didn't want to be associated with her past career]], or he was just making it up from whole cloth.

* AcceptableTargets: [[invoked]] Deconstructed. Choosing based on ethnic stereotypes, class divisions or any other divisive topic gets innocent (and not-so-innocent) people killed.

The script for ''Circle'' was reportedly inspired by ''Film/TwelveAngryMen''. Another film many have compared this film to is ''Film/{{Cube}}''; to that end, a producer on the film stated that in comparison, ''Circle'' provides more answers and has a more definitive ending.

Not to be confused with works titled ''TheCircle''.

* AcceptableTargets: [[invoked]] Deconstructed. Choosing based on ethnic stereotypes or class divisions or any other divisive topic gets innocent (and not-so-innocent) people killed.
* AnAesop: The greatest danger to humanity, is [[HisOwnWorstEnemy itself.]]

* AliensAreBastards: [[spoiler: The aliens are forcing the characters to kill each other either ForScience or ForTheEvulz]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Eric tricks the Little Girl into killing herself for the baby while he votes for the Pregnant Woman at the last second. Then he and the unborn fetus are the only survivors left. Eric votes for the baby and is returned to Earth. The ending at first seems like a downer ending because the master manipulator survives, but we gain much more faith in mankind when Eric finds the survivors of other circles and we see that almost half of them are children and pregnant women, meaning that in many other ships, everyone else willingly died in order to do the right thing and save those more vulnerable than themselves.]]

* GoryDiscretionShot: Occasionally, we won't even see when the orb zaps someone to death--which makes it all the more shocking when someone unexpected dies.

** The Rich Man, whose [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] views, DirtyCoward rationale and ItsAllAboutMe attitude is absolutely ''vile''.
** The Lawyer deliberately mispronounces the name of a teenage boy who sacrificed himself to buy the others time. He then goes on a homophobic tirade against the Lesbian until finally being eliminated.

** Several times, one character [[ReasonYouSuckSpeech argues heatedly]] for why another particular character deserves to die next -- only to find that everyone else is so disgusted by their hateful rant that they are the next one to die instead.
** After emerging as the leader of the pragmatist faction the Bearded Man assumes the silent man is on his side. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a fatal mistake.]]

** When the Rude Atheist managed to turn half of the circle onto him, he tries to make the Beautiful Blonde Woman next to him a target by insinuating she's a porn star and ends up making her cry. [[spoiler: This earned him the ire of everyone in the circle, and he's the next to die.]]

--->'''Lesbian''': "So she's never heard of birth control she gets to live?"

* TheSociopath: [[spoiler: Eric. He seems like a nice person, but he's actually a ''ruthless'' ManipulativeBastard who plays everyone against each other and remorselessly kills a little girl and a pregnant woman (and her child). He is the quickest to assess the situation from a cold and logical perspective and he doesn't lose his cool like a normal person in such a stressful situation. Other characters may or may not be sociopaths also, but Eric is a classic and archetypal example of one.]]

* TokenReligiousTeammate: The Minister...shocking right?
* TooDumbToLive: It's discovered pretty early on that the elimination is based on popular vote, but rather than keeping their mouth shut or outright lying for sympathy (as several smarter characters attempt), some of the people in the room behave like massive jerkasses, which almost always gets them killed. Special mention goes to the Rude Atheist, who acts like a massive jerk only for someone else to get eliminated. Then ''moments later'' he starts bullying the Pretty Girl and accusing her of being a porn actress, causing the survivors to finally eliminate him.

** [[spoiler: Near the end of the film the players are split into two groups. The protectors: a group of individuals who want to protect the Little Girl and the Young Pregnant Woman. The pragmatists: a group of individuals who want to kill the Little Girl and the Young Pregnant Woman in order to give everyone in the circle a better chance at survival.]]

** The Pregnant Lady actively refuses to target the Little Girl. Not even to save her OWN child!

* YouBastard: [[spoiler:Eric's rant at the aliens, including a defense of his actions, when he thinks he's going to be killed regardless]] could just as well be directed at the audience, who have enjoyed 90 minutes of characters killing each other via mass vote.
-->'''[[spoiler:Eric]]:''' [[spoiler:Of course. All that... all that for nothing? All that. What's the matter, huh? What? I'm not good enough for you? What? I'm not the one that you wanted? I'm exactly the same as everybody else in here! They all got to make their own choices! They chose to kill each other. That's what you wanted to see, right, huh? Well, there you go, congratulations. We're assholes. F--- you!]]

