History Film / Circle

* 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 [[spoiler:the Rude Atheist, who acts this way 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]].

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

** The most noticeable example would be Beth: she is agreeable enough to start telling her life's story, which seems fine, though there is nothing impressive. And then she is killed because ''the others didn't find that story justified keeping her alive''. Mind you, she is killed before openly racist or bigoted characters, or others actively antagonizing the characters, and isn't even killed because of something bad she did or as part of some strategic vote.

** 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, [[spoiler:which promptly gets him eliminated]].

** The Rich Banker also advocated how his side was about treating other people "equally", yet he finds very filmsy pretenses to consider some people being worth less than others and deserving to be killed.

* 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 has been going on for a bit and there is a lack of easy target. Similarly, while not bigoted, the atheist ends 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, [[DeathSeeker he was looking to die out of guilt]]).
** With just two minutes between each death, there is no time for a group to organize a cohesive strategy, particularly not one started later in the game. [[spoiler: The Fake Husband and Fake Wife's plan works because they decide it early on, while they are still calm, and doesn't require them to do anything, while Eric and the Bearded Guy manipulate others but elaborate a secret strategy themselves, making them more effective than the other members of either group, with Eric coming out on top due to his better observation skills.]]

** The Rude Atheist claims that the Attractive Blonde Woman next to him is actually an ex-pornstar, which she denies. She might have been and just [[OldShame didn't want to be associated with her past career]], or (probably wisely, if that's the case) didn't want to risk exposing herself to social stigma considering the triviality of the reasons that lead to some of the victims being chosen. Or maybe he was just making it up from whole cloth. It's even possible he just mistook her for someone who looked like her.

--->''[when Rich Man starts questioning the Young Girl]'' Oh, no. She got a B on her last test. Let's kill her.
--->''[when Lawyer demands to know the Illegal Mexican's status]'' What, now you need a fucking green card to be fucking [[AlienAbduction abducted]]?

* DistressedDamsel: On more than one occasion, the Little Girl and the Pregnant Woman end up in ties where their lives are on the line and need to be saved by the protectors.

* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: The Rich Man and the Bearded Man are both part of the Pragmatist group with the common goal of killing either the Little Girl or the Pregnant Woman to give everyone else an equal chance at survival. However, the Bearded Man is far more personable (which also makes him a better manipulator) and ultimately seems to think of it as a ColdEquation; while he does not like having to kill either of them, he simply values his own survival more. Meanwhile, the Rich Man is a HateSink who presents [[ChildHater several incredibly]] [[KillThePoor odious views]] and becomes increasingly unhinged and less sympathetic over the course of the film.

** The Rich Guy attempts to earn sympathy from the other characters by informing the group he has seven children. Many of the other characters accuse him of lying to buy himself time and mockingly claim to have even more children. [[spoiler:We don't find out whether the Rich Guy was telling the truth, but the eagerness with which he attempts to kill the Little Girl suggests that he was lying.

** The Cynical Atheist is one of the rudest characters on display, but when Black Man tries to appeal to positive discrimination to make things "fair", Atheist immediately points out what in the blue fuck is fair about a bunch of innocent people slowly being murdered anyway.

** Discussed by the African-American man, who sarcastically suggests that everyone kill off all the black people first. A lot of the other characters call him out on trying to score sympathy points by pulling the race card, with even most of the other black people in the room disagreeing with him. However, [[DebateAndSwitch this argument is quickly shut down when the Cop suddenly displays genuinely racist views]]. [[spoiler: His suspicions are ultimately validated when he, the lone black character left, is killed by the pregnant-woman-and-child bloc rushing to eliminate a member of the every-man-for-himself bloc and he's the easiest to identify and target ("everybody vote for the black guy!") among all the white people remaining.]]

* IHaveAFamily: The Rich Guy attempts to earn sympathy from the other characters by informing the group he has seven children. Many of the other characters accuse him of lying to buy himself time and mockingly claim to have even more children. [[spoiler:We don't find out whether the Rich Guy was telling the truth, but the eagerness with which he attempts to kill the Little Girl suggests that he was lying. It also turns out that another man and woman pretended to be husband and wife to buy some sympathy. But it does work to a certain extent--up until the two sides are established, people with children managed to last a bit longer than those who said they didn't have any.]]

