History Film / Macbeth2015

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In relation to Lady Macbeth's AdaptationalNationality, the first Scottish consort of French origin was Ermengarde de Beaumont, queen to William the Lion, great-grandson of Malcolm, with a possible forerunner, depending on your view her as English or French, in Henry I of England's illegitimate daughter Sybilla of Normandy, queen to Malcolm's son Alexander I.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In relation to Lady Macbeth's AdaptationalNationality, the first Scottish consort of French origin was Ermengarde de Beaumont, queen to William the Lion, great-grandson of Malcolm.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In relation to Lady Macbeth's AdaptationalNationality, the first Scottish consort of French origin was Sybilla of Normandy, queen to Alexander I, son of Malcolm.

* AdaptationalNationality: Lady Macbeth, originally a Scottish character, is now French in this film. Considering that there have been many French queen consorts in Scotland, this isn't too far off the mark.

* AndYourLittleDogToo: Macbeth goes after the families of his enemies and rivals. Fleance escapes, but the Macduff children don't.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Macbeth murders King Duncan, which turns out to be a bad idea.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Macbeth refuses to "play the Roman fool" and kill himself, instead choosing to fight it out.

* DespairEventHorizon: Lady Macbeth clearly crosses this after Lady Macduff and her children are murdered.

* TheInsomniac: The original play's scene of Macbeth stating he shall "sleep no more" gets played up here. Contrast is made between characters sleeping while Macbeth is wide awake as he simply stops sleeping altogether past that point. Accordingly as the film progresses the effects of insomnia become more increasingly more noticeable: his skin grows pale, the eyebags and dark circles around his eyes become worse, he gets shakes of restlessness e.t.c. This also adds more touches of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane to Macbeth's supernatural encounters (as hallucinations are a common effect of not sleeping for extended periods of time).
* IveComeTooFar: Macbeth states: "I am in blood / Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er".

* LadyMacbeth: The original was the TropeMaker, of course. Lady Macbeth is the prime mover behind Duncan's murder, the one who goads a vacillating, hesitant Macbeth into killing the king and taking the crown.

* OutDamnedSpot: The TropeNamer, as Lady Macbeth hallucinates that she can't clean the blood off of her hands.
* ProphecyArmor: Macbeth believes he can't be defeated because Birnam Wood certainly could never come to Dunsinane, and no man of woman born can harm him. He's wrong!

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Macbeth goes from loving husband, loyal subject, and war hero, to a murderous tyrant.
* SacredHospitality: Macbeth stresses out about inviting Duncan to his own castle, only to murder him.
* SanitySlippage: Lady Macbeth goes completely mad, while her husband, once a man of feeling and conscience, becomes more and more an unhinged psychopath.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine Macbeth All Hail]]'']]

When King Duncan surprises everybody by naming his son Malcolm as his heir apparent, Macbeth and his ruthlessly ambitious wife LadyMacbeth (Creator/MarionCotillard) elect to take matters into their own hands. Duncan obliges them by paying a visit to Macbeth's castle, where Macbeth murders Duncan in his bed and pins the blame on Duncan's bodyguards. Macbeth is anointed king, but many people are suspicious, including Banquo and also Macduff, the Thane of Fife (Creator/SeanHarris).

Creator/ElizabethDebicki appears as Lady Macduff. Other cinematic versions of ''Macbeth'' include a 1948 movie by Creator/OrsonWelles, a [[Film/Macbeth1971 1971 film]] by Creator/RomanPolanski, and a [[Film/TheTragedyOfMacbeth 2021 version]] by [[Creator/TheCoenBrothers Joel Coen]]. Bamburgh Castle on the north coast of England was used as Macbeth's castle in both the 1971 and 2015 films.

* ComeToGawk: Macduff threatens Macbeth with this, which is why Macbeth decides not to surrender even after finding out that Macduff wasn't born of woman.

* TheInsomniac: The original play's scene of Macbeth stating he shall "sleep no more" gets played up here. Contrast is made between characters sleeping while Macbeth is wide awake as he simply stops sleeping altogether past that point. Accordingly as the film progresses the effects of insomnia become more increasingly more noticeable: his skin grows pale, the eyebags and dark circles around his eyes become worse, he gets shakes of restlesness e.t.c. This also adds more touches of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane to Macbeth's supernatural encounters (as hallucinations are a common effect of not sleeping for extended periods of time).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2026417e_6358_4fd4_89d8_f8c70d5faa41.jpeg]]

Creator/ElizabethDebicki appears as Lady Macduff. Other cinematic versions of ''Macbeth'' include a 1948 movie by Creator/OrsonWelles and a [[Film/Macbeth1971 1971 film]] by Creator/RomanPolanski. Bamburgh Castle on the north coast of England was used as Macbeth's castle in both the 1971 and 2015 films.

* AdaptationalMundanity: Historical faithfulness was never a big focus of Shakespeare's, and most adaptations follow suit with varying aesthetics and supernatural dealings. This one stands out for a very down-to-earth approach where the magic events may just be hallucinations and a period-appropriate setting of grimey, dark 11th-century Scotland.

* BetterToDieThanToBeKilled: Macbeth refuses to "play the Roman fool" and kill himself, instead choosing to fight it out.

* OminousFog: As with the play ("hover through the fog and filthy air"), many scenes are foggy and ominous, like the opening scene where Macbeth and his army attacks the rebels on an eerie, fogbound plain.

* AdaptationExpansion: This movie includes a dialogue-free scene at the beginning where the Macbeths are burying a child. There ''is'' a scene in the play where Lady Macbeth says "I have given suck", indicating that at some point in the past the Macbeths did lose a child.

* DeathOfAChild: The film opens with a prologue not found in the play where the Macbeths are burying a child.

** The movie changes the fate of Lady Macduff and her children. Instead of being slaughtered in their home, they are ambushed on the road and brought to Macbeth's castle - where he publicly burns them at the stake.

* GetItOverWith: Twice, forming BookEnds. In the opening battle scene the Thane of Cawdor sees Macbeth on the battlefield and sort of just gives up and allows Macbeth to whack off his head. At the end, after Macduff drops the "from my mother's wound untimely ripp'd" bomb, Macbeth goes right up to him and embraces him while delivering the "Lay on, Macduff" line, allowing Macduff to finish him off with a few gut-stabs.

Other cinematic versions of ''Macbeth'' include a 1948 movie by Creator/OrsonWelles and a [[Film/Macbeth1971 1971 film]] by Creator/RomanPolanski. Bamburgh Castle on the north coast of England was used as Macbeth's castle in both the 1971 and 2015 films.