* PetTheDog: While the Lawyer's sincerity is debatable, the Rich Man actually does seem show a moment of decency to teenage Shaun when he offers himself to die next.

* WouldntHurtAChild: Despite the Fake Husband and Fake Wife initially voting with the pragmatists to tie a vote between the Little Girl and the Rich Banker, the Fake Wife doesn't vote on the runoff so that only the Rich Banker dies. She admits that she couldn't bring herself to do it. The Rich Banker [[{{Jerkass}} being who he was]] probably helped.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Asian Kid is more in line with the pragmatic group, but he's usually the first to call out other people's biases. He mocks the Rich Guy's idea of saving people based on class, and defends the Lesbian against the Lawyer.

* ForgettableCharacter: When the atheist ties with a woman, who tries to save herself by pointing out she didn't say anything wrong, he yells: "Who the f is this?!" Justified in that the audience probably didn't notice her either.

** Another character does invoke a downplayed version of this: [[spoiler: Eric. While he becomes the ringleader of the protectors, he's also careful to restrict any emotional outbursts he has to ''only'' them and doesn't say or do anything else to draw unnecessary attention to himself. The result is that he makes it to the end, [[FromNobodyToNightmare and suddenly he isn't so forgettable anymore]].]]

** The Bearded Man is silent for the first act of the film. But when the group begins to divide, he quickly emerges as the leader of the pragmatists, persuading others to vote along with him and coordinating who should die next.

** The Rich Man, whose [[TheSocialDarwinist views]], DirtyCoward rationale and ItsAllAboutMe attitude is absolutely ''vile''.

** When everyone tries to vote for themselves to force a universal tie one unnamed survivor secretly switches his vote to the Young Pregnant Lady in an attempt to eliminate her. Eric notices this and switches his own vote. In the subsequent runoff everyone votes to save the Young Pregnant Lady, eliminating the other survivor.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Eric gets off scot-free for killing Pregnant Woman's baby and convincing the Little Girl to kill herself. Additionally,]] the aliens who conducted this experiment presumably get away with it.

** The people who volunteered about halfway through are also nice people.
** [[spoiler: Katie sacrifices herself to save the pregnant lady. The pregnant lady also refuses to vote for Katie, a little bit before that, even when she is pressured to do so to save herself.]]
* NominalImportance: Averted in that several characters are named but still die just as easily as everyone else. [[spoiler:Then subverted when Eric becomes the only survivor.]]

* SadisticChoice: The whole movie is full of those, but the main one is about either let the child or the Pregnant Woman be killed. The Bearded Man tries to force Eric to choose between the two of them, [[spoiler:only for Eric to realize that the Silent Man has never voted and uses him to break the tie, allowing him to regain the majority by killing the Fake Wife.]]

* SenselessSacrifice: While the volunteers all count as such, since they're only delaying the inevitable, of particular note is [[spoiler:the Little Girl. She offers to give her life to save the Pregnant Woman, only for Eric to use the distraction to take out the Pregnant Woman at the same moment]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: It stands to reason that a faction of pragmatists who want to ensure their own survival would all turn on each other. [[spoiler:Which Eric was banking on from the beginning by pitting the pragmatists and protectors against each other.]]
** The Little Girl barely says anything throughout the film and mostly just cries, because she's ten years old in a terrifying situation and a bunch of adults she's never met are debating whether or not to kill her so one of them has a chance to live instead.

** Deconstructed and heavily debated throughout the film, as a lot of characters point out that while no one ''really'' wants to sentence a child or a pregnant woman to death, every single one of them is in the same unfair situation and they all have lives they want to return to. [[spoiler: In the end, the one who does make it out alive is the one who sets those standards aside...at least for the group we follow, since we see multiple women and children among the survivors at the end.]]

* TooDumbToLive: It's discovered pretty early on that the elimination is based on popular vote, but rather than keeping their mouth shut or outright lying for sympathy (as several smarter characters attempt), some of the people in the room behave like massive jerkasses, which almost always gets them killed. Special mention goes to the Rude Atheist, who acts like a massive jerk only for someone else to get eliminated. Then ''moments later'' he starts bullying the Pretty Girl and accusing her of being a porn actress, causing the survivors to finally eliminate him. Although, this final move may not have been stupidity so much as him knowingly [[DeathSeeker trying to die]].