* RichJerk: The Rich Guy is this. He defends himself by saying that he works hard for his money, but he displays a somewhat callous and sharp personality throughout.

** The most noticeable example would be Beth: she is agreeable enough to start telling her life's story, which seems fine, though there is nothing impressive. And then she is killed because ''the others didn't find that story justified keeping her alive''. Mind you, she is killed before openly racist or bigoted characters, or others actively antagonizing the characters, and isn't even killed because of something she did or to some calculation.

* {{Hypocrite}}: The Rich Guy advocated allowing those with children to live longer than those who didn't. Yet he was one of the main people to also push for killing the Young Pregnant Woman and the Little Girl.

** The Lawyer starts to argue that the Lesbian woman should be picked because she and her wife are undermining "family values", and even goes so far as to suggest that [[AllGaysArePedophiles she's a pedophile]]. He's saying this to a room full of ''Californians''. [[spoiler:Naturally, he gets picked next.]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Ends up being the undoing of the pragmatist group: they have a common goal in general, but not a real strategy or ranks, leading to their demise. Also, while the group is focused on the fact that eliminating the Kid and Pregnant Woman gives all of them a chance, only the Bearded Guy thinks further ahead realizing that still only ''one'' of them can make it, and are caught out of guard when they end up being sacrificed for that goal.

The film premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 28, 2015, and was later released on video-on-demand on October 16.

* AnAesop: The greatest danger to humanity, is [[HisOwnWorstEnemy itself]].

** Whether or not the shocked peopled are actually being killed or just removed from the game is a point of contention among fans. One of the first people zapped is seen bleeding from his orifices afterwards, but that could have just been from a cracked skull when he hit the ground.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:Eric]]'s rant to those running the Circle after [[spoiler:he survives at the end]], when [[spoiler:another countdown starts and it seems like he's going to be killed regardless]]. It could just as well be directed at the audience, who have also spectated the full process of characters killing each other, especially with [[spoiler:Eric noting that he's probably not "the one that you wanted" to have survived]]. (See YouBastard below for the full speech.)

** [[spoiler:Eric plays his "nice guy" role to the hilt from the very beginning.]] Through observation, persuasion and a generous helping of luck, he plays everyone to the very end.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: A man and a woman lie about being husband and wife in order to get sympathy from the other members of the circle. They are eventually exposed by the Bearded Guy and the Lesbian. The man is then killed and the woman is blackmailed into joining the pragmatic side.]]
** And the ending, in which [[spoiler: Eric reveals himself to the audience as a BitchInSheepsClothing who'd been gaming the system for around half the film]].

** The most noticeable example would be bad: she is agreeable enough to start telling her life's story, which seems fine, though there is nothing impressive. And then she is killed because ''the others didn't find that story justified keeping her alive''. Mind you, she is killed before openly racist or bigoted characters, or others actively antagonizing the characters, and isn't even killed because of something she did or to some calculation.

** 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 (probably wisely, if that's the case) didn't want to risk exposing herself to social stigma considering the triviality of the reasons that lead to some of the victims being chosen. Or maybe he was just making it up from whole cloth. It's even possible he just mistook her for someone who looked like her.

* 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. Of course, this is assuming the game is fully automated, they might actually just be watching and adapting on the fly to ensure the deaths. After all, no actual rule is ever officially presented, they are only deduced by the context, and we actually see them being changed in at least one occasion [[spoiler:((when the unborn child is suddenly treated as another player at the end, something that wouldn't have worked with the votes and ties previously shown)]].

** 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 (probably wisely, if that's the case) didn't want to risk exposing herself to social stigma cosnidering the triviality of the reasons that lead to some of the victims being chosen. Or maybe he was just making it up from whole cloth. It's even possible he just mistook her for someone who looked like her.