* TooDumbToLive: It's discovered pretty early on that the elimination is based on popular vote, but rather than keeping their mouth shut or outright lying for sympathy (as several smarter characters attempt), some of the people in the room behave like massive jerkasses, which almost always gets them killed. Special mention goes to the Rude Atheist, who acts like a massive jerk only for someone else to get eliminated. Then ''moments later'' he starts bullying the Pretty Girl and accusing her of being a porn actress, causing the survivors to finally eliminate him.

** Another character does invoke a downplayed version of this: [[spoiler: Eric. While he becomes the ringleader of the protectors, he's also careful to restrict any emotional outbursts he has to ''only'' them and doesn't say or do anything else to draw unnecessary attention to himself. The result is that he makes it to the end, [[FromNobodyToNightmare and suddenly he isn't so forgettable anymore.]]

* CheatersNeverProsper: Trying to rig the game never works out as intended. Refuse to vote, the game picks a victim at random. Try to force a tie? It's actually the fastest way to eliminate everyone, especially if nobody changes their vote.

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Eric notices the one guy trying to vote for the pregnant lady and eliminates him. Then, by explaning that the pregnant lady and the kid will probably last until the end, he actually paints a target on their back for the other ones who want to survive at all costs. He signals to the pregnant lady to vote for the bearded man, taking the last of the pragmatists out. Finally, he manipulates Katie into sacrificing herself and then killing the pregnant lady by a last moment twist of the wrist. During the whole thing, he stays away from any ideological discussions or emotional outbursts, making sure nobody feels any strong hostility towards him]].

** Also deconstructed and heavily debated throughout the film, as a lot of characters point out that while no one ''really'' wants to sentence a child or a pregnant woman to death, every single one of them is in the same unfair situation and they all want a chance to live. [[spoiler: In the end, the one who does make it out alive is the one who sets those standards aside...at least for the group we follow, since we see multiple women and children among the survivors at the end.]]

* YouBastard: [[spoiler:Eric's rant at the aliens, including a defence of his actions, when he thinks he's going to be killed regardless]] could just as well be directed at the audience, who have enjoyed 90 minutes of characters killing each other via mass vote.

* DevelopersForesight: In-universe, the creators of the elimination game planned for every contingency. Try to leave, you die. No one votes, a random person is killed. Tied votes kill all involved if no one changes their vote.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The Minister quietly asks God for forgiveness before stepping off his platform and dying.]]

* GoodShepherd: The Minister, who tries to comfort some of the others, and is part of the group dedicated to saving Katie or the Pregnant woman.

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: When it's just Eric, the Little Girl, and the Pregnant Woman left the audience is relieved that one of the two innocents is going to survive. However, Eric was faking his kindness the whole time and killed both of them]].

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Comes down to this in many cases. The Husband says this word-for-word when he switches sides to prevent his wife from being killed next. [[spoiler:Only, it's not his wife, they were both just pretending to be married for sympathy and increase their chances of survival, and he had to switch his allegiance simply to keep up the pretense.]]

** [[spoiler: Katie sacrifices herself to save the pregnant lady. The pregnant lady also refuses to vote for Katie, a little bit before that, even when she is pressured to do so to save herself]]

* NoNameGiven: Only a handful of the characters have names, and in the credits the others are described by phrases like Cancer Survivor, Pretty Girl, Cop, and so on.

* SadisticChoice: The whole movie is full of those, but the main one is about either let the child or the pregnant woman be killed. The Bearded Man tries to force Eric to choose between the two of them, [[spoiler:only for Eric to realize that the Silent Man has never voted and uses him to break the tie, allowing him to regain the majority by killing the Fake Wife.]]

** [[spoiler:The black man and woman who had an affair decide to step off the platform at the same time.]]
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: It stands to reason that a faction of pragmatists who want to ensure their own survival would all turn on each other. [[spoiler:Which Eric was banking on from the beginning by pitting the pragmatists and protectors against each other.]]

* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: The Silent Man survives for an impressive length of time simply by saying and doing nothing. [[spoiler:Eric is the only one to even notice this, using it to outwit another player. The Silent Man is then killed next round.]]